Episode Report Card M. Giant: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Kiefer's Ex vs. World War III
By M. Giant | Season 6 | Episode 18 | Aired on 04.15.2007
Out in the hallway, Karen bitches to Tom about the Veep's arrogance. Tom admits that doesn't blame the Veep for being nervous about Kiefer's plan. Karen says that isn't the point, because she remembers how Kiefer kept the Germans from getting the WET list last season (although she doesn't say so). Tom says the point is that the Veep is now the acting president, "whether we like it or not." Then he says that he's going to the hospital, effectively disregarding the other two of the three orders the Veep just gave him.
Left alone in the hallway, Karen pulls out her cell phone and calls hubby. He asks about Wayne, and Karen says he's not good. Worse yet, the Veep has decided to cancel Kiefer's operation and recall him and the component to CTU. Buchanan asks if the Veep gets the situation. "He's not that kind of a man," Karen says. "He doesn't operate in shades of gray." Like anyone like that could ever become president, even temporarily. Showing off a missing button on the cuff of his suit jacket, Buchanan protests that Kiefer isn't going to go along with this. Karen says as nicely as she can that that's Buchanan's problem, and they end the call. At 11:57:14, Buchanan heads over to his remaining crew -- consisting entirely of the speaking roles, because the extras have all gone home for the night and CTU still doesn't have a night shift -- and says that Kiefer's operation is over per the White House. He wants to have support teams ready to move in. Chloe is distracted from staring daggers at Morris when Buchanan tells her she needs to stay out of this one. "Why?" "You've shown me I can't trust you," Buchanan obviouses, and puts Morris in charge of comm. Chloe warns Buchanan that Kiefer's not going to lie down for this. "I know," Buchanan says, dialing his cell phone. If Chloe adds, "Neither am I!" and launches herself at him with teeth and nails bared, we don't get to see it.
In the CTU truck, Doyle's phone rings. Buchanan asks if Kiefer can hear Doyle. "Say yes or no," he says. But Doyle only says yes. Kiefer's radar quietly pings, but he says nothing. Buchanan tells Doyle that the deal is off, and they need to bring Kiefer in. He gets their current location, and tells Doyle to take the next exit and be ready to meet the CTU backup teams that will be waiting. "Disarm Jack as quickly and quietly as possible before he finds out," he instructs. "No problem," Doyle says with crashing inaccuracy, and hangs up. He pretty quickly and smoothly comes up with a lie about how they have to take a different route due to high winds and possible fallout advisories (in case you, like Wayne, forgot that a nuclear bomb went off today). Kiefer seems to buy it, and he stows his man-purse in the back. But when his hands come off of it, one of them is holding a gun pointed at Doyle's head. So clearly, he wasn't fooled. He threatens, "Earlier today, I shot my old partner, a friend of mine, because he tried to stop me from doing what I had to do. Don't think for a second I won't do that to you." He tells Doyle to pull over. Doyle carefully complies, all the way over to a splitscreen window. In other windows, Lisa lets us admire the way her high heels look crossing the Presidential Seal on the Oval Office rug; Buchanan, Morris, and Milo remain ignorant of just how quickly things went wrong; and Karen hangs out in a White House hallway wondering how she's ever going to undermine the Veep now. Doesn't she have people to alert? And then we're back to Doyle, pulling the pickup over on an access road. Kiefer tells Doyle to leave the keys and his phone and get out. Doyle says Kiefer doesn't want to do this. Again, Doyle is wrong. As Kiefer forces him out of the truck, Doyle warns, "Daniels is the acting president. He's the one who called this off." Kiefer tells Doyle to shut up and lean against a nearby fence. "This is gonna end badly, Jack!" Doyle yells as Kiefer drives off. Finally, Doyle said something correct. It's 12:00:00.