Episode Report Card Gustave: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Marie's Crisis
By Gustave | Season 2 | Episode 10 | Aired on 01.13.2003
CTU. So, this next scene between Mason and Bitchelle was the very sort of thing I feared happening as soon as we learned that Mason was going to die. I just knew we were going to be treated to a variety of moments showing the misanthropic Mason connecting with his humanity and learning the true meaning of life now that he realizes that his days -- nay, hours -- are numbered. And you just know it's one of those scenes, because as soon as Bitchelle enters Ye Olde Kiefer Kube to ask Mason about some Whatever Procedure, Mason is in the midst of deep thought and tells Bitchelle that he trusts her since she's "got everything under control." Bitchelle's spidey sense goes off at Mason's newfound faith in her…and the coughing fit he has right then and there. "I'm so sorry," she says, obviously referring to Mason's impending death which she isn't supposed to know about. After several beats, Mason asks Bitchelle what she's doing tomorrow. Bitchelle confesses that she hasn't thought about it. They discuss happiness -- personal happiness. Mason reveals that he wanted to be a teacher, but he took a job at CTU because it paid $5,000 more annually, even though it made him miserable -- a misery he took out on everyone around him. Oh, like people just fall into jobs at CTU. I mean, everyone knows that those background checks are just so easy to pass…especially if you went to college in the seventies. Before you know it, you wake up in the morning and you're running a counterterrorism unit for the United States government. I hate it when that happens. Oh, and Mason? I don't recall any of my teachers back in high school being all that happy either. Mason urges Bitchelle not to make the same mistakes he made. "Find something that makes you happy and do it," he says. Bitchelle seems moved by Mason's advice. She walks off, presumably to do that proverbial something that will make her happy.
NSA. Yulin enters Palmer's office. Palmer asks him to tell him everything he knows about Colonel Sanders and his extra-crispy special ops unit at Fort Benning. Yulin assures Palmer that he knows nothing about the unit, but suggests that the DOD secretly funded them and buried it in the NSA budget. "How would you know that?" asks Palmer. "A minute ago you said you'd never heard of them." Yulin does his trademark shifty-WASP backpedaling and promises to "look into it." Palmer remains suspicious. Yulin exits, passing through the office that PMHC and Lady Mac are sharing temporarily, and gives Lady Mac an ambiguo-glance, which she returns. After Yulin is gone, Palmer comes out and tells them about the NSA-funded military unit that shot down Flight 69. PMHC asks why an American paramilitary unit would do such a thing. Palmer says that he doesn't know just yet, but he thinks Yulin is hiding something from him and they need to arrest him. "Arrest the president of NSA?" gasps Lady Mac. Palmer reminds her of all the shit that's gone down since Yulin arrived that "day": the military evacuation, Wieland's escape, and the Fauxraqi chopper going down. Lady Mac warns Palmer that firing the head of NSA will only cause panic, since he's running the search for the B-O-M-B. PMHC points out that, if what Palmer is saying is true, Yulin could be impeding the search for the B-O-M-B. They all conclude that they can't proceed until they find some hard proof of Yulin's involvement with Colonel Sanders. PMHC is dispatched to dig around some more.