Episode Report Card M. Giant: D+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT I Got the Digits
By M. Giant | Season 4 | Episode 18 | Aired on 04.17.2005
At CTU Buchanan and Kiefer stand there looking defeated. Buchanan starts to leave, saying he'll have Curtis start the interrogation. Kiefer says they can't waste time like this. Now they're wasting time? When they could have been questioning Prado all along in the attorney's presence? It's not like the lawyer would object to CTU giving Prado a choice between spilling what he knows now in exchange for a deal, and the extreme likelihood of eventually ending up in a chicken-wire cage at Guantanamo Bay under the care of soldiers who won't be too impressed with a traitorous ex-Marine. But again, everyone's so stuck on torture as the only solution, they can't see any other way. If the only tool you ever use is a hammer, pretty soon everything starts to look like a nail. Good job, show, demonstrating how easy it is to fall into that trap. Buchanan reminds Kiefer of the Veep's order. "The president's not here," Kiefer says. "You are." Buchanan says, "If I authorize this, they'll know in ten minutes, we'll all be out the door." After CTU's multiple screw-ups and minimal firings since 6:00, I doubt that. But Kiefer's got an idea that "won't implicate anyone else but me": Buchanan just needs to accept Kiefer's resignation and let Prado go without charges. "He won't need a lawyer, he won't need a Marshal." Buchanan gets it: "You're going to take him on as a private citizen." Kiefer just looks at him. Well, that's great. This is a demonstration of the problem-solving skills that have served Kiefer so well all along. Can't torture a suspect? Figure out another way…to torture him. This satire's almost getting a little heavy-handed now. Torture long ago stopped being an ethical dilemma, so now the only way to keep it interesting is to throw up legal obstacles. Spooky. It's 12:50:07.
It's 12:54:35. ImhoTerror is still on the road, revelers mill around the outside of a blue-neon-lit club, the Warheadmobile traverses a hilly, forested stretch of I-80, and Kiefer's signing a clipboard at the CTU checkout desk. ImhoTerror's black van pulls up outside the club and he hops out, the most wanted man in America hanging out in one of the few public places where people are still gathered in large numbers. He calls his Warheadmobile driver, who says he's 92 miles from their destination. Wherever that is. ImhoTerror instructs, "When you get there, you'll meet with Morris." Apparently Morris will "configure the detonation," as ImhoTerror gave him the codes. He admonishes the driver that he has to follow the plan exactly, denying the Americans time to start an evacuation. "No delays." He hangs up, and we see that the club he's at is near the edge of Downtown. He turns and walks into the club. It's been a long day, but now it's Miller time.