Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Duress Code: Casual
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 4 | Aired on 01.15.2006
10:17:02. Kiefer tells Derek, "You're doing great," because as the show's star and co-executive producer, he's the only one who's allowed to talk during the act-in splitscreens. In other, less important windows, Logan looks worried and McGill talks on the phone. Buchanan calls Curtis on his cell and again asks his time frame for the assault. Curtis says it's fifteen minutes. Or, if you're keeping better track than Buchanan is, five minutes fewer than the last time Buchanan asked him, which was five minutes ago. Real-time fever: catch it! This time, Buchanan asks why it's going to take so long, and Curtis makes some excuses about the stuff they have to change in order to use Kiefer's new entry point. Buchanan wonders if it's worth changing the whole plan based on Kiefer's information, but Curtis insists that Kiefer wouldn't have advised the change if it weren't worth it. "I trust him," Curtis says. Oh, you dummies. I will cut them more slack than I did Beresch, though, because they didn't know for sure that Kiefer had been captured, so they wouldn't necessarily be looking for a signal to indicate as much. But still. Anyway, Buchanan assents, and leans on Curtis to make sure it happens on time. After he finishes up the call, a flunky comes up to tell Buchanan, "Mr. McGill wants to see you in his office." Well, Mr. McGill certainly has made himself at home, now, hasn't he? Buchanan tries to blow off the summons, but the flunky says McGill is insisting on seeing him right now. Buchanan climbs the steps to his ex-office.
Once inside, Buchanan impatiently asks what's so important that he has to leave off yelling at people to hurry up. "Sit down, Mr. Buchanan," McGill says mildly, and Buchanan snaps at him to knock it off. "Sit down, Bill," McGill says in the exact same tone. Buchanan sits. McGill stands up. Learned that in manager school, did we, McGill? McGill says he's informed the White House that the rescue operation is back on track, but he wants to review the plan in full before CTU goes into the terminal. And then Buchanan's on his feet again, bitching about McGill's "micromanaging." "If you want to do my job, just let me know. I'll go home," Buchanan snaps. McGill politely asks Buchanan not to be defensive. Buchanan grudgingly agrees to have Chloe send the plan to McGill's laptop, and starts to leave. McGill stops him: "Bill? Fighting me isn't going to increase our chances of saving those people's lives." Buchanan manages not to say, "Right back atcha, Halfling," but it looks like a near thing. Alone, McGill gives a little sigh of relief, just to let us know he's not a robot. At least, not all the time.