Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Veep Is A Creep
By M. Giant | Season 6 | Episode 15 | Aired on 03.25.2007
Sandra is still in the operating room waiting for Wayne to wake up when Karen comes in with paper coffee cups for both of them. As you do, when you're standing around in an operating room. They talk boringly for a moment, until the doctor comes in to report that Wayne's brain is swelling, and that if it continues, it could cause permanent damage. He suggests reinducing the coma, but Sandra refuses, counting on the chance that Wayne will be okay and stop the Veep: "I know Wayne would want to see this through." Unless he dies, which it looks like he's about to do. Wayne starts crashing, and Karen bustles Sandra out so that the medical staff can do their thing on him. At first, I was worried about Walid, sitting in a hospital alone while Sandra is off attending to Wayne. But I think when Walid hears about how Sandra is managing Wayne's care, he'll be glad to have her as far away from him as possible.
Kiefer looks like he's fighting a headache as he waits in the Hauser living room with Brady, who's watching Fox News. Talk about your target audience. A CTU agent comes in to say that the teams are ready, and to quietly doubt whether this is such a good idea. Kiefer says that Brady just needs to get Gredenko out of his car. "We don't have another option," he says guiltily, and the agent leaves the room. Kiefer gives Brady a CTU earpiece, explaining that it will let them talk to each other. "But we don't want Mr. Gredenko to know that you can hear me," Kiefer explains slowly, "so we have to pretend that you can't." Brady says he gets it. Kiefer hands him a memory card and tells him where he's supposed to wait for Gredenko: "That's your position." Brady absorbs this little vocabulary lesson, and it's time to go. Kiefer shepherds Brady outside, reassuring him the whole way and sending him to his position. "I'm gonna go to my position," Brady agrees, and heads across the street. Watching him go, Kiefer hides in the bushes and orders his teams to call in. Charlie team has the job of getting Gredenko with a tranquilizer dart, while teams Alpha and Bravo are in charge of shooting everyone else. Besides Brady, that is. "Do whatever you have to to protect this kid," says Kiefer. Did I mention that Brady looks to be in his mid-to-late thirties? That's not condescending at all, Kiefer.
Brady reaches his position at 8:46:30. Kiefer beeps into Brady's earpiece and confirms that they can hear each other. Brady asks again when he can see Mark, and Kiefer promises he will as soon as this is over. The GredenkoMobile rolls into sight and up next to the curb where Brady's waiting. Gredenko and the driver get out, and Gredenko takes the memory card from Brady and plugs it right into the laptop he's holding. It starts downloading. So Kiefer's giving Gredenko something that works? The CTU sniper whispers over the comm. earpiece that he's got a problem: Brady's in the way, and he doesn't have a clear shot at Gredenko. As the file slowly downloads onto Gredenko's computer, he asks why Brady's so nervous. I know we just met Brady, but is he ever not nervous? Over Brady's earpiece, Kiefer hears Gredenko say something in Russian, and he informs the other teams that Gredenko just told his men to kill Brady as soon as he's verified the data. But the sniper still doesn't have a shot, and he can't move to where he has one. This is getting pretty tense. I'm getting kind of pissed off at the blatant level of audience manipulation involved in putting someone like Brady in harm's way. I'm even more pissed off that it's working. Kiefer reminds Brady to keep pretending that he can't hear Kiefer, and tells him to get on the ground and stay there when Kiefer tells him to. Gredenko finishes getting his file, and speaks to his driver in Russian again. The driver comes around, reaching inside his jacket. Kiefer tells Brady to get down, but Brady doesn't move. We see the back of Brady's head through the sniper scope, completely blocking Gredenko. The driver puts his handgun to Brady's head. Brady finally drops. Gredenko's got a tranq dart in his neck the very next instant, and CTU shoots down the other bad guys from their hidden positions. Kiefer breaks cover and starts running toward Brady, just in time to spot and shoot a third minion getting out of the GredenkoMobile. Kiefer picks Brady up from where he's still rocking back and forth in duck-and-cover position, telling him he did great. "I wanna see my brother," says Brady. He's not nearly as angry as I would be at someone who sent me to go stand in the middle of a hail of bullets. Kiefer says that Brady can see Mark now, just like Kiefer promised. He tells his men to get Gredenko in the house and tell Buchanan that they've got him. It's 8:49:42.