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When President Taylor learns that her husband has been shot, she insists on going to the hospital, with a reinstated Buchanan as the new head of her Secret Service detail. After seeing Henry go into a multi-hour surgery, Taylor sends for her estranged daughter Olivia, and Buchanan has Aaron Pierce of all people pick her up. Just 'cause.
Dubaku tells his girlfriend Marika that he needs to leave the country, and convinces her to come with him by promising her that her sister will get to join them later. Marika has just finished packing and is on her way out the door when Kiefer and Walker bust in, surprising her on a large number of levels. Kiefer tells her the truth about her boyfriend, and gets Marika to agree to not only talk to Dubaku, but to meet him as planned so they can track her to him, with covert support from Chloe and Moss at FBI-DC.
But that of course goes all wrong for a couple of reasons. First, Janis is so threatened by the arrival of a new girl geek that she remotely hacks into Chloe's terminal and briefly causes the loss of the tracking feed. But that's nothing compared to what happens , which is that Kiefer and Walker get busted on a warrant issued by the FBI mole: Sean Hillinger. The little bitch himself.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!The DC cops and paramedics have arrived pretty quickly outside the Korean grocery that disguises Dubaku's ex-hideout. Walker runs out to the sidewalk, orders the cops to keep everyone out, and leads the EMTs through the store to the back stairs. "It's Henry Taylor, the president's husband," she informs them, "but that information is not to be disseminated, clear?" Why are you yelling it, then, brain trust?
Down in the basement back room, Kiefer is telling Henry not to try to speak. Which I'm sure is just what Henry wants to hear right now, after Agent Gedge said the same thing to him just a few hours ago. For different reasons, of course, but still. Kiefer's also apparently trying to knit Henry's wounds with his bare hands. When the EMTs come in and move Kiefer aside so they can strap FGOTUS to a gurney, Kiefer tasks Walker with searching the computers in the hideout for clues to Dubaku's whereabouts. Kiefer nobly takes the suckier job for himself: calling the president.
In the Oval Office, Ethan's telling Taylor and her poufier new post-writers'-strike hairdo to keep her chin up, but she's not hopeful about Dubaku keeping Henry alive since he knows she screwed him. Kiefer's call comes in, and he quickly tells her that Henry's alive but shot, and it's too early to tell what's going to happen to him. Well, given Henry's luck so far today, I think it's reasonable to assume that his ambulance will get broadsided by a dirigible, whereupon he will be thrown clear, only to land in either a hornets' nest or a bear trap. Buchanan chimes in to ask about Dubaku, and Kiefer responds that he wasn't in the house when they arrived. Kiefer says that now that Dubaku's out of cards to play, he's more than likely trying to leave the country, and they have no way of knowing how. "Unfortunately all his men were killed during the assault," Kiefer explains. "Were killed?" Well, shit, how did that happen? He says he and Walker will stick around and search for clues, but Dubaku probably already has a plan. "Whatever we're going to do, we're going to have to do it fast." Taylor thanks Kiefer and hangs up, as Henry gets wheeled out of there.
With the call over, Taylor briskly says that she's off to the hospital. Ethan tells her, politely but firmly, that ain't happening. "You're executing a military invasion." Taylor says her generals can manage that just fine without her. Ethan then argues that they already know the Secret Service has been compromised, so they can't trust her safety to them outside the White House. She doesn't give a shit: "Either find me someone to take me to the hospital or I'll drive there myself." Buchanan steps up and offers to take care of her security for now. Which is ballsy, considering he just got two Secret Service agents killed less than ten minutes ago. Ethan says that Buchanan's not exactly credentialed, but Buchanan insists that with Dubaku still at large, they don't know who in the government is working for him, and that includes the Secret Service. Nobody points out that at least there are two fewer corrupt Secret Service agents than there were a few hours ago. "But I can trust you?" Taylor asks Buchanan. Buchanan points out that since he was the one who brought the conspiracy to her attention in the first place, he would hope so. That would be one heck of a double-bluff. He gets her to agree to reinstate his clearances, put him in charge of vetting White House staff (Ethan's got to be thinking, I'm standing right here), and let him bring someone into the FBI to provide Larry Moss with tactical support. That would be Chloe, obviously. Annoyed, Ethan asks if there's anyone who can handle all this without all the reinstating that Buchanan's plan is going to require, but Buchanan insists that Moss can't trust his own people right now. After some more logistical discussion around coordinating all this with the Secret Service boss, Taylor gives Buchanan the green light, and he's off to organize her ride to the hospital. Ethan tries to talk Taylor out of this some more, but she ends the discussion by changing the subject to Dubaku. "He has killed scores of Americans today. He tried to kill my husband and has corrupted our government. Whatever it takes, I want that son of a bitch found." Ooh, such salty language!
At 4:06:27, Dubaku is lurking around the open back door of the diner where Marika works. As she comes into the kitchen with a tub of dishes, he calls her out into the alley to talk. "Something has come up," he euphemizes, and says he needs to leave the country immediately. Marika's a little freaked out. He confesses that he hasn't been "entirely honest," but if you're expecting him to confess that he is in fact a notorious African warlord who has killed a few hundred Americans today, you're going to be disappointed. Instead, he just says that his visa has expired. Boy, has it ever. "I'm afraid the immigration people have caught up with me," he says. Oh, I wish. How awesome would it be if Kiefer were tearing apart the nation's capitol looking for him and he ended up getting nabbed by a couple of desk dweebs from Citizenship and Immigration? Marika senses her nosy sister Rosa behind this, but Dubaku acts like he's above recriminations right now. He's leaving tonight -- and he wants her to come along. "I promised that I would one day take you away from here," he reminds her. She protests, and he angrily hisses, "I don't have time to argue with you!" Taken aback, Marika says that she can't leave Rosa, and Dubaku says he's got that all figured out: Rosa will join them later. Suuure she will. He just doesn't want Marika to tell her sister about it yet. Dubaku asks if she loves him, and that's all it takes; she's going to Belize with him. Dubaku tells her he has to wrap up some things, and tells her to go home, pack, and wait for his call. She returns to work for however long it's going to take her to quit. Clearly Marika is not a person who's curious about details.
At 4:08:45, Dubaku gets on his cell phone to a young guy in a fancy office somewhere, who is apparently his hookup for leaving the country. The guy, whose name is Burnett, asks if Dubaku is sure he wants to leave now, since General Juma isn't going to be too happy with him. "The mission is over," Dubaku says. "I have done what I can. If that is not enough for Juma, then to hell with him." Indeed, it's not like Dubaku failed for lack of trying. Burnett pulls out a small envelope containing Dubaku's passport and itinerary and says they'll meet at the normal place. But Dubaku wants to move the meeting to the lobby of the Roosevelt Continental in half an hour. When Burnett protests, Dubaku changes it to fifteen minutes, and hops into a chauffeured car that has suddenly appeared. It's good to be Dubaku.
Kiefer and Walker are coming up empty searching the laptops in Dubaku's hideout, so he decides they need to start looting the corpses for clues. She's just getting started when her cell phone rings with a call from Moss at FBI-DC. He asks if she's okay, and when she unconvincingly says she is, he closes the door to his office and voices his doubts about that. Apparently he just got a fax from Metro Police about a Mrs. Vossler, who says she was just terrorized by an armed, unidentified woman. Unfortunately, Walker doesn't offer to go find that unidentified woman as soon as she's done looking for Dubaku. Instead, she reminds Moss that yeah, they kind of agreed to do that, and Moss complains, "Yeah, right. Whatever's necessary. Jack Bauer's rationalization for every unethical action he takes." Symbolically looking at herself in a dirty mirror, Walker points out that it worked, which is always such a morally defensible stand. Moss reminds her that Kiefer's already in trouble, and it's not looking good for her either. "You already got the AG's office looking into that thing you pulled with Tanner's respirator, and now this." Does she? Because as far as I can tell, the AG's office got bored and went home. That guy isn't even bugging Janis any more. "No one was actually hurt," Walker points out. Moss angrily reminds her, "Bauer killed the woman's husband!" Oh, she meant besides that. Moss echoes what he said to Kiefer in the hour, which is that he's worried about what's happening to her. Tell me about it, Larry. I used to think she was awesome, too. "You put these people through hell and it doesn't bother you," he accuses. In the course of holding her phone to her face, Walker has smeared some blood from her hand onto her cheek. She assures Moss that in fact it does bother her, as she tries to dry-scrub the blood away. Out, damn spot. As Kiefer comes up, he hears her telling Moss about earlier. "She had no idea that her husband was a killer, a traitor to his country, and she looked at me like I was the monster." No, Renee, not the monster. Just a monster. Kiefer picks this moment to interrupt that he's hit pay dirt on a couple of PDAs: banking transactions from accounts that were registered to the same address. And since he used the infallible technique of cross-referencing, you know it's a valid lead. He reads the address out loud, and Walker relays it to Moss over the phone: Euclid Street, Apartment 6. Walker says she and Kiefer are on their way, and asks if Moss can set up satellite surveillance. Moss tells her that Buchanan's sending someone in to help with that, but it'll take some time to get her up and running. Walker hangs up, and Kiefer asks, "You sure you're okay?" Walker says she's fine, and they leave the bodies where they lie. I'm sure someone will get to them eventually, when the grocery starts losing customers to a funky smell. It's 4:12:12.
At 4:16:35, Rosa's asleep in her wheelchair in front of a daytime talk show, that damn letter still in her lap. Why is there a TV channel in this city that doesn't have Iké Dubaku's face on it at all times, with a caption reading, "This is the dude who crashed those planes right over your fool heads three hours ago. If you see him, give a holla"? Marika sneaks in past her, pausing to make sure she's really out, and ducks into her bedroom to start packing. Maybe she should take some precautions in case Rosa wakes up, like sticking a broom handle between the spokes of her wheelchair. Can't be too careful.
Oh, look, it's the O'Brian family! Morris is at the wheel of their product-placed car, with their product-placed satellite radio tuned to product-placed Fox News. The dashboard clock reads 4:18, which is a nice touch. I think I read once that clocks were completely prohibited around the CTU set, back in the day. They never knew during shooting whether a given scene would get moved around in the episode, throwing the whole thing out of whack. Although now that I think about it, I'd be willing to bet this dashboard shot I'm looking at right now was either filmed or digitally altered later, after editing was nearly complete. Whatever, I appreciate the effort anyway. Chloe turns around in the shotgun seat to look at a miniature O'Brian in his car seat, who gives her a charming smile. Whoa, that kid is cute and friendly. Is Chloe sure she's the mother? As Morris pulls up to the curb outside FBI-DC, he shuts off the radio and offers to help Chloe for what clearly isn't the first time. She exposits that she's just helping with some FBI ops to find Dubaku, who will then tell them the names of everyone in the government who's on his payroll. Because that's just the kind of helpful, cooperative guy Dubaku is. Getting out of the car with her, Morris warns her to look out for the mole. "I'll watch my back," she assures him. It's not like a mole has ever killed her before. Hell, she used to sleep with one. Morris gets her satchel out of the trunk, and she stays behind the car while he helps drape the bag over her body. Yeah, I'm thinking Mary Lynn Rajskub came back after the writers' strike a little pregnant. Her belly properly disguised, she says goodbye to her husband and kid, Prescott. "And if you get jammed up, you know where to find me," Morris calls after her as she enters through the gate. Aw, is someone feeling left out? Hey, if he's bored, maybe he could go look after Prime Minister Matobo's wife for a while. She's probably stuck back at YouCT headquarters by herself, with nothing to do but try to teach herself how to play the organ.
Inside the building, Moss is assigning some stuff to Janis that she indignantly calls "busywork. Administrative crap you're handing me." Moss basically tells her to shut up and do it, saying he doesn't have to explain himself. When someone flags him down to say that Chloe has arrived, he tells Janis to "Set up a secure VPN socket. Port it to the conference room." Janis asks why, and Moss says he's bringing in a consultant from Homeland to look for "lingering gaps in the firewall." Now he gets all explainy.
He goes and meets Chloe as she comes off the elevator at 4:18:56, and they greet each other politely enough. Moss directs her into the conference room, and she notices the dead-eyed stare Janis is giving her from her desk. You'd never guess that Mary Lynn Rajskub and Janeane Garofalo have been friends for 15 years. Inside the room, Moss leads Chloe to a computer setup with twin monitors and explains where Kiefer and Walker are right now and what they're up to so she can set up the satellite feed. Chloe doesn't move, preferring to give the hairy eyeball to the conference room's glass doors. "I'm feeling a little exposed here," she says. Does she not remember the fishbowl that was the old CTU conference room? It's okay, Chloe. Nobody can see your tummy. Oh, wait, that's not what she means: "If someone out there is working for Dubaku, shouldn't we be doing this more covertly?" Moss says he's got a cover story in place, and adds, "Besides, this is the only space available where you'll have full access to our server. Our network doesn't support remote modules." Chloe says that's a stupid way to set up a network. There's a long pause, during which I have plenty of time to reassure myself that Moss is a Special Agent In Charge, not an IT guy, and therefore would never have been in a position to set up FBI-DC's network one way or another, which means I didn't just hear a setup for a really obvious joke. "I set our network up that way," he says flatly, and I stand corrected. As Chloe settles in, Moss decides to get a lick in about how long she's worked with Kiefer. "Seven years, on and off," Chloe says. Moss says it's impressive that she's survived this long. "What are you talking about?" Chloe responds, instead of with what would be a much more reasonable "duh." Moss runs down a sharply abridged list of Kiefer's casualties: "Curtis Manning, Ryan Chappelle, his own wife." Wow, Moss has done his homework. When in this busy day has he had time to sit down and watch all those old DVDs? Chloe gets a little heated on Kiefer's behalf: "Jack Bauer is the most trustworthy, honorable man I know. Maybe you should worry less about him and more about the mole in your office working for Dubaku." Advantage: O'Brian. I prefer watching Moss call Kiefer on his shit to his face. He should stick to that.
After Janis watches Moss walk out of the conference room, Erica saunters up to her desk, conveniently recognizing Chloe from a seminar and wondering what she's doing here. Janis relays Moss's cover story, and Erica's mildly surprised. "Doesn't sound like her area of expertise." Detecting security breaches? Yes, Chloe's ignorance on that score is embarrassing. Erica adds, "Besides, as far as I know she's been inactive since CTU was decommissioned." Erica wanders off, having done nothing to assuage Janis's curiosity. You know what I'm curious about? What happens at a seminar given by Chloe. "Let's all start by going around the room and introducing ourselves. Just give us your name, where you work, and your most disdainful facial expression."
At 4:21:16, Dubaku walks into a busy hotel lobby. As you do, when you're the most wanted man in America. Or at least the most wanted man in the Oval Office, since nobody seems to have gotten around to putting out any kind of APB on the dude. Dubaku sits across a table from Burnett, who slides a small manila envelope over to him. He says a plane will be ready to leave Taft Airfield for the Cayman Islands within a half hour. Dubaku asks for a car and a driver for Marika, which apparently wasn't part of the deal. "I'm not sure I can find someone I trust on such short notice," Burnett says. "Really," Dubaku says skeptically, and proceeds to pick out all the shifty-looking people around the lobby who are currently watching them. Burnett's people, of course. "I know you people see me as a liability now," Dubaku says. Burnett says they're all there to protect Dubaku, but Dubaku's not buying it. He tells Burnett to relay a message to whomever he works for: "If anything should happen to me on my way out of the country, an accident or an assassination attempt, anything. The plane that you were so generous to donate decides to explode? A data file with all the names and bank transactions of those involved will be sent to the Justice Department." Wow, how much would Kiefer love to get a hold of that file? Burnett claims that's totally unnecessary, with enough vehemence to let everyone know that getting rid of Dubaku is precisely what the plan was. Dubaku says the same applies to Marika, who, he assures Burnett, knows nothing. "Make sure your driver knows this before he brings her to me." He makes sure Burnett understands, and gloats. "The one thing I have learned in the company of mercenaries, Mr. Burnett, is that ultimately they care about nothing but their own survival. Good day." And then he leaves without remembering to add, "I said good day!"
As soon as Dubaku's gone, Burnett gets on his cell phone to tell someone that Dubaku suspects their plan to take him out, and has an insurance policy in place. "We need to make sure he gets out of the country and safely into exile, otherwise we're all compromised," he says. "I'll make the calls." In other words, Kiefer's going to be working against more people than just Dubaku very soon.
At 4:23:42, Marika has just finished changing clothes when Rosa appears in the doorway, seeing the suitcases and wondering what's going on. Marika totally spills everything Dubaku told her, and says they're leaving. She assures Rosa that she's coming along to Belize, just in a couple of days. Rosa insists that "Samuel" is full of shit. "I won't let you do this!" she drama-queens. Marika gets pissed, pointing out that she's taken care of Rosa her whole life. "I don't trust him," Rosa whines. Suddenly all of their sisterly issues are out in the open, and Marika's about to storm out of there with her bags. But before she can, the door bursts in, splintering the frame, and in rush Kiefer and Walker, their guns leveled. Kiefer makes Marika get on her knees, but Rosa gets a pass for some reason. After Kiefer secures the apartment, Walker asks them where Dubaku is. "Who?" Marika asks sincerely. Walker gets all shouty, but doesn't get anywhere until Kiefer shows Marika a cell-phone photo of Dubaku and asks if she knows him. Marika claims not to. "You're lying to me," Kiefer says. "Why are you lying to me?" Rosa asks to see the photo, and rolls over on Dubaku (if you'll pardon the expression), saying he's going by the name Samuel Aboa. "She was going to meet him, to leave me," Rosa says, like they care about the last part. Kiefer asks Marika where she's meeting him, but of course she doesn't know. He asks if she works for him. "Do you know what he's doing in this country?" he asks. "Do you have any idea...what this man is?" Marika weeps, "He's everything to me." It's 4:26:07, and Kiefer realizes he just stepped in a big, steaming pile of awkward.
At 4:30:32, a lone nurse wanders the hospital hallways, and freezes like a deer in the headlights when she sees the armed soldiers in the corridor, preceding the President of the United States, who is flanked by Buchanan and Ethan. "Did you change your hair, Madam President?" The nurse doesn't ask. A surgeon in scrubs appears, and introduces himself before leading Taylor down the hall for a brief visit with her husband. As they walk, he describes Henry's grim injuries and warns her that he's facing a minimum of five hours of surgery. Unless he dies before then, of course. Either way, it's a pretty effective way of not having to pay Colm Feore for a few episodes. Taylor asks the doc for a prognosis. When he pauses, she says, "I'm a blunt woman, Dr. Schulman. I appreciate bluntness." "Okay, then he's fucked," the doctor doesn't say. Instead, he tells her, "His chances aren't good, ma'am, but I'll do everything I can." As he steps away to scrub in, Henry's gurney rolls up. He's conscious enough to call her "Allie," and she apologizes for not listening to him about Roger. "You were right, it wasn't suicide." What a comfort that must be to him now. Henry whispers that Roger was a hero, and she tells him that he is too. She kisses him goodbye, and he's off to surgery. She follows him up to the door at 4:32:17, and calls behind her for Buchanan so she can give him a new job: she wants him to find her daughter Olivia and bring her in. And here I thought Roger was an only child. Taylor tells Buchanan that she hasn't had a chance to tell Olivia yet. "My daughter and I haven't spoken for some time, Mr. Buchanan. She'd never get on the phone with me." She gives Buchanan the name of the consulting firm Olivia works for, and asks if Buchanan has a trustworthy person he can send. Buchanan thinks for a second, and goes to call him. But who can he call who's in D.C., and trustworthy, available on short notice, with Secret Service experience and credentials, and no lips? Whoops, I'm getting ahead of myself.
At Marika's apartment, Walker is showing her a veritable photo album on her cell phone of some of Dubaku's greatest hits, particularly the massacre "that earned him the nickname the Butcher of Sangala." Marika probably had different nicknames for him, but the multimedia presentation has her convinced. Kiefer quietly sits down and shares a Dubaku story of his own: "I was in Africa a few months ago. He was responsible for murdering a friend of mine." Well, yes, but he had a little help from a landmine, a stupid kid named Willie, and an even stupider scarf. Although I think this may be the most direct acknowledgment anyone's made this season to the effect that "Redemption" actually happened. Which, now that I think about it, was probably filmed after the first eight episodes of the season. I should look into that. Anyway, Kiefer is sympathetic to Marika's situation, but he says they need her help right away in finding Dubaku before he leaves the country. Marika says she was just supposed to wait for his call, and Kiefer asks for her phone, which she hands over. As he plugs his earpiece into it so he can listen in, he tells her to answer when he calls. Marika starts to freak out at the very thought, but Kiefer insists she can do it: "The man you thought you knew, the man you had feelings for? He doesn't exist. All you're left with are his lies and his betrayal." Sing it, girlfriend. Just then the phone rings, and she starts to hyperventilate, while Kiefer calmly but urgently tells her to just answer and find out where he wants to meet. "Please, you can do that." After several rings, Marika answers. Dubaku can tell right away that something's up with her. It's like he's got a sixth sense that allows him to interpret subtle clues like a shaky voice and shortness of breath. Marika claims that it's just an argument she had with Rosa. "Is she going to be a problem for us?" Dubaku asks menacingly. Marika assures him that Rosa's fine now. "She should thank heaven she has such an angel for a sister," Dubaku says. That line doesn't work as well on Marika as it would have a half hour ago. He says he's sent a car for her, and she should go downstairs to wait for it. He's not telling her where it's going right now, but she says okay and hangs up. That wasn't so hard, was it?
After the call, Walker asks if they have a rendezvous point, and Kiefer tells her no before pulling her aside for a quiet convo in the dining room, where they have a view of the street below. Walker suggests grabbing the driver when he arrives and getting Dubaku's location out of him. Surprisingly, Kiefer's not down with that idea, because he's not sure if they can torture it out of him fast enough. But that's okay, because he's got another idea: "We can get her to go meet with him." He says they can track her using her cell phone, and when Walker balks, he insists it's their only choice. "You want to get Dubaku, this is our shot," he declares, ending the discussion. So there. It must be handy to be Kiefer, and always having the first idea that comes to you be the only way to do something. I know I shouldn't knock Kiefer's ideas unless I have a better one of my own, and in this case I don't have one. I think it actually sounds like a decent plan. I just wish Kiefer didn't have to be so high-handed about it all the time.
At 4:37:05, he returns to Marika on the couch and crouches on the floor in front of her, gently taking her hand. "I have a favor to ask," he whispers. "We can't make you do this, but when the car arrives, we would like you to go with the driver so that we can follow you back to Dubaku." Kiefer should have whispered more quietly, because Rosa still heard it, and she's not happy about it. But Marika's on board immediately, probably at least in part because Rosa's so dead set against it. "It's the right thing to do," Marika says. Kiefer asks for her phone back so he can get her SID number and use it to track her. He promises that he and Walker will be a mile or less behind her the whole time. "As soon as you reach the destination, that's when we'll move in." Rosa's still protesting, but Marika insists that she's doing this. "I should have listened to you," she says to Rosa. "You warned me about him." Pretty much constantly, sounds like. Rosa admits that she was only jealous. Aw, Kiefer's not only going to save his country, he's going to patch up these sisters' relationship.
At the other end of the apartment, Kiefer's on the phone with Moss, asking about his operations support. Moss puts Chloe on speaker. Kiefer's surprised that it's her for about half a second, then asks how long it'll take her to set up satellite tracking on a cell phone. "Usually a few seconds, but with the backward way they have this system set up, it's going to take at least a few minutes," she responds, with Moss quietly thinking, I'm standing right here. Kiefer reads her Marika's SID number, and Moss asks who they're tracking.
Before Kiefer can explain fully, we cut to Janis out in the bullpen, who's now multitasking. On the one hand, she's still glaring at Chloe through the conference room door, and on the other hand, she's trying to use a priority override code to access something, but having no success. Doesn't she have some busywork she should be concentrating on, and then some administrative crap? It's 4:39:33.
At 4:43:54, we find ourselves in a darker, fancier hotel lobby with first daughter Olivia Taylor, who's trying to sell a potential client on her company's consulting services. It's not going great, in part because she's being played by Sprague Grayden, and the confident image she's trying to project is totally undercut by my memories of her as druggie space-case Anita on Six Feet Under. The other problem she's having is that he's a sleaze who only wants to talk about her access to the White House and look at her legs. So when a suited man with a familiar, Texas-inflected voice appears and interrupts, he's actually doing her a favor, although she doesn't see it that way. "My name is Aaron Pierce," says Aaron Pierce, flashing his Secret Service ID and saying he was sent at the president's request. "Your credentials say you've retired, Mr. Pierce," Olivia says smoothly. "Perhaps no one informed you I refused Secret Service protection months ago." Aaron says it's a special circumstance. As the client takes off, much to Olivia's annoyance, she demands to know why Aaron's insisting she come with him. Finally he admits, "It's your father, Ms. Taylor. He's been shot." Olivia's upset, but at least she isn't mad at Aaron any more. "None of this is public knowledge," he says. Olivia, in shock, grabs her coat to go with him at 4:46:02. Wow, good thing he was in D.C. and available on such short notice, eh?
At FBI-DC, Janis approaches Sean to ask him for the "digital data key for the server," whatever that is. She claims Moss wants it, and Sean, suspicious, starts to get up to go ask Moss himself. Janis stops him, admitting that she 's worried that Chloe's been brought in to replace her. She just wants to know what Chloe and Moss are working on. "That's all?" Sean asks. "That's enough to lose us both our jobs." Janis makes the quite reasonable point that she's been covering for Sean with regard to Erica. Not to mention the thing this morning where he hacked into the FAA server. I won't count the thing where he impersonated Moss to the FAA, since Janis doesn't know about that. She's concentrating on Erica. "I've said nothing to Larry or your wife. I'm sure you'd like me to keep it that way." Defeated, Sean reaches over to dial the combination lock on a file drawer in his desk, from which he covertly removes a little electronic device with a USB plug and a flashing red LED display with numbers that change several times a second. The prop department must have had fun putting that together. As Janis snags it and walks away, Sean mutters, "You're a little bitch, you know that?" Thanks for that, writers, but I'm still kind of on the fence about Sean. Is he good, is he bad? Could you maybe have him kick a baby in the face or something? "You're a little bitch," Janis snaps back. Heh. I can't believe she won that exchange so easily. She leaves him sitting there, suddenly wondering what Chloe's up to his own self.
Chloe reports to Kiefer that she's got the tracking in place for Marika's cell phone signal. He hangs up and then goes to grab Marika's luggage, like he's just become the world's most dangerous bellboy. He leads the way out of her apartment while Marika and Walker follow. Rosa says to Walker, "You. FBI. You keep her safe, you hear me?" "We will," Walker promises, probably because she's deeply moved at having been addressed as "You. FBI."
As Marika, Kiefer, and Walker reach the bottom of the stairwell, Walker goes off script, beginning to tell Marika how she can signal them on her phone if she gets in trouble. But Kiefer cuts her off, telling Marika not to do anything that'll cause the driver to suspect. Like dialing her phone. At 4:48:32, Marika walks out the building's front door, while Walker and Kiefer position themselves inside the inner doorway so they can peek around at the street. "What the hell are you doing?" Kiefer asks. Walker says she was trying to make Marika feel safer. "Come on, you've run operations like this," he scolds her. Walker says she hasn't done it this way before. "She's naked out there, Jack, I don't like it." For those who didn't actually see the episode, I should clarify that Marika is not literally naked. Kiefer lectures Walker for a bit about the harsh realities of life. "At least she got to make a choice and do the right thing, which is a lot more than I can say for Dubaku's other victims. We have one job here. That's to get Dubaku. Outside of that, don't get involved." Walker just stands there and takes it. Outside, the car pulls up, and Marika gets in. As soon as it pulls away, Kiefer and Walker break cover, confirming that Chloe's got the tracking signal in place. As they run out to their car, Kiefer asks Chloe to upload the tracking grid to Walker's PDA, but Chloe will just have to direct them. Hard to see how that could go wrong.
Janis enters the server room, and plugs that digital key into a socket. The numbers freeze and the little light on it goes green, and the thing you know, Janis is looking at Chloe's tracking grid on a workstation monitor. It's 4:50:22, and under the circumstances, Janis might as well put on a t-shirt that says "I'M THE MOLE."
It's 4:54:44 as Marika asks the driver in the car, "How much further?" He doesn't answer. Just her luck to get a mute driver. Some distance behind them, Kiefer is on speaker with Moss and Chloe, giving them constant real-time updates on his and Walker's location while they watch the giant Marika-blip move across the D.C. street map on their monitor. Kiefer asks Moss if there's any clear airfield-like destination that car could be heading for. Janis can now hear their conversation as well, as Moss says it could be any number of possibilities. Suddenly a guy walks into the server room. Janis yanks the digital key out of its socket, and her monitor goes back to the login screen. And Chloe's screen goes entirely blank. As Janis unobtrusively leaves the server room, Chloe reports to Kiefer that they've lost the tracking grid. Walker stresses out, and Kiefer bitches at Chloe to get it back up. "We're doing our best here, Jack," Moss replies. We? After a few more seconds, Chloe restores the grid. "What the hell happened?" Kiefer demands. Chloe says she's running a diagnostic to find out. Moss remembers about the directing thing they're supposed to be doing, telling Kiefer he's within a half mile and suggesting Kiefer back off. Kiefer copies. The irony is that while none of them know it, all Kiefer has to do is put a bullet through the back window of Marika's car and Dubaku will release that file telling them everything they need to know.
Chloe tells Moss what her diagnostic just told her: "Someone in this office was mirroring my terminal. Whoever it was knows exactly what we were doing." Oh, Janis, you're so screwed right now. The time to be sneaky is not when the boss is on the lookout for a mole in the office. Moss casts a paranoid glance out onto his floor, spotting Erica, Sean, and any number of extras in turn. He asks Chloe if she can trace it, but she says that since the link was severed, it cold have come from anywhere. Moss's glance drifts over to more extras, and Janis. Who is screwed. He asks Kiefer if he's hearing this, but Kiefer's got more immediate concerns: Metro Police cruisers are suddenly appearing all around them, rushing in to surround their car. Kiefer tells Moss about it, and Moss is confused as to why this could be happening. Like Kiefer didn't just kill a guy. "I don't know, just get 'em off us," Kiefer orders, whipping the wheel around in some evasive driving. He attempts a J-turn, but the cops lock him in. "Larry, do something!" Kiefer yells. Moss is already on the phone to the cops, using his most officious voice. He'd better talk fast, because Walker and Kiefer are finding themselves in the end of the Blues Brothers movie, as they're forced out of the car and onto the street. "Come on, Larry, do something!" Kiefer yells at his faceful of pavement while his hands are cuffed behind him. Moss is telling a police captain that there's no federal warrant out on Walker and Kiefer, but it turns out that there is: Chloe has found one on her computer. "Occupants armed and dangerous, to be apprehended with decisive force," she reads off the screen. Chloe confirms that it came from someone in FBI-DC. The real mole, whoever it may be, has been busy. Chloe then mentions offhandedly, in case anyone's still interested, that Marika's car just turned again. Moss yells down the phone that he's revoking the warrant. "I don't have time to deal with your chain of command. You need to release these people right now."
At 4:58:06, Janis returns the key to Sean. Apparently they're friends again now, as Janis explains that Moss is using Chloe to covertly track a car to Dubaku. Both of them wonder why they're being kept out of the loop. Janis says she doesn't like it, and returns to her desk.
And Sean gets on his cell phone and reports, "I took care of Walker and Bauer. They're pinned down." Yes, Sean is the mole. Try to act surprised. You know, show, if you expect us to be surprised about who the mole is, you have to give us alternatives. We know it's not Walker, it can't be Moss because he's too cluelessly idealistic, Janis is funny, and Erica doesn't count. Making it the obvious choice just because we'll dismiss it for being too obvious is not going to fly. But at least now it's official. At the other end of the line, Dubaku's buddy Burnett wonders why he's just now hearing about this. "Moss is running this operation on his own," Sean explains. "It took me some time to tap into his phone line. He's on with Metro right now." Sean adds that it looks like they're tracking Marika's cell phone. Then he asks why Dubaku hasn't been taken out yet as per the plan, and Burnett tells him that Dubaku's prepared to release the goods on all of them if he doesn't get out of the country safely. "Including mine?" Sean asks, just like those mercenaries Dubaku was talking about earlier. "I mean everyone," Burnett replies as he reaches his car and gets in. "We don't know where the file is so you just better pray that he gets away." Well, Burnett, Sean is clearly already doing more than praying.
And with that, we're into a splitscreen. Sean looks around the office angrily; Henry has surgeons fishing around in his bloody guts while Taylor watches through the window with Ethan and Buchanan in the background, because none of the three of them has anything better to do right now; Aaron drives Olivia; Moss is still futilely trying to get the local cops to do his bidding; Kiefer and Walker are pressed up against the hoods of cop cars; and Marika is still being driven to her doom. Doom!
Waiting in an alley somewhere with his own driver, Dubaku answers his ringing cell phone. It's Burnett, who tells him that Marika's flipped on him. Dubaku is skeptical, but Burnett insists, "I got it from my source inside the Bureau. It is definite. She agreed to lead them to you, using her cell phone as a tracker." He tells Dubaku to get to the airfield right away, and he'll have the driver deal with Marika. Dubaku, who has already done a total one-eighty on his soon-t-be-ex-girlfriend, insists on doing it himself. "If you let her come to you, you're risking your chances of escape," Burnett warns, because if Dubaku doesn't get away then Burnett is fucked too. Dubaku repeats himself and hangs up the phone to wait for Marika, with murder in his eyes. More than the usual amount of murder that's there, I mean. It's 5:00:00.
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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