Episode Report Card M. Giant: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Das Brute
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 22 | Aired on 05.14.2006
Logan asks Hayes what's up with the conference call with the Attorney General that he just now heard about. Hayes says the call's been canceled, which Logan says he's glad to hear. He says that he's really calling about Kiefer. "What about Jack Bauer?" Hayes asks at 4:06:14, for the benefit of the other person in the room. Logan says that the evidence that led him to order Kiefer's arrest seems to be falling apart, so he's canceling the order. Hayes basically repeats that back, and Kiefer looks intrigued as she protests down the line that Logan's had every government agency, from the Marines to OSHA, looking for Kiefer for the past several hours. Hayes now asks the Prez if she should release Kiefer, and Logan says, "I'll leave that up to your discretion. Thank you, Karen. Good work." And they hang up. Logan's entire manner throughout that call was totally smug: I know you know, and I know that you know I know you know. And do I care? No. As Kiefer points out to Hayes, "He's letting me go because he knows he's won...I'll be on my own. Alone, unprotected. A perfect target." Except he growls it, so as not to sound all whiny. Aside from that, I think it's pretty clear that it would be tough to round up volunteers for a protection detail for Kiefer. Just think of all the things that would happen to any guards or Marshals who dared take on that assignment. They'd end up getting punched, kicked, tasered, stabbed, shot...not to mention the things that could be done to them by people who came after Kiefer. But before this can be explored further, Buchanan comes in with word that Bierko escaped ten minutes ago, during his transfer. For some reason, both Kiefer and Hayes are shocked at this news. I would try to be shocked as well, but that would involve doing something that would pop a circuit breaker and then I'd miss part of the show. An hour after we all predicted this development, Buchanan explains that the convoy moving Bierko was ambushed, and the only surviving agent is currently calling in on line three. Handy, that. Hayes activates the speakerphone.
From a street scene littered with burning cars and armored corpses, the lucky agent reports that before he took a hit in the shoulder and blacked out, he heard Bierko saying to his men that they're "not finished," and mentioned something about a nerve gas canister. After the call's over, Kiefer, Buchanan, and Hayes wonder what this could mean. They realize that they don't actually know how many canisters were at the gas plant, because Kiefer blew the place up too thoroughly to count them afterwards. I'm going back to the tape. There are a bunch of shots where you can't really tell how many there are, but there's one where I can count at least seventeen. Which at that point were all the Bierko had left. Plus I said seventeen in the recap at the time, so you know it must be accurate. In other words, oops. "Damn it," Kiefer says, storming out of the room. Probably to go find a show that doesn't write itself into corners. Hayes rattles off a bunch of instructions to Buchanan. "This is priority one," she says. "We have got to find Vladimir Bierko."