Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Who Rescues the Rescuer?
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 3 | Aired on 01.15.2006
Beresch approaches the spot where Derek is kneeling on the floor in front of a ticket counter trying not to hyperventilate. Since he's got his mask off, he stays behind the camera. He asks Derek how old he is. Derek says fifteen, which, bullshit. That actor has to be at least twenty. Wait, I just looked it up and he's going to be eighteen this year. My mistake, but still. I guess I just figured that no parent would let their kid wear his hair like that. All avuncular-like, Beresch coaches Derek to control his breathing. I notice that the smear of blood Derek was kneeling in earlier has become a small lake, as if he's bleeding out through his femoral artery. Nice continuity. Sensing that a rapport is building, Derek asks Beresch not to kill him. "It's up to your President, Beresch says. Nice thing to say to a kid who isn't old enough to vote.
It's 9:44:06 when Buchanan gets a call from Beresch. "The boy hasn't long to live," Beresch says. Buchanan tries to buy more time, but Beresch isn't selling any, and he hangs up. Kiefer leans on Chloe some more, but she and Spencer are moving as fast as they can. Beresch puts on his mask so he can go on camera. At the CTU command post outside, one of the agents calls Curtis over to watch the live feed on the monitor. At CTU, Spencer finds the detonator's frequency, and Chloe tells Kiefer how to set up his phone to remotely detonate that one explosive vest. Kiefer follows Chloe's instructions, and now he just has to wait for his phone to reboot so he can press the star key and make bad guy go boom. But the rebooting is taking forever. Kiefer's phone display practically reads, "SUSPENSE BUILDING."
"Your president has abandoned you," Beresch tells Derek, who by this time is panting so hard that he looks about to aspirate his own face. "I'm sorry," Beresch says, putting his gun to Derek's head. That second, Kiefer's phone finishes rebooting. Also that second, a terrorist's patrol route takes him down a hallway out of sight behind a display of tourist brochures. Kiefer hits his star key, and a mighty explosion comes from the spot where we last saw that terrorist. Tourist brochures fly everywhere in a most satisfactory way. The set department is only sad that they couldn't also have that area occupied by a produce stand, a wedding cake, two guys carrying a huge plate-glass window, a house of cards, and an aquarium full of exotic tropical fish. We'll just have to be content with the flying brochures, another nearby terrorist blown off his feet, and a bunch of drywall fragments hurtling through the air. No actual Half-Life-style giblets are visible, alas. Obviously, Derek's execution is put off for a moment as the terrorists, including Beresch, rush to see what happened. The other hostages scream, because that's what hostages do.
"What was that?" Buchanan demands of Curtis. All Curtis knows is that there was an explosion, so Buchanan asks to be transferred to Kiefer. Terrorists run around as Beresch screams orders at them. On the CTU floor, Chloe and Spencer wait for the hammer to come down on them for their part in this. One of the minions reaches the blown-up hallway and obviouses to Beresch, "It was Ibrim's vest. It must have detonated by accident."