In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
Okay, this was actually kind of stupidly awesome. President Taylor kicks off the hour by receiving a message from Colonel Dubaku, telling her that actual terror attacks are imminent unless she pulls U.S. forces away from Sangala. She refuses to be intimidated. Meanwhile, Tony is brought safely back to the FBI's Washington Field Office, but there remains the question of who the Bureau's mole is, which causes Janis to quietly freak out. She briefly thinks Sean is the culprit, although he turns out to have an innocent if not entirely by-the-book explanation for his activities. And when Henry Taylor returns to the White House from his little Sam-baiting expedition, Ethan breaks the news to him that Roger did have a reason to kill himself after all: a pending SEC investigation. Henry's about to let the whole thing drop until Sam calls him back to set up a meeting and tell him why she thinks Roger was murdered. Hmmm.
But all this is window dressing compared to the main event, which begins when Kiefer and Walker actually convince Moss to let him be the one to interrogate Tony. The interview goes badly, until Tony slips Kiefer the phrase "deep sky." This turns out to be a phone code that puts him in touch with none other than ex-CTU boss Bill Buchanan, who's operating out of some Bat-cave with none other than ex-CTU social retard Chloe O'Brian. Turns out Tony's been deep undercover after all, working with Buchanan and Chloe on a mysterious and apparently freelance plan to root out widespread government corruption. Without fully explaining, Buchanan somehow gets Kiefer to agree to help bust Tony out of the building. This calls for Kiefer to knock out both Walker and Moss, and for Chloe to walk the reunited friends through their escape by hacking into FBI-DC's surveillance systems (triggering the first of what I'm sure will be many Janis/Chloe confrontations, even if this one takes place only via computer terminals). Kiefer and Tony make a daring escape to where Buchanan can act as their getaway driver. It may be unlikely, even preposterous, but it sure as hell isn't boring. This is the kind of 24 I like.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!"Where's Almeida now?" demands Taylor. Well, good evening to you, too, Madame President. In the Oval Office with her, Ethan explains that Tony's currently on his way to the FBI's Washington Field Office. Taylor wonders why they don't have the CIP device if Tony was the one running it. Right on cue, Secretary of State Stevens is ushered in to deliver a very strong topic sentence: "Almeida's working for the Juma regime." He slaps an action glossy of Colonel Dubaku on Taylor's desk and says Dubaku sent the State Department an audio message about five minutes ago, which he now plays for Taylor on a digital recorder. We can clearly hear Dubaku's voice, really working that accent hard, since we can't see him. "We have the ability to keel taahns of thousands of Americans." He's demanding that Taylor withdraw her carrier group currently positioned off the coast of Sangala to west of the 23rd meridian by this time tomorrow, which pretty much confirms my theory that Sangala is on Africa's west coast. And Dubaku further wants confirmation of the order within the three hours, to make sure she's on track for meeting his deadline. "Don't sacrifice your fellow countrymehn, Madame President. Allow the people of Sangala to determine their own destiny." If "determine their own destiny" means "get killed by us." Message ends. Ethan tells Taylor she was right about the timing, but she's in no mood to gloat. In fact, she's pissed off, and isn't about to be dictated to by the likes of Dubaku. The problem is that there are still 2,500 civilian planes in the air over the U.S., and while the timeline for reprogramming the firewall has been shortened, it's still going to take six days. So Taylor gives the order to issue "restricted alerts," only to first responders so as not to start a panic. As her visitors leave, she tells them to have the FBI hurry things up. Another thing we learned from this scene: Dubaku's nickname is "The Butcher of Sangala." We also learn that his name isn't "Ike" as I previously thought, but Iké, which is pronounced like E.K. Which is good. Ike is too friendly and informal a name for the butcher of anywhere other than the Piggly Wiggly.
That black helicopter that appeared at the close of the last hour is now coming in for a landing on the rooftop of the FBI-DC. Moss gets out first, followed by a handcuffed Tony, then Walker and Kiefer. Counting the pilot, it's like a clown helicopter. It's 10:05:37 as the helicopter lifts off again for some reason. Is it due back at the Hoover building or something? Tony is sent on ahead with a guard to be prepped for questioning. Now that it's just Moss, Walker, and a tousle-haired Kiefer up there on the roof, Moss angrily demands an explanation for why Walker went after Tanner without telling him, sans backup, no less. As if Kiefer weren't more backup than anybody would ever need against a mere four armed guys. Walker starts to explain about the FBI mole. Moss is doubtful, and even more pissed when Kiefer steps over to help out. "Excuse me! This is private," Moss snaps at Kiefer, like he's talking to his girlfriend (he wishes, I think). Kiefer presents his case with a bit more sarcasm than is really necessary, and Moss reluctantly realizes that given the circumstances of Tanner's escape, it must be true. Of course, it's all predicated on the idea that Tanner really was the shooter, which, I doubt he's been convicted in a court of law yet. Pretty much the only evidence of his crime is that he knew where Tony was and doesn't wear FBI shoes. But anyway, Kiefer advises Moss to keep things tight around Tony if he wants to get the CIP device. Somewhat placated, Moss agrees to implement level-four security clearance, and answers his cell phone while Walker looks like she's been spanked. And not in a good way. After making them listen to his side of a brief conversation, Moss grimly boasts, "That was the White House," and then yells at them both not to do anything else without telling him first. As he stomps off, Walker tells Kiefer they had to tell him. "You trust him?" Kiefer asks her. She says there's no one she trusts more. Kiefer lets it go. He hasn't known her long enough to tell her that on this show it's the people you trust most that you have to worry about.
In an interrogation room, Janis is having to lift Tony's shirt to attach the electrodes for the polygraph. They don't have specialists for this? Is it just her, Moss, Walker, and Sean running the whole place, with all the background people in the office scenes about as useful as cardboard cutouts? Does Dolly Parton sleep on her back? Anyway, after pasting them to his giant pectoral, she asks, "Is that comfortable for you?" He just looks at her, and she hides a smirk behind her fist as she says, "I'll take that as a yes." She returns to the adjoining observation room, where Kiefer and Walker meet her a moment later. Walker tells Janis that she'll handle the questioning, because she needs Janis to help plug the security leak on the technology level. Janis is a little freaked to hear that someone in the office is working against them, but (after giving Walker a technical tip on the polygraph, because with only four functioning employees everyone needs to be an expert on everything) leaves to comply. Kiefer just stares through the one-way glass at Tony, who seems to stare back at him. Walker expresses her condolences that Kiefer's friend turned out to be an attempted-mass-murdering nutter. Do they make a greeting card for that?
When Janis returns to the floor, Sean immediately accosts her and asks what's up with the level-four lockdown. She blows him off and tells him to do his job, which she says he doesn't need level-four clearance for. Even Sean can tell she's stressed out over something. So he might as well make sure that it's him.
At Dubaku's command center, he's having a terse conversation in French on his cell phone. While that's happening, Emerson pulls Nichols aside to let him know that they just got confirmation from their inside man that Tony's been nabbed by the Feds. Nichols is ready to let Tony twist in the wind, but Emerson hates the idea, reminding him that they kind of need Tony for the job. Just then, Dubaku, off his phone, steps over to report that Juma just told him that American troops are still in position, nearly ten minutes after he told Taylor to move them. The nerve! Nichols reminds Dubaku that it really hasn't been very long. "Then perhaps it is time for a more forceful demonstratione," Dubaku growls. Did he not hear what Nichols just said? Nichols argues for a little more time, with which Emerson silently agrees. "For now," Dubaku grumbles. Yikes, I'd hate to be that guy's waiter at a restaurant. His entrée shows up a few seconds late and he busts out a machete.
Moss enters the observation room where Walker and Kiefer are still busy observing. So very much observing, they've been doing. Moss explains to Kiefer and Walker about the Juma regime trying to blackmail Taylor using the CIP device. "I can get you your CIP device," Kiefer quietly promises without taking his eyes off Tony. "Just let me talk to him." Of course Moss hates the idea, but Walker helps Kiefer convince Moss to give it a shot. Finally Moss opens the door and ushers Kiefer in, without a word of warning or condition. Which would have been wasted anyway.
Kiefer dismisses the guard waiting in the interrogation room so that it's just him and Tony. "I watched you die in my arms," Kiefer begins. "You want to explain to me how you're still alive?" Because that's the most important question right now. When Tony refuses to answer, Kiefer reveals what he knows about what Tony's been up to, and asks, "Why don't you save yourself some time... and some pain... and tell me where the CIP device is?" Tony finally speaks, but he just says he can't tell Kiefer where it is. Kiefer threatens Tony with charges of aiding and abetting a genocide, and offers him a deal or even immunity. Tony just tells Kiefer to advise the president to give in. Frustrated, Kiefer asks what's motivating Tony to do this. Tony's explanation is simple: "Juma wanted the CIP module and he was willing to pay for it." When Kiefer looks shocked and disbelieving, Tony says, "Money's the only reason I have left for doing anything. The government took care of that." Kiefer reminds Tony that it wasn't the government who killed Michelle, but Charles Logan. You know, when he was President of the United States. So... not the government, then? Tony maintains that "the government poisons everything in its path... look what they did to you." Kiefer can't even pretend that didn't hit a nerve, and Tony keeps working that nerve: "Here you are, working for the same people who want to put you in prison. The same people who killed everything you love and left you with nothing. Your daughter wants nothing to do with you, Teri's dead, Audrey Raines --" Kiefer yells at Tony to shut up, but Tony's not done: "Every second you help the government, you're spitting on Teri's grave!" Finally Kiefer charges Tony, sliding aside the table that separates them and pinning Tony -- still handcuffed, mind you -- up against the wall. "He's losing it," Moss says to Walker, displaying the kind of keen insight that one needs to become head of an FBI field office. He's about to rush in to intervene, but Walker wants to give Kiefer a few more seconds. After all, if they stop Kiefer now, Tony might just get out of there alive. With his hand clamped over Tony's throat, Kiefer screams at Tony to tell him where the device is, "Or so help me God, I will kill you, and you will stay dead this time!" Uh, maybe you should take your meathooks off his neck, then, Kiefer, because right now you've got him so the only way he could communicate is by blinking in Morse code. Which he might actually be doing, for all I know. At last, Tony manages to gasp a couple of words into Kiefer's ear: "Deep sky." Kiefer makes him repeat it, just as Moss comes in, yelling, "Jack, let him go!" Kiefer lets Tony drop to the floor as he raises his own hands high, just to show what a peaceful guy he really is after all. Moss orders the late-returning guard to escort Kiefer out and calls for a medic. Walker looks thoughtful. I do hope she's not taking that little rageaholic display as a lesson.
The guard parks Kiefer in a vacant office right across the hall and tells another guard to keep an eye on him. While the new guard takes up position outside the closed door, Kiefer dials his cell phone. At the other end, an artificially deepened voice answers, "Hello?" The voice appears to belong only to a mouth and a rather scruffy chin, but I have my suspicions as to who they're both attached to. Kiefer identifies himself and says that Tony Almeida told him to call by giving him an old CTU emergency phone code. And with that, the owner of the scruff removes the voice disguiser from his own phone and says, "It's Bill, Jack." For it is indeed Bill Buchanan. And like everyone who manages to survive more than a few seasons of this show, he's ditched his trademark business suit in favor of a black mock turtleneck. Furthermore, he's wearing his hair like he's on his way to a Rome fan convention. Bill asks where Tony is, and Kiefer explains about how Tony is under arrest at FBI-DC for the whole terrorism thingy. "We need to talk, Jack," Buchanan says, and promises to call Kiefer back on a secure VPN line in ten minutes. Kiefer's pissed about being blown off, but Buchanan hangs up on him anyway. You can't tell me that wasn't a teeny bit of payback.
We now see that Buchanan's standing in some lair that looks to be decorated in Budget Bond Villain, and a slim woman with long dark hair is sitting at a bank of computers with her back to the camera. She turns to Buchanan, and we see that it's Chloe, who has clearly lost all her pregnancy weight and more. "If Tony's been arrested, it's over," she frets. "Are you going to tell Jack everything?" Buchanan says that they'll have to, because they'll need Kiefer's help to get Tony back undercover. "He's our only hope," he says. It's 10:17:37. And shouldn't at least one of them be setting up that VPN line instead of staring at each other?
At 10:21:52, Henry and his Secret Service agent return to the White House, where Ethan intercepts them in the hallway. After dismissing Agent Getsch to a respectful distance with a look, Ethan begins smoothly handling Henry. "The president is in an impossible situation right now," he gently explains. "She needs your support. But you can't give it to her if you keep going off on these paranoid fantasies about Roger." See what I mean about that high-level diplomacy? He tells Henry for the umpteenth time that Roger committed suicide, but Henry still isn't believing it. "He wasn't depressed," Henry insists. "He had no reason." Ethan gently tells Ethan that Roger might have had a reason after all, that Henry just didn't know about. It seems that Roger was facing an SEC investigation for insider trading, using information he'd gotten through his White House access. Henry still has his doubts, so Ethan hands over the case file and explains that it was kept secret as a favor to the president. "My wife knew about this and she didn't tell me?" Henry asks, looking crushed. Ethan apologizes for keeping it from him, and is called away before saying much beyond the fact that Taylor doesn't know Henry's being brought in the loop now, and he'd like to keep it that way. Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when the First Son dies under questionable circumstances as a result of an imminent screwing by a government agency. After Ethan heads off to his meeting at 10:24:04, Getsch approaches Henry and apologizes. "I felt I had to tell him, sir." Henry doesn't respond other than to give his agent a pained look and start looking through the file. So just to recap, Henry didn't know, but his wife knew, and now Henry does know, but Taylor doesn't know he knows. This subplot had better turn out to be important.
When Ethan returns to the Oval Office, Taylor tells him that according to the military commanders, if they did want to meet Dubaku's demands, they would have to give the order by 1:00 PM. "That's not much time," Ethan sighs. And that's how you get to be a senior White House official. Since they can't count on Tony giving up the goods in time, Taylor sums up her choice: "Unless I order our forces to stand down, I'll be condemning innocent Americans to death. And if we capitulate, thousands of Sangalans will be slaughtered." Well, on the bright side, at least now we know that the proper term is "Sangalans" and not "Sangwegians" or something. Ethan gently suggests considering going with the option that will save Americans. But Taylor isn't ready to talk about it until they've been over all the options. "Tell the FBI to keep working on Almeida," she orders. Which is a good idea, because I think they were just about to let him go with a warning.
Chloe has the secure line set up for Buchanan, and a moment later, Kiefer answers his call back with an angry, "Bill, stop screwing around and tell me what the hell is going on." Now, Kiefer, is that any way to talk to the guy who you last saw plucking you off an exploding oil rig? Buchanan says that Tony isn't a terrorist; he's working deep cover with Buchanan himself. Kiefer says this "cover" is playing pretty fast and loose with public safety, what with that JFK stunt earlier. I have to agree -- anything that's not "by the book" enough for Kiefer would have to be pretty far outside standard procedure. Not to mention that things could have ended very differently at JFK had that Global Air/Skies pilot had slightly slower reflexes. Buchanan says there's more to it than that, and does his best not to sound like a conspiracy nut when he tells Kiefer, "Our government is corrupted." Since that doesn't work, he elaborates, "There are people on the inside who are actively aiding Dubaku and the Juma regime." Well, what else is new? Buchanan continues, "Tony was supposed to be near the CIP module the whole time. With him in custody, we've lost our ability to control it and to attack this conspiracy." Oh, and there was also the part where Tony just handed the module over to some other dude before he even knew anyone was on their way to arrest him, but maybe Emerson's secretly on Buchanan's team as well. It might be fun if this season we had to guess which of the bad guys were actually good, instead of the other way around like usual.
Anyway, Kiefer demands names, but Buchanan can only say the conspiracy includes members of President Taylor's inner circle. Uh-oh, Secretary of State Joe Stevens -- someone's onto you. Finally, Kiefer asks what agency is running this deal. Buchanan explains, "That's just it, Jack, there's no shepherd. There's no agency. This corruption runs deep and wide. We're working outside the government. That's why we have to get Tony back undercover." So even though I was joking when I said it in a recap, Tony is working for a mom-and-pop operation, only Pop is Buchanan and Mom is Chloe. They are so screwed. Kiefer asks how they're going to get Tony back in place when he's in custody inside an FBI building, and Buchanan says, "Chloe's already into their system." For some reason, Kiefer is surprised to hear that Chloe's in on this. Chloe says it's good to hear his voice, because apparently she's never seen a TV commercial. "I saw the hearings on C-SPAN," she babbles. "I can't believe what the senator said to you. You looked good, though." Buchanan asks for Kiefer's help getting Tony out, and Kiefer's actually down with it He even suggests they let his new friend Walker join the band. "I trust her," he insists. After all, he's known her for over two hours. Buchanan says to go ahead and bring her in if he needs to, but it'll make Walker a target. Kiefer isn't about to do that to his new best friend, so he agrees to do it Buchanan's way, as long as Chloe can help get them out of the building. After agreeing and hanging up, Buchanan puts on his jacket to leave the Buchanan-cave. It's 10:28:42.
At 10:32:53, Janis notices that Sean's even a little more off than usual. He bitches about having to work around the level-four lockdown, and she snarks, "Oh, I thought you'd welcome the opportunity to complain about something." Once she's gone, Sean tries to do something else on his computer and gets an "ACCESS DENIED" message. And then he gets a bad idea. You can tell by his shiftier-than-usual manner.
Back in his office at the White House residence, Henry performs the symbolic act of putting away Roger's SEC file in his desk, to show us that he's moving on. But his cell phone is already ringing. When he answers it, it's Sam, calling from her desk at work. Henry's quite embarrassed, and ready to apologize for his earlier behavior, but she demurs and says he wasn't wrong. "Roger didn't commit suicide, Mr. Taylor. He was murdered." She wants to meet with Henry alone, because it's not like she can talk about it over the phone. Uh, any more. Than she already has. By saying Roger was murdered. Over her work phone line, which, since she's a trader, is probably recorded. Onto recordings which are probably accessible by her boss, who is probably Nichols, who is in on the conspiracy. So you can see why she would want to be careful. Henry, of course, is only too willing. My theory: It's a trap!
Back at FBI-DC, Moss has taken over the interrogation of Tony, who still isn't cooperating. With his Bluetooth still in his ear, Moss lays out some photographs of the recent massacres in Sangala. "You really want this on your conscience?" Moss wonders. Tony deliberately looks up at the surveillance camera and says his conscience is clear, repeating his advice to have Taylor back down. "Because unless she does, planes will be falling from the sky. Then you'll have a whole new bunch of photos to look at. Only this time, they'll be of dead Americans." Outside in the observation room, Walker asks Moss back for a quick convo. Her point? Tony's not going to break, being a trained CTU agent and all. "We might need a more forceful approach," she suggests. Okay, now I'm depressed. I was liking her so much, but fucking Kiefer is having way too much success turning her into his Mini-Me. "You mean torture?" Moss asks, shocked. Walker starts babbling in Kieferese about "methods of coercion," because people on this show who argue for torture never want to call it torture, but Moss cuts her off: "The argument is crazy. It's illegal. And it's over." And it's convinced him that he wants Kiefer out of the building entirely. He sends Walker off to have Kiefer ejected from the premises this second for being a bad influence. Walker's disgusted by his high-handedness, but she obeys. So now I guess Moss will have to both question Tony and run the polygraph. Well, I'm sure he's up to it.
As Walker's on her way to start Kiefer's processing, Janis runs to catch up with her and report that she's on the trail of the leak. It seems someone in the office sneaked around the lockdown and hacked into the FAA database. Janis won't know who it is until she tries pulling a user ID from a terminal in the mainframe room. Walker sends her scampering off to look into it, asks a nearby Agent Teller for Kiefer's personal effects, and ducks into her office to dash off a blistering screed on one of those venting websites.
It's 10:37:54 as Janis hits the server room, all by her lonesome. Sounds safe, right? She pulls out one of those fold-up monitor/keyboard drawers we used to see back at CTU and signs in. Suddenly the name of the culprit pops up: "Sean Hillinger." Well, who the hell else would it be? It's not like possible suspects are thick on the ground around here. Just then, Sean himself pops up behind her, asking what she's doing. Frightened, Janis runs for the phone, but Sean hits the button and asks what's going on. Janis says she knows Sean's helping Tony, and his ID in the FAA database is proof. Sean admits accessing it, but explains that his wife is in the air right now and he was checking to see if her flight had been grounded. He shows Janis what he was doing, and the name "Christina Hillinger" pops up on a passenger manifest, helpfully highlighted and everything. "You scared the hell out of me!" Janis yells at him through gritted teeth. "Why wouldn't you just tell me that?" Sean says it was borderline illegal and he didn't want to get her in trouble. Which I think is probably the nicest thing he's ever said to anyone. As Janis points out, this isn't just between the two of them any more: "I told Renee I found a security leak," she complains, then goes all martyr on him and tells him not to worry about it. "Go back to your station, and I will clean up your mess." Sean goes. Under her breath, Janis says, "Idiot." And she even makes that funny.
Kiefer has just finished installing his cell phone earpiece into his ear when Chloe reports that the surveillance cameras show Agent Walker coming toward the room where he's been stashed. I would ask how Chloe knows which of the agents swarming through the building at any given moment is Renee Walker, but since it's Chloe, she's probably already pulled up Walker's ID photo, memorized her personnel file, and updated her Amazon wish list to reflect some recent holiday gifts. Chloe is also working on remotely dropping some video loops into the feeds from the surveillance cameras outside the room, Speed-style, so he doesn't show up on the monitors when he walks out. Anyway, Walker's still coming, so Kiefer hides his earpiece and sits down so she doesn't suspect anything when she comes in. Which she doesn't, because she feels too bad about having to tell Kiefer they're cutting him loose. She'll feel better about it in a second, at least until the unconsciousness sets in. While Kiefer signs a form for her, she even offers to put in a good word for him at Justice, for what it's worth. Kiefer thanks her, straightens up from the paperwork, and smoothly grabs her into a sleeper hold from behind. "Don't fight it," he tells her, even as she's gasping his name and trying to reach her gun. Moments later, she's out. Ever the gentleman, he lifts her tiny body up onto the desk so she can finish her nap there instead of on the floor. He then takes the gun from her holster and her access card from where it's clipped to her jacket, and replaces his cell phone earpiece. It's 10:41:52, and he almost made it three hours without assaulting a federal employee. Although it probably would have been a lot shorter if that senator had kept up at him.
At 10:46:04, Buchanan is driving a windowless blue molester-van through DC, as Chloe reports in to him with Kiefer's present activities and the GPS coordinates for the rendezvous point, which Buchanan says he's ten minutes away from. That'll prove to be off by a bit, but what's five minutes when you're busting someone out of an FBI field office in real time? Chloe switches her phone back over to Kiefer, who has been spending the commercial break getting ready to go. He's got his briefcase strapped across his body in man-purse style, since he's not about to leave his legal papers behind, but he's waited until now to showily cock Walker's gun. Chloe tells him the corridor is clear, and he steps out into the open. Luckily, Tony's interrogation room is still right across the hall from where Kiefer got stashed, and Walker's pass lets him right in. He charges in, weapon leveled, and disarms a very angry Moss and the uniformed guard while Tony tries not to smile too much. Kiefer orders the guard to uncuff Tony. "Where's Agent Walker? What did you do to her?" Moss demands, all worried about his girlfriend. Kiefer tells him to shut up. Moss warns Kiefer that he isn't going to be able to get out, and gets knocked unconscious for his trouble. With his hands free, Tony does the same for the uniformed guard, grabbing his leather jacket as he sends the polygraph leads flying. He scoops up the two dropped guns as Kiefer explains the situation and leads him into the observation room. Back on the line with Chloe, Kiefer says he and Tony are ready to move. She warns, "Right now you're in the least populated area of the building, but you're going to run into a lot more resistance before you get out of there." Kiefer doesn't seem too daunted by the idea of "resistance," like he's resigned to the idea of shooting his way out. Interesting.
Watching her monitors like an Operator in a Matrixmovie, Chloe guides them into the hallway, then back into hiding as a couple of guys pop out of a nearby elevator and stroll past. While waiting for the coast to clear, Tony apologizes for what he said earlier. "I just needed to get you close enough to get you Bill's code name." Kiefer says he's just glad he didn't break Tony's neck. "You came close," Tony admits, and Kiefer apologizes right back. Just like old times, when they used to alternate between being friends and trying to beat the crap out of each other. At Chloe's signal, they're on the move again at 10:48:40.
Janis comes up to Sean at his terminal and guilt-trips him some more about having covered his tracks for him. "Although I don't know what I'm going to tell Renee," she adds, as though trolling for ideas. Sean is not exactly brimming with gratitude, but that's partly because he's more interested in what his monitor is telling him, which is that there's some kind of bandwidth shortage going on in the office. Is that really a priority right now? Turns out it is, because after checking her own monitor, Janis confirms that it means someone is hacking in to the system. A hacker into the FBI? Who could it be? Oh, that's right, never mind. Sean wonders if that's even possible, as if he's been asleep all morning. "Anything is possible if you know what you're doing," Janis says, which could be a tagline for this show sometimes. It just needs a little tweak: "Anything's possible if you keep things moving too fast for the audience to think about it." She pulls up a screen that tells her the hacker has gotten into their surveillance system. "What are you going to do?" Sean asks her. "Lock them out," says a determined Janis. Sean returns to his own screen. At first I was wondering if they shouldn't tell someone right away, but who are they going to tell? All the other speaking roles in the office are unconscious. As Janis starts typing, a splitscreen shows her and Chloe in a virtual face-off. It's like a wet dream for people who love geek chicks. Now they just need to hope for Chloe and Janis to have a catfight and then make out.
While guiding Tony and Kiefer down an empty hallway, Chloe suddenly sees all of her surveillance monitor screens go dead. "Signal Lost," they all read. Kiefer tells Tony to freeze. Over at Sean's desk, his own snowy security feeds pop back up, thanks to whatever Janis just did. And what he sees on one of these feeds is worth bringing to Janis's attention: Moss and the uniformed guard flat on the floor of the interrogation room where Kiefer and Tony just left them. Janis literally gasps and grabs her phone to send a team to the room, just as the surveillance feed shows a bloody-faced Moss starting to come around. Wait -- no, he's putting his head back down on the floor. That's right, Moss, take a little snooze. You've earned it.
Klaxons start sounding throughout the building, and Kiefer decides it's time to get moving again. While Chloe is still trying to get her connection back, Kiefer and Tony are dodging through hallways to stay out of the view of the teams of guards who are suddenly jogging all over the place with guns at the ready. Kiefer whispers to Chloe that their exit is cut off, and asks what she can do. "Someone at the FBI is blocking my every move," Chloe says, going from one computer to another. "It's really starting to piss me off." Kiefer's taking it much better, considering he's the one who's stuck. It's 10:51:13.
At 10:55:25, Kiefer and Tony are still watching the security teams from their hidey-hole. Which is basically an alcove that shouldn't be able to hide a thumbtack, but those agents conferring just outside seem to have all their attention focused on each other. Tony's getting impatient, and they take advantage of a two-second window between one team's departure and another's arrival to break cover and duck around another corner. Kiefer asks how Chloe's doing on her end. "I'm still locked out. Try to work around it," Chloe says. Since they're out of alternatives, They duck into the nearest stairwell, hoping for the best.
Moss charges onto the floor, loosening his tie (good thing he picked a red one this morning) and yelling, "Where are they?" Sean says they're looking. "Find them!" yells Moss, letting out a little "ow" as he mops the blood from his nose. Walker meets him on the floor, and they confirm to each other that they're all right. Of course Walker doesn't have a mark on her, which could get awkward for her later when she has to explain how Kiefer got away from her in the first place. Her face is twisted in rage as she wonders what the hell Kiefer is doing. "He's helping his friend escape is what he's doing," Moss says. Walker apologizes to him, and he tells her it's all right, because he secretly loves her. But before we can get into that, Kiefer and Tony are spotted on the camera feed from the southwest stairwell. Moss barks orders into his walkie-talkie. "Beware, the suspects are armed. We need them alive." Which is why they're about to get shot at a real lot.
Chloe finally gets her feed back, and informs Kiefer she's back online. Meanwhile, at Janis's desk, her security screens go haywire. "Whoever this is, they're very good," Janis says. Yes, Janis, we know. We've been hearing about it for years now.
Chloe warns Kiefer that six guards are coming up the stairwell toward him and Tony. Using a fire extinguisher, they smash a window that fortunately for them leads right out to the roof of the parking ramp. You never saw anything like that happen at the much more bunker-like CTU. Yes, there were plenty of windows there, but they only led to other rooms. Chloe tells them to head to the north end of the garage, where Buchanan will meet them in the blue van. The FBI is still closing in, with Moss telling his teams they're in the parking garage and Walker ordering Sean to have Metro Police put up a five-block perimeter around the building. Inside the garage, Kiefer and Tony come around a corner of the parking garage and see an armed team up ahead. "On our right! Get down!" Kiefer yells. Tony dives for cover behind a parked car as Kiefer and the guards exchange gunfire. Just enough to keep each other pinned down, you understand. No one actually wants to kill anyone. Which is why you don't see any tasers or tear gas. "We gotta get you out of here and back undercover," Kiefer pants to Tony. "I'll be right behind you. Go!" Tony breaks cover and dashes across the parking ramp's traffic lane, leaping over the barrier to land God knows where. Fortunately it's only the second floor and there's a van parked under him, but his feet still hit its roof hard enough to blow all of its windows out. He vaults from there to the roof of a cab and behind another parked car to wait. Meanwhile, Kiefer is quickly getting surrounded as more agents arrive, all of them shooting at him. He breaks into the car he's been using for cover. Outside, Tony's in a crouch with his gun pointed up at the scene of engagement as Buchanan's van screams into the alley behind him and pulls a bootlegger's turn that presents the van's rear entrance for quick access just feet away. There's just no way to make that sound not dirty.
And a level above, while lying on the floor of the car he just entered, Kiefer pistol-whips the ignition lock out of the steering column and hotwires the car. "This is gonna hurt," he warns himself. He puts the car in gear and floors the accelerator with his hand, giving a yell as the car plows through the concrete barrier and lands at a thirty-degree angle that bridges the gap between the white van and the cab Tony just jumped down on. Obviously Tony does a little more jumping when he sees this happen. Kiefer struggles out of the car, with its undeployed air bag, just as agents start coming into view above and Tony begins laying down a bit of covering fire for him. "Tony, let's go!" Buchanan yells from the driver's seat of the van, but Tony keeps shooting while Kiefer limps to the van and they both hop inside. Bill floors it and screeches out of there, just moments before the agents with assault rifles show up and start shooting. The camera zooms in on the one unlucky officer who has to radio, "Agent Moss, they're gone. They got outside the perimeter." Neither Moss nor Walker looks too happy right now.
Driving toward the capitol, Buchanan reports to Chloe that he's on his way back, and Chloe says it doesn't look like anyone's in pursuit. She's also cycling traffic cams to make sure the van doesn't show up. Buchanan asks Kiefer if he's all right. "I'm fine," Kiefer lies, even though he's sprawled on the floor of the van, in pain from untold injuries that are certain to have him debilitated for minutes. He asks where they're going. "It's not far," Buchanan non-answers. Kiefer says he did what Buchanan asked: "Tell me what's going on." Buchanan says he'll tell Kiefer everything when they get there. Kiefer and Tony look at each other, with Kiefer thinking, "If this van ride ends with one of us watching the other plunge into the surf, I am going to be pissed. It's 11:00:00.Discuss this episode in our forums, then see what vlogger Sean Crespo thinks about the cell phones on 24 when he has No Prior Knowledge!
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.