Alias (TV series)/Characters

The Good Guys

Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner)

Recruited from grad school into what she believed was the CIA, but was actually a terrorist organization. She joins up with the real CIA to bring down the Alliance.

• Action Girl
• Broken Bird: Mostly in season one, when she's avenging the death of her fiance and dealing with the double-agent lifestyle.
• Cain and Abel: Sydney and Nadia, who do their best to avert the prophecy that claims this. Unfortunately, it sort of comes to pass in "Before the Flood", when Nadia is infected by the tainted water and zombified. Sydney doesn't kill her though, and eventually, she recovers.
• The Chosen One: Despite doing her best to tell Destiny to go screw itself.
• Deadpan Snarker: Even under torture. A good example is her line in the pilot to Suit and Glasses:

Okay, this is important. Write this down. E-M-E-T-I-B. Got that? Now reverse it.

• Deep-Cover Agent
• Determinator
• Double Agent
• Foe Yay: With Sark and Anna.
• Hot Mom: In season five, coinciding with Real Life Writes the Plot.
• In the Blood: Sydney has inherited her extreme amounts of Badass from both her parents; she has all of Irina's fiery temper and unpredictability, but tempered by Jack's pragmatism and ability to forgive.
• Manchurian Agent: Along with the rest of the kids in Project Christmas, Sydney was programmed to have certain skills and intelligence levels.
• The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Literally, with her fiance, Danny. Figuratively with her and Vaughn, before SD-6 is taken down.
• Ms. Fanservice: Played straight, subverted, zigzagged, and weaponized in any given episode.
• Omniglot: *deep breath* Is at least conversant in Russian, German, Greek, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Swedish, Romanian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Uzbek, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Indonesian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Vietnamese, Polish, Serbian, Czech, Ukrainian, and Bulgarian.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Sydney is pregnant in season five because Jennifer Garner was.
• She Fu
• Spy Couple: With Vaughn.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?
• Wig, Dress, Accent: Trope Codifier, definitely.
• You Can't Fight Fate: She's still The Chosen One.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Along with every other color under the sun, thanks to dye and wigs. One of Sydney's most iconic looks is her blue hair and fetish getup from the season one finale.

Jack Bristow (Victor Garber)

Sydney's father, who is also a double-agent for the CIA. A noted game-theorist and strategist, Jack is excellent at espionage, but crap at personal relationships. The one thing that will always be true is that he has Sydney's welfare at heart.

• Anti-Hero
• Badass
  • Badass Bookworm: The best game-theorist and strategist in the world. Will totally wring your scrawny neck and beat the snot out of you, should he feel the need.
  • Badass Longcoat
• Berserk Button: Go ahead, threaten his only daughter. See where it gets you.
• Brutal Honesty: As a hilarious scene in the pilot first demonstrates.
• The Chessmaster
• Dark and Troubled Past
• Dating Catwoman: Between seasons two and three, when Irina was a traitor and Jack was suspected of it too. It was really all about teaming up to find their daughter.
• Deadpan Snarker: It comes out of nowhere, and is usually directed toward people he doesn't like.
• Disappeared Dad: Emotionally, not physically. After Laura's death, he didn't know how to deal with a small child and being a spy, so he kept Sydney at arms' length.
• Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Jack ostensibly works for the CIA while keeping tabs on SD-6/whatever Sloane is up to/whatever Irina is up to. Ultimately, he's out for one person: Sydney.
• Friendship Moment: Any time he figured out that Vaughn or Will or Marshall wasn't just a waste of space.
  • One of the most heartwarming is his hugging Will in return after trading a Rambaldi artifact for Will's life and saving Will from torture. It's still awkward and Jack doesn't quite like the guy, but he's important to Sydney and worth saving.
  • He and Sloane occasionally had these. There was a great one that zigzagged the trope all over the map in season three, when Jack helps Sloane fake his own death and they share a bottle of the same wine Sloane used to fake his wife's death two years ago.
• Give Her A Normal Life: What he tried to do for Sydney. He later tells Sloane that the moment Sloane recruited Sydney into SD-6 was the moment he decided to betray Sloane.
• Guile Hero
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: So many times he's probably the proto-example.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Has always been willing to do "whatever it takes" to protect his family. Irina's deception and faked death turned that Up to Eleven.
• Hot Dad
• Jerkass Facade
• Knight in Sour Armor
• Knight Templar Parent
• The Lancer: To his daughter Sydney.
• No Social Skills: He simply just doesn't see the need for them.
• Overprotective Dad: As Vaughn is constantly finding out, there isn't a limit to how far Jack will go to protect his daughter.
• Papa Wolf: Never ever harm Sydney. He once shot his own wife because he believed they were trying to kill Sydney.
• Perp Sweating: Don't make Jack interrogate you. Just tell him what he needs to know.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Goes into kill mode when someone threatens Sydney.
• Spy Couple: With Irina.
• The Spymaster
• Taking You with Me: His now-iconic response to Sloane attaining immortality.

You beat death, Arvin. But you couldn't beat me.

• Team Dad
• The Masochism Tango: Irina marries Jack for his secrets, he brainwashes their kid, she fakes her own death, he becomes a bitter shell of a man, she betrays him to Sloane and is doubled, he shoots her double in the head, she gets better and comes after him, he forces her out of a building at gunpoint . . . and so it goes.
• The Stoic: Most of the time.
  • Not So Stoic: When it comes to his daughter, and to a lesser extent, his wife.
• Torture Technician: A rare heroic example. His talent for torture is never presented as anything less than the vicious, horrible thing it is. When you really have to worry is when he's cracking jokes right and left.

Jack: I'm actually hoping you don't tell us what we need to know. There's a 50/50 chance Sydney cuts the right wire. I'm willing to take those odds if it means I can stand here and watch you turn into an animal. Elena: You're not a gambling man, Jack. Jack: I didn't used to be, but it's been a rather interesting year for me. It's lead me to reevaluate my life. I'm trying to have more fun these days.

• Triang Relations: #9 with Irina and Katya (but not at the same time), #8 with Irina and Sloane (but not a triad situation, Irina was married to Jack but had an affair with Sloane, who was Jack's best friend).
• When He Smiles: Any time Jack is relaxed enough to show a genuine smile is a beautiful thing.

Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan)

Sydney's CIA handler, who very quickly falls for her. Vaughn's father was also an agent, killed by Irina Derevko on a mission he didn't even agree with.

• Actor Allusion: Vaughn speaks excellent French and is mistaken numerous times for a native because Michael Vartan was born in France and speaks it fluently.
• Boring Invincible Hero: At times, though he's not the hero.
• The Danza
• Dead Person Impersonation: We find out in season five that Vaughn's real name is Andre Michaux, and his father wasn't working for the CIA, but rather, Prophet Five.
• Despair Event Horizon: Lauren's betrayal and double-agent status pushes Vaughn over the edge. He becomes obsessed with hunting her down, and in the S3 finale, kills her in cold blood.
• Foe Yay: With Sark.
• The Handler
• The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: With Sydney in S1 to "Phase One".
• Nice Guy
• Spy Couple: With Sydney.
• Too Dumb to Live: He survives, but standing there and looking at Sydney running from a wall of water in the season one finale was stupid. It's his own fault he gets trapped.
• Took a Level In Badass: Being betrayed by the woman you thought was your wife and a fellow agent will do that to you. Luckily, when your co-worker and future father-in-law has been through the same thing, he can help with the coping mechanisms and provide excellent weaponry.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Weiss, to Ho Yay levels.

Marcus Dixon (Carl Lumbly)

Sydney's partner on SD-6 missions, she struggles with lying to him the most when she becomes a double agent. When SD-6 falls, Dixon joins the real deal, and rises through the ranks to become Director of the CIA's Joint Task Force.

• Beware the Nice Ones: Dixon should provide the page image.
• Cool Old Guy: Does pretty well for himself as a field agent.
• Despair Event Horizon: After the death of his wife at Sloane's hands, Dixon goes rather spectacularly off the rails. He starts popping Vicoden, almost tortures a man to death, and then tricks the entire CIA into thinking he's going to blow himself and a mook up to get Sloane's whereabouts. He gets better, though.
• Genius Bruiser
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Sydney.
• The Mentor: To Sydney.
• Older and Wiser
• Omniglot: Speaks nine languages, but "techno isn't one of them".
• Reasonable Authority Figure
• Scary Black Man: Subverts it - Dixon is the most level-headed guy around. Except for that one time he went off the rails due to his wife's death.
• The Spymaster: Upon his promotion to JTF Director.
• Token Minority
• Tragic Mistake: In "Truth Takes Time", Dixon serves as a CIA sniper on the assault on Sloane's villa. He accidentally shoots Emily Sloane, who had been helping the CIA, instead of her husband. Later, Sloane takes revenge by having Diane Dixon killed.

Marshall Flinkman (Kevin Weisman)

The resident technical wizard for SD-6, and later, the CIA. Marshall's gadgets and knowhow make him a good guy to have around . . . if you can get him to stop babbling.

• Bunny Ears Analyst: Always comes through when you need him, whether it's hacking into a government facility at gunpoint or taking on a solo mission to save Sydney from being buried alive.
• The Cast Showoff: Kevin Weisman is a talented drummer, and demonstrated it in Marshall's proposal to Carrie.
• Gibbering Genius / Gadgeteer Genius: The Q of this universe, complete with Motor Mouth tendencies out the wazoo.
• Mission Control
• Motor Mouth
• Non-Action Guy: Uses his brains, not his brawn.
• Odd Friendship: With Rachel in season five.
• Photographic Memory: A very useful thing to have for a computer and gadget genius.
• Plucky Comic Relief
• The Smart Guy
• Techno Wizard
• Verbal Tic: Talks like Jeff Goldblum.

Eric Weiss (Greg Grunberg)

Vaughn's best friend and an agent with the CIA. Great with a sarcastic quip in a crisis, and a loyal guy to have on your team.

• Ascended Extra: Was only meant to have a nonspeaking bit part in the pilot as a favor to Grunberg from his best friend, J.J. Abrams. He eventually became a recurring character in the first two seasons, and a full-fledged regular in seasons three and four.
• Badass Normal: While he is a CIA agent, Weiss is usually on backup support. Doesn't mean he can't or won't kick your ass.
• Beta Couple: With Nadia in season four.
• Beware the Nice Ones
• Deadpan Snarker
• Foil: To Vaughn, for much of seasons one and two.
• Hollywood Pudgy
• Name's the Same: His code name is "Houdini", a reference to Houdini's real name being "Erich Weiss". He also uses this fact to try and impress the ladies.
• Non-Action Guy: In season one.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Was upped to series regular in season three...
• Put on a Bus: ...but left the show at the start of season five.
• Took a Level In Badass: Apparently being shot by Irina Derevko was the last straw. Weiss stops being a Non-Action Guy and becomes a Badass Normal.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Vaughn, usually to Ho Yay levels.

Asst. Director Kendall (Terry O'Quinn)

In charge of Operation "Bring Down the Alliance", he's something of an antagonist to Sydney due to his by the book approach.

• Bald of Awesome: Evolves into this in S3.
• Fake Guest Star: Despite appearing in nearly every episode of season two.
• Mr. Exposition: Nigh constantly. An entire episode is devoted to Kendall interrogating Sydney and recapping what we know about the series.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: Despite being bald, Kendall fits.
• Took a Level In Badass: After the events of season two. A couple years and a demotion drive him to kidnap Sydney and do what no one else in the series is apparently capable of - tell her the complete truth about who he is, who he works for, and what happened to her during those missing two years.

Nadia Santos (Mia Maestro)

Sydney's long-lost sister, who grew up in an orphanage in Argentina and was secretly watched over by her Aunt Elena. Worked for Argentinian intelligence before joining APO.

• Action Girl
• Beta Couple: With Weiss.
• Cain and Abel: She and Sydney are prophesied to end up like this. It comes to pass when Nadia is infected with the tainted water and zombified, then set upon Sydney by Elena, but she eventually recovers.
• Changeling Fantasy: Grew up as an orphan, but unfortunately, this comes true for her as an adult. Her mother is Irina Derevko and her father is Arvin Sloane.
• The Ingenue
• Instant Oracle Just Add Rambaldi Drugs
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Right down to the Heel Face Turn.
• Sealed Inside a Person Shaped Can: Apparently, only the child of two Rambaldi devotees can be a "direct conduit" to Rambaldi himself. Nadia is abused by both parents for this ability.
• Spirit Advisor: To Sloane, after "30 Seconds".
• Waif Prophet

Rachel Gibson (Rachel Nichols)

Young agent who worked for The Shed before learning that it was really a branch of Prophet Five. Was rescued by Sydney and brought into APO.

• Foe Yay: With Kelly and Sark.
• Odd Friendship: With Marshall.
• Plucky Girl: Probably would have morphed into a full Action Girl (like everybody else) if the show had lasted long enough. As it is she's not much of a fighter, but she does her best.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: A twenty-something girl approached by what she believes to be the CIA but is actually a terrorist organization headed by an evil mastermind. She then joins up with the real CIA to bring her former employers, who have hurt people she loves, down. Remind you of anybody?
• Undercover As Lovers: With Sark, at one point.

Thomas Grace (Balthazar Getty)

Brash, snarky agent who joins APO after Weiss leaves. His wife was killed years ago by an enemy agent.

• Combat Pragmatist: He has no interest in fancy martial arts, and states with no shame that he fights dirty.
• Dark and Troubled Past
• Heroic Sacrifice
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For Vaughn, though he's acknowledged as one for Weiss in-story.

Dr. Judy Barnett (Patricia Wettig)

The CIA psychiatrist assigned to most of the main characters to assist them in dealing with the emotional impact of espionage.

• Dating Catwoman: Inversion; sleeps with Sloane and develops feelings for him, but he doesn't care about anything but Rambaldi.
• Only Sane Man
• The Shrink: Effective, but underestimates the complexities of her patients' lives.
• There Are No Therapists: Averts it.

Carrie Bowman (Amanda Foreman)

A technical analyst for the NSA, she works with the CIA on missions involving Rambaldi. She also falls in love with Marshall, and in season three, marries him. They have one son, Mitchell, though we find out in the finale that eventually, they'll have four children, all boys.

• Brainy Brunette
• Career Versus Man: Gives up her position at the NSA to raise Mitchell, though she comes out of retirement in season five to rescue her husband when he's been taken hostage.
• Distaff Counterpart: To Marshall.
• Give Geeks a Chance
• Playful Hacker
• Skip to the End: Carrie was kind of in a rush to marry Marshall - she was busy being in labor with his child.
• Techno Wizard: Of a caliber to rival Marshall, as we see in season five.

Villains, Antagonists, and other Morally Ambiguous Types

Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin)

The ultimate Big Bad of the series. First director of SD-6 and member of the Alliance, then allied with Sark and Irina, and headed up APO. An obsessive devotee of Milo Rambaldi, Sloane will do anything to further his own endgame.

• And I Must Scream: His fate is eternal life, but trapped alone and underground, unable to die. That's what you get when you try to out-gambit Jack Bristow.
• Affably Evil
• Artificial Human: Has a double, nicknamed "Arvin Clone".
• Benevolent Boss: He is genuinelly fond of his employees, and still regards ex-ones like Jack and Sydney with respect even after he finds out that they really were CIA and had been working to bring him down. In one early episode Sark compliments him on the genius of running a fake government agency and having duped pretty much everybody working for him; Sloane is offended and warns him to never insult his people again, or take them for idiots.
• Better the Devil You Know
• The Chessmaster: Second only to Jack Bristow in terms of effectiveness.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder
• Civilian Villain: During seasons three and four.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones
• Evil Counterpart / Foil: To Jack. Gets Out-Gambitted rather magnificently, though.
• Heel Face Revolving Door
• Manipulative Bastard
• The Mole: Or so he claims to be, in regards to his apparent Face Heel Turn of teaming up with Elena in season four. He says he only allied himself with her to save Nadia and undermine Elena, but Jack doesn't particularly care for the details.
• Mole in Charge: Of APO. No one really believes his intentions are good, but poisoning the world's water supply in the name of keeping his cover is a bit too much devotion.
• Pet the Dog: Any of his scenes with Emily, whom he truly loved, and a few times with Nadia.
• Revenge by Proxy: Dixon accidentally kills Emily, so Sloane has someone rig Diane Dixon's car with a bomb and has her killed.
• The Spymaster
• Wicked Cultured

Irina Derevko / Laura Bristow (Lena Olin)

Sydney's mother, who isn't quite as dead as everyone thinks. She shows up in season two as a prisoner of the CIA and gains Sydney's trust. Irina will always be out for herself, though.

• Action Mom
• Archnemesis Mom
• Back From the Dead: Twice. Once in "Almost Thirty Years", and again in "The Descent".
• Becoming the Mask: Part of the reason she faked her death the first time is because she was too attached to her family. And really, how much of her marriage to Jack was a lie?
• Better the Devil You Know: Jack comes to regard her in this way - better her than Sloane or the Covenant or other assorted terrorists.

Irina: We both know how this is supposed to play out. You bring me back to the States, turn me over to your superiors. Jack: I thought you could reach the border by daybreak. Irina: What about the Agency, what will you tell them? Jack: What I think they already know - that no one can hold on to Irina Derevko for too long.

• Cloning Blues: Was "doubled" as part of Project Helix. Luckily, the Irina that Jack executes over her attempts to kill Sydney isn't the real one.
• Deep-Cover Agent: Practically the personification of the trope.
• Deliver Us From Evil: Subverts and Lampshades the trope. Getting pregnant was an accident, but Irina claims she kept her child because it gave her a greater hold on Jack. She also claims - to Sydney's face - that she could have easily terminated the pregnancy or killed Sydney, but she realized her daughter was innocent. She claims to love Sydney, but that doesn't make Sydney immune from danger at Irina's hands.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Double!Irina and Jack. Subversion, too, as it's Jack who shot her. Tear Jerker, too.
• Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Out. For. Herself.
• Fake Russian: Though Lena Olin does an admirable job playing with her natural Swedish accent.
• The Hecate Sisters: The Mother, to Elena's Crone and Katya's Warrior/Maiden, despite being the youngest of the Derevko sisters. Due to the importance of Sydney in both the show and to Rambaldi, Irina is definitely coded as the Mother.
• Heel Face Revolving Door: Irina is out, first and foremost, for herself.
• Hot Mom
• Knight Templar Parent
• Lady of War
• Manipulative Bitch / Magnificent Bitch: Has to have been, considering she lived a lie for eight years and then continued to twist just about everyone, up to and including world governments, around her little finger.
• The Masochism Tango: Irina marries Jack for his secrets, he brainwashes their kid, she fakes her own death, he becomes a bitter shell of a man, she betrays him to Sloane and is doubled, he shoots her double in the head, she gets better and comes after him, he forces her out of a building at gunpoint . . . and so it goes.
• Mata Hari
• Missing Mom: Well, until she comes back.
• Ms. Fanservice: Have you seen her biceps? S2 had her in tank tops, but her bra-and-panties scene in "Passage Pt. 1" and the leopard-print minidress from "A Dark Turn" definitely qualify as well.
• Spy Couple: With Jack. Any time they have to be Undercover As Lovers (or just married), it's hilarious, due to the inherent awkwardness of her having betrayed him.
• Thanatos Gambit: "Laura" fakes her death because her superiors at the KGB are growing suspicious of how attached she is to her fake family, Jack and Sydney.
• Triang Relations: #9 with Jack and Katya, #8 with Jack and Sloane (but not a triad situation, Irina was married to Jack but had an affair with Sloane, who was her husband's best friend).
• Trojan Prisoner: Played with. Irina was the CIA's prisoner for an entire season, and Jack suspected her of precisely this motive - however, she's really playing her own endgame and never overtly betrays the CIA while she's there or uses her intel to harm them after she escapes.

Julian Sark (David Anders)

The mysterious and cultured lieutenant to Irina Derevko. No one's really sure where his loyalties lie.

• Badass in a Nice Suit
• Bastard Understudy
• Blonde Guys Are Evil
• Breakout Villain: Sark was supposed to be a one-off character, a gofer for K-Directorate or Irina or the Alliance. Fan reaction to David Anders was so great that he became more and more high-profile, eventually taking over the Big Bad mantle in the series finale flash-forward.
• Deadpan Snarker
• The Dragon: To Irina.
  • And later, Dragon Ascendant.
• Mr. Fanservice: In Season 3's second episode, Sark speaks to Sydney from a CIA cell. Is a form-fitting black t-shirt really standard prison garb for international terrorists? Probably not, but it's Sark.
• Fake Brit: David Anders is American. You'd never know it from his performance.
  • Fake Russian too, as we find out in season four. Sark isn't his real name, and his father is Russian.
• Foe Yay: With Sydney and Vaughn.
• Heel Face Revolving Door: His loyalties are self-described as "flexible".
• Last-Name Basis: He's always Sark or Mr. Sark. His first name isn't even revealed until Season 3.
• Nerves of Steel: He handles most situations with cool professionalism and a few choice quips. A few scenes go out of their way to show his obscene self-confidence:
  • In Season 2, Sydney sees him standing behind some (bulletproof) glass and shoots at him multiple times. He doesn't even blink.
  • In Season 4, he lures a CIA assault team to an empty building in order to make a deal. Facing nine very tense men aiming rifles at his head, he calmly pops the cork on a bottle of champagne.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: In season two.
• Sharp-Dressed Man
• Terrorists Without a Cause: Sark's loyalties are to the highest bidder or Irina, whoever gets there first.
• Western Terrorists
• Wicked Cultured

Anna Espinosa (Gina Torres)

A rival spy who works for K-Directorate and who is acknowledged to be Sydney's equal, if not superior, in the field.

• Breakout Villain: Because Gina Torres is just that deliciously evil.
• Dark Action Girl
• Evil Counterpart: To Sydney.
• Fake Nationality: Anna is purportedly half-Russian, half-Spanish. Gina Torres is neither.
• Grand Theft Me: Anna purposefully becomes Sydney's double. It doesn't quite work out for her.
• Les Yay: She and Sydney are constantly blowing kisses at each other during their games of one-upsmanship.
• Mata Hari
• Omniglot: Like most of the other spies in the show. Anna speaks Spanish, Russian, and Italian, although she's presumably fluent in other languages as well.
• The Worf Effect

Lauren Reed (Melissa George)

NSA agent who marries Vaughn during Sydney's two-year absence. Is later revealed to be a double agent in league with the Covenant.

• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Sark.
• Blondes Are Evil: On this show, it's a guarantee.
• Dark Action Girl
• Deep-Cover Agent: Is actually a double agent working for the Covenant, tasked to marry Vaughn to keep an eye on him, which makes her a Foil for Irina. In contrast to Irina, Lauren doesn't have any feelings for her husband and nothing keeping her from trying to kill him.
• Evil Counterpart: To Sydney, like most of the female villains on the show. Very much Sydney's visual opposite, blonde-haired and blue-eyed and appearing very warm and friendly until she reveals the killer underneath.
• Fake Brit: Melissa George is Australian playing a Brit. And she's got a serious case of Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping.
• Femme Fatale
• Mata Hari
• Mommy's Little Villain
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Oh yeah.

Elena Derevko (Sonia Braga)

The eldest of the Derevko sisters and the leader of the Covenant. Elena watched over Nadia in Argentina because she knew Nadia would become important. She also poisoned the water supply in Svogda and was eventually executed by Irina.

• Archnemesis Aunt
• Big Bad: Of season four.
• Cain and Abel: With Irina, though they're a double-villain example. Irina is shown to be less' villainous than Elena.
• The Chessmaster: Gaining Nadia's trust, setting up Irina (or, who she thought was Irina) to be killed by Jack, creating Arvin Clone, building the city-wide Mueller Device? Yeah, this woman is five steps ahead of everyone else.
• Evil Matriarch
• Fake Russian: And is she ever.
• The Hecate Sisters: The Crone, to Irina's Mother and Katya's Maiden/Warrior.
• Manipulative Bitch

Renee Rienne (Elodie Bouchez)

A former terrorist who once helped Vaughn investigate Prophet Five. Occasionally teams with Sydney to help take them down.

• Aloof Ally: Refuses Sydney's invitation to join APO, stating that she prefers to be her own boss.
• Foil: To Vaughn; she has shades of Sydney, Irina, and Lauren.
• Gene Hunt Interrogation Technique: Ties a French agent to the hood of her car and speeds around a parking garage to get info out of him.
• Heel Face Revolving Door
• Ms. Fanservice: Like most of the rest of the female cast.

Kelly Peyton (Amy Acker)

Agent at the Shed with Rachel Gibson, eventually revealed to be a member of Prophet Five.

• The Dragon / Dragon Ascendant: To Irina, in season five.
• Evil Counterpart: To Rachel, and by extension, Sydney.

Yekaterina "Katya" Derevko (Isabella Rosselini)

The middle of the Derevko sisters. Her alliances are often just as ambiguous as Irina's.

• Aloof Big Sister: To Irina.
• Fake Russian: Italian, though her accent is vague enough to fool the casual viewer.
• Femme Fatale
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Skewering a baddie's hands with metal chopsticks and holding his face up to a galbi grill works quite well.
• The Hecate Sisters: The Warrior/Maiden of the trio, to Irina's Mother and Elena's Crone.
• Mata Hari
• Triang Relations: #9, with Jack and Irina. Katya starts somewhat of a relationship with Jack in "Crossings", though she knows he's still in something over Irina.
• Woman in Black

Dr. Zhang "Suit and Glasses" Lee (Rik Young)

A torture expert on hire to pretty much any criminal organization who wants him. Tends to come out on the wrong ends of Crowning Moments Of Awesome, yet still completely terrifying.

• Cold-Blooded Torture: Yanks out teeth and pours epoxy down people's throats.
• Fan Nickname: Besides "Suit and Glasses", because we never got his name, TWOP was prone to calling him "the Sadistic Dentist of Asian Persuasion".
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul
• Mutilation Interrogation
• Torture Technician
• To the Pain

McKenas Cole (Quentin Tarantino)

Starts out as an ex-SD-6 agent now working for The Man. Is later allied with the Covenant.

• Ax Crazy
• Large Ham: Noted in-universe.

Sloane: I can't be the first person to have difficulty taking you seriously, can I?

• Noodle Incident: When Sark asks him when he was released from CIA custody, all he replies is "That's a good story."

Civillians

Will Tippin (Bradley Cooper)

Sydney's best friend, a reporter who begins piecing together the strange circumstances surrounding Danny's death. He eventually becomes an analyst for the CIA after Vaughn picks up on his talents.

• Action Survivor
• Badass Normal: The guy learns enough about SD-6 on his own to pose a serious threat to them, survives torture numerous times, and holds his own on missions. He's a news reporter.
• Beware the Nice Ones
• Commuting on a Bus: Goes into Witness Protection after Evil Francie / Alison Doren tries to kill him, returns once in season three and once in season five to go on one-off missions with Sydney.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Intrepid Reporter: In season one.
• Hot Scoop: A male version.
• Like Brother and Sister: With Sydney (after a while, at least; in the beginning he very clearly had a crush on her).
• Reckless Sidekick: In season one. He gets better.
• Temporary Love Interest: He and Sydney try hooking up in both season one and season three - neither time really works, and they decide they're Better as Friends.
• Unfazed Everyman

Francie Calfo/Alison Doren (Merrin Dungey)

Sydney and Will's best friend, who runs her own restaurant and worries about Sydney. In "Phase One", we find out that Francie has been doubled using Project Helix, and the woman walking around in Francie's body is really Alison Doren.

• Beta Couple: With Charlie during season one, and Will during season two.
• Black Best Friend
• Cloning Blues: Francie is doubled by Project Helix, and it turns out that the clone kills her.
• Dark Action Girl: As Alison.
• Evil Twin
• Moment Killer: A non-romantic version. Francie had horrible timing, and would constantly be calling Sydney at the most inopportune times - like the pilot, during an assassination attempt.
• Spot the Imposter: Apparently, the real Francie hates coffee ice cream. Oops?
• Token Minority
• Villains Blend in Better

Emily Sloane (Amy Irving)

Arvin Sloane's beloved wife, who is dying of cancer. She reveals to Sydney that she's always known Sloane wasn't a businessman and knows about SD-6.

• Broken Bird: She's introduced as she's dying of stage-four lymphoma, and later, we learn her and Sloane's daughter died in infancy.
• Ill Girl
• Hidden Depths: Turns out Emily isn't just a Broken Bird victim of Sloane: she helped Sloane fake her death, cut off her own finger, and was prepared to betray him in exchange for his not receiving the death penalty. She stays loyal to him at the end, but can you really blame her?
• Morality Pet: For her husband. Every good thing Sloane ever does is either for or about her.
• Parental Substitute: Sydney says that she has always regarded Emily as a mother to her.