Episode Report Card M. Giant: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Jailbreak!
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 3 | Aired on 01.12.2009
Back at FBI-DC, Moss has taken over the interrogation of Tony, who still isn't cooperating. With his Bluetooth still in his ear, Moss lays out some photographs of the recent massacres in Sangala. "You really want this on your conscience?" Moss wonders. Tony deliberately looks up at the surveillance camera and says his conscience is clear, repeating his advice to have Taylor back down. "Because unless she does, planes will be falling from the sky. Then you'll have a whole new bunch of photos to look at. Only this time, they'll be of dead Americans." Outside in the observation room, Walker asks Moss back for a quick convo. Her point? Tony's not going to break, being a trained CTU agent and all. "We might need a more forceful approach," she suggests. Okay, now I'm depressed. I was liking her so much, but fucking Kiefer is having way too much success turning her into his Mini-Me. "You mean torture?" Moss asks, shocked. Walker starts babbling in Kieferese about "methods of coercion," because people on this show who argue for torture never want to call it torture, but Moss cuts her off: "The argument is crazy. It's illegal. And it's over." And it's convinced him that he wants Kiefer out of the building entirely. He sends Walker off to have Kiefer ejected from the premises this second for being a bad influence. Walker's disgusted by his high-handedness, but she obeys. So now I guess Moss will have to both question Tony and run the polygraph. Well, I'm sure he's up to it.
As Walker's on her way to start Kiefer's processing, Janis runs to catch up with her and report that she's on the trail of the leak. It seems someone in the office sneaked around the lockdown and hacked into the FAA database. Janis won't know who it is until she tries pulling a user ID from a terminal in the mainframe room. Walker sends her scampering off to look into it, asks a nearby Agent Teller for Kiefer's personal effects, and ducks into her office to dash off a blistering screed on one of those venting websites.
It's 10:37:54 as Janis hits the server room, all by her lonesome. Sounds safe, right? She pulls out one of those fold-up monitor/keyboard drawers we used to see back at CTU and signs in. Suddenly the name of the culprit pops up: "Sean Hillinger." Well, who the hell else would it be? It's not like possible suspects are thick on the ground around here. Just then, Sean himself pops up behind her, asking what she's doing. Frightened, Janis runs for the phone, but Sean hits the button and asks what's going on. Janis says she knows Sean's helping Tony, and his ID in the FAA database is proof. Sean admits accessing it, but explains that his wife is in the air right now and he was checking to see if her flight had been grounded. He shows Janis what he was doing, and the name "Christina Hillinger" pops up on a passenger manifest, helpfully highlighted and everything. "You scared the hell out of me!" Janis yells at him through gritted teeth. "Why wouldn't you just tell me that?" Sean says it was borderline illegal and he didn't want to get her in trouble. Which I think is probably the nicest thing he's ever said to anyone. As Janis points out, this isn't just between the two of them any more: "I told Renee I found a security leak," she complains, then goes all martyr on him and tells him not to worry about it. "Go back to your station, and I will clean up your mess." Sean goes. Under her breath, Janis says, "Idiot." And she even makes that funny.