Episode Report Card M. Giant: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Das Brute
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 22 | Aired on 05.14.2006
At 4:21:47, Henderson is sitting and waiting in a regular old chair. He's handcuffed, but I don't see any torture equipment or specialists in the room. Perhaps CTU has finally gotten around to installing it so it drops down from the ceiling. Enter Kiefer. There is staring. Kiefer slowly walks around Henderson and stands right behind him, trying to intimidate him. Which works as well as it always does with Henderson. Or maybe Kiefer just wants to watch the wheels in Henderson's head turning. They turn quickly, and churn out this analysis: "Since you're clearly no longer a fugitive," Henderson says, "I assume they retrieved that recording." I'm interested to see how Kiefer twists Henderson's imperfect knowledge against him. "Someone got to it and erased it," Kiefer says. Okay, so much for that. Circling around to face Henderson, he tells his old mentor that Bierko is on the loose and is planning another attack. Henderson isn't surprised: "You bruised the man's ego when you stopped his first attempt." Kiefer realizes that Henderson knows all about Bierko, having studied him before trying to use him (I'd say he got a C at best in the subject), and asks what kind of thing Bierko has in mind. Henderson wants to know what's in it for Henderson, and Kiefer says Henderson's patriotism should be enough. Henderson smiles thinly as he asks Kiefer if he's supposed to offer Henderson a deal. Kiefer only responds by biting his lip. Now I know why we haven't seen him on Celebrity Poker Showdown. Kiefer admits he's not happy about negotiating with Henderson. "You were responsible for the deaths of people I care about." So Henderson says he's sorry about Palmer (no mention of Michelle or Tony, the latter of whom he personally dispatched) and goes off on a little tangent about the destiny of the country, and the way the world really works, and the politics of survival, and Kiefer finally becomes my hero by boredly snapping, "Do you want immunity or not?" Henderson says that the recording was his immunity, and that when he walks out, he's a dead man, at the hands of "the same people who made Walt Cummings's death look like a suicide. Come on, Jack, you can't really believe that Charles Logan masterminded all this by himself." Kiefer demands the names, but all Henderson gives up is some X-Filesmumbo-jumbo: "You can't touch them, but they can touch you." Bottom line: Henderson will help nab Bierko in exchange for Kiefer's help in disappearing. He says he'll avoid Kiefer's mistake by leaving the country and taking his wife with him. Kiefer doesn't see why Henderson needs his help for that, but Henderson explains that all of his contacts are still in Logan's pocket. "I need somebody I can trust to cover our tracks. I need somebody who'll do a better job of it than those incompetents who failed to cover yours." Rather than pointing out how unwise it is to dis Kiefer's friends who were killed by Henderson that day, Kiefer angrily asks why Henderson thinks Kiefer will let him live. Henderson's a long time viewer (and recap-reader), because he says, "You're going to give me your word. And I know what your word is worth to you. So it's all I need." Kiefer makes a face like, Dammit! He's got me! He says that if he gets "anything less than Bierko's head on a plate," the deal is off. Henderson agrees, and starts talking. It's 4:25:13.
4:29:34. Kiefer comes back out onto the floor and hands Chloe a list of fourteen names, courtesy of Henderson. He tells her to move to the Situation Room and do a phone check on all of them. He then heads into the Situation Room himself and tells Hayes and Buchanan about Henderson's fourteen names. They talk about having Tactical teams ready. There's a little moment where Buchanan asks Hayes if it's okay that he put Curtis in charge of those teams, and Hayes says, "I trust your judgment, Bill," as she gratuitously squeezes his arm. Or should I say, squeezes? Kiefer says that Henderson will be joining them shortly. Then he looks out of the glass wall of the Situation Room and sees Audrey coming out onto the floor, wearing an entirely new outfit. She's holding her wounded arm through the sleeve of her frilly, fugly white blouse. Kiefer heads out to meet her, and we see that although her hair has been wrecked twice today, she only had it in her to fix it once. Kiefer confirms that what she heard about the destruction of the recording is true, and adds that they have a bigger problem. Audrey's also heard about Bierko, which is why she came back out on the floor to help. Well, they're going to need all the speaking parts they can get in the next couple of episodes. She happens to look over and see Henderson being led out of Holding, and asks why. "We're using him to help us find Bierko," Kiefer evasives, but quickly admits that "Karen made a deal." Way to own up to it, Kiefer. Audrey's not any happier about this than Kiefer was, but now he takes the "pro" position to explain to Audrey that they need Henderson's help to find Bierko before the next attack. Buchanan calls him into the Situation Room, and Kiefer excuses himself with an apology to Audrey. She lets him go. I watch her for signs that she's going to pull a Mrs. Gael, but I think that Henderson's safe for the moment.