Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Finger Pointing
By M. Giant | Season 8 | Episode 2 | Aired on 01.17.2010
At 5:53:20, Toombs walks up the front steps to a little house in suburban Queens and rings the doorbell. A mildly brassy young housewife answers the door, and they clearly know each other, because she calls him Mike and he calls her Maggie and she lets him in. Only he's speaking in a standard American accent instead of his usual vague Eastern European one, so maybe she doesn't know him as well as she thinks. He says he's there to ask her husband for a favor. He's acting all friendly-like (though he still looks plenty creepy to me) as her husband Jim calls down that he'll be right there. Toombs loiters in the living room while Maggie gets them some coffee. The news is on TV, showing the burning helicopter like it's the most exciting thing since, oh, a nuclear detonation in Valencia or something, and he somehow manages not to tell Maggie, "Hey, I did that!" Instead, he acts modest as she sits down and starts talking about what happened at the conference. She talks about how he and Jim will be part of history, being on the U.N. Security Detail and all. Oh, no. I don't know how he ever infiltrated his way into that gig, but my preliminary theory is that it's somehow Hastings' fault.
At 5:54:56, Dana goes to interrupt Hastings' interrogation of Reed. Before leaving the capsule, Hastings tells Reed, "You're not leaving this room until you tell me the truth. No matter how long it takes." He leaves her there thinking, God, what a dick. At least that's what I'm guessing by the expression on her face, which has been pretty immobile up until now. I'm trying not to be too disappointed by the job she's done so far, because this show has wrung shitty performances out of good actresses before (coughConnie Brittoncough). In the observation room, Dana apologizes for interrupting, and he asks her what it's about. "Jack Bauer," she says dramatically. Of course it is. What else is it ever about?
At the moment, Kiefer is using his handprint to gain access to the armory, which is decorated like an Apple Store for gun nuts. Everything is neatly laid out, with the handguns hanging on the white walls butts-out. Kiefer snakes one, loads it, and sticks it in the back of his pants before answering a cell phone call from Chloe. She's calling to tell him the cab dropped off their guy at Broadway and West 23rd Street in Queens. "I'll call you when I get there," he says, and hangs up, just in time to get stuck up by a couple of uniformed CTU guards who burst in with their weapons leveled. Kiefer wearily submits to a frisking as Hastings and Cole follow the guards in. Hastings gives Cole the man-purse Kiefer's been carrying around all this time, like Cole wants anything to do with this at all. The guards also give Cole the gun Kiefer snagged, and Hastings cuts them loose. He reminds Kiefer he told him to drop his little side investigation, and Kiefer grumps that they tracked their suspect, but he didn't think Hastings would authorize further investigation. "So you had no choice except to steal weapons from the armory?" Hastings asks. "Would you have followed through with an investigation if I'd asked?" Yes, that certainly justifies gun theft. Good luck getting on a plane to L.A. now, Kiefer. Better tell Spawn to pick you up at the bus station, in three to five years. Hastings tries to end the discussion and tells Cole to take Kiefer to detention. Cole doesn't move, at first, but when he starts leading Kiefer out, Kiefer says, "I'm sure President Taylor's going to be very interested in what happened to my informant when I tried to deliver him to you." Yes, he's calling Hastings out for sending a drone to do a team's work. "Cole hasn't said anything about it. And neither will I, as long as you let me pursue this." Hastings knows he's being blackmailed, but Kiefer calls it a case of "you forced my hand, now I'm forcing yours." "You don't want to be doing this, Bauer," Hastings warns. Kiefer readily agrees, "No I don't. I want to be on a plane to Los Angeles with my family, but you're not giving me another choice." Outmaneuvered, Hastings tells Kiefer to knock himself out, and tells Cole to give him his man-purse back. Cole, who hasn't said a word, hands it over. "I need Chloe to run ops," Kiefer adds as he slings it over his shoulder. Hastings is only too happy to hand her over. Kiefer sincerely thanks him and leaves, with his borrowed gun and everything. Once he's gone, Cole asks if Kiefer's right. "The only viable lead is sitting in our interrogation room and she's the only way we're going to get to the assassin," Hastings insists. Somehow, Cole doesn't call out to Kiefer, "Wait for me!"