Episode Report Card M. Giant: D+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT I Got the Digits
By M. Giant | Season 4 | Episode 18 | Aired on 04.17.2005
Potato Face calls Soul Patch over at 12:33:16 to tell him that the missing convoy is no longer missing, but the warhead it was carrying is, and "everyone's dead." Soul Patch rattles off a bunch of orders to her, including instructions to find out if there are any nearby airstrips or "someplace where they might be able to put down a chopper." In Iowa. At 2:30 AM Central Time, I-80 is an airstrip. As for a potential helicopter landing site, please see above, re: just about anywhere between Moline and Denver. The total lack of phone and power lines helps, you know.
Curtis joins Bitchelle in the observation room, where she's already observing Prado, who's sitting alone in interrogation. She reminds Curtis, "Remember, he's an ex-Marine. He won't cave easily." Curtis talks tough, rolling up his sleeves and saying he'll use Eric the Torture Guy to help him. And here's a silent yet eloquent expression of one of tonight's themes; namely, the detrimental effect that sanctioned torture has on its perpetrators. Eric the Torture Guy is standing there, but he's abandoned his creepily detached reserve; he's staring at the closed door to interrogation, holding his case and leaning forward like a runner in the starting blocks. The message: you do something bad enough times, it starts to seem less bad. If you'd asked Eric what he does for a living this morning, he'd probably have said, "I'm an interview facilitator." Now he'd probably say, "I torture scum." If he ever said anything at all, that is, which he doesn't. Curtis and Eric the Torture Guy enter the interrogation room.
Where Prado is still sticking to his story about killing NotEricMurphy in self-defense. Curtis is still not buying it. More tough talking, this time on both sides. Curtis nods at Eric the Torture Guy, who puts his case of implements down on the table in front of Prado. Naturally, the top of the case opens flat on the table so Prado can see into it, even though it's faced away from him. He demands to know what's going on. The only answer is Eric the Torture Guy prepping a syringe. Notice how they're not even bothering with the threatening anymore?
In the observation room, a phone rings. It's Buchanan, sounding very stressed and telling Bitchelle to stop Curtis, and for both of them to join him on the floor. She calls Curtis on the intercom and relays the order. Curtis, who was holding Prado's head tilted to one side to provide easier access to Eric the Torture Guy's needle, releases Prado. He and Bitchelle head out to the floor together.
Where, at 12:35:32, Buchanan is standing with Evan Handler, who's looking, as always, short, bald, swarthy, and generally a lot like a tan M&M. Buchanan introduces him as "David Weiss from Amnesty Global." Ah, an attorney, the ultimate nightmare of red-staters everywhere. This satire is cracking me up. Weiss has a court order "protecting the rights of one Joe Prado," and he's backed up by a U.S. Marshal who's supposed to make sure that Weiss is taken to Prado "immediately." Nice work, Weiss, getting from wherever you were to a judge to CTU in less than fifteen minutes. I can only assume that the Marshal met you in the parking lot. Curtis balks, because "This is our only lead." Aside from NotEricMurphy's cell phone in his pocket, of course. As well as anything else that might have been retrievable from the blown-up ImHideout, the decoded document from MacGuffin Factories, TerrorDad's cell phone, the TerrorHideout, the TerrorDome, and that guy Kiefer shot in Episode One. But aside from them, Prado's it. Buchanan says he'll "get into it with the Justice Department. In the meantime, do what he says." Weiss stands there looking smug under Curtis's scowl. It's 12:36:14. And what a great self-parody of the suspense-filled act-outs that 24 has become known for -- as if nothing could be more suspenseful than an actual attorney from an international human rights organization showing up at CTU and messing up their smooth torture operations. Good one.