Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Swap Meet
By M. Giant | Season 6 | Episode 19 | Aired on 04.22.2007
12:28:14. Kiefer pulls off the highway at the Calderone hotel, only to find out that in his two-year absence, it's been torn down to make way for a spiffy new nightclub with a bustling, brightly-lit parking lot. Not really, but he had no way of knowing that. Luckily for him, it's still there. It's a low, dark, dilapidated building, and he parks his truck around the side, kind of out of sight. He awkwardly slings his new man-purse over his shoulder and heads into the old office, finding the door conveniently ajar. He shines his flashlight around inside.
Doyle gets a call from Nadia, saying that they found Kiefer's last call to Cheng. It was encrypted, so she doesn't yet know what they said, but they were able to confirm from the location of the call that Doyle was right about the route Kiefer's taking. Doyle asks what's up ahead, and Nadia tells him that there isn't a whole lot for another nine miles. Doyle tells her to keep working on decoding the call. Probably a good idea, since Kiefer seems to be widening his lead.
As Nadia hangs up at 12:30:12, Buchanan comes up to ask for an update, but they don't get very far into their conversation before Buchanan's cell phone rings. It's his wife, asking if he has a minute to talk. He doesn't, so she asks him to call back when he has a chance. She doesn't mention that it's just a small matter of this bus she needs to throw him under. "Is everything all right?" Buchanan asks. "Just do what you have to do and call me when you can, okay?" Karen says. Which means no, he's fucked, and with his wife's dick. Still, after he hangs up, Buchanan's able to focus on Nadia as she confirms for him that Doyle's on the right track.
Karen goes to talk to her brand-new confidant, Tom, in his office. I guess you can't be picky about whom you open up to in a White House where only five people ever get any lines. Closing the door, she reminds him about the information he was threatening to use earlier. Tom impatiently says, yeah, he feels bad about that and all, but why drag up ancient, twelve-hour-old history? Karen says that's not it; Chad Lowe has already let that particular cat out of the bag to the Justice Department, and Hock wants to protect Wayne. Tom gets it, realizing that either Karen or Bill is going to have to take the blame for releasing Fayed. Karen says it's worse than that; lives are going to be ruined. Tom's not too sympathetic: "Not lives, careers. Rather, one career. And it can't be yours." Tom doesn't sugarcoat things, readily agreeing that Buchanan's done at CTU. Karen says that if that's the case, she'll resign too. Great, then neither of them will have benefits. And they're not exactly spring chickens. "Haven't you already resigned once today?" scoff Tom and millions of viewers. Karen wonders how she can screw over her husband like this. Tom just tells her to "remind him that the man he personally let out of jail killed over 13,000 people today." Karen says that's not Buchanan's fault, but Tom insists that the only way for Karen to survive is to distance herself from her husband. Would it be too literal-minded of me to point out that there's already considerable distance between them? Like about a continent's worth?