The Box: Part 1 (20 Jan. 2002)

As Sydney goes to SD-6 to meet with Sloane about quitting the agency despite Michael's warning, a former agent comes with a commando in the office and holds everybody's in hostage...except ... See full summary »

Director:

Jack Bender

Writers:

J.J. Abrams (creator), Jesse Alexander,

Stars:

Jennifer Garner, Ron Rifkin, Michael Vartan

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Jennifer Garner	...	Sydney Bristow
Ron Rifkin	...	Arvin Sloane
Michael Vartan	...	Michael Vaughn
Bradley Cooper	...	Will Tippin
Merrin Dungey	...	Francie Calfo (credit only)
Carl Lumbly	...	Marcus Dixon
Kevin Weisman	...	Marshall Flinkman
Victor Garber	...	Jack Bristow
Quentin Tarantino	...	McKenas Cole
Joey Slotnick	...	Steven Haladki
Agnes Bruckner	...	Kelly McNeil
Sarah Shahi	...	Jenny
Patricia Wettig	...	Dr. Judy Barnett
Jennifer Tung	...	Toni
Ben Bray	...	Tchen

Storyline

As Sydney goes to SD-6 to meet with Sloane about quitting the agency despite Michael's warning, a former agent comes with a commando in the office and holds everybody's in hostage...except Sydney and Jack who tries to unfold the deadly gang's threat...

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Plot Keywords:

heroine

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Release Date:

20 January 2002 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Stage 4, Walt Disney Studios, 500 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, California, US

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bad Robot

Did You Know?

Goofs

The shot of Jack watching Sydney haul up the magnet after the explosion damages the lab and causes the scrambler to drop is repeated from an earlier attempt and shows none of the damage from the explosion.

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Quotes

McKenas Cole: You're going to give me the combination to the SD-6 vault and if you don't, I'm going to open this box. And Arvin, trust me when I tell you, you do not want me to open this box.

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Soundtracks

"How Can I Keep From Singing"
Tradtional Hymn
Performed by Enya
Warner Bros Records

User Reviews

Guest starring Quentin Tarantino

After hearing the revelations about her mother Sydney decides she has had enough of living a double life so tells Vaughn that she is going to go to Sloane and resign from SD-6. Both Vaughn and her father try to persuade her otherwise arguing that trying to resign would be tantamount to suicide. Still trying to talk her out of it Jack and Sydney enter the lift to SD-6; what they don't realise is that SD-6 has been overrun by an armed group and everybody inside has been captured or killed. When the lift stops Jack realises what must have happened so they climb out through the roof before the doors open and reveal them to the attackers. Once out Jack hacks into the building's internal cameras to learn what has happened. He discovers that the gang's leader is a former SD-6 agent called McKenas Cole and he wants something from the vault. While he sets about torturing Sloane for the code Sydney must rush to get a code scrambler from Marshall's office as it is assumed Sloane has set the building's self destruct system to detonate the moment the vault opens!

This opening episode of a two part story set things up nicely; the capture of the SD-6 offices was surprisingly quick but was believable when we learn the group's leader was a former member of SD-6. I liked the fact that it was hard to know who to sympathise with; after all we know that SD-6 is an enemy organisation and Cole has every reason to want revenge after he was captured in Chechnya and disowned by the CIA... presumably up until then he had believed he was working for the CIA in the same way Sydney did. Fans of Quentin Tarantino will love this episode as he guest stars as McKenas Cole; a role that gives him the opportunity to engage in his trademark banter; mostly when threatening Sloane with the contents of 'The Box'. There was plenty of excitement as Jack and Sydney attempted to thwart Cole's plans and I'm certainly looking forward to seeing how they will sort everything out.