Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Bizarre Love Triangle
By M. Giant | Season 4 | Episode 7 | Aired on 01.30.2005
1:29:26. Driscoll's headed for the CTU clinic when Curtis catches up to give her the news that Skip has taken 87 power plants offline. Well, that's impressive. And kind of disappointing. How scary can a terror threat be if Lispy Skip can all but pull the plug on it in a half hour? "What about the other 17?" Driscoll immediately asks, demonstrating that sometimes lightning-fast math skills are all you need to become head of CTU. Curtis says the terrorists are using the MacGuffin to prevent a shutdown, because apparently it can do that too. This thing sounds like it belongs on Charmed rather than 24. Curtis assures Driscoll that they're working on it. As they reach the door to the clinic, Curtis promises to keep her posted and heads back to work.
Driscoll goes into the concrete-and-glass room where her schizophrenic daughter is being kept. I guess DrisKid's not one of the wall-bouncing variety. Or she is, and I'm very sad to have missed it. At the moment, she's having a mild freak-out over the unfamiliar doctors working on her. Mentally ill does not equal dumb. In this case, as we'll soon see. However, it does equal clingy. Driscoll asks her to cooperate with the doctors, and DrisKid agrees. Driscoll leaves as a nurse gives DrisKid some meds.
Curtis leads DaD back to holding at 1:31:05, explaining that DiCK watched two-and-a-half hours of Laser Floyd. Shit, man. That's reaching back into the Syd Barrett days. Sadly, it hasn't gotten them anywhere. "You tortured my son for almost three hours and [it] ended up yielding nothing?" DaD snaps. "You gave the order, sir," Curtis reminds him. The last hour of it, yes. But DaD doesn't argue the point.
In the holding room, DiCK is just getting his headphones removed as DaD asks the tech for a moment alone with him. DaD tries to explain to his son, but DiCK's all about DiCK: "I hate you. I never want to see you again." DiCK's now free to stagger out, and he does. DaD looks disappointed that all this effort and drama led to a dead end. Him and me both.
Meanwhile, his good child, the one who would spill everything she knew after only an hour or so of torture, is still in the back of the CTU-mobile with Kiefer. Her cell phone rings. Looks like Grayadder is changing tactics, switching to sucking up rather than trying to draw a nice, wide piss-circle around her. He's still at CTU, by the way. Kiefer looks uncomfortable at having to sit there and listen to DoDder's end of the conversation. As do all of us. Grayadder says, "Before you make any big decisions -- decisions that you're entitled to make -- let some time go by. Is that fair of me to ask?" Fair or not, seems like she's made her decision. But like a big, wussy wimp, she says, "Yeah, that's fair." Kiefer looks at her sharply. Okay, DoDder? Grayadder? Listen up, both of you. Remember at the end of Honeymoon in Vegas (spoiler alert!), when rich, powerful James Caan realizes he's got no chance with Sarah Jessica Parker because dopey Nicolas Cage jumped out of an airplane? What Kiefer did was so much better than jumping out of an airplane. And it was less than two hours ago! Seriously. Get some perspective. They exchange "See you later"s and hang up. Kiefer asks the doomed driver how far they are from their destination. They have a few miles to go. DoDder looks out the window on her side with a hint of a smile, thinking, Two boys like me! Two words for you, Kiefer. Kick. Curb.