Alias- Season 3
Conscious

Episode: 53

First Air Date: Nov 30, 2003

Writer: Josh Appelbaum & Andre' Nemec

Director: Ken Olin

DVD: Season 3 (Released Sept 7, 2004)

Guest Stars:

David Cronenberg as Dr. Brezzel
Kurt Fuller as Lindsey
Dan Warner as FBI Agent Reims
Daniel E. Smith as Steven Dixon
Tristin Hays as Robin Dixon
Gerard O'Donnell as Agent Scrimm
Boris Hamilton as customer
David Cronenberg as Dr. Brezzel
Erica Leehrsen as Kaya
Susan Han as EMT
Sarah K. Peterson as young Sydney
Mark Brahmall as Lazarey

Fan Rating: 7.5/10 (Average of all fan submitted ratings)

Synopsis:

A doctor (David Cronenberg) performs a risky procedure on Sydney, in an attempt to uncover her lost memories.

(From TV Guide)
Rocked by a recent discovery, Syd allows an eccentric doctor (David Cronenberg) to mess with her head to access her memories of the last two years. But as he hit one dead-end after another, Sloane's latest deception shapes up to truly be the death of Miss Bristow. Meanwhile, Lauren goes above the law to keep Lindsey in the dark about releasing Syd from NSC custody. Sark: David Anders. Lauren: Melissa George.

(From ABC)
After making a shocking discovery in the desert, Sydney agrees to submit to an experimental procedure conducted by an eccentric doctor (David Cronenberg), designed to retrieve her lost memories. But while Jack and Vaughn look on, Sydney's mind proves surprisingly resistant to letting her remember her missing time — and the process of recovering it could end up killing her. Meanwhile, Lauren makes a great sacrifice in order to make her alibi believable to Lindsey after breaking Sydney out of NSC custody, and Sloane finds himself boxed in by an unlikely enemy — one who wants to see Sydney Bristow eliminated permanently.

(From ABC)
Hiding out in a warehouse, the team devises a plan to frame The Covenant for Sydney's extraction: Lauren will tell Lindsey that she escaped The Covenant but they're still holding Sydney in return for the Rambaldi device. Sloane will confirm the story with Lindsey. Jack and Vaughn will say they were investigating Syd's trail. Lauren needs to look as if she was mistreated; Syd gladly punches her.

Sloane also suggests Syd contact a Yale researcher named Dr. Edward Brazzel, who's invented a non-invasive technique for treating long-term amnesia. Jack and Syd later track her secret coordinates to a location near the San Andreas fault, where they find a severed hand bearing a Rambaldi tattoo. Meanwhile, Lindsey has the FBI arrest Dixon for impeding a federal investigation. Lindsey is suspicious of Lauren's story but agrees to trade for Syd.

The group visits Brazzel's lab and find him and his assistant Kaya to be extremely eccentric. He believes dreams contain memories so, through a cocktail of dangerous drugs, he fools the brain into entering a lucid dream state. Once in this state, Syd must follow the thread of her last memory — and be wary of new, traumatic memories.

Brazzel administers the drug and Syd enters the dream state. It's a surreal mix of past and present. She remembers being picked up by 3 hooded men after her fight with evil Francie. They inject her with something. She regresses to childhood — she cuts a birthday cake, which becomes a severed hand, and sees the face of a strange man. Back to the hooded men; she follows as they take her limp body to Room 47. Lauren guides her away, saying "You know better," then tries to strangle her with hanging plastic.

In the real world, Brazzel revives Syd as she goes into cardiac arrest. When she awakes, she kisses Vaughn passionately, believing herself still in a dream.

Syd says it was Lazarey's hand. Marshall's forensics prove the hand was attached to a living man only 4 months ago. Jack says the incriminating tape could have been a performance. Syd tells Vaughn that Lauren strangled her, but Brezzel says it was probably just a representational figure. Syd goes back under.

Sloane meets Lindsey, who says he'll make the trade but wants Sydney assassinated in what appears to be a Covenant doublecross. Lindsey tells Sloane, who's wary of entrapment, that he knows what he's up to and gives Sloane an envelope containing some sort of proof.

DNA from the Kremlin confirms the hand belonged to Lazarey, which means Syd didn't kill him and Lindsey has nothing on her.

Syd is dreaming again. She's in a car, called a St. Aidan, with Dixon. She takes the box that contained the severed hand and walks into her apartment. Weiss and Marshall are there gambling. She enters the hanging plastic. Lauren tells her to leave. Syd chokes Lauren, who becomes a Sydney doppleganger. They struggle, the double says to trust Lazerey. Sydney shoots and kills the double and enters Room 47. "Oh my god," she says.

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