Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Dead Kiefer Walking
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 16 | Aired on 03.30.2009
Inside the lab, Hodges stresses at his tech, "Wolves are at the door, Tommy. How much longer?" Tom doesn't have good news: it's going to be another hour. Hodges says the FBI is on their way, and he's getting visibly worried. Considering how many major threats this season has cycled through already, he's right to be.
At 11:52:24, three FBI helicopters are two minutes out. From the back of one of them, Moss speaks into his headset to Tony, who's gotten himself a radio as requested. Tony describes the scene on the ground, and Moss tells him to stay put. Moss calls back to base, saying they've got a confirmed target and are moving in. Walker, apparently coordinating the raid from FBI-DC, confirms that they're monitoring. They've got a bunch of live feeds up so they can watch, which right there is the first sign that this shit's about to go pear-shaped. Live feeds are the new parking garage.
Inside the helicopter, Peter Onorati reports that Starkwood's air traffic control tower is hailing them. Starkwood has an air traffic control tower? Moss takes the call, identifies himself, and says they have an executive order from the president to search one of their buildings. The air traffic guy says they'll need authorization, but Moss says the digital copy of the order they've already sent is all the authorization they'll need. "Make no attempt to interfere or you will be arrested. Do you understand?" He has to repeat it before the guy says he understands. Moss gives the order to go in.
The three helicopters take approximately forever to hover in over the compound, giving anyone at Starkwood plenty of time to aim a surface-to-air missile at them, were they so inclined. But just to give them more time, they hover over the landing spot for a while, one of them disgorging agents via droplines. Just to show off, as far as I can tell, because the other two land so people can step out onto the ground like normal people. Finally all three choppers are safely down, and Tony and Seaton run out to meet them. Moss offers the still-bleeding Tony a medic (which he declines) and tells Seaton to stay behind them. The soldiers move in, and there's a brief standoff with the two Starkwood guards outside the warehouse door before Moss overpowers them with the might of his shouting. And that of his legal authority and several dozen heavily armed agents. The Starkwood guys drop their weapons and get down, allowing themselves to be cuffed and the entrance door to be blown open. By now Kiefer has joined the group watching the raid on the video feeds back at FBI. But when Moss and his men enter the building, there's nothing there: only an empty warehouse, and the other half of Moss's team coming in at the other end. This does absolutely nothing to change my opinion about Starkwood's paranoia. If they've got this much security around an empty building, how heavily do they guard the buildings that actually have shit in them? Moss angrily asks Seaton where the weapons are. Seaton smugly claims not to know. "Almeida was threatening to kill me. I told him what he wanted to hear." Tony grabs Seaton by the lapels and repeats Moss's demand. Moss tells Tony to back off and tells his men to cuff Seaton. As he pulls Tony aside, Tony tells Moss, "He's lying, Larry. He played me." "Yeah, I know, looks that way," Moss agrees. Because he's suddenly Mr. Trusting.