Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Mayer, Mayer Not
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 14 | Aired on 03.16.2009
At FBI-DC, Walker hands over her badge and her gun to the agent that was handling her exit, and happens to look over at Janis. Who is turned around in her chair, looking at Walker and talking into her headset. Walker realizes they're onto her, and ducks into the hallway at 9:19:37. But Moss has her trapped in one of his trademark hallway pincer maneuvers, the same one he nabbed Sean with earlier. Don't nobody get out of this building on Larry Moss's watch. Other than terror suspects, obviously. "Where's Bauer?" he demands. She says she doesn't know, and he tells her not to lie to him. Well, technically she's not; all she knows is that right now Kiefer is somewhere between Mayer's house and wherever he was when she told him to go there. "We traced two calls from your cell to a phone that was reported stolen," Moss accuses. Reported stolen really fast, too. "And we know you accessed a classified government database and sent someone's name and address to Bauer." Which makes her an accessory after the fact, but Walker refuses to tell Moss where Kiefer is. "I still don't believe that he did this," she insists. Moss asks why he isn't coming in, if he's innocent. "Because he was framed and he doesn't trust our ability to work through it." And besides, why start now? "You're actually willing to sacrifice everything to protect him?" Moss asks wonderingly. Apparently so. "Once Jack finds the evidence, he will call us," Walker claims. Moss makes one more try, telling her that if she can tell him what she sent before Janis decrypts it, he'll make a note of her cooperation. She still isn't budging, so Moss has her arrested. Unfortunately, even that doesn't seem to make her love him.
At 9:20:53, a limousine pulls up to a large brick estate and drops off Senator Mayer. He lets himself in, taps the alarm keypad, and sets his briefcase down in the hallway. He looks like he's had a long day, and who could blame him? He's had his hearing interrupted and his star witness shanghaied, was summoned to the White House and held hostage there for almost an hour, and in the morning he needs to start looking for a new chief of staff. Plus, when he hears the printer in his study going, he realizes he's got an intruder. He slowly enters, as we see Quinn's face up on his monitor. He picks up his desk phone and finds it dead, just as we finally see Kiefer lurking in the room behind him. Kiefer shuts the study door, and orders, "Keep your hands where I can see them, Senator." "Bauer!" Mayer gasps. Kiefer tells Mayer to sit, and now we can see that he's holding a very large letter opener or kitchen knife. Mayer gathers his stones and says, "You want me dead, Bauer, you'll have to kill me where I stand." Kiefer retorts, "If I wanted to kill you, Senator, you'd be dead already. Now take a seat!" That's probably not as reassuring as Kiefer means it to be, but Mayer parks himself on the leather sofa and calls Kiefer a...wait for it...enigma. Ooh, burn! "An hour after you save the president from terrorists you murder a federal witness in cold blood," he remarks. Kiefer says that the man whose photo just came out of the printer is Burnett's real killer, and asks Mayer if he knows who it is. Mayer doesn't, so Kiefer tells him about Quinn and his connection to Starkwood. "What in the world does Starkwood have to do with this?" Mayer wonders, his curiosity aroused despite himself. Kiefer admits that he doesn't know, but he knows that Starkwood "sent someone to kill Burnett and frame me to cover up their involvement in everything that's happened today, including their attack on the White House." As Kiefer sits himself down at Mayer's desk, the senator is skeptical and says Kiefer will have to do better than that to get himself out of trouble. Oh, come on, how many times can he save the president in one day, after all? Kiefer growls that that isn't why he's here; he needs to know the connection between Juma and Starkwood. "There isn't one," Mayer says, which is so not what Kiefer wanted to hear. Mayer says that after conducting a six-month investigation, he of all people would know if there was a connection. Kiefer's not letting it go, and demands to see Mayer's files. Just to prove that he's not protecting Starkwood, Mayer lectures, "Starkwood has let their security teams run amok all over the world, with no oversight. They bribe their way into large contracts. They try to influence foreign policy, to their own benefit. All good reasons why this country should not be outsourcing its military operations to private corporations." Self-aggrandizing, sure, but I'm still waiting for Mayer to say something I disagree with. "I am going to shut them down," he promises. "But there is nothing to remotely suggest that they'd be involved in terrorist attacks on their own country. For any amount of money." Kiefer says there might be other reasons, and shows that Mayer's just won a little of his respect when he says, "Sir, I believe this country is still under attack and there has to be a reason." He still wants Mayer's files, and Mayer asks, "If the connection between Juma and Starkwood isn't there, will you turn yourself in then?" Long pause. Hmm, will Kiefer actually put his money where his mouth is? "Just open the files, sir," Kiefer insists. Well, he doesn't have to; he's the one with the knife. It's 9:24:56.