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
When Ethan returns to the Oval Office, Taylor tells him that according to the military commanders, if they did want to meet Dubaku's demands, they would have to give the order by 1:00 PM. "That's not much time," Ethan sighs. And that's how you get to be a senior White House official. Since they can't count on Tony giving up the goods in time, Taylor sums up her choice: "Unless I order our forces to stand down, I'll be condemning innocent Americans to death. And if we capitulate, thousands of Sangalans will be slaughtered." Well, on the bright side, at least now we know that the proper term is "Sangalans" and not "Sangwegians" or something. Ethan gently suggests considering going with the option that will save Americans. But Taylor isn't ready to talk about it until they've been over all the options. "Tell the FBI to keep working on Almeida," she orders. Which is a good idea, because I think they were just about to let him go with a warning.
Chloe has the secure line set up for Buchanan, and a moment later, Kiefer answers his call back with an angry, "Bill, stop screwing around and tell me what the hell is going on." Now, Kiefer, is that any way to talk to the guy who you last saw plucking you off an exploding oil rig? Buchanan says that Tony isn't a terrorist; he's working deep cover with Buchanan himself. Kiefer says this "cover" is playing pretty fast and loose with public safety, what with that JFK stunt earlier. I have to agree -- anything that's not "by the book" enough for Kiefer would have to be pretty far outside standard procedure. Not to mention that things could have ended very differently at JFK had that Global Air/Skies pilot had slightly slower reflexes. Buchanan says there's more to it than that, and does his best not to sound like a conspiracy nut when he tells Kiefer, "Our government is corrupted." Since that doesn't work, he elaborates, "There are people on the inside who are actively aiding Dubaku and the Juma regime." Well, what else is new? Buchanan continues, "Tony was supposed to be near the CIP module the whole time. With him in custody, we've lost our ability to control it and to attack this conspiracy." Oh, and there was also the part where Tony just handed the module over to some other dude before he even knew anyone was on their way to arrest him, but maybe Emerson's secretly on Buchanan's team as well. It might be fun if this season we had to guess which of the bad guys were actually good, instead of the other way around like usual.