Mueller device
Encyclopedia
Alias (TV series)
Alias is an American action television series created by J. J. Abrams which was broadcast on ABC for five seasons, from September 30, 2001 to May 22, 2006...
. It usually appears as a hook-shaped armature
Armature (electrical engineering)
In electrical engineering, an armature generally refers to one of the two principal electrical components of an electromechanical machine–generally in a motor or generator, but it may also mean the pole piece of a permanent magnet or electromagnet, or the moving iron part of a solenoid or relay....
which levitates
Levitation
Levitation is the process by which an object is suspended by a physical force against gravity, in a stable position without solid physical contact...
a red-orange liquid-filled sphere. It is named for Oskar Mueller, a chemist
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
who was believed to have invented it, though it is later revealed to have been invented by Milo Rambaldi
Milo Rambaldi
Milo Giacomo Rambaldi is a fictional person from the American television series Alias. The work of Rambaldi, often centuries ahead of its time and tied to prophecy, plays a central role in the show.According to Alias creator J.J...
. Based on dialogue throughout the series, it apparently works by containing compressed liquid in an ionization sphere, and can perhaps alter the substances it contains.
The device first appears and is identified in the very first episode of the series. The first device seen is small and portable, easily transported by one person. It is by single-handedly obtaining this first device that Sydney Bristow
Sydney Bristow
Sydney Anne Bristow , played by Jennifer Garner, is the main character and protagonist on the television series Alias. She is an American woman with Russian-American family background who works as a spy for the CIA....
allays the suspicions of Arvin Sloane
Arvin Sloane
Arvin Sloane is a fictional character played by Ron Rifkin. He was the former director of SD-6 on the television series, Alias.-Background:...
regarding her loyalty to SD-6. When Sydney unhooks the device from its power supply, the levitating sphere collapses into what appears to be ordinary water.
The device next appears in the final episode of season 1. Sydney and Michael Vaughn
Michael Vaughn
Michael C. Vaughn is a fictional character on the television series Alias. Played by Michael Vartan, Vaughn is one of Sydney Bristow's co-workers and her ongoing love interest. He, like Sydney, is skilled in a variety of areas...
are tasked to Taipei
Taipei
Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
to destroy it, and are surprised to discover how much larger this device is. They are able to destroy the device and the levitating sphere again collapses into what appears to be ordinary water. The volume of water is such that it appears that Vaughn is drowned, setting up a cliffhanger
Cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction...
for the first season finale. Later during the second season it is revealed that this water was somehow altered into a plague incubator. Vaughn is infected during his near-drowning, and is saved only via the use of a device Sark had created that generates genetically tailored antidotes.
The device is not seen again until season 4. In the episode "Another Mister Sloane" the team discovers a large-scale device in Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
at the compound of an Arvin Sloane impersonator, dubbed "Arvin Clone" by APO
Authorized Personnel Only
Authorized Personnel Only , is a fictional black ops unit within the Central Intelligence Agency in the American TV series Alias. It was formed at the beginning of Season 4 and is headquartered beneath the Los Angeles Subway system....
. Parts for smaller scale devices are also found. While the final dispensation of the device and components is not shown, presumably APO destroys them. In the same episode, "Arvin Clone" exhibits a small-scale device, which in the episode "In Dreams..." is used to affect the behavior of certain bees
Africanized bee
Africanized honey bees, known colloquially as "killer bees", are a hybrid variety of the European honeybee , generated by a man-made breeding of the African honey bee, A. m. scutellata, with various European honey bees such as the Italian bee A. m. ligustica and A. m. iberiensis. These bees are far...
which have been bred for reduced aggression. The device increases their aggression to the point where swarms of them attack and kill a number of monks who are Followers of Rambaldi. The status and whereabouts of this device are unknown.
The device makes its final appearance in the concluding two episodes of season 4. In "Search and Rescue" the effect of the device and the new sphere itself is seen in raw video footage sent to Marshall Flinkman
Marshall Flinkman
Marshall J. Flinkman is a fictional character on the television series, Alias. Flinkman, portrayed by Kevin Weisman, is the tech geek at SD-6 and then later the CIA...
by a hacker
Hacker (computer security)
In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...
friend in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. The sphere is on a tremendous scale, well in excess of anything previously seen, estimated by Marshall to be over six city blocks in diameter. It is hovering over the city of Sovogda, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. The closing moments of the episode feature APO team members skydiving into Sovogda with the ball in the background. In the season finale, "Before The Flood", the Mueller device is deactivated and apparently destroyed by the deluge of water contained within the sphere.
It is in these episodes that the function of the Mueller device is revealed. When activated, the device generates a "sub-audible frequency" which combines with chemical contaminants (seeded into the water supply around the world by Sloane under cover of humanitarian relief work). Anyone who's consumed tainted water (known as "the infected") is affected by the signal. They become hyper-aggressive and ultra-violent, attacking in packs and in the absence of any non-infected will turn on each other. Additionally, if the device is not deactivated properly, the contents of the sphere will be released in an incredibly toxic form. Based on a statement made in season 2 when Vaughn became ill following exposure to the Taipei device, the toxins may be viral
Virus
A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
in nature.
In the final episode of the series, a Mueller device-like effect is seen in conjunction with another Rambaldi artifact known as The Horizon; however, several things indicate that this wasn't a Mueller device. First, a reddish fluid drained from the levitating sphere into the Horizon; no other Mueller device ever leaked fluid from the sphere. Second, when the sphere was disrupted it was shown to be filled with the red fluid; the sphere of every other deactivated or destroyed device was composed of water and reverted to water. Third, the Horizon (which was not a component of any other Mueller device) was placed on what appeared to be a stone altar rather than a metal device. And finally, the fluid from the sphere apparently had the power to confer immortality or at the least extremely rapid healing; no other Mueller device was ever shown or described to have such a property.
The aftermath of exposure to a Mueller device is the driving motivation for Sloane through much of season 5. In "Before The Flood", his daughter Nadia Santos
Nadia Santos
Nadia Santos is a fictional character in the television series Alias, and a main character during the series' fourth season. She is played by Mía Maestro.-Biography:...
is infected. Sloane's desperate search for a cure leads him to become the pawn of a new criminal organization called Prophet Five.