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While Olivia's being questioned by the Deputy Attorney General via teleconference and the Faux-yer's operatives hang with Spawn at the airport, Kiefer hijacks the van carrying Tony to break him out. Tony's so grateful to Kiefer for this that he proposes to reconstitute the bioweapon from his corpse for The Group. Once Kiefer's been taken hostage, Spawn's friends at the airport keep hanging out with her for some reason, and when Walker calls down security on them, the husband starts shooting the place up to get away. Luckily, Spawn goes after him. He wrecks his car, but Spawn's able to rescue his laptop in hopes that the FBI can use it to trace Tony. Ethan Kanin shows back up at the White House and agrees to help Aaron access the digital recording system in the White House Chief of Staff's office, but ends up getting busted when Olivia figures out what's happening. Ethan is relieved of a data card, but since he pulled a switcheroo, the one Olivia takes and destroys is blank, and Ethan gets to hear Olivia talking murder with Martin. Tony wants to meet with Alan Wilson for a job interview but when it comes time to transfer a seemingly unconscious Kiefer, our hero suddenly wakes up and kills everyone but Tony and the Faux-yer before escaping into what might just be his last hour of daylight. Yeah, sure.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!This hour's previouslies freeze-frames: Olivia Taylor, Jack Bauer, Kim Bauer, and that's it. That's a very idiot-daughter-heavy previouslies sequence.
At this late hour, Cisco has apparently realized it's not getting its product-placement money's worth this season, so suddenly Olivia Taylor is about to have a video teleconference with the Deputy Attorney General via TelePresence. Too bad the Justice Department isn't based in Washington, D.C., or they could maybe do this in person. The Deputy AG introduces a couple of sidekicks and assures Olivia that her questioning is only a formality before getting going. With a suspect pool smaller than that of your average Agatha Christie novel, he's either lying or stupid.
Taylor and Tim are about to enter a briefing in the Situation Room, but Taylor is wondering where her daughter is. Tim explains that Olivia is, as they say, assisting the Deputy Attorney General with his enquiries into the murder of Jonas Hodges. Tim has to admit that they aren't any closer to finding a suspect, but still maintains that it had to be an internal leak. Taylor enters the briefing and wishes everyone good morning. "I realize that we are all in dire need of sleep," she says, but says she wanted to bring everyone up to speed. While some slick computer graphics zip around on the big screen, Taylor explains to them about the conspiracy that Hodges told her about. Which she apparently thinks is going to do something else in the few hours. "We don't have much actionable intelligence at this point," she admits. "Then why can't we go home and sleep?" nobody asks.
Tony's prisoner transfer convoy is in motion; the van has not only four vehicles surrounding it on the otherwise empty freeway, but a helicopter escort overhead as well. Into Kiefer's ear through his cell phone earpiece, the Faux-yer tells Kiefer that his chance to bust Tony out is coming up. "You'll need to commandeer the van and peel onto the Taft Street exit in about four miles. I'll direct you further once you've managed this. Remember, my operatives are with your daughter. In fact, I'm looking at her right now, so don't try to be a hero." Wonder why they're going so far out of their way to establish that Spawn is on camera?
It's 6:05:12, as the airport departure gate where Spawn is waiting is getting more populated. She worries about getting on the flight, being on standby and all, but the "husband" of her new "friend" (honestly, I'm just going to have to start calling those two "Bob" and "Smiley") assures her she'll get on. "There have to be some people that are too spooked to fly after those planes went down yesterday," Bob points out. Smiley has just finished remonstrating with Bob for being ghoulish when a guy standing to his aged mother asks Bob to move the stuff from the chair to him -- including the webcam-equipped laptop that until now was pointing at Spawn. While he's doing that, his hair shifts aside and Spawn notices a bloody scratch on his neck, which is odd because it didn't look like Agent Franks got a piece of him in their a href="http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/24/day_7_500_am_-_600_am_3.php?page=10">scuffle last hour. "That must have happened when the door hit you getting out of the cab," Smiley says, as though that makes any sense at all. I mean, unless he customarily gets out of cabs by using a trapeze, that's a worse cover story than none at all. He pretends he's going off in search of band-aids. Spawn almost looks suspicious. Or just worried about getting on the flight. Or trying to remember when there's going to be another scene where she has a line.
At 6:06:17, the Faux-yer pulls her SUV over inside a busy roadway tunnel, which is not at all conspicuous. As she gets out to wait to her car, she answers a call from Bob who's worried about Agent Franks's body being found. "And I think Bauer's daughter's getting suspicious," he adds. That's because he doesn't know her. If Spawn were suspicious, she'd already be running all over the terminal with her boobs all a-jangle. The Faux-yer tells him to sit tight until he hears from her, promising it won't be long. She says that if things do go wrong, "You can't allow yourself to be taken. Do what you have to do." Whoa, did The Group just become a suicide cult?
From his position in front of the transport van's cargo area, Kiefer can see through a grate leading into the driver's seat and thence through the windshield. That's how he sees the sign for the upcoming Taft Avenue Exit. Tony looks at him with exaggerated blankness, if you can imagine such a thing, so he's clearly aware of the plan. I don't know how he got it in place so quickly, almost as though he knew he'd be captured. Plus he managed to not only hire a couple of operatives with a fully charged laptop, but get them to buy themselves plane tickets so they could get to the gate and stalk Spawn. And that's not even taking into the account the part where he managed to get Spawn's flight delayed. I guess becoming evil gives you superhuman multitasking skills.
Kiefer asks Walker for her comm unit, claiming it's interfering with his. She hands it over, not paying any attention to him while he takes out its batteries, until he pulls his gun and crouches where he can have a shot at both Walker and the other agent in the back of the van. Then he's got her attention. Tony just sits there, acting so cool that the blood on his face from Kiefer's beating last hour is actually evaporating. Kiefer tells the driver to keep going. Walker's shocked as Kiefer demands her and the other agent's guns, but she voices her disbelief that he'll kill anyone. So he shoots the other agent in the foot. Dammit, Kiefer, that's no way to kill someone. Still, that gets them to hand over their guns. Kiefer points one at the driver, making him cuff himself to the steering wheel and telling him exactly when to exit the freeway. The van loses the escort cars as it dives onto the ramp at Kiefer's instruction. From above, the helicopter escort asks what's happening, but of course Walker's off comm now so she's no help. Back at FBI-DC, Janis and Chloe look confused, and Janis also tries to raise Walker. She can't answer Janis either, so she asks Kiefer why he's doing this. "They've got my daughter," Kiefer says. He explains about the paid FBI stalker being dead, and the operatives from The Group who are with Spawn right now. "Jack, that's enough!" Tony snaps. Yeah, he knows the plan so well he doesn't even want to hear about it again. Kiefer asks the Faux-yer for more instructions, and she directs them toward the tunnel where she's waiting. Of course the helicopter can't follow them there, because this isn't Mission: Impossible.. At least not this hour. Kiefer has the van's driver pull in behind the Faux-yer's SUV. Walker tries futilely to talk Kiefer out of this, but he just makes her uncuff Tony, who in turn cuffs the other agent while Kiefer cuffs Walker. While he's doing that, he whispers in her ear, "They have a camera on Kim." Which he has no reason to tell Walker except that it's necessary to the plot later, which is probably why he compromises by muttering it so that I have to rewind him three times. "I don't trust Tony to let her go," he adds. "Please, I am begging you, do whatever you have to to save her." Is he really in a position to be asking her for favors right now? Before getting out of the van, Tony makes Kiefer hand him the gun and handcuff himself. There were a lot of handcuffs in that van, weren't there? One wonders about the driver's off-hours proclivities.
The Faux-yer isn't happy to see two guys coming toward her from the van instead of one. "What are you bringing Bauer for?" she demands. Kiefer tells Tony to let Spawn go, but Tony just makes him get in the car. While he's sitting in there, the Faux-yer says they need to "Shoot him already and let's get out of here." But Tony says he has an idea: The Group can still launch its biological attack, even without the canister. "We have Jack," he says. "The pathogen's in his bl
ood. It's in his organs. We'll be able to harvest everything we need from his body. Why do you think I had you put those operatives on Kim Bauer?" Uh, because she was there? And that's what you do when Kim Bauer's around? Honestly, if it hadn't been Tony it would have been someone else. Tony tells the Faux-yer to have a biochemist meet them "at the complex," and they climb in and drive away. It's 6:11:53. Oh, and don't forget to cut those operatives at the airport loose before the whole thing goes pear-shaped, Faux-yer.
6:16:14. Ethan and Aaron walk through the White House together as Aaron brings Ethan up to speed on his suspicions about Olivia. He tells Ethan about Hodges's murder (which shocks Ethan, who wasn't even supposed to know that Hodges was alive in the first place, but then maybe he never heard that he was supposed to be dead, either), and the working theory that his itinerary was leaked to The Group. "But I suspect there may be another scenario, and I have reason to believe that Ms. Taylor might be involved," Aaron intones. Ethan pretends to be offended on Olivia's behalf. "Olivia's capable of many things, but I can't believe committing murder is one of them." Aaron continues, explaining about how Olivia told him she wanted Hodges dead. And then she met with Martin Collier, who apparently everyone in the world knows as a bad dude, because time is getting short here. "None of this constitutes proof of complicity," Ethan maintains. Aaron says that's why he needs to get at the recorder inside the Chief of Staff's office. Ethan's a little resistant to the idea, but when Aaron leans on him a bit, Ethan finally nods, and they head into Olivia's office so these two old guys can do some creepy snooping on the cute young chick. Well, I'm sorry, but that's how it comes off.
Inside the room, Ethan goes right to a framed document on the wall and swings it away to reveal an electronic console. He presses his thumb to the sensor, which allows him to open the glass cover over the tape decks. Except that nothing's ever on tape on this show, but you know what I mean.
Olivia's TelePresence interview is wrapping up, and after privately swallowing a mini-freak-out, she leaves the suite. Inside her office, Aaron warns Ethan that she's on her way, and Ethan pulls a memory card out of the deck (what was he doing up until now?) and replaces the framed document. Out in the hallway, Aaron intercepts Olivia. "Let me explain," he says as she opens the door to her office at 6:19:42, but it's too late. "Good morning, Olivia," Ethan pleasantly greets her. He claims to have just come back for some files for his archives. At six in the morning. As you do. Sometimes those archives just can't wait, you know? She clearly isn't buying it, so he calmly hands over the folder he's holding, and she flips through it before rather coldly dismissing him. Aaron tries to follow Ethan out, but she has a bone to pick with him. She starts ranting like the paranoid criminal she is, about people not being allowed in her office. But then she suddenly notices the lit-up console behind the incompletely closed document. Nice going, Ethan. "Ms. Taylor, could I get someone on staff to help you with that?" Aaron asks. As he speaks, Olivia sees some lights on the recorder's sound gauge flicker, which erases any doubt she might have had about what it is she's looking at. Unfortunately for her, she can't get into the console, because apparently the thumbprint sensor didn't get the memo about her being promoted to acting Chief of Staff. So she grabs her desk phone and orders Security to detain Ethan before he leaves the White House. Aaron asks what's going on. "He stole my property, Aaron," Olivia claims, barely keeping her shit together.
Ethan is outside the building at 6:22:05, but before he's clear of the portico, a Secret Service guy and a couple of officers call out and say they've been ordered to detain him. Ethan takes his time deciding to go with them. Which is too bad; it would have been entertaining to see that puffy old dude make a run for it.
The tunnel where Kiefer and Tony left the prisoner van is a full-on crime scene now. Someone's uncuffed Walker, and she's on a walkie-talkie to Janis and Chloe back at HQ. She explains to them that Kiefer busted Tony out to save Spawn. "They have Kim?" Chloe asks, almost remembering to show some vague concern for her former coworker. Janis offers to call down the full fury of the airport police on the operatives, but Walker tells her to hold off, and instead, has Chloe patch her through to Kim's departure gate, which she knows (presumably from the now-dead Franks) is Gate 7. Janis offers to update the White House. But how does Walker know that Spawn is still at the gate, and not locked up some warehouse somewhere? Oh, right, Kiefer said they had a camera on her. That's lucky.
At the gate, the agent says the plane is just about ready to board, and calls up some standby passengers, including Spawn. The agent calls Spawn up to the front of the line and hands her the phone, which won't look suspicious at all. Suddenly she's on the line with Walker, her old friend from earlier that night. "Try not to react and do not look around," Walker says. "You're in danger. You're being watched by operatives sent by Tony Almeida." Spawn is confused, not least because she's just now learning that Tony is the bad guy, but also because she's Spawn. I'm still confused about why the Faux-yer didn't call and cut them loose like she said she would once Tony was free. Keeping them in place this long is risking exposure unnecessarily. Poor management, Faux-yer. Walker says she's on her way to the airport, but they need to ID the people watching her. Several steps behind as always, Spawn tells her about the stalker that of course Walker already knew about because she sent him. She's looking for someone who might have a means of sending live video of Spawn, like a camera or a phone. "Or a laptop?" Spawn asks. She starts describing Bob, but he suddenly appears around the pillar right to her, so she has to start faking like she's talking to baggage claim for his benefit. Walker hangs up and tells Chloe and Janis to have airport police close down the terminal, but "do nothing to raise suspicion." This while Spawn hangs up the phone, making up a story about having left her electric toothbrush on in her suitcase. Sure, an "electric toothbrush." Does it run on C batteries and have interchangeable attachments? Before following him back to where they're sitting, she snags a boarding pass folder -- and a pen -- off the counter at 6:25:43. Try to do that with a little more gritty determination, Spawn.
When they return to Smiley, they're both pretending that she doesn't know, and that they don't know she knows they know, which, to be fair, maybe she doesn't actually know they know she knows they know she knows. Spawn's sucking at it anyway, so Smiley asks if she's okay. Spawn comes up with her second credible cover story in as many minutes when she starts babbling about missing her daughter, and whips out some pictures. The bonus of course being that she's also showing them that she's the mother of a small child, whom Spawn's death would leave without a mother. Or maybe I'm giving Spawn too much credit, both as a student of human nature and as a mother. She's flipping through them for Smiley when Bob starts noticing the airport security cops wandering around, talking into their radios at a distance. He gets up with his laptop bag, while Smiley secretly pulls a black plastic knife from her carry-on. "Take her," Bob says, and starts shooting at the security guards. Dude, how did he get that gun in? Not to mention the prodigious amount of ammunition he's going to be firing in this scene? All the civilians in sight hit the deck and airport cops begin to fall as Spawn tries to make a run for it, but she's caught by Smiley, who uses her as a shield rather than killing her outright. Yeah, again, they really don't know her at all. Bob runs around, shooting cops and bystanders, while Spawn manages to pull her stolen pen out and stabs it into Smiley's leg. With a cry of pain, Smiley releases her, and Spawn drops to the floor, allowing the surviving guards a clear shot at her assailant. She's quickly taken down. Using a pillar for cover, Bob quickly takes in the situation, and also takes a bullet or two to the leg from a guard he failed to completely kill. But he's still able to dive through a door marked "Authorized Personnel Only." Of course it's not locked; why would it be locked? The sign clearly says "Authorized Personnel Only." Anyone else would know to stay out. Spawn grabs her phone to call Walker and tell her what's going on, as well as asking where the airport police are. "The woman is dead and the man is getting away," she frets. Walker says they need him to find Kiefer, which is the last thing Spawn hears before her phone's battery dies for good. "Dammit!" she Kiefers. And then she gets up and runs through that door, which is not only not kept locked, but doesn't even close automatically. I suppose anyone who's authorized to go through there would know enough to close it behind them. It's 6:28:22, and once again the fate of the world hangs on Spawn not fucking up.
At 6:32:45, Olivia enters a cramped White House basement room where Ethan's being held. Surprisingly, no commando teams appear to have entered from underground in the whole time he's been there. He politely stands and greets her, which she appreciates. "Old habits die hard," he admits. Olivia says she found the digital recorder, and she wants back what he took, or she'll have him strip-searched. Oh, I don't think any of us wants to see that. Ethan admits that he has a recording, but he only wants it for the record of his own conversations. Because he just loves the sound of his own voice that much. He even offers to listen to it with her, but Olivia says that's not going to fly. Ethan asks what she's so worried about. All she'll say is that she'll drop all charges if he just hands it over. When he silently refuses, she waves the agents in to search him. He continues to bluster, right up until an agent pulls a memory card out of his inside jacket pocket. He hands it to Olivia, who thanks him and orders Ethan processed out. Whatever that means. Before leaving, Ethan warns Olivia, "I don't think you understand the seriousness of what you're doing." "I don't think you do," she schoolyards back at him. Ethan and his guard go down the hallway at 6:35:44. Once Olivia's alone, she snaps the card in two. Which takes some doing, but she's quite relieved once it's done. Because she thinks she's got the real card, you see.
In the upstairs hallway, Aaron shows up to escort Ethan "the rest of the way." Once Ethan and Aaron are walking alone, Ethan says that he's certain Olivia's hiding something. "Lucky for us I'm a paranoid son of a bitch." Outside the building, Aaron reaches into his arm sling and hands the memory card hidden inside to Ethan. Yes, Ethan pulled a switcheroo with a blank card. Although I don't know when Ethan slipped the card to Aaron, because as far as he knew he was going to walk out of there scot-free. Unless he is an even more paranoid son of a bitch than he lets on. In any case, Aaron offers to sneak Ethan into the communications office, but Ethan says he can play it back in his car. "One has to be prepared when you're dealing with Olivia," Ethan explains. And when there's less than an hour and a half left in the season.
At 6:37:15, the Faux-yer drives her SUV -- with Tony and Kiefer still her passengers -- into a standard-issue warehouse hideout that looks like it could have been moved brick by brick all the way from Los Angeles. A couple of dust-masked medical techs in white coats are waiting, and they drag Kiefer down a long hallway to a lit room, him twitching the whole way. "What are you doing?" Kiefer says when he spots the third white-coated figure waiting there. "We're gonna use you to reconstitute the bioweapon, Jack," Tony says. By now, the medical goons have dragged Kiefer through the plastic sheeting and are manhandling him onto a gurney facedown. The doctor tells Tony it'll be fifteen minutes before they know whether this will work. Tony leaves them to it, while Kiefer is strapped to the table and given a shot in the back of his neck, which seems to immobilize him. "There we go," the doctor says almost gently. It's kind of like watching a cat being put to sleep.
Outside, Tony wants to talk to the Faux-yer: "I want a larger role in the organization, and I think this is a good time to make my case." She tries to tell him that The Group doesn't work that way, even as useful as Tony's been today. Tony says he knows she talks to the top guy. "All's I'm asking is that you get us in the same room together." Which should be a total giveaway that he's had ulterior motives all along (or should that be ultra-ulterior motive
s?), but she's too smitten to do anything but warn him that that's not going to work. "He's careful to a fault, Tony. And he's very protective of his anonymity." Tony still thinks she can convince him, like he's seen her do before. "This is different," she says. Tony agrees. "This time it's for me." Wait, wasn't the last time also for him?
And back in the other room, a giant syringe is sunk into Kiefer's back for a spinal tap. He can't move, but he can sure scream like a girl. It's 6:40:17.
At 6:44:42, Olivia's on the phone to Martin, being paranoid about everything. He talks her down, saying that Ethan doesn't have any proof. Olivia's not convinced. "You're forgetting I ended this man's career, Martin. He won't let me off the hook. Ever." Uh-huh. Big talk about the career-ending, but Ethan was out of the office for less time than I am most nights, and I work at home. Martin assures her that nobody is coming after the president's daughter without hard evidence. Before either of them hits on the idea of having Ethan killed , she has to hang up when Tim comes up to her, asking where she's been and saying Taylor needs her in the Oval Office for a briefing. She's about to head off that way, but Tim grabs her arm first, which is a pretty bold move with a White House Chief of Staff. Good thing he was promoted to Cabinet secretary last week. "Everything all right?" he asks suspiciously. She blows him off. He's not convinced, but all he can do is peer after her. Careful, Tim; if you lose Olivia, you're going to be the shortest person in the building.
Walker enters the terminal at the head of a column of FBI, rather too late going by the look of things. She goes over to a wounded guard and asks which way Bob went, but he's too busy bleeding in someone's lap to be of much help. Walker calls back to HQ and says that Bob and Spawn are both gone. "Either she went after him or she's a hostage." I know which option I'd be leaning toward, if I didn't know better.
Spawn is indeed still pursuing Bob through the bowels of the airport, trying to stay out of sight as he makes his way through a baggage-handling area. Eventually she sees him climbing a staircase to P2. Because the parking ramp adjoins the baggage-handling area. Well, that certainly seems secure. She follows at a distance, although surely not far enough behind for him to fail to hear her shoes clacking along. At any moment I expect her to come around a corner and have him jump out at her, but rather than pressing her luck she exits the staircase at P1. She finds a pair of real airport cops at that level of the ramp and approaches them. "Officer, my name is Kim Bauer. I followed the man that shot up the terminal. You need to contact Special Agent Walker with the FBI." The scene ends before the cop can pat her on the head and say, "Aw, aren't you cute?"
One level up, Bob's just getting into his parked car at 6:47:27. Up here in the top level of the ramp, we get a commanding view of the airport, and the pitch-black sky that reaches all the way down to the horizon. Late sunrise, no?
Down in the terminal, a medic hands Walker a walkie-talkie with Kim on the other end. She tells him where Bob is, and that she's at the ramp exit with two cops. "Hurry!" she says. Just then, Bob's car comes screaming down the ramp, with him shooting at the cops all the way down while Spawn dives for cover. One of them does manage to hit Bob through his windshield, and the car rolls as it crashes through the exit barrier. "Hang on, help is on the way," Spawn tells the wounded officer. Then she looks up and sees that Bob's car is on fire. Well, that's inconvenient. She gets up and runs to it, seeing the laptop resting in its open bag on the car's ceiling. She crouches down, reaches inside, and snags the laptop, but he grabs her wrist and won't let go until both their arms are on fire. Spawn extracts herself, waving her burning jacket sleeve around while the car flares up like Bob is made of bacon grease (which I'm not entirely ruling out, mind you). Walker and her squad of FBI agents find her throwing her jacket on the ground and hugging the laptop to herself when they come running. Walker wants to look at her burned arm, but Kim gives her the laptop, which another agent is quickly opening up. "That laptop has the camera that they were using to track me," Spawn says. "With a D-11 inverse router, we may be able to backtrace the signal to the people who have my father." When Walker gives Spawn a look, she explains, "I worked at CTU, systems analyst." Don't worry, Walker, nobody believed it then, either. Spawn asks if anyone at her office can help, and Walker name-drops Chloe. "Get her on the phone," Kim says, grimacing at the pain in her scorched arm. Or possibly at the thought of having to deal with Chloe again. It's 6:49:34.
6:54:02. Apparently the White House Chief of Staff drives a Hyundai. Before getting into his parked car, Ethan puts his briefcase in the trunk to a duffel bag and a backpack, just so we can get a gander at the impressive amount of cargo space that comes standard with this model. Then he gets into the driver's seat, starts the engine with the press of a button, and plugs something into a USB port on the console. The LCD screen on the dash becomes a file window (the directory is called ".Trashes," for some reason,) and after a moment of rewinding, he's playing back the recording of Martin trying to talk Olivia out of having Hodges killed.
"What I can't live with is that monster getting away with this," we hear Olivia saying again. "He has to pay for what he did." Yeah, good thing they were too careful to talk about this on the phone. Ethan looks sadly out into the night. The dark, dark, dark night.Tony enters the curtained-off area where the doc is working on Kiefer, and is told that there's plenty of the virus in Kiefer's spinal fluid. "Not enough to reconstitute the pathogen, of course. We'll still need his organs for that." Oh, they're going to be so pissed when they crack him open and see how small his heart is. Tony lifts one of Kiefer's eyelids and asks how long he has. "Couple of hours, give or take," is the answer. But he assures Tony that the pathogen can survive two hours or more after Kiefer's death. "In fact, the only sure way to destroy it is by exposure to extreme temperatures above 500 degrees Celsius." Tony says to put that in the report and get ready to move. It's 6:55:55.
Elsewhere in the building, the Faux-yer is on the line to Wilson, telling him what's going on. He's pleased that they're going to be able to pull this off (even though everyone knows their MO now, and will know it's them whenever they make another run at this, but that's just me saying that), and she says they couldn't have done this without Tony. "He wants to play a larger role," she says. Wilson is suspicious, but she makes a convincing case, and he agrees to meet them there in the half hour. Even she is taken aback by that. Yeah, things move fast in the season finales, missy. Or at least the first hour of the season finale. "But Kara," he warns, "I'll look Almeida in the eye. And if for any reason I don't like what I see, you understand I can't let him walk out of that meeting alive." She's startled, but she gets it. After hanging up, she goes over to Tony and says the meeting is on. He clasps her hand gratefully, and she whispers, "It's up to you now." By which she means, "Don't get anything in your eye."
The two med techs undo Kiefer's restraints, unaware that he's just opened his eyes. Suddenly, he's elbowing and kicking in all directions, sending them sprawling. With his cuffed hands, he manages to get a hold of a handy scalpel off the tray, and two throats are quickly slashed. As for the doc, when he tries to escape, Kiefer loops the handcuff chain around his neck from behind and snaps his neck, although the dude is really bad at fake-dying. Seriously, he not only turns his head a maximum of three degrees, he also fails to go limp instantly, instead taking his time to get comfortable. I hope he's a really good doctor, because he sucks at the rest of his job. Kiefer struggles to his feet and makes his way through the warehouse, all the way to an exit door, where two shocks greet him. The first is a door alarm, and the second is the full, bright sunlight of daytime. He stares up at it in confusion for a moment, wondering how the sun came all the way up in just the last five minutes. Must be spring-loaded.
In other splitscreen windows, Aaron loiters in the Oval Office while briefing sheets are handed out to Taylor, Olivia, and Tim. A medic bandages Kim's arm, the smitten actor playing the EMT cursing his luck for having to wear sterile rubber gloves on the one day of his life he gets to grope Elisha Cuthbert. Walker looks on, presumably so he doesn't offer to give her a pelvic. Wilson...uh...wears glasses.
And Tony and the Faux-yer come running, to find their medical staff dead and Kiefer gone. They find the open exit and go out that way. "He's too weak to have gotten very far," Tony says, because that's what you say in these situations, and they split up in pursuit. It's 7:00:00.
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, or just e-mail him at M.Giant[at]gmail.com.Discuss this episode in the 24 forums, and take a look back at the most ludicrous 24 plotlines ever!