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2.20 Countdown

Carrie: "The last thing I need is some fifteenth century dork telling me I got a day and a half to live."

The title of this episode should probably be, "Dixon loses it."

Dixon was understandably upset about his wife's brutal murder; out of control, self-medicating, rigging a required drug test, and refusing to talk to Dr. Barnett. Except it seems that Dixon really was in control, since he made things work out in Cartagena. He's on the edge, but still functioning. I think.

Jack and Sydney were ready to bend over backward to keep Dixon on duty, while Vaughn pushed hard to make Dixon to stay home. And herein lies the conflict in our little episode. Sydney now has a tragic life experience (Danny) in common with Dixon, which will only bring them closer, and she barely hesitated to lie for Dixon. (How could she not stand up for Dixon, after all the time that she hated lying to him about SD-6?) Interestingly, she lied to Vaughn. This does not bode well for the Sydney/Vaughn relationship.

Okay, so let me get this straight. Rambaldi drew pictures of DNA strands on his documents; they point toward one specific guy, an art restorer in Panama City named Proteo di Regno, who had a machine in place of his heart. That heart is now in a briefcase, and it looks like an alien artifact.

Di Regno's DNA fingerprint also allowed the decryption of page 94 of the Rambaldi manuscript that gives the dates of past apocalypses, along with a final apocalyptic date that actually occurs in this episode. Does the apocalyptic date refer to the removal of the machine heart thing, or to Sloane's strange pilgrimage into an episode of "Kung Fu"?

We learned that David Carradine's character, Conrad, is the one who set Sloane on this pilgrimage thirty years ago. And Sloane's journey has just begun? Does he have to lift a large brazier with dragons on it to leave Nepal?

Bits and pieces:

-- Will, Francie, and Irina did not appear in this episode. Kendall appears to be gone, and now we have Jonathan Banks ("Wiseguy") as NSA Deputy Director Frederick Brandon, who is the head of the interagency Rambaldi task force.

-- New character Carrie Bowman seems to be warm for Marshall's form. She's very cute, with the nose stud, and crying over Joni Mitchell ("I shouldn't bring her to work; it just makes me fatalistic.") We even got a small glimpse into Marshall's logical, agnostic childhood.

-- Sydney to Vaughn: "It makes me insane when you patronize me."

-- Sloane said, "I killed the wrong person." Somehow, I don't think he meant killing Dixon instead of Diane.

-- In this week's hair report, Dr. Barnett lost about a foot of it. The shorter do looks good on her.

-- This week's itinerary: Panama City, Guadalajara, Cartagena, and Nepal.

-- This week's hot look: Sydney dressed as a flamenco dancer, although it seemed like a caricature costume to me.

Good Dixon episode, but the whole Nepal thing just seemed weird. Two out of four spies. And we're getting a two-hour finale next week. I'm not ready for this season to be over,

Billie





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