Lauren Reed
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Lauren Reed, played by Melissa George, was Michael Vaughn's wife on the third season of the television series, Alias.
Bio
Lauren Reed is the NSC liaison to the CIA and works in the CIA office where both Sydney Bristow and Vaughn do. She was introduced at the beginning of the third season of the show as Vaughn's wife, having married each other during Sydney's two year absence under the control of the Covenant.
Lauren and Sydney have an antagonistic relationship from the start, with Lauren in particular feeling threatened that her husband's former lover is now back in his life. Eventually, Sydney and Lauren start co-operating and even go on a couple of missions together. During one mission, Lauren shoots and kills a man, an act that apparently leaves her distraught.
However, it is later revealed that Lauren is actually a double agent for the Covenant, working to sabotage the CIA's work against the criminal organization and is, contrary to her air of innocence, a cold-blooded killer who becomes an accessory in the murder of her own father. Lauren is also quite the adulterer, and becomes involved (both personally and professionally) with Julian Sark, who is also now also working for the Covenant. Eventually, her true nature is discovered by the CIA and she becomes a marked woman with both Sydney and Vaughn wanting to kill her, but this doesn't stop her from infiltrating CIA headquarters disguised as Sydney, shooting Marshall Flinkman, and causing major damage to the place before escaping.
In the season three finale, Lauren is confronted by Sydney and nearly defeats the agent during vicious hand-to-hand combat, but she is shot by Vaughn before she can do so. Before her (apparent) death, she reveals to Sydney the location of a safety deposit box containing vital information about Sydney's family. (This information turns out to be evidence that Jack Bristow was authorized by the CIA to kill his ex-wife, Sydney's mother Irina Derevko, an order he apparently carried out.)
For reasons not yet explained, the CIA determined that Lauren's death should not be made public knowledge, and the double agent's remains are housed in a special high-security crypt.
The character of Lauren Reed received quite a bit of animosity from fans of the show, according to series creator, J.J. Abrams, in part because she disrupted the romance between Sydney and Vaughn. However, Abrams indicated that the revelation of Lauren being a turncoat was planned from the beginning and was not because of fan response. [1] (http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2004-01/16/12.00.tv)
Actress Melissa George has said in recent interviews that, despite Lauren's apparent death, she is still hopeful the character may be resurrected in a future episode, as other supposedly dead Alias characters have in the past. However, in the fourth season episode, "A Man of His Word", Lauren's corpse was shown in the CIA crypt after Sark demands to see her body. Melissa George makes a cameo appearance as the dead woman.