Episode Report Card M. Giant: A | 432 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Jailbreak!
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 3 | Aired on 2009.01.12
At 10:21:52, Henry and his Secret Service agent return to the White House, where Ethan intercepts them in the hallway. After dismissing Agent Getsch to a respectful distance with a look, Ethan begins smoothly handling Henry. "The president is in an impossible situation right now," he gently explains. "She needs your support. But you can't give it to her if you keep going off on these paranoid fantasies about Roger." See what I mean about that high-level diplomacy? He tells Henry for the umpteenth time that Roger committed suicide, but Henry still isn't believing it. "He wasn't depressed," Henry insists. "He had no reason." Ethan gently tells Ethan that Roger might have had a reason after all, that Henry just didn't know about. It seems that Roger was facing an SEC investigation for insider trading, using information he'd gotten through his White House access. Henry still has his doubts, so Ethan hands over the case file and explains that it was kept secret as a favor to the president. "My wife knew about this and she didn't tell me?" Henry asks, looking crushed. Ethan apologizes for keeping it from him, and is called away before saying much beyond the fact that Taylor doesn't know Henry's being brought in the loop now, and he'd like to keep it that way. Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when the First Son dies under questionable circumstances as a result of an imminent screwing by a government agency. After Ethan heads off to his meeting at 10:24:04, Getsch approaches Henry and apologizes. "I felt I had to tell him, sir." Henry doesn't respond other than to give his agent a pained look and start looking through the file. So just to recap, Henry didn't know, but his wife knew, and now Henry does know, but Taylor doesn't know he knows. This subplot had better turn out to be important.
When Ethan returns to the Oval Office, Taylor tells him that according to the military commanders, if they did want to meet Dubaku's demands, they would have to give the order by 1:00 PM. "That's not much time," Ethan sighs. And that's how you get to be a senior White House official. Since they can't count on Tony giving up the goods in time, Taylor sums up her choice: "Unless I order our forces to stand down, I'll be condemning innocent Americans to death. And if we capitulate, thousands of Sangalans will be slaughtered." Well, on the bright side, at least now we know that the proper term is "Sangalans" and not "Sangwegians" or something. Ethan gently suggests considering going with the option that will save Americans. But Taylor isn't ready to talk about it until they've been over all the options. "Tell the FBI to keep working on Almeida," she orders. Which is a good idea, because I think they were just about to let him go with a warning.