Episode Report Card Gustave: A- | 226 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT The final hour
By Gustave | Season 1 | Episode 24 | Aired on 2002.05.21
Back at CTU, Nina tells Xander that the tactical units are on their way. Her phone rings. It's Kiefer. He warns her anviliciously that there must be a mole at CTU, because the Drazens know about Palmer not being dead. He tells her to find out who it is. Nina asks him where he is and tries to find out what his next move will be. Kiefer is vague. He konkludes the kall by warning Nina to trust no one. "Ouch!" says the dead horse of irony. Nina stares down Xander, gets up, and walks down the hall to one of those spooky back offices where everything bad happens.
Palmer and PMHC sit in Palmer's office alone and have a self-congratulatory conversation about how they "told the truth" all day, even though it tore Palmer's family apart. "I think this last day has been about finding out who you really are," muses PMHC. "And not just as a candidate." The phone rings. PMHC is told to turn on the news. They turn the TV on as a network breaks the story that the Palmer death was a hoax, "according to a high-placed source." Palmer gets all OJ'd up with rage and vows to get Lady Mac. He comes up behind her in the bathroom -- where she is either applying lipstick or flossing her teeth, I can't tell which -- and yells at her for leaking the story. Lady Mac doesn't deny it. "They already knew," she says. They have another one of those defying-vs.-protecting arguments, except this time it's a lot louder. He's about to lunge at her when PMHC pulls him away and tells him that he's got to talk to the press immediately. Oh, yeah -- like PMHC could totally pull Palmer out of a fight with one arm like that. Shaking with rage, Palmer reluctantly turns his attention away from his wife and back to the issue at hand. But he smashes a vase first. Lady Mac pants deliciously with her back up against the bathroom mirror. The time is 11:12:12 PM.