Hey! And just in time for my birthday -- a new exposition montage. Instead of a mixed bag of clips, there's a snazzy new presentation that actually has a little chronology and continuity. Sydney's voice-over tells us the story of her descent into spy-dom, fiancé getting killed because she told him about said spy-dom, etc., while black-and-white passport-type photos of the main characters (Sydney, Vaughn, Sloane, Sydney's dad, Jack) pop up; we also get to see Doomed Danny, said dead fiancé.

Previouslys. I swear, this show has the longest Previouslys before the damned opening credits, ever. So: Vaughn slipped Sydney her dad's classified file, and Sydney's nose for news sniffed out the missing pages in his file. Apparently an FBI agent named Calder was investigating Sydney's dad, possibly for selling secrets to Russia. Then, it's on to Badenweiler, where Dixon's smart thinking foiled Sydney's countermission, inadvertently killing four CIA agents inside the building. Building went boom; Sydney made with the waterworks.

Badenweiler? I don't even know 'er! Sydney's still crying. The building's still exploding. Dixon's shouting that they have to leave. He asks Sydney whether she's hurt. She squeaks that she isn't. Dixon grabs Sydney and bodily gets her to her feet; they start running through the forest, chased by security guards as they shoot. Dixon yells at her to keep running as he ducks behind a tree. Sydney keeps running and comes to a clearing where she leaps (or stumbles; it's hard to tell) behind a fallen tree. The security guards come to the same clearing and don't spot her. Some are sent to backtrack while one remains in the clearing. Dixon leaps on the guy and beats him into pulp. Meanwhile, Sydney is still crying. Oh, whatever. One would assume that she's seen plenty of this kind of action in her spy days, and I know she's Tired of the Lies and all that, but my God -- could she give herself away any more times? Why not just rig up a huge neon arrow and a sign that says "Double Agent, Right Here"?

Sydney voice-over. She's telling Vaughn that she froze and that Dixon had to drag her away. She told Dixon that she had a flashback about Danny. Vaughn tells her that she did everything she could. Sydney says that she was supposed to stop the detonation, and she didn't. Wow, that Sydney -- maybe she's getting her Masters in The Obvious.

Vaughn wrinkles his forehead, but not too deeply -- this is a scene only worthy of two forehead-creases. Once again, he points out that she couldn't have known ahead of time or done anything to prevent the horrible accident. Sydney says that she wants to tell Dixon, because he needs to know the truth, although she knows it's not her place to do so. Jennifer Garner's voice is so slow and ponderous in these scenes that I'm reminded of a woolly mammoth or some other slow-moving, large animal. I think she's trying to remind us how serious these scenes are, but instead I keep wondering if she had a Novocaine shot to her lip right before they shot these scenes. Sydney says that it's the right thing to do -- to tell Dixon -- and that those agents died for no reason. Vaughn sanctimoniously says that they died for their country. Sydney all but rolls her eyes at that little gem. She turns away. Vaughn says he's sorry she had to go through that.

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