Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Now That's Hospitality
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 9 | Aired on 02.19.2006
He turns to Novick and says, "He wants to assassinate Suvarov," as if Novick hadn't heard the entire conversation. Novick shakes his head and waves his hands, incredulous that Logan is even considering it. "We can't let that happen," he duhs. "It wouldn't just nullify the treaty, it would destroy our relationship with Moscow." Logan digests that (or, he digests it as well as one can digest anything when one does not actually possess intestines), and asks for Suvarov's route information from the Secret Service. He defensively says that he just wants the information ready when Bierko calls back. Novick heads off to get it for him. It's 3:24:13.
And we're back, at 3:28:24. Buchanan's up in his office that McGill evicted him from, and now McGill has the balls to say to him, "Someone's screwing with me, Bill. And I won't tolerate it." He shows Buchanan the printout of Audrey's wiped phone log. Seems like he could have saved a tree and handed over a blank sheet of paper to create the same effect. Buchanan thinks it's just a glitch, but McGill's off on a rant about how Audrey deliberately erased the log to hide the fact that she talked to Kiefer right before he escaped. "There's something going on between those two," McGill deduces. "What's their history?" Buchanan looks a little awkward for a moment before reminding McGill that "they worked together at DoD." But McGill won't let it lie, so Buchanan has to say that "it got personal later on." McGill is pissed that Buchanan didn't tell him this before, and Buchanan wonders what difference it makes. I wonder why Buchanan was so reluctant to mention it if he really thinks it's irrelevant. And then McGill, who's been completely correct (if not right, and I think you grok the distinction I'm making) about what's been going on, starts to suspect that Audrey knew Kiefer was alive all along. Buchanan doesn't think so; as you recall, he was there when Audrey found out. McGill speculates that it's an act, and Buchanan just tells him he's being paranoid. Which only pisses McGill off more, and now he's the one getting personal: "CTU has become way too porous, and that's your fault, Bill," he bitches. Which is completely unfair, because come on. "Become"?
Kiefer comes screaming around a corner in his carjacked CTUmobile at 3:30:12, getting yelled at amusingly by a homeless person wheeling his shopping cart along. Kiefer can't slow down, dude, he's seven minutes late! He's got to get to the phone booth before his lead decides to take his chances with a bunch of pissed-off terrorists! Kiefer hops out to stand next to the payphone, which starts ringing like a cell phone. But that's because it's not the payphone that's ringing, but a cell phone next to the payphone -- complete with earpiece attachment -- that Nathanson left there for Kiefer. They're lucky the homeless guy didn't find it. As Kiefer's fiddling around with the equipment, we see Nathanson observing him from a window above, unseen behind metal louvers and holding his chunky, foreign-looking handgun. Kiefer finally manages to get the phone answered, and asks Nathanson where he is. But first, Nathanson needs Kiefer to jump through some hoops to make sure he wasn't followed. As Kiefer makes his way to a nearby alley specified by Nathanson, they have a little conversation about what Nathanson did. Nathanson disagrees with being called a traitor. Kiefer says he can't justify the killing of Palmer. Nathanson feels bad about that: "We admired Palmer, but we had other priorities." He starts in on his crypto-pseudo-neocon blather, but Kiefer isn't impressed. "It's still treason," he says. "No," Nathanson says, "it's a realpolitik." Nathanson's tone, as always, sounds like he's doing a voice-over for a movie trailer. See, this is what happens when creepy lightweights try mucking around in foreign policy. Keep that in mind in case the Cato Institute ever hires an army, or if a Presidential candidate has a bunch of buddies at the Project for the New American Century. Kiefer's now near an open door to a low building, which Nathanson instructs him to enter. But first, Kiefer wants to check out why he hears the sound of a helicopter really close by. He vaults up a conveniently-placed outdoor staircase that takes him all the way to the building's roof, where he spots the chopper touching down and disgorging a couple of guys with assault rifles before it takes off again. Staying low and out of sight, Kiefer tells Nathanson that the bad guys have arrived, and after determining that Nathanson has a weapon, tells him to get to the roof -- you know, where the bad guys are -- and stay on the line. "All right," Nathanson says pleasantly, and makes a break for it.