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A wounded Kiefer gets loose inside the locked-down Russian Consulate, but after Consul Markov orders the phones shut down, he's got no way to communicate Gredenko's location, except to take a couple of hostages and wait around for one of them to bring him a magic phone. Which will arrive too late, in any case. CTU and the Veep respond with a three-pronged strategy. Prong One: Buchanan has his new head of tactical ops (Ricky Schroder) get ready to launch a strike on the Russian Consulate in order to get Markov and Kiefer out. The problems with Prong One are that this is basically an act of war, and that Ricky Schroder's playing a raging asshole. Prong Two: Logan offers to help again, this time by trying to win the Russian president over to his side through their respective wives. The problem with Prong Two is that the ex-FLOTUS wants nothing to do with Logan, no matter what her current boyfriend Aaron says. And it hits yet another hitch when Martha sticks a paring knife in Logan's shoulder (a prong within a prong, as it were). Prong Three: The Veep enlists Tom's assistance in blaming Assad for every bad thing that's happened today, giving him cover to threaten the Mideastian ambassador with a nuclear strike on his country if they don't help to find the terrorists. The problems with Prong Three are that it bothers Tom's conscience, and also the fact that it's fucking insane. Prong Two ends up working first, but only sort of. Suvarov orders his Consul to surrender, but when Markov refuses, Suvarov gives CTU the green light to go in shooting. They do, killing Markov, rescuing Kiefer, and learning that Gredenko's in the Shadow Valley. And unlike the good guys, he hasn't been wasting the whole hour; Fayed has arrived with the bombs, and the nuclear drones are just about ready to launch. And then Logan flatlines in his ambulance. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Now that Logan's bit at the Consulate is finished, they've brought him back to CTU instead of Not Camp David, for some reason. As he's paraded across the floor with an escort of uniformed CTU guards and plainclothes agents, everyone at CTU gawps at him, as they do. It must be so hard for these people to concentrate on fighting terrorism with people coming in and out all the time and forcing them to drop everything they're doing so that they can rubberneck. Logan's led into an interrogation room and locked inside, alone. At the same time, Chloe folds up her laptop and carries it back there. She tells the guards posted outside that she has to "set the transcript codes for the debrief," which is a pretty weak bit of technobabble just to get her in a room with Logan for the first time. He asks who she is, and he says she's "just Chloe O'Brian." They go back and forth in order to provide a little exposition about how Kiefer's still being held in the Russian Consulate. Logan demands to talk to Buchanan right away, and that old Logan sense of entitlement (Logantitlement, I like to call it) reappears once more: "Does he know that I'm all alone here in a holding cell?" Chloe points out that it's not a cell, and the cameras in the ceiling mean he's hardly alone. In any case, it's standard procedure for someone under house arrest to get stuck back here. Logan looks like he's about to take offense, but Chloe says, "Sorry, I'm feeling ambivalent. I'm gonna go." Heh. She does, and Logan totally checks out her ambivalence as she walks out, thinking he wouldn't mind feeling that himself. Wow, I just grossed myself out. I need a moment.
Buchanan enters a meeting in the Situation Room, where Ricky Schroder is standing at the head of the table, looking pale and craggy and still rocking that haircut of his that he first made famous in The Champ. Buchanan introduces him as Mike Doyle, their new head of Field Ops from Fort Bragg. Buchanan exposits that Kiefer's being held inside the Consulate, and that Doyle's going to put together a plan for an assault. From the side of the room, a suddenly-reappearing Milo wonders why they're talking about committing an act of war just to free Kiefer (who saved Milo's life about three hours ago. I'm just saying). Doyle points out that their main objective is not to rescue Kiefer, but to get Markov, and Buchanan says that the final decision is up to the Veep anyway. Chloe comes in to say that Logan's waiting for Buchanan, and the boss heads out. Doyle starts giving out orders, and Milo steps up to say something about how they normally do things differently. "I don't care what you normally do, Pressman," Doyle snaps just as bitchily as he possibly can, and says he wasn't talking to Milo anyway. Milo says he was just thinking that maybe Doyle wouldn't be the jerk he was back in Denver, but clearly he is. "That's right, just like Denver," Doyle responds. Apparently, this is some kind of burn, because it shuts Milo up. Not that that's a bad thing. Doyle leaves everyone to his or her work as yet another forty-five-second meeting breaks up. Nadia apparently got the hint that Milo and Doyle know each other from before. "I don't like him very much," Milo understates. Nadia asks if Doyle knows what he's doing, and Milo says Doyle does. Damn, that means it's going to take him a while to die.
On the other side of the table, Morris brings Chloe up to speed on the content of the lightning-quick meeting she just missed, including the news that Markov, not Kiefer, is the objective of the invasion. In case you missed it the first time.
Meanwhile, at the Consulate, the skinny, dark-haired Consulate guard who killed the beefy, blond one in the last hour is herding a restrained Kiefer down a stairwell to the basement. Kiefer pauses in shock when he sees Blondsky's corpse on the floor below, realizing that his message never got out. Dark & Skinny kicks and pistol-whips Kiefer down the last flight of stairs to fetch up against the body. The guard then takes his time dialing his cell phone to Markov's office, asking for confirmation that he should kill Kiefer. Because the Russian Consulate can't even afford a nurse, Markov is busy bandaging the stump of his own left pinky, and I don't see a drop of blood anywhere. What good is a cigar cutter that also cauterizes? That defeats the whole purpose. As for the stump itself, I assume it's in Markov's office minifridge. Watching on a security monitor, Markov tells Dark & Skinny to go ahead, and they'll just say that Kiefer killed Blondsky trying to escape. With Dark & Skinny's gun? Thinking that Kiefer's unconscious, Dark & Skinny is being incredibly sloppy and standing with his back to Kiefer, giving Kiefer an opportunity to ease Blondsky's belt from around his waist. Kiefer, this is no time to get amorous. Dark & Skinny hangs up, and then raises his gun to shoot Kiefer. But before he can do so, Kiefer whips the belt up and lassos Dark & Skinny's wrist, sending the gun flying and flipping Dark & Skinny himself ass-over-vodka-bottle onto the floor. As Markov watches from his office, Kiefer slowly manages to wriggle over to the dropped gun, grab it, and shoot the guard dead before he can come at him with his switchblade. Maybe the guard should have tried to race the wounded, tied, half-blown-up guy to the gun instead.
Markov gets on his walkie-talkie and tells his men to go find Kiefer in the basement. Kiefer is busy looting the corpse of his would-be killer, taking the switchblade for himself. That doesn't seem fair; most first-person shooters let you pick up a better weapon after you kill someone. Meanwhile, plainclothes guards and uniformed soldiers are running all over the place upstairs, weapons drawn. Having cut himself loose, Kiefer finds a file room in which to hide. It's especially ideal because it has a phone on the wall, and Kiefer, for some reason, didn't think to loot either Blondsky's or Dark & Skinny's cell phones. The more immediate problem is that, in seconds, guards are inside searching the room. They upset an obvious hiding spot, but Kiefer's not there, so they decide that the whole room is clear and vacate it entirely. Kiefer is of course perched high on a top shelf, because he's learned that nobody will ever think to look for him in a ceilingward direction. Out in the hallway, a young guard reports to Markov on his walkie-talkie that they haven't found Kiefer, but they've locked the whole place down and he isn't going anywhere. Not good enough for Markov, who doesn't even want Kiefer to be able to call out. He orders every phone line and DSL connection in the place shut off. Before that happens, I feel like I should tell any Consulate employees who are reading this recap how the episode is going to end so that they're not left hanging. But that will be the least of their problems. Catch you on the flip side, comrades.
In his file room, Kiefer emerges from his hiding place. Unsteadily pointing his stolen gun at the door in case someone comes back, he dials the wall phone. He gets right through to Morris at CTU and wastes no time in saying that he knows where Gredenko is, but the call is cut off before he can get any further. Kiefer realizes what's happened, and curses, "Dammit!" He should look on the bright side; if he had managed to relay his message, CTU would have been happy to let him rot in here indefinitely while they went after Gredenko. Now they're motivated to get him out. In trying to figure out his move, Kiefer notices the circuit box on the far wall. When in doubt, knock the Consulate's power out. Worked last week, didn't it? He accomplishes this by wiggling his gun around in there, which, surprisingly, doesn't electrocute him. The place goes dark except for the emergency lights, and Kiefer slumps in pain against the wall, satisfied in the knowledge that whoever comes to fix the electricity will find him quickly. Or maybe he was just disabling the basement's one security camera so that he can move around more freely after the commercials.
At CTU, at 6:08:06, Milo alerts Buchanan to the truncated call that Morris just got from Kiefer inside the Consulate. Buchanan tells Milo to tell Doyle that Kiefer's "got key intel and is no longer dispensable." If Kiefer's got so much "key intel," why didn't he think to boost a cell phone when he had the chance?
Buchanan then goes into the back, to Logan's holding room, and lets himself in. He apologizes to the former Prez that they're going to have to reschedule their little talk. He's quite cordial, considering how much of Seasons 4 and 5 he spent getting yelled at over the phone by the man now sitting in front of him. When Logan asks why, Buchanan explains that there's a situation at the Russian Consulate. Logan stands up from his chair and asks if this is in relation to Kiefer going back inside. When Buchanan pauses in amazement at Logan's startling powers of deduction, Logan offers to help. So, since Buchanan doesn't have anything better to do right now, he explains to the convicted criminal under house arrest that they heard from Kiefer, but that the call was cut off before they got the goods. Logan knows this means that he was right about Markov's involvement, and Buchanan agrees that they either need to get Kiefer out of there, or capture and interrogate Markov. Logan's worried about the red tape involved in making that happen, and when Buchanan says that he plans to cut through that red tape with a pair of assault-team-shaped scissors, Logan thinks that it's a horrible idea. Buchanan says that they don't have a lot of other options. Logan asks if they've tried to talk to President Suvarov, and Buchanan says that the Veep tried that, and that Suvarov is already kind of pissed at the U.S. right now, in light of how Kiefer started this whole crisis and also in light of how the Veep is an arrogant prick. Logan has an idea for getting around the usual channels. He says that his ex-wife Martha (formerly FLOTUS in this space) is close friends with the Suvarovs, especially the missus. That probably has something to do with the rocket attack on their motorcade last season that Logan did nothing to prevent. People bond after experiences like that. Still, Logan thinks that Martha can get through to Mrs. Suvarov, who in turn can talk to the Russian President. Buchanan awkwardly mentions that Martha's been institutionalized, but Logan says that she's still the only one who can help them now. Plus the viewers want Jean Smart back, so they really have no choice. Buchanan agrees to make the call to Martha, but Logan wants to do it. "I didn't realize you were on speaking terms," says Buchanan. Logan admits that they're not, but he wants to try anyway. Sure, what's the worst that could happen?
At 6:10:37, Doyle is out on the CTU floor, haranguing the analysts who are trying to put together his mission profile. He brusquely orders Chloe to switch him from teams of five to teams of three, and then asks Morris about the estimated numbers for the Consulate's defenses. Morris is still sorting, but Doyle wants the numbers now. Morris: "Oh, I see, this is about whether it takes eight seconds or ten seconds? There are your numbers, sorted three ways. Pick one." Doyle picks the previously unmentioned Option #4, which is to clamp a hand on Morris's chest and push him back in his chair. Surprisingly, Morris doesn't scream in pain at having the drill-hole in his back reopened, which I suspect would at least take some of the wind out of Doyle's sails. "Do I have your attention?" Doyle says to the room at large. "Because I only want to do this once." Suuure he does. He releases Morris and goes into a whole clichéd speech about how he's about to lead some guys into danger, plus there are those three nukes, like everyone here isn't on the thirteenth hour of the day's shift: "So if anyone has a problem taking orders from me without giving me lip, tell me now and I will have you reassigned." Mike, I hate you. Let me recap Doctor Who. No? Shit, that totally didn't work. Oh well, Jacob's better at it anyway. Nobody else speaks up, and Doyle starts to walk off, without even looking at Morris's triple-sorted numbers. Milo pulls Doyle aside and asks him to keep his hands off Milo's people; he'd rather Doyle come to him if he has a problem. Doyle grumpily agrees, and tells Milo to have his people download everything to Doyle's screen. Milo then goes to Morris, who is busy calming down, and asks if he's okay. "The shirt's a blend, it doesn't wrinkle," Morris cracks, but he tells Milo he's all right. "I thought I was a pain in the ass," Milo mutters. Hey, nobody said you weren't.
In the White House Bunker, Lisa and Tom enter the Battle Bridge, escorted by several guards and Secret Service agents. The Veep greets Tom and dismisses the agents. He asks whether Tom has thought any more about their earlier conversation. I did, and I just got more confused, so I stopped. Tom says he's decided to "look the other way regarding details of the assassination plot, to a point." Which means that eventually the truth has to come out, and Chad Lowe and Carson have to be punished. The Veep assures Tom that they will be, but for now he's just trying to keep the country united. By lying to it. And to others, for that matter. Specifically, the Veep now wants Tom to tell the ambassador of Mideastia that he saw Assad plant the bomb. And if Tom wasn't cool with standing aside while Assad took the fall, he's even less cool with going on record and actively lying to an ambassador. The Veep comes around his desk and hulks over Tom, rumbling that he needs Tom to cooperate. Tom starts to say he'd like to, and the Veep cuts him off, snapping, "I'm still talkin'!" He says that, on the bright side, Wayne survived, neither of them had anything to do with the attempt on his life, and best of all, now they have the chance to Jail All Muslims like they always wanted. "Can you just put aside your distaste for my methods for one minute and think about the great gift that's been given to us?" the Veep wheedles. Tom finally nods his agreement. Ask Chad Lowe how binding those nods sometimes turn out to be, Mr. Vice President. But the Veep claps Tom on the shoulder and sends Lisa out to summon the ambassador, and to tell the Department of Justice that Tom's been cleared of any wrongdoing. Just like that. While she's at it, maybe she should tell the Federal Reserve that the prime rate has been raised a half a point and tell the FAA that Air Force Two has been armed with missiles. After Lisa leaves, Tom asks what the Veep's plan is. The Veep says that his plan is to hold Mideastia responsible for everything, from the nuke to the assassination attempt. He plans to motivate them to help find the terrorists by threatening a nuclear retaliation if they don't. Tom looks like he really wants to take his agreement back now. It's 6:15:55. Do you know where your Secretary of State is?
6:20:22. Fayed's panel truck has finally arrived at the airplane junkyard where Gredenko and his men are assembling the drones. Gredenko pointedly checks his watch (it's a bit after 6:20, I could have told him) as the Russians say that it's about time the nukes showed up. No argument here; Fayed's been on the road more than four hours to make the same trip Gredenko made in less than one. Time to buy a new truck, Fayed. He and his men climb out and set down the suitcases, and Gredenko's guys start unloading their contents right away. Fayed and Gredenko don't exactly share a manly hug.
Back at CTU, Buchanan's in his office, on the phone with the Veep to report what he's been up to the past twenty minutes: Kiefer's got the info they need, but can't get it to them. Buchanan outlines the plan to have Logan have Martha have Anya Suvarov have Suvarov back down. The Veep chuckles that this doesn't seem likely to succeed, so Buchanan offers his second option: a tactical strike on the Consulate. "You realize that an attack on a Russian Consulate is technically an act of war?" the Veep asks, almost as if he doesn't want to make out with Buchanan for this right now. He says he doesn't want to "open up another front" with Russia while he's already busy with the terrorists. Buchanan gets that, but he argues that Markov won't surrender, so they'll have to go in. The Veep asks how long it'll take to get ready. Doyle tells Buchanan twenty minutes, and Buchanan relays it to the Veep. Sighing, the Veep tells Buchanan to get his people into position for the strike, and to hope Logan succeeds before then: "But if not, don't wait on him." Buchanan acknowledges the order, ends the call, and sends Doyle off to do his thing. Not being a raging asshole -- the other thing.
Look, it's Aaron! In case you're wondering, this makes Kiefer Sutherland and Glenn Morshower the only two actors who have been in every season of this show thus far. And unless Tony or David Palmer come back to life, it's likely to stay that way. In casual civvies, Aaron carries a grocery bag along a row of neat little bungalows, in blatant violation of the federal ordinance requiring that all TV grocery bags have a giant baguette and a leafy celery stalk sticking out of the top of them. He nods familiarly at the Secret Service agent standing at the door of one of them, and goes inside.
The first thing we see inside the place, at 6:22:30, is a framed photo of Aaron and Martha. See, didn't we all know they'd end up together? She gets up from where she's been sitting on the couch in bathrobe, pajamas, and glasses, and says she's been worried about Aaron driving around in all the fallout. So we know she's conveniently in the L.A. area instead of back in Vermont. Aaron assures her that he's been keeping his distance. Well, at least then he might have an excuse for why he looks the way he does. As for Martha, she's been reading and listening to music, and not letting the fear ruin her day. Aaron congratulates her on this, and they dig into the grocery bag. Aaron picked up some magazines and some fresh fruit for Martha. She's inordinately excited about the raspberries and blackberries and kiwi. She gets all flirty with Aaron, feeding him a raspberry and everything. I don't know why I find this more disturbing than what happens on every single episode of Rome, but I do. Maybe it's the giant white ceramic pear in the background.
Fortunately, the phone rings, and Aaron gets it while Martha continues busying herself with the fruit. "Martha Logan's bungalow," Aaron answers, like all callers need to know what kind of structure Martha's occupying these days. It is, of course, Logan, calling from his holding room at CTU while Buchanan watches creepily from behind the two-way mirror. Logan asks for Martha, and when Aaron asks who it is, Logan answers, "It's Charles, Aaron." We're all buddies here, with the first names, and let's not talk about how anybody ever tried to kill or succeeded in overthrowing anyone, right? Aaron tells Martha who's calling, and that he says it's important. "Important to whom?" Martha retorts, and turns back to her fruit. Logan won't be blown off, though, and he explains that he's "on government business" regarding the nukes. Aaron says that he doesn't understand how Martha can help. The Logantitlement comes roaring back as Logan rather shortly says that what Aaron understands doesn't matter. "I no longer have to tolerate your sarcasm!" Aaron says hotly. Logan backpedals, but it doesn't help; Aaron still doesn't know why Martha would suddenly start taking Logan's calls after two years. "Tell her it's about the Suvarovs," Logan instructs. Aaron does, and finally Martha accepts the phone, worriedly asking if Anya's okay. Logan assures Martha that she is, and that he needs Martha's help to defuse an international incident. Martha wants to make sure she understands: "The government is desperate, so they come to you to fix the world, and, uh, then you come to me." Now that's desperation. But Martha wants no part of his drama anymore. Logan repeats that this is important, and she gets more upset, throwing the phone on the couch and going across to stare out the window. Aaron picks up the phone to ask whether Logan is still there, which of course he is. Aaron at least realizes that Logan isn't playing, and Logan tells him that he's on his way via helicopter and will arrive in a few minutes. It's up to Aaron to convince Martha to agree to see him. For whatever reason, Aaron agrees, and hangs up. It's 6:26:38.
6:31:04. Logan's already in the air. Unfortunately, he's in a helicopter. Buchanan calls him up on the CTU chopper's headset to warn him that CTU guys are on their way to launch the attack on the Russian Consulate. Logan still thinks that's a bad idea, but Logan tells him that's too bad; the only way to stop it now is if Logan succeeds in getting Martha to call Mrs. Suvarov. So no pressure or anything.
Meanwhile, Kiefer is still lurking around the Consulate's basement, avoiding the searching soldiers. He finds a radio room, where a young Russian man and a young Russian woman are clearly about to have some kind of assignation. Rather than offering to come back later, Kiefer bursts in with his gun leveled at the couple and makes them go up against the wall. They do so separately rather than attempting to propose the obvious compromise. After ascertaining that they both speak English (because the explosion blew all of the Russian clean out of Kiefer's head), Kiefer says that he doesn't want to hurt anyone, but will kill them unless they cooperate. He wants to know how they contact the outside world in case of an emergency, and the man says there's a SATCOM phone upstairs, whatever that is. Kiefer sends him up to bring it back, keeping the woman as his hostage. He tells her to lean against the desk, so he in turn can slide down the wall to sit on the floor, looking like he's in terrible pain. Kiefer tells her not to be scared, and that she'll be fine. Especially if Kiefer dies in the twenty minutes, which doesn't seem impossible right now.
It's 6:33:12 as Aaron stands outside the front door of Martha's bungalow, looking across the lawn at the CTU helicopter that just landed there. I wonder how many patients' therapy was set back months by the noisy spectacle of its landing. I at least hope it set down well out of sight of the paranoia ward. Logan and his two Secret Service guards make the long walk across the lawn, which is made shorter when the director shows us some guy playing tennis. Nice backhand. Logan says hello to Aaron and sticks his hand out. Aaron leaves his former boss hanging and goes inside, saying that's where Martha is. Logan thanks him and follows.
Inside, however, Martha's hiding in her bedroom. Aaron disappears back there, giving Logan time to check out Martha's framed photos. One of them is of her and Anya Suvarov, which is encouraging. Or at least it is until Aaron comes out and says that Martha's changed her mind about seeing Logan. Logan tries to convince Aaron of the importance of this, even spilling that, in a few minutes, the U.S. is basically going to be at war with Russia. Before he can go into how awkward this will make Martha's future luncheons with Anya, Martha suddenly appears in the bedroom doorway and says, "You've lost weight." She's dressed in slacks and a turtleneck as she sarcastically calls him "the new, improved Charles Logan, reborn." And also hairier. Logan in turn tells her that she looks beautiful. She comes in and asks what he wants, and he asks her to call Anya Suvarov. She peppers him with questions about why and what he hopes it will accomplish. He patiently answers them all, until they come around to how the White House already tried to talk to Suvarov directly and it didn't work. Rather than explaining that it "didn't work" because of the loose cannon Logan himself brought into the Consulate, Logan starts getting impatient. This flash of the old Logantitlement quickly pisses off Martha, who accuses, "You haven't changed a bit." Logan shows her the locator bracelet that the prop department finally finished for him, saying that he's going back to prison as soon as this is over. Martha mocks him for using the term "prison" to describe a place that, let's face it, is exponentially nicer than the one Martha herself is stuck in. Logan brings things back to the point, which is that Anya can convince Suvarov, and Martha's the only one who can reach her in time. Martha asks Aaron what he thinks, and he agrees with Logan that she should help. "I need a drink," she says wryly, but no one else laughs. Of course she can't have a drink. Put it here in front of me instead. With tears in her eyes, Martha agrees to talk to Anya. It's 6:37:35.
6:42:02. Doyle and his tactical team are riding to the consulate in the back of the CTU SWAT van that Milo didn't already blow up. He checks in at the office, and Nadia tells him that they're still on, but that she'll call him if anything changes. What might change, Nadia? The Veep might be pissed that you said you'd be ready twenty minutes ago and now you're still en route?
The ambassador from Mideastia is making his third visit to the White House today. I hope he lives close by. He joins Tom and the Veep in the conference room and begins by asking how Wayne is. The Veep says that Wayne's tough (you have to be, to survive four seasons on this show), and that they expect a full recovery. This brings the Veep to his point, which is that Assad, a citizen of the ambassador's country, was to blame. I think the is the first we've heard that Assad was a Mideastian citizen and not from some other fictional country. Which means the writers just decided that. That's fine; we never specifically heard otherwise, so I'll allow it. When the ambassador points out that Assad was killed in the explosion -- while working with Wayne on a peace plan, no less -- the Veep says that was all a "ruse." The ambassador asks for proof, and the Veep says that Tom saw Assad with the detonator: "Isn't that right, Tom?" Tom reluctantly confirms it, rubbing the back of his neck and stuttering and murmuring and twitching and basically doing everything short of talking over a subtitle from one of those old Joe Isuzu commercials. The ambassador says it's not like it's his government's fault anyway: "Assad was as much a wanted man in our country as much as he was in yours." "Oh, not as much," the Veep smirks evilly, "but that's gonna change." As Tom rubs his face in embarrassment, the Veep accuses the ambassador's government of supporting Assad and other terrorists. The ambassador jumps to his feet in protest, saying that it's not true. "I say it is," the Veep insists. Well then, it must be. And to prove it, the Veep's ready to give American carrier groups off the shores of Mideastia the order to attack. The ambassador angrily says that his country has been helping all along, and adds, "These threats are reckless and counterproductive." Whoa, such strong language! The Veep doesn't care; if another nuke goes off, he's going to "unleash the full power of [the U.S.] military on [the Ambassador's] country." Just like Gredenko wanted. Clearly, I underestimated him.
6:44:44. In Buchanan's office, Nadia reports that Doyle and his men can be inside the Consulate in fifteen minutes. Buchanan says that it's going to come down to the wire, and explains that while Logan was able to convince Martha to call Anya, Anya's busy giving a speech in Omsk. At 7:45 in the morning. What the hell is wrong with Russian people? Nadia still thinks it's going to take Anya a while to convince Suvarov to change his mind. Buchanan agrees that it's a long shot. But the important thing is that we got to sit through yet another explanation of what people are trying to do this hour.
Meanwhile, Chloe's out on the floor and on the phone with Logan, who's bitching that they need to have someone interrupt Anya's speech. "It's Russian politics, there's nothing we can do," Chloe says, fulfilling her traditional role as the voice of restraint and decorum. Logan has to let it go for now, and hangs up. Martha is stressing out about how long this is taking. Logan sits on the couch across from her and Aaron and apologizes. "The last thing I wanted to do was upset you," he says. "You always manage to get to that last thing," Martha points out, and she's not wrong. With a few minutes to kill (and something else, but we're getting ahead of ourselves), she decides to spend some quality time trying to fuck with Logan's head. She asks whether it bothers Logan to see her with Aaron, much to Aaron's embarrassment. Logan admits that it does, and then she asks if he shouldn't be happy for her in light of his big change. He says that's true too. She gets up and goes into the kitchen, slicing up the kiwi with a lot more energy than is necessary, going on about how awesome Aaron is, especially in contrast to Logan, "the president of the universe, the great leader, the murderer!" Aaron tells Martha not to get herself "all stirred up." She comes back with the bowl of kiwi that she sliced the fuck out of at 6:47:23 as Aaron offers to let Logan wait outside. Logan politely declines. Back on the couch, Martha glares balefully at Logan as a crazy-lady violin lick graces the soundtrack warningly. Logan then thanks Aaron for being there for Martha. His being nice just provokes Martha even further, to the point where she throws fruit at him. Aaron tells her to take a chill pill already, and she gathers up the plates and the paring knife on the coffee table, preparing to return them to the kitchen. Then, as she passes behind Logan, she stops, and the paring knife introduced in the fourth act goes off in the fourth: she turns and plunges it into Logan's shoulder. The soundtrack freaks out along with Aaron, who's pretty slow in coming out of his seat for being ex-Secret Service. Maybe he retired because that rocket attack from last season left him with too much lead in his ass. Logan is left to pull the knife out of his own shoulder as everyone dithers around uselessly, their hands full with restraining Martha while Aaron finally joins him and hollers for a medic. Martha has a meltdown of her own as Logan leans his head back, getting a pretty good start on bleeding out from that dinky little knife hole. It's 6:48:52.
6:53:14. At Martha's bungalow, a very bloody Logan is wheeled out on a gurney with an oxygen mask over his face. Martha sits and watches while Aaron's on the phone with Buchanan, saying that it happened too fast for anyone to stop him. Which of course is why they let the pissed-off crazy lady parade around the house with a sharp knife to her least favorite person in the first place. Buchanan responds that he's about to send in the strike team unless Suvarov comes around quickly. He asks whether Martha is capable of having a coherent conversation. Aaron doesn't know, but Buchanan doesn't have time, because Chloe's going to put the call through any second. Aaron agrees and hangs up. He goes to Martha, who wonders why she's wearing handcuffs. "I should be given a medal," she insists. "He was one of the biggest criminals in history and they gave him house arrest." Aaron tries to keep her on task as the call to Anya comes through. A Secret Service agent gives Martha the cell phone, and in a moment she's on the line with the Russian First Lady. She sounds pretty together as she apologizes for getting right to the point, which is the situation at the Russian Consulate. "Please, tell me more," says Anya. Anya Suvarov's hair is huge this season.
It's 6:55:23 at the Russian Consulate. The guards and staff are walking around the grounds, unaware that Doyle and his team are lurking just outside the compound walls. Doyle's the only one not in riot gear; presumably he didn't want to mess up his hair. And inside the building, Consul Markov is already on the phone with President Suvarov. So a lot of convincing took place in less than thirty seconds, even assuming that Suvarov was able to get Markov on the line instantaneously, which is doubtful considering that Markov cut the damn phone lines. Yuri Suvarov must be the most thoroughly whipped president in Russian history. Also, he and his wife are in the same room, so I was either wrong about his being in the Kremlin last hour, or Anya covered the 1,600 miles between Omsk and Moscow with a speed that would put Kiefer to shame. Markov growls angrily into his satellite phone about how the Americans "stepped on Russian soil and took me hostage." Suvarov says that they'll figure all that out later, but for now he wants Markov to surrender and release Kiefer. Markov refuses and hangs up, pissing Suvarov off so much that he switches right to the other line and tells Buchanan that Markov is not cooperating. Furthermore, he authorizes the use of force on the Consulate: "The United States of America has the support of the Russian state in this matter." So it turns out that the first couple of Russia were a whole lot easier to deal with than one nutty ex-FLOTUS. Buchanan thanks Suvarov and hangs up.
Inside the Consulate, Kiefer's male hostage has returned to the radio room with the other satellite phone. Kiefer wonders if anyone will miss it, and the guy says that someone will in a few minutes. Kiefer starts fiddling with the phone, and then hands it back to the male hostage to enter the unlock code. While he's doing that, a Russian guard kicks the room's door open and fires blindly into the room. Kiefer's hostage goes down, and Kiefer shoots back at the guard, killing him right back. But the guard brought backup, and in a moment Kiefer's pinned down behind the desk that's light enough for him to tip over but heavy enough to stop the AK-47 fire he's taking cover from. The female hostage ducks out of the way. Kiefer fires back over the overturned desk until he's out of bullets. But hey, he's still got that switchblade.
Meanwhile, Doyle is getting the go order from Buchanan, and sends in his men. They all start shooting over the wall, making short but very noisy work of the resistance in the yard. As uniformed Russian soldiers get mowed down by withering automatic weapons fire from the Americans, I think, "Well, this should play great back in Moscow."
In the basement, Kiefer has reloaded, but now he's out again. The guards start moving on his position. Just in time, CTU breaks the window, throws in a flash grenade, and shoots down the blinded guards. Not sure how they knew to move in there at this early stage, when nobody was shooting at them, but Kiefer and the female hostage are safe, and that's what matters.
In his office, Markov watches the gun battle taking place outside his window as he dials Gredenko on his satellite phone. He reports that the jig is up, and that Gredenko has to launch right away. Even though their cover is blown? He hangs up and pulls a gun out of his desk drawer (which would have been handy for him to have earlier, when Kiefer walked in). Two armored CTU agents burst into the office. Markov levels his gun at them, but doesn't get off more than one shot before they take him down. He'll never get that pinky reattached now.
Down in the basement, Doyle has found Kiefer and his hostages in the radio room. Kiefer introduces himself and asks for a medic for his male hostage. He's so cute with his reverse Stockholm Syndrome sometimes. Doyle calls for the EMTs on his earpiece, and introduces himself to Kiefer. Kiefer tells Doyle that Gredenko's in the Shadow Valley, and Doyle tells his earpiece to connect him to Buchanan. Kiefer leans against the wall and hurts some more. I do hope he'll be okay by the hour, don't you?
In the Shadow Valley, Fayed announces, "This drone is ready to launch," like suddenly he's the expert. He passes the arming device that Morris programmed to his underlings and orders, "Arm the bomb."
Splitscreen time, as the nuclear Thermos is removed from its suitcase, the Veep glowers at papers on his desk, and Buchanan gets off the phone and urgently gives the order to put all satellite coverage on the Shadow Valley. Milo gets to work on that as Kiefer limps through the Consulate hallway, loosening his tie, and Chloe and Tom look serious at their respective locations.
An ambulance screams down the highway in front of an impending sunset. In the back, a bloody-shirted Logan comes to, says Martha's name into his oxygen mask, and starts crashing. His EKG alarm merges into the beeping of the clock as it ticks over to 7:00:00. How are we supposed to get invested in the potential redemption of people like Assad and Logan if they keep getting killed off?