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Juma has a statement for President Taylor to read on-camera, but Kiefer has a plan: he opened some natural gas valves in the lockdown room, and plans to run in and get someone to shoot at him and set it off. But Buchanan knows that Juma's working with someone on the outside, so in order to let Kiefer survive to track down Juma's accomplice, Buchanan sacrifices himself. He gets the silent clock and everything. That gives Larry Moss the balls to override the Veep's orders and order an attack on the White House that ends with the president safe, and Juma and all his men dead. When Kiefer asks Moss to let him follow through on Buchanan's lead, Moss would rather follow his orders to have Kiefer arrested. But when Walker goes over Moss's head to Ethan, he gets new orders to let Kiefer at Ryan Burnett, and petulantly suspends Walker.
Meanwhile, Taylor insists that Ethan offer Olivia a job, which he does after Olivia has a brief talk with Aaron about Martha Logan, but Olivia's got it in for Ethan in a big way after the day's events. Meanwhile, Hodges is also disappointed in the hour's developments, but intends to proceed with whatever his evil plans are, and he sends a hit man to take Burnett out before Kiefer can get to him. He not only kills Burnett but frames Kiefer for the murder, forcing Kiefer to pursue the case on the run. Which is right in his comfort zone anyway.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Tonight's previouslies freeze-frames feature Jack Bauer, Bill Buchanan, Vice President Mitchell Hayworth, General Benjamin Juma, and President Allison Taylor. I'm pretty sure that's Buchanan's first freeze-frame since he was introduced in Season Four. I'm also pretty sure that means he's fucked.
The Veep's "secure location" now includes a conference room with a big-screen TV on the wall. CNB has replaced their on-scene personnel from last hour with a real reporter, who has the Veep's rapt attention as long as he's talking about the Veep. But when the Veep's assistant, Derek, joins the other people in the room (And the reporter changes the subject), Hayworth mutes the TV so his assistant can tell him that Larry Moss is still agitating to launch an attack on the White House to try and rescue the president. But since Moss doesn't have anything new to report, like any proof of whether Taylor is in the lockdown room or in Juma's clutches, the Veep still isn't budging. And his accent hasn't improved any, either.
Inside the White House hallway, Taylor and Olivia are crouched on the floor together, having a tearful reunion. Olivia is apologizing for hurting her mom and cutting her out of her life. "You were right to fire me off the campaign. I felt so betrayed I turned my back on you." Even when her brother died? That's cold. She begs for forgiveness, which Taylor says she gave a long time ago. Then she whispers into Olivia's ear that they'll be okay. "Just keep your eyes open and be ready." That was smart, not telling her that there might be a way to get out of this until she's already apologized.
One of Juma's men pulls Taylor away, despite Olivia's noisy protests. As they take her around the corner to an adjoining area of the hallway, Kiefer whispers to Buchanan, "We need to make a move to try to save the president." He's got a plan already in place, in the form of five natural gas canisters he found in the lockdown room, for I guess if the president ever has to be locked in there so long that she needs to cook something on a camp stove. Anyway, before he opened the door, Kiefer opened the valves on the tanks, and the lockdown room door is still open while the room fills with CH4. And no one's going to smell the gas? Well, not if it's natural natural gas, without that artificial "natural gas" smell added. Better for the environment that way, until the environment gets blown to shit. Kiefer says all they'll need to do is set the gas off, which will "take out most of Juma's men." That is going to have to be a magical explosion, since most of Juma's men aren't positioned anywhere near as close to the open doorway as most of the hostages are. But at least he's got a plan for how to ignite it. Kiefer says he'll make a run for the door, and when Juma's men take a shot at him, that should do the trick. "All we need is one stray bullet." Buchanan tells him it's suicide, but Kiefer tells him it's their only choice. He tells Buchanan to take advantage of the ensuing confusion to secure Taylor, who already knows about the plan and will be ready. "What are you planning?" Senator Mayer butts in from behind Kiefer. They both freeze him out. "Senator, shut up!" Kiefer hisses. Why couldn't he have just said that during the hearings this morning?
Back in the White House, Kiefer is getting ready to make his move, but Buchanan tells him to wait. He tells Kiefer about Juma's sat phone conversation from earlier. "He's coordinating with someone on the outside," Buchanan says. "They were giving him real-time intel." His point is that even taking Juma out might not save Taylor, and the threat won't be over. Dude, terror threats this season are like Bill Murray in What About Bob? "Gone? It's never gone!" "You're the only one I know who can do this, Jack," Buchanan says. "Find out who Juma's working with." While Kiefer's wondering how he's going to do this after being blown up, Buchanan springs up and dashes for the safe room door. Kiefer tries and fails to grab him from behind to stop him. Buchanan makes it to the door, tackles the guard stationed there, gets his handgun away from him, and fires it straight up into the air, igniting the gas in the room and sending everyone flying who isn't already on the floor. Or in the other part of the hallway with Taylor, obviously. And of course Buchanan, at the epicenter of the explosion, is toast. Too bad. I was kind of hard on him last week, but I'm going to miss that stiff-necked old geezer.
Outside, the FBI agents awaiting the go order report to Moss that there's been an explosion. Moss relays this to the Veep and declares, "We're going in under my authority." Well, okay then. Moss is rolling, having gathered some stones. As the Veep impotently yells at Moss to back off, Moss barks orders into his walkie-talkie. It's on. Code Green. The first FBI SWAT team rushes in, quickly finding and shooting a pair of Juma's soldiers under the dim emergency lights. Lying on the floor, Kiefer uses the body of the soldier Buchanan blew up to shield himself from a shooter, then uses his weapon to return fire and take out his assailant. This while he's still surrounded by hostages who are lying flat on the floor, either because they know to stay down or because they've been killed or wounded by the explosion Kiefer helped engineer. "Pierce, get to the president!" he bellows. Aaron's up with a looted weapon of his own, while Kiefer provides covering fire. Aaron reaches the Taylor women and herds them out, while Kiefer is still locked in a pitched firefight. Aaron does get to use his assault rifle on one bad guy, at least. In the other room, nobody is left on Juma's team but the man himself and Laptop Guy, both looking pretty bloody and surrounded by the bodies of their compatriots. "Kill the hostages," Juma orders Laptop Guy. "The president is mine." When Laptop Guy comes in, Kiefer's got his back to him, but Senator Mayer saves the day by getting up on his knees, waving his hands, and going, "Nonono!" That tells Kiefer that someone's behind him, and he quickly rolls and takes Laptop Guy down. That leaves only Juma for him to confront, in the room. After going in there, he orders Juma not to move, but of course Juma goes for his weapon. It takes five shots to bring him down. Wow, I really thought this arc would last a lot longer. I can't believe how fast things are moving this season. Literally, I can't believe it. Finally the FBI arrives, taking out one last bad guy, and Kiefer yells "Clear!" and surrenders himself. "Secret Service, I have the president!" Aaron yells, and they're safe. Man, the Veep is going to be pissed.
With the immediate crisis over, Kiefer gets up and goes over to the lockdown room's doorway, where Buchanan is still lying on his side. Moss and Walker come in with another wave of agents, and Moss calls Taylor over and tells his walkie-talkie that she's secure. Walker watches Kiefer as he sits with his back to the doorframe to Buchanan's charred, wide-eyed corpse. Moss brings her attention back to the task at hand, namely getting Taylor out. The FBI herds the surviving hostages out of the hallway, and Kiefer puts his head in his hands to have himself a cry. It's 8:11:52, and of course Buchanan merits a silent clock, so you know he's really and truly most sincerely dead.
At 8:16:13, the whole White House is looking bombed out, with the emergency lights still providing the only illumination and thick smoke still everywhere. FBI and Secret Service agents are roving around, making sure the building is secure again. You know what they should secure, is Juma's entry point. Right now, that route that used to be secured by a wall and a laser grid and a steel grate and a layer of bedrock and the Potomac River is secured by nothing but the river and the laser grid. Any tourist could just wander in there right now.
In the residence, a bearded SWAT agent tells Taylor that she'll stay there until they secure the building, but then she's being moved to Andrews Air Force Base. Why move her after the building's secure? Of course, if there's anything Taylor hates, it's being told where she's going to be, so she refuses to leave. Besides, with all the shooting and explosions this hour, there's no money left to build an AFB set anyway. She asks how many people were killed, and the agent says they don't know yet, although EMTs are on their way and the East Wing is about to become a triage unit. She says she wants to talk to the Veep, and also asks the agent to check in with Henry's surgeon at West Arlington Hospital. Oh, yeah, that guy. Man, can you imagine the kind of misfortunes that would have befallen that poor bastard if he'd been at home during the past hour? When the agent goes to carry out Taylor's orders, leaving Taylor and Olivia more or less alone, Olivia says that Aaron's going to live. "I thought they were going to kill all of us," she says. Taylor goes over to sit to her, and says they're safe, "Thanks to a lot of brave people." Another agent enters to say that the Veep is on the line, but before Taylor takes the call, she asks Olivia if she was serious about putting the past behind them. Olivia seems quite serious. Taylor leaves, and in the background, Aaron gets up with his unbuttoned shirt and nods over at Olivia, who nods back and looks thoughtful. He shouldn't be walking around the White House with his shirt unbuttoned, she thinks. Meanwhile, I really kind of wish we got to hear the call between Taylor and her vice president. "Madam President, thank God you're syfe. Of course, I did all I could to prevent the riscue from hipp-ning." Would have loved to hear her reaction to that.
At 8:18:52, Walker wanders past and sees Kiefer sitting over Buchanan. Considering that she and Kiefer didn't exactly part amicably the last time they saw each other, this could be awkward. But she just quietly tells Kiefer that Taylor's safe, and that she's sorry about Buchanan. "I know that he was your friend." Then she should have known that he was doomed anyway. Kiefer says, "It was supposed to be me. I was supposed to set off the explosion so that he could secure the president." "He died protecting his country," Walker says comfortingly. Kiefer gets up and tells Walker, "This isn't over yet." He approaches Moss and tells him what Buchanan said before, and that he still doesn't think Taylor is safe. "You sure Buchanan heard this right?" Moss asks. Kiefer keeps a lid on his temper as he says, "He wouldn't have told me unless he was sure. But right now the only lead we've got is Ryan Burnett." Moss offers to talk to Burnett, but Kiefer says that won't work; only the Kiefer magic will get him to talk now. "Why, Jack? Because you tortured him?" Moss asks. Um, der. Kiefer assures Moss, "I don't need to touch him. I just need him to think I'm going to finish what I started and I promise you, he will tell us everything we need to know." Walker silently agrees with Kiefer as he tells Moss about Buchanan's dying wish. Moss says he understands, but has orders from Taylor to bring him into custody. Those orders might get countermanded if Taylor ever gets around to it, given the events of the past hour. But for now, all Moss can do is promise Kiefer that he'll look into it. With that, Moss calls over an agent to handcuff Kiefer and bring him outside. As Moss walks away, Walker follows alongside to argue with him. "When are you going to stop defending this guy?" he asks her. Walker hotly says she's just defending a good idea. Whatever, she's totally defending Kiefer. Moss cuts her off and tells her to do her job. As Kiefer is frog-marched past her, Walker clearly decides to do something else. So she approaches that bearded agent who was talking to the Prez earlier (Agent Reynolds, we now learn), and asks to talk to Taylor. He tells him that she'll need to go through Ethan, who just arrived back at the White House. Walker heads off to do just that.
The agents are still swarming the hallways when Ethan walks in at 8:21:47, being updated on the situation. As the lights finally come back on, he calls for a conference with the Defense Secretary and the Joint Chiefs. Wasn't he just at the
Pentagon? What does he think has happened since then? Or should I say, wasn't he just "at" the "Pentagon?" In any case, Walker intercepts him, and when she tells him it's urgent, he agrees to give her a minute. She starts to tell Ethan about what Kiefer told her. Ethan thinks about it, but we cut away before we have to listen to somebody telling someone the same thing for the third time.
Cut to a shot of a logo for something called "STARKWOOD," which is a diagram of a globe in a set of crosshairs. Couldn't they think of anything more evil-looking? Blackwater's logo looks cute and cuddly by comparison. From there, we tilt down past some paper targets and into Hodges's office, whose brick walls and wide windows still make it look like a large radio broadcasting booth. Hodges buzzes in his man Seaton, who unhappily tells him that contrary to plan, Juma is dead and Taylor isn't, although they don't have any details yet on exactly how that happened. "Well, you gotta admire the damn bitch. She doesn't give up easily," Hodges sighs, standing up from his desk. Dammit, now I'm caught between my preexisting admiration for Taylor and my standing policy to do the opposite of anything suggested by someone who uses the phrase "damn bitch." He's even more evil than I thought. Seaton apologizes for the screw-up, and Hodges invites him to have a drink. Insists, in fact, forcefully enough that I wonder if Seaton's about to enjoy a scotch & strychnine. After a moment's thought, Hodges pronounces that since Juma held up his end, "Everything's still on track. Where are the weapons now?" Seaton says they'll be in their hands in a couple of hours. So that must be the "shipment" that Juma was talking about last hour. Although I have no idea what kind of weapons Juma has that Hodges doesn't. Wasn't Hodges the one arming Juma's army in the first place? Whatever the case, Hodges orders, "Get Chapman on the phone. I want to nail down some targets." Well, that doesn't sound friendly. It's 8:23:57.
At 8:28:24, Moss has escorted Kiefer back to the staging area himself, where he hands his handcuffed prisoner over to an agent with orders to hold him in the command center. Maybe he plans to torture Kiefer right back by making him listen to the Veep's accent. Then Moss's cell phone rings. It's Ethan, who wants him to put Kiefer's arrest on hold. He tells Moss that he just talked to Walker. Moss doesn't deny anything that Walker told Ethan, but when Ethan tells Moss to have Kiefer question Ryan Burnett again, Moss isn't happy. "With respect, sir, Bauer almost killed this man." Ethan reminds Moss that he was there. "But this will be a controlled interrogation. We're going to play on Burnett's fears. Bauer's presence alone should be enough to intimidate him into talking." So, psychological torture instead of physical torture, which is just fine. Moss still has objections, which is why Ethan tells him that this is on his authority alone, to insulate the president if anything goes wrong. Oh, what could go wrong? Moss finally pushes Ethan too far when he says, "With respect, sir, I think you're not telling the president because you know she'd never allow this." Ethan runs out of patience, and orders him to go ahead. "And I'm counting on you to supervise every second of that interrogation." Moss agrees and hangs up, looking pissed. Ooh, Walker's in trouble now.
Taylor's finishes up a meeting with some assistant press secretary or something, now that the actual one is dead. She dismisses him as Ethan comes in and gives her a long hug before she has a chance to think about the possible significance of his absence from the White House for the last hour. They catch up for a minute, and Taylor says that given their losses, she wants to bring Olivia in as a special advisor. Ethan's got serious concerns about Olivia. "Nobody's forgotten what she did during the campaign. Leaking damaging personal information about your opponent to the press? She almost cost you the election." Yes, it was a terrible thing Olivia did, but at least it was almost completely nonspecific. Taylor says that's all in the past. "I still think it's a mistake," Ethan says. "I don't care what you think!" she snaps. Ooh, awkward. Rather than making an excuse of what she's just been through, she apologizes and takes it back, but she still wants Ethan to offer Olivia the job. "I need the two of you to make peace," she says. Odd how invested she is in having them make up, when she isn't wearing any. Ethan gets up and goes to take care of it. Before he leaves, Taylor asks what Walker wanted. Ethan says it was nothing, and that he took care of it. Indeed he did.
A helicopter sets down outside the White House at 8:33:22, and Kiefer is led over to it. Sitting in the back in handcuffs, he stares over at Moss, who glares back. Kiefer breaks eye contact before he has to burst out laughing. Walker comes up behind Moss, and it's clear from her face that she already knows what he wants. Still, he glowers at her for a good long time before saying he talked to Ethan. "Look, I didn't want to go behind your back, but you didn't leave me any choice," Walker says. Moss angrily says she could have followed orders. Walker admits that Kiefer has done some terrible things today. Like nearly suffocating a man in a hospital bed or threatening a baby? But Walker says of Kiefer, "He has been right every time, and you know what? I can't help but think that if we'd just stayed out of his way, none of this would have happened." Oh, great, we've reached the point in the season where people start making that speech. Never grows tiresome, does it? Moss tells her that she's not going with Kiefer. In fact, she's going back to FBI to clean out her office and turn in her badge. "I'm suspending you. Indefinitely." Now, that's just punitive. Walker says he's going to need her. "What I need are people I can trust," he bitches. "I thought that was you." Ooh, burn. He leaves her to stew over that while he goes over to join Kiefer in the back of the helicopter. As it lifts off, Moss warns Kiefer that he's going to be watching the entire time. "You do one thing I don't like, you're finished, understand me?" "Understood," Kiefer says blankly, then adds, "You should leave Renee out of this. She was just doing what she thought was right." Wow, I didn't think Kiefer actually remembered Walker's first name. Moss snits that she might lose her job over it. "She's the best agent you've got," Kiefer insists. Moss says he can't ignore her going over his head. "I've known this woman for nine years, and I've never seen her do the kind of things she's done in the last nine hours." Kiefer doesn't bother replying, but in a deep voice inside his head he thinks, "Young Skywalker is mine." But without the "sky" part. It's 8:36:05.
Cherry Jones looks presidential in a new maroon suit as she warns us about the threat of climate change. Go to www.fox.com to see how you can fix it. Yes, you!
At 8:40:32, a bald guy who I assume is Chapman is in Hodges's office, getting all John King with a touch-screen map of the East Coast and talking about the twelve targets they've narrowed down. Those "targets" look suspiciously like cities. "They're all within three hundred kilometers of the base," he adds, which according to the map appears to be right there in Washington D.C. They talk casualty estimates and potential kill ratios, until Hodges says, "Let's hope we never have to find out." Okay, so maybe he's not so evil after all. He gives the order to start having the coordinates programmed in, and Chapman leaves. At the same time, Seaton enters to report that according to a flash they just intercepted, Kiefer's about to go question Burnett at the hospital, thanks to an executive order from the White House. Taylor's not going to be happy that she's learning about this executive order after the bad guys did. "Burnett will tell him everything," Hodges says. Seaton says he's got it covered: he's sent someone to take care of Burnett and Kiefer at the same time. "Who'd you send?" Hodges asks. "Quentin," Seaton says. "Oh, Quentin's good," Hodges says. "Bauer's good, too." He seems to relish the idea of a match-up. Too bad he can't buy tickets.
At 8:41:43, a federal marshal ushers Moss and Kiefer into the area of the hospital that contains Burnett's room, telling him security is super-tight (as we'll soon see) and that Burnett's room has been set up with video and audio surveillance. As he leads them around to the little surveillance setup behind the nurses' station, the marshal says that it's going to take a while to get Burnett awake from his sedative. "He was in pretty bad shape when he got here." Gosh, how did that happen? Burnett's doctor shows up, and Kiefer looks at him with something like remorse (or possibly indigestion), until the doctor says, "He's still recovering from his last interrogation, so if you're here to brutalize him again, I won't be party to it." Kiefer gets grumpy, starting his big speech about what the "patient" was up to that landed him here in the first place (leaving off item number one, which was pissing off Kiefer), but Moss interrupts him by saying, "We won't harm him, doctor." Fortunately, Kiefer remembers to keep his trap shut. That wins the doc over, and he walks off, saying it's going to be a couple of minutes. Kiefer and Moss return their attention to the surveillance screens, which show the doctor entering and walking around Burnett's bed. What a startlingly effective demonstration of the concept of live video surveillance. It's like magic.
And here's Quentin. I mean, he's wearing scrubs and an ID badge and a stethoscope around his neck as he walks through the hospital corridors, but his evil face and eviler music kind of give him away, as do the black nylon saddle bags he's carrying over his shoulder. He ducks past the nurses' station unnoticed and enters a double room, snagging the chart on the way in. He stands over the old, gray patient in the bed, asks him his name (Robert), and confirms that he's recovering from heart surgery. "You have a wife, Robert?" he asks. He answers that she's dead, and he's got no children or grandchildren. Quentin asks if the other man in the room, currently sleeping peacefully, has family. "Lots of grandkids," Robert chuckles. "Make a hell of a noise when they visit." Having found out what he needs to know, Quentin suffocates Robert as quickly and quietly as he can. Nice of him to make sure there wouldn't be any grief-stricken survivors of his self-created diversion. That's some value-added murdering, right there. Retrieving his saddlebags, he steps back out into the hall, where the code he just triggered is clearing out the nurses' station. I hasten to add that this is a different nurses' station from the one where Kiefer and Moss are watching Burnett on TV, otherwise they might get suspicious. Quentin calmly goes over and syncs up a PDA to the unattended computer, and has Burnett's room located in seconds. From there, he goes into a storage room, climbs up onto a table, opens a hatch into the ceiling, and climbs up inside. Meanwhile, at the other station, Kiefer and Moss are still watching Burnett on the monitors, unaware that anything's amiss.
It's 8:46:12 when Olivia comes to visit Aaron in the White House's brand-new East Wing Triage Center to ask about his arm and see what he looks like with his shirt off. "I should be back on my feet in a couple of hours," he says, so we know Aaron's time in this season isn't over. She's there to thank him. "You took a bullet for me," she says. "You saved my life." Actually, it looked like he was trying to get out of its way, but whatever. Aaron says she doesn't need to thank him. "Right, you were just doing your job," Olivia says. "Only in this case it wasn't really your job, since you retired four years ago." She's suddenly curious about why. "Did it have to do with Martha Logan?" "Martha and I were close," Aaron says slowly. Olivia says, "It must have been hard for you, what happened to her." "I'd prefer not to talk about it," Aaron says quickly. Why not? There are worse places to end up than on Samantha Who?. Olivia apologizes, and Aaron says she doesn't need to do that either. "I hope you won't be a stranger, Agent Pierce," she says. He thanks her, and adds, "It's Aaron." She smiles and takes her leave. Aaron does have a way with the ladies of the White House, doesn't he?
She's about to go back to the residence when Ethan intercepts her. He asks for a minute to talk with her, and they sit down. Ethan starts by saying that the administration needs help, now that several members of it are dead. "The president and I would like you to consider coming on board as special advisor to the president," Ethan invites. Olivia says she's surprised that Ethan is okay with this, and Ethan says they're both ready to move on. Olivia concedes that she was wrong to overstep during the campaign. "I'm glad you see it that way," Ethan says. He thinks the conversation is over, until Olivia stops him. "It's not the past that concerns me, Ethan," she says. "It's what's happening now and what's been happening since my mother took office. Do you think any of this would have happened if my mother had a chief advisor who knew what the hell was going on in her administration? Her government was corrupted on every level, and it all happened right under your nose...Frankly, I'm surprised you haven't tendered your resignation." Ooh, ouch. That's got to sting. And she didn't even bring up the part where he totally missed the terror attack. Unsurprisingly, Ethan is pissed. "You have no right to speak to me that way," he says. "You don't know what you're talking about. You don't have the facts." Olivia says she's planning to get them. "I'm gong to find out exactly who failed my mother and I'm going to make sure that that person never is in a position to do it again. Excuse me." She gets up and leaves. So...I guess she's not taking the job, then? It's 8:49:32.
8:53:54. Now that Burnett is waking up, the marshal starts to lead Kiefer to Burnett's room, but Moss stops Kiefer by placing a hand on his chest. "I'll be watching," he warns. "You lay one finger on him and it's over." Kiefer looks down at Larry's fingers, on Kiefer, but doesn't comment on the irony other than to say, "All right." Off he goes.
Meanwhile, Quentin is still scrambling silently through the ceiling in a splitscreen. Kiefer is allowed into the room, and the doctor leaves him alone with a very sweaty Burnett, who's just becoming conscious. "Wake up," he whispers into Burnett's face, then repeats it, more loudly. "Remember me?" he asks. Burnett opens his eyes and sees Kiefer standing over him, and wets his bed in a panic. Kiefer says he just came from the White House. "Juma's attack failed. He's dead and so are his men. A lot of innocent people died today. Good people. Including a friend of mine, Bill Buchanan. You might have met him." Burnett freaks out even more, loudly demanding a lawyer. Kiefer starts taking off his tie as he says it's just them. Burnett says he's ready to talk, but as Kiefer wraps his tie around his hand, he says, "They're done talking to you. That's why they sent me." Oh, quit working it. By now, Quentin is messing with the surveillance cables in the ceiling. They ran cables through the ceiling? How often is this room under surveillance, anyway? The audio at the surveillance station goes dead, and all Moss and the marshal can hear is static. Kiefer doesn't know this, or that Quentin is now also using his PDA (and a very handy, and very versatile PDA it is) to set up a video loop of Kiefer standing over Burnett with his back to the camera, so he's still taking his time scaring Burnett. "The rules don't apply to you any more," Kiefer growls. Now Quentin rolls a little silver canister down the top of a ceiling tile and lets it drop into the room. Kiefer steps over to investigate, and quickly collapses from the effects of the gas hissing from therein. As he sits on the floor with a trail of foam at the corner of his mouth, a gas-masked Quentin drops into the room. He uses an oxygen tank to bust the door's security keypad, and then the glass front of the same IKEA dresser I have in my bedroom. Except my drawer panels are frosted plastic, so clearly that panel was replaced for this very purpose. Excellent foresight, hospital. Quentin takes one of the bigger shards in his gloved hand, presses it between Kiefer's nerveless fingers while he sits there drooling, and then carries it over to Burnett's bed. Burnett, similarly paralyzed by the gas, puts up no resistance as Quentin uses the glass to slash his throat and then leaves it sticking out of Burnett's chest for good measure. He remembers to wipe away the drool as Burnett flatlines. Then, presumably after he's left the room the same way he came in, the surveillance feed comes back live, and Moss and the Marshal see what's happened to Burnett. Too bad they can't also see Kiefer lying on the floor. They both head for Burnett's room at a dead run, weapons drawn. Meanwhile, Kiefer gasps back into autonomy (that is a short-term gas, right there). Quentin's back in the ceiling by now, presumably having snagged his gas cylinder. Wow, Quentin is even better than we suspected. On a minute's notice, he was able to devise a very elaborate plan for getting to Burnett, and equip himself with the highly specialized equipment he needed to make it happen. And that's not even counting the time it should have taken him to get to the hospital, unless of course he lives there. Kiefer climbs up and follows him out as we go into a splitscreen.
Walker clears out her office, Taylor looks tired, Olivia looks evil, and Moss keeps trying to kick Burnett's door in. By the time he's inside the room, nobody else is there but Burnett's corpse. He calls in a security lockdown and an APB on Kiefer, who somehow has not encountered Quentin in the ceiling. In fact, Quentin is now clear outside the hospital. Kiefer drops down to the security station, just in time to hear a radio squawking an alert about a white male wearing a dark suit. Kiefer knocks out the guard, then steals a CD-ROM from the recorder drive and a PDA that's sitting on the desk. Unfortunately, he doesn't attempt to disguise himself with the security guard's uniform, or a long wig, or blackface.
Back in Hodges's office, Seaton gets a call from Quentin at 8:58:12, saying it's done. Seaton relays the news to Hodges that Burnett is dead, and everyone will think Kiefer did it, "So nobody will know that we were involved." "Good," Hodges nods. "Now we're having some fun." Okay, so he's evil again.
Walking through the bowels of the hospital, Kiefer calls Moss to tell him that he's being set up. "I swear to you, I'm not lying, I watched him do it." Moss tells Kiefer to come in and they'll work it out, but you know Kiefer isn't going to do that. "There is a reason why they wanted me framed and didn't kill me. They are trying to keep you distracted by dealing with me so they can finish what they started. Don't let them get away with this. This threat is not over." Kiefer hangs up, hiding behind some power conduits as he sees police cars come wailing into the parking lot. Moss talks into his dead phone before letting out a very Kiefer-like, "Dammit!" Meanwhile, cops rush into the building the same way Kiefer just came out, and he runs along the back of the hospital. He'd better snap it up, since there's no cover visible for a good hundred yards. It's 9:00:00.
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.Discuss this episode in the 24 forums, and mourn Bill's passing with our list of most shocking 24 deaths ever!