Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Terrorist Leader: 2. Bloated Government Bureaucracy: 1.
By M. Giant | Season 4 | Episode 15 | Aired on 03.27.2005
In the interrogation room, Eric the Torture Guy is capping a spent syringe while Curtis questions a woozy TerrorTeen. Wow, that stuff works fast. Curtis isn't getting much, simply because TerrorTeen doesn't know much. I could have told him that. In the observation room, Soul Patch is called in to the briefing that's about to start. "Call me if he turns up anything relevant," he says to the bird-faced AV guy before leaving. The bird-faced AV guy doesn't exactly hover over the speed-dial.
Out on the floor, Potato Face gets a call from the aforementioned Meg, who's found the flagged item about PMPMES's family being reported missing "two hours ago." "How could someone be missing two hours?" Potato Face asks doubtfully. Good question. Especially when we just saw them less than an hour ago. Meg wants to know what to do with the report, so Potato Face, with some difficulty, pushes her off on Lispy Skip. As Meg saves the file to a red CD-ROM, Potato Face calls Skip to warn him that it's on its way. "Can't Meg do it?" Skip whines. "No," Potato Face snaps. "It's the job of the lead tactical. Isn't that what you think you are?" Lispy Skip defensively says he'll take care of it. "Fantastic," Potato face snots. Your tax dollars at work, everyone.
It's 9:32:57 as DoDder walks across the CTU floor, jabbering into her cell phone. She catches up with Soul Patch and asks whether the impending briefing is about the Kiefer-swap. Soul Patch says that the decision about whether to go through with the trade is going to be up to someone that Division sent over. Someone besides Bitchelle, he means. He tells DoDder, "I don't have to tell you that Kiefer would want us to do what's best for the operation and the country. Not what's best for him." DoDder takes a second to say she knows, and Soul Patch is off to the briefing. Bitchelle meets him along the way, asking whether they've gotten anything out of TerrorTeen yet. Soul Patch says Curtis is still trying. At this, they arrive at the conference table out on the floor, where Bitchelle introduces the guy from Division, whose name is Buchanan. He updates the viewers who have just tuned in, then asks everyone why ImhoTerror wants TerrorTeen back. Nobody's been able to figure that out, of course. Sadly, I'm not there to point out that if your chess opponent is prepared to sacrifice a knight for a pawn -- particularly a whiny, clueless pawn -- he's got something else going on. Buchanan asks what happens if they don't make the trade. Potato Face pipes up, "We don't get Kiefer back, for one thing." Buchanan says that can't be the deciding factor. Bitchelle says it could represent a chance to trap ImhoTerror. Even though, as Buchanan points out, ImhoTerror is unlikely to show up ImSelf, Lispy Skip says that they can put more than one tracking device on TerrorTeen: one decoy and one subcutaneous. I wonder how long Lispy Skip practiced saying "subcutaneous." Buchanan is doubtful, but Bitchelle points out that the lack of leads is forcing them to run with every chance they get. Buchanan gives the go-ahead.