Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Duress Code: Casual
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 4 | Aired on 01.15.2006
Hey, I found him! He walks into some outbuilding or hangar or warehouse or something, which, given how long it took him to get there, is probably on the airport grounds. Or, given what show we're talking about, it could also be in San Diego. Yellow Tie finds himself looking down the barrel of a gun held by a bearded Russian in a leather jacket. Yellow Tie calmly pushes the gun away, and explains that his tardiness is due to "a problem with Chevensky." He shows Leather Jacket the card key, and Leather Jacket turns and leads him deeper into the building at 10:57:15. They quickly reach a large, rough hole in the concrete floor about ten feet deep. Two guys are standing at the bottom of the hole looking up at them, flanking a large metal cube about five feet on a side. The top of the cube is still covered with the powdered concrete that landed on it when the floor was broken through, so we can probably conclude that the breach occurred recently. Yellow Tie and Leather Jacket climb down the ladder into the hole, and it's clear that they're in some kind of underground vault. Yellow Tie sticks his key card into a reader on the side of the cube, and the beeping and clicking that follows is exactly what they expected. All four men don gas masks, and then lift the lid off the giant container and put it aside. Inside are twenty large Thermoses, shrouded in cryogenic mist and each with a biohazard symbol stamped on its cap. Leather Jacket runs some kind of reader device over the Thermoses and gives the all-clear in Russian. All the men remove their gas masks, and Yellow Tie pulls out his cell phone. Of course he has no problem getting a signal in an underground concrete vault. To be fair, the thing does have an antenna the size of my forearm. The Man answers, asking, "Do you have the merchandise?" Yellow Tie confirms it. "Transportation's been arranged," The Man says. "Call me when you're out." Leather Jacket is already lifting one of the Thermoses of Death out of the hole.
Split-screen time. Kiefer leaves the airport, flanked by plainclothes CTU agents. Derek takes his second helicopter ride of the morning, but this time with his mom in the back of a CTU helicopter. Thermoses of Death get transferred out of the vault. Logan enjoys his moment, a ritual which appears to entail standing around and looking blank. No wonder he didn't have time to talk to FLOTUS right then; he had some very important staring to do. The First Lady just looks worried.
In what would be a choppy edit if it occurred during a normal scene instead of in a transition out of split-screen, FLOTUS drinks a glass of water in her suite, desultorily watching the news coverage of the treaty signing that just occurred. When she hears the door open, she asks, "Evelyn, did you get a chance to speak to my husband?" The only answer is a chloroformed rag being pressed over her face by a gloved hand. Yeah! Go Evelyn! Oh, wait, it's Walt. Damn. Once FLOTUS's struggling ceases and she goes limp, Walt sticks the rag in his pants pocket, condemning an unsuspecting barista at his local coffee house to sudden unconsciousness when he hands over a fiver for his latte the next morning. Walt then digs the transcript out of the front of FLOTUS's shirt, and also doesn't spill any boob. What a gentleman. It's 11:00:00.