Nightingale
Sloane and Syd watch over the injured
Nadia, Vaughn wakes up from a nightmare. Troubled, he tells Sydney that they
should stop pursuing his father's past. Syd insists that they continue.
In a Siberian nuclear facility, two men lock an unconscious prisoner into a test
chamber, while a scientist observes behind glass. When the prisoner wakes up, he
realizes that he's the subject of a gruesome experiment. His flesh melts and he
dies screaming.
Jack agrees to Syd's request for clearance on files relating to Vaughn's father.
Starting with one word - Nightingale - from Bill Vaughn's journal, Syd discovers
its connection to Dr. Josef Vlachko. She also finds that he's currently working
with Hans Dietrich, a money launderer involved in weapons sales who funneled
over a million euros to an account labeled Nightingale. Syd presses on with the
search.
A wary Sloane asks Jack how much Sydney and Vaughn know about Project
Nightingale. Jack suggests that they tacitly let the pair continue the search.
In a rogue operation, Syd and Vaughn go to Dietrich's beer hall in Munich.
Dressed as a beer maid, Sydney charms Dietrich. Then they go back to his private
office where she beats him and rips out the hard drive from his computer. As
guards arrive, Syd and Vaughn fight their way out.
Back in Los Angeles, Vaughn secretly meets with a mysterious man named Roberts,
who knows about their "trip" to Munich. Roberts says he'll give Vaughn
info about his father in exchange for the transformer coil from Project
Nightingale. Vaughn agrees, though he doesn't yet know what Nightingale is.
Before he leaves, Roberts gives him his contact information and the name "Philip
Burke" as a lead.
Jack invites Sydney out for dinner to learn more about their acquired intel.
Sydney says that Vlachko is running Project Nightingale in an abandoned nuclear
plant and using humans as test subjects for experiments. Jack tries to convince
Sydney to bring this intel to APO.
Sloane tells Jack that due to Vlachko's ties with Elena Derevko, he needs to
send a strike team to Siberia. Jack says they should wait for Sydney to
willfully bring this to APO. Once she does, Jack will join the mission so he can
interrogate Vlachko without Syd and Vaughn's knowledge. Sloane advises Jack to
eliminate Vlachko because he can alert Elena about their agenda-or worse, talk
to Sydney.
Vaughn tells Sydney about Philip Burke: he was killed the same day that Bill
Vaughn was supposedly killed, and his dental records are identical to Bill
Vaughn's. Vaughn also says that he met with Roberts, who wants the transformer
coil. Syd suggests they bring this operation to APO, then acquire the coil
through a rogue countermission. After they report to APO, Jack says that he'll
join them in the retrieval of the transformer coil.
After infiltrating the Siberian nuclear facility, Jack shuts down security while
Vaughn and Sydney run toward the test chamber. Sydney enters the chamber to
retrieve the coil inside the nuclear reactor's containment shield. A guard
arrives and shoots at Vaughn, destroying the control panel in the process. Syd
is trapped inside as the nuclear reactor starts counting down. After Vaughn's
failed attempts to stop the reactor, Marshall says another way to stop this is
through the removal of fuel rods from the core.
Meanwhile, Jack finds and interrogates Vlachko. Upon hearing that Sydney's life
is in danger, Jack shoots Vlahcko and heads toward the nuclear core to remove
the fuel rods. Marshall advises Jack against this as he tries his best to bypass
the system.
Suddenly, the nuclear reactor shuts down. Syd walks out the chamber and hands
the coil to Vaughn. After they kiss, Vaughn punches Sydney and runs away with
the coil as Syd watches him go. Sydney then goes to Jack and tells him that
Vaughn took the coil from her.
Jack and Sloane discuss Sydney and Vaughn's deceit. Later, Marshall realizes
that Jack shut down the reactor himself. Jack tells Marshall that his daughter's
life depended on it and demands that his actions remain a secret.