Episode Report Card M. Giant: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT You Down with EMP?
By M. Giant | Season 4 | Episode 12 | Aired on 03.06.2005
Out on the floor, Curtis, looking snappy in a new shirt and suit, is learning all about ImhoTerror's work at MacGuffin Factories from Special Agent Breck. ImhoTerror, the chief engineer on the MacGuffin project, had full security access. No one else on the project was on a watch list. So Curtis sums it up for us: A terrorist had full access to a defense contractor's classified work. Special Agent Breck, whose lipstick is oddly orange this week, says it's even worse than that, since MF also trains its clients to use the weapons it manufactures -- clients all over the world. "Several countries in the Balkans, Asia, and the Middle East," she says. This is accompanied by a geographical map on her screen of the entire eastern hemisphere, with three blinking red boxes approximately over those three regions. Gee, thanks for that incredibly explicatory visual aid, art department. Special Agent Breck obviouses that once Kiefer gets to MF, he's going to need to find out "exactly who ImhoTerror dealt with." Curtis is the first to recognize that this is going to be embarrassing for MF, and they're not going to be too eager to give up the goods, even if ImhoTerror is the only terrorist on their payroll.
Okay, so back in episode six, I talked about the guy at MacGuffin Factories who explained about the MacGuffin in the first place. Turns out he's just the company's Chief Technology Officer. When I gave that guy the nickname Mr. MacGuffin, how was I to know that six episodes later we'd meet the CEO of the company, who actually does bear its name? Obviously the CEO is the real Mr. MacGuffin. He's being played by Bill Smitrovich, who you may recall as the dad on the late-'80s/early-'90s My Brother Has Down's Syndrome, My Boyfriend Has AIDS, My Sister Got Recast, And Worst Of All I'm Being Played By Kellie Martin drama Life Goes On on ABC. His hairline has receded even further over the years, but his eyebrows are heroically taking up the slack. As for the guy I called Mr. MacGuffin, I'm going to have to rename him "Young MFer." He's in Mr. MacGuffin's office right now, saying that they need to talk before CTU arrives. He quickly explains how it's not a coincidence that the MacGuffin was used in the day's attacks. Mr. MacGuffin, unsurprisingly, does not react well to the news that one of the chief engineers on the MacGuffin project was none other than ImhoTerror, who was using the company as a base for his terror operation. Man, this is the slackest defense contractor ever. I know people who got fired from a retirement services business for playing fantasy football on the company's email system. "Who else knows about this?" Mr. MacGuffin demands. Young MFer says, "Just you and me. And…"