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The Russians already know that the Chinese have the chip from the suitcase nuke, and some cutting-edge telecommunications equipment (which just happens to be advertised during a later commercial break) allows them to tell the Veep just how pissed off they are about it. In fact, President Suvarov is threatening military action. But how did the Russians find out so quickly? Well, in addition to her affair with the Veep, Lisa has been having sex with someone who she didn't know is spying for the Russians. Still, resolving that question doesn't let CTU off the hook as far as finding and retrieving the chip, and neither does the fact that the chip is damaged and thus useless to Cheng at present. The Veep confronts Lisa and forces her to agree to lie to her spy boyfriend, and I guess we'll see how that works out hour.
Nadia quickly finds herself in over her head as CTU's acting director. Because Audrey is CTU's only lead to Cheng, a hotshot shrink from District wants to "shock" her out of her torture-induced catatonic state with a bit more torture. Nobody at CTU thinks this is a good idea, but Nadia lets the shrink pull rank and get ready to do his thing. That's when Doyle decides to let Kiefer escape to have a few moments with Audrey to see if he can get through to her instead. Kiefer's "kinder, gentler" questioning involves physically assaulting Audrey's would-be questioners in her presence, and then dragging her in her hospital gown to the bowels of CTU to try to connect with her while a crew forces entry with a cutting torch. Just in time, Audrey manages to utter the word "Bloomfield," which is enough of a clue to give Nadia the gumption to call off the shrink. Audrey's dad, Ex-SecDef James Heller, shows up to take care of Audrey, and also to ground Kiefer from ever seeing her again.
Oh, and Morris dumps Chloe for being mean to him. We all knew it was only a matter of time. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
It's the aftermath of the fake hostage exchange that went horribly wrong and turned into a real hostage exchange. (There's a sentence no other recapper will ever have to write.) CTU is still scrambling around the abandoned motel instead of trying to pursue Cheng and his men up into the hills. An agent ascertains that the C-4 charge Kiefer set is the only one in the building. Which it is, as far as Kiefer knows. But then he happens to glance up into the building's window and see another ticking time bomb inside that he forgot about, name of Audrey Raines. He remembers to look worried and guilty about her state, just in case anybody's watching him for signs of anything but an intention to escape.
Inside, Doyle approaches Audrey -- still tucked up in the fetal position in her chair -- and introduces himself. He explains that he's hoping Audrey might have some kind of lead that will help him to find Cheng. Which I'm sure is the case, if Cheng was actually willing to hand her over to Kiefer. Cheng's nothing if not sloppy, right? Audrey isn't talking at all, so Doyle assures her that she's safe now. Still no response, until Doyle asks if she understands. She finally speaks: "Help me, Jack. Please don't let them do this to me." Sadly, in her current state, it appears that one blond, psychopathic, torture-happy, seen-more-boyish-looking-days government agent looks much like another.
Back at CTU, Nadia has already taken over Buchanan's old office and is barking orders at her speakerphone to have roadblocks set up around Cheng's last known location. Which should be useful, since we all know that Cheng isn't on the road. Maybe setting up hill blocks and field blocks would be a good idea, too. She blows off the caller's complaints about the overloaded system and hangs up. Morris arrives in the office, because in the past ten minutes, while Nadia was learning her new job and dealing with the fact that her agency allowed a highly sensitive piece of Russian technology to fall into Chinese hands, she somehow found time to read Morris's transfer request. She's basically called him up here to tell him it's denied. Down on the floor, Chloe is watching this scene through the glass walls of the BossCube, and she doesn't look happy, even though she can't hear what her boss and her boyfriend are saying to each other. But it's never good when your boss and your boyfriend are talking. It either means you're dating a coworker, which is a recipe for disaster; or you're at a work party, which is generally a disaster in progress. As we return to the BossCube, Morris is acting all condescending to Nadia, saying that since she's just starting a new job, he's only looking out for her and trying to protect her from an ugly situation that's about to arise. Nadia dismisses Morris's "personal melodrama," and then dismisses Morris himself. "Anything else you want to say?" she asks as her phone rings. "Oh yeah," Morris assures her. But he leaves Nadia alone with her phone rather than end up saying something he'll regret. That's his ex-wife's department, after all.
It's Doyle on the other end of the line, reporting to Nadia that Audrey isn't in any shape to talk. Nadia tells Doyle to have her brought back to CTU so that District can send a psychiatrist to take a look at her. Are there any psychologists up at this hour who specialize in anything besides sleep disorders? And isn't any such shrink likely just to diagnose Audrey with sleep apnea and make her wear an oxygen mask to bed? Moving on. Nadia asks Doyle what Kiefer was thinking. Doyle explains that Kiefer had wired the building to explode as soon as Audrey was safe. "And his plan would have worked if I hadn't intervened," Doyle self-flagellates. Nadia says that Doyle saved Kiefer's life, but Doyle is angry at himself for losing the component. "Jack went against a direct order from the White House," Nadia points out. "This was no one's fault but his." Doyle clearly disagrees, but he lets it drop for now. Let's not get into the fact that Doyle was close enough to the building that the explosion would have killed him too, hmm?
At 1:05:42, Doyle walks out of the building, telling his men to come along and bring Audrey with them. As the helicopters start warming up to fly everyone back to CTU, (instead of, you know, pursuing the bad guy with the stolen nuke component), Kiefer sees Audrey emerge from the building, and starts running in her direction and screaming her name. Just what she needs right now. Doyle runs to intercept Kiefer and assure him that they're all going back to CTU together. Well, okay, not together, since Kiefer and Audrey will be in different helicopters. Kiefer begs Doyle for a couple of minutes to talk to Audrey. He argues that he knows Audrey, and understands what she's been through, and that he might therefore be the only person who can reach her. And if that doesn't work, he can just choke her. But Doyle has his orders, and the ex-lovers are heading back on separate choppers. Kiefer watches the one carrying Audrey lift off at 1:06:33. Amazing how much can happen in fifty seconds, isn't it?
Back at the White House, Karen and the Veep have apparently been able to tear their attention away from their respective personal situations now that they know the component is in Cheng's possession. In the Oval Office, Karen is going over all the measures in place to prevent Cheng from leaving the country. She admits that they won't work forever, and that the best they can hope for is that Cheng will be slowed down long enough for CTU to find him and retrieve the component. Karen's about to leave the room with the Veep's signature on her papers, but the Veep stops her to talk about how things went with Buchanan earlier. "Not well," Karen says shortly, and turns to leave again. This time, the Veep comes around the desk and says that while he knows they've had their differences, he appreciates Karen's sacrifice. Karen actually appears affected by the Veep's sentiments. Sucker. Tom mercifully interrupts this tender moment by coming in and saying that the Russian President wants a sit-down in the "TelePresence suite." He's already heard the news about the component? The Veep nervously gathers his two Viceroys to his side and heads out of the room.
Lisa lets herself into her apartment, which appears to be in the most Georgetown-looking building in all of Southern California. No sooner has she entered than -- AAAH! Someone grabs her from behind, clapping a hand over her mouth. Oh, no! What will become of Lisa? Actually, this is just a bullshit scare, because it's only Lisa's boyfriend. Who is, I should clarify, most assuredly not the Veep. She smiles and kisses him. She seems pretty relaxed for someone who's cheating on the Acting President of the United States. Maybe she forgot? No, that's not it; she tells her boyfriend that "Noah" is going to be Acting President for quite a while. Amidst all of this steamy talking while out-making, the boyfriend throws Lisa's purse across the room to land on the sofa. She's going on about the Veep's "lunatic foreign agenda," which, you'll recall, is the same "lunatic foreign agenda" she offered to commit perjury to support, but apparently it's just so she can be in charge of spending legislation. The boyfriend doesn't seem to think this is as sexy as Lisa does. He picks her up and hauls her into the bedroom so that he can throw her down on the bed and whip open her shirt to reveal her bra. "Yep, they're still there," her expression says, and they continue to mack. She doesn't think to wonder what he's doing awake and in her place at 4 in the morning?
Back in the White House, we get a nice, long, tight shot of the splash screen for a telecommunications product called Cisco TelePresence. The logo fades into the face of President Suvarov, scowling out of the screen from under his giant forehead. And, hell, as long as this scene is going to be one long commercial for TelePresence anyway, I might as well describe what it looks like. Because as much as it pisses me off to have to admit it, it actually looks kind of cool. The Veep is sitting on one side of a semicircular conference table, flanked by Karen and Tom. Directly across from them, almost the entire far wall is taken up by three large video screens on which appear President Suvarov, flanked by some very serious-looking Russians, some of whom are in dress uniform. And they appear in actual size, creating a fairly convincing illusion that they're all in the same room together. Hence the marketing-friendly oxymoron "TelePresence." Okay, Cisco, now where's my check, you fuckers? I know you wouldn't want me to point out that the complete lack of any satellite-related time lag in the ensuing conversation indicates to me that Suvarov and his sidekicks are probably playing their part of the scene in an adjoining room, if in fact not behind cheap scrims that only make it look as if they're on video.
Anyway, I think I've done enough describing and should probably let the characters talk now. Suvarov gets right to the point, which is that he's heard that "an FB sub-circuit board is now in the possession of an agent of the Chinese government." Damn, word does travel fast. The Veep, Tom, and Karen exchange looks of busted-osity, but the Veep will only say that the situation is under control. Suvarov tells the Veep that since the technology Cheng has will compromise Russia's defensive capability, the Veep needs to prevent him from leaving the country with it. The Veep gets grumpy: "I don't appreciate being dictated to, Mr. President." Yeah, don't expect him to fix a horrible mistake his country made or anything. The Veep continues: "I don't need to remind you that it was a Russian general who allowed those bombs to enter the U.S. in the first place. The same general who conspired to detonate them." Suvarov doesn't back down, and threatens "an appropriate response." Whatever that means. The Veep tries to "Mr. President" Suvarov again, but Suvarov vanishes from the screen, to be replaced by the TelePresence splash screen. Before someone at Cisco complains, I should add that he appears to have done so on purpose.
Now that they're effectively alone, the Veep demands to know how the Russians found out about the circuit board so quickly. Tom says that there must be a mole, either at the White House or at CTU. It's the only possible explanation, and besides, there's always a mole. Tom says that he'll look into it at the White House's end, and Karen offers to investigate at CTU. Too bad she just fired her best contact there. In the meantime, the Veep wonders how worried they should be. The short answer: very. Tom's analyzes that China's possession of the component will force Russia to "extend their defensive line into Centralasia." Those Centralasians again! They're everywhere! Especially in Central Asia. Karen points out that the U.S. has a military base there, which Tom predicts the Russians will target. And then the U.S. will have to respond, and things will escalate from there. The Veep looks stressed out. What, no ideas this time, Quick-Draw? Completely at a loss when faced with a problem you can't nuke? He just rubs his giant face and tells Karen and Tom to give CTU whatever they need to find Cheng. One presumes that if the mole is at CTU, he or she should be excluded from that instruction.
Cheng is still riding along in his Hummer. It seems to be successfully avoiding all roadblocks by the simple expedient of avoiding roads. Cheng plugs the nuke component into some kind of reading device, which he then plugs into a laptop. Then he gets on his cell phone and speaks English to an English-speaking Asian man back at their base, who is working with a bank of computers. The tech-support guy is receiving the schematics of the circuit board that Cheng is transmitting, and quickly spots a problem: the component appears to be damaged. There's even a little section flashing red on his digital diagram. Cheng asks if it can be fixed, but tech support will need a security override. Cheng's pissed that the technology is useless to them. "We'll have to find someone who has the necessary expertise," says Tech-Support Guy says, not knowing that Morris isn't going to go down so easily a second time. Cheng hangs up, frustrated. It's 1:12:46.
1:17:12. A post-coital Lisa gets up from the bed, telling her boxer-shorted lover that she's going to shower, since the Veep is awaiting her return. Okay, I've worked lots of overtime in my life, but I've never had to go back to work in the middle of the night less then ten minutes after getting home. As soon as Lisa shuts herself in the bathroom, her boyfriend hops up from the bed and into the front room. He takes a hidden device from a desk drawer, and then heads over to the sofa to sit to Lisa's purse. He digs out her cell phone, plugs in his device, and has everything in Lisa's phone downloaded instantly. Returning the device to its hiding place, he dials his own cell phone and reaches a guy with a Russian accent who's riding in a car somewhere. "The girl doesn't know you're working for us?" asks Boyfriend's Russian contact. "Not a clue," boyfriend assures him. Well, that's a relief. I'd certainly hate to see Lisa get in trouble for this.
At CTU, Morris is walking down a back hallway when Chloe waylays him to ask what he was talking to Nadia about. Morris stops walking, but he still doesn't look at Chloe as he tells her that he asked for a transfer and it was denied: "Working with you is becoming very uncomfortable." Already looking crushed, Chloe says that she apologized. "You said I should stop helping terrorists arm nuclear bombs," Morris quietly reminds her. What, was he planning to continue doing that before she suggested otherwise? Chloe says that they've always said things to each other that they didn't mean, but Morris says that she crossed the line and there's no going back, quietly telling her, "We're done." Chloe keeps her shit together long enough to ask Morris to look at her, and he finally does. "You don't have to do this," she says. Morris puts a hand to the side of her face, and softly but firmly repeats, "We're done." He turns and walks away, leaving her to cry into the concrete wall. And thus the character assassination of Chloe O'Brian is complete. I'll admit that I was never her biggest fan, but even I never wanted to see her end up like this, acting all pathetic after getting dumped for saying something that, while mean, was fairly good advice.
Karen's on the phone with Nadia, explaining that the Russians are pissed and that she needs Nadia to look into a possible leak at her end. Nadia agrees to get right on it. Hey, if she's looking for a leak? She should start with Doyle for no reason. That would serve him right. Karen asks how things are going with Audrey, and Nadia just happens to notice a posse of men in suits walking onto the floor in a cloud of vague but unquestionable authority the way they always do. This would be the psychiatric team from District, the leader of whom I already want to punch just from looking at his smug puss. Nadia admits that, aside from Audrey, they don't have any other leads. Karen offers to provide whatever additional resources Nadia needs. Nadia repairs to a slightly more private spot and rather frostily mentions something they could really use, which is the return of Buchanan. Nadia's heard rumors that Karen was the one who fired him, and asks what's going on. Karen says that she can't get into it, and hangs up with a request for continuing updates. She would probably also appreciate it if their future conversations weren't quite so awkward.
Nadia walks across the floor to greet the arriving shrink team, led by an eminently punchable walking column of smarm named Dr. Bradley. Bradley rudely says that he wants to get started right away, so Nadia dispatches him and his team to Medical, asking Bradley to give his first impressions of Audrey ASAP. Bradley just tosses a dismissive "Of course " over his shoulder as he leaves. I could save him some time by telling Nadia that my own first impression of Audrey's condition is that she could use a hot oil treatment. Milo comes up to Nadia, and this time instead of grabbing her, he just says that Doyle and Kiefer have arrived as well. Nadia tells Milo to have Doyle secure Kiefer and then meet her at Medical. Milo tries to acknowledge this, but by the time he can react, there's nothing but a tiny dust cloud where Nadia was just standing. Like the circuit board will land right there in the building if she just keeps moving fast enough.
Bradley finds Audrey in the CTU clinic. She's already been laid out on a hospital cot and dressed in a gown, and she lies there propped up with her feet apart, staring blankly at the far wall. And I can't help noticing that whatever unspeakable barbarities her captors may have visited upon her, at least they kept her legs shaved. Dr. Bradley shoos away the CTU orderly and gets in Audrey's face, talking really loud as he explains that he's there to "help her remember" anything that might help them to find Cheng. "It's all right, it's okay," he monotones as he shines lights in her eyes and looks at the marks on her arms, ignoring her flinches. Audrey really is in bad shape if she doesn't even want to smack him. Nadia takes up position outside the glass walls of Audrey's examination cubicle. Whether or not she wants to smack Dr. Bradley is open for debate.
Meanwhile, Kiefer's being led down a back hallway to Holding by Doyle, flanked by uniformed CTU guards. He still won't shut up about wanting to talk to Audrey. As Doyle swipes his access card through a reader that lets them into a holding room, Kiefer tells Doyle, "You know how they're going to interrogate her." Yes, I think they both know. Interrogation is one of Kiefer's and Doyle's common interests, after all. Kiefer thinks they'll just make Audrey retreat further inside herself, and that they'll learn nothing (in addition to screwing up Audrey for good). All Doyle will do, though, is cuff Kiefer's hands in front rather than in back before making him sit in a chair. Hey, if Kiefer's girlfriend is going to be reduced to even more of a mindless husk then she already is, Kiefer might as well be able to sit comfortably. Doyle's about to leave the room, but before he does, Kiefer begs him one more time to "take care of her." Doyle exits without any response beyond a guilty expression. Hey, try quoting the Upanishads or something.
At 1:23:32, Doyle joins Nadia in Medical while Bradley continues his exam of Audrey. Agent and boss exchange about ten words before Nadia decides that Bradley's exam has gone on long enough, and she taps on the door for him to come out. Nadia introduces Bradley and Doyle. Bradley has already determined that Audrey is a "Type 3 catatonic, capable of following simple commands and repeating words and basic phrases, but otherwise utterly unresponsive." He figures that her state is so severe that they aren't going to be able to communicate with her without using drugs to "shock her out of this state." Doyle rephrases: "So they used drugs to torture her, and you're going to give her more?" Because this is Doyle's house, and if anybody's going to be torturing witnesses, it's going to be him. Nadia asks about the risks to Audrey. Bradley says that 22% of patients have a "cardiovascular event," and that death can occur in extreme cases. Good thing nothing extreme ever happens on 24, then. Doyle tries to protest, and although Bradley says he's not thrilled with those stats either, they don't have a lot of other options, given the time frame they're looking at. Doyle suggests Kiefer's idea of letting Kiefer talk to her. Bradley smirks that he knows all about Kiefer from Audrey's file, and thinks that seeing Kiefer will just upset Audrey more. "But there's no chance of her dying from it," Doyle points out, because he's still fairly new. Bradley cuts off the debate, saying that District has put him in charge. He's going to get started, and he'll let them know what he finds. Bradley ducks back into Audrey's room with a dismissive "good day" that is no less dismissive for the fact that it's nearly 1:30 in the morning. As he reenters Audrey's room, Doyle exhorts Nadia to put a stop to this. Nadia says that she can't do anything about it. Doyle tells her to do the right thing: "It's what Buchanan would have done." Nadia calls that uncalled-for. Doyle apologizes, possibly sincerely, and says that the acting director can't be afraid to step on a few toes. "Does that go down better?" he asks. Nadia says that the acting director also has to respect the chain of command. "But thank you for your advice," she grumps. They go back to watching Bradley get ready to work on Audrey at 1:25:47. Isn't it interesting how quickly Doyle has taken such an interest in Audrey, after she called him by the wrong name during their only interaction? That probably reminded him of every sexual partner he's ever had.
1:30:12. Lisa's fully dressed again, apparently none the wiser and her hair none the wetter after her shower. She hears her cell phone ringing and fishes it out of her purse, telling her mostly-dressed boyfriend, "It's him." When she answers, the Veep shortly asks, "Where are you?" He tells her to get back as quickly as she can to help deal with a new crisis. "I need you," he whines, and she softly answers, "I need you too." She hangs up and turns back to her boyfriend, who's just fixed himself a drink. She says that she has to go back to work, although she doesn't know what for. They kiss goodbye, and she leaves, without a change of clothes and wearing what looks like the same suit she's been wearing all night. Alone at last, her boyfriend pulls out his cell phone and calls his Russian handler to ask, "What's my move?" Such a diligent spy. If I were still up at 4:30 in the morning, my "move" would not occur until about noon.
Back in the Oval Office, Tom enters with a folder, saying that he's identified the leak. He takes way too much time in drawing out the revelation, considering his two audiences. By which I mean that the Veep is not a patient man and we already know. Tom says that the NSA has been monitoring all White House calls and emails since the circuit board has been "in play," and that one staffer -- whom Tom isn't naming just yet -- called a lobbyist named Mark Bishop, who had been flagged two years ago as having "possible to likely conflict with Russian intelligence agents." That's enough for the Veep, and he asks who the staffer is. Tom spills that it's Lisa. The Veep's in denial that he's been shtupping a spy, as if he'd ever get any action otherwise. But Tom doesn't think Lisa knows she's being used. Basically, the quick-and-dirty research he's done indicates that Lisa and Bishop have been sleeping together. Looking pained, the Veep decides to come clean about his own relationship with Lisa, understating, "Then we have a bigger problem than you think, Tom...I'm sleeping with her, too." Tom is shocked as the Veep sits across from him and spins a yarn about how he thought all of his groinal feelings were gone after his wife Nancy died. He's toying with his wedding ring as he speaks. Don't you think it's kind of interesting that the American people elected a ticket made up a single man and a widower? Maybe Martha Logan just turned them off the idea of First Ladies for a while. The Veep talks about working late with Lisa one night: "You understand how these things happen, Tom." Tom really doesn't, perhaps on more than one level. Fortunately, his shock at the Veep's behavior doesn't prevent him from thinking fast, and he's already got a plan to "turn this situation to [their] advantage." We'll be learning more about that later.
At 1:34:27, Kiefer's still cooling his heels in Holding. It's still way nicer than the cell he'd been occupying in China for the last two years. Doyle comes in and admits that he tried to convince Nadia to let Kiefer talk to Audrey, but that the District shrink isn't going for it: "I wish he was interested in what other people had to say, but he isn't." Sounds like someone (or someones) we know. Doyle uncuffs Kiefer as he explains what Bradley has planned for Audrey, and that it might kill her. "Why'd you uncuff me?" Kiefer asks quietly, as if he doesn't already know. Doyle just tells him to make it look good, and turns his back on Kiefer. Kiefer obligingly rises from his chair and gets Doyle into a sleeper hold from behind. Now, that isn't going to make it look good at all, not leaving a mark on him like that. After Doyle falls unconscious, Kiefer takes Doyle's security card and uses it to exit the holding room. He quickly punches out the single CTU guard posted in the hallway. Okay, that will look better. Kiefer draws the service weapon he took from Doyle's unconscious body and starts heading down the hallway to Medical.
Dr. Bradley is just about ready to start Audrey's IV. At 1:35:56, Kiefer sneaks past another hallway guard and right into Audrey's exam room. Bradley's assistant protests, and is knocked unconscious for his trouble. Kiefer, you can stop making it look good now. Kiefer then grabs Bradley by the throat and demands to know what he's done. "Nothing," Bradley stutters in a panic, and Kiefer throws him to the floor. As Kiefer starts to gather Audrey up, Bradley says that he recognizes Kiefer from Audrey's file, and repeats his position that Kiefer's just going to make her worse. Well, then, maybe they should stop forcing Kiefer to beat people up in front of Audrey. Kiefer ignores him and, as gently but quickly as he can, gets Audrey up off the bed and leads her out of the room. As soon as they've gone, Bradley gets up and hits the wall alarm, which looks a lot like an ordinary fire alarm. Well, whatever works. It should be pretty easy to find Kiefer and Audrey after everyone else in the building has evacuated it.
Except that nobody's leaving. Out on the main floor, Nadia comes up to Milo and asks, over the din of the klaxon, where the alarm's coming from. Milo has already pinpointed the source, so Nadia tells Morris to pull up the video feed from Audrey's room. Which is approximately where Nadia was when last we saw her, but she'd already made her decision to walk back to the floor and you know how she is lately about changing her mind. On Morris's monitor, Nadia sees Bradley helping his assistant up to an empty bed. "She's gone," Nadia analyzes. See, Buchanan was right about her being the correct person for the job. She tells Morris to change the channel to Kiefer's holding room. Milo grumbles, "If we'd just let Jack talk to Audrey, none of this would have happened." Nadia looks at him with an expression of betrayal and guilt. Yeah, Nadia, you should have just let the violent psychopath have his way. It's 1:37:02.
And here's tonight's second commercial for Cisco TelePresence, in which we learn that it's also useful for more literal intercontinental staring contests. This time it's the Americans who blink first.
1:41:25. Morris has made good use of the commercial break to ascertain that Kiefer hasn't left the building, and that he could only be in one of the lower levels at this point. Nadia bitches at him to hurry up on searching the video feeds, and then happens to look up and notice that Chloe's chair is empty. She asks Morris where Chloe is, and Morris says he isn't sure. Kiefer's acting up and Chloe's missing? In the old days, this would have been a slam-dunk, but then, in the old days Chloe wasn't such a pathetic girl. If Nadia plans to investigate Chloe's absence further, she changes her mind when she sees Doyle coming back out onto the floor, rubbing the back of his neck. She all but accuses him of taking a fall for Kiefer. Doyle makes a token effort to deny it, and then finally admits, "I did what I think is best for this operation, and Audrey Raines." And then Nadia just lets him walk off. Morris suddenly hollers, "I have him!" Indeed, his screen is showing a live video feed of Kiefer leading Audrey down a staircase to somewhere in the bowels of the building. Morris says that means that Kiefer is only going to be able to reach corridors L and M. Nadia starts heading in that direction, telling Morris to have Doyle and Bradley meet her there. And to bring dip. They'll make a party of it.
Kiefer hides from some more running guards, and then leads Audrey into a utility room that he easily accesses by swiping Doyle's key card through the reader. Nobody thought to deactivate that card when they locked the place down? Who's running this place? Once they're both through the door, Kiefer pistol-whips the cover off the access pad inside the room, and then pulls out the wires so that the door won't open again. So he's clearly counting on someone being pretty determined to get them out of there very soon. It would serve him right if Nadia got there and was all, "Fuck it, I was going to lock him up anyway. Let him rot in there." And isn't it great how destroying a door panel always does exactly what the destroyer wants it to do? I remember how Buck Rogers always interacted with electronic door panels. If he wanted to lock it behind him, he'd shoot the panel. Open a locked door? Shoot the panel. Jam the door open? Shoot the panel. Close a door he already jammed open? Shoot the panel again. Good times. Kiefer goes to Audrey, and they kneel on the floor facing each other. He's trying to be all gentle and understanding, promising to protect her and take care of her. Trying to get her to remember anything at all, he starts telling her about herself to try to jog her memory. We learn that she was born in Albany as Audrey Louise Heller, and that in addition to having a father who used to be Secretary of Defense, she had a mother named Alicia who died when Audrey was nine. Somewhere deep inside Audrey, a bell is ringing. Kiefer encourages her to try to remember, because if he has to keep going further in her life's story to the point where her husband died, things could get a little awkward for him.
Up on the main floor, Morris has determined that room 237 was just sealed from the inside, so Kiefer and Audrey must be in there. Nadia hears the news over her wireless phone headset at 1:44:02, just as she and a couple of CTU guards are reaching the door in question. She swipes her card through the reader, but it doesn't work, of course. "Get an entry team down here now," Nadia tells one of the guards, who immediately starts relaying the order into the radio on his shoulder. Can we just pause for a moment to look at that line? Nadia asked for an "entry team," meaning that apparently so many people lock themselves into various rooms at CTU that they have a team standing by, twenty-four hours a day, to get them out. Except that Nadia asked for "an" entry team, not "the" entry team, which means that there are more than one of them. Suddenly, I feel like there's a lot going on at CTU that we never get to see.
Inside the room, Kiefer is trying to walk Audrey through her more recent history, i.e. anything she can remember about when Cheng moved her from the hideout to the rendezvous point. "I want them to pay for what they've done," Kiefer growls. Audrey looks in his eyes for the first time. Yep, it's really him. Kiefer tenderly touches her head. He empathizes with what she's been through, because he went through even more of it. "But they can't hurt you any more," he promises. Conscious that time is running short, Kiefer starts getting a little impatient and talking more quickly, causing Audrey to flinch. Kiefer apologizes for his tone and hugs her with one arm. "I love you with all my heart," he whispers. Really? All of it? How much of it is left by now, anyway? Audrey takes his gnarly right hand in her left. They have a moment.
Which is fairly well shattered when the shower of sparks from "an entry team"'s cutting torch starts lighting up the room. Outside in the hallway, Doyle, Dr. Bradley, and an entire CTU strike team have joined Nadia. None of them appears to have dip. Kiefer tells Audrey that they're out of time. Audrey still isn't talking. Kiefer gets her up and drags her behind the closest thing to cover in the room: a row of exposed metal studs where a wall might be someday. Shielding her with his body, he goes to one knee and levels Doyle's gun at the door just as the crew finishes cutting away the lock and kicks the door open. Doyle comes in with a fresh weapon aimed, so they have a standoff on their hands. There's a lot of yelling at each other to lower their weapons. You know, I think Kiefer's found his soulmate, right here in this room, and it's not Audrey. He and Doyle should end up together. It might be embarrassing for them when they're at restaurants or grocery stores or whatever and they start arguing and their guns come out, but that would only make it hotter. Sensing that she's about to become superfluous, Audrey somehow manages to mutter, "Bloomfield." Kiefer seizes on it as a possible clue. Bradley's doubtful that it's anything but "another programmed response," but Nadia tells Morris over her headset to have Chloe get right on it. As soon as he can find her, that is. Nadia turns to Bradley and tells him to wait in her office. Bradley refuses: "She's my patient." "And she's my witness," Nadia snaps back. So I guess she wins. Bradley gets marched off with a bunch of CTU guys, because suddenly he's the one under arrest. Nadia steps in between Doyle's and Kiefer's guns, promising that she won't let Bradley touch Audrey (again). Kiefer surrenders himself and hands Audrey off to Doyle, who shuffles her out of the room. Nadia wants Kiefer brought back to Holding, because she's still new here and isn't yet aware of the rule that says Kiefer is allowed to get away with anything if it turns out okay in the end. Kiefer thanks her and goes quietly. It's 1:48:07.
1:52:32. In the White House Map Room with the Veep, Tom gets off the phone with a General who has just told him that "the Russian Army is moving large numbers of troops into the Central Asian theater." Worse yet, they'll be in striking distance of the U.S. military base there within the hour. Really? I don't see why the Russians are so worried about a little chip if they can move people around that quickly. If the Chinese decide to attack, everyone in Russia can just dodge. Lisa bustles in guiltily, saying she came as quickly as she could. Tom and the Veep just stare at her coldly until the Veep dismisses Tom, who leaves with a "boy are you in trouble" glance at Lisa. Lisa asks why the Veep just sent Tom to talk to the Joint Chiefs, and the Veep answers that the Russians have someone inside the White House who told them that the Chinese have the circuit board. The Veep then asks whether Lisa knows Mark Bishop. "Certainly not in the biblical sense!" Lisa doesn't sputter in a panic. She's all, "He's a lobbyist, right?" The Veep says that Bishop just called a known Russian agent from his cell phone. To prove it, the Veep plays back a recording of Lisa's boyfriend saying, "It's me. What's my move?" This time we hear the handler's answer: "It's imperative you reach out to her over the few hours. Find out of there are any new developments." I'd be like, "Fuck you, tovarisch. It's 5 in the morning and I'm going to bed. Develop that." Lisa seems to age ten years before our eyes as she hears her boyfriend offering to call Lisa and access her PDA again.
The Veep stops the recording and asks Lisa how well she really knows Bishop. Lisa tries to keep up the act, calling Bishop an "acquaintance." But not a naked acquaintance or anything. The Veep calls her on it, saying that she's gotten them all into a heap of trouble with the Russians over the component. "I always knew you were a good liar," he whines. "I just didn't think you could lie to me." Lisa says that she didn't know. "It's still treason!" the Veep accuses. Which, as they both know, is a capital offense. Between this and the perjury earlier, Lisa's like a one-woman crime wave. "You didn't just betray me, you betrayed your country," the Veep accuses. Lisa almost breaks down, and then pulls herself together and asks what the Veep wants. The Veep tells Lisa to go back to her boyfriend and convince him that they have the component back. I'd be like, "Is that all? Done!" But Lisa starts to protest, for some reason, because she's an idiot. (I remind you: cheating on her boss, the acting President of the United States.) The Veep slaps her down, telling her to do exactly as Tom tells her: "And don't even think about trying to expose our...relationship. If you go there, I'll have you declared an enemy combatant. Put you in solitary. It'll be years before you speak to anyone about anything." There, you see? And y'all were so worried about the Patriot Act being used for political purposes. The Veep leaves Lisa alone in the room, not even looking back when she calls him by his first name. Instead, a couple of Secret Service guys join her and close the door behind themselves. Out in the hallway, the Veep meets up with Tom, who asks if he's all right. "I'm better now," the Veep rumbles. He's in a surprisingly good mood for someone who doesn't know where his blowjob is coming from.
At 1:56:33, Nadia goes back to Medical and hangs out in the anteroom, seeing that Audrey has a visitor. It's her dad, and I must say that he certainly has recovered nicely from whatever injuries he sustained during his car crash last year. Also, despite the fact that he's the ex-Secretary of Defense, he's still dressed in a suit and tie at almost 2 in the morning. And he was in California why? Oh, never mind. I'm just glad to see William Devane again. He sits down to Audrey's cot and says he's going to take her away: "I'm going to take care of you, Audie, I promise." He puts his hand on hers, and then glances out to see Nadia lurking outside the glass wall, and says he'll be right back.
Outside Audrey's room, Heller tells Nadia that he wants to see Kiefer before he leaves with Audrey. He can just skip out like that with a key witness in the middle of the night? I guess his supposedly fatal car crash only made him more powerful than you can imagine. Nadia tells a guard to escort Heller to Kiefer's holding room. As they leave, Doyle comes up to Nadia and reports that "Bloomfield" just happens to be the name of a nearby copper refinery, and that Forensics found copper particles on Audrey's clothing. They figure Cheng must be using the copper refinery as his temporary base. Doyle has already asked LAPD to lock down the building, but hold off on making any moves until CTU gets there to screw things up but good. Nadia congratulates him on his good work. And as he's walking away, she tells him that he was right, and that she should have stood up to Bradley. Doyle walks all the way back into her personal space and says, "You did. When it counted, you stood up to him." Nadia takes a moment to look appreciative, and walks off into her own split-screen window. Other windows show Audrey, still not saying anything; Tom, about to get to work with Lisa; Cheng, looking grumpy; the Veep, looking grumpier still; and Kiefer, sitting in his chair in his holding room, looking at the floor. Grumpily.
Kiefer barely glances at the visitor who comes in, but then does a double take and jumps to his feet. "Mr. Secretary," he says to Heller, like he's addressing God. Heller just glowers at him. Kiefer looks kind of nervous, and rightfully so. William Devane can be pretty scary when he wants to be, plus the last time they met Heller beat the crap out of him. Kiefer can't stand the awkward silence, and starts babbling that he has promised to take care of Audrey and be there for her as long as it takes. Heller's like, not so much: "Audrey went looking for you and this is how she came back. What's happened to her is your fault." Which, Heller knows I'm not the biggest Kiefer-defender in the world, but I'd argue that the Chinese had something to do with it as well. Kiefer doesn't argue the point, but he says that he can get through to Audrey, given enough time. Heller just gets in Kiefer's face and snarls at him to stay away. Kiefer slumps back into his chair, defeated. Heller goes over to the door and, buttoning his suit jacket, declares, "You're cursed, Jack. Everything you touch, one way or another, ends up dead." He raps on the door and the guard lets him out, leaving Kiefer alone to ponder this startling observation, almost as if it's news to him. Which come on, can that really be the case? It's 2:00:00.