In Dreams...
Sloane's impostor (Sloane 2) arrives at an
Italian monastery to discuss with Father Kampinski his experiments on breeding
the aggression out of bees. As Kampinski shows him a supposedly extinct orchid
mentioned in Rambaldi's Vespertine papers, Sloane 2 offers 50 million dollars in
exchange for a cutting and the text. Denied, Sloane 2 has an accomplice trigger
Rambaldi's Mueller Device, which causes the bees to attack and sting the monks
to death.
Sloane informs the team of the orchid theft and orders them to recover the
orchid and find the impostor. Marshall says that this orchid has properties that
heighten receptivity. Privately, Jack confronts Sloane, blaming him for this
predicament.
The team sets a trap for Sloane 2, bringing him out by pretending to put the
Vespertine text up for auction in Paris. Via surveillance, Dixon and Vaughn
chase a man attempting to steal the papers. They stop a delivery truck. In the
back, they find Sloane 2.
During questioning, Sloane 2 invites Syd to work with him. He proposes
eliminating the world's bad guys and fostering harmonic coexistence by
administering the orchid extract to the general population via drinking water.
Marshall points out that Sloane 2's brain patterns are identical to Sloane. He
also recalls working on an SD-6 program for brain imprinting that Jack says was
run by Calvin McCullough, a senior partner in SD-6. Project Brainstorm's purpose
was to explore experimental technologies for interrogation, brainwashing and
transferring memories. They conclude that finding McCullough will lead them to
the orchid.
Vaughn and Dixon approach McCullough in Buenos Aires. He admits that he made
Sloane 2 believe that he is Arvin Sloane, but that Sloane 2 double-crossed him
and kept the orchid for himself. As he calmly adds a packet of cyanide to his
coffee, he declares that his employer wouldn't let him be interrogated. He
drinks up and dies.
Sloane confesses that through Omnifam he contaminated the drinking water of 400
million people worldwide as the first phase of creating a more peaceful species
of human. The second phase, based on Rambaldi's teachings, was to introduce the
orchid's nectar into the water supply. But without the orchid, Sloane's attempts
at duplicating the formula failed. Now that Sloane 2 has the orchid, however, he
has only to drop the nectar into the water supply to bring the affected people
under his control.
Marshall tells the team that Sloane 2 was created from Sloane's own brain scans.
He postulates that the Sloane clone won't reveal the orchid's location unless he
stops believing that he's Arvin Sloane. The only way to do this, he says, is to
shock Sloane's personality out of him using a traumatic memory. In order to
present the most vivid memory, Sloane must relive the past.
Jack hypnotizes Sloane and guides him through his memory. Sloane's sees his
pregnant wife Emily and they decide that their daughter will be named Jacquelyn.
They are devastated when Jacquelyn dies shortly after birth.
They upload this painful memory to Sloane 2, who suddenly reveals that he's a
prisoner of war named Ned Bolger. He says that the orchid is located in
Switzerland. Shortly thereafter, he switches back to the Sloane 2 personality
and breaks down.
Sloane refuses to wake up, preferring to alter his memory and live on happily
with Emily and a healthy Jacquelyn. Forcing him awake, Marshall says, may kill
him. Nadia nonetheless wants to get him back. She gently tells Sloane that he
can't stay in his dream because his must undo what he's set in motion. When
Sloane admits that he's ashamed of his past, Nadia says she believes that he can
redeem himself.
Sloane awakens and Nadia embraces him. Alone with Jack, Sloane reveals that
Rambaldi meant nothing to him until after Jacquelyn died, when he used the
writings to fill the hole in his heart. Seeing Ned showed him how much of
himself he had lost. He promises to rectify his misdeeds, though every day is a
struggle.