Episode Report Card M. Giant: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Chip And Dip
By M. Giant | Season 6 | Episode 22 | Aired on 05.13.2007
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close. Some of Cheng's men get away from CTU with Josh, but then Kiefer leads a hostage revolt that takes out the rest of the bad guys with an assist from the returning-just-in-time Doyle. That frees them up to go after Cheng. Before they catch up, Josh talks on Cheng's phone to his grandfather, who tells him he plans to take him to China for a fresh start. But then Kiefer and the cavalry arrive, and the chasing and shooting are on. Forced to choose between stopping Cheng and saving Josh, Kiefer saves the kid and lets Cheng get away. Nadia no sooner regains control of CTU than she has to submit to an investigation of the security breach by some pukes from Division, but Morris gives her a nice pep talk. Better move faster, Doyle. Kiefer's dad is pissed when Cheng tells him that Josh is back in CTU custody, and calls off the deal to fix the circuit board. That's no help to the folks from the White House, though. Not only does Lisa foul up her espionage mission to plant information with her Russian spy boyfriend, but then, when Tom convinces the Boyfriend to pass on the bad intel anyway, it still doesn't fool President Suvarov. The Russian prez gives the Veep a suspiciously convenient two-hour deadline to get the component back. As the Veep says, "We're about to go to war over a piece of circuitry." But then potential deliverance arrives in an unlikely form: Kiefer's dad offers to hand over the circuit board to the U.S. government in exchange for immunity -- and, of course, Josh. In less time than it takes for the Veep to decide to give in, Doyle snakes Josh right out from under Kiefer and spirits him away in a CTU helicopter. We've got two hours, like the man said, and they're both happening next week. Want more? The full recap starts right below!Things are relatively calm on the CTU floor, where Zhao still has the hostages gathered. Milo is still dead. Morris suddenly gets the idea to cover Milo's face with a jacket. He looks a bit embarrassed that the writer of the previous episode never thought to have him do that. In response to some invisible, unheard, and unknown cue, Zhou reports to Cheng over his earpiece that he's sending Josh through to him now. Marilyn, predictably, freaks the fuck out. She's screaming, Josh is being dragged away, and Kiefer is yelling Marilyn's name to try to chill her out. All that happens is that he gets rifle-clubbed to the ground for his trouble. Nadia steps up in defense of Marilyn, and gets decked herself. Marilyn's about to take a rifle butt to the face herself, until Kiefer offers to help calm Marilyn down. Zhou points his gun at Kiefer and tells him to do it, for which Kiefer thanks him. He's a lot more polite when other people have all the guns. Zhou then announces to the group that they're all going to be moved to another room, after which he and his men leave. He promises that nobody will be hurt if they obey. These guys sure got a lot more non-violent after they killed Milo just for supposedly being in charge.
Meanwhile, some of Zhao's men are hustling Josh back through the CTU building to their entry point from the sewer. Moments later, he's being led through the sewers to Cheng's hideout. I notice that although Josh had his CTU visitor's badge hanging from a string around his neck during the whole last hour, he now has it clipped to the front of his sweater instead. So whatever else happens, at least he'll have his credentials.
Zhou sends the first of two groups of CTU hostages down the hallway to the holding rooms. Nobody we know is in this group. While still holding on to Marilyn, Kiefer tells her to make sure she's at the front of their group. At first I think this is so he can be as far away from her as possible, but it will soon turn out that he's got her safety in mind. When Zhou orders the second group to their feet, Kiefer orders Marilyn on ahead. Then he has a whispered conversation with Nadia to the effect that if they let the commandos lock them up, they'll never get the component. Is she, as they say, "in"? He warns her that they might not all survive what he's got planned, and she says she understands. The group starts moving, with Kiefer and Nadia near the back. As they approach the hallway, Kiefer tells her to take out the first guy on the left as soon as Kiefer makes his move. This is convenient, because Nadia is walking at Kiefer's left, and having to lunge in front of him might have proved awkward at a critical moment. Even now, Chloe's nosiness is irrepressible, as she catches up to them and whispers, "What are you guys talking about?" Kiefer tells her to keep going. This is no girls allowed, except of course for the acting boss. Just to drive that home, he adds, "Morris, stay alert," which is the first thing he's said to Chloe's ex since the whole "I armed the nukes" debacle and Kiefer's pissy reaction thereto. Maybe they should talk things out first?