Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Gassing The Gap
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 8 | Aired on 02.12.2006
At 2:09:16, Kiefer drives what I assume is the Rosslermobile -- a silver Lexus sedan, the ideal vehicle for squiring your illegal fifteen-year-old sex slave around town -- into a parking garage. In a black CTUmobile some distance behind him, Curtis parks by the curb and reports as much to CTU. Mere seconds later, the promised blue van follows Kiefer into the ramp. Curtis reads off the van's license plates into his comm unit. Back at the CTU Situation Room, Edgar -- who, along with Buchanan, McGill, Audrey, and Chloe, will be monitoring live audio of the proceedings in the field for pretty much the rest of the episode -- quickly uses his laptop to ascertain that the van is running with stolen plates as it heads up the ramp to meet Kiefer. It pulls in near the Rosslermobile, and two guys get out. "Showtime," Kiefer whispers for the folks at CTU, and gets out to meet his contacts.
He puts on a show of acting nervous and worried that there are two guys there instead of one, as Erwich specified a few minutes ago. "Relax," says Henchman #1. "We've got your money." Kiefer wants to see it, and after showing them the chip, he gets a look into a pouch full of cash. Henchman #1's voice is clearly heard in the CTU Situation Room at 2:11:02, saying, "Erwich says you have to install it." Kiefer says he needs the remote trigger, and the guys open up the van's back door to give him access to the handheld device. Kiefer "nervously" approaches the vehicle, squats down on the concrete next to the back bumper, and goes to work on a little remote unit, looking up "nervously" every few seconds at the terrorists standing over him. Chloe "tech supports" him through the procedure of replacing the chip, which, aside from toggling one jumper switch, really isn't anything Kiefer couldn't have figured out on his own. And again, I just have to say that CTU is going to a bit too much trouble to make sure that they're supplying terrorists with a device that will not only allow them to track the bad guys, but will also potentially kill hundreds of thousands of people. So thanks for including that bit about the jumper switch, Chloe. There's a brief moment where Kiefer's just staring at the device in his hands in confusion while Chloe tells him what to do, which doesn't appear to alert the terrorists that anything is wrong. They must have never seen Quiz Show. The whole process takes less than a minute, and Kiefer hands over the reconfigured trigger, saying, "You can activate the canisters now." Henchman #1 menaces, "You'd better hope it works. You're coming with us, just to make sure." And then Henchman #2 socks Kiefer in the belly and bundles him into the back of the van. Kiefer puts up no resistance, not just because he's in character, but also because in his head he's already figured out the urgent discussion that's about to transpire between Curtis and the folks back at CTU. But we haven't, so let's listen.
Curtis says he's ready to send the tactical teams in right now to rescue Kiefer, but McGill tells him to be cool. Audrey reminds McGill that Erwich saw Kiefer at the airport, and will kill him when he sees him posing as Rossler. McGill, looking more disheveled again than he was a minute ago, assures Audrey that the tactical teams will move in before then. Audrey argues that they should take the two terrorists now and get Erwich's location from them. McGill says that Erwich will flee with the nerve gas as soon as he realizes his men have been pinched. "This is our only shot," he insists. Audrey turns to Buchanan for support, but Buchanan is silent. By now, the blue van is pulling out onto the street in view of Curtis. "Are we letting them take Jack?" Curtis asks urgently, and McGill tells him to stand down and get his teams ready for a follow-up operation. Curtis takes off. At CTU, now that it's too late to do anything else, Buchanan tells Audrey, "Lynn's right. Whatever happens, Jack can handle it. He has to." Looking at Kiefer's determined face as he rides in the back of the terrorists' van, it's hard to be worried that he won't. It's 2:13:52.