Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT I Want You
By M. Giant | Season 8 | Episode 18 | Aired on 04.26.2010
, smarms about how he's glad Ethan's looking after his health, but Ethan tells him, "I'm leaving because of you. Because of what you started here." He accuses Logan of doing all this on purpose without telling Taylor what his plan was. "She didn't ask," Logan lies, "because she knew it was best for her to preserve her own deniability." Which she did for almost an hour there. Logan says Taylor knows what she's doing. Ethan warns, "Stop this cover-up before it's too late. This peace is no good. There's too much blood on this treaty for it ever to hold." And worse, Logan's grubby fingerprints are all over it as well. Logan condescends that all treaties ever written had blood on them. "Not like this," Ethan protests. He says Taylor wasn't like Logan. "Wasn't like any politician I've ever known." Logan, thinking the current version is an improvement, smugly agrees, "She's finally got some teeth." Ethan issues some vague, poorly-backed threats to Logan, who offers to let him sit down and excuses himself to watch the address. "Get some rest, Ethan. You need it." Ethan walks out of the room, leaving Logan to savor his victory over him the same way Olivia Taylor did last season. And we all remember how well that worked out for her.At 10:57:02, Dana is dragged into a dark room somewhere with a bag over her head. There's a table full of nasty-looking instruments, which Dana sees as soon as they remove the head-bag. She also sees a scary-looking board with straps attached. Bledsoe wastes no time, telling Dana he needs to know where the evidence is that she promised Kiefer. Looking gray, Dana protests knowing anything. "If that's the way you want to play it, fine," Bledsoe says, and his men waste even less time dragging her over to the board. So now she'll get to have a choice between enduring torture, or giving up the info and getting killed. Sucks to be her.
At the U.N., Taylor's press secretary (who was apparently under the impression that it's Business Casual day in the Taylor administration) is busy prepping the press room while Taylor meets up with Dalia in the wings. Dalia thanks Taylor for her help with the speech: "My husband would have been grateful for the support you have given me." Taylor manages to thank her back without going all "Telltale Heart" on her, and takes the podium to begin her speech. She doesn't bother to hold for applause, which is good because there isn't any. Dalia is behind her on her right, while Novakovich, the nerve of that man, is behind her on her left. Her speech starts with a grim shout-out to Hassan's assassination, as Ethan takes up a position at the back of the room, like he can stop Taylor now with a disapproving look. She does fumble a bit at the sight of the Ghost of Secretaries of State past, but as she restates her resolve that peace will prevail, "no matter the cost, no matter the compromises" (which sounds like a tough sell), he sadly looks at the floor and wanders out in defeat for the third time this hour. Taylor continues speaking as other splitscreen windows show Dana being strapped down and swung horizontal, and Bledsoe dispassionately begins the waterboarding. And here's the difference between how good guys and bad guys torture: people like Kiefer do it with imagination and drive, whereas people like Bledsoe turn it into a rote activity devoid of imagination. Sad, really.
Taylor's speech shifts to the subject of how awesome Dalia is. Chloe and the troops are watching from CTU, as are Logan and Jason from their office, although they're doing so more smugly. Cole and Kiefer are in a car together, with Kiefer driving. Presumably he's retrieved his duffel, and put it in the trunk, although I don't hear sparks flying as the back bumper drags on the pavement. Taylor yields the podium to Dalia, and suddenly all the people in the room seem to realize for the first time that hitting the palms of their hands against each other can make a pleasing sound. It's 11:00:00.