Episode Report Card M. Giant: A- | 432 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Re-Juma-nated
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 12 | Aired on 2009.03.02
Still soaked from her swim, Walker scrambles through a culvert at 7:05:32 and sprints along a steep embankment. From there, she scrambles up onto a roadway, where a Park Ranger pins her with his car's searchlight. She identifies herself, and it's kind of handy that he's already heard about her on the police radio. While standing there in the open, in the light, Walker tells him to call in to Larry Moss right away with word that there's going to be an attack on the White House. He hasn't said more than a few words into his radio before he gets shot; Dubaku, Jr. has caught up with Walker. She runs across the road and disappears into the bushes on the far side, with Dubaku, Jr. in pursuit. Kind of embarrassing how a trained soldier with a machine gun can't seem to catch a person who's running in wet jeans.
Buchanan comes to visit Kiefer in White House jail and tells him about Walker -- what she found, and how she's missing now. Kiefer is a lot more worried that she's disappeared than he is about General Juma being in the city. Other than that, they've got no way of knowing what's about to happen. "Burnett knows," Kiefer says. Buchanan says that Burnett turned down immunity, so Kiefer asks for five minutes in a room with him. Buchanan says it's too late; Burnett's on his way to the hospital. So Kiefer tells Buchanan to do it himself. "I'm not trained in coercive techniques," Buchanan protests. Kiefer insists that he needs to "do this," avoiding the T-word as always. Buchanan whines, "I'm not arguing about what needs to be done, but I can't do it. I don't do that, it's not me!" Kiefer tells Buchanan that's not good enough: "You were the one who told me, people who stand by, they might as well help them plant the bomb." But Buchanan is still refusing. "I can't," he says as he leaves. And he takes most of the respect I used to have for him -- which was not insubstantial -- along with him. Yes, Kiefer's often a sadist who uses his imagination mostly for thinking up ways to torture and coerce people, but at least he has the courage of his convictions. Buchanan's worse; he'll condone it, back it up, even facilitate it, but when it falls to him to actually do it himself, he's above getting his hands dirty. Shut up, Buchanan.