Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT You Can Take the Man Out of CTU…
By M. Giant | Season 4 | Episode 1 | Aired on 01.08.2005
DoDder's cell phone rings; it's the President, wanting to talk to DaD. DoDder hands the phone over. Well, no wonder DaD couldn't get a hold of her last night; she carries his phone. He was probably wandering around his hotel suite, calling her name into the stereo speakers. There's the standard "please hold for the President" business, and then DaD is on the line with President Keeler, who is at cruising altitude on board Air Force One. Show-off. I'd like to propose a Constitutional Amendment stating that presidents who blackmail their way into office have to fly coach. Keeler's calling DaD because he wants to raise the terror alert level in the wake of the train bombing, and also in response to the chatter about TerrorTurk. I don't remember Keeler's hair being this dark last season, but on the other hand I'm not about to go back and look. DaD wants to wait to hear from the NTSB on the train bombing before doing anything drastic like changing a meaningless, imaginary alert level that nobody understands or pays attention to anyway. Keeler promises to take DaD's advice into consideration during his upcoming meeting with the Secretary of State and the FBI Director. Ooh, decisive. On the other hand, maybe if Palmer had talked to his advisers a little more, he'd still be president. And speaking of Palmer, it's nice to see that his loyalty to Kiefer was so deeply appreciated that Kiefer took a job in the administration of Palmer's electoral opponent.
Kiefer enters Driscoll's office and they greet each other civilly, if not warmly. Kiefer apologizes for DaD not being there himself, and Driscoll apologizes for all the activity around the office, but they agree to get right down to business. And what is this meeting about? Well, it seems that since the Defense Department has budgetary authority over CTU, Driscoll's basically asking for more money. Kiefer tells her to justify it. She tries. He's not impressed. As arguments over government budgets on televised dramas go, it's not exactly The West Wing. The particulars aren't as important as the obvious theme that both of them have their dicks out and the entire office is interlaced with sparkling arcs of flying urine. As much as Kiefer claims not to resent Driscoll, he seems to enjoy making her scramble for the purse strings.
Their meeting is interrupted by the news that Kiefer 2.0 is almost at the dry cleaners. So now we know that CTU is within ten minutes of Studio City. Which in 24-time is about an hour. Oh, did I not mention that one of my ongoing projects this year will be to figure out exactly where CTU is? Wish me luck, unless it means they end up coming after me for getting too close. Anyway, Driscoll excuses herself, and moves to the other side of the office to watch Kiefer 2.0's operation on a monitor. Kiefer looks unhappy at his little revenge session being interrupted.