Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | 239 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT OMFGOTUS
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 8 | Aired on 2009.02.09
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.With Henry Taylor in Colonel Dubaku's clutches, the president has until the top of the hour to back out of Sangala and hand over Matobo before Dubaku kills Henry. Taylor knows she can't give in to save her own husband after sacrificing hundreds of other Americans. Fortunately for her, Kiefer and Walker and Buchanan have just delivered Matobo to her and are still in the Oval Office when Dubaku's call comes in. So Kiefer offers to help find Henry before the deadline expires. Walker figures the only way to do that is by bringing in Moss, who's pretty happy to learn that Walker's alive, but not happy to see that Kiefer's enlisting Walker in a bid to get Vossler to flip on Dubaku by threatening his family. Still, he gives in and helps Kiefer find Vossler while Walker's a total asshole to Vossler's wife and kid (not much else going on at the FBI, except that Janis knows about Sean's affair with Erica and Sean's suspicious about why the threat level is dropping without any official word about Dubaku or the CIP device). Kiefer does get Henry's location from Vossler before killing him in self-defense. Meanwhile, Buchanan organizes an operation to make it look like they're about to hand over Matobo, but he's only a decoy. Which is good, because the decoy gets blown up. Dubaku's got other problems: his girlfriend's nosy sister has been looking into his immigration status, and knows he's not who he says he is. She tries to blackmail him into dumping the girlfriend, but all that means is that Dubaku's outside the hideout on his way to deal with her when Kiefer and Walker storm the place. And Kiefer gets there just in time to prevent one of Dubaku's henchmen from shooting Henry -- almost.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Agent Vossler, the Secret Service agent who would rather kidnap and murder than serve and protect, pulls his car into an alley, where one of Dubaku's henchmen is waiting. After making sure that Vossler wasn't followed, he helps Vossler unload Henry Taylor out of the trunk and into the back entrance. Worst Secret Service agent ever. After the late Agent Gedge, of course. At least Vossler hasn't gotten himself killed. Yet.
Dubaku is wandering the streets like the other civilians, and he happens along a snack stand that has a little TV playing on the counter. On it, President Taylor is giving an address about the plane crash and the chemical plant incident that occurred earlier today. Dubaku stops and watches as she says the terrorists responsible are no longer a threat, the liberation of Sangala is about to get underway, and Prime Minister Matobo will soon be restored to office. It would all be perfect if Dubaku weren't still walking around, and in possession of her husband.
Dubaku walks into his neighborhood convenience store, where the cashier seems to know him, and heads on back to the stock room. From there he opens a padlocked door which opens onto a staircase to the basement. There he finds several of his henchmen, who don't seem to mind that the padlock on the outside of the door is basically imprisoning them down there. Of course, they're not quite as imprisoned as Henry Taylor, who is gagged and tied to a chair. "Well done, Agent Vossler," Dubaku says. Vossler says he has to go to work at four, and Dubaku tells him the money will be "wired to the usual account." Vossler goes, but he can't be unaware of what his career prospects will be like if Henry ever gets out of here alive. Dubaku politely informs Henry that the room is soundproof, so there's no point in screaming. So when a henchman removes Henry's gag, he doesn't waste a lot of energy yelling. He just quietly calls Dubaku a son of a bitch. "You're behind my son's death!" Sure, Henry, make it all about you. Roger was months ago, whereas the hundreds of other people Dubaku has killed today aren't even cold yet. If they've even been put out at all, that is. Henry and Dubaku bluster at each other a bit, and then Dubaku finally asks, "Does your wife love you enough to call off the invasion of my country?" Well, that's kind of a personal question.
Taylor's wife is still giving a pretty pedestrian speech in which she promises that the people behind the attacks will be hunted down and brought to justice. Except she's wrong about the part where she says it'll be done by law enforcement agencies, rather than by Kiefer. He, along with Walker, Buchanan, and Matobo, are now being led through a White House tunnel in a splitscreen. They get on an elevator as Taylor wraps up her speech with a lackluster "Thank you. Good afternoon" at 3:05:27. As Ethan helps her down off the awkwardly high dais, he tells her that Matobo and some others are being brought in by agents he personally knows and trusts. Not that it's been established to my satisfaction that we can trust Ethan, mind you. She exposits that according to Matobo, the people he's bringing along not only rescued him but also took out the CIP device. "Who are they?" she wonders. Ethan tells her it's Bill Buchanan, who she once met when he was head of CTU-LA; FBI Agent Renee Walker, and -- wait for it -- Jack Bauer. By now they've reached the Oval Office, and Taylor's astonished that one of Matobo's kidnappers ended up rescuing him. "Matobo asked me to listen to what they have to say, and I'm willing to do so," she narrates awkwardly, and tells Ethan to send them in.