Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Plot Quickens
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 11 | Aired on 03.05.2006
And now it's Kiefer's turn to be horrified. "You don't care about anyone," he tells Henderson. "Not even her." He utters the magic words, "Chloe, it's Jack," and tells her that he needs an ambulance. "Miriam Henderson's been shot in the leg," he explains, like someone else did it. As he tears up a towel that he got out of his man-purse, he orders Chloe to have CTU prep an interrogation room for Henderson, complete with hyocene pentothal. I'm assuming that's not something you put on a sundae. He applies pressure to Miriam's wound as Buchanan comes on the line at 5:57:54 to provide another update on the goings-on at the hospital.
Which gives us a smooth segue to Curtis, who's still in the room with the hazmat guys as they run a detector over the canister, probably hoping to defuse it by telekinesis. Just then another agent comes in, showing Curtis what they found on Viktor's body. It's the LED timer, currently at 1:12 and counting. Upon learning that defusing the device is impossible in the time they have left, Curtis makes the executive decision to carry the canister to the "containment unit." What, nobody thought to bring an Igloo cooler down here? Curtis picks it up and starts running with it in one hand and the timer in the other, agents and hazmat guys running ahead to clear the way. I've got to say, Curtis is really thumbing his nose at the Handsome Black Agent curse this time. They've got to run not only upstairs, but clear out of the building and into the parking lot, where there's a white van parked and waiting. As Curtis runs up to it, he orders the back doors of the van opened. One of the hazmat guys clambers inside and Curtis hands the canister off to him. The van holds a large Plexiglas container, suspended from the ceiling with the lid open. The canister is quickly placed inside and the lid secured with only two seconds to spare. Actually, it's negative seven seconds by my VCR timer, but seconds always go a little slower on this show when we can't actually see them ticking down. Someone needs to talk to either the editors or the prop guys about that. Curtis watches the timer in his hand beep down to zero, and right on cue, the canister in the containment unit opens up and releases its payload harmlessly into the capsule. Well, I say "harmlessly," but you know the resale value of that van just cratered. One of the hazmat guys says they're clear, and Curtis takes off his gas mask to report that the hospital is safe. "Good work, Curtis," Buchanan responds. Curtis turns to look at all the patients hanging out behind him in the parking lot. What a relief; now that they've been saved from death by nerve gas, they can all go inside and get back to dying of other things.