Episode Report Card M. Giant: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Re-Juma-nated
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 12 | Aired on 03.02.2009
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Action-packed! With Walker on the run from Juma's lookout and Juma's men tunneling to the White House, an imprisoned Kiefer tries to convince Buchanan to step in to do the torturing of Burnett, but Buchanan has suddenly grown a conscience on that score. Soon Juma and his men are inside and searching for Taylor. Moss rescues Walker and passes along her word that the White House is the target, seconds before Buchanan and the Secret Service would have figured it out anyway. Buchanan bravely takes the President's tracker to draw Juma's men away from Taylor and gets taken hostage, along with many other civilians. Freed when the alert comes out during his transfer, Kiefer gets Taylor into the White House lockdown room. That thwarts Juma's attempts to get to her, but allows him to bluff the Secret Service into pulling out of the building. With help from Academy Award Winner Jon Voight, Juma learns that Olivia's in the building, and should serve nicely as leverage to get the Prez to come out of her hidey hole. Meanwhile, Moss and Walker try to convince the oddly Australian Vice President to authorize the storming of the building, but they don't succeed. Neither does Olivia succeed in getting a signal out by Morse code when Aaron is wounded, and the two of them end up joining the hostages. And so do Kiefer and Taylor, when Juma threatens to kill Olivia. Hard to see anyone getting out of this one. Which I'm sure means that Kiefer's got Juma right where he wants him.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Mind if I skip the previouslies? I didn't think so.
Well, in a matter of a few minutes, the drill bit we last saw skittering across the undersurface of some stone has now created a hole right through that solid rock that's several feet across. During the previouslies they must have swapped out the original bit with one that was diamond-tipped, or perhaps dynamite-tipped. The last of Juma's men climbs out of the water, and by flashlight in the little cave they've tunneled into, they prep their gear, which includes a waterproof laptop case, and of course lots and lots of weapons. "Let's move," Juma orders. So far, I only see two problems with his plan. One is that the amount of time it might have taken to drill the hole was a very large variable that probably should have been addressed in advance. The other is that now they're going to be running around the White House in wet fatigues.
In the White House residence, First Daughter Olivia has gotten tired of waiting around for her mom and decides to go to the hospital to be with her shot-up dad. Aaron, who must have been having the most awkward hour ever, tells her that his orders are not to let her leave the White House. She asks if that means he'll physically restrain her, and he answers, "That would never happen, Ms. Taylor, because I know you have too much respect for your mother and her office to ever let things get that far." At first I was wondering why Aaron hadn't handed her off to a real, non-retired Secret Service agent when they got to the White House, but I suppose there was still the question of which agents were dirty. Olivia congratulates him on his smooth handling of her and wonders about his experience. "Five administrations, ma'am" he says proudly, which in the 24-verse covers, like, weeks. Plus, as far as we know, he's only shtupped one First Lady. Seriously, though, Glenn Morshower is one of only two actors who has appeared in all seven seasons of this show. You can probably guess who the other one is.
Ethan comes in with orders to bring Olivia up to speed, and there's clearly no love lost between the two of them. Ethan tells her that there's another attack coming soon, so Taylor's pretty busy. And Ethan himself is on his way to the Pentagon, because of the invasion that's happening on top of everything else. Hmm, convenient. Before leaving, he tells Olivia, "Your mother's under tremendous pressure right now." So behave.
In the Oval Office, Taylor has just dismissed her Press Secretary (who has new hair now) to work on a statement when Tim from Homeland enters to tell her that Moss is calling in with a lead. He puts the call on speaker. Moss is calling from Juma's now-abandoned hideout, which is now being swarmed with FBI agents. How big was that helicopter, anyway? He tells Taylor that he's found a staging area, and that one of the terrorists is General Juma. Taylor is shocked to hear that Juma's in D.C. She should probably share that with Admiral Smith, who's out looking for Juma right now. Moss has to admit that they haven't found any clues pointing to a specific target, and that Agent Walker, who ID'ed Juma in the first place, is mysteriously incommunicado. "We have every reason to hope that she's still alive and in pursuit of the terrorists," he assures her. Except it's kind of the other way around.