Episode Report Card M. Giant: A- | 438 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Re-Juma-nated
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 12 | Aired on 2009.03.02
Hostages are being herded into the wide hallway outside the lockdown and forced to sit on the floor, with Buchanan among them. Laptop Guy inserts some kind of card peripheral to connect his laptop to the access panel next to the lockdown door and guesses that he can have it open in fifteen minutes, "Assuming the specifications Hodges gave us are correct," he caveats. It's 7:27:22, and it sounds like there's going to be a game-changing moment at 7:42:22. Or so. By the way, shouldn't Juma be starting to think about that 7:30 rendezvous with Ryan Burnett that won't be happening now?
At 7:31:45, Walker and Moss arrive by helicopter and join a small city that's been set up by Secret Service and local police on Pennsylvania Avenue. Oddly, I don't see Tony's car parked anywhere nearby. Hovis ushers them into the van that's serving as the command post as he explains why he retreated. "I felt I had no choice but to pull back," he says. Oh, whatever, Hovis; you're already going to be the most fired Secret Service agent in the history of the universe, so why not admit that you just wanted to get out of the building before your access cards quit working? He shows Walker and Moss the visitor manifest, according to which there should be about 53 hostages and no living Secret Service agents inside the building. Except Aaron, of course, who he probably doesn't know about. Or else instead of a head count he did a lip count, which wouldn't have registered Aaron's presence anyway. Hovis adds that hostage rescue teams are getting ready to storm the building, but Moss says they'll have to get that order from the Vice President, who according to Hovis is now en route to a "secure location." Moss also asks Hovis for an infrared satellite scan of the building, and Hovis hurries off to comply. Secret Service supervisors sure get eager to please when somebody starts shooting up the White House on their watch, don't they?
And Walker has just spotted a familiar name on the manifest. "You didn't tell me Jack was in the White House," she accuses Moss. As he hands her a fresh cell phone and gun, he tells her about how Kiefer was under arrest for torturing a guy in the White House. He doesn't much like the thoughtful look on her face when she hears that. "Renee, the President is our priority, not Jack Bauer. Are we clear on that?" She says she's clear. If I were her, my priority would be dry clothes.