Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | 0 USERS: N/A YOU GRADE IT Day 5: 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 10 | Aired on February 26, 2006
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.As expected, the First Lady's decision to act as a human shield for the Russian president hurls Logan's brain into catastrophic vapor-lock, and he spends the hour scaling new heights of passivity. McGill's not doing much better in the face of all the speed bumps along the route of his power trip, so Audrey's basically running her own shadow CTU behind McGill's back. Until, that is, Curtis relieves McGill of command for being a loony. The only active lead CTU has to the nerve gas directs Kiefer to his old, disgraced mentor (Peter Weller, with an emphasis on "old"), who's now head of R&D at the company that manufactured the gas. And it turns out that Weller's also a sneaky bastard, as he pretends to help Kiefer while he's really setting him up for a killing. Which doesn't work, in case you were worried. As for the planned attack on the Russian president's motorcade, CTU picks up some chatter and (no thanks to McGill) warns the Secret Service just in time. So now Logan's in trouble with his wife for not stopping the attack himself, and he's also in trouble with the terrorists because the attack failed. And it looks like Bierko's going to release the nerve gas after all. You think Logan will learn from this experience and realize that it might occasionally be to his advantage to sack up a little? Me either. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Vladimir Bierko is in his bunker, watching the progress of the Russian president's motorcade in real time using a highly illicit, classified surveillance satellite uplink. Or possibly Google Earth. From where he's standing next to a white van parked outside somewhere, the VladimirKo henchman I think of as "Fucked-up Accent Guy" calls Bierko on his satellite phone to ask, "Whizzy mutter gay naw?" Bierko answers him as if he had actually asked, "Where is the motorcade now?" To Fucked-up Accent Guy's next indecipherable torrent of glottals, fricatives, diphthongs, and plosives, he answers, "About forty minutes." Fucked-up Accent guy spews something else, then hangs up and knocks on the van door. And a couple of guys climb out with what look like the components of a bazooka. Just the kind of thing you want to be seen standing outside with in public on a sunny afternoon in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, in the Not Camp David Situation Room, Novick is showing Logan a map of the motorcade's route. The Secret Service threat assessment he's requested (which he said he couldn't do last hour) indicates that the most likely spot for an attack is downtown. "If an ambush were to occur," he hedges. Because we need to remind slow-moving viewers what's going on, Logan coolly says they can be assured it will happen, since they gave the terrorists Suvarov's route. Logan's already figuring out how to spin this politically, when Novick gets a cell phone call. His expression falls. After getting off the phone, he takes a long time to make sure Logan's good and nervous before breaking the news: the First Lady hopped into the Suvarovs' limo before it left. Logan freaks, and wonders why the Secret Service didn't try to stop her. Novick points out that the motorcade was already under protection, so they didn't see any need. "She wants me to call back the motorcade," Logan deduces. "She's trying to save the Suvarovs." What a shame that such a brilliant mind is only limited to two terms in office. Novick offers to call the motorcade back, and Logan snaps, "Yes! No, stop, wait." He rubs his face as he remembers that warning the motorcade will result in the terrorists releasing the gas. But not warning the motorcade will get his wife killed! But warning the motorcade will get thousands of Americans killed! Logan's in an agony of indecision. This is easily distinguishable from his other moods, which include frustration of indecision, contentment of indecision, general malaise of indecision, and giddiness of indecision. Novick watches him, unimpressed.