Episode Report Card Gustave: A- | 0 USERS: N/A YOU GRADE IT Sliced Jalapeno
By Gustave | Season 1 | Episode 9 | Aired on January 21, 2002
Palmer limo. All that danger has gotten Lady MacPalmer genuinely concerned and protective. She clings to her husband's right arm and chides him for not taking the Secret Service seriously. Palmer tries to laugh it all off by reminding her of some other close call that turned out to be nothing. Plus, he reminds her, the Secret Service have someone in custody. "I don't think that we should be taking chances today," says Lady Mac, making it all about Theo again.
Back at the power plant, KuffedKiefer begs PMSG to let him get in touch with his people at CTU, but PMSG has "no choice" but to turn him over to the FBI. The velvety bedroom whisper has been worn down to a sleep-deprived gravelly bleat. Kiefer asks to speak off the record; PMSG doesn't allow it, but gives Intense Black Secret Service Guy a subtle head jerk to indicate that he needs to be alone with Kiefer. So now Kiefer can speak off the record, but it's off the record that he ever spoke off the record. He tells PMSG about his wife and daughter being kidnapped by the same people that want Palmer dead, and how he was forced by them to bring their weapons past security. "But I got Palmer out of the room," says Kiefer. "I saved his life." He goes on to beg PMSG to set him free so that he can find the assassins and bring them down before they kill Palmer. PMSG regrets to inform Kiefer that he doesn't have the authority to release Kiefer, but glumly suggests that he tell the FBI what he told him and "maybe they can help you out with your situation." "They won't," says Kiefer in a stage whisper to the support beam to which he's been shackled. Two more agents enter and escort him to an FBI-bound car. "Sorry, Kiefer," says PMSG as Kiefer is led away, his blond hair a beacon of light amongst the gray-faced government agents who, unlike the Kiefer, follow procedure. "You will be if Palmer dies," says Kiefer. The time is 8:09:52 AM.
Kiefer is led out of the makeshift interrogation offices and into the set of the 1990 Madonna video "Express Yourself," directed by a then-unknown David Fincher and inspired visually by Fritz Lang's urban industrially nightmarish Metropolis. No, wait, it's where Jennifer Beals worked as a welder in Flashdance because she, like Kiefer, took her passion and made it happen. Actually, it's some part of the power plant where it's dark and steamy and filled with narrow planks, big pipes, and semi-hunky men wearing hard hats. Kiefer recognizes the HardHatTerrorMinion who pushed Pho Mo out of the way earlier. Or at least I think that's HardHatTerrorMinion. Kiefer opens a steam valve with his shoulder that blows hot steam into the faces of his Secret Service escorts. Then he kicks and head-butts Intense Black Secret Service Guy, gets on the ground and "jump ropes" his hands so that they're no longer cuffed behind him, and grabs someone's gun. He runs along the plank, turning on steam valves to slow down his pursuers and getting workmen out of the way with his new gun. The agents have no choice but to hold fire because some sensible but unseen foreman is able to remind them that a power plant isn't a very cool place to have a gunfight. Kiefer runs and jumps a fence. He falls down a steep hill and lands by the side of a freeway, where he pulls a gun on the driver of a station wagon passing by, gets in, and makes her drive him out of there. The time is 8:12:47 AM.