Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Things Fall Apart
By M. Giant | Season 4 | Episode 23 | Aired on 05.22.2005
Buchanan's next call is to…Lispy Skip, because Skip is all the way down on the floor and Buchanan is up on the second level. Buchanan tells Skip to tell Kiefer that the field op is over and he needs to get his people back to CTU.
In the Undal Office, it's all about the Veep: "The worst disaster in this country's history is taking place on my watch," he bitches. Yeah, that really hurt Dubya, didn't it? He turns on Palmer. "I gave you the responsibility to stop this," he literally finger-points. "You failed me, David. And you failed the country." Be sure and include that "not my fault" bit in your address to the media. The public'll eat that up. Palmer's too taken aback to respond as the Veep stomps out of the Undal Office and tries to slam the door behind him, which doesn't work because of the hydraulic door-closer. Heh. Palmer stands there and marinates in his failure. I can't believe I had to wait this long for someone to tell Palmer what a loser he is, and then it came from an even bigger loser than Palmer.
Speaking of marinating, Bitchelle is sitting on the couch in her office, staring blankly into space. Buchanan comes in and sits beside her, trying to look sad about the fact that she's single again. He says she's probably second-guessing her decision to risk Soul Patch's life. She doesn't say that she's actually blaming Buchanan for giving the agents the order to move too early and thus tipping off Mandy. He tries to assure her that she did the right thing in not placing Soul Patch's life above those of potentially millions of people. "You made exactly the decision Soul Patch would have wanted you to make. That's our job. It's why we signed on." Which reminds Bitchelle that she and Soul Patch were going to leave the job anyway. She wants to get back to work on finding the missile, but Buchanan wants her to go home. "That's not advice. That's an order." He leaves her alone, so she can get all of her stuff out of that sweet-ass office and he can take it over. It's only had three occupants this season, after all, which we all know is a little on the low side. On the way out, Buchanan's cell phone rings. It's Lispy Skip, who's just as lazy as Buchanan, telling him that Kiefer's not ready to pull his men yet. Buchanan tells Skip to transfer Kiefer to the video phone in the conference room.
It's 5:42:52 as firemen hose down the burning Jag. Kiefer's sitting in the back of a nearby parked car, watching the video playback of the explosion and snapping at Curtis, who's sitting beside him and saying they need to get going. Then Kiefer swears at Curtis. Dude, if you want to make out, just say so. "Kiefer, Soul Patch is gone," Curtis says quietly. Kiefer apologizes, but he wants to see the video again anyway. Curtis rewinds it. But they're interrupted by the videophone call from Buchanan, wanting to know why Kiefer hasn't redeployed. Kiefer says Mandy's behavior doesn't make sense. What doesn't make sense to me is that the back seat of this car is made even more crowded by the presence of a big old videophone camera/screen setup that's there for no purpose. I don't see any reason why this call had to be conducted by videophone, except that Buchanan's video screen shows Kiefer's face in front of the fiery background provided by the flaming car-becue, so it looks like Kiefer's in Hell. Satanic glower and all. ["And for the record, they need to give him a more flattering haircut next year. He's looked like a wet hen for two seasons and I'm over it." -- Sars] Buchanan agrees with Kiefer in theory, "but you saw what I saw." Kiefer says all he saw was "two darkened figures in the rain concealed by an umbrella and an explosion. And I saw that from half a block away." Buchanan tells Kiefer to focus. "Nobody here is holding you responsible for Soul Patch's death…We reviewed the tactical feed. There's nothing to suggest we were deceived." He says he knows Soul Patch was Kiefer's friend, and the Kiefer probably feels responsible for getting him involved in today's events. I love how Buchanan keeps subtly trying to shift the blame onto other people by saying they're blameless. It's certainly working, since nobody else has brought up the fact that Buchanan was the one who tipped their hand with his shitty timing. This is probably how he got to be Division boss in the first place. Kiefer interrupts, "This is not about Soul Patch. This is about her. And until I can absolutely confirm that she is dead, I am maintaining this perimeter and I'm gonna continue this search." Buchanan says Kiefer has ten minutes, and then he hangs up.
Kiefer makes Curtis play the video again, but this time he listens to the audio more closely using a headset. Mandy's voice comes through loud and clear, and the Jag goes up again. Get your mileage out of that footage, guys. Blowing up a car is expensive, after all. Kiefer wants to see the last fifteen seconds again. He grins as he realizes that even though it's pouring on the roof of the car, he can't hear the rain on Mandy's side of the call. I also notice the more obvious fact that the explosion is clearly audible on the call, even though the phone would have been destroyed in the conflagration. But then, I don't have Kiefer's subtle investigative mind. Curtis catches up: "She's making the call from somewhere else…indoors," he Watsons. Kiefer says that means Mandy would want a clean line of sight to the car, which narrows it down to one building. Curtis gives the order for all teams to move in on that building, and armored agents start up the front stairs at 5:45:32.