Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | 399 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT Nuclear Winner
By M. Giant | Season 6 | Episode 17 | Aired on 2007.04.09
10:15:32. Tom hands Wayne a preliminary file on General Habib, saying that more will be on the way shortly. As is the Mideastian ambassador, who is expected to arrive within fifteen minutes. Also, Sandra is on her way back to the hospital to be with Walid, which is fine with me. Tom tries to take things to a personal level by buttering Wayne up on his handling of the crisis. Wayne cuts him off, saying that he knows Tom isn't happy about being kept out of the loop on Wayne's bluff. "The Joint Chiefs and I agreed to keep the plan closed," he explains. Otherwise there wouldn't have been a cliffhanger last hour. Tom says that's not it: "I doubted your strength and your leadership," he confesses. Wayne says it's all right. Tom politely disagrees, and starts to leave without being dismissed. Wayne calls him back for some straight talk, saying that he knows Tom thought the Veep was the better man to handle the current crisis. Tom admits that he was wrong about that, and that the Veep might have started a world war. Wayne says that they're already in one, and that it just took him some time to realize it. He says that if the Veep hadn't gone all apeshit on them, Wayne wouldn't have been able to make his own bluff and they'd still be nowhere with the Mideastians. He concludes, "I'm not David, Tom. And I never will be. But I am learning that who I am is not so bad." I actually agree with most of that, except for the "but." Tom agrees that they're all learning, and tries to make another undismissed exit. This time, Wayne calls him back to ask him about the Veep's abrupt withdrawal of his suit during the previous hour: "You have something on him, don't you?" Tom finally finds a way to use his powers of weaselry for good as he says, "As Chief of Staff, I'm here to inform you, and also to protect you. Those jobs don't always work in combination." Finally, he departs, leaving Wayne to smirk at how sneaky his right-hand man is. But Wayne gets serious in a hurry when he sees that his hand has started shaking again. This show isn't satisfied with stealing from itself any more, so now it's stealing from Grey's Anatomy?