Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | 1 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT Time for Plan E
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 20 | Aired on 04.27.2009
At 3:57:16, it's a pretty busy scene at FBI-DC, and Chloe and Janis are having a pissing contest over getting the CTU servers set up. Oh, and lest you were fanwanking that these came from CTU's Washington D.C. office, it becomes clear that these are the very same machines that Chloe used to work on back in L.A. "Before you guys confiscated them," she snots at Janis, like it's her fault. "Maybe you'd like to take over," Janis offers. "Only if you want it to work right," Chloe shrugs. Janis tells Chloe that she's not comfortable with this. "I agreed to it but I don't like it." Chloe asks what her problem is. "Uh, well the Bill of Rights being violated, for one," she says. "So if you're going to be doing anything grossly illegal, please--" from nearby, Kiefer overheard and cuts in, "We'll be sure to notify you so you can leave the building." Oh, Kiefer, cut her some slack. She's already tangled with the Justice Department about some shit she's gotten into today, if by "tangled" you mean "sat around worrying about how much trouble she was in for an hour or two until the guy from the A.G.'s office got bored and wandered off." A moment later, the servers come online, and the monitor in front of Janis displays the old, familiar CTU splash-screen. As does every other monitor in sight. Is that how that would work? Because I'm no tech guru, but this seems a little unlikely to me. Next thing you know the phones are going to start ringing with the familiar "dit-dit...DEEE-doot" chime. "Hello, Big Brother," Janis murmurs, and Kiefer stomps over to get in her face. "Look, if you think your need to complain is more important than the lives of the people counting on us, GO WHINE SOMEWHERE ELSE!" Whoa! Chloe tries to call Kiefer off, but he won't be called off. "President David Palmer recommissioned these servers because he felt it was vital to national security!" he rages into Janis's face, while she just nods at the crazy. "President Palmer made the call! Is that going to be good enough for you? ANSWER ME!" Janis manages to murmur a totally cowed affirmative, and Kiefer walks away, all twitchy, sitting down at a workstation. A freaked-out Chloe obviouses to an even-more-freaked-out Janis, "There's something really wrong with him. He said President Palmer." Janis says he meant Taylor. "He said it twice," Chloe points out. Janis doesn't say a word. So clearly, the issue with Kiefer is not that he was just a total asshat to someone who, unlike him, actually gets paid to work there, but that while doing so he forgot who the president was. Although maybe that's intentional. Just when you think this show is starting to drift to the left by addressing climate change and stem cells, suddenly it throws a bone to its right-wing base by having the hero scream at Janeane Garofalo.