Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Finger Pointing
By M. Giant | Season 8 | Episode 2 | Aired on 01.17.2010
No sooner has Hastings hung up with Kiefer than Dana comes up to him and says she might have a lead: unauthorized access to a U.N. database. She's certainly been busy in the five seconds since she learned her fiancé is still alive. Hastings tells Dana to keep working on that, and to draft Chloe to help. "If you don't think she'll slow you down," he adds. Dana smiles that Chloe's doing much better, and Hastings heads off to call Taylor's Chief of Staff, Rob Weiss, to give him an update. That'll be a fun call.
The joint press conference with the two presidents is going on at the U.N., with Hassan smoothly fielding questions. Rob's cell phone vibrates, and he steps out to take the call from Hastings. He's not impressed to hear that Victor and two CTU guys were killed in an ambush. Hastings says they're currently following a lead based on Victor's last words. "Tell me how, and I'd better be impressed," Rob warns. Hastings explains what they're working on. Rob is...not impressed. Hastings suggests locking down Hassan and postponing the conference, but Rob refuses. Peace, historical, blah blah blah. "You said you could get the job done. Lean, mean, and fast, that's what you said." That certainly sounds like Hastings, at least the "lean" part. Rob hangs up, ordering Hastings to keep him posted.
When he returns to the briefing room, Taylor is wrapping things up. Weiss intercepts her coming off the dais to talk to her in private, while Hassan checks his phone, tells his family he'll catch up (the missus is quite complimentary about his performance, so I guess they made up in the elevator), and returns the call. Which was from Reed, of course. "You were terrific," she says without preamble, and he chuckles modestly, saying he hoped no one could see how nervous he was. Dude, someone has a crush. She still wants to see him, and after waving away his brother, lurking nosily in the background, Hassan tells her he has a half hour before the next session. "You'll meet me now and...we'll go up to my...private office together." Well that certainly sounds fully appropriate and non-creepy. But she's on her way.
At 5:07:48, Hastings stands over Arlo, who is explaining that he won't know why the drone didn't fire until he can take it apart. He quietly adds, "I don't want to sound like I'm covering my own ass, but I did tell you that the anti-missile system had not been tested in an urban environment." Hastings impatiently tells him to figure it out and "get back to me." Dana comes up and says that whoever hacked into the U.N. database downloaded all kinds of goodies, including security protocols, blueprints of the building, and Hassan's itinerary. She says Chloe should have a name by now, but when they get back to her desk, she doesn't quite yet, because remember how she sucks at her job now? "Come on, Chloe," Hastings moans impatiently. "Saying that isn't going to make it happen any faster," Chloe says. A few seconds later, up pops the name Meredith M. Reed, Freelancer. Try to look surprised. Dana reads from the screen that she's a reporter profiling Hassan, and applied for a security pass to the U.N. In fact, she's there now, and CTU is starting to kind of freak out about it. "Put me through to U.N. Security!" Hastings tells his ever-present Bluetooth.