Episode Report Card M. Giant: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Chip And Dip
By M. Giant | Season 6 | Episode 22 | Aired on 05.13.2007
Karen tells the Veep, "Sir, you are not seriously considering this." When she sees that he is, she reminds him of what Dad's been up to. The Veep says that they might not be able to afford to ignore this. "We're talking about the life of an innocent young boy," says Karen, and the Veep reminds her of all the other lives that will be lost in a war with Russia. Karen doesn't even think Kiefer's father is trustworthy. "The man is a sociopath," she insists. And so is his dad. The Veep turns to Tom, who agrees that Dad is indeed as Karen describes him, but under the circumstances they have to take the risk. It's not surprising that Tom and Karen disagree again. What surprises me is that they've essentially swapped sides on the debate about immunity for terrorists since Wayne decided to make his offer to Hamri Al-Assad this morning. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that now they're talking about a white guy. And now, with the course of the nation and the future of the world in the balance, the Veep suddenly goes off on a pointless tangent about how this kind of threat is totally out of character for Suvarov. Certainly, the hard-ass Russian they're dealing with now is a far cry from the much friendlier version of Season 5, let alone the one who invited the U.S. to attack his Consulate in L.A. that very afternoon. Tom guesses that Suvarov is under pressure from his military leadership. After all, Gredenko couldn't have been the only anti-American general in the Russian army. Whatever the case, they have to get the circuit board back. Satisfied that this boring discussion has effectively burned off one of the last three critical minutes of the episode, the Veep orders, "Get me CTU." Karen glares at Tom, like she's so disappointed in how short-lived their alliance turned out to be. She has kind of a low tolerance for betrayal for somebody who fired her husband.
The Oval Office goes into splitscreen as Tom gets on the phone. In other windows, the Veep takes the phone, Cheng rides to nowhere in his chauffeured SUV, Dad continues overseeing the repairs on the circuit board that should have been completed an hour ago, and Marilyn paces at CTU.
Kiefer and Josh are just now exiting the building at 3:58:53 as Kiefer tells Josh that once they get him back to CTU, he and his mom will be transported to somewhere safe. Safer than CTU? Could he narrow that down a bit? Is he talking about the center lane of the 101, or the lip of an active volcano, or the surface of Mercury? Josh asks how long they'll have to stay there. "Till we find your grandfather," says Kiefer. So two hours and one minute, max. Not even enough time to get comfortable. Josh asks what Kiefer's going to do when he finds his grandfather. Kiefer evasives, "I don't want you worrying about this. But I promise you, he will never threaten you or your mother again." Translation: have your mom buy you a dark suit.