Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | 556 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT Poison
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 15 | Aired on 2009.03.23
Commercials. I think the Crank series exists to make Jack Bauer's shitty luck seem more plausible.
10:16:52. Hodges is pacing around the multi-story atrium at Starkwood HQ, on the phone to his guy at the port, a man named Stokes. Stokes tells Hodges that they're only waiting on Quinn to go ahead with the pickup. Hodges wonders if Kiefer took out Quinn and thus knows something about the operation. He tells his man to wait five more minutes for Quinn, then go in, "with extreme caution," and let Hodges know as soon as they have the container. As he hangs up, Seaton appears at his elbow to tell him that the whole board is present. Noticing Seaton's worried demeanor, Hodges pauses at the board room door to tell him, "They're six-year-olds, Greg, and they need to eat their carrots." The secret to good management, right there.
With that, Hodges enters the board room, followed by a not-reassured Seaton. He starts right in, saying that Starkwood might have been able to help prevent the events of the day. Yes, by not causing them. But clearly his board is in the dark on everything he's been up to. He launches a lecture: "Fact: the United States military is strained to the breaking point. Fact: reinstatement of the draft is off the table for political reasons. Fact: the people in this room, you all, control the largest private army in the Western Hemisphere. Now could we have been of help today? You bet your ass we could have been of help!" But instead, as he points out, the government is shitting all over them. He calls out a craggy-faced man, saying, "Doug, you brokered the deal with this government. You were short-sighted. They don't understand that the global war on terror can only be won with forces like ours." His point? The company is through cooperating with the Taylor administration. Now who's acting like a six-year-old? Doug is up on his feet, asking, "You came here to ask the board to risk a federal indictment?" He and Jonas argue about it, until they walk out to discuss it in the hallway. Hodges leaves Seaton behind to answer questions for the rest of the board. So in that brief scene, we've learned a lot about Starkwood. A) it has a board, B) its board meetings are really short and late at night, and C) Greg Seaton's job sucks.