Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | 1 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT Time for Plan E
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 20 | Aired on 04.27.2009
3:16:22. Aaron escorts a clearly upset Olivia to the Oval Office and ushers her inside to join Taylor and Tim. Olivia's already heard that the canister's out, and when she asks what's being done to get it back, Taylor excuses Tim from the room. Taylors only. Taylor tells Olivia to have the Attorney General draft a witness protection agreement for Jonas Hodges. Olivia is horrified at the idea, and offers an alternative: "Designate him an enemy combatant then treat him like one," she snarls. Taylor says she doesn't play that way, and besides, Hodges will "be under federal supervision for the rest of his life." "Oh, yeah, on a hundred-acre ranch in Colorado," Olivia says bitterly. Why Colorado? Is the Logan ranch not available? "This man murdered your son!" she reminds Taylor. "My brother. Not to mention hundreds of other innocent civilians." Taylor doesn't want to discuss this, but Olivia doesn't care. "What would Dad say?" she demands. Knowing Henry, probably "Ohh, oww, [gasp] owwww [coma]." Taylor is tearing up as she tells Olivia to knock it off. "Do you think that this is easy for me? You think it doesn't tear me apart? I'm Roger's mother. But I am also the president of the United States, and I placed my hand on a Bible and swore to protect and defend the Constitution." Didn't stop some other people. Taylor tells her daughter to start acting like a Chief of Staff already. I have an urgent question: is it too late to bring back Ethan? Taylor stands and says that Hodges is at the FBI and Kiefer's on his way there too. "I need an agreement drafted. Do that, please." Uh-oh, she forgot to tell Olivia not to do it with her fingers crossed.
In the motel room, Galvez is still dead on the bathroom floor as the Faux-yer is on the phone to The Group at 3:19:14. She's got a web-enabled conference call going, with her laptop on the table right next to the canister. Don't tell me she wasn't tempted to send out a gloating Tweet about that: "Faux-yer Hey, @j_bauer, guess what I'm looking at! HA-hah!" She explains the plan to The Group: "An attack today, this morning, during rush hour, using the bioweapon that Tony Almeida retrieved from Starkwood." Sounds simple enough. She has them open a data file she sent along with the call, and up pops the expired visa of one Jibraan Al-Zarian, who they'll blame and leave dead at the scene. "The evidence trail implicating him will include fabricated e-mails, phone records, and a large wire transfer to his account, via our favorite Yemeni bank." Well that certainly sounds easy to pull together in a matter of hours. One of the people on the call, identifiable on the Faux-yer's monitor screen only as a silhouette and the number 3, has some skeptical questions, as do some others. Will Patton (a.k.a. Alan Wilson) is also on the call, but he's just lurking for now. While other members voice their objections, she types a private IM to Wilson: "Weigh in." The other members continue to debate, while the real discussion is happening in a secret chat window. Wilson responds that it's risky, but she types back, "Almeida delivered for us. Do it for me." So Wilson cuts in. He lies, "I've listened to your comments," and echoes what Tony said earlier about Hodges. "In his lunacy, he did us a favor...he pushed this country to the brink. You don't get many gifts like that. I say we take it." Is it a coincidence that Wilson kind of talks like a cult leader? The Faux-yer calls for a vote, and people click on their computers. Tony comes out of the shower -- presumably having had to step over Galvez on his way out -- and she tells him to check out the results. It's a unanimous yes, because the Faux-yer's personal appeal and Wilson's speech were all it took to win everyone over. What kind of democracy are we looking at here? "We're a go," she smiles up at Tony, and they make out. It's 3:22:32.