Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Check But Not Mate
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 7 | Aired on 02.02.2009
Okay, thanks to a reader called QB, we have a new name for the operation Bill Buchanan is running. It reflects its CTU roots, while clearly identifying it as a homegrown, self-made, grassroots phenomenon. Are you ready? We're calling it YouCT. Genius, right? Anyway, in the black van containing our YouCT operatives (Buchanan, Kiefer, Tony, Chloe, and now Walker), Chloe has tracked the Matobos to a four-story office building in D.C. She's already pulling up the security specs for Kiefer as the van approaches it. "I'm gonna need your help," Kiefer tells Walker. She looks at him, but fortunately we cut away before she asks him, "Or what? You'll shoot me and bury me alive again?"
Inside Dubaku's command center, he paces around until Nichols enters, followed by two henchmen and the Matobos, whose hands are tied behind their backs. Nichols notices from the big board that there's a target ready to go, and Matobo explains that it's the Boyd Chemical Plant near Kidron, Ohio. "We're about to cause the primary safety valves to fail." Just like that. This CIP device is like telekinesis in a microchip. Dubaku then looks over at the Matobos, flanked by the two henchmen. Instead of asking what happened to the other two, Dubaku goes over to reminisce with Matobo about the last time they saw each other. He actually smiles as he recalls the state dinner. "I offered my hand in friendship and you... slapped it away." Aw, no wonder Dubaku's so bitter -- he got Mean Girled. Dubaku tells Matobo he'll be sent back to Sangala as a traitor. That triggers a round of I-know-you-and-Juma-are-but-what-am-I, but since Dubaku is the one in control now, he tells Matobo that in Sangala, "You will give General Juma the names of all your fellow traitors." Matobo insists he won't (while making the rhetorical mistake of not arguing with the term "fellow traitors"), and with a creepy look at Mrs. Matobo, Dubaku insists he will. With that, they're ushered out of the room. Nichols asks Dubaku if they've heard from President Taylor yet. Dubaku says no, "But when she sees dead Americans lying in the street, she will be less stubborn." Because that's been working so well for him up to this point.
YouCT has pulled their van into a narrow alley behind the building. Kiefer, Tony, and Buchanan start climbing the handy (and unlocked!) access ladder to the roof while Walker goes right in the front door, flashes her ID and dimples at the security guard, and is waved on by without even having to sign the guest book. She reports as much via comm to Kiefer, who is now leading his little party across the roof at 2:08:45, guns at the ready. Yes, Buchanan has joined the commando squad. His hair looks whiter than ever, either in contrast to his black gear or just because Bill Buchanan does not belong on a TAC team. Walker gets off the elevator at the third floor, and Chloe tells her via comm earpiece that a law firm is on her left and the evil Bond-villain lair is on her right. Walker looks over that way and takes in the one guy visible at a guard desk behind the etched-glass doors. Chloe directs her on ahead to the stairwell, which she climbs so she can let the three guys in through the roof access door. She tells them about the guard at the front of the suite and draws her own weapon, since everyone's doing it, and leads them back down the stairs because she knows the way. Kiefer and Walker leave the stairwell at the fourth floor, and Buchanan and Tony head on down to the third floor landing to wait inside for Kiefer's signal. Nobody seems to be around to notice three heavily armed commandos and Zombie FBI Barbie waving guns around. On the fourth floor, Kiefer and Walker find their way to an empty (and again, unlocked) server room, where Chloe directs them to a couple of removable panels in the floor. Kiefer opens them up, and he and Walker drop down into the cavernous space between the fourth floor and Dubaku's ceiling. You can tell they're in the right place because of the dim green lighting.