Episode Report Card M. Giant: A | 1 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT We still have Logan to kick around
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 21 | Aired on 2006.05.08
3:27:42, assuming that severe weather alert on my local Fox affiliate didn't shave off a second or two there. Graham is on the phone with Logan, giving him a dressing-down over his failure to shoot down the plane. "It's going to be much harder to contain now, if not impossible," Graham bitches. Tell it to the Marines, Graham. Wait, Logan already did that, and he assures Graham that Kiefer's surrounded. Graham hopes he's right, and Logan says he knows what's at stake before hanging up. And then he goes back to his regularly-scheduled standing around.
At 3:28:53, police cars and military Humvees are converging on the landing site, sirens wailing and their lights diffused by the thick smoke. It must smell like a tire fire there. What I'm curious about is how are they going to get the plane out of there? My understanding is that it takes more runway to take off than it does to land, and it's not like they can taxi back to Van Nuys. The only way to get it out of there is in pieces. Maybe the F-18 returned to base a little early. Still hidden under the overpass, Kiefer gets on his cell phone to ask Curtis where the hell he is. Curtis says they're nearly there, coming in from the north, and Kiefer gets a visual (since he won't say it, I have to). He says he'll meet Curtis on that side of the freeway, hangs up, and makes a break for it. And as if his hijacked passengers didn't have enough to contend with, now they're disembarking into the faces of armed Marines. Let's hope someone remembers Hans Meyer and Marshal Avila in the luggage compartment. Assuming all the rattling luggage hasn't beaten them into paste, of course.
Kiefer hops the freeway barrier and a chain-link fence like a man twice his height (which, for all I know, his stunt double is twice his height) and jumps into the back of a CTUmobile pulled over on the frontage road. Still riding in the shotgun seat, Curtis orders the driver to get them out of there. They're moving almost instantly, but you just know by the ominous way the cinematographer shoots the blind T-junction ahead of them that their exit will not go smoothly. And indeed, a whole convoy of Marine Humvees pulls into view; instant roadblock. "You're going to have to try to talk your way through the roadblock," Kiefer tells Curtis, cocking his weapon in a way that demonstrates that "try" is the operative word here. Marines jump out of their vehicles and approach the CTUmobile, weapons drawn. Their leader comes to the open driver's side window, and Curtis carefully hands over his CTU ID. The commander says they have orders to detain everyone, and Curtis claims that they too are looking for the hijacker. "Jack Bauer?" the commander asks, while the gentleman with that name sits in the back seat looking down nervously. "I wouldn't call it a hijacking, per se," he refrains from saying. The commander demands IDs from everyone in the car, but Curtis puts the kibosh on that, saying they don't have time. "Now we're moving out." he declares. "If you really want to fire on Federal agents, that's your call." His bluff called, the commander orders his men to stand down, and the CTUmobile is on its way. There's a long silence in the vehicle, which Kiefer completely fails to break by telling Curtis what a good job he just did. Curtis calls CTU and tells Buchanan that they're on their way back with Kiefer, and that with all the Marines around (whom Buchanan assumes are taking their orders directly from Logan), they're taking back streets. Wow, it's going to take them forever to get back.