Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT I Got Your Gas Right Here
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 7 | Aired on 02.05.2006
As Logan is still absorbing this, there's a knock on the exterior door. It's Novick, whom Logan invites in. It's not clear how long he's been standing outside the glass door, and he's not about to tell them. Novick enters at 1:19:32 and greets the Logans. Logan tells him, "Mike, I owe you a profound apology." Oh, come on. Novick's lucky he didn't get tortured. Not because of anything he did or knew, of course, but just by virtue of what show he's on. Novick tries to shrug it off, but Logan insists that he panicked, done Novick wrong, and now wants to make it right. Will it involve ice cream? "I would like you to resume your duties," he tells Novick. What, no promotion to Chief of Staff? Isn't there a recent vacancy in that position? Logan wants to get right to work, saying they have to deal with the Walt situation. Okay, so I'm using the word "work" a little loosely. Novick cuts his eyes to FLOTUS, like he's surprised they're going to suddenly start talking business with the crazy lady in the room. She just shoots a glare right back at him. None of this goes unnoticed by Logan, who says he wants FLOTUS's input. Novick nods, suddenly wishing he could go back to being locked up. Logan points out that they can't detain Walt forever, but Novick says, "We can keep him out of sight long enough to for us to construct a credible narrative." FLOTUS knows the code for "cover-up" when she hears it, and she thinks it's a bad idea. She and Novick squabble for a bit about "the credibility of this office" -- which Novick wants to protect by lying, of course -- and Logan just stands there looking miserable about the immediate failure of his little experiment. FLOTUS finally turns to him and makes her case, concluding with, "I think you should issue a statement to the press. The sooner the better." Novick just stands there like he always does, letting someone else get the last word. Logan quietly agrees with his wife, and asks FLOTUS to help him draft the statement. Novick just stands there disgustedly, like, get a room, you two. And, I'd like to add, maybe a speechwriter or something.
At CTU, a couple of Redshirts are escorting Spencer back onto the floor. He tries to thank Chloe for getting him reinstated, but she snots that she merely needs his help: "[It's] not because I forgive you, because I don't." She orders him to get to work. As he sits down at the station next to hers, he tries again to explain himself, but Chloe, being even more Chloic than usual, has no interest in his excuses. In fact, it might be a negative amount of interest.
It's 1:22:13 as Kiefer's helicopter comes in for a landing atop a Downtown L.A. skyscraper. This is not Rossler's building, by the way, but one nearby. Curtis is waiting for him next to the helipad, not technically out of sight but at least not conspicuous in his civvies. Or, I should say, no more conspicuous than any other seven-foot-tall fashion model. He meets Kiefer and hands him a comm earpiece, which Kiefer quickly installs, and which puts him in touch with Chloe. He's briefly pissed to hear that Spencer's back on the floor, but as he and Curtis go inside to catch the elevator from the roof, he lets it go and has Spencer provide the intel he needs: Rossler's inside the penthouse; there are two guards in the penthouse lobby and one in position on the ground floor lobby, along with three security cameras. Kiefer tells Spencer to be ready to remotely disable those cameras, and Spencer warns Kiefer that he's only going to have sixty seconds to do his thing before the cameras "reboot" automatically. Kiefer orders Curtis's backup units -- who are so out of sight they haven't even shown up to work yet -- to stay in a holding position while he and Curtis cross the street to get to Rossler's building. The elevator dings, and they're going down.