Renée Rienne (real name Renée Goursaud, alias ''Le Corbeau'', "The Raven") is a

fictional character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life perso ...

in the spy-fi television series '' Alias''. Played by

Élodie Bouchez Élodie Bouchez-Bangalter (born 5 April 1973) is a French actress. She became internationally known for her role as Renée Rienne on the fifth and final season of the television show ''Alias'' and for playing Maïté Alvarez in the film '' Wild ...

, she was introduced as a new character for the fifth season. Bouchez appears in the opening credit sequence during the first half of the fifth season; beginning with "S.O.S." Bouchez and her character were removed from the opening and listed as a special guest star.

Character biography

Rienne is number eight on the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

's most wanted list. She worked secretly with Michael Vaughn for seven years. When she first approached Vaughn, she told him that his father Bill worked with her father on a project:

Prophet Five Alliance of Twelve The Alliance of Twelve is a fictional international organized crime group in the television series ''Alias''. It is involved in the trade of intelligence and weapons as well as in blackmail. SD-6 is one of its subsidiary cells ...

. Renee has been responsible for numerous crimes, including the assassination of a Turkish interior minister, the deaths of three CIA agents in

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

, an attack on a CIA listening post in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, the theft of a cryogenic container from the Department of Special Research, and the infiltration of a US Army facility in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. In " Out of the Box" some details of her past are revealed. She was frequently ill as a child. Her father, Luc Goursaud, was a test subject of Prophet Five until learning something which frightened him. He took Rienne and fled, but was later taken from Rienne as she watched from hiding. She swore to take revenge on

. Many years later, Rienne stole a cryogenic container believing it contained her father. When opened, it instead disgorged Prophet Five researcher Doctor Aldo Desantis, who had worked with Renée's father. Desantis has been transformed, possibly by Project Helix technology, into a duplicate of Luc Goursaud. Sydney exposed him as an impostor and Desantis was extracted by Gordon Dean. Rienne continued to work unofficially with APO. In the episode " The Horizon", she assisted

Jack Bristow Jonathan "Jack" Donahue Bristow, played by Victor Garber, is a fictional character of the ABC television series '' Alias''. He is the father of the central character Sydney Bristow, played by Jennifer Garner. For playing the character, Garber r ...

(albeit unsuccessfully) in trying to rescue Sydney from her Prophet Five kidnappers. During this mission, she executed Desantis, who was involved in the kidnapping, on the orders of Jack. In the episode " Maternal Instinct", she worked with

Marcus Dixon Marcus Dwayne Dixon (born September 16, 1984) is an American football coach and a former defensive end in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys and New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL). He is the defensive line coac ...

to obtain information regarding a classified SD-6 mission. In the episode " 30 Seconds", Sydney offered her a position at APO, but Renée refused because she preferred to work according to her own schedule and she trusted very few people. She is later killed by Anna Espinosa, who altered her appearance and was posing as

Sydney Bristow Sydney Anne Bristow (played by Jennifer Garner) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the television series ''Alias''. She is an American woman with a Russian-Canadian family background who works as a spy for the CIA. Sydney is dep ...

. A subsequent autopsy of Renée recovered an incomplete microchip, hidden in her body for at least thirty years. It was marked with the name "Andre Micheaux", Vaughn's real name. The other half, hidden inside Vaughn, was marked "Renée Goursaud", Renée Rienne's real name. The completed microchip revealed the location of a nuclear fallout shelter containing research on Prophet Five compiled by Bill Vaughn and Luc Goursaud.

Reception

According to Jennifer Young, Rienne adds to the "show's setting of global diversity."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Renee Rienne Alias (TV series) characters Television characters introduced in 2005 Female characters in television