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"Time Will Tell"
Original airdate: December 2nd, 2001
written by Danielle C.
Sydney is sitting at a picnic table writing down her next mission for SD-6.
She will be leaving for England. SD-6 has traced a Rambaldi artifact to the
Engineering Science department at Oxford. K-Directorate is going to be there as
well. Sydney tells Vaughn she has to act fast before Anna gets to the artifact.
In a van outside of the university at Oxford, Sydney gets ready to crash the
party. She and Dixon discuss why the FTL would send the Rambaldi artifact to
Oxford. Syd tells Dixon that the Engineering Science department is one of the
best in the world. Dixon tells Sydney that she has to be within two feet to get
a read on the keycard. Sydney asks Dixon how she looks and he tells her that she
never has to ask that question meaning she always looks good. Sydney reminds
Dixon to watch his back because FTL agents will be there disguised as campus
security.
Anna Espinoza is at the party pretending to be a journalist. She asks Professor
Bloom if it is true that their department just received ancient technology from
Tunisia. She tells him that she would love to see his lab. Sydney walks in and
surveys the room. She spots Professor Hoyt. Dixon tells her to get closer; he
can�t tell if he has the keycard. She moves in, Dixon picks it out, but tells
her she is still to far away. She needs to have the professor turn towards her.
Sydney begins talking to the professor and Dixon scans the keycard. Sydney spots
Anna just as Dixon makes a duplicate of the keycard. He tells her he is on his
way. Sydney excuses herself from Professor Hoyt and goes toward Dixon who is
disguised as a waiter. He hands her the keycard. She tells him to notify campus
security that someone is breaking into the Engineering lab. Dixon says the FTL
will know and she says Anna is here!!!
Anna has knocked out Professor Bloom and is rifling through his wallet for his
keycard. She is stopped by security and lies and says that someone has done
something terrible to the professor. She then proceeds to fight with them.
Sydney walks by, smiles and raises her champagne glass to Anna as she is in a
chock hold. Anna fights harder, beats the security guys up and escapes.
Meanwhile, Sydney reaches the lab, scans her card then disables the card reader
just as Anna gets there. Sydney kisses the door then begins searching for the
artifact. Anna begins shooting through the glass door. Sydney finds Rambaldi�s
artifact, a clock. She wraps it up and escapes through a window. Anna finally
gets through, only to watch Sydney getting away.
Back at SD-6, Jack walks into Sloane�s office and tells him that Eloise Kurtz
was found dead at Echo Park. Jack says she was up for a promotion at SD-6.
Sloane says he knew that and Jack says you �retired� her. Sloane asks Jack why
he okayed if for her to talk to a reporter, a Will Tippen. Jack explains to
Sloane that Will was looking into Kate Jones, one of Sydney�s aliases. Jack
tasked Eloise to talk to him and to lead him to a dead end. Sloane tells Jack
that he underestimated Will and that Eloise� lack of field experience put SD-6
at risk. Sloane asks Jack why he would use a junior agent. Jack answers by
telling Sloane to talk to McCullough. He only used Kurtz based on McCullough�s
assessment of her field ability. McCullough gave her his highest rating. Jack
says he also had contingent plans in place, which now are irrelevant. Sloane
asks how Will could even have known about Kate Jones. Jack doesn�t know, but he
is looking into it. Sloane says that �Will could be a casualty of his own
curiosity.� Jack replies that this should be a last resort. �Sydney should be
spared the pain of losing someone else.� Sloane asks Jack how they should
proceed. Jack tells him he will get Will off the story and if he can�t, he will
kill him himself. Sloane smirks and walks out of his office.
Sydney is being lectured by her professor about her late papers and her poor
attendance. He doesn�t want to listen to anymore of her excuses. If she wants to
be a banker, she should be a banker, but she needs to decide. She doesn�t agree
that her latest paper deserved a D. He tells her that her paper lacked soul and
that she has until Friday to fix it or he will reevaluate her place in his
program.
Sydney is walking through an underground parking garage and notices a man on his
cell phone. She is suspicious since she pulls her out and finds that there is NO
SERVICE. She sneaks behind some cars and the man begins looking for her as he
pretends to be on the phone. Sydney knocks him down, takes his knife and grabs
his throat. She asks who he is�
Sloane asks Sydney why she assaulted a Security Section officer. Sydney says he
wasn�t a regular Security Section officer; he is a tracker. She has seen him
three times in the past two days and she found a monitor attached to her
vehicle. She tells Sloane that if he has something to ask her, he should just
ask her. Sloane informs her that the �sanctity of SD-6 requires losing some
personal freedoms.� SD-6 has stepped up its security and McCullough has assigned
a tracker to her. Sloane tells her that they have a briefing now and asks if she
can focus. Sydney says she can, but remains for a minute, fuming.
Sloane reports that the clock Sydney retrieved was made by Giovanni Donato. He
was a master clockmaker who died in 1503. Donato was the only man Rambaldi ever
collaborated with. Rambaldi commissioned this clock himself. Sydney states that
because Rambaldi was involved, the clock must be more than a clock. Sloane
agrees and says that Rambaldi usually hid codes within his designs. Marshall
explains that the clock was far ahead of its time. It has a margin of error of
less than one second per decade. He continues by saying the gear assembly didn�t
appear to serve any real purpose. Sydney asks what the number on the back
represents. Is it a date? Marshall says that absolutely nothing happened on that
day�Nothing!! Sloane believes that the clock will reveal another piece of
Rambaldi�s puzzle, but the clock doesn�t work. SD-6 doesn�t want to risk
damaging the clock, so they have located a direct descendant of Donato. He is
living in Positano, Italy. He is also a clockmaker. Sydney�s mission is to take
the clock to Donato, get him to fix it and to bring it back. That�s it.
Sydney tells her dad that she needs to speak to him. They go into an empty
conference room. Jack pulls out a signal jammer disguised as a pen and tells her
they have 60 seconds to talk freely. Sydney tells Jack that Sloane is having her
followed and should she be worried. Jack tells her that he is one of five agents
who knows the truth about SD-6 and that he has Sloane�s trust, BUT, lately he
hasn�t been informed of anything. Jack tells her that two things worry him. One,
Marshall found the CIA�s �backdoor� into SD-6 computer network. Sydney asks if
Sloane traced it back to the CIA. Jack says he doesn�t know. Two, Carl Dryer is
coming in to upgrade the biometric scanners. If Sloane suspects a double agent,
he would turn to Dryer. The first thing Dryer will do will be to give everyone a
functional imaging test, a lie detector test (LDT). Sydney declares she has
studied the CIA handbook on how to take a successful LDT. Jack says that Dryer�s
test is nothing like a regular LDT. His test measures the bloodflow inside the
brain and that it is very difficult to deceive. Jack tells her that Vaughn must
prepare her for the test and if he can�t, someone has to. Sydney asks her dad if
he is nervous just as their 60 seconds ends.
Will is on the phone when his editor approaches. She asks why there is no quote
from Sydney in his article. Will tries to explain that it would be too hard on
Sydney and then says he isn�t going to do the story; he doesn�t want to hurt
Sydney. His editor tells him he either finishes the story or she will give it to
someone else. Will sits and looks uneasy. He goes to Sydney�s apartment and
finds her working on a paper. Will picks up one of her books and reads �Laura,
All my love forever and a day Love Jack�. He comments on how
uncharacteristically sweet of Jack that is. Sydney agrees and tells him that her
father used to buy her mother these books and put those types of messages in all
of them. Will asks her if her trips for the �bank� will ever let up. Sydney
doesn�t answer at first and Will asks her what�s wrong. She tells him that there
is a situation at work. Some petty cash is missing and a formal inquiry is going
on. Everyone has to take a lie detector test. Will suggests she quit; she can
find another job anywhere. Sydney begins rubbing her engagement ring around her
finger and tells Will that she still wears it. Will says he knows. The phone
rings, the caller asks for Joey�s pizza (code for call the CIA). She tells them
wrong number. Sydney asks Will what he is doing there. He says he came by just
to say hi�
Sydney and Vaughn are in their secret meeting place. He is trying to prepare her
for the LDT. Sydney is not doing well. He explains to her that her number needs
to be below 30. Her number currently is reading 46. Vaughn tries to make clear
that the test measures the blood flow of the emotional part of the brain. If she
wants to divert the blood, she has to engage the reasoning center of her brain.
Sydney says she is trying, but Vaughn tells her she is too emotional. She needs
to split her focus. She says she has been, between the CIA, SD-6, school and her
friends. Vaughn tells her she can do it. She has to. He begins to question her
again. �Have you had any contact with intelligence other than at SD-6? �No,� she
says. Score 28. Good. Vaughn then asks if she is romantically interested in
anyone. She says no again, but the meter scores a 56. Vaughn says that is
interesting and says let�s move on. Sydney wants him to ask her the question
again, but Vaughn says she has already answered it. She gets quiet and then says
that if this had been a real test, she would be dead. Vaughn tells her they have
just started (don�t worry).
Sydney is in Positano with the clock. She goes to Donato�s apartment and begins
knocking on his door and speaking to him in Italian. At first he won�t open the
door, but once she mentions Rambaldi, Donato opens the door. He asks if she is
American. He says only an American would come to him without calling first.
Back at SD-6, Jacks asks another agent if he can get in touch with his airline
contact. He needs to do a back trace on a passenger manifest.
Will�s editor asks Will if he ever saw the passenger manifest for Danny�s
flight. He says no, his source told him over the phone and that he was going to
fax it over to him. His editor tells him that there was no Kate Jones booked on
the flight. Will is surprised. She shows him the manifest and listed seated next
to Danny was a Zachary Cohen. Will says he doesn�t understand. She tells him
that there is not one single fact to support his theory that someone is trying
to cover up Danny�s murder. He asks what about Eloise Kurtz and the blackout of
video on the night of Danny�s murder. She says Kurtz is dead and did he want to
base his story on a blackout?? She then asks why he put down Jenny as his fact
checker. He wanted to give her research credit because she does a lot of work
for him. She tells him he lied and then insinuates that he made up the story
about Danny�s murder. That is why he wanted to stop the story. Will denies it
and says that the only reason he wanted to quit the story was because he didn�t
want to hurt Sydney. His editor tells him that he is a very talented writer, but
if anything like this happened again, �the only things he would be inventing
would be the facts in his own resume.� Will is dumbfounded.
Donato tells Sydney that Giovanni�s timepieces were miracles of precision. Kings
and Queens offered him riches if he would only design a clock specifically for
them. Giovanni refused, but made one exception for Rambaldi. Why? Sydney asks.
Donato says that Rambaldi promised him that he would live a long life and gave
him the exact day that he would die. Sydney asks if he was correct. Donato says
Rambaldi was� Sydney asks him about a symbol on the clock: <o>. Donato explains
that it is the �Magnific Order of Rambaldi.� Rambaldi has followers who were
entrusted with protecting his creations. Anna Espinoza and two other
K-Directorate agents are walking into Donato�s apartment building. Donato
describes Rambaldi�s followers were once pure men. Now, they are criminals who
use the symbol to infiltrate and murder. Another K-Directorate agent positions
himself on a roof across from Donato�s building and aims his rifle directly at
Sydney. Sydney asks Donato about the date on the clock. He says it must have
meant something to Rambaldi because the clock was built from one of Rambaldi�s
designs. Donato says he never told him what it meant. Sydney asks him what he
just said and Donato catches her tone and rephrases his last statement. He says
his mother never told him what the date meant. Sydney stares at him curiously.
He tells her that there is one piece missing and he doesn�t have it. She asks if
it will still work without it. He tells her that it will tell time if that is
what she is asking�
The agent with the rifle tells Anna he has Sydney in his sight. Anna tells him
to take the shot when he can. Sydney asks Donato what Rambaldi was working on.
Donato (Giovanni) says that the clock is fixed and that now it is over. Donato
stands and is shot in the chest. She ducks and checks on Donato, but he is dead.
She scrambles to get the clock and runs out. She runs to the elevator just as
Anna is pulling up. She turns around and runs down the stairs, only to be met by
two other K-Directorate agents. She runs up the stairs to the roof. She hooks a
cable around a side rail and jumps over it to the ground, while Anna shoots at
her. Sydney escapes unharmed.
Back in LA, Sydney gets home and flops down on her couch. Francie comes in and
tells her that she delivered her paper to Sydney�s professor. She also says she
spilled some lemonade on one of her mother�s books. Sydney tells her it is okay.
Later, Sydney is reading the book in bed and discovers some writing on the edges
of the pages. She holds the page up to the light to get a better look. Then she
takes a candle and goes up and down until the writing becomes clear. She leans
back upset at what she finds.
Sydney and Vaughn are preparing for the test again. Vaughn asks her if she is a
double agent. She says no, but her dad is. Vaughn tells her that Jack would be
thrilled if she told Dryer this information. Sydney explains that Jack was a
double agent twenty years ago for the KGB. She tells him about the codes in the
book. They must be how he communicated with the KGB. Vaughn asks what kind of
codes she found. She says �one time pads; blocks of cipher text written in sets
of five Cyrillic letters. Vaughn utters that it is the staple of the KGB. Vaughn
tells Sydney that they will deal with the books, but they need to prepare for
her LDT with Dryer. Her life depends on it.
Will puts Danny�s file away and gets a phone call from Mike, his mechanic. Mike
tells Will that Eloise Kurtz dropped off her car, but never picked it up. Will
asks if he can come down and look at her car. Mike says ok. Will begins to
search Eloise�s car when his editor calls him. She wants to confirm he is on the
soil erosion story. Will is holding a flower broach in his hand close to the
phone when it starts making a noise. His editor tells him to not waste his time
on Kate Jones and Will says sure.
Back at SD-6, Sloane tells Sydney and Dixon that, �We have been operating under
the wrong assumption that the sum of all of Rambaldi�s inventions is greater
than its parts.� He says the clock is proof. Marshall pulls out the Golden Sun,
glass circle Sydney retrieved from Malaga. Marshall places it behind the face of
the clock and in front of a lit candle and sets the time to 12:22. The clock
begins moving. He hands Sydney a magnifying glass and she sees a bunch of stars.
Marshall explains that what she is seeing is a star chart that was taken at a
specific place at a specific moment in time. Jack walks in and apologizes for
his lateness. Sydney just looks at him. Dixon says the star chart is like an
ancient GPS system. Marshall says yes, but you need to know the actual date the
shot was taken. Sloane says the star chart must refer to the date on the clock,
August 16, 1523, 2:22 AM GMT. He informs everyone that the only place on Earth
with that exact view of the stars is on the southern slope of Mount Aconcagua
located on the Chile & Argentinean border. Dixon guesses that Rambaldi has
hidden something there, right? Sloane tells them that their mission is to find
out. Marshall will give them information on their Op Tech. Sloane tells Sydney
on his way out that before she leaves, she is to go to Psych and see Carl Dryer.
She and Jack exchange glances. Sydney goes and takes her test. She appears calm
and collected.
On Campus, Sydney meets up with Vaughn at the Blood Mobile. Vaughn hands her a
still camera with a digital signal uplink that is hooked up to a geosynchronized
satellite. The camera takes photos directly; she won�t have to wait to upload
them. What she sees in Argentina, the CIA will see. Sydney asks if there is a
transmission window and Vaughn says no. He notices that she is distracted.
Sydney is worried she didn�t do well on Dryer�s test. Vaughn says they wouldn�t
send her on a mission if she failed. She doesn�t believe SD-6 has the test
results yet. Vaughn sits down next to her and tells her he understands why she
wants to take down SD-6. If she thinks she failed the test, he can pull her out.
Her life is more important. The CIA has a protection program already in place
for her. Sydney refuses; she can�t go into hiding, it isn�t an option. Vaughn
wishes her good luck in Argentina.
Sydney and Dixon are driving near Mount Aconcagua. They go as far as they can
and get out. Sydney says they should be at the spot after a six mile hike. Dixon
comments that there are easier jobs than this. Sydney agrees. Dixon tells Sydney
that he is proud of her. Sydney is surprised and asks why. He tells her he has
worked with a lot of people and she makes it look easy. She smiles. He tells her
the thing he �admires most about her is her courage�after what happened to
Danny, she came back. Her commitment to the job.� He says he knows what they do
is not for themselves, it is for the good of the country and he thanks her.
Sydney is speechless.
Will closes his office door and his blinds. He asks his friend if the broach is
a bug. His friend tells him it is a very sophisticated government issue bug,
probably from the intelligence community.
Back in Argentina, Dixon and Sydney find the location and start digging. They
find a metal door with the Rambaldi symbol engraved on it. They open it up and
find a huge hole with a ladder that leads down to an underground cave. Sydney
tells Dixon she is going down. Dixon is going to hike out to find a signal and
radio for support. He tells her to be careful. Sydney cautiously climbs down the
ladder and finally reaches the bottom. She begins looking around. She finds
another door with the Rambaldi symbol in a cave wall. She struggles, but finally
opens it to find a journal filled with Rambaldi�s designs. She calls Dixon and
tells him. She begins taking photos with the camera Vaughn gave her, but is
interrupted by Dixon telling her that K-Directorate has found them and that Anna
is here. She hears gunfire and Dixon yells for her to get out of there. More
gunfire is heard. She grabs the journal and heads out.
Sloane walks into Dryer�s office and inquires about Sydney�s test results. Dryer
says, �I think we found our mole.�
Sydney runs to the ladder and finds Anna pointing a gun at her. She asks Anna
what she did to Dixon. Anna tells her to drop the journal, but instead Sydney
hits her with it and they begin fighting. Anna recovers her gun and shoots
Sydney twice in the chest. Anna takes the journal and begins climbing up the
ladder. Sydney gets up; she was wearing a bullet proof vest and goes after Anna.
Anna�s bag gets caught in the ladder. This gives Sydney enough time to catch up
to her. They begin to fight. Anna kicks Sydney and she loses her balance. She
falls down the ladder... |
