Episode Report Card M. Giant: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT ImHoudini
By M. Giant | Season 4 | Episode 19 | Aired on 04.24.2005
Which is where ImhoTerror is holding forth, getting a perfect first take. Unfortunately for Kiefer, ImhoTerror must be standing directly under the duct, because all Kiefer can see is five guys watching their boss yammer. And the camera has no microphone, either, so he can't hear ImhoTerror's voice. All he knows is that someone interesting is outside his line of sight. He reports this to Curtis, who acknowledges and then turns his attention to the extremely embarrassed Secret Service agents who are there to arrest Kiefer. The SecServ guy who's doing the talking reminds me of Enrico Colantoni from Veronica Mars, if Keith Mars had hair. "Curtis, let me talk to them," Kiefer says, because he doesn't have his hands full or anything. Why not take a moment off from this incredibly sensitive operation to deploy a little Velvet? He tries to prevail upon Agent Keith Mars to let him finish what he's doing, promising to give up peacefully afterward. But Agent Keith Mars says Kiefer's either coming out, or they're going in after him. Buchanan chimes in on the line, saying there's nothing he can do about it. Curtis says they're beaten, and Castle says he's on his way in to spell Kiefer.
He dons his helmet and starts scampering toward the building at 1:27:11, bent down low and looking about as inconspicuous as a drag queen. In a spectacular display of bad timing, a taxi turns the corner and momentarily catches Castle in its headlights, just as the sentry inside the club happens to be looking in that direction. He immediately sounds the alarm over his earpiece, and the Terror AV guy -- the only one in the storage room with an earpiece of his own, apparently -- relays the news to ImhoTerror, who's apparently finished anyway. "Start packing," he says. He steps forward and starts gazing around suspiciously, which gets his face caught by Kiefer's little TV camera. Now everyone at CTU knows ImhoTerror's in the house. And, in turn, ImhoTerror has spotted the camera behind the vent above him. Kiefer and Curtis give the order to move, and CTU agents swarm toward the building while the SecServ guys scramble out of the way.
ImhoTerror and his men stride through the crowded main room of the club while Kiefer stalks the abandoned service areas, gun drawn. It's not long before he's in ImhoTerror's recording studio, alone. ImhoTerror, meanwhile, is just heading downstairs, one room ahead of Kiefer. Curtis's army storms in, ordering everyone down and sending the revelers into a panic. ImhoTerror's little group has reached a basement storage area, and the Terror AV guy passes out flashlights as they file through a hole in the wall leading to the sewers. As he grabs his own flashlight, Terror AV guy drops the video tape, just to remind us he has it. He picks it up, which slows him down enough to get spotted and shot by Kiefer. Kiefer sees the hole in the wall and hears voices coming from beyond it. He reports the escape route to CTU, and Soul Patch immediately orders a two-mile perimeter covering all utility access points. Heh, perimeter. Good one. Kiefer leads the way into the tunnel, which splits off into a T almost immediately. He takes a second to try to figure out which way they went, but he's got a bigger problem: a bomb on the wall next to his head. Shouting a warning, he dives back into the basement just as the tunnel goes boom. When the smoke clears, everyone's alive but the tunnel's sealed off, preventing pursuit. Kiefer tells Curtis to have the LAPD tighten up the perimeter and let them know where the tunnel leads. As for now, the Secret Service agents have caught up with Kiefer. He peacefully hands over his weapon and puts his hands up against the wall, but he's in a pretty foul mood. "You blew this mission," Kiefer fumes at the agent, who says he's sorry, but he's just following orders. Kiefer should try that some time, after he gets out of these handcuffs. Meanwhile, I'm glad to see for the first time this season some kind of indication that torture can end up backfiring. It's 1:30:27.