Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Die Hard At CTU
By M. Giant | Season 6 | Episode 21 | Aired on 05.06.2007
Kiefer starts leading Josh and Marilyn through the hallways and catacombs of CTU, his gun leveled the whole time. In this context, you really get to appreciate how much CTU looks like a level of the game Half-Life, except with fewer headcrabs. This episode could use some headcrabs. As they quietly make their way across a catwalk at 2:51:46, Kiefer is unaware that some patrolling commandos are not far behind, although they're not yet in sight. Kiefer leads them into a utility room and has Marilyn shut the door behind them. This room conveniently has access to a large ventilation duct that's blocked only by a slowly turning fan -- not even a grate or anything. Kiefer jams his machine gun in between the blades, and tells Josh to crawl up through and inside, promising that he and Marilyn will be right behind. Kiefer's just helping Marilyn up into the duct when three bad guys burst in. This time Kiefer uses up all of his ammo without hitting anyone at all, and so he and Marilyn get taken prisoner. The commando tells Zhao over his earpiece that Josh got away, but they still have Marilyn and Kiefer. Zhao wants the other two commandos to bring the prisoners to the floor while the third commando waits there for Josh.
Meanwhile, Josh reaches a Y-junction in the ventilation tunnel and freezes, wondering what to do next. My theory that Cheng wants Josh because he's secretly a genius who can fix the component just went down the shitter.
Down on the floor, Zhao tells his tech support guy to shut down the ventilation system and put him on the PA. While he's waiting, he reports to Cheng that they lost Josh. "Get the boy back!" Cheng barks. "I don't care what you have to do!" Zhou's tech support guy says that they're getting another call from Doyle, and that he thinks it would probably be a good idea to answer this time. Zhao goes to a computer screen and calls out, "Nadia Yassir!" Nadia can't hide behind Milo this time, and not just because he's dead. So, after a pause, she weakly hauls herself to her feet, walks around the pool of Milo's cranial blood on the floor, and goes to Zhao. He asks her if she's the ranking officer, like the roster says. Nadia admits it. Zhao tells her to answer Doyle's call and say that there's been a problem with the communications system. And, of course, if she tries to warn Doyle, he'll kill everyone in the room, starting with Nadia. I suppose it would be too much to ask for him to start with his own guys. Her eyes locked on Zhao's, Nadia answers and tells an impatient (if not suspicious) Doyle that they're having problems with comm. She lies that they haven't gotten a lead on Cheng's position yet. Doyle bitches that all she had to do was reposition some satellites. Her voice thin with stress, Nadia says, "As soon as we get a visual on Cheng's vehicle we'll let you know." At 2:55:42, Doyle is like, "Okay, thanks." He hangs up. He totally knows.