Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | 0 USERS: N/A YOU GRADE IT Day 5: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 13 | Aired on March 12, 2006
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.The CTU cast is all sealed up in "safe" rooms, but they won't be safe for long. That's because the nerve gas filling the building comes complete with seal-eating acid, which means that our heroes can't wait around for help to arrive. Chloe could take care of it from the Situation Room, but there's that computer in the ventilation room that has to be shut down manually. Kiefer's attempt to get through to it is blocked, so McGill has to step up. And it kills him. That'll learn him not to report his keycard stolen. Meanwhile, all manner of political maneuvering is going on in the outside world: the Vice President is pushing harder than ever for martial law, and it looks like the Department of Homeland Security is going to take over what's left of CTU. Once the building is aired out, Spawn declares that two hours around Kiefer is quite enough for her, thank you very much. And a vengeful Tony decides to finish off an apparently comatose Henderson with a lethal injection. Notice I said "apparently." So when Tony loses his nerve, Henderson snaps awake, turns the needle on his would-be executioner, and escapes, leaving Tony for dead. Kiefer arrives just in time to hear what might be Tony's last words. Yes, I said "might be." It's Tony. I'll believe he's dead when I see his bones. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Hey, in case you missed last week's episode, CTU got gassed but good. Also in case you missed it, it turns out that they have an automated announcement set up for exactly this kind of occasion. An unfamiliar voice on the P.A. explains how Sentox nerve gas has been released in the building, and lists the safe rooms (one of which is McGill's holding room, like, way to remember that a week later, writers). The announcement further instructs anyone in those areas not to leave until the chemical response teams clear the area. I don't know who the announcement thinks it's talking to in terms of people who aren't inside the safe rooms, because those folks? They dead. This is a highly specific yet not terribly bright automated announcement, is what I'm saying. One of those many corpses is, as you'll recall, Edgar, who's splayed out on the floor with strawberry yogurt spilling out of his mouth. Inside the sealed-off Situation Room, Chloe drops to her knees in front of the window as she looks out at him. Now she'll never get to hit that.
Buchanan's in his office (also sealed up safe), on the phone with Curtis. The Handsome Black Agent was already on his way back to CTU, but it's going to be another half hour before he and the Chemical Response Teams arrive -- even though it took them less than a half hour to get to the hospital two episodes ago, during rush hour. They must have been going against traffic back then. Buchanan hangs up and calls down to the Situation Room to relay the news to Kiefer and the gang, explaining that the CRT units that weren't at Tyler Memorial (over an hour ago! Snap it up, slowpokes!) have been sent to other "high-probability targets." On the bright side, all of the phones and computers are working, so they can still read my recaps. Kiefer's main concern for now is whether Henderson is still alive. He explains to Buchanan that the suspect was shipped over to Medical by Burke The New Torture Guy just before the barriers went down. Buchanan tells him to look at a building grid to find out. As for nerve gas countermeasures, CTU is lucky enough to have gas masks in the armory and atropine (nerve gas antidote, I suppose) in medical storage; CTU is less lucky in the sense that both of those areas are inaccessible. Kiefer tells Buchanan he'll call back. Because he's going to order a pizza?
He goes over to Chloe to try to snap her out of her paralysis, but she isn't snapping. For once. Kiefer acts all patient and understanding with her for about ten seconds, but his voice quickly begins to rise in frustration. And then Spawn's shrink boyfriend Barry cuts in: "Mr.