Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Fire in the Hole
By M. Giant | Season 8 | Episode 14 | Aired on 03.29.2010
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.NSA satellites are tracking the yellow cab carrying the nuclear rods -- until Dana sabotages them from CTU for just long enough for Chloe to lose track of them. With the rods loose in Manhattan, President Taylor reassigns Kiefer to President Hassan's evacuation detail. While they're setting that up, Taylor gets a call from Samir threatening to detonate the dirty bomb in an hour unless she hands over Hassan. Taylor refuses, against the advice of her national security team. But a general approaches Chief of Staff Rob Weiss to authorize Hassan's kidnapping by American forces behind Taylor's back. Ethan (remember him?) busts them at it, then has a heart attack before he can warn anyone -- other than by pocket-dialing Kiefer. While this is going on, Dana is feeding roadblock data to Samir while Tarin drives the dirty bomb into position. Kiefer calls off the evacuation, but too late to avoid a firefight. Which Kiefer wins, of course, with some help from Walker and Hassan himself. All Samir knows is that the president isn't playing ball, so against Dana's advice, he orders Tarin to activate the bomb. The countdown starts at 15 minutes. Which, if luck is with us, should at least put the detonation in the middle of next week's first commercial break.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!In tonight's previouslies freeze-frames: Jack Bauer, Renee Walker, Chloe O'Brian, Samir Mehran, and Dana Walsh. Who, you'll recall, is the mole. I'd forgotten CTU was even supposed to have a mole, hadn't you?
Helicopters are searching the East River with searchlights, for all the good it's going to do them. At the battlefield where Kiefer spent most of the last hour, an EMT is advising him to see a doctor about his severely bruised ribs before his lungs collapse, but we know how much time Kiefer has for that shit. Putting on what I hope is a fresh vest, he meets up with Walker to ask her for an update. She tells him the Zodiac that carried the rods across the river was found half-sunk on the far bank near 11th Street, empty. Sure, it sinks after they take the uranium out of it. "The rods are in Manhattan, Jack," she reports. She adds that the good news is that CTU thinks they're only a few minutes behind. Kiefer starts relaying orders to CTU through Walker, mostly stuff CTU was going to do anyway, and tells the pilot in a waiting helicopter to "Fire it up. I want you ready to go as soon as we've got a target." Which the pilot was probably also going to do anyway.
Over at the dock on the Manhattan side where we just saw the crates unloaded at the end of the last hour, Cole and some cops are hanging around talking to a convenient witness who saw the crates loaded into the cab. Hastings has Chloe pull up satellite frames of the loading as it happened, because apparently the NSA came through with the orbital surveillance just in time. "Find them in real time, Chloe," Hastings orders. Sure, no problem. A yellow cab in New York City will pop right out at her. Hastings puts Arlo and Dana (the latter of whom is just now returning from her little Prady-murdering errand in holding) in charge of interfacing with NYPD and NEST, respectively. Arlo's got a drone back online, showing the cab going west on 14th street. Cole, who's been listening in, hops into a CTUmobile in pursuit. While he's doing that, his fiancée is secretly dialing her cell phone and warning Samir in a whisper, "They've located you on satellite." While listening in to the tracking going on in the row of desks ahead of her, she relays instructions for avoiding pursuit to Samir, who in turn relays them to Tarin, who's driving the cab. Cole is matching them turn for turn, and soon Samir can hear sirens. Lucky for him, Dana is about to do some mischief to the CTU systems. "Satellite will be disabled for thirty seconds. On my mark." She hits a key, the satellite screen goes snowy, and she murmurs, "Go." Everyone else at CTU freaks out while the taxi screams around corners so as to lose the pursuers. Dana directs them to blend into cab traffic on Ninth Avenue, which they soon do. And by the time the satellites come back online, the TerrorTaxi is gone. Cole says he'll order an NYPD cordon around the area. Hastings orders, "Have them check every garage, warehouse, loading dock. They must have pulled in somewhere." Cole acknowledges the order rather than saying anything about how it's patently impossible, and Hastings spits at his floor crew, "Get me the president." Yeah, I think after a screw-up this bad, I'd wait for her to call me. Maybe she'll forget about the problem if no one reminds her.