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The shooter who took out Schechter at the end of the last hour is trapped inside the Columbia building, but Kiefer thinks the only way he could have gotten there so quickly in the first place is through an FBI mole. Of course, he turns out to be right, and when that mole helps the shooter escape, Kiefer and Walker go off on their own little pursuit, as Kiefer continues his campaign to bring her over to the dark side.
Meanwhile, Tony remotely freezes up the entire northeastern air traffic control network long enough to nearly crash one passenger flight into another on intersecting runways at JFK. Lucky for him it's foggy there. After that little demonstration, we get to meet Tony's boss, Emerson, who takes the module and its creator, Latham, while hinting at a new job coming up for Tony tout-suite. Emerson seems to be reporting to our old buddy Colonel Dubaku, who survived that landmine in "Redemption" and is in the U.S., apparently to put pressure on President Taylor to call off the invasion while avenging his brother's death. Henry Taylor confronts Roger's girlfriend Sam about the $400,000 that showed up in her account, and doesn't believe her claim that the money is just the result of a little innocent tax fraud. Ultimately, Kiefer and Walker track the sniper to Tony's lair, where they take out all of Tony's men and Kiefer beats down Tony himself before asking this question of urgent national import: "What happened to you?"
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Ah, the previouslies freeze frames. How I've missed them, even when the "previouslies" cover stuff that was just broadcast over the last hour. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that they didn't interrupt "Redemption" with a set of them right in the middle. Anyway, this hour's freeze frames feature, in order, President Allison Taylor, Henry Taylor (along with a black-and-white family photo featuring the Taylors' now-dead son, Roger), FBI Agent Renee Walker, Jack Bauer, and, for the first time in years, Tony Almeida. The following takes place between 9:00 AM and 10:00 AM. But do events still occur in real time?
As Global Air/Skies flight 117 cruises obliviously through the clouds, the Northeast Air Traffic Control bunker is quite the beehive of futile activity. The supervisor starts rattling off ideas. "Figure out if there's any way we can contact them visually from the ground." I'm sure that's possible, as long as they don't mind the message being a barn roof that reads "Eat At Joe's." He also orders someone to start pulling cell phone numbers off the passenger manifest, in case anyone forgot to shut off their phones in flight. I did that once, by the way, and by the time we landed it was really hot for some reason. Not recommended. Emergency contact channels are still inoperative, but despite not being able to reach the crew, another controller has somehow gotten a hold of a cockpit recording from just a few minutes ago. He plays back the conversation between the pilot and Tony that we just heard at the end of the last hour. "They think they're communicating with us," the supervisor realizes, and quickly dials his cell phone. But isn't the plane Tony's problem now? If he wants to steer it, let him steer it.
Seconds later, the supervisor's on the line directly to Moss at the Washington Field Office, telling him the situation. And just in case Moss never saw Die Hard 2 or Pushing Tin, the supervisor spells it out for him. "As long as the pilot thinks he's talking to one of us, he'll do whatever they tell him." My God -- that pilot could end up walking off the plane with no pants on!
Tony's control over Flight 117is currently being demonstrated by the fact that Masters is now on the line with the pilot, telling him to make a course change to land on a different runway at JFK than the one originally assigned by real air traffic control. He quickly makes up an excuse about possible wind shear. While we see the innocent, helpless passengers in a split screen, the pilot acknowledges the instruction and changes course. One of those "innocent" passengers is a young boy playing a handheld electronic game, which he would have been told to turn off by now, with the plane on final approach. So, he, at least deserves to die.
A brief filler scene at the FBI's Washington Field office -- hereafter known as FBI-DC (TM Kim) -- shows Moss updating Sean and Janis on the situation. They've already heard about it from the NSA, who is trying to find the entry point. "They've never seen anything like it before," Sean mutters, showing a good deal of eye-white. Before Moss can do more than look worried, he gets a walkie-talkie call from Agent Walker, who's now on street level with Kiefer, looking for the shooter who just took out Schechter. Moss tells Walker that the situation has escalated, and explains how. "What did Schechter say?" he asks. "Not much before he was killed," Walker says. Way to bury the lede. She explains about the sniper across the street, shooting from a building that's now sealed off. "You all right?" Moss asks with what looks to be more than professional concern. He even has to lean against a wall to calm himself. He tells Walker he's sending SWAT teams to help with the search, and signs off. My interpretation is that he's secretly in love with Walker. My viewing partner's interpretation is that they're already doing it. Of course, The X-Files taught us that attractive FBI agents can't stay out of each other's pants, so I'm probably wrong.
Walker relays Moss's message to Kiefer, who isn't as excited about the prospect of approaching help as you might think. "I think you got a problem," he says. "Almeida called that office seconds after Schechter was killed. How do you think he knew I was there?" This is purely a rhetorical question, because Kiefer has already decided that the FBI has a mole. Well, when in doubt... But Walker isn't buying it. Kiefer snarks, "Yeah, and I didn't want to believe that Tony Almeida was a terrorist, but at some point we have to deal with the facts, not what we want to believe is true." He insists someone on Walker's side is dirty, but she shuts him down. "I brought you here to help with Schechter, not to help co-manage this operation." Kiefer yells at her to "be careful who you let in!" Of course he yells it right to a few other FBI agents. One of those agents asks for Kiefer's gun back. I still don't know how Kiefer scammed one in the first place. Seeing no help coming from Walker, Kiefer huffs and hands it over. Walker tells an Agent Kilner to sit with Kiefer in his vehicle until she gets back. And don't forget to crack a window. Kiefer sits in the back seat at 9:06:15, staring pensively out at the alley and thinking hard about what he's done.
Walker gets a status report from the nearest agent, a tall Asian guy named Dornan, who reports that all of the Columbia building's exits are covered and they'll have a video feed when the SWAT team arrives to sweep every room of the building. "If the shooter's in there, we'll find him," he assures her. "He's in there," she insists.
He is indeed, and he's looking pretty nervous, peeking around doorways and seeing agents everywhere. Maybe he should dump the giant gun-duffel he's toting around, just in case. Being caught with that might make it difficult for him to claim that he's just a messenger or something. By the way, is it me, or does this shooter kind of look like John Black from Days of Our Lives? Of course John Black was practically still Roman Brady last time I watched it, and might well be again for all I know, so I could be totally off base here
At the FBI, Moss commandeers Janis from Sean and tells her about the shooting at Schechter's office and the three dead bodies. Three? I only counted Schechter and his bodyguard Ari, and Ari wasn't that big. Anyway, Moss assures Janis that Walker is fine, and he wants her to coordinate remotely with the SWAT teams who'll be searching the Columbia building. He then turns to Sean for an update on the CIP firewall situation, but there's no good news from that quarter. Moss calls up the ATC supervisor, who also isn't getting anywhere and blows Moss off after being on the phone with him just long enough to effect a scene transition. At least one of his controllers is somehow able to overhear what Tony's telling the pilot. "He's landing him on runway three-one left," the controller reports. That runway actually seems to exist, according to my three seconds of research on Google. The supervisor thinks there's more to it than that. "These people didn't take control of this plane just so they could land it on a different runway," he frets. However, all his controllers' screens are clear of any danger, and it looks like flight 117 is on its way to a safe landing. That is, until everyone's screens suddenly lock up at the same time. They all freak out for some reason. At my job, that just means it's time for a break.
This is of course the doing of Tony and Masters, who then send an instruction to a "Sunrise International" jet (the pilot is Asian, of course) that will send it along a course to a landing on an intersecting runway. Tony now dials his cell phone, and gets the ATC boss on the line at 9:08:48. "How do your screens look over there?" he asks. Of course the supervisor asks who it is, and Tony declines to answer. "What matters is that I took out your control units." The boss urgently whispers to his minions to trace the call, and asks Tony what he wants. "I want you to see what we can do," Tony says. Don't give him what he wants! Close your eyes! But Tony advises the supervisor to pull up the video surveillance feeds at JFK. On one of the screens, a plane can be seen about to land on a fogbound runway. The problem is that this runway intersects with the runway that Global 117 is about to land on. "They're on a collision course!" One of the controllers says. It's that kind of ability to quickly size up a situation that makes a great air traffic controller.
The Sunrise International flight touches down at JFK. The Global Air/Skies flight does the same. Neither pilot sees anything amiss, like a big fucking plane getting closer through their side windows. Too foggy, I guess. The imminent collision is more than clear on the real-time radar screen in Tony's hideout, however. At the last second, Tony speaks into his headset: "GSA 117, pull up. Safety alert, pull up!" The Global Air/Skies pilot grabs at the controls just as the other plane becomes visible through the fog. The plane lifts back off the runway, passing over the taxiing Sunrise flight and missing it by mere feet, while scaring the crap out of his own helpless, innocent passengers. The Sunrise pilot, by the way, just looks up curiously as though he's in an automated car wash.
Watching from their bunker, the helpless air traffic controllers sigh in relief. Moments later, their screens all come back online, and Tony calls the supervisor back. "That was just a warning shot. Whatever we do will not be a demonstration." The supervisor again asks, "What do you people want?" Tony's answer: "You'll find out soon enough." It's 9:10:32.
Fair point: that was quite a demonstration. And not to belittle the vital work that air traffic controllers do, but I would almost think it would be harder to purposely crash one plane into a specific other plane than to keep them apart. Wouldn't Tony and Masters have been more likely to have put GSA 117 into the path of another plane on approach if they didn't know what they were doing? At least they could count on the utter reliability of the DC-NY air corridor, along which I am sure flights are never cancelled or delayed.
9:16:32. Back at the Columbia building, the SWAT teams are doing their thing, namely searching the place on live streaming video. For now, the shooter is still at large in the stairwells, but the sight of more law enforcement vehicles arriving below and a helicopter hovering overhead don't seem to cheer him much. He inwardly curses his luck at not having a nice, porous CTU perimeter to sneak through.
At the docks, a hawk-faced man in sunglasses steps out of a black car with a couple of goons. He buzzes a chain link security gate leading to a boat docked there. "It's Emerson," he says to the intercom and the security camera mounted over the gate. Masters buzzes him in, and it's suddenly apparent that Tony's hideout has been on the boat this whole time. It's all very The Usual Suspects. "Get the module ready," Tony tells Masters, and returns to the cabin where Latham is still handcuffed to a chair in front of his workbench. Tony orders the guard to uncuff him, and as he's being led out of the cabin, Latham has a sudden attack of bravery, asking Tony if he crashed the planes and how many people he killed. The spell passes, however, when Tony clamps a hand over Latham's throat and orders him cleaned up. With Latham having been dragged to a forward cabin, Emerson steps inside at 9:18:13 and greets Tony. "The offsite testing of the module went perfectly," Tony euphemizes. Masters shows Emerson the module, nestled in a briefcase that looks like it was designed for that very purpose. "That's our genius, huh?" Emerson asks, glancing up the companionway to where Latham is being given a clean shirt. "Had to be encouraged?" Tony assures Emerson, "I got him to a place where he'll do whatever you want." And it took him less than ten minutes, too. Emerson has a private question for Tony: "So, tell me how the FBI managed to find Schechter." Tony tells Emerson the truth, and assures him, "I took care of Schechter before he could tell the FBI anything. I'll take care of Jack Bauer, too." Emerson just hopes that doesn't distract Tony from his new job. "Speaking of which, you haven't told me what that is," Tony says, suddenly getting all shifty in a way that tells me he's totally undercover after all. For whom, I still couldn't say, but his curiosity about the gig seems more than idle. Emerson says someone named "Tanner" will tell him about it when he arrives, because Tony doesn't need to know yet. "Tony, we've been doing this three years." Emerson exposits. "The less information any one of us has, the safer we all are. After this job, we're done." Tony acquiesces, and promises to call when Tanner arrives. Emerson and his guys take off, with Latham and the module. Man, when's he going to be allowed to return to his daughter? She's probably late for school by now.
At the White House, Ethan is walking Taylor's Press Secretary to the Briefing Room with one clear instruction: Don't indicate when the go-ahead to invade Sangala will be given, no matter how hard the reporters push. She is, however, allowed to mention that Taylor is meeting with Sangala's ex-prime minister, Matobo, and even highlight Taylor's support for him as General Juma's successor after the U.S. invasion. The Press Secretary takes the podium and gives the statement. Reporters are just starting to ask questions when Ethan's cell rings. "JFK?" he asks the caller in surprise. "How long ago did this happen?" Uh, 45 years ago? Oh, no, that's something else. He abandons the Press Secretary to the gaggle. Which is too bad, because I was hoping to see the moment when she indicates when the go-ahead to invade Sangala will be given.
At 9:21:12, Taylor is meeting with Matobo not in the product-placed TelePresence suite, but in person in the Oval Office, with representatives from both countries present. You can tell because it's all white people on one side and all black people on the other. Matobo thanks Taylor for stepping in, which she smoothly deflects, then voices her insistence that General Juma be handled by the courts after he's been properly de-couped. Matobo is clearly not down with this idea, having had two of his own brothers killed by Juma. "My countrymen will want to see Juma punished," he insists. Taylor tells him to do it "according to the rule of law. That's the only way democracy will work in Sangala." Matobo clearly doesn't appreciate being lectured on how to make his country work, but he stands, buttons his suit jacket, and unconvincingly says, "You have my word." I suspect that word will turn out to be "Psych!" They shake on it. But before they can get into the logistics, she's called out to the hallway, where Ethan is waiting.
He tells her about the near-collision at JFK airport, and that Tony Almeida's involvement was confirmed by voiceprint. Like the ATC supervisor, Taylor also wants to know what Tony wants. "His exact words were, 'you'll find out soon enough,'" Ethan replies dramatically. Taylor isn't thrilled. "This is unacceptable. I mean, it's just technology. We should be able to unplug these bastards." Yes, why not just shut down the power grid within a ten-minute radius from where Latham was snatched? Or failing that, trigger a citywide EMP? We already know from Season Four that the effects of the latter are minor and short-lived. Ethan says they're doing everything they can. Taylor finally gives the order to ground nonessential air traffic before Tony can do it for her, and in a much noisier fashion. But she's just getting started: she also wants to get together with Homeland and DoD. Look out, bad guys -- the prez is having a meeting.
Back at the boat hideout, Tony and Masters get a call from the aforementioned Tanner, who turns out to be the sniper, calling because he's trapped in the Columbia building. Tony asks for his exact location. "Basement, near the west stairwell," Tanner answers. You know, a guy in Tanner's situation in another season would have been asked to eat his gun, but that doesn't seem like the style of Tony's operation. Do you think he can call in air strike instead?
At 9:23:57, more and more agents are pouring into the building, while Walker and a few other agents watch the search on video. Meanwhile, in the SUV where she parked Kiefer, the young Agent Kilner in the driver's seat ventures a remark: "I just wanted to tell you, what they're making you go through at that Senate hearing? It's wrong." Kiefer gently disagrees: "It's better that everything comes out in the open. We've done so many secret things over the years in the name of protecting this country, we've created two worlds. Ours and the people we promise to protect. They deserve to know the truth. Then they can decide how far they want to let us go." Aw, what a thoughtful position. But, wait, haven't we done that already? Kilman maintains that Kiefer doesn't deserve such treatment, "not after what you've done for our country. And I'm not the only one that thinks so." Kiefer thanks the kid, sincerely enough, and goes back to gazing out the window. Do you think he said that because he's sincerely questioning himself and the techniques he's used, or because he's just being contrary? I know what my answer would be.
Down in the Columbia building's basement, a lone, very vulnerable-looking FBI agent named Lennert is sweeping the basement from the west stairwell, reporting back to the command post over the radio. Tanner stays hidden behind a support column, until he jumps out with his silenced pistol leveled. The agent points his own gun right back at him. I don't know why neither one fires, until Lennert tells Tanner, "I'm here to get you out. Tony sent me." Tanner, after a dramatic pause: "Oh." Heh. Lennert hands Tanner an FBI windbreaker to put on and tells him to take the stairwell to the lobby, and thence to a gray Ford parked nearby, to which he hands Tanner the keys. After Tanner walks out, having finally ditched his gun case somewhere, Lennert gets back on the walkie-talkie and reports the basement clear. Unfortunately, his comm channel wasn't open during the whole scene and we don't hear anyone asking, "Who were you talking to?"
Kiefer asks Kilman, "Agent Walker, she's good, huh?" Kilman confirms it. "She understands what it takes to get the job done." Whatever that means. Having made friends with the guy, Kiefer asks permission to get some air, and gets it. He climbs out of the truck and wanders across the alley. Walker spots him and goes up to tell him about the JFK thing, like it's his fault his supposedly dead ex-friend went off the rails. Kiefer listens to her for about two seconds before Tanner happens to walk out of the building right behind her. Kiefer immediately notices Tanner's tan boots, a marked contrast to all the businesslike black shoes being worn by every G-man and -woman in sight. Kiefer quietly tells Walker, "I don't want you to do anything now, but see that man walking away? That's your shooter." Which just makes it even more of a shame that Kiefer so often relies on torture in his investigations rather than his keen eye for footwear. Walker wonders how the suspect got out of the building. Kiefer doesn't: "One of your people helped him get through the perimeter." While he watches Tanner walk down the alley toward the street, he sends her to check the deployment grid. She's enough of a grown-up not to be offended by the idea of someone who ever worked for CTU criticizing someone else's perimeter. "You're right, he's not one of ours," she reports back after a moment. "We'll follow him, see if he leads us back to Almeida." She starts to call Agent Dornan over, but Kiefer tells her not to. "Not until you know how badly the Bureau's been compromised. We can do this on our own." His subtle but relentless campaign to recruit her to the dark side continues. Dornan arrives, and Walker gives him some busywork to do before striding off in the direction Tanner just took. "You made the right call," Kiefer congratulates her. "Together, we will rule the galaxy!" As they see Tanner hopping into that waiting gray Ford, she commandeers another agent's car, tosses the keys to Kiefer without a word, and jumps into the shotgun seat as they take off to tail Tanner. It's 9:28:24.
At 9:34:22, we're suddenly in some high-tech command center. And you'll never guess who else is there: Colonel Ike Dubaku from Sangala, who we last saw about six feet from an anti-personnel mine seconds before it detonated underneath Robert Carlyle. He looks none the worse for wear, even decked out in a snazzy suit and tie. He and Nichols, the guy who was Chris's boss at the brokerage firm in "Redemption" but has apparently taken today off work (like that won't be suspicious), are watching a breaking news report about the near miss at JFK with approval. Emerson walks in with his goons and Latham, who he tells, "Do as you're told, you stay alive." Latham is bundled off, and Emerson approaches Dubaku to show off the module. "Very effective," Dubaku agrees. "General Juma will be pleased." The module is now apparently not the electronic component itself, but a little Lucite block that pops right out of it so Emerson can hand it to Dubaku. Emerson tells Dubaku, "And I've brought the man who constructed it here, in case any modification's necessary." Value-added service, right there. Nichols suggests that this might be a good time for Dubaku to present his demands to Taylor. "Make the preparations," Dubaku says. "Your government killed my brother and they tried to kill me." Is that how he sees it? Because the way I see it, those weren't the acts of the U.S. government but the faculty of a tiny school in the African boonies. Dubaku threatens, "Now they are going to pay a very steep price for interfering in our affairs."
In the meeting that's currently happening in the Oval Office -- a completely different meeting than the one before -- Tim from Homeland Security reports that flights have been landing safely so far, but the threat of sabotage remains and it could take NSA weeks or months to rewrite the code to lock out the hackers. Taylor asks a Dr. Cornell about their vulnerability, and gets a little PowerPoint presentation in response. In addition to air traffic control, there's the national power grid, whose loss would result in widespread rioting; and the national water treatment and distribution systems, the invasion of which would make the nation's water supply vulnerable to contamination, leading to mass poisoning and dehydration. And the only way to protect the systems would be to shut them down, which would lead to supply shortages and civil unrest. Considering how paranoid the 24-verse is about terrorism, they sure do make their vital systems vulnerable. As Cornell's assistant hands out projections, Ethan gets a cell phone call and steps out to the hallway to take it. Because it's probably something more important than the various terror threats currently facing the country, right?
Nope -- it's only Henry's Secret Service agent, calling from the shotgun seat of the limo that's carrying them to Samantha's workplace. "I'm with the First Gentleman," he reports. With Henry clearly visible in the back seat behind him, Agent Getsch reports, "Mr. Taylor is on his way to confront Roger's former girlfriend." He tells Ethan all about Henry's theory that his son was murdered, and the PI he hired secretly. Ethan is a bit irritated that he's just now finding out about this. "Mr. Taylor enlisted me in keeping his activities off the official manifest, but it's gotten out of hand," Getsch explains. "And at this point I'm worried about Mr. Taylor's... state of mind." I think we can safely translate that ellipsis as meaning "fucked up." Ethan thanks him for the heads-up and rings off. With the call over, Henry finally lowers the divider separating him from the front seat and asks if everything's all right. "Just checking in," the agent lies.
Back at the White House, Ethan rejoins the meeting, where the President is making a decisive move: ordering the National Guard to be put on a pre-deployment basis and suggesting they discuss raising the alert level. Whoa, look out! Allison Taylor is a woman of action!
At the Bureau, Moss gets off the phone with some superior and frets nervously to Janis about how they need to find the shooter, fast. Janis is even more nervous, because she just got off the phone with more bad news from Agent Dornan: "It's his gut feeling that the sniper is not in there." Moss doesn't care about that, and tells her he has to be in there, because Walker told him so. He's about to storm off, but she nervously calls him back and adds, "Dornan also wants to know if we know where Agent Walker is... She left ten minutes ago without logging her destination." Moss really doesn't want to ask the question, but has to: "What about Bauer?" Janis says he left with her. And Moss leaves Janis sitting there looking worried about having both pissed off the boss she has a crush on and gotten her friend in trouble with him.
At 9:39:02, Kiefer is staying a few cars behind Tanner as they drive through one of the more scenic areas of D.C. I've never been there myself, so I didn't realize before now that the Washington Monument is visible from every outdoor location in the city. Like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, or the Space Needle in Chicago. Walker's cell phone rings; it's Moss. Kiefer tells her not to answer it, but she does. Moss is entering his office as he asks her what's going on. Walker makes up a story about a lead she's following up with Kiefer, but Moss is totally not convinced. "Renee, what the hell's going on?" he demands, rubbing his face. "Has Bauer gotten you involved with something?" Walker quietly asks Moss to trust her, and he unhappily agrees. When Walker hangs up, she complains to Kiefer, "I just flat-out lied to my boss." Of course, none of this is Kiefer's problem; he only cares if he bought it or not, which Walker thinks he did. Kiefer manages to suppress a sinister cackle of "You are learning, grasshopppah."
Back at the office, Moss returns to Janis and asks if Walker's comm unit is online. Janis confirms as much. Moss asks her if she can do a triangulation to determine where Walker is. Janis starts to say the system isn't set up for that, but seeing Moss's expression, she says she can try. "Can you not just call her?" she wonders. Moss is in no mood, so she gets to work. I like this scene because it shows how it's possible for a female computer geek to be funny without being actively irritating.
Back on the driving tour of D.C., Walker asks Kiefer a question that's been bugging me, too: how far would he have gone with Schechter? "You told me to do whatever it takes," Kiefer says, as though that's an answer. Walker claims to have said that to scare Schechter, and repeats the question. Which Kiefer dodges, until he gets bored. "You know, I've been answering a lot of questions lately about my past, and frankly, I'm done." Unless it's someone like Agent Kilner asking, that is. "I told you I'd help you find Tony Almeida, I even agreed to do it your way. Since the FBI's been compromised, that's no longer an option. I can still help you find him, but you're going to have to let me do it my way. Is that going to be a problem?" Walker, totally uncowed by his pissy little outburst: "We'll see." Good answer. A splitscreen of Kiefer and Tony closes out the act at 9:42:38.
It's 9:48:38, and Henry Taylor and Agent Getsch walk down the hall at the Sloan Kittredge brokerage firm, bickering awkwardly some more about Roger's death. Cut to Sam's desk, where she's looking remarkably put together while she's on the phone with a client. The other line buzzes in; it's the receptionist, telling her there's a Secret Service agent there to see her. She seems pretty surprised, and bails on the call to meet the agent waiting for her at reception I assume he's the driver, since we haven't seen him before now. He leads her to a narrow rooftop balcony, where Henry and Agent Getsch are waiting for her at 9:49:52. She tries to make a little small talk, and Henry tells her, "I know about the money, Sam. Four hundred thousand dollars wired to an offshore account three days after you found my son's body." He asks who paid her off for keeping quiet about whatever she knows of Roger's death. "Please, just answer the question," he tells her in a voice that breaks Getsch's laser-like focus on the skyline in front of him. The agent looks over at his charge with concern that even his government-issue sunglasses can't conceal. Sam explains that the money is her aunt's, and she suggested moving it offshore to hide it from the IRS. Henry isn't convinced: "You want me to believe that you had the presence of mind to commit tax fraud three days after my son died? The man you supposedly loved?" Sam insists she's telling the truth, but he doesn't believe her. With her eyes filling with tears, she turns to go, but Henry grabs her arm. Getsch finally decides it's time to intervene before he has to arrest the guy he's protecting, and as he leads Henry away, the distraught father threatens, "I'm going to find out what you're hiding, and when I do, God help you!" Well, that went well. Of course, as nutty as he might be acting, the nice thing about being a conspiracy theorist on 24 is that you'll eventually be proven right. Even if it is moments before you are killed.
Tanner calls Tony from the road to report that he's out. Tony asks Tanner what they'll need for the job, but Tanner wants to hold off on sharing that until he arrives, which he says is just moments away. After hanging up the phone, Tony tells his men to pack up and start deleting files.
At 9:52:24, Tanner's car pulls into the docks. Only a couple of cars behind, Kiefer realizes this is the end of the line for their automobile pursuit lest they're spotted, and he yanks the car into a spot to a parked forklift. He gets out and peers around it as Tanner drives to a stop a short way ahead and Walker is getting something out of the trunk. "Agent Walker, we need to go!" he hisses urgently. He looks kind of naked in this position without a gun in his hand, but Walker's got that covered; the item she was getting out of the trunk was a government weapon for Kiefer, which she hands to him with a conspicuous lack of paperwork. As they hang back to watch Tanner get out of his car and ditch his borrowed FBI jacket, Walker tells Kiefer, "I'll engage him. Cover my flank." He looks at her uncertainly. "I can handle it," she assures him. Both of us believe her, and they separate to slink up behind Tanner as he approaches the security gate. Just before he swipes his access card, he hears a noise behind him and goes back to investigate among the crates, his gun at the ready. When Walker steps into view, he raises his gun at her, but then Kiefer's is at his temple half a second later. "Weapon down, now," Kiefer orders quietly. Tanner complies, and then Kiefer commences beating the crap out of him. A little protective of his new partner already? No, he's just demanding to know whether Tony is on the boat. Walker pulls him off, telling him it doesn't matter as much as the device. "We have to go in now." Kiefer knocks Tanner unconscious for good measure. Feel better now?Before getting much closer, Kiefer spots the surveillance camera through the fence. Without breaking cover, he gathers up an abandoned rag to use as a makeshift silencer, then takes out the camera with one shot, his aim is not even remotely jinked up by having his sights covered or the presence of several layers of terry cloth. Has he been taking some target practice while in federal custody?
Inside the boat, Tony sees the surveillance screen go snowy, and sends his nameless underling to go look into it. When the underling gets outside, he sees Kiefer forcing a suddenly fully conscious Tanner to walk ahead of him down the gangplank toward the boat, his gun at Tanner's back. The underling wastes no time firing at both of them, and Kiefer goes down beneath a wounded Tanner. Then Walker takes out the underling from the flank, and Kiefer rolls the now-useless Tanner off the gangplank into some cargo below before proceeding on his way. Soon both agents are on the deck of the boat, and when Masters appears and takes a single shot at them (because despite being able to convincingly impersonate an air traffic controller, he doesn't seem to be able to count), they both fire back simultaneously. Masters goes down. That leaves only Tony, not that Kiefer or Walker would know that. The agents split up and enter the boat via separate entrances. Walker is the one who finds a lone laptop left open on a counter, with text reading "DELETE ALL SYSTEM FILES" scrolling sideways across the screen. She unwisely sets her gun down to the computer to try and stop it, but she's too late; the computer is wiped in seconds. "Dammit," she Kiefers. Don't you just hate that Mocking Deletion program? At least nobody jumps out at her while she's distracted and unarmed.
Meanwhile, Kiefer is taking his time sneaking through the crew quarters. He carefully opens the door to the pilot house, and when a hand holding a gun peeks out, he knocks it to the floor. The gun, I mean, not the hand. This is still broadcast TV. Bursting out, Tony slams Kiefer behind the door and dashes for the exit, with Kiefer in surprisingly careful pursuit. Tony's almost off the boat by the time Kiefer arrives on deck and has a clear shot. He yells at Tony to stop. Tony does. Stares back at Kiefer, his face blank. Kiefer makes that face he made when he was in the same position in The Sentinel, not shooting at Michael Douglas. Recognizing that look, Tony makes a run for it again, down the gangplank to the dock. Kiefer takes a shortcut in pursuit, leaping over the gunwale and rolling off a handy cargo crate, but dropping his gun in the process so that it goes flying, silhouetted against the blue sky. It's one of those moments that 24 does so well, maintaining the clarity of high-speed action when the real-time format prohibits slo-mo or instant replay. At least Kiefer lands squarely on Tony, and the two grapple viciously hand to hand, neither of them pulling any punches. Or elbows, for that matter. Finally Kiefer gets Tony pinned up against a tall crate, and Walker runs up to say the device is gone and the files have been deleted. "Where is it?!" Kiefer screams into Tony's face. Tony just looks bored. And suddenly, overhead, is a big black helicopter, with Moss hanging out the door. He and Walker exchange a look. "Okay," says Moss, and the helicopter swoops away again. Wow, Moss is kind of a micromanager.
Kiefer backs away from Tony and asks in a whisper, "What happened to you? What the hell happened to you?" Tony's only answer is a bored stare back. It's 9:00:00. AM, a time at which Tony would have been within his rights to respond, "I just haven't had my coffee yet."
M. Giant is a Minneapolis-based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, follow him on Twitter (mgiant), or just e-mail him at M.Giant[at]gmail.com