Episode Report Card M. Giant: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT In-fil-tra-tion. Ready? Begin!
By M. Giant | Season 4 | Episode 14 | Aired on 03.20.2005
At that moment, 8:56:22, the van is pulling into yet another dark alley. A hooded Kiefer and TerrorMom are hauled out and dragged into what might be an abandoned warehouse. As ImhoTerror steps into view, holding a gun, TerrorMom is unhooded and Kiefer is forced to his knees. ImhoTerror yanks off Kiefer's hood. "You've caused me a lot of trouble," he says, and placekicks Kiefer across the chin. Ow. Careful, ImhoTerror. You'll give him a lip. As ImhoTerror unties TerrorMom's hands, he expresses his sympathy about TerrorDad. "He was a great man," he says. He apologizes for the rough treatment she received. TerrorMom says she understands, but they weren't followed. "You're a good liar," ImhoTerror says. TerrorMom plays dumb. ImhoTerror continues, "TerrorProf martyred himself. The men who were following you are dead." "What men?" TerrorMom innocents. "Enough with the lies!" he shouts, shoving his gun barrel in her face. She looks him in the eye and calmly denies betraying him. He cocks the gun. She doesn't flinch. ImhoTerror looks at Kiefer, lying on the ground with a puddle of blood next to his mouth. "Prove it to me," ImhoTerror says, reversing the gun and holding it out to TerrorMom butt-first. "Kill him." Ah, so the gun is empty. He was threatening her with an empty gun, you see. Interesting. TerrorMom treats ImhoTerror to one of her creepy-ass smiles and slowly takes the empty gun. She strokes it erotically as she moves over next to Kiefer, who is dragged back up to a kneeling position. She holds the empty gun to his head while Kiefer waits, eyes closed, pretending he doesn't know the gun is empty. Then she whips the empty gun up to point it at ImhoTerror and dry-fires it. D'oh! She's been in this country five years and never bothered to catch In the Line of Fire on cable? Sloppy. "Just what I thought," ImhoTerror says smugly. Yeah, just what we all thought. Oh, he means TerrorMom falling for it. I didn't think that. Never mind. Kiefer and TerrorMom share a horrified look: TerrorMom because she fucked up, and Kiefer because he can't believe she fell for this. At least I assume that's what she's thinking, since he had to do the exact same thing to Special Agent Charlie Brown last season. People, listen: nobody who mistrusts you is going to give you a loaded gun for you to prove your loyalty with. It's just not going to happen.
ImhoTerror takes the empty gun and says, "Get him out of here." Kiefer is hauled away by two goons. ImhoTerror nods at another one, who drags TerrorMom through a doorway and fires two shots at where we assume she's standing, even though we don't see her die. This of course triggered all manner of debate on the boards as to whether TerrorMom is actually dead. There were good arguments on both sides -- you don't kill a major character off-screen like that, versus there's no reason for her not to have been killed -- but I think it just comes down to the writers not yet knowing themselves and wanting to keep their options open. Makes for compelling drama, let me tell you. Of course, he might have just shot her in the other arm to sort of even things out.