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
Reed is just now getting her credentials scanned and entering the press area right outside the Council Chamber where the presidents have been having their meeting. As Hassan exits that room and starts glad-handing the crowd, Hastings is on the line with one of the U.N guards on site, telling him about the threat and that a photo of Reed is already on its way to the guard's PDA. While that's happening, Dana has facial recognition software scanning the room via the U.N.'s security system that they've patched into (presumably without Chloe's help, since it happened so fast). Soon they've got a live image of Reed, moving toward Hassan. Hastings reports this to the U.N. security guy, and as Hassan and Reed make eye contact, smile, and approach each other, a small army of suited guards moves in, grabbing Reed and ganking her purse while another team surrounds Hassan and bustles him into an elevator. "Mr. President?" Reed asks helplessly before she's frog-marched out and the elevator doors close in front of Hassan's very confused face. It's 5:10:26, and this season certainly is moving quickly.
At 5:14:42, Hastings is briefing his people at CTU about his theory that Reed has been using her profile on Hassan as a pretext to gain security info and feed it to the assassin. She's being brought in to CTU for questioning now. Dana enters with even more damning evidence against Reed: Some very fast-moving CTU guys have already searched her apartment and found the files in question on her laptop, as well as a very large one. It's encrypted, but they'll work on it. Hastings is quite satisfied with how all this is going, but Chloe decides it's time to stop merely rolling her eyes to herself and speak up: "Does anyone think this happened a little too fast and a little too easily?" she wonders, because it's not like the show is called 2. Dana says things probably do happen faster around there than Chloe's used to, more condescendingly than she probably means to. Chloe snits something back at her, and says that this was awfully careless for the kind of operation they're looking for. "Why would you go through all that trouble and leave a huge red flag for everyone to find?" Yes, let's be sure to remember that question for later. "It's like someone wanted us to find her." Arlo keeps quiet, but he looks like he's seeing her point, or maybe he's just wondering what an aerial drone guy like himself is doing in this meeting in the first place. Chloe says they should keep vetting it. Hastings says they will. "I appreciate your concerns. We'll keep them in mind." "In other words, 'shut up, Chloe,'" she snaps. Hey, that's my line. Dana says that's not what Hastings said. "Well that's what I heard," Chloe says. Not often enough. Hastings again thanks her, again in a "shut up" tone of voice, and instructs them to cross-reference Reed's recent movements in the Middle East with those of known terrorist groups. As the meeting breaks up, though, he assigns Chloe the task of debriefing Kiefer when he arrives. Rather than being happy about a chance to catch up with her friend, Chloe's pissed at being taken off the case, but there's nothing she can do. Which she should be used to by now.