Episode Report Card M. Giant: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Kiefer's Ex vs. World War III
By M. Giant | Season 6 | Episode 18 | Aired on 04.15.2007
Wayne's dead! No, actually, it just looks that way as he sits behind his desk with his eyes closed and his head resting against the back of his chair. Still, Tom isn't overly alarmed as he comes in and again advises Wayne to go back to Medical. Wayne's afraid that that'll just give the Veep a fresh opening. Tom assures him that isn't something to worry about, which just gets Wayne curious all over again about what kind of leverage Tom has. Tom forgets all about his high-minded inform/protect mission statement and says it's a recording of Lisa and the Veep conspiring to commit perjury. "I'd love to hear that as soon as possible," Wayne smirks. First, he's going to hear something even better, which is Karen rushing in to report that the nukes have been recovered and Fayed and his men are dead. Wayne's quite pleased to hear the news. I bet he wouldn't be so happy if he knew that he's finding out after the Chinese did. Wayne can't wait to break the news to the American people. Karen's already on her way to summon the press corps to the Bunker, but Wayne says it's time to go back upstairs and start using that fancy Oval Office set again. I should note that any lingering ill effects from Wayne's dangerous blood-pressure dip last hour seem to have disappeared. Which isn't surprising, considering how quickly people heal on this show. In addition to the many injuries Kiefer has recovered from today, Milo and Morris at CTU seem to be 100% again. In fact, I remain convinced that if Gredenko had managed to survive his blood loss, he would have grown a new arm by now.
At 11:08:16, Buchanan is briefing his troops on the CTU floor. He announces that Morris is going to be coordinating the transfer of the nukes from there, and Chloe smiles proudly at her boyfriend. Buchanan is just getting to the part about how proud he is of everyone when Chloe's cell phone starts buzzing. Just as well, since praise makes her uncomfortable anyway. She separates herself from the group to answer it and finds Kiefer on the other end. He doesn't have time for her congratulations, getting right to the point. As he nabs a miniature tool kit from the same evidence table where he got the cell phone, he says that Audrey's still alive; in fact, he just talked to her. Chloe wants to tell Buchanan right away. Kiefer's way of saying that it's a little more complicated than that is to disagree: "He'll never go along with it," Kiefer says. "Go along...with...what?" Chloe asks, already knowing she's going to hate this. Kiefer tells Chloe what Cheng wants and what it does, and then he tells her that she's going to have to help him get it. Chloe's worrying about creating "an international situation, big time," so Kiefer assures her that he's got no intention of handing the component over to the Chinese; he just wants to wave it around at them until they release Audrey. I don't see why he can't just steal another cell phone (or a calculator, or a garage door remote, or a digital watch), crack it open, and show that circuit board to the Chinese, unless they know exactly what they're looking for, in which case why don't they just build their own?