Episode Report Card M. Giant: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT OMFGOTUS
By M. Giant | Season 7 | Episode 8 | Aired on 02.09.2009
The little party enters, and Taylor greets Matobo warmly. "That you were subjected to such an ordeal on our soil is a source of shame both to me personally and to my country." Kiefer looks a little ashamed himself, having been one of the primary subjecters. Matobo says he's more worried about his country, and is grateful to hear that Taylor's given the order to begin the invasion. As for the people who brought him in, "They are here to explain themselves." And Matobo's got stuff to do, so he's outie. Smell you later, people who saved my life.
Now that Buchanan, Kiefer, and Walker have been left hanging in the breeze, Taylor plunks herself down on her couch and demands an explanation. Kiefer begins: "Madam President, six weeks ago, Bill Buchanan discovered that key members of your government were working with General Juma and Colonel Dubaku in an effort to undermine this nation's foreign policy -- your foreign policy -- with regard to Sangala." She's kind of offended by this, but Kiefer points out, "It explains why during this crisis, every effort you made to stop Dubaku failed. Buchanan adds, "I formed a small group to locate and neutralize Dubaku. Tony Almeida and ultimately Jack joined me." Oh, and some redhead chick he dug up somewhere. Taylor reminds us that Tony was the one who gave Dubaku the CIP device to begin with. Buchanan says they needed it as bait, to follow it to Dubaku, like that should be obvious. Except that it's really not. "A lot of people died on those planes!" Taylor points out. "Never mind what could have happened at the chemical plant in Kidron." Walker steps up to vouch for her new buddies: "The loss of life was tragic, yes, but in my opinion, everything they've done has saved the lives of thousands." Well, if you say so. Must be worth it. Taylor asks what the next step would be, just for the sake of argument, and Kiefer says that since Dubaku is the only person who knows about all the spies in Taylor's government, they need to find him. And in secret, too, otherwise he'll know they're coming. Although I assume he'll also know about it anyway, when they find him. Again. Suddenly a Secret Service agent enters to tell Taylor that Tim from Homeland is on the phone, and it's urgent. She puts him on speaker, and he tells her that Colonel Dubaku is calling about her husband. Unfortunately, she doesn't snap, "My husband isn't here!" and hang up.
Calling from his basement hideout, Dubaku doesn't waste time: "I have your husband," he says. "Let me demonstrate." He holds the phone out to Henry, who tells her, "I'm sorry about this. For God's sake, don't let them use me to influence you in any way." Why's everyone always so brave in these situations? I'd be like, "Uh, honey, you know, Sangala's nice and all, but why don't we just go to Europe or something instead?" Since Henry doesn't say that, Dubaku snatches back the phone and states his demands: withdraw American forces from around Sangala, and deliver Matobo to his men, who will be waiting at a nearby power plant. Wow, Dubaku works fast. I would complain about the fact that Dubaku shouldn't assume that Taylor even knows where Matobo is right now, except that she kind of just broadcast on live national television that she does. Oops. And if Taylor doesn't comply, "Your husband will die a slow and certain death." "You wouldn't dare!" an enraged Taylor spits. Wrong thing to say; Dubaku tells his men to cut off Henry's finger. And off comes the right index finger, between the second and third knuckle. Out of frame, of course. It takes three of Dubaku's men to do the job, and they should be ashamed of themselves, having to gang up like that on a fiftysomething, emaciated guy tied to a chair who just recently recovered from being paralyzed. Hearing her husband's grunts of pain, Taylor helplessly yells "Stop it!" as Kiefer gets up from his seat and walks over with concern. Dubaku threatens to send Henry back to her one piece at a time, and she says she understands. Dubaku further warns that if she tries to find him, he'll know, and he'll kill Henry immediately. When the call ends, Taylor is totally wrecked. So she's not exactly cheered when Ethan walks up, cell phone in hand, and tells her that the Secret Service team he sent to Samantha Roth's apartment just found the bodies of Sam and Agent Gedge. He adds that Gedge had a paralytic drug. "That suggests he was complicit in Henry's abduction, which of course confirms the corruption you just told us about," Ethan adds. Okay, glad to have that sorted out. Ethan tells Taylor that under the circumstances, nobody could blame her if she were to put off the invasion. She doesn't see it that way. "How many people died on those planes?" she asks Ethan. He tells her about 300, and she says, "How can I ask the American people to make sacrifices that I'm not willing to make myself? I can't give in. I can't." Yeah, she would get totally killed in the polls. Kiefer realizes he needs to step in here , and offers to try to find Henry before 4:00. She reminds him that Dubaku forbade that, and she can't trust any of her agencies. "You can trust me," Kiefer insists. He adds that Walker is presumed dead, and he has no status. "Dubaku's spies cannot track us, because officially, we don't exist." Okay, but that doesn't make you invisible. She has her doubts about whether she can trust Kiefer, but instead of asking him a perfectly valid question like, "How many people are you going to torture, threaten, or kill?" she asks, "How am I supposed to know where your loyalties really lie?" Stung, Kiefer replies, "With all due respect, Madam President, ask around." Way to not take any shit from the bereaved, panicked president there, Kiefer. The music swells as Taylor asks what he can even do in the amount of time they have. Kiefer can't make any promises, but tells her to make it look like she's complying with Dubaku's demands in order to buy them some time. Finally, she consents. "Find him, please," she begs. "Yes, ma'am," says Kiefer, and asks for a "secure hard line" as everyone leaves the room but Taylor and Buchanan. Make sure it's a really hard line, because he's probably going to want to hit someone with it.