FAQ for
"Alias" (2001)

Back in season 1 when Page 47 was discovered Sydney was arrested by the CIA because they were afraid that this prophecy would come true. Vaughn and Sydney tried to disprove the prophecy by going to Mt Subasio and seeing the sky. Therefore Sydney couldnt be the Chosen One because she had seen it. I made the mistake of believing that the Chosen One was going to be bad, when in all actuality the Chosen One is good. Here is the Prophecy below, have a good read.

"This woman here depicted will possess unseen marks. Signs that she will be the one to bring forth my works. Bind them with fury. A burning anger, unless prevented. At vulgar cost, this woman will render the greatest power unto utter desolation. This woman, without pretense, will have had her effect, never having seen the beauty of my sky behind Mt. Subasio. Perhaps a single glance would have quelled her fire."

"This woman here depicted will possess unseen marks."

Sydney was tested by the CIA, they discovered parts of her matched what was said on Page 47.

"Signs that she will be the one to bring forth my works."

Sydney found most of the Rambaldi artifacts, so she could be said to have brought forth his works.

"Bind them with fury. A burning anger, unless prevented. At vulgar cost, this woman will render the greatest power unto utter desolation."

In the finale Sydney fights Irina (burning anger) and in the end Irina and The Horizon are destroyed. The greatest power is The Horizon and Sydney renders it unto utter desolation.

"This woman, without pretense, will have had her effect, never having seen the beauty of my sky behind Mt. Subasio. Perhaps a single glance would have quelled her fire."

The Chosen One cannot be Anna, because it says "this woman, without pretense", so it can only be Sydney. Sydney did see the sky behind Mt Subasio in season one, however she didnt see Rambaldi's sky, the prophecy clearly states "my" sky. When Sloane lifts the amulet into the sunlight he whispers "his sky" and then tells Sydney "I'm sorry Sydney this isn't my choice, you're not allowed to see this", then shoots at her feet and she falls through the snow. The amulet must have shown an image of Rambaldi's sky and the position of his underground tomb. If Sydney had a single glance than perhaps it would have quelled her fire and she too would have wanted to see Rambaldi's endgame.

So the Prophecy is really telling us that The Chosen one will stop Rambaldi's endgame not create it. When I read this Prophecy originally I thought when it said she would render the greatest power unto utter desolation that it meant she would control the greatest power and cause utter desolation with it. I really didn't read it correctly, now I can understand what it all meant. Rambaldi wasn't saying this woman would bring destruction he was saying she would prevent it.

All information originally posted by Deeana

Syndey and Jack faked Vaughn's death and hid that fact from everyone to keep him safe while he recovered. There are many little things in the season 5 premiere that suggest this, but the biggest one is that Sydney has Vaughn take a drink right before he flatlines while in the hospital. This scene is later emphasized in the episode "Horizon" as well to make it even more clear that Vaughn drinking before he flatlined indeed was a clue that Vaughn was not really dead. There are many other little things that suggest Vaughn is alive and the way that Sydney and Jack never said he was dead when alone is one of many.

In the episode "Horizon" the phrase "We always find each other" is even said several times between Sydney and Vaughn which to many suggested that the two would find each other again. This of course would mean that Vaughn was really not dead at all.

As for why Sydney was so sad after Vaughn "died" that can be explained by the fact that he was gone. She was pregnant and the man she loved, the father of her child, could not be a part of it. His life was in danger and she had to figure out a way to bring down Prophet 5 so it would be safe for Vaughn to return once he recovered AND go through her pregnancy, which should have been a truly happy time, alone. Being without Vaughn at that time was hard for Sydney, especially since she did not know when she would be able to see him again.

The fact that Jack and Sydney faked Vaughn's death was revealed at the very end of the episode "Maternal Instinct." I am referring to the scene on the plane with Sydney, Jack and baby Isabelle:

Sydney (looks at Isabelle then gives Jack a knowing look): "Dad..."

Jack: "I know, I'll take care of it."

Cut to a man on a horse who then enters a house and speaks to another man. The man in the house turns and says: "Good news. You have a daughter."

Camera goes to a smiling and very alive Vaughn.

So there you go. Keep in mind the above quotes are just from my memory so they may not be completely verbatim of what was said.

No, she is Sloane's daughter. Many fans speculated that Irina's comments at the end of season 4 suggested Nadia was really Jack's daughter. The writers never meant for her comment to suggest that Nadia was maybe Jack's daughter.

WEISS (Greg Grunberg):

Greg Grunberg who plays Weiss simply decided he wanted to do other things. So he left the show with the intention to come back to do guest spots only. He had planned to come back more than just the one time, but was unable to due to scheduling conflicts. He was busy filming another show when Alias could have used him. And of course ABC deciding to cut the episode order there was simply no way for Grunberg's schedule to allow him to return as Weiss again. This is why Weiss was not at Nadia's funeral or in the series finale.

VAUGHN (Michael Vartan):

There are many rumors as to what the deal is with Michael Vartan's departure and subsequent return. During most of the filming of season 5 he was off filming a movie in Australia. Later when Vaughn was found to be alive Vartan returned to finish out the series and had guest appearance credit.

In the end no one but the people involved will ever know for sure all that happened. But according to JJ Abrams and Jeff Pinkner Vaughn was never really supposed to stay dead. The plan was always to have Vaughn really be alive and return that way near the end of the season. And I tend to believe this. Either way it does not matter to me what the details are since in the end Vaughn returned alive and it all worked out for the best as far as the end of the series in concerned in my view.

NADIA (Mia Maestro)

She was only signed for a one season deal as a regular cast member from what I have heard and read. But since during parts of season 5 Mia was unavailable, because she was filming a movie I believe, Nadia was not present in very much of season 5. She did return though and I blame ABC cutting the episode order for her return alive being so short lived. And while her end was rushed because of all this I do think it was kind of inevitable and I really did end up liking seeing her ghost haunting Sloane in the last several episodes.

NEW CAST:

I believe bringing in new cast members was done for several reasons: Because two members of the main cast left, because Jennifer was pregnant as was Syd meaning usual stunts were out of the question, and because it brought some new blood into the show.

Specifically Rachel was interesting to me since her experience mirrored Syd's at the beginning of the series. To me Rachel and her struggle to adapt to this new information made the show really come full circle.

Tom was an interesting character to me as well and he brought a new feel to the show since he was so different from Weiss and Vaughn. And he too had similarities to Syd's past as well. He was also kind of loose cannon which in some ways made me think of Jack.

Renee was a very interesting character to me as well. She had a connection to Vaughn that I found intrigueing. She knew about this whole other story of his and I liked that. Unfortunately since ABC cut the episode order her role was short lived and we did not get to see her and learn as much about her as I, and many other fans, would have liked.

Kelly Peyton was a good villain to me and brought an interesting element to the show. She was not initially intended to be a cast member, but I liked it when she was made one. She is one of those people who looks sweet and innocent but underneath is a cold hearted killer. I thought she was an interesting villain for the final season and while not the greatest villain ever I thought she was very convincing as a bad guy. She actually reminded me of a female version of Sark since her allegiances were flexible and yet I think she could be a lot more ruthless than Sark.

I think she did really love Sydney and Jack. I think her seeing and spending time with them during season 2 made her realize how much she really did love them. This is evidenced by all the little moments between these characters throughout season 2 and even Irina telling Sydney "I always planned to betray the CIA, but not you."

BUT I think that in the end Irina loved power more (more specifically Rambaldi and the power she thought his endgame could give her). She was obsessed with getting to Rambaldi's endgame for a substantial part of her life and was not about to give it up even though she did love Sydney and Jack. She even told Sydney in the series finale that she had tried to get her to leave the spy world ("I gave you the out" or something to that effect).

We know way back from season 2 that Irina wanted Sydney to get out of the spy world so learning of her desire for Sydney to get out in the series finale should have been no shock. Since season 2 Irina has tried several times to get Sydney to get out and she was unsuccessful.

I also think Irina probably knew that Sydney would not just leave the CIA. She knew it would take time. Looking at the show as a whole her actions in season 2 could show her mostly just putting the idea of leaving the CIA into Sydney's head; putting her plan to not have to confront Sydney in the end into action. Sydney is stubborn and I'm sure Irina knew that. So she thought that maybe given enough time and enough horrible events that Sydney would in fact leave. And what Irina did in season 5 to get Sydney out of the CIA showed that she was putting her years long plan to get Sydney out of the CIA into full gear. It is implied she at least knew about what was going to happen to Vaughn at the beginning of the season.

To me all this coupled with Irina needing Sydney to get to Rambaldi's endgame, she was the Chosen One afterall, explains why over the years Irina had plenty of opportunities to kill Jack and Sydney but didn't. It also helps show that she did love them since she could have at least gotten rid of Jack years ago and yet never did.

All of this tied in with all we have learned over the series showed that Irina wanted to avoid a confrontation with Sydney when Rambaldi's endgame happened. Irina knew that if it came down to a confrontation when she had found Rambaldi's endgame that she would choose Rambaldi over Sydney. She did not want to kill Sydney, and her not having done so over the course of the series backs this up. And yet if it came down to a final choice of Rambaldi or Sydney Irina knew she would be willing to kill Sydney. She tried to avoid things getting to that point, but failed and instead met her death.

Irina went so far as to tell Sydney she loved her in the finale. Yes it was amidst the two of them fighting to the death, and I will admit even I think Irina's ending was rushed, but still even at the end Irina saying she loved Sydney said a lot about her character. I think she wanted to love Sydney, Jack and even Nadia and have that be enough, but in the end she had worked so hard for so long to get to Rambaldi's endgame that it was inevitable that she would choose it over all else. More evidence that she did love Sydney is that she helped to save her grandchild when Sydney was kidnapped AND instead of simply bolting with the Horizon she helped Sydney deliver the baby. Still the fact that shortly thereafter Irina left with the Horizon really was a predictor of things to come.

And no one can forget these to me very telling lines (just from memory quotes):

"I never wanted to be a mother Sydney. I knew that if I tried to be a mother and a spy I would fail at one or both. So I chose to fail at being a mother."

When push came to shove Irina chose Rambaldi/Power over both of her daughters and Jack just as she chose to fail at being a mother rather than to fail at being an agent all those years ago. She chose her path long before she reconnected with her children and Jack. Making those connections again made Irina a much more interesting character because it showed she did care and she did truly love them. It showed she was not a one dimensional bad guy who did not care about anyone. To me this was still seen in the series finale, small as it may have been since Irina's ending was rushed. The end result is the same to me either way: that Irina was always going to love Rambaldi more since she had committed herself to that path so many years ago and that is what led to her ultimate destruction.

From what I remember as rumor the papers were suppose to be proof about an extention of Project X-mas. How Jack's experiments with her weren't over yet and were still ongoing. Seeing as how Irina stole X-mas info from him you can speculate that Irina may have been experimenting with her as well. Remember it was alluded to that Irina could have been working with Sydney during her missing 2 years. (This was before Irina was thought to be the Passenger by Jack)

However, we'll never fully know what the "experiments" were suppose to be since ABC interferred.

I recall that they changed the episodes description to delete info about Vaughn's dad. I think they were going to have Bill Vaughn alive & well in S4.

One reason ABC may have interferred is because they thought the show was getting too complex and they wanted to simplify it to get better ratings.

The pages also included information about the authorization for Jack to assassinate Irina, which was carried out. That's why Sydney wasn't speaking to Jack at the beginning of Season 4.

All information originally posted by AquarianGuy (except the 2nd to last paragraph which is from Mithrandir22, and last paragraph from stephanieguarino ).

Carrie met Marshall when he worked for the regular CIA and thus knew he worked there yes. HOWEVER, when Marshall began working for APO he was unable to tell Carrie or anyone outside of APO that he worked there.

The reason he couldn't tell her is because APO is a black ops unit of the CIA which means it has to be kept secret from everyone, except certain people within the CIA. For example, Director Chase knew since she put the APO team together.

At the beginning of season 4 you'll notice Sydney was seemingly in big trouble and forced to quit the CIA. This was to cover for her being recruited into APO. Once she started working for APO she had to lie to people like Marshall and Weiss since they worked for the regular CIA. Since APO was black ops she couldn't even tell them she worked there and instead said she now worked for a bank.

When it came to Marshall and Carrie once Marshall was recruited to APO he was forced to do the same thing. Thus until the end of season 5 Carrie did not know Marshall still worked for the CIA.

I never believed that Irina Derevko killed Bill Vaughn in 1979. It simply doesn't make sense. I agree with jameskelly101 that Bill faked his death in 1979 and died at a later point. But who killed him? This is my effort:

S1 ep1-October 1st 2000 Sydney and Vaughn meet for the first time

S3 ep15-February 2nd 2004 The date is shown on Laurens computer screen(something about Daniel Ryan)

S3 ep17-March 26th 2004 The date again it shown on Laurens computer screen(when Jack is spying on her)

S4 ep22-April 23rd 2005 The date is on Nadia's hospital tag

So seasons 1+2+Sydney's missing time and part of season 3 happened in around 3 years and 4 months.And 13 months pass between Season 3 ep17 and Season 4 ep22

S4 ep22 Santa Barbara S5 ep1 May/June 2005 A couple of months have passed since Sovogda and Sydney is 1 month pregnant (approx)

55 ep2-November(ish) 2005 Jump 4 months and Sydney is 5 months pregnant

S5 ep5-Early January 2006 Rennee says the date is 2006 Sydney is 7 months pregnant

S5 ep11-Late February 2006 Sydney is full term and gives birth

+ 4 weeks

S5 ep 12+13-Late March-Early April 2006 Nadia wakes up after 1 year in hospital

S5 ep13/17-Late April 2006 appox 2-3 weeks pass?

The end of season 4 and the beginning of season 5 jump a couple of month to May/June 2005 because Rennee says the date was 2006 in season 5 episode 5.

All information originally posted by rachellonergan1.

NOTE: At the very end of the finale there is also a jump in time. We see that Isabelle is now about 7 years old which would make the very end of the show set in about 2013 or so.

I've done a timeline for Bill Vaughn and Nadia under the assumption that Bill Vaughn faked his death. Feel free to add onto it if you have anymore information.

Bill Vaughn:

Irina was ordered to kill Bill Vaughn on October 21st 1979(season 4-14-Nightingale) by either the KGB or Prophet 5. But most probably Prophet 5. Irina believed she succeded in killing him. Bill then planted evidence to make it look like he was dead. They idenified him only by his dental records(season2-2-Trust Me) which can be faked(Like when the Covenant took pulp or whatever from Sydneys teeth to make it look like she was dead in seasons 2-3)Bill cut all ties with his family just like Micheal Vaughn did in season 5,to keep them safe. He laid low with only a few close allies knowing he was still alive. That was until he heard of a young girl "The Passenger" who was being tortured by the KGB. It was approximatly 1987-1988 as Nadia looked about 5-6 in the KGB video that Sydney and Vaughn found. He then took her to an Orphanage where he thought she'd be safe away from Irina,the KGB,Prophet 5 and all of the other Rambaldi obsessives. What happened to him after this nobody know but he is probably dead as he would of shown up by now.

Nadia Santos:

Irina and Sloanes affair/Nadia's conception happened in approximatly October 1981 as Irina "Died" just before Thanksgiving(season 2-2-Trust Me) So Nadia was born around July-August 1982. Irina was in KGB custody and Nadia was taken away from her by the KGB when she was only a few days old. She was resuced by Bill Vaughn when She was about 5 or 6 years old (She looked 5-6 in the video Sydney and Vaughn found in season 3-21-Legacy) Bill then took her to Sophia/Elena's orphanage where she stayed until she ran away a few years later.

All information originally posted by jameskelly101

The following website lists the songs used in the show, broken down by each episode, for seasons 1-4:

http://www.alias-tv.com/music1.html

Link provided by poster dearcass.

Also, http://TVShowMusic.com/shows/alias.html lists music from all seasons.