Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Death Wish
By M. Giant | Season 8 | Episode 23 | Aired on 05.24.2010
At 2:20:47, Cole shows up outside the CTU mobile command unit, and going by the big sign outside, I have to say that CTU's graphic design isn't nearly as good as their interior design. Inside, Chloe is keeping things running until Cole takes her aside to ask what their next move is once they have the evidence from Kiefer. "If the president's willing to lock down Meredith Reed..." he points out. I'm sure both the current and former IRK presidents would have loved a chance to lock Reed down, albeit in different ways. Chloe says they'll send the file to every media outlet in the world, as well as to every government employee. "Legislative, military, judiciary. That's over a hundred thousand people." And it can all be done with CTU servers, simultaneously. Unless of course another EMP hits, in which case they'll be about an hour behind. While Cole's half-smiling about that idea, Agent Burke shows up to give Cole his gun and badge back, and to stand there as Chloe puts Cole back in charge. Sucks to be Agent Burke. He could always argue, but Chloe's the boss and Cole has a gun now.
Jason flashes his badge to drive his SUV through the security cordon with Kiefer right there in the back seat. The latter is keeping himself busy by looting a field medical kit. Kiefer tells Jason to park in the ramp under the Hart building. As Jason pulls up to an NYPD SWAT roadblock, Kiefer ducks down behind the seat and threatens to kill both Jason and he guard if Jason screws this up. Jason pulls up to the guard, who looks at his badge and takes the most cursory of glances inside the vehicle. Lucky for Kiefer the windows are tinted and Jason's is barely open, because he's just sort of leaning over to one side rather than actually hiding. The guard remarks that the building was cleared two hours ago, which will explain a lot of what happens later, and Jason claims he's doing a last-minute security check. He's a little slow to take his ID back, though, and only when Kiefer gives him a warning glare does he keep going. Of course Jason couldn't have seen that glare, but I'm sure it hit the back of his head like a velvet-wrapped two-by-four. Once they're clear, Kiefer has Jason pull into a parking spot in the empty ramp at 2:23:45. Then he makes Jason give him the keys and get out of the car with him. Before Kiefer tells Jason to turn his back on him, Jason notices the blood already dripping on the ground at Kiefer's feet. Kiefer himself backs up against a support column as Jason says it's going to be another hour before Suvarov reaches the podium. "You're not going to make it that long, not with the way you're bleeding." Kiefer's too busy threading a curved surgical needle to answer at first. Then he makes Jason back up to him, which Jason does, looking quite nervous. When he tells Jason to turn around, it's to find the gun muzzle pressed against his face and Kiefer telling him, "You're going to suture me up." Well, of course he is. As Jason moves in, Kiefer warns that he'll put a bullet in Jason's brain if he tries anything. Jason doesn't even argue that he doesn't know how to do that, which means he probably does. Sure enough, without even bending down to get a closer look at what he's doing, Jason starts stitching up Kiefer's most recent knife wound. Not only does he seem to know what he's doing, his hands are admirably steady under the circumstances. He probably wishes he had a live grenade to hide in there.