Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT O Brother, Where Art Thou?
By M. Giant | Season 6 | Episode 5 | Aired on 01.21.2007
The Presidential party arrives at the bunker beneath the White House, which looks to have been completely redesigned and rebuilt since Season 4. It's a darker, more militaristic-looking space. Gone is the Undal Office; you're looking at the Battle Bridge. Presumably President Logan wanted the area updated, given the amount of time he expected to spend down there. While leading the group inside, the Secret Service agent briefs Wayne on where everyone is: the as-yet unnamed Vice President is on alert, the Joint Chiefs and most of the Cabinet are on their way to the Battle Bridge, and the rest of the Cabinet is being sent to "Site R." R they really? The gigundous, NORAD-sized blast doors to the elevator lobby clang shut behind them. Too bad for the Joint Chiefs, I guess. That'll teach them to take more than five minutes getting to safety. The agent ushers everyone into the below-ground Situation Room, a circular conference space which appears to be the main room in the complex. Something tells me we'd better get comfortable down here.
Meanwhile, Karen steps aside to call her hubby. Despite being two hundred feet underground, she's getting great cell phone reception. She asks if Buchanan has any news, but he hasn't learned a great deal in the two minutes since they last talked. Slacker. They speculate as to whether CTU's arrival at Fayed's HQ caused the terrorists to detonate the nuke, and whether the bad guys had initially planned to use it on another, more populated target. They still don't know where Fayed or the other four bombs are, but they're not going to risk assuming that they're currently raining down on Valencia. Buchanan adds that Assad is on his way to CTU to help find Fayed. They ring off, Karen telling Buchanan to be careful. He doesn't bother returning the sentiment, because she's two hundred feet underground. She probably isn't going to fall out a window.
Chloe tries to get back to work, but is having trouble concentrating. It doesn't help when Morris flits up and informs her, "It's a lot to proh-cess." She's freaking out about the deaths of all those people, as well as that of Curtis. "I know you and he were friends," Morris exaggerates. "Why do people I know keep dying?" Chloe wonders. Morris doesn't have an answer to that. I do, but it's rather unkind. Returning to the subject of work, Chloe asks if Fayed's been found yet. No, duh. "You want to help me boot up routers?" she asks. "Who wouldn't?" is his charming response, and they get to work. But we're not done bringing new viewers up to speed, so Chloe has to mention that Kiefer quit. "I'm sure it's because he was forced to kill Curtis." Anything else from the previouslies that we haven't covered again? "You know I'm here for you, right?" Morris says. Chloe says that she does, not even a little bitchily.