Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | 1 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Out of Time
By M. Giant | Season 8 | Episode 24 | Aired on 05.24.2010
3:15:15. Kiefer clearly survived, because he's up on a gurney and wearing an oxygen mask, but he's still in the utility room where Chloe shot him. Along with more agents and EMTs than I would have expected to be able to fit in there. Cole calls Chloe to say he's on his way. It's only been six minutes, so no hurry or anything. She tells him to stay put anyway, because she needs him where he is. Cole wants to know what's happening, so Chloe explains to him about how Kiefer gave her the recording of Logan and Suvarov's conversation. "Why did you shoot him?" Cole wonders. Chloe promises to explain later. "Right now, you just need to make sure that Arlo is ready to upload that file." Cole agrees and asks if Kiefer will survive. Chloe doesn't know, and signs off. A she leaves the room, Kiefer looks at least semi-conscious, and gives her a nod. Which is nice of him, considering his last words to her were so damning. Literally.
In the outer hallway, Agent Burke accosts her and tells her that Jason's been found in the back of his SUV, and he wants to talk to Chloe now, so she's going to have to stay right where she is. Chloe tries to blow on past by pulling rank, but Burke insists, "His authority comes from the president. If you want to make a call to the White House, we can do that." Rank pulled back. Chloe defeatedly asks when Jason will be here, and is told he's on his way now. She lets Burke lead her back to the utility room at 3:16:55. Kiefer's still being worked on, but his mask fogs and unfogs in a pattern that looks like Morse code for "Back so soon?"
"I'm sure it was a terrible ordeal, Mr. President," Jason is saying over a phone to Logan, with remarkable patience. Sure, Kiefer had them both at gunpoint in the last hour, but Jason was closer. Jason thinks it's all over, but Logan tells him about the recording Kiefer has. "How do you know?" Jason asks. "Because the son of a bitch played the damn thing for me!" Logan says in a voice choked with rage. "He must have put a bug on me or something when he attacked that car." Like I've been saying, it wouldn't be the first time. "For all I know, he has recorded every conversation I've had for the past two hours." Including this one? Jason promises to get it back, and Logan warns him, "You're on the line here, too. If this evidence gets out, we all go down together." He hangs up and takes some cleansing breaths, but they don't work; he's still a dirty slimeball.
When Jason arrives in the utility room, Burke points out the recording device they found, and also gives Jason his phone back that they took off of Kiefer. Jason examines the recorder with its missing data card, and whispers to Burke, "Bauer has a digital file that poses a threat to national security. We need to find it." Burke promises to keep looking, not even a little curious as to how a digital file could threaten national security. Jason now turns his attention to Chloe, asking her what happened. "He drew his gun and I shot him. What more do you need to know?" she snits. Jason asks her about the data card for the recorder, and Chloe lies -- really badly -- that she doesn't know what he's talking about. She gets even less convincing as he first makes her empty her pockets, then searches her. "I hope you enjoyed yourself," she snarks when he's done. I'd tell her not to flatter herself, but those 30 or 40 minutes when he was patting her down were just about the first time I've ever seen Jason not in a hurry. Chloe stomps out. And in the hallway, waiting for the elevator, she checks her cell phone to make sure the card is still in there where she hid it. That was her clever ruse? Now I really don't think it was a data card Jason was looking for.