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Moss lets Hodges chase him and his men off Starkwood property, but at Kiefer's direction, he manages to leave Tony behind to search for the bioweapons. Tony meets up with Starkwood exec Doug Knowles to help him find them, in hopes of being able to call in a surgical air strike. The problem with that plan is that Taylor is insisting on a visual confirmation from Kiefer, and Kiefer's condition is deteriorating. But there's hope for Kiefer's fast-moving, incurable disease: an experimental treatment that involves a "donation" from an immediate family member. Sadly, Kiefer would literally rather die than ask Spawn for help. As though the two options are mutually exclusive.
Also deteriorating? Olivia's position, because the reporter she used to leak Ethan out of his job blackmails the entire story out of Olivia, and then proceeds to blackmail her into bed. And then he's going to run the story anyway, until Olivia blackmails him right back.
After Doug gives himself up to protect Tony's search, Hodges ends up beating him to death, but Tony finds the canisters and Taylor calls in the air strike. But it's too late, because Hodges has his missiles ready to launch, and he forces Taylor to call off the air strike without letting her explain why. He's enjoying himself right proper now.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!You'll recall that we left things in a standoff that began right at the stroke of midnight. So what's been going on in the few minutes since 12:00 AM? Apparently, a whole lot of Moss and his FBI agents staring at the Starkwood guys surrounding them, and the Starkwood guys staring back. But now Starkwood escalates matters. By? Turning on the floodlights atop their Humvees. Oooh. At least that makes it easier to continue shooting the scene. Tony walks up to Moss and obviouses that with three platoons surrounding them, this looks a lot like a trap. Over his earpiece, Moss tells Walker back at FBI-DC that some satellite coverage would be nice about now, and back at FBI-DC, Janis finally gets some online for him. Now she can tell that not only are they totally surrounded, but three more Hummers are en route. They pull into the lot, and out of one of them gets Jonas Hodges himself. He walks with Stokes up to Moss. Moss does some posturing, but Hodges isn't intimidated. He's the one with the most guns, after all. He wants every FBI agent off the property, and to leave Seaton behind while they're at it. Moss mentions the presidential order they have, and Hodges points out that the order was to search one building, which of course they've already searched and which came up empty. Also, please tell me that someone thought to include a clause in Seaton's immunity agreement making it useless if his information turned out to be false. They had almost ten minutes to draft that thing, after all. Moss is already wearying of Hodges's histrionics, and it's only about to get worse when he tells Hodges to stop aiming guns at him so they can talk. "You think you have a gun at your head?" Hodges mocks. "You know what I've got? I've got the United States government sending SWAT teams and attack helicopters in the middle of the night. I've got a government that I served FAITHFULLY! FOR THIRTY YEARS! Dreaming up B.S. accusations so politicians too cowardly to show their faces can dismantle my company. That's what I've got." "And an Emmy nom reel in the can," Moss somehow prevents himself from saying. Hodges gives them five minutes to get out, without saying what'll happen if they don't, although I can't imagine it's an ice cream social he has in mind. And with a reptilian smile, he adds, "And I want my man back." Hodges starts walking back to his Humvee, but no one else moves. Moss asks Walker for suggestions. In return, back at FBI-DC, Walker asks Moss for a second and goes running off.
Where she runs to is the workstation where Kiefer has gotten himself set up. She tells him about the five-minute deadline. Matter-of-factly, Kiefer says, "We lost that situation. We were outmaneuvered." He's so Zen now that he's dying. "But I think I found us a new way in." Oh, that explains it. Digging through the late Senator Mayer's files that he's somehow remotely accessed without anyone's help, he's found the dossier of Doug Knowles, that guy on the board that Hodges was arguing with a couple of hours ago. In fact, he's Starkwood's chairman of the board, and was actively helping with Mayer's investigation for some reason. Whatever that reason is, Kiefer thinks it's worth a shot to ask for his help, and it's not like there's a lot of time to argue about it.
So Kiefer dials Knowles's office number, and Doug fortunately answers on the first ring. Just as any corporate chairman would do if you called his office a few minutes after midnight. In this case, it's because he's sitting at his desk, watching the security feeds of the standoff with the FBI on his computer monitor. Kiefer introduces himself and says he got Doug's number from Mayer. "Senator Mayer is dead," Doug says. Kiefer responds, "Yes, I know, I was with him when he was killed." Uh, better clarify that, Kiefer. "By one of your employees, a man named John Quinn?" he adds. Doug sighs and says, "You have no idea how much I was hoping someone would call." Too bad his phone doesn't dial out. Doug says he's watching what's going on outside with the FBI, and has heard about the bioweapons. Kiefer confirms for Doug that Hodges has them in his hot little hands. "It's not where they think it is. They're all standing in front of an empty hangar," Doug says. Thanks for the news flash. Kiefer says that Seaton led them astray, but since he himself has been contaminated, he knows they were brought in as of ninety minutes ago. "Ninety minutes ago, Jonas was handing down his new strategy to the board," Doug says. "Stonewall the government. No cooperation whatsoever." The good news is that Doug thinks he might know where the weapons are. Kiefer promises to call him right back, and he and Walker start running back to the area of the bullpen where the remote coordination of the raid is taking place. Couldn't Kiefer have commandeered a workstation over there to begin with?
At 12:07:02, Stokes stands to the parked Humvee holding Hodges, telling him that some of the men weren't happy about threatening federal agents, but they can be counted on. "Let's show our guests the door," Hodges says. Stokes orders his men into position, which means closer, encircling Moss and his men shoulder-to-shoulder, weapons at the ready. As this happens, Moss surreptitiously hands Tony an extra earpiece. Now that Tony's on comm with Kiefer and Walker, Kiefer tells Moss to take off and leave Tony behind to meet up with Doug Knowles. Moss quietly protests, "I got 400 eyeballs trained on me right now. How the hell are we supposed to get Almeida to stay behind?" Kiefer tells Moss to create a diversion. Sounds simple enough. After a long pause worthy of Walker herself, Moss says, "I'll do what I can." To Tony, he quietly says, "Take his bag," indicating the nearest soldier. Moss loudly says they're moving out, and he grabs Seaton to lead him to one of the helicopters. Seaton protests, and Moss pops him in the mush. A Starkwood guy clubs Moss with his rifle, and while that's going on, Tony snags that soldier's bag and ducks back into the empty warehouse. Nice diversion, Larry. Although Tony probably would have preferred to create that one rather than benefiting from it. Moss straightens up, spitting blood and dignity, and orders his men back onto the helicopters, which lift off into the night and clear out of the episode.
At 12:09:34, Tony's making his way to an open gate when Doug calls out to him. "Doug Knowles. Jack Bauer sent me," he says. The two of them duck behind a corner, just as a Starkwood Humvee with a searchlight prowls past. Doug offers to take Tony to a restricted area on the east perimeter, although he's not sure how they'll make it with so many guards wandering around. Why doesn't he teleport over, like he just teleported from his office to meet Tony? But Tony says he'll take care of the guards.
Except he's going to need satellite coverage on that area of the compound, and when he calls back to Kiefer to set it up, Kiefer is shaking and twitching, unable to answer. "Jack? Renee? Anybody?" Tony frets. Seriously, can't anybody at the whole FBI help a brother out without Kiefer giving the okay? He doesn't even work there, for God's sake. Walker finally answers, and puts Janis to work on the satellite coverage. Then she looks behind her and sees Kiefer leaning weakly against a support column. Janis tells Tony the coast is clear for now, and he and Doug move out. Walker asks Kiefer if he's okay, and when he pants that he's fine, she says they need to update the White House. Kiefer asks for a minute to pull himself together. Lucky for him, we're up to our first commercial break. It's 12:10:52.
At 12:15:13, Tim from Homeland enters the Oval Office, where Taylor's just standing around with Olivia, apparently doing nothing. "Excuse the interruption," he says. Good one. He says Kiefer's on line seven. Taylor picks up the call and says, "Mr. Bauer, tell me you have the bioweapon." Well, not unless the part of it currently in Kiefer's bloodstream counts. Calling from FBI's conference room with Walker, he has to admit that "Agent Moss and his men were forced to withdraw from a firefight they most certainly would have lost." Taylor is pretty pissed that Hodges threatened to shoot at federal agents. "My God, who does he think he is?" Oh, don't worry, we'll be getting into that at some length this hour. Kiefer doesn't have an answer for her, but he tells her about the plan with Doug and Tony that's already underway. Tim chimes in that according to SecDef, troops are still several hours away. "At which point we have a war on our hands against 1500 mercenaries armed with bioweapons," Taylor says. Oh, just call everyone back from Sangala, now that that whole situation is under control. And speaking of which, I still don't get why General Juma launched a suicide mission to the White House instead of holding onto some of those bioweapons himself and using them against the American invaders in Sangala. But of course he's dead, so we can't ask him, which is how so much gets explained on this show, even this season. Anyway, Kiefer tells Taylor that a surgical air strike will work, if they can find the weapons' exact location on the Starkwood compound. Taylor wants Kiefer to visually confirm the existence of the canisters, since he's the only one who's seen them. "No more mistakes." Speaking of which, Olivia's phone is suddenly buzzing, and she exits the room to pick it up. Kiefer asks Taylor if there's anything else, and she picks up the handset, which means it's about to get personal. She says she's heard about Kiefer's exposure. "How you doin'?" Kiefer says he's fine right now, thanks for asking, and she says, "Thank you for your service. I'm not giving up on you." Oh, Taylor, the last thing he needs right now is for you to make him cry. Kiefer hangs up before that can happen, and he and Walker leave the conference room.
Olivia's cell phone call turns out to be from Ken, her reporter friend from earlier, now calling from a hotel room somewhere. She tries to blow him off, but he's heard about the Joint Chiefs meeting, plus apparently he's been talking to Carl from the Port Authority. Ken's been a busy boy. She promises to talk to him as soon as she can. "I want to know now," he whines. She reminds him about the big story she just gave him a few hours ago. You know, the one about Jack Bauer having killed Ryan Burnett, which then turned out to be false? Funny how even though that's the case, Ethan is still just as gone. Creepily, Ken warns that it would be a mistake for her to hang up on him. "Think how your mother will feel when she hears that you forced out her Chief of Staff so you could take over his position." Quick, which is bigger: Ken's dickishness, or Olivia's idiocy? That question will come up again later in he episode, by the way. She says she can't talk to him there, so he gives her a half hour to get to the Roosevelt Continental. She gets back on her phone and says, "Agent Pierce, please get a car ready. I have to make a quick run." Good thing she drafted a Secret Service agent she can trust.
At 12:18:46, Tony and Doug reach another area of the compound from which they can see several buildings. Looking at the infrared satellite scan, Kiefer sees one building that has no heat signature at all. Sounds like that's the one. Way to put up that blackout shield, Starkwood. Now the government doesn't suspect a thing. Tony and Doug scamper up to the door, but Doug's card key doesn't work. Tony reports this back and stats rummaging through his bag as Janis tells him he should have an R-6 interface module in the bag with his comm unit. "It's a card key--" "Yeah, I know what that is, thank you," Tony interrupts, as he finds it and plugs it into the card slot. The other end hooks up to a PDA, which Janis can remotely access and use to hack the entry code. Of course, now the satellite is showing a vehicle coming, so Tony tells Doug to hide. There are only two digits cracked on the five-digit code. Kiefer's visibly hurting, but continues to insist he's fine. Without unplugging, Tony joins Doug in the hiding place, just as the Humvee comes into view, scanning their hiding spot. It moves on, but Doug says, "We're not going to make it," and breaks cover. Tony tries to call him back, but he's gone. Oh, no, what will happen if the chairman of Starkwood's board gets caught inside Starkwood?
A moment later, Doug steps out in front of that Humvee, which stops and pins him in its searchlight. A Starkwood soldier gets out and draws on Doug, demanding ID. Doug holds up his ID card, and the guy holsters his weapon. "Dammit," Tony whispers, watching from his hiding spot. While the soldier is sweating Doug as politely as possible given that Doug is his boss's boss's boss's boss's boss's boss, one of his three partners is still scanning near Tony's hiding spot with his light. By now, Janis has finished cracking the code, but Tony can't go in the door right now with Starkwood guys looking at it. That is, until Doug gets the soldiers' attention back on himself by blustering at them until they bundle him into their Humvee. Once he's in the vehicle, Tony ducks through the door and says he's in, but without Doug. Walker tells Tony about Taylor's insistence on a visual confirmation, and Tony replies that he's on it as he makes his way through the building. Walker had also noticed that behind her, Kiefer's panting and sweating and shaking until he finally says, "Stay here, I'll be right back." But when he tries to walk away, he topples, pulling a whole credenza's worth of shit down on the floor with him. Way to make a mess, Kiefer. The FBI's not going to invite you back if that's how you're going to act. Walker crouches over him in concern as he chokes and shakes and bugs his eyes out at her. "Get me the medic!" she yells. It's 12:22:56.
12:27:22. The soldier who nabbed Greg is on the phone with Hodges, telling him that he found Doug outside the "restricted zone," and claiming to be out for a walk. "Should I take him to Stokes for interrogation, sir?" he offers. Hodges acts all shocked. "You're suggesting what, soldier? That we strap him down, extract a confession because he was walking? He's the chairman of the board." The soldier backpedals that he was just asking for instructions, and Hodges tells him, "Take him to his office, make sure he's comfortable, and stay with him until I arrive." He also orders more security sent into the area to make sure Doug was alone. But how are they going to do that retroactively?
In the weapons lab, the techs are busy with the weapons, and the chief tech, Tom, says it'll be about another half hour. Suddenly Hodges is okay with the original two-hour time frame; he just wants to know the minute it's done. Given how close this is going to end up being, he'd better make that the second.
Olivia and Aaron have already arrived at the hotel of Ken the reporter, and as they get off the elevator, she asks Aaron to wait in the hall. Aaron protests, but Olivia charms him into letting her have her way. Again. She taps on the door, and Ken lets her in without either of them saying anything, until he offers her a drink at 10:29:29. She declines, not that that stops him from indulging. She sets her cell phone down to her purse on the table and says she doesn't like being threatened. That's odd; don't most people? Ken insincerely apologizes, and tells her what he knows, which basically seems to be the entire story from Carl the Port Authority guard. That dude's really gotten around in the past couple of hours, hasn't he? Olivia confirms it, but Ken insists, "I want to know all about it." Olivia says the story would cause a panic. "If you knew what it was you'd know why it's got to stay a secret," she insists. Ken agrees with that, and offers to prove it. So Olivia, idiot that she is, tells Ken, "It was a bioweapon in the container yard, that's what they were fighting over. It was developed by Starkwood in Africa. They moved it to their base about thirty miles from here." Ken is quietly blown away, but keeps pushing for more. Olivia grits out, "The president ordered an air strike as soon as the exact location of the canisters was known." Olivia presses Ken that he can't run with the story, or innocent people will die. Ken agrees that maybe she's right, but he's not about to let this meeting end empty handed. In other words, he wants her to convince him to drop the story. And in case it's not clear why I'm putting the word "convince" in italics, let me just clarify that it means "with her cooter." Olivia resists, but not for long. Is there anything sweeter than blackmail poontang?.
At FBI, Dr. Macer is injecting Kiefer with something to control the shaking, and says he can shoot himself up with it, "Once every two hours, or more if needed." Uh, could you make that a little more vague? She also hands him a little pouch with a couple of syringes in it, like that's exactly what a dude with his drug history needs to be walking around with. Walker's also in the room, because it's not like there's an operation she needs to be running right now, with Moss apparently having gotten lost on the helicopter flight back from Starkwood. Macer brings up something we all knew was coming sooner or later: a possible experimental treatment. All it takes is "stem cells from a genetically compatible donor." In other words, an immediate family member. Kiefer, who had been allowing himself to look a smidge hopeful for about five seconds there, shuts right down again. "I don't want my daughter involved in this," he says, getting up to leave. That makes twelve million of us. Walker and Macer both try to stop him, but he suddenly needs to get back to work. Where he doesn't work. In the hallway at 12:33:52, Walker and her loudly clacking heels catch up to him to try to talk sense into him. He just blows her off by whispering that it's none of her business. "It's my business when you're having a seizure in the middle of the FBI," Walker retorts, like she's the one who's going to have to clean up the mess Kiefer made earlier. Still, Kiefer is totally not talking about this. "She's your daughter and you're not even going to let her know?" Walker asks. Kiefer's like, yup. "I know you're trying to help, but you don't know what you're talking about here. My daughter and I, we don't talk, okay?" Besides, now he doesn't even have that accursed scarf he got her in India, the one that ended up getting his friend killed, to smooth the reunion over. "Please, just let it go." She doesn't, slapping her hand on the door when he moves to open it. How I wish the door opened inward, but apparently it doesn't. "It should be her choice," Walker says. Kiefer says it isn't. "I'm the one who's dying. It's my choice." Oh, sure, play that card.
Back in the bullpen, Janis tells them that Tony's still on the hunt for the canisters. "You look better," she adds. "Thanks," Kiefer says, and plugs his earpiece back in. After he lies to Tony that he's fine (honestly, Kiefer, come up with some new words to describe your personal sitrep), Janis warns Tony that eight bad guys are on their way to where he is now. "You want to regroup?" Kiefer offers. Tony wants to "get this over with." Besides, how does one guy "regroup?" Doesn't regrouping require, by definition, a group? Letting himself in through a door leading off the stairwell he's negotiating, he lies in wait for the two Starkwood guys who come into the room where he's hiding. Once they're past his hiding spot, he jumps on one, grabbing him by the neck so he can swing his feet around and kick the other to the floor. It's pretty slick. A neck-twist and a kick to the face later, both men are down, and Tony gets to work undressing one. He's chosen the unconscious one rather than the dead one, and it's probably best not to read too much significance into his decision. It's 12:35:52.
12:40:22. Tony's kitted out in his fresh new Starkwood gear, and has just finished handcuffing the unconscious guard to a pipe. No cuffs for the dead one, who will presumably take care of himself. Thus disguised, and armed with a Starkwood-issue assault rifle, he progresses into an elevator. The doors take the obligatory eternity to close, and just when it looks like Tony's going to have the car to himself, a set of fingers catches the door and pulls it back open. So Tony's now sharing the ride with Tom, the lead technician. Does Hodges know he's away from the bioweapons? They stand shoulder-to-shoulder as the tech flips through some scary-ass microscope photos, then turns to Tony and says he hasn't seen him around. Tony claims that he and more guards have been sent over as a precaution. "Can't be paranoid enough," Tom agrees, demonstrating the quality that probably helped him get such a high position at Jonas Hodges's company. They get off the elevator and once Tony's alone, he reports over his earpiece that he's in the main building. Kiefer says it looks like he's forty feet underground, which Tony confirms. This is the first FBI had heard about anything underground in this building. Okay, screw the bioweapons, now they can simply bust Hodges for constructing this underground lair without the proper building permits. Wandering through the corridor, Tony comes into view of the main lab area at 12:42:02, and spots the bioweapon rack that Kiefer drove off the container lot a couple of hours ago. He secretively pulls out his product-placed phone and sends FBI a photo. Kiefer takes a good, long look at it, and says, yep, that's what they're looking for. It's a pretty unmistakable item, so I guess he burned those extra seconds making sure he wasn't looking at a set of monkey bars or something. Walker's off to call Admiral Smith, because apparently she's got the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs on speed dial now. Watching Tom the tech slide one metal cylinder into another -- and again, there's not a single gas mask in sight -- Tony says it looks like they're loading it into a delivery system. "It's on the move," he adds as another tech starts carting a rack of cylinders away. "Copy that, it doesn't matter," Kiefer says. "Renee's phoning in the coordinates. Everything's going to be dust in the ten minutes. Get out of there now." So they'd better hope Starkwood doesn't use those ten minutes to move them into another building or something.
Doug's got a weird office for the Chairman of the Board. It seems to open out on an atrium, which doesn't really say "Top Executive" as much as it says "Receptionist." Oh, and there are the armed mercenaries standing guard over him, although I assume those aren't usually there. Hodges enters and dismisses the guards. Doug decides to make the first move, demanding that Hodges explain himself. "I'm arrested by our own security force. Held captive, in my own office, like a prisoner. They won't allow me a phone call, even to you, to find out what the hell is going on!" "Well, that's a lot of complaints, Doug," Hodges chuckles. "You done?" In turn, Hodges asks what Doug was snooping around after. Doug says he saw the FBI raid about the bioweapon. "Which they did not find," Hodges points out, without denying that he has one. Doug wants to know if it's true. Going to Doug's sideboard and pouring himself a drink, Hodges starts talking about how they built this place from nothing 20 years ago. "The largest private army in the hemisphere. Maybe the world. And we pulled America's ass out of the fire, again and again and again." Doug snaps at him to answer the question. "I am," Hodges says. He's just doing it in his typical, long-winded, self-serving, declamatory way. "Every day we've done things that the government itself could not or would not do," he continues. "Get this done, that's what they said. Here's your mission. Nobody asked how anything was going to be done. Nobody wanted to know. All anyone wanted was results, and we delivered." Huh. Sounds like someone else we know. Doug says that's not in question. "You're not insane, are you?" Hodges retorts. He goes on about "every chattering nonentity in Washington" being after them. "I kept this country strong. I kept it safe. And I will not be persecuted for that." Wow, Hodges, entitled much? It must suck to be able to operate for decades with no oversight or accountability and then suddenly have to deal with both. Doug offers Hodges a much shorter and more sensible speech: "You cannot start a war against the people you are supposed to protect." Hodges insists that they started it. Okay, crazy man. Go ahead and become a terrorist because your company's in trouble. And now he as much as admits it to Doug: "And as for particular weapons? As for your question? Let me rephrase it. Are we prepared to defend ourselves? We are." Doug insists that Hodges can't take on the federal government, and Hodges says, "You never were one for thinking big. Twenty years. I treated you like a son. Twenty years. A little loyalty, wasn't that the least I deserved?" And then he starts clubbing the shit out of Doug's head with the heavy glass decanter in his hand. Six times he does this, driving Doug all the way to the railing on the other side of the office, which Hodges heaves him over. Doug drops maybe twenty feet and ends up lying limp on the world map below. Hodges looks down at him, then at his white shirt, now spattered with blood. He goes to Doug's ice bucket and uses his hanky to blot at the spots. He's also got three or four hairs out of place, and given how uptight Hodges is, the effect is that he's been dragged through a hedge backwards. So now I find myself needing to say something about Jon Voight. When I saw him in "Redemption" and heard he was going to be on this season, I assumed we'd be getting the same Jon Voight we've been getting since Enemy of the State, if not before. You know, the Poor Man's Donald Sutherland who shows up, casts imperious glares around and pushes ominous proclamations out through that immobile face of his. But he's surprising me in this role. Dude's earning his paycheck. I've been making fun of Hodges's histrionic tendencies for a while now, yes, but Voight's bringing his A-game. Maybe, for the last decade and a half, he's just been an actor who needs more than a couple of hours to get warmed up.
While futilely attending to his shirt, he gets a cell phone call from Seaton. From inside some command center, Seaton is reporting that there's a squadron of F-18s on the way, less than ten minutes out. The good news -- from Starkwood's perspective, that is -- is that they have three missiles loaded and ready to go. Hodges tell Seaton to call the president, and he'll be there shortly. It's 12:47:15.
12:51:42. As Olivia gets dressed, Ken has the nerve to feel sorry for himself from the depths of the bed: "You probably think I'm the scum of the earth right now," he whines. She says she just doesn't want him to run the story. "You were a sport, taking one for the team like this," he whines. He's refusing to look at her, even as she tries to make sure he won't run the story. "I'm sorry, Livvie," he says, as he finally does look at her. "I have to run it." He has to? Or else what? "Breaking something this big will put me over the top in New York." Oh, that's why he has to. Cleary he has no choice. "I'll make sure nobody knows any of it came from you," he promises. Until he needs something else from her, that is. She calls him a lying son of a bitch, and he claims, "I did what I needed to do get ahead, just like you." And to get some bouncy-bouncy. Olivia denies the comparison, but he condescendingly says he's been in Washington longer than her. "This is how the game is played." And that includes the coerced fucking? "Actually, Ken? This is how the game is played," Olivia says. Whereupon she walks over to where she left her cell phone, holds it up for him, and plays back a snippet of the two of them in bed together. Because apparently her phone can record video indefinitely. My phone, unfortunately, will only record fifteen seconds of video at a time, which means if I wanted to use it to record myself having sex I would have to get started as soon as I hit record, and I still might miss the end. Olivia threatens Ken, "You run that story, or ever try to blackmail me again, and I'll make sure everyone knows just how you get your leads." Well, to be fair, he knew about the Joint Chiefs meeting and the container yard shootout before he ever called Olivia, let alone boned her. "I think your wife will be especially interested," Olivia adds, resolving the question of whether Ken's married and exactly how big a slime he actually is. "You bitch," he says from the bed. Closing her phone, Olivia adds that Ken should find a new beat. "I don't want to see you around the White House again." Then her cell phone rings, and her exit line is a sarcastic, "Sorry. I gotta take this." I think we can chalk up another win for Olivia.
Out in the hall, at 12:53:52, she answers the call that turns out to be from her mother, just now coming out of the basement elevator on her way to the Situation Room and wondering where the hell Olivia is. Olivia says she had to "run interference with a reporter." So that's what the kids are calling it these days. Taylor says she needs Olivia there for the air strike, and Olivia promises to be there in five minutes. She and Aaron get on the elevator, and he gives her this awesome, weary look, like, "Can I please quit now?"
Taylor enters the Sit Room, where Admiral Smith says the planes, loaded with bunker-buster bombs, will be in position in seven minutes. He adds that the white phosphorus charges, which burn at 5,000 degrees, should incinerate the pathogen handily and prevent it from getting out. So extreme heat can destroy it? Let's try giving Kiefer some really hot coffee, then. But make it decaf, or he'll be up all night.
Hodges enters that command center, and gets confirmation that the weapons are loaded and there's a call in to the president right now. "It's an historic day, gentlemen," he says to Seaton and Tom the tech. "Great day for Starkwood." Seeing Seaton glancing down at his blood-spattered shirt, Hodges adds with an unhinged smile, "Too bad Mr. Knowles can't be joining us." Seaton looks sick some more. Hodges smirks up at the red-and-white missiles waiting in a rack, pointing upward. We can debate whether Jonas Hodges is or is not a cartoon villain, but as for those rockets? With their pointy fins and belled-out flanks, they might as well be stamped on the side with the letters ACME WMD's.
Two fighter planes are in the air over D.C, and Admiral Smith is monitoring their progress on a Sit Room phone while everyone else sits around and watches a tactical display on the big screen. Smith tells Taylor that there's a "phased array radar" at Starkwood. Which means? "They know we're coming," he explains. Why couldn't he say that to begin with? The good news is that there doesn't look to be any kind of antiaircraft threat, so there's not much Starkwood can do about it. Right? Well actually, Tim suddenly says that there's a phone call for Taylor from Jonas Hodges himself. Taylor tells Tim to put him on speaker, but Tim says that Hodges has not only requested a private conversation, but set up a proprietary line in the ops room. "How did he mange that?" Taylor asks. "I have no idea," Tim admits. After a long pause, to give us plenty of time to wonder about not only that question but what exactly a proprietary line is, Tim and Taylor cross the back hallway at 12:56:36 so Taylor can take the call in what looks like a cramped little server room.
Hodges is smooth and confident as he tells Taylor, "Let me begin by saying that I'm truly sorry it's come to this, but I have to insist that you turn your planes around immediately." Taylor totally opens herself up by saying that he's not in a position to issue ultimatums. Hodges begs to differ, and says that he kept a few souvenirs from Starkwood's deployment to Pakistan: Python 5 missiles, specifically, three of which are now loaded with the pathogen and aimed at three cities on the eastern seaboard. Taylor says he's bluffing, so Hodges flips on his product-placed cameraphone and points it at the cartoon missiles sitting in the bay. "See that, Madam President? Hmm?" he smarms. Actually, she does, on the computer monitor in front of her. How proprietary is this line, anyway? "You are waging war on your own country, Jonas!" Taylor says. "Well, of course I wouldn't see it that way," Hodges says pleasantly, and points the phone at his own face so he can smirk at her about what he wants, which is a talk, with her, at the White House, within the hour. "But in the meantime, I think it is to both of our advantage that the American people do not know the exact circumstance of this standoff, so you will keep this conversation to yourself and turn the planes around. And if you do not comply, madam president, I will have no choice but to launch those missiles...You have thirty seconds." He disconnects, leaving her to helplessly repeat his name into the phone and use the first few of those thirty seconds to stare around the tiny room. Meanwhile, in other splitscreen windows, Kiefer paces the floor at FBI-DC, Tony sees a rack of cylinders being lowered through the stairwell he's climbing for some reason. Aaron drives Olivia back to the White House, and Kiefer gives himself another injection. Hey, make those last, dude. If Dr. Macer can't get you any more, those are going to have to get you through the rest of your life.
Finally, Taylor rushes back into the Sit Room and orders, "Abort the air strike, Admiral Smith!" He protests twice, but she insists, loudly, watching the planes enter the target circle on the digital map. Smith makes the call, and the planes divert. He hangs up the phone and says the planes are standing down, scowling at her over what must be a severe case of bombing blue balls. Man, Hodges cut that close. Taylor turns away from the screen to see everyone in the room staring at her, waiting for an explanation. Instead of offering one, she leaves the room. I guess that's one good thing about being president on this show: the only time you need to explain yourself is when the audience needs to understand what's going on. It's 1:00:00.
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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