Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT High Jack
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 20 | Aired on 04.30.2006
But no, Avila's plan isn't nearly as hardcore, as we're about to find out. Down below, air starts hissing loudly. "Air's coming in," says the always-helpful Meyer, but Kiefer quickly corrects him. "They're depressurizing this area," Kiefer says, rapidly dialing his cell phone. "If we don't get into the main cabin, we're going to lose consciousness." "I guess we'll see how you like it," Meyer doesn't say.
Chloe's laptop screen has a bulletin window on it right now, referring to a situation on Flight 520. When she answers Kiefer's call, she mentions it to him and asks him what's going on. Kiefer just tells her to patch him through to the pilot of the plane. When she balks at how tricky that might be, he tells her they're running out of air. Chloe agrees, then hangs up and switches to a hands-free headset to dial Hayes at CTU. Hayes looks pretty irritated when Chloe relays Kiefer's request to her, but she says she'll do her best. There's some technobabble and dialing and talking, and Hayes is on the case.
At 2:34:06, Chloe's admirer is back. Spotting her headset, he tries to suck up in her language, but all the words he appears to know are "voice-over IP" and "bandwidth." Amazingly, that appears to be enough to win Chloe over. In fact, I thought the network had switched the feed on me for a second here, but I was merely thrown by the unfamiliar spectacle of Chloe smiling. She invites him to sit down, and he does, celebrating like it's third base. He admires Chloe's laptop, running a slimy finger along the edge of it and saying, "I've never seen one of these before. What is that?" Chloe answers, "It's a CTU Series 4." But not before she whips out a taser and zaps the guy in the arm, leaving him slumped unconscious on the table. He really should have gone for a remote debrief.
Meanwhile, Hayes has gotten through to the pilot, and she patches Chloe through. Chloe in turn patches Kiefer through. I can't even do a conference call at work without having to hang up on everyone and start over half the time. Once Kiefer gets the pilot on the line, he introduces himself: "Captain, my name is Jack Bauer, I'm with the Counter Terrorist Unit in Los Angeles, and I'm the man in your baggage hold." On the other hand, once I do get a conference call set up, I never have to say things like that. Kiefer says he'll explain what he's up to in a minute, but first he demands that his air pressure be restored. "Sir, I remind you that I am a Federal agent," he intimidates, which isn't all that intimidating coming from a guy you've trapped in a soon-to-be-airless crawlspace like a fly in a jar. Captain Cotter asks the reasonable question, "What kind of Federal agent knocks out an Air Marshal? I don't believe you." Captain Cotter? Meet Jack Bauer. He's a one-man anti-Marshal campaign. And I'm not even talking about what he did to the last guy he met who was actually named Marshall. Kiefer points out that he was patched through on a secure CTU line, which any old Joe Hijacker wouldn't have been able to do. The captain points out that Kiefer's got a gun and has breached airplane security, which Kiefer sees and raises by playing the national security card. "Now open the damn hatch!" he concludes.
Cotter puts Kiefer on mute to consult with the copilot, who says, "There's no point in taking a chance. In a few minutes he'll pass out, and from there the Air Marshal can handle it." Unless he gets knocked out again. Keep up, First Officer. Kiefer again insists on being let out. After a pause, Cotter says, "I can't do that." "Okay, you son of a bitch," Kiefer whispers under his breath, and moves forward to inspect the ceiling. Switching his phone to speaker mode, he puts it down on a nearby suitcase and then uses his knife to cut out a section of the ceiling like it's a piece of acoustic tile. He's going to hack his way into the cabin? The long, straight wires he reveals by removing the panel are going to make that difficult. It looks like the inside of a grand piano up there. And God knows what'll happen to the plane if he tries to cut through them. But I quickly figure out his actual plan, as he loops his belt over some of the cables and hauls down on the ends of it, hard.