Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Everything Changes
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 11 | Aired on 03.02.2009
At 6:36:43, Taylor calls Ethan out for a sidebar as the paramedics are arriving (good to see that the White House paramedics have such a short response time, at least). She asks his opinion, and he says, "If Bauer says there's going to be an attack, my belief is, there's going to be an attack." She says, "Torture was originally intended to force false confessions. No we use it to try and find the truth." Yeah, except that doesn't work. Embarrassing, really. Ethan reels her in by reminding her that they murdered her son and tried to murder her husband. "They will stop at nothing." Taylor makes up her mind, steps back into the smoky suite, and orders Kiefer's arrest. As he's led out, she tells him that he should have come to her instead. "We didn't have time. And would it really have made a difference, ma'am?" Well, we'll never know now, will we? After he's gone, Mayer tells Taylor that she's doing the right thing. She says she wishes it felt that way, and orders the threat levels raised. "And get Tim down here." After that, she wants to talk to Burnett herself. Mayer offers to take care of that for her. "I know the man," he says, leaving himself wide open. "Apparently you don't," she responds pointedly. Ouch. POTUS totally schooled you, Senator. It's 6:38:26.
At 6:42:52, Ethan and Taylor have a quick hallway conversation with Tiny Tim from Homeland about response plans, and the fact that they don't have any intel at all on what the target might be. It's like everyone is determined not to even consider the possibility that they might be soaking in it. Which leaves them with Burnett as their only possible source. "You realize we're going to have to offer this bastard a free pass?" Taylor says to Ethan. "Bauer's going to prison and a traitor walks. What's wrong with this picture?" Well, at least before he got hauled off to jail, Kiefer was doing his best to make sure Burnett wouldn't walk anywhere.
Taylor and Ethan return to the bombed-out office, where Burnett's now laid out on a gurney. Taylor takes on the role of bad cop, threatening Burnett with charges of treason. He just looks up at the ceiling and demands a lawyer. Taylor says he'll tell her what he knows first. "Not in this lifetime," he says, pissing her off. She steps back so Ethan can play good cop, offering full immunity and protection to Burnett in exchange for help in stopping the attack. Taylor even threatens him with capital punishment. So what does Burnett do? He asks, "Where's my lawyer?" Which, I do not believe for a minute that anyone in Burnett's position would not leap at the deal they're offering. Particularly when he knows that the attack is going to be on the building he's in right now. But of course so much of the whole pro-torture argument is based on assuming people do things they would never actually do.