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Kiefer and Walker get past the federal warrant issued by Sean, but it's too late for Marika. When she goes through with the meeting with Dubaku, he thinks he's convinced her to come with him despite knowing who he is. But while Kiefer chases her and Dubaku, she blinds the driver and causes an accident that leaves her dead and Dubaku critically injured. Kiefer digs a memory card out of Dubaku's body and sends it to FBI-DC. But since Sean and his co-mole Erica (!) know it's coming, they're ready to crash all the systems as soon as it gets there. Once that's done, Sean crashes Erica with a bullet to the gut, then frames her dead body for being the only mole. Everyone thinks the data is gone, but Chloe rescues it -- and Moss tells Sean, who almost escapes the building. But not quite. At the hospital, Walker has a meltdown and a fight with Kiefer after being confronted by Marika's sister Rosa. Buchanan reports the success of the operation to President Taylor, and asks for a pardon for Kiefer. But just when you think the season is over, Tony approaches Kiefer to report that it's anything but. General Juma himself is planning a terror attack on a high-value target in D.C. And judging from the reaction of Dubaku's accomplice Burnett when his boss -- Senator Mayer -- invites him along to the White House to meet with Taylor, I think we can guess where that attack is going to happen. As if we couldn't anyway.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!The freeze frames in this week's previouslies feature President Allison Taylor, Colonel Ike Dubaku, Marika Donoso, and Jack Bauer. I do like it when the previouslies turn into a game of "pick the corpse."
Sean sits at his desk, peering around creepily with his headset on. What's he listening to? Moss, on the phone with Metro Police, is trying to quickly revoke the warrant that was issued on Kiefer and Walker. By Sean. Suddenly Erica stomps up to Sean's desk, brandishing some papers that prove that Sean issued the warrant. Oops, someone's getting careless. She's talking louder and louder as she demands to know what's going on, so Sean tells her to cool it. "You want to get us caught?" Ah, so she's in on it too. As he walks her over to the break room, he tells her why he sent the warrant: to keep Kiefer and Walker from catching Dubaku, which would result in their exposure. Erica's still worried, but Sean assures her that he'll be out of the country by the time Kiefer and Walker are cut loose. As he gets her a drink out of the fridge, she asks why he didn't tell her this before. I'm expecting Sean to explain that he was protecting Erica by giving her deniability, but instead he says, "Because I knew you'd react like this. Last thing I need right now is one of your meltdowns." Ah, yes, I overestimated Sean's charm. Again. "I got you into this, and I'm gonna get you out, but not if you start panicking." On the way back to her desk, he assures her he's got it all under control, with his untraceable phone tap and everything. "Sit at your station, try and act normal. Let me worry about Bauer and Renee." I hope she can manage all three of those things at once.
Kiefer and Walker are just getting stuffed into a squad car despite their protests. Walker says that this means one of Dubaku's moles issued the warrants, which means Dubaku knows about Marika, which means he'll kill her as soon as she arrives. She's bitterly regretting using Marika like this, but Kiefer insists she was their only asset. "She's not an asset, Jack, she's a human being," Walker snaps. Kiefer looks at her like she's a crazy person. Or a crazy asset, as the case may be.
Marika is just now arriving in her chauffeured car at the alley where Dubaku and his driver are waiting. She manages a smile and remembers to call him "Samuel," as opposed to "Iké" or "Colonel" or "Butcher of Euclid Street," but he's not fooled. When he roughly drags her from the car and smashes her cell phone on the ground, she can't conceal the look of busted-osity that results. She tries to make a run for it, but Dubaku quickly grabs her and pushes her against the side of the building, angrily saying he trusted her and demanding, "How could you do this to me?" That's a good one. Haul her into relationship court, Colonel, and see how things go. Marika says she knows who he is, and she saw the proof. "They showed you lies created by my enemies!" Dubaku says. "You don't know me and you don't know my country. I brought peace to Sangala!" So all the pretense about who he is? He just dropped it like a ten-year-old off the upper deck of a soccer stadium. Marika's terrified that Dubaku's about to kill her, but Dubaku says he's "a forgiving man" and still wants her to come with him. Wow, he's got it bad for her. Naturally, Marika refuses. But Dubaku insists, "If you look past your fear, you will see that I am still the man that you fell in love with." Just with more massacres. Tears spill from her eyes as she agrees to accompany him. Dubaku kisses her and promises, "You won't be disappointed." As he leads her to his own waiting SUV, he's more right than he thinks.
At 5:06:52, a D.C. police officer releases Kiefer and Walker from the back of the squad car, apologizing for the mix-up. He also hands Walker a phone that has Moss on the other end. While Kiefer gets back in their car and whips it around so he can pick up Walker and continue the pursuit, Moss tells Walker that they lost the signal about three minutes ago, near N and 10th. Fortunately, Chloe's looking at traffic cam footage as they speak. They switch to comm earpieces, and Walker hops into the car, telling Kiefer what happened. He peels out before she's even got her door closed. Better hope she doesn't need that foot later.
Meanwhile, Chloe finds Dubaku's car on a traffic cam. Which, like so many traffic cams, covers an alley. Moss tells them what kind of SUV they're looking for, and where, confirming for them that Marika and Dubaku are inside. Too bad he can't tell them how very awkward it is in there.
In the back of said car, Dubaku is on the phone with Burnett, telling him they're ten minutes from the airfield and getting confirmation that the plane is ready and waiting. Burnett asks about "our little problem," and Dubaku says she's coming along with him. Burnett kind of freaks, but Dubaku tells him to just shut up and do his job already. After Dubaku hangs up, Marika asks who he was talking to. "A government official," Dubaku says dismissively. "He's been working for me. Very corrupt man." Marika doesn't seem impressed. Dubaku spins, "I look forward to no longer dealing with people like him. I want to spend time with people I really care about." He gently strokes her hair. She smiles at him, then turns to look out her window so we can see that she's actually terrified and miserable. Which is good; I was afraid she'd changed her mind back again. She can be a bit of a weathervane.
Kiefer and Walker have the Dubaku-mobile in sight, but apparently the fact that it's turning left constitutes some kind of emergency that forces Kiefer to cut through a park. Which doesn't exactly help them keep a low profile. So now Dubaku and his driver know they're coming, and the driver steps on it, despite the rush-hour traffic. Kiefer does his best to stay with him, but when a taxi enters from a cross street behind the Dubaku-mobile, Kiefer spins out and crashes into it, and the chase is over. Nice going, Kiefer. He tells Walker to get on top of the car, to "see if you can maintain a visual." Which should work fine for a block or two. Realizing her only chance of not being spirited away to Sangala forever is vanishing behind her, Marika dives at the driver and covers his eyes. Now he can't see where he's going, and he apparently can't see the brake pedal either, because the car speeds up and wipes out pretty spectacularly, flipping sideways over another car. Surprisingly, the collision-cam is not featured. Maybe it got broken somehow.
The Dubaku-mobile comes to a halt against a UPS truck. From atop the car, Walker tells Kiefer what just happened and they sprint down the street toward it, weapons out, waving aside the looky-loos converging on the scene. While running, Kiefer tells Moss over his earpiece that they'll need an ambulance, and Moss reaches for the phone. As Kiefer approaches the crashed car, the driver kicks out the shattered windshield and rolls out with a bashed-in head. Kiefer tells him to stay down, but he'd rather reach for his gun. Eventually he does go down, when Kiefer shoots him a few times. Kiefer pulls an unconscious Dubaku from the wreck and lays him out on the sidewalk. But Walker's not having as much luck pulling Marika free. Plus the car is on fire, which adds a certain amount of urgency. "Get out of there!" Kiefer yells at her. When she keeps trying to wrestle Marika's motionless form out of the car, he gets up to try to pull her away. She's in no mood for his shit right now, and she draws her gun on him. "I gave her my word, so back off or help me!" she yells. Kiefer looks over the wreck, and decides to try going in through the smashed tailgate. He helps Walker free Marika's pinned leg, and follows them out the windshield as the flames get higher. They drag Marika as far as they can before the car blows up, sending all three of them to the pavement. Kiefer returns to Dubaku, who fortunately hasn't woken up and run off, and bitches at Moss about why their ambulance isn't there yet, two minutes after their call. Walker, meanwhile, is giving Marika some TV-style chest compressions, but after a few seconds she gives it up as hopeless. Kiefer at least has the grace to look over and feel bad about it. Either her injuries from the crash were too severe, or Walker and Kiefer did her in when the explosion caused them to drop her in the street on her face. It's 5:12:15.
At 5:16:42, Ethan is giving Taylor an update on the invasion of Sangala in the hospital's family waiting room. Apparently the operation is going so well it should be over within the hour. I can only assume that means that American soldiers are being teleported into the country. Taylor clearly isn't hearing a word of this, almost as if she's got something else on her mind. So Ethan decides to put off the briefing until later. Although at the rate the operation is going, Prime Minister Matobo will be back in his office and asking for help with rebuilding by the time they come back around to the subject. Ethan asks her all friend-like, "You want to talk about it?" Taylor's feeling guilty about Henry; in fact, she says his current predicament is her fault. Does that mean all his other predicaments today were her fault? Because that's kind of a lot for one person to take on. Ethan points out that she wasn't exactly alone in not believing Henry, but she says that as his wife, she should have trusted him. Yes, what a shame that in the first half of the season we didn't see her doing stuff like helping Henry stalk her dead son's girlfriend instead of dealing with geopolitical crises and terror threats. That would have been much more interesting.
Buchanan enters the room at 5:18:14 to report that Dubaku has been captured, but isn't exactly in any condition to talk given what happened to him. Taylor realizes that if Dubaku dies, they won't be able to uncover the conspiracy. On the other hand, without Dubaku it's not so much a conspiracy as a bunch of people walking around D.C. and awkwardly avoiding eye contact with each other. But Buchanan agrees with Taylor, and advises her to return to the White House, since she's "too exposed" at the hospital. Yes, her skirt is a tad short. She'd rather stay with her husband, and argues that she doesn't think she'll be any safer in the White House anyway. "My administration has been corrupted, Bill!" Psst, Allie? Your Chief of Staff is sitting right there. Buchanan insists that the White House is still the safest place for her. Ethan adds that Henry will be in surgery for a few hours anyway, whereas she's needed back at work. By now, Sangala is probably part of NATO. Bill goes off to take care of the arrangements, and as Ethan and Taylor follow him out, Taylor asks Ethan what they're going to do . "We'll just have to pray Jack Bauer can get those names from Dubaku," Ethan says. Sure you will, Ethan.
While Walker watches some EMTs cover the bodies of Marika and Dubaku's driver as they lie in the street, Kiefer goes over to where some other paramedics are working on Dubaku and tells them to wake him up. A brief argument and one injection later, Dubaku's eyes flash open, rolled way back in his head. Kiefer gets down to his ear level and tells him what's going on. "You're in federal custody. These paramedics are trying to save your life. You want them to continue, you're going to tell me what I want to know." Why waste any time getting to the illegal threats, after all? "I want the names of everyone in the United States government that you've been working with." When Dubaku doesn't respond quickly enough for Kiefer's liking, Kiefer tells him there's no point protecting everyone. Oh, and by the way, Kiefer says he is willing to go to Sangala, hunt down Dubaku's son, and "make him suffer. And I will make sure that he knows his father was responsible. All you gotta do to make me stop is give me the names." Dubaku finally finds the strength to talk, which he probably figures is better than the alternative of letting Kiefer continue to make threats. Although I'm curious about what Kiefer would have come up with if given a few more seconds. Something along the lines of, "I'm going to kill your dog and rename Sangala 'Bauerland' and I'm going to eat your dog after I kill it and mess up your side-part and then I'll throw up and eat your dog again, but this time with a cat." "Don't hurt my family," Dubaku manages. I assume he means "more of my family," since Kiefer already killed Dubaku's brother. In self-defense, but still. At least now we know why Dubaku doesn't seem to care about that any more; it's because he's such a forgiving man. Dubaku starts to tell Kiefer something about a list, but he crashes before he can get more than a few words out. Good time management, there, Kiefer. While they try to defibrillate him, Kiefer yells "Bring him back!" and starts searching through Dubaku's discarded coat. Coming up empty, he hears that the EMTs are having trouble with the paddles, due to some "electronic interference" that's coming from inside Dubaku's body. Sensing a clue, Kiefer asks where the object is, and they point to a spot under Dubaku's rib cage. Now that they have his heart beating again, they're ready to get him out of there, but Kiefer wants Dubaku opened up first. He even pulls his gun on one of the paramedics to make it happen. An incision is made, and Kiefer sticks his bare hand in there to pull out a tiny memory card. The paramedic says Dubaku will die if he doesn't get to the hospital. "Get him out of here," Kiefer says contemptuously. Holding the bloody card up to the light, he gets on his cell phone to Moss to tell him about what he just found. "He said it was on him. He meant in him." That's what she said. As Sean listens in, Kiefer concludes that it must be the database of names that was serving as Dubaku's insurance policy, which Kiefer isn't supposed to know about. But how was Dubaku planning to carry out his threat to send the files to the Justice Department if he was killed? Does he also have an e-mail server installed in his liver, programmed to send the files to "everyone@doj.gov" if his temperature drops below 95? Moss asks if they can upload the files directly to the FBI. Kiefer doesn't think so; instead, he goes over to a police officer standing to a handy helicopter and orders him to deliver it personally to Moss. Good lateral thinking, there: you've got an invaluable, irreplaceable piece of data, so hand it to a guy you've never met before. Better hope Dubaku never bothered infiltrating Metro Police. Kiefer tells Moss that it's on its way via airmail. Sean throws down his headset, disgusted. What's he disgusted about? I'm the one who just watched Kiefer pull a chip out of a dude.
At 5:22:52, Sean finds Erica in the women's room, and starts off in typical charming fashion. "Just listen to me and try not to overreact, okay? We have a situation, but I think I know how to handle it." She says she thought he had it under control. "I do," he says, "but they have Dubaku's database." His definition of "under control" just keeps expanding. Erica starts freaking out, ready to make a run for it, but he promises her that it'll be okay. She's not in the mood for promises from him; apparently he's already promised to leave his wife, and look how that's been going. But he gets her to calm down and tells her his plan: "As soon as O'Brian downloads those files, we're gonna crash the entire system. Every single server on this floor." That sounds ambitious, not to mention sloppy. Plus what about the actual medium the files arrive on? What's to keep Moss from just walking it down to the Kinko's on New Jersey Avenue? She thinks that's crazy, but he says they'll just do a system-wide reformat. "We're going to have to bypass a lot of safety protocols, okay? But nobody's better at dealing with those servers than you," he flatters. Getting in close and face-touchy, he finally gets her on board with his plan. All she needs from him is a reconfigured motherboard. Sean says they don't have much time, and plans to meet her in the server room in a few minutes. Before she goes, he tells her he loves her and kisses her. Which totally makes her day. Because she is stupid. It's 5:25:16.
At 5:29:42, things are pretty busy in the hospital. Dubaku's being worked on, Kiefer's on his cell phone with someone, and Walker stands around looking bereft. A uniformed cop shows up to hand her Marika's "personal effects," a tiny Ziploc pouch with a watch and maybe a little dreamcatcher or something inside it. As she stands there holding it, Kiefer comes over to tell her that Moss confirmed receipt of the memory card and they should have something in a few minutes. "That's all that matters, right, Jack?" she asks accusatorily. He gets pissy and lectures, "I don't like what happened to Marika any more than you do." Oh, I think he likes it a little bit more. "We did what was necessary. You better figure out a way to live with it." She continues being a buzzkill, so he tells her he'll keep her posted and walks away briskly. For a while I thought these two might end up together, but not if she doesn't get over her habit of wanting to talk about stuff he doesn't want to talk about. You know when Kiefer wants to talk: it's when somebody is experiencing blinding fear and/or pain.
Moss enters the conference room that's been serving as Chloe's work area and hands her the drive. She holds it up and announces, "This is a PX17 drive. It's got an auto-erase function. We've only got one download." Well, of course they do. She pops this special, unique component into a slot on the front of the government-issue computer designed to accommodate it, and gets right to work.
At 5:31:06, Sean delivers his modified motherboard to Erica, who's already impatiently at work in the server room. As she pulls the component out of its anti-static bag, Sean pulls up the surveillance cam feeds so he can watch for Moss and Chloe. "Once we do this they're gonna realize someone's up here in a few seconds," he explains to Erica. "We'll have to make a clean exit." By now, Erica has the motherboard installed and is ready to begin some majorly destructive technobabble.
Just then Sean's cell phone rings. It's Burnett, calling to ask why Dubaku isn't at the airfield or answering his cell phone. "FBI got him," Sean says mildly. He assures Burnett that Dubaku's unconscious and not talking, and that he's about to delete the database they got from him. Burnett's freaking out about the list, and Sean tells him to just take care of Dubaku. Burnett is saying he'll do just that when suddenly Erica lets loose a loud, "Dammit!" Sean hangs up on Burnett so he can see what's up. Erica's having problems, but after technobabbling out loud to herself, things are working fine. Or rather, they are not working in the way they want them to not work. What would they do if someone else walked in right now?
Of course, alarms are going off all over Chloe's system, and she tells Moss that the files are being erased and there's nothing anyone can do. "This is deliberate," she realizes. "It's not a glitch. Someone's trying to crash the system." She asks him where the mainframe room is, and Moss leads her out of there at a run. Which is not very considerate towards the pregnant lady.
On the surveillance screens, Sean sees them coming and tells Erica it's time to go. She's satisfied that the servers are in the process of Ebola-shitting themselves, so before leaving, he picks this moment to get all hot and horny with her. Soon he's got her up against a wall, macking on her and telling her it's going to be fine. He literally still has his lips on hers when a gunshot rings out; he's plugged her in the stomach. Wow, that is deeply, deeply cold. She chokes and spits blood in confusion, while he leans in, watching her closely with clinical interest. I'm wondering why he's hanging out in here, but getting away is not actually in his plan. Finally she sinks to the floor and dies of massive hemorrhaging, a broken heart, and generally being too stupid to live. "I'm sorry," Sean tells her, then steps away and fires the gun once more: this time through his own left arm. Then he slides the gun across the floor to Erica. Ah, the old self-inflicted gunshot to divert suspicion. You know what would have diverted suspicion even more effectively? Shooting himself in the right arm. And having the bullet nick his brachial artery. Before ricocheting into his brain. Nobody would suspect him of being a traitor and a murderer then.
Right then is when Moss bursts in, his weapon leveled, ordering Sean to get on the floor. Sean protests, "It wasn't me!" as Moss dorkily secures the room and calls Chloe inside. Sean spins a story about how he caught Erica trying to crash the servers. "She shot me. I went for the weapon and it went off." Moss barks into his walkie about needing a security team and a medic, and asks Chloe if they can recover the files. Sean keeps selling it, asking from the floor what the hell is going on. Moss yells the same question back at him, and Sean keeps burying Erica, saying he also caught her putting out a warrant on a vehicle. Moss asks why Sean didn't say anything to him, and Sean blames Moss for shutting him out. As he gets to his feet, Sean says he hacked into Erica's hard drive, found lots of incriminating schematics, and came to the server room to confront her. "She shot me, I went for the gun...Larry, I didn't mean to kill her." It's a good story, but I really doubt the scene is going to stand up to a detailed forensic investigation. He didn't even bother getting Erica's prints on the gun, let alone any GSR on her hands. But this isn't CSI, I guess. As the security team arrives, Chloe tells Moss that the files are gone. "She got everything," she says. It's 5:36:22, and the "she" is a pretty clear indicator that Sean's little plan seems to be working out fairly well for him. At least until Janis remembers that this wasn't the first time Sean has drilled Erica.
At 5:40:43, Moss visits Sean in the CTU clinic -- excuse me, the FBI infirmary -- as he's putting a fresh shirt on over his newly bandaged arm. I've had paper cuts worse than that gunshot wound. I'm actually not kidding -- I had to get a spleen transplant. Long story. Anyway, Moss is holding printouts from Erica's workstation, or so Sean claims. Sean acts like he's owed an explanation, so after looking at Sean and deciding that he looks pretty trustworthy with his hair falling over his forehead all Superman-style, Moss explains, "The government's been compromised by Dubaku. FBI, Secret Service, God knows who else. That's why I shut you out." Moss explains about the file they were decrypting when Erica wiped the server and says, "That was our only lead." Sean pushes his luck, lecturing Moss about how he should have trusted him. Moss says he didn't know who to trust, and after asking after Sean's arm, says he'll need to write a statement. "And keep your mouth shut. We don't know who else in this building might be working for Dubaku." Oh, the irony. Just then his cell phone rings. It's Chloe, saying, "Larry, don't ask me how, but I did it." Yes, she got the files back. "I was running a mirror file on an outside server. I always do that when I'm dealing with sensitive materials." Well, that certainly sounds like the opposite of reasonable. No wonder she just told us not to ask her how she did it. Anyway, she's already got the entire thing decrypted. I suppose you don't need to use very serious encryption on a computer file you've got stored IN YOUR BELLY. Moss tells her to cross-check with FBI personnel to be sure Erica was working alone. When he hangs up, I'm left thinking Don't tell Sean don't tell Sean don't tell Sean. And he tells Sean. "That's great," Sean lies, not smiling and looking all wide-eyed and creepy. Of course Moss doesn't suspect anything because Sean's always like that. Sean heads out to "get to that statement." On his way out, Moss suggests he see Dr. Weber. "You shot a fellow agent, you're gonna want to talk to somebody," he advises sensitively. "Yes, sir," Sean says. He walks back to his desk to grab his jacket, blowing Janis off when she asks what's up with the servers. "Ask Larry about it, Janis," he advises, walking off. "I gotta run an errand." "Now?" she asks plaintively, feeling kind of cheated that this is her only scene this week. And she doesn't even know yet how much trouble she's about to be in for covering for Sean earlier.
It's 5:43:20 as Sean makes his way through the bullpen and into the hallway. It's soon apparent that he's fresh out of clever backup plans, and is simply making a run for it. Soon he breaks into a jog down the hall, but is brought up short by the sight of a couple of security guys, who come after him. Whoa, that was fast. Another team cuts off his escape, weapons drawn. Moss is right there with them, and he grabs Sean by the lapels. Smart move, Sean, grabbing your jacket, or God knows what Moss would have taken hold of. Moss threatens, "You better start talking to me. Right now!" Sean would rather talk to his attorney. Those would be his last words if Kiefer were here, but since Moss is a law enforcement official who actually likes the law, he roughly releases Sean and orders him taken to holding. Now that he's alone, Moss pulls out his cell phone and asks for "Bill Buchanan at the White House." This is going to be one of those good news-bad news conversations, I can tell.
Walker is watching the docs working on Dubaku when Rosa rolls up behind her, asking where Marika is. Walker has to break the news that Marika was killed in a car crash during the pursuit. Rosa is, predictably, not happy to hear it. Walker tells her. "We wouldn't have caught Dubaku without Marika's help. She was very, very brave, Rosa." She hands her the sad little Ziploc pouch, which is really not what Rosa wants right now. "Marika was all I had!" she accuses. "I trusted you with her life and you let her die?" Well, it's a little more complicated than that, but for some reason Walker has forgotten about the part where she climbed into a burning car to try and save her. Not really relevant to the issue at hand, I suppose. Tears spill down Walker's face as she reaches for Rosa's hand, but Rosa isn't having it. "You killed my sister!" Rosa accuses. "You didn't care how you did it or who got hurt." Unfortunately, Walker doesn't know that Rosa was a big drama queen before, so this is ripping her heart out. Fortunately, Kiefer calls to her from the far end of the hallway, wisely staying as far away from this mess as he can. Walker excuses herself and walks over to Kiefer, who tells her they got the goods and they're about to start arresting people. "It's over," he says, which is an odd remark to make ten hours into the season. But then, it's hard to see how he's wrong. All of the major storylines have already been resolved, except for whatever's up with Taylor and her pissy-ass daughter, and who gives a crap about that? It's almost as though the writers got a quarter of the way into the season, went on a really long break for a few months, came back with a lot of extra time to get the rest of the season written, and decided to wrap up as many of the ongoing storylines as they could before starting fresh. But what are the chances of something like that having happened?
He's about to leave, so he can get a good night's sleep before having to get up and go back to the Senate subcommittee in the morning, when she says, "It's not over for Rosa!" Yeah, but Rosa's annoying. Kiefer's not about to let Walker have the last word, so he says, "What happened to Marika was a tragedy. But I'm not going to stand here and tell you what we did was wrong because we weren't. She made a choice -- a brave one -- to get involved, but she made it." Walker is not convinced, and is wondering if Kiefer even feels anything. He again brings up the hundreds or thousands of lives they might have saved from a terror attack. Which, for once, there wasn't actually any immediate threat of at the time, but I guess that's kind of his default setting. "What we did wasn't wrong," he insists. "It was necessary." As he starts to walk away again, she calls out, "I read your file. When your wife was killed, did you feel that, or did you just tell yourself that that was necessary?" Ooh, foul. "What do you want from me?" he demands. She says she wants to know that he feels the same pain she does. She smacks him across the face, yelling ,"Do you feel that?" And then she does it again. On the third swing he catches her arm, and ends up hugging her as she cries. "You're gonna be all right," he whispers into her scalp. "It's gonna take a while. But you will learn to live with it." Wrong thing to say, because she pulls away, saying she's not sure she wants to. "Then quit," Kiefer says, turning away again. Then he stops and says, "By the way, that stunt you pulled by the car? You ever pull your weapon on me again, you better intend to use it." "I did," she says. Kiefer huffs and nods, and finally leaves. He is so not asking her out now. It's 5:47:53.
At 5:52:12, Olivia Taylor is waiting in a book-lined room of the White House, looking at a framed photo of her parents. Her mom enters, and she asks how her dad is. Taylor says he's still in surgery, since the bullet went through his lung. Olivia's about to break down, because she clearly likes her dad a lot more than she does her mom, and Taylor hugs her. "Who did this?" Olivia asks, pulling away. Taylor says it's complicated, but it has to do with the conspiracy Henry discovered. Olivia wants to go to the hospital to be with him, but Taylor shoots that idea right down, saying it's not safe. Although it's safe enough for Henry, and look at the afternoon he had. Olivia looks like she's planning a retort, but the speakerphone chirps and says that Bill Buchanan's waiting outside. "There's a lot we need to talk about, Olivia," Taylor says. "We've been ignoring things for far too long." Yes, and I can't wait to find out what those things might be. Except I totally can. "It took dad getting shot for you to finally want to talk?" Olivia spits. Taylor takes off rather than getting into an old argument. "Not again, and not today," she says, telling Olivia that a guard will take her to the residence. As soon as they finish dummying up some family photos with her in them.
At 5:54:22, Taylor meets Buchanan in the hallway to hear the good news. Buchanan tells her about the database Kiefer recovered, with the names of all of Dubaku's government moles. "Close to a hundred people. Across all agencies. Some at very high levels." Yeah, Ethan. Buchanan says this is exactly what they've been looking for. He's so excited about it he's barely grinding his teeth at all. "We can finally put an end to this conspiracy," he tells her, less than three hours after she heard about it in the first place. Buchanan says that Moss has already found two moles in the FBI. "He's confident the Bureau is secure." Well, except for that guy who helped Tanner get out of the Columbia building, but that was hours ago. He's probably retired by now. Pleased, Taylor asks what's , and Buchanan says arrests will begin within the hour. As they reach the Oval Office, Taylor tries to express her gratitude to Buchanan "There are a lot of people to thank," he deflects. "Including Jack Bauer." He reminds Taylor that Kiefer is supposed to be back in front of the Senate Subcommittee the day for a fresh grilling, and he'd like Taylor to call off Senator Mayer. "Jack Bauer helped save this country," Buchanan says. "He doesn't deserve to spend the rest of his life in prison." Oh, I see, for a minute I thought Buchanan was trying to protect Mayer. I can't imagine he'd get the best of that rematch. Taylor says she'll need to think about it, which is all Buchanan asks.
At 5:56:13, Kiefer lounges on the steps of the National Mall with the Capitol building behind him, watching the reddening sky and the wonks walking around like a pair of airplanes weren't recently dropped on them. The Washington Monument looms phallicly in the distance. Kiefer allows himself to enjoy the moment, crinkling his eyes down at his shoes. Sure, his best suit is in a trash bin, and he never even addressed his latest romantic prospect as anything other than "Agent Walker," and a lot of people are dead, and he's still going to have to go back to that Subcommittee in the morning. But on the other hand he just neutralized a terror threat, defused an international crisis, and flushed out a government conspiracy in something like a standard business day, and now he's actually going to have a chance to try out this "sleep" thing he's been hearing about. But with fourteen hours, three minutes, and thirty seconds left in the season, you and I know it's not going to happen.
Sure enough, the music takes on a minor key as behind him and to one side, a sinister-looking figure comes and sits down. Don't worry, it's only Tony. This is really a small town, isn't it? Still, Kiefer isn't too happy to see him. "I told you I was going to follow up on a lead," Tony reminds Kiefer. As they talk while not looking at each other, just a couple of shady-looking tourists taking in the sights, Kiefer points out that Tony said he was going to turn himself in after this was over. "And I will," Tony says, "but this ain't over yet." See? "There's gonna be another attack. Here in D.C." Kiefer doesn't think that's very likely with Dubaku and his network out of action. "It's not Dubaku," Tony interrupts. "It's his boss, Juma." He says that Juma has a plan to rally his people by striking back at the U.S. Excuse me, I've seen Juma's army. He could rally them by promising them Happy Meals. Kiefer's skeptical, and still very, very pissy, but Tony insists that he talked to a source, a guy from Emerson's crew who is in direct contact with the Juma regime. "It wasn't easy getting the information out of him," Tony says, "but I'm convinced it's accurate." Kiefer tells him to bring it to the FBI, then, but Tony tells him "The window opens at 1900 hours." Which he says is too soon for the FBI to mobilize. Tony has to admit that he doesn't know the target. "But it's definitely going to be of high value and high impact." Oh, shit, Madame Tussaud's is doomed! Tony also has a name: Ryan Burnett. The same Burnett who's been working with Dubaku, you think? The name is also familiar to Kiefer: "Senator Mayer's chief of staff." Wow, that's a coincidence. But Tony's sure that Mayer himself isn't involved. "You better not be lying to me, Tony," Kiefer grumps. Tony looks at him and insists that it's real. Kiefer says that Burnett will be on Dubaku's list, which means he's going to start running as soon as he hears about Dubaku's capture. "I've already got a tail on him," Tony says, and asks Kiefer to meet him at the corner of First and Constitution if he's on board. Putting on his sunglasses -- because there's not much time left for him to justifiably wear them -- he pauses to put a hand on Kiefer's shoulder and say, "I need your help."
Splitscreen. Kiefer cogitates, Burnett works in his office, Moss makes a speech to his troops, Sean sweats in holding, and Dubaku continues to lie on his hospital bed while Walker watches. Shouldn't someone be worried about her being the only FBI presence where a suspect is in critical condition? She doesn't exactly have the best history in that department.
Burnett's desk phone rings and his boss summons him. Burnett enters the adjoining office, which you've already figured out belongs to the same Senator Mayer who grilled Kiefer in the first hour. "I'm going to the White House," he announces. "President Taylor wants to speak to me regarding Jack Bauer." Putting on his jacket, Mayer shares Burnett's (feigned) curiosity about what this might involve. He thinks it's odd that Kiefer was pulled away to help with an investigation, and now Taylor wants to talk about him. "I don't like the timing of this. Grab your laptop, Ryan. I want you there with me." Ryan ducks back into his office to get it, and while he's in there, he receives a text message: "Units in Place. Operation on schedule." Burnett looks up from his phone with an expression of naked fear. Huh, he really doesn't want to go to the White House for some reason. So, on an unrelated topic, what do you suppose that target is?
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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