Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Diplomessy
By M. Giant | Season 4 | Episode 21 | Aired on 05.08.2005
Consulate Cop is walking out again, following the CTU Redshirts. He's already on the phone, saying in Chinese, "The [man] who led the attack on our Consulate was Kiefer. Pull up all his files. I want to look at them when I get back." So China doesn't want a confrontation any more than the U.S. does? I guess Consulate Cop didn't get the memo.
Kiefer peeks around a corner and spots a lone guard standing outside the current ImHideout. He instructs Michaels over his earpiece to "take him out." "Copy that," is the response, followed by a single shot from the nearest rooftop. The guard goes down. Michaels is an efficient fellow. Kiefer and his team sprint towards the now-unguarded building. It's 3:56:13.
Inside the building, ImhoTerror tells Keith Szhittytiming to "Start the sequence." He does, and a text window pops up on Keith's screen saying, "Missile launch in 00:04:00." It starts counting down the seconds. Hey, that's during next week's previouslies! No fair! ImhoTerror sees the same thing on his screen. He shuts down the laptop and says, "We're done here." He and his minion get up to leave. He tells the other two guys there to "get the car," although he hangs back himself. Unbeknownst to any of them, Kiefer and his team are already at the outer door. They burst through and take out ImhoTerror's guys in seconds. Once again, ImhoTerror's failure to pick a base of operations without windows has bitten him in the ass. The bar had windows, and that worked out fairly well for him. Why doesn't he learn?
Abruptly outnumbered, ImhoTerror flees back from whence he came. But he's surrounded, cornered, and generally screwed. For reals this time. Curtis flushes ImhoTerror towards the door Kiefer's standing behind. When ImhoTerror makes a break for it, he runs right into Kiefer's gun barrel. "I've been waiting for this," Kiefer breathes. ImhoTerror says, "You're too late," and backs away with a smile, hands raised. Unfortunately for ImhoTerror, Kiefer is no longer the same softie who didn't shoot Saunders at this point last season. Which he proves by shooting ImhoTerror. Just in the arm, though. ImhoTerror goes down. Kiefer gets nice and close and kneels on ImhoTerror's wounded arm. ImhoTerror grunts in pain. "That hurts, doesn't it?" Kiefer says. He's still got his gun in ImhoTerror's face, and he's stroking the muzzle around all over his enemy's head and making these terrifying evil-chipmunk faces that are scarier than anything we've seen ImhoTerror do all season. A freaked-out Curtis reminds Kiefer that "We still need him." Kiefer ignores Curtis. But he doesn't ignore ImhoTerror when he says, "Go ahead, kill me. That won't stop the missile."
Oops. "What are you talking about?" Kiefer demands. Curtis runs over to the laptop that ImhoTerror just shut down, which is now showing a live webcam shot of the missile in Iowa, getting ready for takeoff. "We got a problem," he tells Kiefer. Kiefer tells his guys, "Secure the prisoner," and joins Curtis at the desk. "Oh, my God, they've got a missile," he obviouses. Shot ImhoTerror is lying on the floor and smiling, like, What did I just say? Kiefer tells Curtis to hook his GameBoy up to the laptop so CTU can patch into what it's doing. Soul Patch, who's supposedly been "running point" this whole time back at CTU, finally does something: he asks what's going on. Kiefer tells him about the missile. "How can that be?" Soul Patch asks in confusion. Curtis hits a button on his GameBoy and the missile appears on the CTU big screen. There are less than 52 seconds left. Everyone at CTU scrambles to figure out what to do, but there's no time; the satellite scans aren't working fast enough, and the visual is too general. "A structure…trees," analyses Potato Face, the insanely qualified CTU analyst. Too bad Kiefer wasted all that time forcing ImhoTerror to make out with his gun. ImhoTerror smugly returns Kiefer's stare as the clock counts down to zero, even though it started at four minutes and it's only been three and a half. And the missile streaks into the night sky, no doubt on schedule to hit Los Angeles during the season finale. It's 4:00:00. Supposedly.