Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Finger Pointing
By M. Giant | Season 8 | Episode 2 | Aired on 01.17.2010
Dana gets up from her desk, where she didn't really seem to be doing anything anyway, and slinks off to a private spot. At 5:46:14, she dials her cell phone. The call rings through to a wall phone in a filthy little hovel somewhere (Rock Springs, presumably), complete with a toddler in overalls and no shirt playing with plastic kitchenware. The beat-up looking lady with the stack of presumably unpaid bills at the kitchen counter grabs the phone, and Dana says to her, "Ruth, it's me." Ruth is surprised to hear from "Jenny" for the first time since Christmas, and Dana says Kevin Wade --the hick from earlier, presumably -- found her and has been calling her for the past two days. Ruth denies having told him where to find her, even though Dana (yes, I'm still calling her Dana in the probably vain hope that this moronic storyline will stop happening) says Ruth is the only other person who knows the truth about her. Ruth insists, "I didn't even know he was out of jail." Dana seems to accept that, but that leaves the problem of Kevin. "He's threatening to tell everyone the truth about me," Dana says, whatever that is. "It'll destroy my career. I'm about to get married, Ruth. To a really great guy." She doesn't know what to do, except to let Ruth go and call her later. Look, show, can we make a deal? This can keep happening to Dana, as long as she steers clear of the cameras when it does.
When she hangs up and turns back to the floor, there's Arlo waiting with that flat, suspicious look people always have in these situations for no reason except to scare the person sneaking around. "Where you been? I've been trying to find you," he accuses. She asks if the file is decrypted yet. He says no, but someone inside CTU hacked into his station to scan drone archives. "Track it down. See who it was," Dana orders, as if he couldn't have figured that out on his own. It's 5:48:07. But wait, whoever hacked into his system wouldn't leave a big red flag there, right? It's almost as though they wanted Arlo to find her.
At 5:52:24, Hastings is still questioning Reed, having moved on to whether any enemies of Hassan have ever approached her. She denies everything. "So all you did was interview President Hassan?" Hastings presses. "That's it?" She confirms it, setting off a series of beeps back in the observation room. The tech relays this to Hastings via Hastings' Bluetooth, and he pounces and accuses her of lying. She maintains her innocence, but he's still not buying it. "All I care about is stopping the assassin," he says. She agrees with that. "So if someone really is trying to kill Hassan," she says, "you need to stop wasting your time on me and find them." Looks like Farhad was wrong about what Reed would tell the authorities. What else do you think he might be wrong about? Besides everything?