Michael Vaughn - Character Discussion
Sorry if I rambled or if this is out there. Long day, 6 mile hike and fun with waterfalls make my brain a little mushy. I'm so impressed I got it done on time!
When we first met Michael Vaughn he was a seemingly mild mannered CIA agent dealing with a possibly crazy woman with bozo colored hair. By the end of the pilot, in which Vaughn was only in about five minutes of, we knew this guy was going to be THE guy. Or maybe that was just me, since I got a late start with Alias and already knew he was the man of Syd’s life - but hey, listen to the commentary, JJ agrees with me.
Vaughn was made Sydney Bristow’s CIA handler, which was a big thing for a junior agent. At first his sol purpose was to tell Sydney what her counter mission was - I know takes real brains but as we saw more of him something about Vaughn changed. It wasn’t just the color of his suits, or the fact that he had enough balls to go to Jack directly; though I have to admit to being impressed. Vaughn got in too deep with Sydney, I saw it, you saw it, Weiss saw it and hell Vaughn saw it; he just didn’t care.
Time after time we saw Vaughn go to bat for Sydney, saw him be her shoulder when she felt more alone than ever before. We saw him attempt to fight his feelings for her and we saw him loose his cool when she was threatened.
The only people who didn’t know Vaughn was in love with Sydney were Sydney and Vaughn.
It took time, and a few open wounds (I meant that figuratively but now that I’m thinking on it literally works too), kidnappings in Tapaei, deadly illnesses, Rambauldi prophecies and a too nice girlfriend named Alice but eventually Vaughn and Sydney found each other.
Yes, I’m aware that this isn’t Vaughn’s shipper discussion thank you for reminding me. Up until Sydney and Vaughn got together, the only real way to define Vaughn was through Sydney. How he felt about her, what he’d do for her. Once Sydney was free of SD-6 we got to see Vaughn outside of his pristine grey suit.
We learned more about his loves; Hockey, Reheating dinner, his drawer. We got to see Vaughn in social situations, with his girlfriend and his best friend. We learned more about his father; the CIA agent killed by Sydney’s mother. A mark in his life that defined who he was.
Vaughn modeled himself after his father; he wanted to be that guy, doing everything for his country. Being the best agent he could be, finish what his father started. Oh, Vaughn, if you only knew.
By season three fans of Vaughn were taken for a ride. We saw a side of him we either loved, hated or just didn’t get. Vaughn got married; it’s questionable to most people on the ‘love’ or ‘loveless’ state of that marriage but the fact is, after Syd was ‘dead’ Vaughn became another person. The fans weren’t the only ones who acknowledged that Vaughn’s life on Alias revolved around Sydney. What he became when she died proved that and like her or hate her Lauren Reed provided what he needed to be Michael Vaughn again.
Season three left many fans bitter; Vaughn treated Sydney differently than he ever had before. They were back to the dance, only this time Vaughn had a wife to go home to (who cares that she ended up being a murderous bitch?) but he was clearly still in love with Sydney. Once again, the only people who didn’t know that Vaughn was still in love with Sydney were Sydney and Vaughn. The boy scout wasn’t prepared for the return of his one true love - so he did what he could. He tried to do right by the woman he married and in the end just made a big mess.
But would he have been Michael Vaughn if he’d just up and left his wife? No, I don’t think so. His motivations are questionable; his keeping Syd in a limbo was also questionable - but Vaughn was just too good of a guy to up and leave his wife. Even if we all groaned when he went back to her when her father died.
In the end though, Vaughn found out the truth about his wife and realized he was more like Jack Bristow than he ever wanted to be.
Feeling betrayed beyond belief Vaughn sought vengeance; he wanted to kill Lauren Reed. He even went so far as to kidnap her and string her up - payback’s a bitch baby. Of course, like any evil scheming wife she had back up and Vaughn was injured. Though, once again, when Sydney’s life was in danger Vaughn didn’t care what the risks were - he went after her and did end up killing Lauren.
Season four, oh how I love thee. Michael Vaughn, former former former CIA agent, burns down his ‘unhappy home’, undergoes pysch evals out the wazoo and then joins APO; under Arvin Sloane - along side Sydney, Jack and Dixon. Not exactly what he’d signed up for but he was back in the field, back to the basics and soon enough back with Sydney.
Taking it slow; oh yeah, like that worked. In season four we saw the darkness in Vaughn more than we ever had before. Dealing with the betrayel of his wife and her death at his hands sent him into a different world. For once, he and Sydney had a normal, healthy (*gasp*) relationship. He was thrown for a loop, however, when information concerning his father and his death or supposed lack there of - came to his attention.
We saw Vaughn abandon his mission, his woman and his morals (sort of) to find the truth, any truth, about his father’s death. He was nearly willing to go as far as it took to find the truth.
Everything Vaughn knew about his father was called into question, everything Vaughn knew about himself was called into question - he could barely deal. But in the end we saw Vaughn come home, unable to be the kind of guy who wouldn’t, and leave well enough alone.
Well of course that is until we find out that Michael Vaughn, isn’t really Michael Vaughn at all.
His name is Andre’ Michaeux and then he and Sydney get hit by a car. Way to end the season JJ.
Season five left Vaughn fans wanting, though we did learn that the Vaughn we’d come to love wasn’t just some big bastard liar. He was a little liar; He’d asked to be put on Sydney’s case. He didn’t have some other alias and he wasn’t evil - he didn’t think. His father had been running from Prophet Five - another group obsessed with Rambauldi (go figure) - and had changed his name when he was 18 months old. Ok, we all breathed a sigh of relief and most of us managed to forgive him along with Sydney.
It didn’t hurt that he died by the second Episode of Season five either. Michael Vaughn was murdered by the very organization his father had been running from. Seems like they didn’t want the truth to get out now did they? And as it turns out, the person who signed that proverbial death warrant? None other than Irina Derevko - we’re sure that’ll help with gaining your daughters love really - the woman who killed his father.
Vaughn didn’t die before he learned about Sydney’s pregnancy; which gave us all a moment to aww about the cuteness of him becoming a father.
And in true Alias fashion, it turned out that Vaughn, was in fact alive and in Tibet (or somewhere, forgive me for not looking it up) healing from the multiple gunshot wounds. His daughter was born and we had to worry about him and Sydney and how they were going to make it.
In the very end, Sydney’s clone (Ana) went to kill Vaughn and he declared her the worst kisser ever. Vaughn went to work to take down Prophet five, for his father, for Sydney, for Isabelle - and they won. For once it was just over. Never that simple of course but they won and in a disputed ending of the entire series Sydney and Vaughn got their happy ending.
So who is Michael Vaughn? Is he the boy scout? The desk agent to Sydney’s field? The worst son-in-law ever? The seeker of truths? The CIA’s best inner league Hockey Player? Does it really matter that the man is flawed and you sometimes want to hit him? Nah.
It doesn’t hurt that he looks like Michael Vartan either.
When we first met Michael Vaughn he was a seemingly mild mannered CIA agent dealing with a possibly crazy woman with bozo colored hair. By the end of the pilot, in which Vaughn was only in about five minutes of, we knew this guy was going to be THE guy. Or maybe that was just me, since I got a late start with Alias and already knew he was the man of Syd’s life - but hey, listen to the commentary, JJ agrees with me.
Vaughn was made Sydney Bristow’s CIA handler, which was a big thing for a junior agent. At first his sol purpose was to tell Sydney what her counter mission was - I know takes real brains but as we saw more of him something about Vaughn changed. It wasn’t just the color of his suits, or the fact that he had enough balls to go to Jack directly; though I have to admit to being impressed. Vaughn got in too deep with Sydney, I saw it, you saw it, Weiss saw it and hell Vaughn saw it; he just didn’t care.
Time after time we saw Vaughn go to bat for Sydney, saw him be her shoulder when she felt more alone than ever before. We saw him attempt to fight his feelings for her and we saw him loose his cool when she was threatened.
The only people who didn’t know Vaughn was in love with Sydney were Sydney and Vaughn.
It took time, and a few open wounds (I meant that figuratively but now that I’m thinking on it literally works too), kidnappings in Tapaei, deadly illnesses, Rambauldi prophecies and a too nice girlfriend named Alice but eventually Vaughn and Sydney found each other.
Yes, I’m aware that this isn’t Vaughn’s shipper discussion thank you for reminding me. Up until Sydney and Vaughn got together, the only real way to define Vaughn was through Sydney. How he felt about her, what he’d do for her. Once Sydney was free of SD-6 we got to see Vaughn outside of his pristine grey suit.
We learned more about his loves; Hockey, Reheating dinner, his drawer. We got to see Vaughn in social situations, with his girlfriend and his best friend. We learned more about his father; the CIA agent killed by Sydney’s mother. A mark in his life that defined who he was.
Vaughn modeled himself after his father; he wanted to be that guy, doing everything for his country. Being the best agent he could be, finish what his father started. Oh, Vaughn, if you only knew.
By season three fans of Vaughn were taken for a ride. We saw a side of him we either loved, hated or just didn’t get. Vaughn got married; it’s questionable to most people on the ‘love’ or ‘loveless’ state of that marriage but the fact is, after Syd was ‘dead’ Vaughn became another person. The fans weren’t the only ones who acknowledged that Vaughn’s life on Alias revolved around Sydney. What he became when she died proved that and like her or hate her Lauren Reed provided what he needed to be Michael Vaughn again.
Season three left many fans bitter; Vaughn treated Sydney differently than he ever had before. They were back to the dance, only this time Vaughn had a wife to go home to (who cares that she ended up being a murderous bitch?) but he was clearly still in love with Sydney. Once again, the only people who didn’t know that Vaughn was still in love with Sydney were Sydney and Vaughn. The boy scout wasn’t prepared for the return of his one true love - so he did what he could. He tried to do right by the woman he married and in the end just made a big mess.
But would he have been Michael Vaughn if he’d just up and left his wife? No, I don’t think so. His motivations are questionable; his keeping Syd in a limbo was also questionable - but Vaughn was just too good of a guy to up and leave his wife. Even if we all groaned when he went back to her when her father died.
In the end though, Vaughn found out the truth about his wife and realized he was more like Jack Bristow than he ever wanted to be.
Feeling betrayed beyond belief Vaughn sought vengeance; he wanted to kill Lauren Reed. He even went so far as to kidnap her and string her up - payback’s a bitch baby. Of course, like any evil scheming wife she had back up and Vaughn was injured. Though, once again, when Sydney’s life was in danger Vaughn didn’t care what the risks were - he went after her and did end up killing Lauren.
Season four, oh how I love thee. Michael Vaughn, former former former CIA agent, burns down his ‘unhappy home’, undergoes pysch evals out the wazoo and then joins APO; under Arvin Sloane - along side Sydney, Jack and Dixon. Not exactly what he’d signed up for but he was back in the field, back to the basics and soon enough back with Sydney.
Taking it slow; oh yeah, like that worked. In season four we saw the darkness in Vaughn more than we ever had before. Dealing with the betrayel of his wife and her death at his hands sent him into a different world. For once, he and Sydney had a normal, healthy (*gasp*) relationship. He was thrown for a loop, however, when information concerning his father and his death or supposed lack there of - came to his attention.
We saw Vaughn abandon his mission, his woman and his morals (sort of) to find the truth, any truth, about his father’s death. He was nearly willing to go as far as it took to find the truth.
Everything Vaughn knew about his father was called into question, everything Vaughn knew about himself was called into question - he could barely deal. But in the end we saw Vaughn come home, unable to be the kind of guy who wouldn’t, and leave well enough alone.
Well of course that is until we find out that Michael Vaughn, isn’t really Michael Vaughn at all.
His name is Andre’ Michaeux and then he and Sydney get hit by a car. Way to end the season JJ.
Season five left Vaughn fans wanting, though we did learn that the Vaughn we’d come to love wasn’t just some big bastard liar. He was a little liar; He’d asked to be put on Sydney’s case. He didn’t have some other alias and he wasn’t evil - he didn’t think. His father had been running from Prophet Five - another group obsessed with Rambauldi (go figure) - and had changed his name when he was 18 months old. Ok, we all breathed a sigh of relief and most of us managed to forgive him along with Sydney.
It didn’t hurt that he died by the second Episode of Season five either. Michael Vaughn was murdered by the very organization his father had been running from. Seems like they didn’t want the truth to get out now did they? And as it turns out, the person who signed that proverbial death warrant? None other than Irina Derevko - we’re sure that’ll help with gaining your daughters love really - the woman who killed his father.
Vaughn didn’t die before he learned about Sydney’s pregnancy; which gave us all a moment to aww about the cuteness of him becoming a father.
And in true Alias fashion, it turned out that Vaughn, was in fact alive and in Tibet (or somewhere, forgive me for not looking it up) healing from the multiple gunshot wounds. His daughter was born and we had to worry about him and Sydney and how they were going to make it.
In the very end, Sydney’s clone (Ana) went to kill Vaughn and he declared her the worst kisser ever. Vaughn went to work to take down Prophet five, for his father, for Sydney, for Isabelle - and they won. For once it was just over. Never that simple of course but they won and in a disputed ending of the entire series Sydney and Vaughn got their happy ending.
So who is Michael Vaughn? Is he the boy scout? The desk agent to Sydney’s field? The worst son-in-law ever? The seeker of truths? The CIA’s best inner league Hockey Player? Does it really matter that the man is flawed and you sometimes want to hit him? Nah.
It doesn’t hurt that he looks like Michael Vartan either.