Episode Report Card Gustave: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT If These Perforated Aluminum Wall Dividers Could Talk...
By Gustave | Season 2 | Episode 14 | Aired on 02.24.2003
NSA. PoorMan'sHumeCronyn and Palmer are reacting to the latest bombshell that Yulin dropped -- that Lady Mac was involved with his conspiracy and, by extension, the B-O-M-B. PMHC is shocked. Or at least he pretends to be shocked. After all, he did learn from Rolaide that Lady Mac and Yulin were in contact. Lady Mac has been summoned. Palmer enters the conference room where she is waiting. Not showing his hand right away, he tells Lady Mac what Yulin told him about the B-O-M-B and how Colonel Sanders's men lost track of it, and then watches her pretend to be shocked by the news. "Am I telling you something you already know?" asks Palmer. Cut to a close-up of Lady Mac's face framed by her immaculately manicured fingertips. It's like she's auditioning for the role of Annie Sullivan in the play The Miracle Worker and this is the headshot she sent to the casting director. Lady Mac gets excited and demands to know what Palmer has heard, swearing all the while that she's being framed or played. Palmer tells her to sit back down in her fatigue-green molded polyurethane Eames chair and start telling the truth. "As the President of the United States, I order you…no, as someone who you claim you love, I'm asking you to help me here," says Palmer. Oh, nice touch with that whole "someone you claim you love" thing, Palmer. It was cheesy, but good cheesy…like a wheel of Epoisses de Bourgogne. Finally, Lady Mac comes clean. Or at least as "clean" as she's going to come until the next plot twist. Yulin called her a few months ago and tried to recruit her for his conspiracy. Oh, that sounds suave. "Hey, Lady Mac? Wanna join our conspiracy to bring down your husband? You don't? Oh, well, we understand. Hey, don't tell anyone, okay?" Yulin wanted to know Palmer's weaknesses and which of his staff members Yulin could "turn." But Lady Mac only gave Yulin the information he wanted in order to gain his confidence. She swears it was all part of her multi-point plan to save Palmer and defeat the enemies in league against him. She begs for "thirty minutes" to prove to him that she's telling the truth.
Back at Norton Airfield, Cate speaks to Justin Al-Guarini; she manages to ascertain that he is a suicide bomber for hire who only participated in the plot to earn money for his family. Um, whatever. Kiefer tries to get Cate to ask him where the second B-O-M-B is, but Cate speaks a different dialect than Justin Al-Guarini, so he doesn't understand her question. Finally, the more qualified but less camera-friendly translator arrives. Cate apologizes for not being more of a help. Kiefer assures her that she's been a big help. It's all about preserving Cate's self-esteem today, isn't it? HotAsianFromAngel enters and escorts Cate back to her safe area yet again. The official translator asks Justin Al-Guarini about the second B-O-M-B. Justin doesn't know anything about it. Kiefer approaches him and gives him a good long velvety penetrating stare. Meanwhile, outside the hangar, Cate is about to get into the HAFA-mobile when she notices a group of people waiting in line to enter another building. When she asks HAFA about it, he explains that they're all being checked because of the airport lockdown. At the end of the line is a familiar-looking woman with a mushroom-cap-shaped puff of chestnut hair. It's Marie! Cate calls out to HAFA, who is still within earshot, and tells him that she's found her sister. He grabs a couple of men, and they go over and arrest her. Oh, wait! That didn't happen at all. What really happens is that millions of viewers across Americas scream into their television sets for Cate to call for help, but she isn't listening. Instead she stands there for fourteen minutes like a deer in headlights and then decides to start walking slowly over towards her sister. The time is 09:11:25 PM.