Alias Episode Guide - copyright 2001-2002 Disney
Episode 1: Truth Be Told
Original Airdate: 09.30.01
Special premiere brought to you without commercial interruption by the new Nokia 3300 Series wireless phone.
Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner, "Pearl Harbor"), a vivacious, athletic grad student, discovers that her not- so-typical after-school job as an agent for SD-6, a top- secret division of the CIA, holds some deadly secrets that not only put her life in danger but also threaten the security of the free world.
Recruited freshman year, the then shy and lonely Sydney jumped at the chance to add some meaning and excitement to her life. Little did she know how great she’d be at espionage or how much she’d love it. Today Sydney is no longer shy or alone. Boyfriend Danny has just proposed and her best friend Francie (Merrin Dungey) couldn’t be happier. Her friend Will, (Bradley Cooper), however, has to feign happiness, keeping his unrequited love for her to himself.
Sydney now finds herself facing a moral dilemma: What does she want from the rest of her life, and what does she tell her friends and would-be fiancé?
Sydney’s SD-6 partner, Dixon (Carl Lumbly, "Cagney & Lacey," "Buffalo Soldiers"), a devoted family man, warns her not to reveal her secret to Danny, and Sydney knows that SD-6 leader Sloane (Ron Rifkin, "L.A. Confidential") would not look kindly on any breach of security. Even Marshall (Kevin Weisman), SD-6’s highly inventive weapons and gadget maker — a super intelligent man with noticeably lacking social skills -- knows that divulging their identities is strictly verboten. This is the one rule you don’t break.
When Sydney breaks protocol and tells Danny about her secret life, her world is spun terrifyingly sideways: Danny’s life is placed in mortal danger, and Sydney is in a fight for her own life. She discovers that her long- estranged father, Jack (Victor Garber, "Titanic," "Annie"), is also SD-6 and that the organization is covering up a nefarious plan — they are not a branch of the CIA, but are actually an enemy of the United States. With nowhere else to turn, Sydney seeks the aid of the real CIA in hopes of putting SD-6 out of business. She is put under the command of operations officer Vaughn (Michael Vartan, "The Mists of Avalon," "Never Been Kissed") who enlists Sydney to become a double agent. Her mission is to complete her cases at SD-6 while reporting her findings back to the CIA. But when Sydney finds out that her father is also affiliated with the CIA, she begins to question where his true allegiances really lie.