Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Who Rescues the Rescuer?
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 3 | Aired on 01.15.2006
But, oops, Beresch is just getting off his phone, and he doesn't look like he got good news. "Hostages up!" he orders. It's 9:57:32 as Kiefer tells Curtis to hold on, since Beresch is changing something. One of the minions brings Beresch a laptop, which he places on the ticket counter. He taps the keys, and suddenly both Kiefer's and Curtis's ears are flooded with painful feedback that's almost as shrill as Diane's voice. Their call is cut off. At CTU, Buchanan and Audrey hear the static as well, and Buchanan stresses at Curtis to reconnect with Kiefer immediately. Meanwhile, Beresch picks up a phone behind a ticket counter and speaks into it so that his voice is carried over the public address system. "Jack Bauer," he calls out. He signals for Derek to be brought to him. "Derek is a very brave young man," Beresch announces. "I will shoot him in the head if you don't show yourself immediately." Damn. But at least it's a nice change from all those "please control your luggage" announcements you usually hear in airport terminals. Kiefer realizes the jig is up. Up in the ceiling with him, in fact.
Buchanan is still trying to get Curtis to get back in touch with Kiefer, but it's still not happening. Curtis doesn't think it's a good idea to go ahead with the strike, since the last thing Kiefer said could have meant that Beresch is moving the hostages into the area where Curtis's guys are going to be shooting. "Abort!" Buchanan barks.
All of the hostages except Derek are standing in a clump near the ticket counter, their hands behind their heads. Minions push Derek back onto his knees in front of Beresch, who repeats his threat over the intercom. In other splitscreen windows, Diane frets; Walt investigates the mess FLOTUS left in the Archives Room, and one empty folder in particular; and Logan turns away from the live feed.
Over the PA, Beresch says he's giving Kiefer five seconds before he kills Derek. He only gets to three before Kiefer shows himself. Kiefer sure got down from the ceiling quickly, didn't he? He also ditched his man-purse somewhere along the way. I suspect that the man-purse is lying in wait to throw itself at Beresch at a critical moment. Kiefer puts his gun on the floor, and a minion ties his hands and forces him down to his knees. Kiefer tries to kill Beresch by glowering at him, but that's one lethal skill that he hasn't yet mastered. On the other hand, it's only 10:00:00.