Episode Report Card M. Giant: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Two Can Play at That Game
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 1 | Aired on 01.11.2009
At the FBI office, Walker checks in with Janis, who hasn't been able to find any evidence of an intrusion despite standing over another analyst and micromanaging her keystrokes. Janis follows Walker a short distance and asks, "Renee? Uh, what's gonna happen? If Almeida's broken through the firewall then we're screwed, right? I mean, crashing a couple planes is really nothing, compared to contaminating the water system or bringing down the power grid..." Walker advises Janis to not think about it and stay on task. Janis takes a couple of cleansing breaths and promises to stay calm. Walker seems to think that's a good idea. We're really in a hurry to put together a character for Janeane Garofalo, aren't we?
Still sitting next to Sean, Kiefer is taking his tie off. He's going to be naked by the end of the second hour at this rate. He makes Sean pull up something else they've already looked at, and Sean's kind of grumpy about it, going by the comment he makes to Walker when she comes up to check on them. Kiefer explains that he's looking for an entry point. "They had access cards," Walker says. Kiefer says that since no one reported their access cards stolen, they must have been forged. Presumably he's already ruled out the possibility of six separate inside jobs. Anyway, these cards are apparently so hard to forge that only a couple of people could have done it. He asks Sean to access some old CTU files, specifically August 1999, code name Hatteras. Moss comes up, letting them know that Homeland told him how the briefing with Taylor went, and planes aren't being grounded yet. Sean has found the file Kiefer wanted, and adds, "You know, you could hire a fourteen-dollar-an-hour data applications geek to do this, you don't need me." "I wouldn't advertise that," Walker advises. Kiefer has found what he's looking for: he points at a name on Sean's screen, Gabriel Schechter, a supplier that both he and Tony knew back in the day and used to get stuff "off-book." CTU must have had really thin books. Although Schechter couldn't have been entirely off book, if he shows up in old CTU files. The photo of Schechter shows a dude with greasy hair and facial scars that make it look like someone once tried to scoop out his cheekbones. Probably Kiefer. Anyway, not only is Schechter in the FBI database, he came to D.C. nine weeks ago. A week before the first technology theft, in other words. "That's your guy," Kiefer obviouses. Moss has Sean pull up Schechter's D.C. office address, and gives the order for Walker to go get him while he calls a judge for a warrant. "That's a mistake," Kiefer protests from his chair, warning that Schechter will just lawyer up and stall until it's too late. "So," Moss says to Kiefer, "what's the alternative, Jack? Break in and torture the guy, like you used to do? Isn't that how you ended up in front of a Senate Subcommittee?" Doing his best to look dangerous, Kiefer gets up from his chair and invades Moss's personal space so he can glower at Moss close up. Moss, to his credit, is not intimidated, possibly because Kiefer comes up to about his collarbone. "Oh, is this how it starts?" he asks. "You get in my face, tighten your jaw, and if I say something you don't like you slam me against a wall?" Well, that's kind of off the table now, isn't it? So Kiefer just growls, "You have no idea what I do." I don't know, Kiefer, sounds to me like he's got your number. Right down to the tenth decimal place. He claims not to care if they take his advice or not. Which, you know, is why he's so bunchy right now. Before this can go further, Walker wades in to ask Kiefer how well Schechter knows him. "He knows me," Kiefer says. Walker asks for a minute with Moss, and when Moss steps away to talk to her, Kiefer gives a little tough-guy nod, like, "Yeah, I thought not." Dude, what a prick.