Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT McKilled
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 13 | Aired on 03.12.2006
Kiefer seals himself back in his homemade airlock and taps his comm. They hear it in the Situation Room, and as Chloe does whatever she does on the computer to replace the gas in Kiefer's room with clean air, everyone speculates as to what it means that Kiefer's back so quickly. After twenty seconds or so, Audrey tells Kiefer that the room's clear and he can breathe. He gasps for breath at 7:31:52, and says he saw the computer controlling the ventilation system; It's the same computer that Fucked-up Accent Guy was mucking around with last hour, right before he released the gas. He wasn't afraid to give CTU a lot of credit, was he? Kiefer's problem is that he couldn't get to the computer due to the security grate behind the wall. "Trust me, it's there," he tells a skeptical Chloe. She digs a little deeper into the system and finds that it's an upgrade from two years ago that was improperly filed, which is why it didn't show up. And it's going to be the same deal with all the other vents into the room. Isn't it amazing that she can tell all this from a laptop? Aren't you glad she didn't space out and bring an Etch-a-Sketch in there instead? Kiefer brings up the novel concept of the ventilation room's actual door, and asks where it leads. Chloe says it leads to a corridor above Holding Room Four, which is where McGill is. Kiefer asks, "Are there any other vented rooms we can get him to?" Chloe says there's nothing. Kiefer rolls his eyes, feeling like shit about what he's going to have to do. "Patch me through to him," he finally says. Chloe dials as Audrey steps away from the computer, already realizing that McGill's day is about to get even worse.
The phone in Holding Room Four rings. Why is there a phone in there all of a sudden? Well, I'm going to wank that it's because the Redshirt let them into the Observation room. The point is that there is one, and McGill answers it. Kiefer explains the situation: he needs McGill to shut down the offending computer program, because he's the only person close enough. "How we gonna do this, Jack?" McGill wonders, looking a little confused. Kiefer admits that he would do it himself if he were close enough, but he's not. "And I'm going to have to ask you to do it without any protection." Kiefer has even worse news: once McGill opens the door, the holding room will become contaminated and they won't have a safe place to send him. "We can't airlock you," he explains. McGill softly says, "There are two of us in here, Jack." The Redshirt introduces himself to the speakerphone as "Harry Swinton," like Kiefer cares. Harry asks if they're both going to die when McGill does his thing. "I'm so sorry," is all Kiefer can say. McGill tells Harry that they don't have a choice, and wanders over to the other side of the room while Harry argues with Kiefer for a minute. Shouldn't this kind of conversation be Buchanan's job? Not just because he's nominally running the place, but also because, unlike Kiefer, he actually works there? McGill puts Kiefer on hold and tells Harry, "We have to do this, Harry. We're going to die anyway. If we don't, so will everyone in CTU." Even Harry can't argue with that. McGill takes Kiefer off hold and gets more instructions from him and Chloe. "Lynn, we don't have a lot of time," Kiefer says. "I'll do it," McGill announces. It's 7:34:44.