Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Poison
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 15 | Aired on 03.23.2009
Stokes and Mitch are satisfied with the diagnostics. There's even a handy LED readout right there on the outside of the container that tells Mitch that everything's copasetic. "Good," Stokes says angrily. He calls the truck over at 10:45:45. As it wheels around into position, Stokes calls Cooper on his walkie-talkie, but there's no answer. He sends one of his other guys to go find him, while Kiefer and Tony hide out and wait for them to confirm that they're not alone. Because what's the best tactic when you still have the element of surprise? Wait for it to expire, of course. As soon as Stokes gets the report that Cooper is dead, he pulls his gun and starts yelling orders. "Engage, engage!" Kiefer says to Tony, and they open fire. One of the men goes down while the rest dive for cover behind the cars. Tony and Kiefer keep shooting as the forklift crane backs into the aisle, one guy shooting from outside the highly-placed cab. Kiefer takes him down, and the operator is hit but not killed as the crane keeps moving. A couple of loose containers are knocked off the stack, crushing a parked pickup as the firefight continues. The incredibly dedicated forklift operator manages to lower the container onto the trailer, and Stokes gives the order to drive the truck out now. It's moving right away, because apparently the driver never stepped out from behind the wheel. "I'm going after it!" Kiefer yells at Tony. "Cover me now!" Kiefer makes a run for it behind the line of containers, while Tony wastes ammo giving him protection he doesn't need. Seeing the truck coming around the corner, Kiefer starts to climb containers. And Tony is out of lead by now, so he runs off, probably hoping to get back to his car before he gets caught. Stokes and his men, meanwhile, have come back out into the open, having somehow intuited that their assailants are empty. This would be a lot easier for Tony if he'd just saved a few bullets until the very end. "Two shooters, fan out and find them," Stokes orders his men. He's still angry, but now he's got a better reason to be, I think. By this time, Kiefer's on a second tier of containers, from which he leaps down onto the roof of Starkwood's container as the truck rumbles past beneath him. Then he climbs down to the side of the cab, where he takes the time to open the driver's side door and sock the driver in the mush before throwing him out into the dirt. "Tony, it's Jack, do you copy?" Kiefer says once he's behind the wheel. Right now, Tony is too busy beating up one of Stokes's men and taking his gun away from him to copy. I do like the move where Tony rolls over him, even if it can't hurt that much. But then Tony is shot at from above, and he surrenders to Stokes and his men. Who suddenly aren't in as much of a shooting mood. "I know you," Stokes says. "You're on Emerson's crew. You're Almeida, right?" Hearing this over his earpiece, Kiefer mutters, "Dammit." Well, what did he expect? Stokes asks where Kiefer is. Just as Kiefer crashes through the port's locked gates with the truck. It's 10:49:34, and Kiefer forgot to yell into his earpiece, "Stay alive! I will find you!"