Breaking Point
Episode Summary
Sydney is taken to Camp Williams for interrogation. Vaughn is furious that Sydney is in Lindsey's custody; Lauren argues that Lindsey asked her to witness and report on Sydney's treatment, so Lindsey must not have anything to hide. However, at Camp Williams, Lauren is not allowed to see Sydney, but Lindsey threatens to reveal that Vaughn helped Sydney escape from the NSC if Lauren does not report that Sydney is being treated fairly. In reality, Sydney is tortured, and Lindsey is fully aware of it. She refuses to crack. However, when Lindsey and his goons attack and threaten a fellow inmate, Syd provides the information he wants: the code he found in her apartment in Rome is a set of coordinates. She adds honestly that she doesn't remember what they're for. At that point, she learns that her fellow inmate is really a plant who works with Lindsey; Sydney's profile reveals that her major weakness is empathy. Lindsey says that she'll undergo the surgery to retrieve her memory in an hour. Meanwhile, Vaughn and Jack have been planning her extraction - with Sloane's help. Acquiring the building plans they need, their cover is blown and as they make their escape, Sloane takes a bullet to save Jack. Jack is able to remove the bullet. Lauren finds Vaughn and admits that he was right about Lindsey; she wants to help save Sydney. Lauren goes into the camp to meet Lindsey, and she plants a device that initiates a lockdown. Jack and the others break in, arriving at the operating room just in time to save Sydney. As they ride away in a helicopter, Sydney tells the others about the code, explaining that she gave Lindsey the wrong location of the coordinates.
Quotes
Lauren: He's asked me to go with him: as an observer of Sydney's interrogation. Clearly, he's got nothing to hide.
Jack: We're waiting for Sloane.
Vaughn: You called Sloane on this?
Jack: You and I will be the prime suspects behind any attempt to free Sydney from NSC custody. Sloane has agreed to make it seem as if it were the work of the Covenant. Do I trust him on this? Not necessarily.
Lauren: But Sydney's made it very clear she doesn't remember anything.
Lindsey: But when we searched her flat in Rome, we found a coded message taped to the underside of her desk. Now, if she can decode that message, it may help us infiltrate or even take down the Covenant.
Lauren: What if she doesn't recognize the code?
Lindsey: As long as she demonstrates a willingness to cooperate, that surgery will be nothing more than a threat.
Lauren: No, I'm sorry, but if I'm going to chronicle our treatment of Sydney Bristow, I need to see how she's being treated.
Lindsey: How do you suppose it was that Sydney Bristow knew to flee the country before she was even aware the NSC wanted to take her into custody?
Vaughn: The fact that you're letting me see this place means: it's not your only one, is it?
Jack: You're smarter than you look.
Vaughn: I didn't know you wore glasses.
Jack: Only during surgery.
Vaughn (to Jack): You're starting to like me again.
Marshall: Forensics guys are monitoring the network.
Vaughn: Isn't there any way to bypass that?
Marshall: Of course - it's me, but . . . (He goes to get something.) I give you the codes, you're gonna bust her out, aren't you? Kick some NSC booty? Can I just say .... love.
Jack: I've been trying to think of a single reason why you saved my life. The only conclusion I've come to is that it would incur some feeling of debt on my part.
Sloane: As usual, Jack, you're in danger of outsmarting yourself.
Sloane: You and Sydney still believe I'm pursuing some hidden agenda. Now, whatever you may perceive that agenda to be, clearly it would be easier to obtain if you were both dead, given that you're my most vocal detractors - my most capable antagonists.
Jack: Or you need us for something. Something you believe only we can provide.
Sloane: You and Sydney are my absolution, my penance. You're all I have left.
Campbell (to Sydney): Your personality profile reveals your one major weakness: empathetic suffering is harder for you to sustain than physical torture. So . . . thanks for caring.
Syd pauses after seeing Sloane in the helicopter.
Jack: He's with us. Get in!
Sydney: They wanted a code deciphered. That's what all of this was about: a code.
Comments
* Taking advantage of Sydney's empathy was a completely believable twist to the story.
* I liked Jack's response to Sloane about maybe Sloane needed him and Sydney for something; I was thinking the same thing.
* Several scenes mirrored ones from previous eps: Syd had her head covered during transport, like Sloane; she was cuffed like Irina; and tortured like Jack was by Geiger, who also commented on what a heart could take.
* How exactly would they retrieve memories from "neural stimulation" if Sydney was unconscious?
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