Episode Report Card M. Giant: C+ | 0 USERS: N/A YOU GRADE IT Day 6: 6:00 AM - 7:00 AM
By M. Giant | Season 6 | Episode 1 | Aired on January 13, 2007
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Kiefer's already back from China! Meanwhile, terrorists have been striking all over the U.S. for weeks, but a man named Fayed is willing to give up the terrorist behind it all -- a man named Assad -- in exchange for a private torture party for Kiefer. So President Wayne Palmer (David's little brother, remember?) accepts the deal, and Kiefer is handed over to Fayed. In other news, Milo's back at CTU, Chloe and her ex-husband Morris are back together, and Buchanan's married to Karen Hayes, who is now the National Security Advisor to President Wayne Palmer. In the apparent "what does this have to do with anything?" subplot, a seemingly innocent suburban guy named Ahmed sees his father arrested and ends up taking shelter with his neighbors. Then it turns out Ahmed actually is working with Fayed, so that paid off uncharacteristically quickly. While Fayed tortures Kiefer (because the last two years haven't been bad enough), he reveals what's really going on: it's Fayed, not Assad, who's behind the current wave of bombings. So Kiefer escapes, in hopes of preventing President Wayne Palmer from killing the wrong man. Can you even believe it? President Wayne Palmer! Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Well, we're back for another non-stop season of 24. This season finds our show weighted down with a few Emmys, including one for Kiefer and one for Best Drama. In light of these developments, I plan to begin treating this show with the respect and the gravitas it deserves. And there you have it: my first joke of the season.
Unless you're new, you're already aware that the 24 DVDs include short prequels for the upcoming season. We're starting with the Season 6 Prequel that was included on the Season 5 DVD set. So none of what I describe in the next several paragraphs ever actually aired.
Oh, except this part: the last couple of minutes of the Season 5 finale. We get to relive the joy of seeing a beaten and bloodied Kiefer get dragged into the cargo hold of the freighter Shanghai. He once again asks for death, and once again the Consulate Cop drops some hardcore shit on him. Then, on a black screen, this title card: 7 MONTHS LATER. Do you think they were good months?
Probably not. In a barn somewhere in, presumably, China, a bearded, shirtless Kiefer, his hands cuffed high above his head by a chain hanging from the ceiling, is having electrical paddles applied to his torso. From behind a small, eye-level hatch that leads to another room, the Consulate Cop watches dispassionately. Hey, who's running security at the Chinese Consulate in L.A. while this guy is making Kiefer his pet project for years on end? His single-mindedness is certainly not in question, as we see him defying a torture guy's subtitled exhortations that they'll kill Kiefer if they don't stop for the day. Consulate Cop goes to confront Kiefer with a pair of glossy photos, and demands to know which of the two men, "Hong" or "Lee," is working for the U.S. government. Because Kiefer is completely up to speed on all of his government's covert Chinese operatives after seven months in prison, a year and a half underground, and another year as a Defense Department wonk. Whether he knows or not, Kiefer doesn't utter a word. Unless you count "Ungghgngh" as a word, since that is what he says when Consulate Cop orders the paddles applied again. Finally, CC orders Kiefer unchained and returned to his tiny, filthy cell.
Kiefer suffers on the floor of his unfurnished cell for an unspecified amount of time (no 7 MONTHS LATER title card, at least), until a silenced handgun goes of in the hallway outside and the uniformed guard falls to the floor. Two black-clad, hooded men enter Kiefer's cell, shining a flashlight in his face.