Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT When Worlds Collide
By M. Giant | Season 4 | Episode 9 | Aired on 02.13.2005
Indeed, Kiefer bursts out of the stairwell in the garage just as the TerrorDadMobile is approaching his position. Kiefer starts shooting at the windshield (because, after all, who else could be leaving the parking garage of a large hospital right now except a terrorist?), but the TerrorDadMobile keeps coming. Kiefer jumps up to roll off the hood, leaving a big, Kiefer-shaped spiderweb pattern in the windshield and hitting the ground hard as the TerrorDadMobile goes on by him. Kiefer rolls over in time to put a few bullets in TerrorDad's back tire, and the car slides into another parked car. World's Wildest Police Chases would love to have a scene like that, but the camera helicopters keep crashing in the parking ramps. TerrorDad drags TerrorTeen out of the car as Kiefer drags himself to his feet. There's a standard hostage standoff, with Kiefer ordering TerrorDad to surrender and TerrorDad refusing while dragging TerrorTeen away. Kiefer even offers to drop his gun if TerrorDad will release TerrorTeen. Soul Patch's convoy arrives just then, and screeches to a halt on Kiefer's orders. TerrorMom and TerrorTeen spot each other and scream each other's names just before TerrorDad drags him into yet another stairwell. "Keep her in the car!" Kiefer hollers. "That stairwell leads to the basement. He's got nowhere to go but down." Don't know how he knows that. "Set up a link with CTU now!" Kiefer continues. Soul Patch acknowledges the order, then tries to calm TerrorMom, who's seriously freaking out. Kiefer shrinks into the upper left corner of the screen, while coverage of the evacuation occupies the upper right. Then they move to the bottom and swap sides while TerrorDad keeps TerrorTeen hostage and tries to figure out his next move in the upper half. It turns out that the news monitor is being watched by POTUS as Soul Patch tries to calm TerrorMom. In other mom news, Lispy Skip is still sitting there all weepy while, miles away, his mom just, uh, sits there. Breathing kinda funny. With her oxygen tube still in her nose. So maybe she swapped the oxygen tank with propane and she's getting ready to have a smoke. I don't know. And in the upper right, the nuclear plant is still melting down.
Kiefer's already on the phone with Driscoll, who's confirming that there are no exits from where TerrorDad's holed up except the ones that are already sealed off. Soul Patch suggests opening up negotiations. But TerrorMom, who's now been allowed out of the car, cuts in: "My husband won't negotiate…he doesn't need to. He has to assume I've agreed to help you in return for my son's safety." "Well, he can't stay down there forever," Soul Patch points out. "He doesn't have to. In two hours all the reactors will go critical." We see Driscoll, still listening in. "After that, it won't matter what I tell you and he can kill my son. I am only helping you to save his life. I believe in our cause, and if you can't save my son, I'll be happy to see the reactors melt down." Of course, if TerrorDad realizes that, he can just kill TerrorTeen, which he was going to do anyway, in order to end TerrorMom's cooperation. They all had better hope he's not listening through an air vent or something. Kiefer's still holding the phone to his ear as he stares at TerrorMom, thinking, That's right…we're working together, and so I totally forgot for a minute that she's completely evil. He says to Driscoll, "Did you get that?" Heh. It's 3:00:00.