In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
Wow, Graham is good. How good is he? So good that he's able to fake a distress signal from Kiefer's plane indicating that Flight 520 is about to be used as a weapon. This gives Logan an excuse to order it shot down, but Kiefer gets wind of the plan in time to force the copilot to land. Barely. It's really quite nervous-making. Before the Marines can nab Kiefer on the ground, Curtis picks him up and brings him back to CTU. A few things are going on there: (1) Audrey learns that her dad survived his car crash and is going to be okay (or should I say, "...oooookay?"); (2) Bierko is transferred from CTU to Division for no other discernible reason than to allow him to engineer an escape; (3) Slime throws a prissy hissy about being left in the dark, forcing Hayes to bring him into the loop. She's confident in his loyalty, so it should be fine, right?
Now that CTU has Kiefer and the recording, and there's a conference call scheduled with the Attorney General, Logan realizes there's no way out for him but the handgun in his office. And not in a Butch and Sundance way, either. But just before Logan 25th-Amendments his brains all over his Situation Room, Slime calls him up with an offer to intercede on his behalf. Logan takes Slime up on it, and it looks like Slime manages to sneakily erase the recording right under Chloe's nose. You suppose Season Six will be all about chasing after recordings of the other nine hundred incriminating phone conversations Logan has had today? Want more? The full recap starts right below!
This week's previouslies are anomalous, not only in that some of the scenes come from, like, six episodes ago, which never happens, but also because they're about ten minutes long. Which is good, because I was late getting my tape queued up. I think I'll blame the kid again.
Up in the cockpit of Flight 520, Kiefer is still holding his gun on the copilot, Scott Evans. For his part, Evans is taking a break from talking to the control tower about their approach in order to complain about Kiefer having broken his nose. Kiefer says they'll address that on the ground, but right now Evans needs to land that there plane. In spite of the watery eyes, ringing ears, and blinding pain he's no doubt experiencing now. At the same time, Kiefer is trying to get through to Hayes on his cell phone. Amazingly, his unauthorized use of a portable electronic device fails to crash the plane.
In a CTU Holding room with Hayes, Buchanan is finally being released from his handcuffs as Kiefer's call comes in. He tells the bosses that he got the recording off the copilot, of all people, and gets an updated ETA from Evans: 21 minutes. Sure, he said less than fifteen minutes not five minutes ago, but that would only take them to the first commercial break, and now they realize it's not enough time for everything that's about to happen. Considering how it plays out, I'm not complaining. Kiefer reminds us all that the recording he's got proves Logan's connection to Palmer's death, and that they can't let it fall into the hands of anyone loyal to the President. He says he needs safe passage to CTU once he lands. Buchanan chimes in to say they'll have it covered. Kiefer then asks how Audrey is. Hayes says that despite her wounds and her hour of utter nonexistence during the last episode, Audrey is currently recovering at CTU Medical. Kiefer's relieved to hear it, because he never remembers that that clinic is a fucking charnel house. And that'll wrap up the call.
Meanwhile, Audrey is sitting up in a bed at the CTU clinic. She's in her tank top and a pair of cream-colored yoga pants, and her left arm is wrapped in a white bandage. It goes around her bicep about a hundred times, from armpit to elbow, which means that we're talking about a good fourteen or fifteen inches of gauze here. Curtis comes in with some "great news": her dad survived his car crash. Really? That...looked...pretty unsurvivable to me. But then maybe he's got one of those newer models whose airbag comes with a breathing regulator. Curtis says Heller is currently recuperating at County General. They medivac-ed him all the way to Chicago? Well, if nothing else, he'll be safe there from Graham. Especially if he traveled by helicopter. Curtis assures Audrey that her dad is being protected by a CTU team, as if Curtis's guys aren't uniformed death-magnets. It looks weird to see him smile, like he doesn't quite have the hang of it yet. He takes a call on his cell phone, and Audrey thanks him as he leaves the room.
The call's from Hayes, who wants to be sure that Henderson's secured. Curtis says he is (not that we'll see Henderson tonight), so Hayes dispatches him to pick up Kiefer at Van Nuys Airport. "Why is he on a plane?" Curtis asks. Hayes explains briefly about how Kiefer "commandeered" the aircraft to get the recording of Logan talking to Henderson, and that Curtis needs to get to Kiefer before Logan's Secret Service guys do. Curtis heads out, promising to do just that. Can we go back to Henderson for a moment? Is there a reason that Logan hasn't arranged for his release somehow? No? Anyone? Bueller?
Speaking of Logan, he's sitting and fretting in his office when a call from Graham comes in on his cell phone. "We have a solution that will allow you to order the plane shot down," Graham informs him. "I sure as hell hope so," says Logan, which suggests that he's come to terms with the prospect. Graham says they're going to broadcast a "VCI distress code" that will look like it comes from the plane Kiefer's on. In response to Logan's Excellent Question (tm Jacob), Graham explains that it's a code indicating that a hijacker has gained control of the plane and intends to use it as a weapon. "All you need to do," Graham assures Logan, "is to appear to struggle with the ethics and then give the order." Logan jumps the gun on that first step during the long pause that ensues. "You sound...reluctant," Graham understates. Logan whines that he's about to "shoot down a plane full of innocent people." It was one thing when he was risking a relatively small number of citizens, or that of his own wife, in order to forestall a much more devastating attack, but now all he's doing is covering his own ass. That's me saying that, not him. Trying to contain his impatience, Graham tells Logan that he doesn't exactly have a choice. Logan hangs up, but gently this time. Well, not having a choice should make this easier.
At 3:06:26, Buchanan and Hayes are walking through CTU as Buchanan suggests bringing Chloe back in to the office to help retrieve Kiefer safely. As they cross the floor, Buchanan stops Hayes to express his appreciation for her help, and assures her that Kiefer's evidence will be worth it. "I don't always agree with his methods, but I trust his judgment," Buchanan says, which is good for at least half a drink. By now, Slime has noticed the two of them being all chummy, and is on his way over, an overly-groomed mass of suspicious confusion. Buchanan excuses himself, leaving Hayes alone with her underling as he asks her what's going on and why Buchanan's not in holding. Hayes just blows him off, and heads on her way with a gratuitous reference to the impending transfer of Bierko. They're transferring Bierko? That seems like a great idea while all this is going on -- to get him out in the open so he can either engineer his escape or get killed or both. Nothing but upside to moving him right now, as far as I can see.
Novick comes into the Situation Room at Not Camp David to inform Logan of the VCI distress code Graham promised, which has apparently already been picked up. Playing his role to the hilt, Logan repeats his Excellent Question for Novick's benefit, and Novick explains in more or less the same terms that Graham did, but in a tone that you use for bad news instead of good news, unlike Graham. Logan pretends to be as horrified by the prospect as he actually was eight minutes ago when he first heard about it. Novick leads Logan over to one of the big screens, explaining that an Admiral is ready to brief Logan via video conference from Point Mugu. Which I'd never heard of, of course, so when I heard Novick say something that sounded like "Point Magoo," I was very disappointed to discover that the Admiral wasn't a tiny little nearsighted man with the voice of Thurston Howell III. Instead, he's a perfectly normal looking guy in a Navy uniform. Once they're all connected, Logan fakes skepticism, asking how the plane could be transmitting the signal in the first place. The Admiral speculates that a pilot secretly activated it, which can only mean that Kiefer's in the cockpit. "What do we do, Admiral?" Logan asks, totally convincingly, and the Admiral explains in no uncertain terms that the only thing they can do is shoot the fucker down. Novick stops rubbing his head and looks up, shocked, as the Admiral says that F-18s are already scrambled and are prepared to intercept. Logan reminds the Admiral of the fifty people on the plane, but the Admiral points out the twenty million people on the ground in Los Angeles County. Which, come on, I don't think one civilian airliner's going to be able to kill all twenty million at once. It would take a while, flying really really low, and I think after the first million or two people would start to get wise. Novick argues that Kiefer doesn't seem like the type to pull an Atta, and Logan shiftily watches him debate the point with the Admiral. Novick turns to the President and suggests having the fighter jet follow the airliner until it's certain that Kiefer intends to ram something, but the Admiral rules that out, saying the time to shoot down the plane is now, while it's still over the desert, as opposed to fifteen minutes from now, when it's over pamie and stee's house. But The Admiral really cements his case when he points out that Kiefer's target on the ground might be none other than Not Camp David. That would be enough for Logan to make up his mind even if he were innocent, and he gives the order to shoot down the plane over Novick's protests. "Don't make this any more difficult for me than it already is," he tells his Chief of Staff. Typical of him, even pre-evil. I have to say, the last couple of episodes have made it a lot easier to reconcile the old, weaselly-because-he's-a-wuss Logan with the new, weaselly-because-he's-secretly-evil Logan.
Hayes and Buchanan are hanging in the Situation Room when Valerie (the blonde Homeland Security agent, who tried to track Audrey a few episodes ago, the only one besides Slime who ever gets any lines) comes in and hands Hayes a news flash. Hayes reads it, hands it unhappily to Buchanan and says, "We have to alert Jack."
It's 3:10:06 as Kiefer's cell phone goes off. Hayes urgently tells him about the VCI distress signal his plane is supposedly transmitting, and what it means vis-à-vis Logan's authority to shoot them down. "Shoot us down?" Kiefer repeats in shock, which causes the copilot's head to turn sharply. Can't blame him. There are certain phrases you never want to hear on a passenger plane, among them "shoot us down," "evasive action," and "do you have any Pepto-Bismol? Buchanan tells Kiefer that he has no more than eight to ten minutes before an F-18 shows up on their six to say howdy. Kiefer quickly realizes that there's not anyone they can call to talk out of this, and tells Evans, "We need to land this plane now." At first, I think that they'll just be an easier target sitting on the ground, but he's just thinking there's only one way to prove they're not a threat, gambling that that will be sufficient to force Logan to back off. The copilot protests that they're 100 miles from the nearest airport. This will be Evans' job for the rest of the time, by the way: telling Kiefer why he can't do stuff. Fun gig. But since even Kiefer can't make an airport appear underneath them, he asks Buchanan to find them a nice, straight stretch of freeway about a mile long. Buchanan obligingly gets on Yahoo!Maps and promises to call Kiefer back in a minute or two. "We can't land on the freeway," Evans duhs, but Kiefer says there won't be any cars, what with the lateness of the hour and the curfew in effect. He forces Evans to cuff his right hand to the control yoke (let's hope he doesn't need that hand to reach anything else, like the throttle or the landing gear or what have you), and tells him to start descending. He and the man-purse move up to the pilot's chair, where he puts his gun to Evans's temple and orders, "Do it now." It's 3:12:02.
And during the commercial, I'd like to remark that of course Kiefer wants to save himself and the rest of the passengers. I would too. But as for the country and his self -appointed mission, maybe he could hedge his bets a little by whipping out the recording and playing it back right now. That way, even if they crash, I guarantee that Logan will be in a damned awkward position when the NTSB finds the cockpit voice recorder.
3:16:13. Slime is doing some whatever on the CTU floor when Chloe comes back in, escorted by a uniformed guard. At first, she's holding her hands together in front of her like she's handcuffed, but she isn't really, as we see in the shot. Amazed, Slime watches her walk by. Valerie shows up at his side and asks what she's doing there. Slime has to admit that he doesn't know, which, knowing Slime, probably pisses him off more than anything else that happens this hour.
Chloe is led into the Situation Room, and Hayes dismisses the guard. Buchanan tells Chloe about the fighter jet that's chasing Kiefer, and Hayes tells her to get on the air traffic control network so they can track how long Kiefer has before the F-18 is in range. In the meantime, Buchanan has found a piece of freeway that might suit Kiefer's purposes.
Kiefer opens the cockpit door and sticks his head out to talk to Sue the flight attendant, who's sitting alone in First Class. He tells her to have the passengers prepare for an emergency landing. Not too scared to be annoyed, which is rather awesome of her, she asks what's going on. Kiefer promises that everything will be fine, and tells her to get them ready. She goes into the main cabin to comply. Kiefer's gun didn't make an appearance that whole time. It's like he's not even the hijacker any more, just a guy who's in charge of a fucked-up situation. Which he's probably used to, after all.
Back in the cockpit, he answers his cell phone and puts Buchanan on speaker so Evans can hear as well. Hey, did I tell you my new phone has a speaker function now? I can become a world-saving super-agent at any time now. Especially now that the season's almost over and I can, say, jet off to Karachi at a moment's notice without asking Sars to find me a sub. Buchanan directs them to the 118 freeway between mile markers 91 and 92, which gives them 4,000 feet before the first overpass. Evans complains that's not long enough, because he's Evans, but Buchanan tells him they can't do any better. Kiefer puts Buchanan on hold and threatens Evans, "You can either try and land this plane on the freeway, or I will." He totally would, too. Wisely, Evans also appears to believe him, and asks for the coordinates. After Buchanan reads them off, Chloe tells Kiefer that she's working on the location of the intercept fighter. Meanwhile, Hayes is on her phone. She's talking to Curtis, who's already riding shotgun in a moving CTUmobile on its way to Van Nuys Airport. Hayes tells Curtis that he's not exactly going to be meeting Kiefer at Baggage Claim.
It's 3:18:27 at Point Mugu as the Admiral conferences the F-18 pilot in with the Not Camp David Situation Room. The pilot reports that he's got radar contact with the passenger plane, which is currently in a "steep descent." Logan and Novick wait. They're both nervous, but for different reasons.
At CTU, Chloe's managed to hack into the ATC servers and pull up a radar screen showing Kiefer's plane, as well as the plane that's on its way to shoot it down. They see that the fighter jet is fifteen miles away, which Chloe is instantly able to calculate puts them in missile range within two minutes. She did that in her head? By the time I figured that out, I'd have wasted a whole sheet of notebook paper and Kiefer would be retracing the route of President Keeler's nuclear football. Kiefer complains to Evans that they're not dropping fast enough, but Evans says he's worried about not being able to pull out of a faster dive in time. Kiefer basically points out that they won't be able to pull out of any kind of dive at all if they're in pieces due to an air-to-air missile. Evans takes the point, and drops the nose, hard. From the back of the cockpit behind Kiefer and Evans, we're treated to the eerie spectacle of the lights on the ground filling the entire windscreen. In the cabin, the oxygen masks come down. From her jump seat in the back, Sue yells at everyone to put them on. She looks like she's wishing she'd worn the uniform with the pants on this flight, of you know what I mean.
The F-18 pilot reports that he's a minute away from being in missile range, and Buchanan tells Kiefer the same. "I have to pull up," Evans tells Kiefer in the rattling cockpit. "Not yet," Kiefer insists. A few seconds later, he looks out the port window and announces, "I can see the freeway." What, he doesn't "have a visual?" He must be terrified. He tells Evans to start leveling off, but Evans can't do it and the plane keeps dropping. He tells Kiefer to help him by pulling back on the pilot's control yoke. Kiefer combines his strength with Evans's as an alarm starts going off in the cockpit. "Ground proximity alert," Evans says, which I believe is aviator-speak for "Kiss your ass goodbye."
The F-18 pilot has 20 seconds to missile lock. He reports that the target is at a thousand feet and leveling. "Leveling?" the Admiral repeats in surprise. The F-18 pilot responds that the airliner seems to be preparing to land on the 118. Novick starts to look hopeful. Logan looks the opposite of that.
Up in the airliner cockpit, the horizon is back in front where it belongs. Kiefer yells at Evans to lower the landing gear, disregarding the warning that they're going too fast. Under the circumstances, wouldn't anything that slows them down be a good thing? The F-18 pilot notices and reports this development, just before Chloe announces that the fighter jet is in missile range. And the F-18 has a lock. The Admiral, noticing that the airliner is "in a landing profile," recommends to Logan that they abort the strike. "What?" Logan demands, furiously. "I want that plane shot down! Order your man to fire, now!" Novick yells at Logan that the Admiral is right: "I implore you to reconsider [you fucking asshole]!" The Admiral asks for Logan's orders, and after a long pause, Logan says, "Abort." The Admiral relays the order to the pilot, and Logan angrily tells Novick to have the Marine units in the area cordon off the landing site and nab Kiefer as soon as he's on the ground. Novick scurries off to comply.
"Five hundred feet!" Kiefer tells Evans, who responds, "We're not gonna make it." Because he's Evans. Kiefer's too busy hauling back on the control yoke to argue.
Driving down the highway, Curtis spots the plane coming in low and hot, but it looks a lot more level than it should given the view from the cockpit. He calls CTU to let them know.
Kiefer relinquishes control to Evans. "Touch us down!" he orders. Evans Evanses that they're going too fast. I don't blame him for being leery of landing after a panicked approach like the one they just had to execute, but it's not like the F-18 is going to let them circle around and try again. "Touch us down!" Kiefer roars. His fury is such that it raises the stall speed of a 727! Mere physics bows before the Velvet! There's an impressive external shot of the plane buzzing the first overpass, so close that the camera on the ground shakes. Those CGI pixels must be motoring. Evans sets the plane down hard on the freeway. Luggage starts falling out of the overhead bins in back. The F-18 reports that the plane has touched down, and peels off to return to base in a disorienting point-of-view shot that for a second makes it look like Kiefer's plane is rolling into the ditch. But it's not. Yet. Now Evans still has to get the plane stopped before the overpass, and it doesn't look good. Smoke pours from the landing gear tires, and it looks like it's only a question of whether the bridge supports will shear off the wings and ignite the tanks full of enough jet fuel to reach Frankfurt (fuel which Evans probably should have jettisoned a long time ago), or whether the wings will slice through the support columns and bring the bridge deck crashing down on the plane. But thanks to the magic of CGI and some highly suspicious editing, Evans manages to bring the plane to a stop with just feet to spare. Kiefer and Evans both pant in relief. I'm glad to say that in all my years of flying, I've never experienced a landing that rough. Even in bad weather, with wicked crosswinds and pitch dark and snow and the tires bouncing on the tarmac, I always say to Trash: "Any landing you walk away from is a good one." She fucking hates that.
I will say that was a hell of a sequence. Completely implausible, of course, but I admit that my heart was beating faster than at any other time this season. Maybe that's just me, or maybe it plays into everyone's latent fear of dying in a plane crash, whether its by being instantly decapitated by a flying chunk of wall paneling, or being trapped in your seat after the plane comes to a stop and the spilled jet fuel catches so you sit there getting cooked alive by searing heat that fuses the upholstery to your bubbling flesh. Not that I ever think about it.
Kiefer reports that they're safe on the ground, and Buchanan responds that Curtis is on his way. In a move that's incongruous enough to be funny, Kiefer leans over in the pilot's seat so he can read the road sign on the bridge right in front of him. He tells Buchanan to have Curtis meet him near the Balboa overpass, and to send another team to pick up the copilot. Buchanan acknowledges, and tells Kiefer to get out of there. Kiefer does, leaving Evans alone in the cockpit. From the way Evans is sitting there, he'd better hope someone on the secondary team has an extra pair of pants.
It's chaos in the main cabin when Kiefer gets out there. Everyone's rushing to the rear exit, and he hollers at them to keep doing that. Not surprisingly, they do. Way to manage the situation, Kiefer. The cabin's empty all the way back to well past the first emergency exit row, and it's there that Kiefer makes his own escape. He pops the exit door, sets it aside, and climbs out onto the port wing, where he runs along until he slides smoothly to the ground like he does this every day. When we know there are at least four days in his life when he hasn't. With the faithful man-purse at his side, he sprints for the cover of the overpass. It's 3:23:34.
3:27:42, assuming that severe weather alert on my local Fox affiliate didn't shave off a second or two there. Graham is on the phone with Logan, giving him a dressing-down over his failure to shoot down the plane. "It's going to be much harder to contain now, if not impossible," Graham bitches. Tell it to the Marines, Graham. Wait, Logan already did that, and he assures Graham that Kiefer's surrounded. Graham hopes he's right, and Logan says he knows what's at stake before hanging up. And then he goes back to his regularly-scheduled standing around.
At 3:28:53, police cars and military Humvees are converging on the landing site, sirens wailing and their lights diffused by the thick smoke. It must smell like a tire fire there. What I'm curious about is how are they going to get the plane out of there? My understanding is that it takes more runway to take off than it does to land, and it's not like they can taxi back to Van Nuys. The only way to get it out of there is in pieces. Maybe the F-18 returned to base a little early. Still hidden under the overpass, Kiefer gets on his cell phone to ask Curtis where the hell he is. Curtis says they're nearly there, coming in from the north, and Kiefer gets a visual (since he won't say it, I have to). He says he'll meet Curtis on that side of the freeway, hangs up, and makes a break for it. And as if his hijacked passengers didn't have enough to contend with, now they're disembarking into the faces of armed Marines. Let's hope someone remembers Hans Meyer and Marshal Avila in the luggage compartment. Assuming all the rattling luggage hasn't beaten them into paste, of course.
Kiefer hops the freeway barrier and a chain-link fence like a man twice his height (which, for all I know, his stunt double is twice his height) and jumps into the back of a CTUmobile pulled over on the frontage road. Still riding in the shotgun seat, Curtis orders the driver to get them out of there. They're moving almost instantly, but you just know by the ominous way the cinematographer shoots the blind T-junction ahead of them that their exit will not go smoothly. And indeed, a whole convoy of Marine Humvees pulls into view; instant roadblock. "You're going to have to try to talk your way through the roadblock," Kiefer tells Curtis, cocking his weapon in a way that demonstrates that "try" is the operative word here. Marines jump out of their vehicles and approach the CTUmobile, weapons drawn. Their leader comes to the open driver's side window, and Curtis carefully hands over his CTU ID. The commander says they have orders to detain everyone, and Curtis claims that they too are looking for the hijacker. "Jack Bauer?" the commander asks, while the gentleman with that name sits in the back seat looking down nervously. "I wouldn't call it a hijacking, per se," he refrains from saying. The commander demands IDs from everyone in the car, but Curtis puts the kibosh on that, saying they don't have time. "Now we're moving out." he declares. "If you really want to fire on Federal agents, that's your call." His bluff called, the commander orders his men to stand down, and the CTUmobile is on its way. There's a long silence in the vehicle, which Kiefer completely fails to break by telling Curtis what a good job he just did. Curtis calls CTU and tells Buchanan that they're on their way back with Kiefer, and that with all the Marines around (whom Buchanan assumes are taking their orders directly from Logan), they're taking back streets. Wow, it's going to take them forever to get back.
Once that call's finished, Hayes gets a call of her own on her cell phone. "I want to know what's going on," says Slime's petulant voice in her ear. Hayes tries to blow him off again, but he's not having it: "I'm sitting here watching you work with two people who are under arrest for aiding and abetting a federal fugitive. If you don't talk to me, I'll have to get my answers somewhere else." Hayes says she's on her way, and tells Buchanan and Chloe -- who have been looking at her worriedly since they realized who was calling -- that "He's been nothing but loyal. I probably shouldn't have kept him in the dark this long." That second part may well be true, but not for the reasons she thinks.
It's 3:32:06 when she reaches Slime, sitting out on the floor. Not on the actual floor, but in a chair. This isn't American Idol, after all. He's acting all pouty, like Hayes poisoned his spider or something. They have a little pissing match, which Slime wins, and Hayes leads him to a private corridor. Valerie watches them go, all suspicious-like.
Once they're alone, Hayes is brief: "Jack Bauer has acquired evidence implicating President Logan in David Palmer's death." She explains about the recording, and Logan's hinky actions of the past three hours, but Slime isn't impressed: "You're working against the most powerful man in the world and you haven't actually heard the evidence?" Like that stops bloggers. Hayes gets pissed, saying this is why she didn't tell Slime before. Slime asks, if Kiefer is right, is Hayes going to arrest the President of the United States? Hayes says that's up to the Attorney General. Before Slime can get more than a few words into his protest, Valerie appears out of nowhere to notify Hayes that Bierko is ready to be moved. Slime turns away from Hayes guiltily, his arms folded, like they'd been making out or something. Once Valerie's gone, Hayes says that everything rests on the recording. After a pause, Slime softly says, "Tell me what you need." Hayes says Kiefer's on his way, and right now the only thing she can ask of Slime is that he keep things running on the floor, while keeping this news under his hat. Slime agrees. Aw, maybe I was wrong about him.
Bierko's being led through CTU at 3:34:46. His suit's gone, and his new look is a set of dark blue surgical scrubs. His outfit is accessorized with a large and bloody face-bandage where his head hit the roof of his police car, handcuffs, leg-irons, and an envelope of about forty armored Tactical CTU agents. Hayes brings the little entourage to a stop with a raised hand so she can sign him out. As she does so, the lead agent reports, "We have a full tactical complement, enhanced ordnance package, two-vehicle escort." Which means it may take as long as a full minute for the bad guys to wipe them out. Hayes tells Bierko that he's being transferred to a "primary holding facility" at District Headquarters. "Let me know the second he arrives," she tells the lead agent, and they're on their way. Bierko turns his head to hold eye contact with Hayes as he's frog-marched past her, but the only thing that comes out of his mouth is a gob of spit that hits the floor. Hayes somehow manages to suppress a shiver. We track Bierko's progress through the building, all the way into the back of a black CTU van. The driver is looking back it Bierko, who nods at him. The driver returns the nod. Uh-oh. That looked like some secret terrorist signal that meant something like, We're on or Proceed as planned or This time of night, best steer clear of Sepulveda. The convoy moves out, ominously. It's 3:36:12.
3:40:24. Logan yells at his speakerphone, "Where the hell is Mike Novick?" "He's moments away, sir," says the beleaguered voice on the phone. "You told me that three minutes ago!" Logan bitches. "Yes sir," is all the poor guy at the other end can say. Finally Novick enters the room, using a long story with a whole lot of words and the better part of a minute to explain something that Logan is able to encapsulate in three words: "[Kiefer] got away." Devastated, Logan turns away from his aide. Novick assures Logan that it's only a matter of time before someone nabs Kiefer, which, surprisingly, doesn't seem to be what Logan wants to hear right now. With his back to Novick, we can see that his whole world is crashing down inside his head. Novick realizes that something else is going on, and asks Logan if he's all right. After about thirty minutes, Logan calmly thanks Novick and says he needs some alone time. Without another word, Novick gives it to him. At 3:42:53, Logan walks slowly back to his desk. His cell phone starts ringing. Logan just sits in his chair, stares out his window, and lets it ring. And ring. And ring.
And ring.
Curtis and Kiefer have arrived at CTU. Karen meets him in the hallway and addresses him like they've met in person before, which they haven't as far as we know, and tells him that the Attorney General is going to be ready for a conference call in his office in ten minutes. Kiefer hands the recording off to Chloe and tells her to get it ready for playback. This involves a bit of technobabble. He specifies that she needs to work alone and not let the recording out of her sight. Alas, he fails to advise her to make a backup copy before doing anything else. Kiefer tells Hayes that he'd like to spend his ten minutes with Audrey. Hayes directs him to Medical.
And ring. Just kidding.
Audrey's sitting up in her bed, on the phone with the hospital where her dad's still in the ICU. As Kiefer comes in the door, she stops talking and her face lights up. Kiefer looks right back at her as he approaches her bed, a near-smile on his face. Audrey rather peremptorily wraps up the call ("Dad? Dad who?") and tells Kiefer that Heller's going to be okay. "I know, I heard," Kiefer says. Too bad we didn't get to see his reaction to that news. He was probably pissed that someone else around here besides him got to cheat death. He strokes her messed-up hair, and they say they're glad to see each other, and then they make out a little. "We did it," Kiefer says. "We got the evidence." "So it's over?" Audrey says. Not with three hours and fifteen minutes left in the season, it's not, but she and Kiefer don't know that. Kiefer tells her to rest, and sits at the foot of her bed to snuggle her knee for a while. Aw, she's so happy. She's so dead.
Logan hasn't moved since last we saw him. He's still sitting at his desk, staring out the window. At least his phone has quit ringing. Finally he gets up and walks to a nearby bookshelf, from which he removes a flat, wooden case. I don't think it's a tea chest. Glancing nervously at the door, because what he's got is a dangerous thing for anybody not in the Secret Service to have alone in the President's office, he picks up his cell phone and dials.
It's 3:45:35 as Graham's phone rings. He and the rest of his little cabal are lounging around unhappily in their office, and Graham's got a Jack & Coke on the arm of his chair as he tells Logan, "I've been trying to reach you." He knows everything that's happened, and he goes into his office alone as he reports that the Attorney General has gotten a call from CTU. "I think that phone call was about you," he "speculates." Logan says he didn't expect it to happen so fast. Graham's pretty calm: "I am sorry, Charles," he says. "You don't deserve this." Uh, yeah he does. Isn't that the point? Logan says he still thinks they did the right thing for the country. Graham says they need to keep doing that. Logan agrees with Graham's assessment, saying a trial of a sitting president would not only damage the country, but "expose certain realities that should never see the light of day." "If only we could keep such a trial from taking place," Graham says disingenuously. But Logan's way ahead of him. "That thought occurred to me as well," he says, opening the case on his desk to reveal a handgun. Logan assures Graham that he and his buddies won't be traced, which Graham says he appreciates, although his tone indicates that he'd expect nothing less. Logan mumbles, "There are a few things I'd like to take care of before..." Into the awkward silence, Graham says, "Goodbye, Charles." Totally immune to awkwardness, that guy. That's a superpower I wouldn't mind having, I can tell you. "Goodbye, Graham," Logan says as bravely as he can, and hangs up, He picks up the gun, ejects the clip, checks it, and pops it back into place. He's going to shoot his way into CTU? It's 3:47:42.
3:51:53. FLOTUS has recovered from her freak-out of last hour and is now splayed out on her couch, watching fake cable news coverage of Palmer's mourners from earlier that day. Because it's not like anything else has happened in the past half hour that's newsworthy, like a fucking 727 landing on the fucking 118 freeway or anything. Logan softly knocks on the door and asks to come in. "Now you want to talk?" she grunts, but eventually relents. He comes in and sits across from her, to her empty wine bottle and glass. "Something else you want to confess?" she asks. Logan says no. Last time didn't go so well, I seem to recall. He says he just wanted to say how sorry he is. He says that he knows what he did was wrong, which of course is pretty much the opposite of what he just told Graham. "What I can't live with is the fact that I hurt you. That's the last thing I wanted to do...That's the truth." Now that he's said the last thing he wanted to say, FLOTUS has a great answer. Bleary and exhausted and drained as she is, she manages to slur, "I had no idea you were such a good liar. If I wasn't so horrified by the fact that I'm married to you, I might actually be impressed." I didn't think Logan could look any more crushed, but he manages it anyway as his wife turns back to the TV, effectively dismissing him without a word. Dude, cheer up; that was the closest thing you're going to get to a compliment from her. Slowly, he gets up and walks out. On the bright side, this'll make the item on his list of things to do that much easier.
It's 3:55:23, and for the first time, we track him as he walks all the way from the FLOTUSuite back to the Situation Room. Which isn't a very long walk at all. Alone in his office, he sits down at his desk. He opens the gun case. Before picking it up again, he reaches into his desk drawer, pulls out a tumbler and a bottle of whisky that I don't recognize, and pours himself a shot. He puts the bottle back in the drawer. He downs the liquor, and Gregory Itzin once again proves what a great actor he is by making a very convincing Scotch-face after swallowing what is no doubt apple cider. And then he does it again as we see him realize that he's done stalling, there's nothing else to do, except for one thing. He takes the gun out of its case and weighs it in his hand. And then his desk phone rings.
Logan knows he should just ignore it, go ahead and do what he was about to do, because time he might not have the courage. But instead he answers the phone. Probably for that very reason. His secretary tells him that there's an urgent call from CTU. "I don't want to talk to anyone from CTU," Logan understates, but the secretary says, "He insists that you'll want to speak with him." Logan considers, then agrees to take the call. And is anybody surprised to hear that it's Slime? In his oily, unctuous, suck-up way, he introduces himself and says he's calling about a certain recording. "Go on," Logan says, hope starting to rekindle in his eyes. Slime explains that Hayes plans to play the recording for the Attorney General. "What are you telling me this?" Logan asks suspiciously. Slime: "Because, sir, I feel compelled to intervene. And I just wanted to make sure that...you would approve." Logan's eyes look like they're about to approve right out of his head, and as he gives Slime the green light, that little crooked smirk of his dares to peek out. He says he's going to text-message Slime his private number. "Let me know how it goes," he instructs. Slime practically tugs his forelock in deference, even though he's on the phone. "And Miles," Logan adds, "I promise you, I won't forget this." Slime looks like the happiest boy in the world as they say goodbye. It's 3:59:06 as Logan puts the gun back in the case. Won't be needing that.
Splitscreen time. Graham freshens up his drink; Kiefer is still hanging with Audrey in CTU Medical, long after his ten minutes are up; and FLOTUS doesn't realize how close she just came to getting to wear a fabulous First Widow outfit.
Slime comes into the CTU Situation Room, where Chloe is working alone at a laptop. Leaning with both hands on the table right to where she's working, he asks how long before the teleconference starts. "Five minutes," Chloe says. "Get out of here, Miles." Slime just hangs out, making himself a nuisance. And also holding some red, blinky device in his hand, out of Chloe's sight, right to the recording. Satisfied, he leaves. Chloe looks after him, annoyed. She has no idea how much more annoyed she's about to be. It's 4:00:00.