Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Can You Dig It
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 5 | Aired on 01.19.2009
On the road, Emerson calls Nichols at the command center to report that they have the Matobos, but also a "complication." He tells Nichols to check with his sources at the Bureau to find out how much Walker learned from Tanner. Nichols agrees to do so. Through the rigid steel screen separating them, Walker tells Kiefer, "I can't believe I trusted you. You lying son of a bitch." Tony looks sympathetically at Kiefer, who just stares straight ahead, chewing the inside of his cheek. How's that jerky taste? It's 12:23:32.
At 12:27:52, Henry Taylor is still chilling by the Tidal Basin, almost an hour after we left him. Must be nice to be the First Gentleman; he's probably the only guy in D.C. who doesn't actually have someplace to be. Nearby, his Secret Service guy, Agent Gedge (which I mistakenly spelled as "Getsch" for the first four recaps, because I couldn't work out the closed captioning on the DVD screener), is on his cell phone to someone named Ian. After he hangs up, Gedge tells Taylor, "Sorry it took so long [no shit], but I tracked down a friend who does crypto for the private sector? Says he should be able to crack the files on the thumb drive...He also said you'd have a lot easier job if you went to the NSA." Henry would rather keep this quiet until he knows how dirty his wife's administration is. Gedge is like, whatevs, we'll meet my friend at his apartment in twenty minutes. Henry thanks Gedge and speechifies about how much it's sucked to be the only one who didn't believe Roger killed himself, and how much ass-kicking he's going to deliver to his son's murderers. That's going to be embarrassing later. Gedge suggests informing the President, but Henry isn't about to do that until he's got the proof he needs. Gedge nods. Well, he tried.
Ethan enters the Oval Office, where Taylor tells him, "Presidents don't make new friends. That's why they lean on their old ones." That doesn't sound encouraging. In fact, it's her way of setting up to say that she's going to need Ethan's support, because she's going ahead with the invasion of Sangala and damn the consequences. Ethan still isn't behind this, pointing out that she took an oath to protect Americans. "And the way to do that is not to give in to blackmail and threats," Taylor insists. She's refusing to back down. Just then Secretary of State Stevens arrives with word that Matobo and his wife were just abducted. "His bodyguards identified Jack Bauer and Tony Almeida as two of the men involved. Which means Dubaku has the CIP device and Matobo." That's a pretty good hand. Now if Dubaku could just somehow get a hold of Henry, he'd have a full house. Ethan points out that without Matobo, the U.S. doesn't even have a post-invasion plan for Sangala any more, and he and Stevens both agree that it's time to give in to Dubaku. "The best course of action is to find Matobo and the people who took him," Taylor snaps back, unbowed. As Stevens leaves the room at 12:31:43, Ethan stands and asks about Taylor's decision. She says they have thirty minutes to meet Dubaku's deadline, and wants Matobo found by then. Sounds like a good plan to me. If really hard to carry out.