Episode Report Card M. Giant: A- | 170 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Day 8: 4:00 PM -- 5:00 PM
By M. Giant | Season 8 | Episode 1 | Aired on 2010.01.17
Okay, check this out. We're in a security tunnel with a glass entrance and a security guard posted outside. A paved roadway stretches out as far as we can see. This is the new, reconstituted CTU, which has apparently been brought back up and running since the death of the U.S. Senator who shut it down last season. A big, black SUV -- a CTUmobile, no less -- pulls up at 4:23:13 and out gets Freddie Prinze, Jr., of all people. While walking into the facility, he says into his cell phone, "This is Cole Ortiz." Thank you for that remarkably efficient introduction, Cole. He gives instructions for redeploying his guys and hangs up. Which is when he's met by, again of all people, Katee Sackhoff, playing a character named Dana Walsh. Except you almost don't recognize her at first, because she's wearing a trim sleeveless dress and her long hair hangs sleekly over one shoulder. In fact, she looks more like a particularly twisted Gaius Baltar Six fantasy than the Starbuck we used to know and get so frustrated with. Plus it's always fun spotting the rookies every season. What's the over-under on when she ends up in a ponytail and yoga pants? Anyway, she relays him some instructions from someone named Hastings about extending the security perimeter around the U.N. building. Cole says his guys are spread thin as it is, and she smoothly turns away to go dump it on the NYPD. But before she does, he says his sister has been leaving her messages about bridesmaid dresses. So these two are getting married? I suppose there's no reason CTU would have any kind of policy about coworkers getting married, considering how stellar that whole thing with Tony Almeida and Michelle Dessler went. That only ended up killing a thousand or so people, all told.
Somewhere on the floor, a fist pounds frustratedly on a keyboard. Its owner? Chloe O'Brian, who's running into some trouble. Dana walks over, trying to make with some friendly banter about "percussive maintenance" and offering to help. Chloe says she can't do her facial recognition for the revised attendee list at the U.N. in time, and Dana patiently shows her how to do it in batches. Chloe looks like she just swallowed a Brillo pad as Dana kindly says, "Like I said, there's no reason to be shy about asking for help, okay? Don't worry, you'll catch up. You're doing great." Dude, this chick is efficient, patient, helpful, confident and exceedingly well-groomed. Even her posture is different. She's like the anti-Starbuck. And of course you know that having someone be patient with her is just killing Chloe. Instead of stabbing Dana in the face like she clearly wants to, Chloe answers her ringing desk phone.