Irina Derevko

Irina Derevko
Alias character
Lena Olin as Irina Derevko
First appearance	"Snowman" (episode 1.19)
Last appearance	"All the Time in the World" (episode 5.17)
Portrayed by	Lena Olin
Information
Aliases	Laura Bristow, The Man
Gender	Female
Occupation	KGB field agent Prophet Five partner Head of her own organization
Spouse(s)	Jack Bristow (husband, deceased)
Children	Sydney Bristow (daughter with Jack) Nadia Santos (daughter with Arvin, deceased)
Relatives	Elena Derevko (sister, deceased) Katya Derevko (sister) Isabelle Vaughn (granddaughter) Jack Vaughn (grandson) Michael Vaughn (son-in-law)
Nationality	Russian

Irina Derevko (Russian: Ирина Деревко) is a fictional character on the television series Alias, and a main character during the second season of the series. Irina, played by Lena Olin, is the mother of the central character, Sydney Bristow.

She is first mentioned as Laura Bristow, the wife of Jack Bristow and mother of Sydney Bristow, who died in a car accident when Sydney was six years old. Sydney had always believed that her mother had died, and that she had been a professor of English Literature.

Laura Bristow was, however, a spy for the Soviet Union. Her real name was Irina Derevko and she was recruited into the KGB at the age of 18 by Alexander Khasinau. She was assigned to infiltrate the United States, and to gain the trust of Jack Bristow, then a CIA agent, in order to steal classified information regarding Project Christmas.

Under the alias of Laura, she approached Jack Bristow posing as an exchange student from the USSR. They eventually married and she became his confidante. In order to seal Jack's allegiance to her, the KGB demanded that she bear him a child. She gave him Sydney. In late 1981, Derevko disappeared after faking her own death. She returned to Russia, where she spent time in a KGB facility as a suspected traitor. Her whereabouts, however, were mostly unknown by the intelligence community at large until the end of season one.

Jack tried to prevent Sydney from discovering the truth about her mother. He was forced to reveal the truth to Sydney when she mistakenly thought that he had been a KGB mole. At the end of the first season, Sydney discovered that her mother was alive and also the mysterious criminal overlord known up to that point only as "The Man".

Derevko turned herself in to the CIA early in season two. She provided information to help bring down the SD-6, and assisted with other important missions. Jack, predicting that Irina would betray them, framed her for providing false information about a mission in Madagascar. The CIA planned to execute her. Agent Michael Vaughn learned the truth and helped Sydney stop her mother's execution. Later, during a mission in Panama, Irina did betray the CIA and joined forces with Arvin Sloane and Sark.