TEXT: Sydney and Vaughn are in a prison, they're taken outside by some Koreans and forced to stand against a wall. Then one of the guards is shown firing. [SCENE_BREAK] 72 HOURS EARLIER... [SCENE_BREAK] The Rotunda, meeting room. DIXON: Three days ago, the SEC flagged an off-shore brokerage account for a minor clerical violation. An investigation revealed that the account was not backed by any hard currency. SYDNEY: A phantom account. SYDNEY: Yes. And because of its offshore status, it was turned over to Langley, run through channels. DIXON: Encoded in the names and values of the fictitious stocks within the portfolio, cryptography found a message, something the sender wanted us to find. A Covenant official wants to defect. JACK: What are the terms? DIXON: In exchange for his extraction and immunity, he's willing to turn over everything he knows about the Covenant. Considering the means through with he sent us this message, we believe he has top-tier access inside the organization. Sydney, Vaughn, I'm sending you to North Korea, posing as Swiss insurance auditors. You'll meet with the defector in the Gai-Li marketplace. 1200 hours local. The identifying marker will be three sugar cubes placed on the napkin at the edge of the table. We've only got a 15-minute window. SYDNEY: Fifteen minutes? DIXON: Those were his terms. And he offered no contingency. If we don't show up at the meet, there's no guarantee that this opportunity will present itself again. If this defector can lead us to the inner workings of the Covenant, we'll finally have them on the ropes. [SCENE_BREAK] Outside the meeting room... LAUREN: Sydney. I was wondering if you have any plans next Tuesday. It's Michael's hockey night, and I thought maybe we could go out and get some dinner. SYDNEY: Yeah, sure, that'd be nice. LAUREN: Thanks. See you
SUMMARY:
Sydney and Vaughn travel to North Korea to meet with a Covenant defector. Lauren passes this information to The Covenant, who then poison the pilots. En route, the pilots die, Sydney and Vaughn evade North Korean missile attacks, crash land the plane and elude the military. Sydney and Vaughn discuss the difficulty of working together. Sydney reveals that she had slept with Will and has decided to move on. Before Sydney and Vaughn can meet the defector, Sark appears and masquerades as a CIA operative. Sydney, Vaughn and the defector are captured by the military but Sark escapes. The defector informs on Sydney and Vaughn, who are then physically abused. Jack contacts Sydney's mother, Irina Derevko, for assistance and is visited by Irina's sister, Katya, who offers help in exchange for Sloane being killed. Jack visits Sloane but Katya first calls Sloane and warns him to back off Irina, hinting that even Jack would turn against him. Katya then contacts Jack and aborts the assassination. Vaughn admits his feelings for Sydney before they are taken to a firing squad. Instead of being killed, one of the guards kills the other soldiers and they all escape with the defector.