Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Die Hard At CTU
By M. Giant | Season 6 | Episode 21 | Aired on 05.06.2007
Nadia also hangs up and looks at Zhao, who tells her to resume her seat. She goes back to sitting next to her dead not-boyfriend. The group of commandos holding Marilyn and Kiefer arrives, putting them with the rest of the hostages. Kiefer demands, "What do you want with the boy? Who sent you?" That gets him a gun-butt to the kidney as Zhao tells him that he doesn't ask the questions: "If he makes another move, shoot him." Kiefer lies gasping on the floor like he just got his last rib broken, which is entirely possible. Finally, Zhao gets to talk to Josh on the PA, like he's been wanting to for a couple of minutes. And it's exactly what you expect: he gives Josh ten seconds to show himself, or his mother dies. Josh takes about one second to decide to go back. There's an allegedly tense count to ten, with Zhao's gun leveled at Marilyn's cringing face, and about forty different crazy-making edits. Josh makes it out of the vent just in time, and Zhao's man in the ventilation room reports that he's bringing Josh down to the floor. Zhao reports to Cheng that they have Josh, and Cheng orders Josh brought to him. "Put her with the others," Zhao says of Marilyn. She gets dumped in a chair right next to the body of the man who saved her life earlier. Primo real estate, that spot.
Splitscreen time. Along with the hostages at CTU, we see the Veep glowering quietly to himself while Lisa lies naked on top of her boyfriend, having what must be the worst sex ever. Nothing fancy, since there was all that editing just a moment ago. And then it ends with Josh being led into the main floor with everyone else. Kiefer watches the unhappy mother-and-child reunion from his spot in the floor.
Cheng's on the phone with someone. Who could it be? Well, since we hear him saying, "My men have your grandson," it's kind of a giveaway that he's talking to Kiefer's dad. On a cell phone of his own, Dad asks Cheng how Josh is. "Physically unharmed" is the answer. Cheng adds that Marilyn and Kiefer are also alive: "The codes you provided gave us full access to CTU's security system." He asks whether Dad has finished repairing the Russian nuke component. "Almost," Dad breezes, standing over the guy who's doing the actual work. It looks like they're in an office that's been shut down for the night. It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that it's actually Dad's office, and it would surprise me even less to learn that CTU hasn't bothered to have the building staked out. "I'll refit it when you bring me my grandson," Dad promises. They agree to meet at "the rendezvous point" in twenty minutes. "Call me when I can talk to the boy," Dad adds. "Will do," says Cheng. Aren't they friendly-friendly? They both hang up dramatically. Which only means that they're going to be on the phone with each other again the next time we see them. It's 3:00:00.