Episode Report Card M. Giant: C+ | 0 USERS: N/A YOU GRADE IT Mole Patch II: Electric Whatever
By M. Giant | Season 3 | Episode 21 | Aired on 2004.05.04
At CTU, Potato Face is giving Soul Patch the bad news about Saunders's absence, not realizing that it isn't news to Soul Patch. "What was that you said about someone in your group making a mistake?" she adds accusatorily. Soul Patch pretends to confirm with Adam the Woman Hater that Saunders was in the building, and Adam further offers to pull up the satellite images to find out what went wrong. Soul Patch isn't about to let that happen, so he says he'll take care of it and orders Adam to help Potato Face instead. He walks away looking like he's experiencing no small degree of intestinal urgency while Potato Face and Adam watch in confusion. It's 9:04:46.
And here, I think, is where Soul Patch hits the point of no return. It would be hard for anyone to stand up in the face of real-time video of their spouse being threatened with torture and death, and it's hard to condemn him for his initial reaction, fueled by panic and helplessness. I'd probably do the same thing. Which is one of many, many reasons that I don't run a counter-terrorism unit with my wife as a subordinate. ["Although it's worth stating for the record that that would be one fun-ass counter-terrorism unit to work for. Anyway, please continue." -- Sars] But at this point, Soul Patch is thinking relatively clearly again, as demonstrated by the gymnastics he's about to go through for the next hour trying to keep his ass out of a sling. This show has been hammering away all season at the theme of people making huge sacrifices for the greater good, from Kyle Singer to Poor Man's Angelina Jolie to Bitchelle's shooting of the James Woods-looking guy at Inn Fection to Chappelle to Kiefer himself risking his daughter in a hare-brained swap-op, and now we learn that Soul Patch isn't on board when it's his wife's safety on the line. Furthermore, he knows perfectly well that he's not doing the right thing, which I think is why he never tells anybody what's going on. Well, that's one reason, and the fact that he has completely ruled out sacrificing Bitchelle as an option while not trusting anyone else, even Kiefer, to do the same.