Episode Report Card M. Giant: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT We still have Logan to kick around
By M. Giant | Season 5 | Episode 21 | Aired on 05.07.2006
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?