Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Waiting Is The Hardest Part
By M. Giant | Season 6 | Episode 23 | Aired on 05.20.2007
Karen is currently sitting in the now-sunlit Oval Office, listening to the Veep prostrate himself in apology, over the phone, to President Suvarov. Apparently, Cisco couldn't afford another TelePresence ad this week. Or maybe they just didn't want to be involved in a scene this embarrassing. The Veep is going on about how bad he feels over having deceived Suvarov (by which he means he's really upset about having been caught. From his wood-paneled office in the Kremlin (or the Kremlin's satellite office in Omsk or whatever), Suvarov -- also accompanied by a few advisors, most of whom are in the uniform of the Russian Army -- suggests that the Veep get the point of the call already. The Veep says that since neither of them actually wants the war that Suvarov is threatening to start over the FB sub-circuit board, the Veep is accepting a trade offer he received to get the component back. Suvarov says that's fine, but that he's not calling anything off yet; his troops are staying in Centralasia until the component is recovered or destroyed. While the Veep continues to flounder, Karen gets up and leaves the meeting, going out into the hall to answer her cell phone. My boss never lets me do that, and she's not even the acting President of the United States.
Karen finds herself being yelled at by Kiefer over the exchange, like it was her idea. Kiefer warns her that his Dad will screw them over and keep both Josh and the circuit board. Karen asks why Dad would even want the circuit board now, and Kiefer tells her that he still hopes to make a deal with the Chinese. Which is why Dad told Cheng, in the last hour, "Our arrangement is at an end." He's tricky, Dad is. Karen says that she agrees with Kiefer, but the Veep's made his decision and there's nothing she can do about it. "You're going to have to take care of this from your end," she says, knowing full well that those words usually end up with a bunch of CTU agents unconscious and Kiefer a fugitive from justice. Kiefer says that there's not much he can do, being in custody and all: "You need to stop this, and you need to stop it now." He snaps his phone shut, just as Agents Ryan and Turner belatedly get into the front seat, completely oblivious that Kiefer's been on the phone with the National Security Advisor. The truck drives off.
Out in the hallway at the White House, Tom joins Karen for a pedeconference. "That did not go well," he mutters of the call to Suvarov. Karen tells Tom about the call she just had, and adds that she thinks Kiefer's right about Dad planning to screw them: "He's Phillip Bauer's son, and he's been more right than we have today." Tom concedes the point (two drinks!), and asks how they're going to get the circuit board otherwise. Karen starts to tell Tom her idea, but Tom doesn't want to hear it, since his relationship with the Veep is "complicated." Translation: he doesn't want to get in trouble again. But he promises that, if Karen wants to try something sneaky, "I won't be looking your way if you do." That's good enough for Karen, who heads into her office.