Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Check But Not Mate
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 7 | Aired on 02.02.2009
Buchanan and Tony burst out of the stairwell, heading for the office suite. They open fire on the guard at the front desk, then take out the guy who runs in to back him up. Dubaku is just taking aim at them through the window himself when the ceiling behind him explodes, and Kiefer and Walker drop down shooting. Without having blown themselves up even a little, it would seem. The command center has become a battlefield, where muzzle flashes eclipse those of LEDs, clouds of smoke drift among the servers, and the cracks between the floor tiles run red with blood. Fortunately all the blood belongs to the bad guys. In the room where the Matobos are awaiting their fate, Nichols comes in with a fresh gun and orders, "Move!" Before he can enforce the order, Walker shoots him from the door, steps inside, and kicks the door shut behind her. Bad-ass. Almost makes up for Kiefer sending the woman out of the battle to go be a caretaker.
Out in the command center, the firefight continues. Eventually everyone is down but the good guys, although Dubaku has somehow escaped the room. Tony finds the CIP device, which lies smashed in the hand of a dead henchman. Walker comms to Kiefer that she's getting the Matobos to the van. Kiefer assigns Tony and Buchanan to look for Dubaku while he covers the south. It's 2:28:13 and the threat to national security has already been neutralized. And there are less than eighteen hours to find a new one.
At 2:32:34, Janis yells down the phone line to Brunner, who is slumped and panting on the tank room floor. She tells him that the terrorists have pulled out and asks him what's going on at his end. He looks over at the analog pressure gauge mounted on the wall, which is dropping. "I think we're gonna be okay," he says, using the term "we" pretty loosely. Janis tells him that's great, and to get out of there. But he can't get to the door, now that he's spent the last ten minutes since he released the pressure just hanging out in there for no reason. Janis says she's sending a rescue team, by which she means she's frantically waving at someone else to do it for her. She yells at Brunner to hang in there.
Dubaku's building is being evacuated -- as would, I hope, any office building in which a firefight is taking place -- and Walker has apparently been taking her time leading the Matobos down the stairs and into the YouCT van. Once they're inside, Walker asks Chloe how the search for Dubaku is going, and she says it's still on. She comms to Kiefer that "first responders are five minutes away." Oh, so they must be done with that hour-old plane crash by now.