Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Mayer, Mayer Not
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 14 | Aired on 03.16.2009
9:40:54. Moss is getting ready to go, with his Kevlar vest and FBI windbreaker back on. Janis meets him and says that Mayer's home phone is shorted out, which Moss says sounds like Kiefer's doing. Janis asks about Kiefer's motives, and as Moss checks his gun, he explains, "Mayer spent the last six months trying to send Bauer to prison for the rest of his life." Simple enough. Moss meets with a team of agents and briefs them that Metro PD is on its way to Mayer's house. "I told them and I'm telling you, it is impossible to overestimate Bauer. He has more training and more experience than anybody in this room and that includes myself." Off they go, as Janis rattles off instructions into her headset. Careful, Janis, you don't know who might be listening.
Chloe is ushered back into the conference room, where she's kind of pissed at Morris for getting her sprung. She also doesn't look so pregnant any more. Well, it has been a few episodes since we've seen her; God knows what might have happened to her in that holding room. Morris isn't terribly apologetic: "I thought it might be nice to spare Prescott the inconvenience of having a convict for a mother," he says. "Jack saved your life," she bitches. Morris admits as much, "But my child and my marriage comes first, and it should for you too." She's still being an asshole about it, so Morris says she's helped Kiefer enough. "You can't go deciding to make this sacrifice on your own any more." Chloe insists that Kiefer didn't kill Burnett. "Then he can prove that when they take him into custody," Morris points out. "If they give him the chance," Chloe whines, watching the armed agents file out the door. Morris scratches his beard some more. Is the FBI really going to let these two wild cards hang around in a computer-equipped conference room by themselves indefinitely? Between the two of them, they could probably start a conspiracy of their own if they wanted to, financed entirely by the unsuspecting holders of PayPal accounts.
Watching Kiefer drive his computer, Mayer brings up something Kiefer said at that morning's hearings, namely his claim of not having any regrets. "Of course I have regrets, Senator. I regret losing my family. My wife was murdered because I was responsible for protecting David Palmer during an assassination attempt. My daughter can't even look at me. Every day I regret looking into the eyes of men, women, and children knowing that any moment, their lives might be deemed expendable in an effort to protect the greater good. I regret every decision, every mistake I might have made that resulted in the loss of innocent lives. But you know what I regret the most, is that this word even needs people like me." Perhaps soon he'll regret wasting all that time on a long speech when the FBI and local police are on their way to bust his ass. Mayer thinks Kiefer is calling him naïve. "Doesn't matter what I think, Senator," Kiefer says. "You just need to understand that where I work, things get a lot messier than where you work on the Hill." Mayer isn't about to let this drop, and at 9:43:53, he makes his case: "What you've lost, Mr. Bauer, is tragic. What you've been compelled to do in the name of saving innocent life is tragic. But sometimes we need to incur the most horrible losses in order to uphold the ideals that this country was founded on. How can we presume to lead the world unless we set an example?" Well, seriously. We send soldiers halfway around the world to die defending the Constitution; it seems hypocritical of us not to be willing to do it ourselves, and from the comfort of our own homes. Kiefer looks at Mayer and chuckles, "You make it sound so simple." Mayer says that maybe it is. "Maybe all the things that you've seen and all the things that you've done have clouded your vision." Aw, what a nice little talk they're having. They should finish the hearings right here, in Mayer's study, without all those cameras and reporters and stuff.