Episode Report Card M. Giant: A | 215 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT A Terrorist Walks into a Bar[ometric Pressure Chamber]
By M. Giant | Season 8 | Episode 10 | Aired on 2010.03.01
While walking away through one of the warehouses, Ali dials his cell phone. He reaches his boss Samir, who is waiting with the rest of the terror team at an all-night coffee shop. "I shot him twice, but the police arrived and I had to get out of there," Ali tells Samir. "You know where to find us," Samir says. Now if only Kiefer did.
Somewhere behind him, a CTU medic tells Kiefer that Farhad is bleeding out from the two large-caliber slugs in his abdomen. Wait, they're still in there? Then what about the blood from the exit wounds we saw on his shirtfront after Ali shot him in the back? Did the bullets just bounce back inside? If so, that is one tough shirt Farhad's wearing. Barely looking up from the laptop, Kiefer orders the medic to stabilize Farhad right there. Other CTU teams find the abandoned van with no rods in it, and go through the building where we just saw Ali at 1:19:05. The site is secure, but empty. Meanwhile, Kiefer is still waiting for the files on his laptop. He goes over to Farhad to ask him to identify the men who stole the rods from him as soon as they have the files. Farhad manages to agree. And then Kiefer starts yelling at everyone, as the files are taking too long to download and Farhad is fading fast. This could all be transplanted into the most suspenseful commercial for high-speed internet ever broadcast.
Oh, but now we're going to have another commercial, this one for Cisco Telepresence. The show has been doing this every season since the sixth one, I think, and it's just not all that exciting any more. It's a video conference with giant screens, okay? Anyway, this commercial is in the form of Taylor and Rob at the U.N. meeting with Tiny Tim from Homeland, a doctor whom I assume is the Surgeon General, and Admiral Smith from the Joint Chiefs in D.C. so they can talk about the threat posed by the potential dirty bomb attack. Tim explains that the rods have enough explosive capacity to contaminate one square mile of Manhattan, which could result in casualties in the tens of thousands. Actually, given some of the apartments I've seen in Manhattan, that number seems pretty low. I've been in individual buildings that have that many people living in them. The Surgeon General says most of them would die of radiation poisoning, with the rest succumbing to leukemia and cancer in the longer term. He doesn't have any number on how many of the victims would simply be shot dead by their own fathers. Admiral Smith adds that the area would be uninhabitable for about forty years. And anyone who moved here from Valencia a couple of years ago is going to be pissed. "Obviously a citywide evacuation is out of the question," Rob says. Tim agrees, "There are millions of people on this island, with few points of egress. It would take days to get them out." Plus there's the whole panic thing. Or, if you'll permit me to restate the problem in movie shorthand, "Cloverfield, I Am Legend." Taylor agrees that they need to focus on preventing the attack from happening at all. Tim adds that CTU is wisely beefing up radiation detectors at the bridges and tunnels, and increasing security at "high-value" targets, which are pretty thick on the ground in Manhattan. Indeed, where in Manhattan isn't within a mile of something high-value? Rob points out that the U.N. might be a target, which of course is relevant to the discussion because that's where he and the President of the United States are sitting right now. At least the Secretary of State appears to be safe; he's probably halfway to Iowa by now. Rob advises a full evacuation of the building. Taylor agrees, and that's the end of the meeting. Because once you've brought up immediate evacuation, nobody wants to linger for chitchat and minor housekeeping items.