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Janice Gold makes some frantic calls to an insecticide facility. John, the guy who runs the chemical plant, is the dad from My So-Called Life, but he's also trying to steal Aaron away from Kate on Lost. Dude gets around. He risks himself to save his plant workers and gets poisoned to death, but Janice resolves to call his family and tell them how brave he was. A little help from Jack crashing Dubaku's terrorism party doesn't hurt.
Walker helps get Bill, Jack and Tony into the building to rescue the Motobos, who are confident Jack Bauer will come and save them. Dubaku threatens to ship the Motobos back home as a traitor. Mr. Motobo says he'll never give up the info, and Dubaku seems to think that if he tortures the wife Motobo will change his tune. When Dubaku finds out that Daniels didn't kill Bauer and Almeida, he's all kinds of pissed off. Then a big shootout ensues, and Dubaku runs off to his apartment to get away. And the CIP device is supposedly destroyed, but that seems unlikely with this show.
Also, Ethan gives the now-dead secret service agent a hard time for not returning his phone calls. Another bad agent finds the First Husband, and tosses him in the trunk of a car. And the president stresses about writing press releases and is generally overwhelmed by the suckitude of her very bad day.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!This episode's previouslies include "President Allison Taylor," "Henry Taylor," "Larry Moss," "Jack Bauer," "Tony Almeida," and "Colonel Ike Dubaku," in a scene that wasn't even in last week's episode, when Dubaku asks Nichols over the phone if everything went smoothly. "We have the Matobos, that's what matters," Nichols non-answers, and says he heard about the planes on the radio. But of course Dubaku's just getting started. His last line in the hour was even, "Begin."
At the FBI's Washington Field Office, Sean calls over to Boss Moss and shows him a satellite image of what he thinks is the truck that kidnapped the Matobos, near Northwoods Airfields. He doesn't say why he thinks that's the vehicle, so I guess we just have to assume he picked out the biggest, yellowest thing he could find on the road. Good choice of getaway cars, Emerson. Moss assigns Sean to have the image sent out to the search teams, and every other agency he can think of while he's at it. Janis calls over to Moss and tells him, "I found a code fragment that I think could be residue from the CIP intrusion." Whatever that means. Fortunately, Janis explains it: it might be able to help them figure out where Dubaku will target . "And I need Sean," she adds. Moss is a little nervous about dedicating his entire speaking-role staff to this, but Janis promises, "I will drop it the minute it feels cold." Moss is off to update the White House. Once he's gone, Sean worries that Moss isn't up to this, given his crush on the assumed-dead Agent Walker, but Janis tells him not to worry about it. "In the meantime, I want you to open up a fresh socket." Better not let Erica hear her say that.
At the White House, Ethan is still trying to get Agent Gedge on the phone, and having no success. That's because Agent Gedge is, of course, lying dead in the ruins of Samantha Roth's dining room table, to a semi-conscious Henry Taylor. Which might explain why he's having trouble answering his cell. Since Ethan doesn't know this, he just bitches at Gedge's voice mail until he gets a call from Moss. "Where are we, Larry?" Ethan asks without preamble. Moss tells him about the big yellow vehicle lead that they're tracking down, but can't offer a time frame. Ethan yells at Moss for sucking and reminds him that more people will die if they can't find Dubaku. Moss comes right back at him, saying his people are giving everything they can. "One of our agents has given her life," he adds. Low blow, Larry. At that, Ethan backs down, and Moss promises to call back ASAP. And then he spends a few seconds standing in his office looking miserable. Maybe if he keeps looking sad enough, Dubaku will turn himself in.
Okay, thanks to a reader called QB, we have a new name for the operation Bill Buchanan is running. It reflects its CTU roots, while clearly identifying it as a homegrown, self-made, grassroots phenomenon. Are you ready? We're calling it YouCT. Genius, right? Anyway, in the black van containing our YouCT operatives (Buchanan, Kiefer, Tony, Chloe, and now Walker), Chloe has tracked the Matobos to a four-story office building in D.C. She's already pulling up the security specs for Kiefer as the van approaches it. "I'm gonna need your help," Kiefer tells Walker. She looks at him, but fortunately we cut away before she asks him, "Or what? You'll shoot me and bury me alive again?"
Inside Dubaku's command center, he paces around until Nichols enters, followed by two henchmen and the Matobos, whose hands are tied behind their backs. Nichols notices from the big board that there's a target ready to go, and Matobo explains that it's the Boyd Chemical Plant near Kidron, Ohio. "We're about to cause the primary safety valves to fail." Just like that. This CIP device is like telekinesis in a microchip. Dubaku then looks over at the Matobos, flanked by the two henchmen. Instead of asking what happened to the other two, Dubaku goes over to reminisce with Matobo about the last time they saw each other. He actually smiles as he recalls the state dinner. "I offered my hand in friendship and you... slapped it away." Aw, no wonder Dubaku's so bitter -- he got Mean Girled. Dubaku tells Matobo he'll be sent back to Sangala as a traitor. That triggers a round of I-know-you-and-Juma-are-but-what-am-I, but since Dubaku is the one in control now, he tells Matobo that in Sangala, "You will give General Juma the names of all your fellow traitors." Matobo insists he won't (while making the rhetorical mistake of not arguing with the term "fellow traitors"), and with a creepy look at Mrs. Matobo, Dubaku insists he will. With that, they're ushered out of the room. Nichols asks Dubaku if they've heard from President Taylor yet. Dubaku says no, "But when she sees dead Americans lying in the street, she will be less stubborn." Because that's been working so well for him up to this point.
YouCT has pulled their van into a narrow alley behind the building. Kiefer, Tony, and Buchanan start climbing the handy (and unlocked!) access ladder to the roof while Walker goes right in the front door, flashes her ID and dimples at the security guard, and is waved on by without even having to sign the guest book. She reports as much via comm to Kiefer, who is now leading his little party across the roof at 2:08:45, guns at the ready. Yes, Buchanan has joined the commando squad. His hair looks whiter than ever, either in contrast to his black gear or just because Bill Buchanan does not belong on a TAC team. Walker gets off the elevator at the third floor, and Chloe tells her via comm earpiece that a law firm is on her left and the evil Bond-villain lair is on her right. Walker looks over that way and takes in the one guy visible at a guard desk behind the etched-glass doors. Chloe directs her on ahead to the stairwell, which she climbs so she can let the three guys in through the roof access door. She tells them about the guard at the front of the suite and draws her own weapon, since everyone's doing it, and leads them back down the stairs because she knows the way. Kiefer and Walker leave the stairwell at the fourth floor, and Buchanan and Tony head on down to the third floor landing to wait inside for Kiefer's signal. Nobody seems to be around to notice three heavily armed commandos and Zombie FBI Barbie waving guns around. On the fourth floor, Kiefer and Walker find their way to an empty (and again, unlocked) server room, where Chloe directs them to a couple of removable panels in the floor. Kiefer opens them up, and he and Walker drop down into the cavernous space between the fourth floor and Dubaku's ceiling. You can tell they're in the right place because of the dim green lighting.
Somewhere below them, at 2:10:53, the Matobos are ushered into an office and locked inside. Matobo is already having second thoughts about letting his wife come, but she reminds him that it wasn't really up to him. She assures him, "Jack Bauer will be here soon." She doesn't yet know Kiefer well enough to realize that isn't necessarily a reason not to worry.
In fact, Kiefer is kind of already there. Chloe directs him and Walker to a vent where he'll have a vantage point over the whole control room. That'll be nice. Maybe they can camp up there and pick everyone off one by one.
At FBI-DC, Sean is telling Janis, "The entire NSA has been combing the firewall searching for the CIP device breach. If this were something, don't you think they'd already know about it?" Janis retorts, "I can live without your negativity today, Sean." Okay! Plot hole plugged! Numbers are flashing on her screen, and they're familiar to her as that code fragment she saw earlier. The other, more user-friendly item on her screen is a location that's familiar to us: Kidron, Ohio. Janis alt-tabs over to Homeland Security's high-value target database, and quickly comes up with nearby Boyd Chemical. "What do they make?" Sean wonders. "Insecticide," Janis answers, apparently off the top of her head, and asks for the number. Sean quickly pulls up the number for plant manager John Brunner, complete with a geographically accurate 937 area code, and Janis autodials it, and gets a receptionist, with whom she gets a tad shirty: "Ma'am as I just stated, I'm with the FBI. Does that sound vaguely important to you?" See, it is possible to be bitchy and funny at the same time, Chloe.
At 2:12:44, John Brunner (played by Tom Irwin, who's had about fifty pretty memorable guest shots since his one season as Angela's dad on My So-Called Life, but that's a goddamn long shadow Graham Chase casts) is pacing around a busy control room when Janis is put through on his Bluetooth. Janis introduces herself and starts to explain about the government firewall. "I know what it does, honey," he interrupts, which preemptively makes me feel better about the fact that he is doomed. Janis asks if they're having any problems right now. Brunner tells her that in fact, some safety valves on the primary storage tank aren't exactly living up to their name at the moment. And what's in that tank? Methyl isocyanate, of course. I was going to put a joke here about whether this season's writing staff includes someone whose job is to come up with names of chemical compounds, but then five seconds of research clued me in that this stuff actually exists, as anyone from Bhopal could tell you. In fact, some Indian immigrant living in Kidron is probably about to be all, "Fuck, not again." Anyway, Janis says, "Mr. Brunner, I have reason to believe that this is a terrorist attack on your facility." She tells him to initiate security procedures and stay on the line. Brunner orders his techs to shut down the tank, but they can't seem to pull it off, and the pressure is rising. Brunner tells Janis, "If we cannot stop this, we're looking at atmospheric release." In a shaky voice, Janis tells Sean to run and find Moss. "Dubaku has targeted that facility. We need to alert the president." Janis tells Brunner to start evacuating people. But first, he needs to spend a few seconds staring into the camera. It's 2:14:32.
At 2:18:53, Ethan is just getting off the phone with Moss when Tim from Homeland Security (I wish I could tell you that my failure to call him Tiny Tim before now was a conscious decision) bursts in to tell him what he already knows: shit going down in Kidron. As they take the long way around from Ethan's office through an impromptu briefing room that's being set up in the hallway, Tim reminds Ethan that they still need to get a hold of Henry. Ethan tells Tim he's working on it.
Inside the Oval Office, Taylor is fine-tuning a speech with her press secretary when Ethan and Tim arrive to boot the spokeswoman out so they can tell the Prez about Kidron. Tim commandeers Taylor's big screen to put up a map of Kidron and explain how it's about to be downwind of the world's largest can of Raid. "Even brief exposure causes severe lung damage and chemical burns to the skin," Ethan tells Taylor. You know what word would be a good shorthand for all this exposition? Bhopal. I'm just saying. Tim adds that they have less than fifteen minutes, which is not enough time to get everyone out of town, and the projections are looking like half the city's population is about to be exterminated. "Oh, dear lord," Taylor breathes. Ethan boils it down: "Right now our only chance of stopping this is finding Dubaku and the CIP device." What about giving in, Ethan? It's been a good half hour since you pushed that option.
Good thing Kiefer's working on what Ethan just suggested. At 2:21:22, he and Walker lift the ventilation unit that will allow them to crawl down into the ceiling vent directly over Dubaku's command center. Chloe tells Kiefer what she's heard about the chemical plant from listening to her FBI scanner or whatever, and advises him to hurry. "Moving as fast as we can," Kiefer assures her as he and Walker get into position. He has her pull a little scope out of the backpack he's wearing, and he pokes it through a slot in the vent, unnoticed from below. It has a little built-in camera, but Dubaku keeps it so dark down there they need to switch it to night vision. Their view of the room below shows them Nichols and three armed men, plus thee more at the consoles who are probably also armed, as he reports over comm to his compatriots. Walker spots Dubaku. Chloe can also see the scope's output on her laptop, and she suspects that the computer down there is running the CIP device. Good thing they brought along a technology expert.
At FBI-DC, Sean tells an impatient Moss that the NSA is working as fast as they can to plug the firewall. So without anything else to do, Moss goes over to Janis and gets on the extension with her while she's talking to Brunner, with whom she's now on a first-name basis. She technobabbles at him, he calls her "honey" again at 2:22:47, and tells her that they're not in control of the computer system and he's ordered an evacuation of his staff. "Normally I don't allow people to call me 'honey,' but we can discuss that later," Janis says, and he tells her to lighten up. Always good advice when you're trying to prevent an imminent disaster. As he makes his hardhatted way through the bowels of the plant, he tells her that he's going to try to manually release some pressure. It won't prevent an eventual rupture, but it might buy some time for the evacuation. "I have a thousand workers at this facility and I am responsible for their safety," he says. Well, then, John, maybe you could have sprung for a hazmat suit or two, and a couple of guys to wear them so they could do what you're about to attempt while wearing your street clothes and a paltry respirator mask. Without even a pair of goggles to his name, he lets himself into a secure room with all kinds of pipes and valves running through it. He tells Janis to stay on the line and walk him through the operating procedures, namely the emergency valve release sequence. She quickly pulls it up, because the FBI has everything, and is rather alarmed when she realizes that he's about to release a bunch of nasty-ass insecticide into the room where he's standing. He assures her he's geared up for it, but she asks, "How long will that protect you?" "Don't worry about it, honey," he tells her. Now that he's got three strikes, Janis starts giving him the directions. He's flipping switches and turning giant valve wheels, and coughing at the gas that he's causing to pour into the room. At least he can take pride in the quality of the goods he's been producing.
Meanwhile, at Dubaku's command center, he's just been told that a tank rupture is only seven minutes away when Nichols calls him over to show him some belated camera footage from the roof. "Almeida and Bauer," he points out, and says this happened twenty minutes ago. So now that Dubaku is finally about to be face-to-face with the man who killed his brother -- which Dubaku knows, because Solenz the UN guy told him -- will Dubaku's reaction be blind rage, or cold vengeance? In fact, it is pants-shitting panic. Dubaku yells at Nichols for his multiple fuck-ups that allowed this to happen, and gives the order to unhook the CIP module. For some reason, Nichols tells him to hang in there, but Dubaku insists they get out of there now and pick up someplace else. A tech yanks the CIP module out of its slot, and the giant display screen shows a giant error message. At FBI-DC, Sean and Moss are confused to see that the security breach just closed. Dubaku is telling his men to get the CIP device and the Matobos. And Kiefer and his team finish up what has apparently been a whispered conference call talking about how they're going to do the assault. Looks like they're going the two-pronged route. Good idea, now that the element of surprise they had until a second ago is fucked. Tony and Buchanan will make a frontal assault, and Kiefer and Walker will descend from above. Considering the positions everyone's in, what other options did they discuss? Walker and Kiefer climb back to the roof and do a Tarzan swing through a window, while Tony and Buchanan block stairwell escapees and Chloe physically uploads herself into the room? "Give me the C-4 in the pack," Kiefer tells Walker. Time to go. Assuming she can find the C-4 she didn't pack, in pitch blackness, in a space where neither of them has room to move, without blowing both of them up.
Oh, and I just have to say that the C4 is the last straw on something I've been quietly wondering about: just how the hell is Buchanan financing this little hobby of his? I can believe that Chloe brought along her own computer gear, but how is Buchanan affording, let alone acquiring, stuff like multiple comm earpieces, night-vision scopes, all the weaponry they're carrying, and C-freaking-4? Perhaps we're supposed to assume that when he came back to clean out his desk after getting fired from CTU, he also backed up his molester van to the Tactical Supplies room.
Buchanan and Tony burst out of the stairwell, heading for the office suite. They open fire on the guard at the front desk, then take out the guy who runs in to back him up. Dubaku is just taking aim at them through the window himself when the ceiling behind him explodes, and Kiefer and Walker drop down shooting. Without having blown themselves up even a little, it would seem. The command center has become a battlefield, where muzzle flashes eclipse those of LEDs, clouds of smoke drift among the servers, and the cracks between the floor tiles run red with blood. Fortunately all the blood belongs to the bad guys. In the room where the Matobos are awaiting their fate, Nichols comes in with a fresh gun and orders, "Move!" Before he can enforce the order, Walker shoots him from the door, steps inside, and kicks the door shut behind her. Bad-ass. Almost makes up for Kiefer sending the woman out of the battle to go be a caretaker.
Out in the command center, the firefight continues. Eventually everyone is down but the good guys, although Dubaku has somehow escaped the room. Tony finds the CIP device, which lies smashed in the hand of a dead henchman. Walker comms to Kiefer that she's getting the Matobos to the van. Kiefer assigns Tony and Buchanan to look for Dubaku while he covers the south. It's 2:28:13 and the threat to national security has already been neutralized. And there are less than eighteen hours to find a new one.
At 2:32:34, Janis yells down the phone line to Brunner, who is slumped and panting on the tank room floor. She tells him that the terrorists have pulled out and asks him what's going on at his end. He looks over at the analog pressure gauge mounted on the wall, which is dropping. "I think we're gonna be okay," he says, using the term "we" pretty loosely. Janis tells him that's great, and to get out of there. But he can't get to the door, now that he's spent the last ten minutes since he released the pressure just hanging out in there for no reason. Janis says she's sending a rescue team, by which she means she's frantically waving at someone else to do it for her. She yells at Brunner to hang in there.
Dubaku's building is being evacuated -- as would, I hope, any office building in which a firefight is taking place -- and Walker has apparently been taking her time leading the Matobos down the stairs and into the YouCT van. Once they're inside, Walker asks Chloe how the search for Dubaku is going, and she says it's still on. She comms to Kiefer that "first responders are five minutes away." Oh, so they must be done with that hour-old plane crash by now.
Dubaku is not only eluding his pursuers, he's found the room where he stashed Michael Latham, the tech genius who built the CIP device and made all this possible. And who is still terrified. Dubaku impatiently yells at him to get up. He needs a new CIP device in the thirty seconds! Get to work! Okay, not really. But thirty seconds wouldn't be much faster than the time it took him to build the first one.
Kiefer meets up once again with Tony and Buchanan as they do their sweep. "They're coming," whispers a surviving henchman to Dubaku after peeking through a cracked-open doorway. "Please don't make me do this," Latham whines. Dubaku threatens to go to Latham's home and kill his wife and daughter. "Save your family," Dubaku advises. Latham just weeps. He's not exactly saving his dignity. Finally, Kiefer bursts into the room with Tony and Buchanan behind him, but by now there's nobody visible but Latham, standing in the middle of the room with his hands tied behind his back. Kiefer yells questions at him until Latham says, "I'm sorry." Which is when Kiefer notices the coil of wires peeking out from the bottom of Latham's jacket. "Cover!" he bellows, and all three commandos dive for some in the hallway. From his hiding place, Dubaku finally triggers the remote in his hand like he should have done ten seconds ago, and the room gets blown to shit. Kiefer leads his friends back into the devastated room, telling a worried Walker what just happened and that they don't have Dubaku. Hearing the approaching sirens, Walker tells him to get out of there, and Kiefer calls an end to the mission at 2:35:56. And Dubaku, apparently having found the back stairs, walks out of the building, blending in with the evacuating office drones. Now I see why he hasn't been wearing his army fatigues.
Sean's in Moss's office, being yelled at because nobody knows why the attack stopped. Sean says everyone's working on it, and speculates that the CIP device malfunctioned, but even that gets him in trouble. "I don't know what else to tell you, sir," Sean says. "I know you're upset about Renee. But getting angry at me's not going to make it go any faster." Ooh, not helping yourself there, Sean. Moss snaps that he's worried about the thousands of lives at stake. Sean mutters, "Sorry, sir" and leaves, but not before Moss gives him another useless order. And then we see that this whole time, Moss's computer monitor is showing the missing-agent notice on Walker. And who could blame him? Her ID photo is smokin'.
Janis is just getting off the phone when Sean comes out and tells her that Moss wants them to backtrace the code fragment she found so they can maybe find where the CIP device was being used. "I'll try," says Janis, clearly distracted. Sean asks her what's going on at the chemical plant. Janis reports, "Facility's clear. A trace amount of the chemical was released, but not enough to do any damage." Sean says that's good. "What about the plant manager?" "John Brunner," Janis says. "Is he okay?" Sean asks. Janis: "No." She asks him to get contact info for Brunner's family for her. "I was the last one to speak with him and I feel they should know how brave he was." Sean says he'll look into it, but adds, "Before you start sending flowers, we need to find out where that CIP device was being used." "I know, I'm on it," she grits. It's 2:38:14. Somehow I think she'll still find time to have a dramatic telephone conversation with Brunner's wife Dear and his children, Sweetie and Sport.
At 2:42:42, Tim again walks past that new hallway briefing room, this time with President Taylor. He must have caught her on her way back from the bathroom. He tells her about the chemical plant being back under control, with minimal casualties. "It appears the crisis has been averted," he sums up as they reach the Oval Office. But he has to admit that nobody knows why. "I'm not one to accept good news unless I know where it comes from," Taylor says, because that would make this an awfully short season. She then has to take a call from Admiral Smith of the Joint Chiefs, who probably wants to ask her, "Can we start bombing shit now?" As Tim leaves the room, he encounters Ethan in the hallway, who's talking to some Secret Service supervisor to help him find Agent Gedge. After getting off the phone, Ethan tells Tim that he's going to have to tell Taylor that her husband is incommunicado. Tim advises holding off, but Ethan doesn't bother responding as he nervously enters the Oval Office. Taylor's telling Admiral Smith at 2:44:26 that she can't authorize the air strikes until post-invasion plans are in place, and that means Matobo. When she gets off the phone, Ethan delicately broaches the subject of Henry. "He's been harassing Roger's girlfriend. Accusing her of complicity in the death of Roger." He adds that Henry's hired a P.I. and everything. Taylor, shocked at what is now old news to us, wants Henry on the phone, but Ethan can't help her. "Agent Gedge hasn't been answering his phone. I probably should have told you before." As Taylor realizes that Henry's missing. Ethan can only say that the Secret Service has been dispatched to Sam's apartment. "Whatever's going on, we'll find out soon enough." Funny, Ethan isn't usually that optimistic.
Agent Vossler turns out to be a very patient man, because he's been sitting in the car outside Samantha's apartment for about an hour now. But when he hears his Secret Service radio squawking about Agent Gedge at 2:45:42 and sending all available agents to "404 Wilkinson Drive" as though we didn't clearly see the street signs just last week, he gets a little more impatient and dials Gedge's phone again.
Up in the apartment, Henry is awoken by Gedge's ringing phone. At least he got a nap, which is more than most people on this show ever get to do. He opens Gedge's ringing phone just a moment too late, and it reads, "Missed: Vossler." He tries to dial a 703-area-code number on the phone (because why call home, with its 202 number, at a time like this?), but it won't go through unless he enters Gedge's lock code, which he apparently doesn't have. Way to pay attention to your surroundings, Hank. See also his inability to find Sam's phone (if she has a landline) or her cell in her purse (if she doesn't). He gets dizzily to his feet, queasily regards Sam's corpse for a moment, then heads for the apartment door. When he opens it, he sees Vossler running at him, drawing his weapon. Yeah, Henry's awake now. H slams the door, which only slows Vossler down enough for Henry to grab Gedge's gun out of his slide holster, but Vossler arrives in time to knock it away. As Vossler checks Gedge's nonexistent pulse, Henry tells him he doesn't need to do this. "Gedge's plan to frame me is already blown. If you kill me, they'll know it was murder, and they'll trace it back to you." Henry seems pretty confident that it's tough to get away with wiping out the entire immediate family of a President of the United States, doesn't he? While Vossler is considering that, he gets a call from Dubaku, who's riding alone across the Potomac on a commuter train and looking for Agent Gedge. Vossler has to report, "Taylor killed Gedge. I don't know how." "Don't kill him," Dubaku says. "Bring him to me." "Yes sir," says Vossler, and Dubaku hangs up without telling Vossler where he is. How's Vossler going to sneak the FGOTUS onto a moving train, anyway? It's 2:48:06.
At 2:52:32, Kiefer leads everyone back upstairs at YouCT headquarters, like he's in charge now. You know, as it should be. Buchanan tells Chloe to start searching satellite footage for any sign of Dubaku leaving the building they just raided. Chloe says it will take at least 20 minutes, and Buchanan tells her to get going, then. "Satellite, traffic cams, street corners, metro stations." Chloe says she can only do one at a time, and Buchanan snaps at her to do satellite first. Hearing all this bickering, Kiefer realizes that they can't do this homegrown-style any more; the cops are after them, and they don't have the resources to find one guy. "It's time to contact outside agencies." Or, to be more accurate, "agencies." Walker and Tony remind Kiefer that they can't trust anyone in the government, but Matobo pipes up to say they can trust President Taylor. Buchanan continues to resist. Chloe takes Kiefer's side, of course. Kiefer explains that Matobo can get them face-time with Taylor without involving too many government employees, and Walker comes over to his side, along with Matobo. "Am I supposed to remain in hiding with you?" he asks. "Pretend that my wife and I are still being held hostage or dead?" Both Matobos want to get back to the White House. Kiefer states flatly, "Bill, you want to find Dubaku, make the call." Buchanan looks around the room, and even Tony is nodding in agreement. All right, get me the White House," Buchanan orders. You can tell he's missed saying that. Suddenly, now that the decision has been made, Tony comes over all shifty. Not that anyone inside the TV notices.
At 2:54:32, the Oval Office big screen is tuned to a CNB report of the near-disaster's aftermath. Taylor's watching it, and is rather surprised to hear her assistant buzz in to say that she's got a call from Prime Minister Matobo. After making sure they're trying to trace the call, Taylor picks up the phone and asks Matobo if he's all right. "We were rescued," Matobo says, and tells her that the CIP device has been destroyed and the U.S. is no longer immediately threatened. Obviously Taylor wants to know more, but Matobo will only tell her in person, alone, in ten minutes. End of call, which Kiefer says they tried and failed to trace. Taylor calls in Ethan, who's even more surprised to hear that Matobo is okay. "Bring him in through the south entrance and keep this to as few people as possible," Taylor orders. Like she couldn't go to the south entrance herself. Ethan goes to comply. Or does he?
At 2:56:35, Chloe has already mapped a super-secret, traffic-cam-avoidant route to the White House to send to Kiefer's phone. Kiefer starts to lead the way down the stairs, but Tony says he isn't going. Probably because he doesn't want to be arrested. "I already told you," Tony reminds Kiefer, "I did some pretty bad things before I teamed up with Bill." Kiefer has the nerve to lecture, "Tony, take it from me -- you need to deal with the consequences." You know, like Kiefer dealt with them by fleeing the jurisdiction and going all Richard Kimble from country to country for as long as he could. Tony still wants to continue the search for Dubaku, and adds that he might have a lead through a guy in Emerson's crew. Who I'm sure will be super eager to talk to Tony now that all of their coworkers and boss are dead. Kiefer grudgingly agrees to let Tony go through with it, if he'll promise to turn himself in when it's all over. "We'll stand behind you," he adds, as though he and Buchanan are so highly regarded right now. Tony agrees, and they shake on it. "Good luck and be careful," Kiefer says. Tony watches Kiefer and Buchanan walk down the stairs; apparently Matobo and Walker will be driving separately. Why not use as many of Buchanan's cars as possible, after all?
In the final splitscreen, the Matobos silently say their goodbyes before he leaves with Walker; Vossler stuffs a bound and gagged Henry into the trunk of his car, which he has thoughtfully transferred to an underground parking ramp; Matobo and Walker head out of YouCT; Taylor stares presidentially into space; and Dubaku lets himself into a rather modest apartment. Clearly he's not paying for this place with Sangalan diamonds.
After removing his bullet-grazed suit jacket, he hears a knock on his door and opens, his gun hidden behind his back. And when he does, the visitor is just his girlfriend. She's a cute African-American lady in a diner waitress uniform, and she says she was just stopping by on her way to work. She gives him a little peck on the lips, even. She says she tried to call him earlier, and he apologizes for having been busy. She reminds him of their dinner plans that night, and when he looks worried, she wonders if he forgot. He claims he didn't. Really? He made dinner plans with his girlfriend on the evening of the day he was launching multiple terror attacks against the United States? No wonder he's so frustrated with Taylor's stubbornness; this should have taken him a half day. "It's just, I've got some business to attend to," he excuses. Calling him "Samuel," she tells him he works too much; always on the phone when he comes into her diner. Maybe she should work at Luke's. He claims he needs to work hard, "so that one day I can finally take you away from that awful place you work in." Wow, Dubaku has a surprisingly pleasant smile. I guess that's what happens when you floss with the tendons of Sangalan children. They kiss again, and she takes off. Dubaku sets his gun on the table and calls Vossler, who says he's about three minutes away. Dubaku directs Vossler to go around back of the Korean grocery across the street from his building, where one of his men will meet him and take Henry off his hands. "What are you going to do to him?" Vossler asks, a bit belatedly if you ask me. "Just make sure you weren't followed," Dubaku snaps. Sure, now he's all careful about that. When he hangs up, it's 3:00:00.
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
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