Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | 310 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Undercover Brothers
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 4 | Aired on 2009.01.12
Okay, I've got this giant impacted bolus of exposition stuck somewhere, and things might get a little awkward here while I free it up. Here we go.
At 11:06:15, Buchanan slowly leads Tony and a fully recovered Kiefer up the stairs to his base of operations, which looks almost like an abandoned church. There are brown marble walls and unused furniture stacked up in the balcony where Chloe has her computers set up on folding tables. Kiefer asks what they call it. "We like to think of it as CTU," says Buchanan. "What's left of it, anyway." Which explains why Buchanan picked the highest point in the building for his office. Obviously, nobody knows they're there, or the place would be instantly condemned. Chloe appears, and she and Kiefer tell each other it's good to see one another, although they don't smile or hug or come within ten feet of each other. I suppose that might be too much to ask. Really, how close can they be? At this point, they really only see each other for a few minutes at a time over the course of one day every few years. I've got relatives I spend more time with. "I'm glad you're with us," she says. Kiefer grumps that he isn't with anyone, "until someone starts answering some questions." His first one is for Tony, and rather than something germane to the current crisis, it's the one the viewers have probably been nursing the longest: "Why the hell are you not dead?" Tony says he was, for almost ten minutes. "Or so I was told." By whom? Chloe pulls up a photo of Tony's buddy and boss, David Emerson. "I don't know who he paid off at CTU," Tony says, "but it was his people who injected my body with a hypothermic compound. Was able to revive me." Sounds reasonable enough. Almost as believable as the lack of a silent clock in Tony's last scene. Tony explains who Emerson is: "Independent contractor. Enlists ex-military and -intelligence operatives, jobs them out to clients. Apparently I fit the profile...former employees with grievances against the Federal government." Emerson had even been watching Tony since he left CTU. Would that be the time he left in handcuffs, or one of the other times? Tony continues, "After Michelle was killed, he figured I'd make a good recruit." Kiefer asks, all judgey, "And everyone else thinking you're dead? So much the better." Buchanan doesn't say anything, even though he's the only one in the room who didn't know Kiefer wasn't dead between Seasons Four and Five.