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Dudes, some bad shit goes down this hour. CTU's search for Fayed and his suitcase nuke is at a dead end, until Ahmed releases Scott's mom and she calls the cops. Word of Ahmed and his connection to Fayed quickly reaches Kiefer, and he leads his team over to Scott's place to rescue the kid and follow their only existing lead. While they're en route, Wayne offers Assad full amnesty in exchange for his continued co-operation, as Curtis gets more and more bitter about Assad's involvement. While still in detention, Walid gets wind of a possible clue in the terror plot, and decides to stay behind bars to gather more information. Brilliant of him, really. We learn why Morris and Milo can't get along: Milo dated Chloe a few times. Ick. Can we move on now? After CTU rescues Scott from Ahmed, Scott provides them with address where Ahmed sent Dad. An entirely different CTU team is sent to Fayed's HQ, for reasons that will become apparent. When Curtis hears that Assad's been given a full pardon, he goes completely off the rails. It turns out that Assad killed a bunch of Curtis's men during the first Gulf War, which explains Curtis's personal vendetta against the man. Things come to a head, and in order to save Assad's life, Kiefer is forced to kill Curtis. Bummer. Dude survived fifty-one episodes longer than I thought he would, though. Kiefer pukes, cries, and quits. Moments later, the other CTU team moves in on Fayed's HQ in Valencia. Fayed's not there any more, but the suitcase nuke is, and get this: Fayed's man detonates the fucker. So where is the season going to go from here, with a small mushroom cloud already rising over Los Angeles? Believe it or not, it has to do with Walid's clue: there are four more suitcase nukes still out there. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Buchanan is back on the phone with the soldier at the airfield, and the two of them have made use of the time afforded them by the previouslies to figure out not only that Numair has escaped, but that the jailbreak was planned well in advance. They also realize that Fayed wanted Numair free inside the U.S. The soldier figures that Numair had to have inside help, and will call back as soon as he knows more. We will, of course, never see him again. Buchanan hangs up his cell phone and asks Chloe about satellite coverage of the prison bus's route. She says that there are a few tunnels and spots with limited coverage. In other words, Numair's escape was invisible from space. Buchanan sums it up for the new viewers: "Numair is a known terrorist with possible access to suitcase nukes and he escapes in broad daylight." He bellows at the floor in general, "We have to do better then we're doing, and we have to do faster!" Minions begin scampering more urgently, not because they're scared of Buchanan, but because they don't want to end up gassed again. Milo's already got the skinny on Numair: he reports to Buchanan that Numair ran a weapons program in Frankfurt before moving to the Middle East. As for Numair's level of expertise, Milo sums up, "He knows it all, and he's up to date. If he gets his hands on the suitcase nuke, he can prep it onsite." Buchanan retreats to his office, ordering that Numair's recapture be made top priority. That call right there? That's why he's the boss.
After Buchanan leaves Milo and Nadia alone to plan their move, they agree that the search area's too wide to make a satellite search practical. Then Milo notices Morris working at his station, sighs wearily because Morris is the only other employee in the entire building, and tells Nadia to split the grid between himself and Morris. But when he approaches Morris with the project, he gets blown off. "Chloe's assigned me a task. Please find somebody else," says Morris. Milo seems to accept that, but then he immediately flags down Chloe to ask her what she has Morris doing. Of course, Chloe has no knowledge of any such thing, and isn't smooth enough (or invested enough) to make something up. Milo angrily rounds on Morris, who quickly analyzes the situation. "You're upset," he calmly observes to Milo. That's why he's an analyst. Milo yells at Morris to quit if they can't work together. Morris nods and agrees to do what he's told. Again.
In the Oval Office, Karen's giving Wayne, Tom, and the rest of the non-speaking staff a capsule briefing on suitcase nukes. She says that they were manufactured by the former Soviet Union, and are small enough for one person to carry. Especially if it's the kind with wheels and a retracting handle. They have a maximum yield of one kiloton (or about one-fifteenth of a Hiroshima. I looked that up for you, you know). Wayne asks exactly how bad that is. Karen says that the typical kill radius is about half a mile, and puts up a helpful PowerPoint slide on the video display with a little blue circle in the middle of a map and some human-shaped icons in the upper corner. She adds that radiation expands that radius, depending on winds and so forth. Tom wants to know a bottom-line number of casualties. That, of course, depends on the population density in the area, but Karen estimates that, in a crowded city, thousands would be killed instantly, with hundreds of thousands succumbing to radiation. Now there are lots of little human icons, filling the whole left side of the screen. If you look really closely, you can almost see them vomiting, going bald, and becoming shambling mutant zombies. Wayne gazes at them and intones, promo-style, "Get me Jack Bauer. Immediately."
Kiefer's still at the blown-up storage facility with Curtis and Assad, while CTU agents sift through the rubble. Assad thinks they're wasting their time there, and Curtis objects to his use of the term "we." "There is no 'us,'" he tells Assad, like Curtis is in the "us" Assad's referring to. Always the consensus-builder, Kiefer wants to hang for another minute, hoping some fingerprints or DNA will show up. Of course, the old Kiefer would be torturing the Handler's corpse for information right now. His cell phone rings, and he answers it to hear the White House operator on the other end.
As Kiefer walks off to have this conversation somewhere private, I notice he's been issued a service weapon with a clip-on holster. He probably also has a fresh ID badge; I would imagine that there's a stash of them inside every active CTUmobile, just in case. Wayne opens with the news that he's having people verify Assad's claims that he wants peace. Kiefer offers that Assad has proven trustworthy so far. Now that Kiefer has a chance to slow down a bit, his injuries look to be catching up with him; he winces in pain as he enters a corridor. But never mind that. His stylish t-shirt is still unbesmirched with fresh blood, and that's what really matters. Wayne's main purpose in calling is that he wants Kiefer to officially take the lead in the hunt for Fayed. Kiefer starts to decline politely: "The truth is I don't think I'm up to it." But Wayne butters him up and prevails upon Kiefer to agree to head up the operation. Cue up the hero music! And drink!
Curtis comes and finds Kiefer. Before Curtis can say anything, Kiefer says that he's been put in charge, and that he needs Curtis to get over whatever crawled up his ass and died regarding Assad, because they need Assad's help. Curtis is incredulous: "Time was, you would have seen through this guy in a minute. What'd the Chinese do to you?" Kiefer turns and gets right up in Curtis's sternum, demanding, "Is there something you need to tell me?...Is there some kind of history between you and Assad?" Before Curtis can answer -- if he even cares to -- Assad himself appears, addressing Kiefer by his first name and holding up a valuable find from the wreckage. It's a PDA that got half-blown up, but fortunately, the impact froze the liquid-crystal display somehow, and the message on the screen is still readable. "Visitor arrived on Thursday," it says. Assad explains that "visitor" is a code name that means "weapon." The two of them conclude that the message means Fayed got his suitcase nuke on Thursday, but that he still needs Numair to make it work. As Assad is led back to the CTUmobiles, Kiefer tells Curtis that nothing's more important than finding Fayed and Numair. Curtis grudgingly agrees, and goes to rejoin the other agents. But Kiefer hangs back so that he can call Chloe at CTU and have her run some kind of cross-reference search on Curtis and Assad. Basically, he wants to know when exactly Assad pissed in Curtis's Wheaties, and in what volume. Because she's got other shit going on, Chloe wonders how important this really is, but of course Kiefer wouldn't be asking if it weren't. We'll be finding out exactly how important later.
At 9:11:54, Dad's still pacing by the same pay phone. It rings, and his wife is on the other end, already driving down the street and telling him she's fine and that Scott's still with Ahmed. They have a tense discussion as to what to do . They worry that Ahmed will still kill Scott even if they do what Ahmed says, and wonder if they shouldn't call the police after all. Dad says that it's too risky and that he's going to continue following instructions. Before hanging up to call Ahmed back, Dad tells Mom, "Do not call the police." The safety of her child is at stake. Therefore, I predict that she will do the opposite.
Dad calls Ahmed back, and is told to bring the package to 351 Old Mill Road in Valencia. Ahmed says that he'll call Fayed and tell him to expect Dad instead of Ahmed: "Call me when you get there. It should not take you more than thirty minutes. If it does--" But Dad's already on his way. He's in such a hurry that he doesn't even take the time to check the coin slot before rushing back to his car. I suppose Scott's college fund has slipped down the list of priorities anyway.
Meanwhile, as I predicted, Mom's decided on a change of plan. Because Ahmed told her he'd kill Scott if she called the police, that's exactly what she does. She pulls over first, because she doesn't want to get hurt. "A terrorist is holding my son hostage," she tells the 911 operator. It's 9:13:38.
9:19:35. Milo and Morris are working side by side, and Milo's pissed because Morris is working in tab-delimited format instead of tables. Riveting! Morris says that he works faster that way. Milo calls Morris a pain in the ass, and then both of them are up and out of their chairs, squaring off. Amazingly, it's Chloe who rushes up to defuse the situation. She's decided to clear the air: "We all know what this is about. Milo, you and I dated a couple of times before Morris and I got back together." What? Milo agrees with Chloe's assessment that "it wasn't really happening." Like that's going to help me get some truly horrifying images out of my mind. I'm donning a mental hazmat suit as we speak. Chloe then turns to Morris, saying, "I chose you. So why don't you get over it and stop trying to beat him up?" Morris wants to argue the point further, but finally lets it drop, saying, "Let's just stop this mad psychotic terrorist bad guy before he detonates a nuke on Wilshire Boulevard, all right?" As Chloe stomps off, her work here done, Milo takes a deep breath and rejoins Morris at the grindstone. Morris offers what sounds like a sincere apology to Milo, adding, "And just for the record, there's no lingering jealousy about any films you two may have seen together." Milo opens his mouth for a stinging retort, but then thinks better of it and mumbles, "No problem." Can this storyline be over now? Please? If I'm not permitted to stop thinking about Milo giving Chloe a motorboat, I'll never sleep again.
Kiefer's back on the road, riding in the shotgun seat of Curtis's CTUmobile. Mom's 911 call has already worked its way through the system to CTU, and at 9:21:05, Buchanan's calling Kiefer to give him a heads-up. Kiefer tells Buchanan to patch the call in, and a moment later, Kiefer's talking to Mom. She quickly tells Kiefer her story, mentioning the package. She's got a pretty incomplete picture of the situation, but as soon as she drops the name "Fayed," she's got Kiefer's full attention. Trouble is, Mom says that Dad's not carrying a cell phone, and she doesn't know where he's taking the package. This is all beside the point to her, though; she just wants her son safe. Or so she claims. Kiefer says that they'll do what they can. After she drops off the call, Kiefer asks Buchanan where Mom lives. "Why didn't you ask her?" Buchanan doesn't say. Kiefer is given a location in Grenada Hills, and asks where the nearest TAC team is to that area. Wouldn't you know it, it's Curtis's team. Kiefer says that they're on their way. After he hangs up, he tells Curtis where they need to go, but Curtis protests, "We can't take him on a tactical mission." "Him" is, of course, Assad, who's sitting right there in the back seat. "We may need him when we get there," says Kiefer. Curtis isn't happy about it, but he gets on his earpiece and tells his guys to head to Grenada Hills.
In the Oval Office, Wayne is taking a meeting with the ambassador of some unnamed Middle Eastern country. Karen, Tom, and several other staffers are also in the room. Wayne is quick to get to the point, asking if the Ambassador thinks Assad is telling the truth about wanting to hang up his bombs and enter negotiations. The Ambassador thinks so. Tom wonders if Assad has enough pull to bring many organizations into line. The Ambassador says, "Assad's reputation is such that many of them -- not all of them, by any means, but a substantial number -- would follow his lead." Even though most terrorists don't recognize Assad when they're riding in a tiny little car with him. End of meeting. After the Ambassador has been shown out, Karen advises Wayne that they need to lock in Assad's cooperation. Tom, on the other hand, leans more in Curtis's direction: "I have a problem forming a partnership with a man who has been responsible for the deaths of so many innocents," he speechifies. Because Tom would much prefer it if "so many innocents" were simply locked up. Wayne thinks for a second, and then asks them to get Kiefer on the phone.
While still riding with Curtis and Assad, Kiefer answers his cell phone. Wayne warms up by asking if they have any leads on the suitcase nuke yet. Kiefer says that they're working on one. The small talk thus dispensed with, Wayne says that he wants to come to an agreement with Assad. Kiefer hands the phone back to Assad, saying, "The President wants to speak with you." Curtis is silent as Assad takes the phone and calmly answers, "Yes, Mr. President," but his eyes are rolling around in his head like those of a panicked horse. Wayne gets right to it, offering Assad protection and a full pardon, under certain conditions: namely, that he continues looking for Fayed, and commits to a broader peace. In other words, stuff Fayed was doing already. Wayne asks whether Fayed is cool with this. "In principle, yes," Fayed answers, but asks for the deal in writing. Curtis is silently freaking, even without being able to hear Wayne tell him, "You'll have it within the hour." Without being told, everyone else leaves the Oval Office to go look for one of the several hundred Pardon Pads located at strategic spots throughout the building. I suspect they can be found near all fax machines, exit signs, and fire extinguishers. Wayne tells Fayed to give the phone back to Kiefer. Wayne pretty much begs for Kiefer's approval of his decision. Kiefer allows, "I'm glad it's a call I didn't have to make, sir." Of course, if he strongly disagreed, he wouldn't be going along with it, so this faint assent is good enough for Wayne. After Kiefer hangs up, Assad asks Kiefer whether he thinks Wayne is honorable. Kiefer considers a number of responses, but it's really just a yes/no question, so he simply goes with the former. Curtis still hasn't said a word, but he's clearly having his doubts.
Tom's in Wayne's secretary's office when she notifies him that Sandra is calling to talk to Wayne. Tom insists on taking the call himself, on his cell phone, and the secretary transfers it to him while he's out in the hall. Sandra's calling from her car, and she's not happy about being put off from talking to Wayne. Tom asks if she's calling about Walid. She says she is; Walid's still in custody, more than an hour after being arrested! Can you believe the nerve? People who haven't been allowed even to see a lawyer for the last five years would scoff bitterly at this scene, except they're probably not allowed to see this show, either. Sandra lectures Tom about civil liberties, and he blows her off, but she has one closing thought: "I will do whatever it takes to protect my client. If it embarrasses the administration, so be it...I am holding you personally responsible for whatever happens to Walid." I'd like to take a moment now to thank 24 for creating a character whose ideas and principles I generally agree with, and then making her completely grating and obnoxious. Kudos.
It doesn't look like Tom's going to have to be held responsible for anything that bad, at least for now. At worst, he'll have to buy Walid a new suit jacket and tie. Back at the detention facility, we see that Walid's already been released from "interrogation," and is being returned to the facility's general population in the fenced-in yard. Walid asks a group of guys where he can get a drink of water, and is sneered at for his trouble. Fortunately, the balding guy to whose defense he came in the last hour is sitting nearby, proffering a bottle of Aquafina and calling Walid "brother." Walid gratefully accepts, sitting down to the man for a drink. The man thanks Walid for his help earlier, and then gives me the willies by quietly asking, "Did you tell them anything?" Walid thinks a moment, then answers, "Of course not." That's more presence of mind than I would have; I'd be like, "I don't know anything." The man darkly says that, by the end of the day, "they'll all pay." Walid wonders what he means, but before an answer is forthcoming, a younger guy shows up and asks what's up. Walid's new friend vouches for Walid, but the new guy switches to Arabic anyway, and Walid's new friend moves off with him. Walid, however, subtly eavesdrops on their conversation. Or as subtle as you can be when you're six-foot-eighty.
At 9:25:52, Dad's car pulls up outside Fayed's HQ while Numair is inside, busily tinkering with the nuke. Dad carries the package inside, and the gunmen who were all milling about just a moment ago are nowhere to be found. And then they are, a half-dozen of them holding a startled Dad at gunpoint. He holds up the package, saying that Ahmed sent him. Luckily for him, none of them asks, "Who's 'uh-MED'?" Dad's herded into the back room, where he introduces himself to Fayed and hands over the package, asking Fayed to call Ahmed and tell him to let Scott go. Fayed ignores this and hands the package over to Numair, who says that's what he needs. Well, that and twenty minutes. Fayed narrates, "In a little less than an hour, it will detonate and strike a blow that the Americans will never forget." Upon hearing this stock phrase from the Berlitz beginner's course in Villain-ese, Dad volunteers his opinion that they're all insane. A henchman is about to kill Dad for his insolence, but Fayed stops his henchman from killing him, saying that Dad may be of use later. Dad begs Fayed to have Scott released, and Fayed says, "I may, if you remain cooperative." He then turns to Numair, saying that he's got other stuff to do right now. Numair says that he's all set, and Fayed leaves, telling Numair to meet him at the safe house when he's done.
On his way out, Fayed calls Ahmed's cell phone to say that the device arrived, although he kind of gives him a hard time about involving other people. Ahmed apologizes, and Fayed lets it go. Doesn't matter anyway, and it's not like Ahmed's actions will end up interfering with Fayed's plans in any way. Not being let go? Scott. Fayed tells Ahmed to kill the kid before he leaves. Ahmed hesitates, but Fayed insists, and Scott sits there gormlessly. It's 9:31:23.
9:37:23. Wayne's already got Assad's pardon in hand. Those things must be blank forms that they fill out like Mad Libs: "This document pardons Hamri Al-Assad for being a terrorist. Jack Bauer [Xapproves; __disapproves; __is the person whose murderer is being pardoned by this document.]" Tom and Karen arrive in the Oval Office to discuss the move. Wayne knows Tom objects to cooperating with Assad, but tells him to get on board anyway, and says they need to talk about how to make this public. Tom doesn't want to, but Karen doesn't think covering it up is feasible. Tom concedes the point, but wants to avoid words like "pardon" and "amnesty," and Karen runs with that, saying that they need to emphasize that Assad has renounced terrorism. "Terrorist turned statesman," Tom suggests. "For every life that was lost in the past because of this man, ten more may be saved in the future by working with him." Wayne tells him to go with that, and his National Security Advisor leaves the room to relay instructions to the press office, because it's not like she has anything else on her plate right now. Once Tom and Wayne are alone, Tom says he still doesn't like it. Wayne says that just makes him appreciate Tom's loyalty more. Tom looks uncomfortable, but we cut away before he asks, "Do we hug now?" Or maybe he's just waiting for Wayne to turn around so that he can scope out the best spot for a knife.
The CTU contingent arrives in the Wallaces' neighborhood, and Kiefer deploys his men. Over his earpiece, he says that it's vital to take the suspect alive. "Slowly move into position now," he says, and then breaks into a run. He's rustier than I thought. It's 9:39:35 as he and his men converge on the house, being careful to stay out of sight.
Inside, Scott's wondering why Ahmed's not talking anymore. He asks whether Dad delivered the package, and Ahmed mumbles a yes. Scott keeps asking questions, but wonders why Ahmed isn't letting him go. All this whiny jabbering just motivates Ahmed further to carry out his orders, and he struggles to his feet, ordering Scott to do the same. Scott does, but he's quite upset that Ahmed's breaking his word. Ahmed tells him to kneel. Scott does, because he's already forgotten about that knife he has stashed. Or maybe he thinks he's still getting out of this.
Outside, Kiefer and Curtis establish that nobody can see what's going on in the house, but at least Curtis's men are almost in position.
Inside, Ahmed tells Scott to turn around. Scott does, still not going for the knife. Ahmed says that he's sorry, and is just about to blow Scott's greasy hair out through his face when armed CTU agents burst in. Ahmed forgets about Scott (who, in a rare moment of clarity, dives to the floor) and starts shooting at the armored agents instead. He flees out the back door and right into Kiefer's crosshairs. Kiefer orders Ahmed to drop the weapon. Instead, Ahmed freezes, points his gun at Kiefer, and waggles it in panic for about three seconds. Maybe those painkillers are finally getting to him. Finally, another agent guns Ahmed down. Curtis's men still know their job, don't they? Kiefer yells, "Hold your fire!" and rushes to Ahmed's body. The kid's barely alive. Kiefer calls for an EMT, saying that Ahmed needs to wake up long enough to tell them where he sent Dad. Scott chimes in at this point; he takes a moment, but eventually he's able to remember the address Ahmed gave Dad: 351 Old Mill Road in Valencia. Don't bother checking back; I am very sad to say that's the correct address, and that CTU is not about to storm a soup kitchen. Kiefer calls the address in to Buchanan, who passes it along to Nadia to deploy two other teams that are already in the field. Scott asks Kiefer if they're going to save his dad. "We're going to do everything we can," Kiefer promises. But the words don't come as easy as they did when he said them to Mom earlier, so you know things aren't looking too good for Dad right now. It's 9:42:25.
9:48:26. At CTU, Chloe's pulled up recent satellite footage of 351 Old Mill Road and ascertained that nobody has arrived or left in the past ten minutes. Milo says that their tactical teams can approach without being seen, as if the bad guys on this show have ever picked a place with handy tactical features like windows. Buchanan asks to be connected to Wayne.
In the Oval Office, Wayne is giving his staff orders for first responders to be prepared for a nuclear detonation when Buchanan's call comes in. For once, Buchanan has waited until after the commercial to give good news, as he tells Wayne that they have an address twenty miles north of L.A. and are sending in tactical teams now. He offers to patch Wayne in on the live video feed once they have it set up, and Wayne accepts, telling him, "Good work."
Sandra has already succeeded in getting in to see Walid. A soldier lets them into an empty classroom, and then leaves them alone in there just because Sandra asks him to. Sandra promises to get Walid out, but Walid's decided to stay. He thinks that some of his fellow prisoners are connected to the day's terror attacks: "They were speaking Arabic, which I don't understand, but there was one phrase they used several times." He repeats the phrase, which I'm not even going to attempt to transliterate, and tells Sandra to pass it along to the FBI. ["He doesn't speak Arabic? Some head of an Islamic advocacy group he is." -- Wing Chun] Sandra points out that the people Walid overheard are being held illegally, but before she can get on her high horse about their rights, Walid snaps at her to stop being a lawyer. Then he chills out, telling her that they may be planning something big. Sandra agrees to pass it on, and Walid repeats the phrase for her again. "I have to get back," he says, like this is a coffee break, and they kiss each other goodbye. So my theory in the last recap that this storyline would be a cautionary tale against arresting innocent people willy-nilly? Clearly I was wrong. It's an argument in favor of arresting innocent people willy-nilly, because then they'll spontaneously become undercover operatives and have unique opportunities to gather vital intelligence while being incarcerated, which they will then be able to easily pass along to the authorities. I feel better about the Patriot Act already.
At 9:50:37, Kiefer is on the phone with Buchanan and carrying a fancy folder through Chez Wallace. Watching Ahmed being rolled out on a gurney, he asks Buchanan to call him when the CTU team arrives in Valencia, and then hangs up. Then he joins Assad at the dining-room table and slides the folder across to him. It's the pardon, which Assad begins flipping through. Either they had the hard copy couriered over from CTU, or CTUmobiles are fully outfitted with not only fax machines, but also fancy binders, report covers, tabs, and dividers. Assad asks for a minute to review the document. Kiefer's fine with that, but says, "Unfortunately, I need to get back to work." Aw, he misses Assad already. Kiefer says that Assad will be taken back to CTU now. Assad wishes Kiefer luck, Kiefer thanks him, and the two share a lingering handshake. And when Kiefer gets up, he sees that Curtis has been standing in the doorway the whole time. Um, awkward. Curtis thought Kiefer was going to ask him to the dance!
Kiefer pulls Curtis aside, saying that he thought he'd have a chance to talk to Curtis about this before the paperwork came through. He tells Curtis -- who has to have been suspecting this all along -- that Assad's been offered a pardon by Wayne in exchange for his cooperation. "In other words, he walks," Curtis grumps. Kiefer weasels that it's not his call, as if that would matter. I could go back to any one of five seasons for examples, but I don't have to; we all know that if Kiefer were always so scrupulous about following Presidential orders, Assad wouldn't be getting any pardons at all right now because he'd have been too busy over the last two hours being scattered all over Inglewood. Curtis isn't happy, but he seems to accept it. Kiefer clasps him on the shoulder, and is on his way out of the house, but he's too late to miss seeing the obligatory joyous reunion between Scott and his mom. Mom seems pretty relieved that she failed in actually getting her son killed. Of course, in hindsight we can see that she was right and Dad was wrong about calling the authorities, but all that gives Mom is plausible deniability. Kiefer quickly briefs Mom on the situation, and then his cell phone rings.
It's Chloe, and she's hit pay dirt with regard to Curtis and Assad. She tells a whole story about how, when Curtis was in the Army after Operation Desert Storm, his squad was ambushed by some of Assad's men. Five of Curtis's men were killed and two were taken hostage, while Curtis was too wounded to pursue. The anybody heard of Curtis's two captured men was when a TV station received a tape of Assad's lieutenant beheading them. Of course, in a future episode, we will learn that this operation was carried out without Assad's knowledge or approval, and that Assad first executed and then fired the lieutenant in question. But for now, Kiefer is shocked to realize that Curtis might kind of have a point.
Meanwhile, Assad has just finished putting his signature on the pardon, and gets up to carry it out of the house, followed by Curtis's sidekick.
Elsewhere in the house, Curtis seems to come to a decision. It doesn't look like a wise one.
Kiefer finally finishes processing what Chloe's just told him. He hangs up and goes looking for Curtis at 9:53:25.
Outside, Curtis takes over from his sidekick in leading Assad to the CTUmobile. "Still don't remember?" he mutters to Assad's back, and then grabs him by the throat and shoves him back against the CTUmobile. "Special Forces Battalion, 32nd Support Group," Curtis growls shakily. That probably doesn't mean anything to Assad, but the muzzle of Curtis's gun being pressed against Assad's forehead almost certainly does.
Kiefer bursts out of the house, yelling at Curtis to holster his weapon, his own weapon trained on Curtis. Curtis refuses. "By order of the President of the United States, put down your weapon!" Kiefer roars. I suppose "By order of Wayne" wouldn't sound as impressive. Curtis yells at Kiefer to stay out of it as he pulls Assad around to use as a shield. "I gave him my word that we would protect him," Kiefer says. Curtis didn't, though. Kiefer begs him to stop. Curtis doesn't. Kiefer closes one eye, just to make clear that he's totally serious about his aim. There are any number of other CTU agents standing about, but none of them is taking any action. "Please," Kiefer says again. "I can't let this animal live," says Curtis, and a gunshot rings out. But it's Curtis who goes down, as the other CTU agents suddenly remember that their limbs work, and they hustle Assad out of there. Over the barrel of his smoking weapon and some seriously operatic racket on the soundtrack, Kiefer watches Curtis slowly collapse to the curb from a fatal throat wound. They finally did it. They killed Curtis. It's hard out there for a Handsome Black Agent. For a member of that demographic, two-and-one-sixth seasons on this show practically qualifies as immortality.
From the back seat of a CTUmobile that's being driven away at high speed, Assad watches Kiefer with concern. He's going to need a lot more snuggling now. Kiefer walks off into an emotional breakdown. Finally he can't go any further, vomiting the paltry contents of his stomach onto the Wallaces' lawn as a mournful soprano goes completely Battlestar Galactica on us. Kiefer collapses against a sapling, leaning his head on the trunk. He's acting the fuck out of this. But then his cell phone picks that moment to ring, and even now he's not too far gone to answer it.
It's Buchanan, who's being really understanding about having just had his head of Tactical Ops killed right out from under him. He gently says that Curtis didn't leave Kiefer a choice. "That's what I keep trying to tell myself," says Kiefer, like it's been more than ten seconds. "Tell the President I can't do this anymore," he blubbers. Buchanan disagrees, saying that Kiefer's the reason they're going to find the suitcase nuke. "Good, then you don't need me anymore," Kiefer responds. Buchanan still wants Kiefer to come back and talk. At the very least, Buchanan's going to need a new head of Tactical now. "I'm done," says Kiefer, and hangs up so that he can go back to his crying.
Nadia calls Buchanan to tell him that she just heard Ahmed died en route to the hospital. Buchanan looks sad for some reason. Thanks for wrapping that up, show, but nobody cares at this point.
In the wake of all this drama, I almost forgot that something else big is about to happen. In Valencia, a small army of heavily armed CTU agents is moving into position around Fayed's conveniently windowless HQ. It's 9:56:55 when Chloe tells Buchanan that the TAC team is ready. Buchanan tells her to be sure that the White House has the feed, and we see Wayne standing expectantly with his staff in the Oval Office. The live video feed from some agent's helmet-cam comes through to the big screens in both the Oval Office and the CTU Situation Room. For several long moments, the only dialogue is agents quietly talking to one another in the field. Before you know it, they're in the outer area of the warehouse; now that the guards out there have already caught Dad, they seem to have decided to take the rest of the morning off. Oh, wait -- there are about three of the guards still there, but the CTU agents kill them quickly and quietly. Maybe they should have been watching the actual door. From their respective offices, everyone watches the agents' continued progress.
In Fayed's back room, where Numair is still working on the nuke, one of the minions notices some suspicious movement in the outer area. Numair says that he'll be finished as soon as he reconnects the fuse. The nuke has a fuse? I hope it's a really long one. The CTU agents keep moving forward, still monitored from the safety of CTU and the Oval Office. But they've gotten close enough for Fayed's minion to be sure they aren't on his side, and he sounds the alarm. But it might be too late. Numair has finished -- he can detonate now if he wants. Off to the side, handcuffed to a pipe, Dad watches this scene with growing horror. Finally, the CTU agents get within firing range and start shooting. Fayed's guys shoot back while Numair and Dad dive for what little cover exists. The open suitcase nuke is totally visible on the video feed, but there's too much shooting for anyone watching to comment on it. Over the noise of the gunshots, Fayed's tech-support guy tells Numair, "Do it now!" Numair braves the flying bullets and gets his hand on a toggle switch. "Nooooooooo!" screams Dad. Numair flips the switch, and the entire screen goes white. Boom. See if Dad ever cooperates with a terrorist again.
About sixteen miles to the south, Kiefer's still fetal on the ground when he senses heat and light hitting the top of his head (the boom should be arriving shortly) and looks up with horror into a second sunrise. Like his day hasn't been bad enough, now he's going to be blind.
In the Oval Office, the video screen has automatically switched to an aerial satellite view which shows that, from above, Fayed's warehouse has turned into a huge, glowing cauliflower that gets bigger with every frame refresh. How very, very embarrassing. Everyone in the room gapes in shock. To Wayne's credit, he's the first to recover, telling them to alert all first response teams in the area and to put them in touch with the military: "Tell them the resources of the entire nation are at their disposal." Karen manages to pull herself together, and leaves to carry out those of Wayne's orders that she can remember.
The CTU Situation Room is also silent with shock, until Milo enters with a message from the FBI. It's Walid's Arabic phrase. Milo hands the paper it's written on to Nadia. It's sad that I'm expected to believe that, of every law enforcement and counterterrorism official in the greater Los Angeles area, Nadia is the only one who speaks Arabic. It's even sadder that I believe it. After being transmitted through Allah knows how many intermediaries, the message should be completely unintelligible, but Nadia easily translates the phrase for everyone: "It means 'five visitors.'" Interestingly enough, if I run the same phrase through enough languages on Babel Fish and then back to English, it comes back as "Oh my Dog yous is so very fuckeded." Buchanan realizes, "There are four more of these things out there." But how can Fayed make them work unless he has four more trigger components, four more Numairs, four more Ahmeds, four more credulous white families, and four more violent rednecks?
The last image of the episode is that of the mushroom cloud continuing to rise high into the sky, less than twenty miles away. This is no distant horizon-hugger we're looking at. In your face, Jericho. It's 10:00:00.