Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Finger Pointing
By M. Giant | Season 8 | Episode 2 | Aired on 01.17.2010
Out in Queens, Jim comes down in his unbuttoned police uniform, sets his gunbelt down on a chair, and asks what he can do for his good pal Mikey. Toombs asks if they can swap shifts, since he can't make his tomorrow. Wait, I thought the hit was already scheduled for today? Two hours in and we're already seeing inconsistencies? This is not a good sign. Jim says they have a meeting with their kid's teacher tomorrow. After listening to them discuss this a bit and ascertaining that the kid's out of the house for the night, Toombs --who, incidentally, is now between Jim and where he parked his gunbelt -- acts disappointed that they can't trade shifts. Jim says it's important, and he's sorry. "Yeah, me too," Toombs says, pulling out a big old silenced handgun and pointing it at Jim. Dropping back into his regular Eastern European accent, Toombs tells Maggie to sit back down. She does. Toombs then tells Jim to cover Maggie's mouth with a bit of duct tape off the roll he'll find in Toombs' backpack. Jim moves to comply, and we're in splitscreen-world.
In other windows, Kiefer climbs into a silver sedan and drives it out of CTU, so clearly he got a car requisitioned for himself as well. Maybe he should have also asked for one of Arlo's drones, and a controller for it, and maybe Arlo. Also, Reed stews in her interrogation capsule, and the presidents continue their discussions.
By the time the splitscreens are over, Maggie has tape over her mouth. Toombs instructs Jim to call their captain and say he's sick and Toombs is filling in. Jim is barely into his protests when Toombs puts a bullet in Maggie's upper thigh, and not in the sexy way. "Next time I won't miss the bone," Toombs threatens. "Make the call." Jim agrees, the fight gone out of him. It's 6:00:00, and while I'm glad the show seems to be stepping back from ever-escalating terror threats, I'm not seeing a whole lot that's going to make people come back tomorrow. But then there aren't any previews on this screener DVD, either. And of course, I'm getting paid.