Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT One-Term Wonder
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 23 | Aired on 05.21.2006
At 5:29:44, Logan and Novick are finishing up for the night. They've got the Situation Room to themselves again, of course. "Vladimir Bierko and all his known associates are dead or in custody," Novick reports, closing the folder on the table in front of him with a symbolic flourish. Logan happily giggles at his Chief of Staff, who smiles back. And then they get somber again, realizing that it hasn't exactly been a bloodless victory. But after a moment, Logan gets right back to work. By ordering the curfew lifted? No; by asking Novick for a speech that he can deliver over David Palmer's body at the airfield before it's flown back to Washington. Novick says he'll get to work on it right away, and gets up to leave. "Thank you, Mike," Logan says. "For everything." For some reason, that seems to remind Novick that he's been totally suspicious of his boss for the past several hours.
Of course, Novick hasn't gotten very far down the corridor before he's waylaid by the First Lady, who has, of course, been lying in wait for him this whole time. She urgently asks him to come with her. Worry on his face, Novick asks, "Have you been...?" Well, not since she drained a bottle of red wine solo about two hours ago. Which is long enough ago for her to say with a straight face, "I've never been more sober. Or more sane." Really? No wonder her brain chemistry is out of whack, considering the speed of her metabolism. She's able to prevail upon him to follow her. But before he leaves, shouldn't he at least assign someone to get cracking on that speech that the President's going to give in an hour and a half?
For right now, though, the only person Logan is addressing is Graham. The shadowy fellow is thrilled to hear that Henderson was killed during the retaking of the submarine, but he's still worried about Kiefer. "Don't worry," Logan says. "Mr. Bauer will be taken care of." Graham actually cracks a smile at this, and Logan hangs up. And that'll do it for Graham this season. You just know that when they offered that part to Paul McCrane, they described the character as "a shadowy, mysterious figure with seemingly unlimited power, who doesn't even answer to the President himself," rather than as "a cheap device for exposition who never actually does anything."
Now it's 5:32:35, and that little scene was all the time that FLOTUS and Novick needed to reach the stables. The Secret Service car is still parked there, but Novick is more interested in the bloody, red-haired, Texas-accented Secret Service agent who appears before him. "Agent Adams tried to kill me on the President's orders," Aaron says by way of explaining why he's not exactly prepared for inspection. Novick is confused and skeptical, and asks, "Where's Agent Adams?" Aaron obligingly pops the trunk on the Secret Service car, and shows Novick the plastic-wrapped body inside. Novick reacts like he's never seen a dead Secret Service agent in the trunk of a Secret Service car on the grounds of the Presidential retreat at 5:30 in the morning or something. He slams the trunk in horror. "We need your help," FLOTUS says, and Novick looks pretty doubtful as he turns angrily to Agent Adams's killers. FLOTUS spills everything she knows about Logan's actions, and says she was going to keep quiet, "For the good of the country...I can't do that. Not any more." No shit, lady, it's been hours. I'm surprised you lasted as long as you did. Novick asks for proof, and Aaron tells him about the recording of Logan and Henderson. "That's why Logan was willing to go so far as to shoot a plane full of people down: because Jack was on it." I don't know how he knows all this; he's been tied up in the trophy room since before Kiefer even got on that plane. Aaron then has to admit that the recording has been destroyed, which he knows because Logan told him himself. Novick, frustrated, rubs his head as Aaron swears it's the truth. How are they going to get Novick on board with this, considering that it was his idea to cover up the reason for Walt Cummings death that very afternoon? If he was worried that a disgraced Chief of Staff would weaken the American public's faith in its government, there's no way he's going to sign on for taking down the President himself, right? Wrong. Because the season's over in under ninety minutes, Novick abruptly comes around, and says that they'll have to figure out another way to make their case. FLOTUS says they have to get Aaron off the grounds first. After a pause, Novick agrees to chauffeur Aaron out of Not Camp David, hidden in the back of the car. He gets behind the wheel, leaving FLOTUS and Aaron standing outside the car. "I'll be fine," Aaron promises FLOTUS. "I'll go somewhere where your husband's people can't find me." Church? FLOTUS asks if she'll hear from him, and he says it's "safer" if she doesn't. And then he moves in close. "Thank you," he whispers, then gets in the car. No kiss, again. Novick drives off, and Aaron watches through the rear windshield as FLOTUS recedes forlornly behind him, like a dog on the first day of school. It's 5:35:46.