Episode Report Card M. Giant: C+ | 0 USERS: N/A YOU GRADE IT Day 4: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
By M. Giant | Season 4 | Episode 8 | Aired on February 6, 2005
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Kiefer and Soul Patch are putting the band back together! DaD's amateur mole-hunter inaccurately fingers Special Agent Breck, and Driscoll gets right down to the torturing. Fortunately for his coworker, Lispy Skip figures out that AIIIEEEE!sha is the actual mole before Special Agent Breck takes a round in the femur. Curtis busts his ex in the parking lot, and the car bomb that was meant for her merely knocks her unconscious. TerrorMom and TerrorTeen go to the hospital, and then run away again when the ER doc calls the cops. That's about it for them this week. We get Soul Patch's intra-season backstory, and DoDder makes a funny. Together, Kiefer and Soul Patch bring down TerrorGringo, but Kiefer's suspect (and only lead!) gets killed right out from under him before he can learn anything. Oh, and a nuclear reactor is critical. Hmph. That's my job. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
You know, there actually is a nuclear power plant on the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin, but it's quite a bit further south than CTU's map indicates. It's just a couple of miles from a big Native American casino, in fact. I was in one of that casino's hotel rooms once, and on the table was a card explaining what guests should do in the event of an meltdown up the road. Not the most "relax and make yourself at home" message I could have imagined.
Previously on 24: The TerrorFamily spent all their time running from/squealing on/accusing/threatening/trying to save/shooting/ditching each other. Lispy Skip hacked into the MacGuffin and shut down all but six of the nation's nuclear reactors. AIIIEEEE!sha told TerrorGringo where Kiefer and DoDder were, and he told her to divert suspicion (she gets a freeze-frame, by the way, so she's in trouble). Kiefer explained to DoDder about the MacGuffin, and about how TerrorGringo was their only lead. She found TerrorGringo on archived security footage, but Kiefer realized there was a mole at CTU when hit men came to take them out. And they would have succeeded, too, if it hadn't been for that meddling Soul Patch. The following takes place between 2:00 PM and 3:00 PM.
Driscoll and Curtis pedeconference through CTU as Curtis confirms that the remaining six plants aren't just taking longer to shut down. Although it would have been funny to have a big cliffhanger ending one week and come back the next all, "Oh, it's fine after all. Never mind." It seems the MacGuffin has total control over them. Which is confusing to me, because I thought Skip had gained control of the MacGuffin, but whatever. It's not like the same person writes every episode. I hope. I'm also starting to have trouble believing that the reactor crews can't manually regain control of their plants from someone who's operating them by remote control. At least start unplugging T1 lines or send in a couple of guys in to hose down the core instead of just sitting there waiting to get cooked. DaD joins Curtis and Driscoll and they discuss evacuation procedures on their way into the conference room, where they're taking a meeting with the President of the United States of Exposition. DaD explains to Keeler (still aloft, in case you're wondering) that six of the nuclear plants can't be shut down, which means they could be looking at six nuclear disasters. Keeler asks for casualty estimates, taking a moment to remember the phrase "melt down." Must be jetlag. Curtis has no good news for him; just big numbers. Keeler asks why they could shut down 98 plants but not the other six.