By M. Giant
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Despite nearly getting away from Tony -- and then almost immolating himself to destroy the pathogen inside him -- Kiefer gets recaptured. Finally, Tony explains to Kiefer what he's been up to all this time: he's just been trying to get at Alan Wilson, the guy behind the guy behind the guy, going all the way back to Season Five. Tony's move is to wire Kiefer with explosives so he can blow Wilson up when he arrives. Except that thanks to the laptop Spawn rescued, the FBI swoops in on the meeting, and Walker frees and diffuses Kiefer. Wilson and the Faux-yer run to ground, but Tony catches up with them, kills the former, and confronts Wilson -- breaking the news that Michelle was pregnant at the time of her death. Unfortunately, he takes too long savoring the moment, and Walker and Kiefer catch up to them and stop Tony. In custody, Wilson denies everything, and Walker asks Kiefer for advice about making him talk, but all that happens is that after all these years of torturing people into talking, Kiefer tortures us by talking. While Kiefer's waiting out his last moments in the hospital, Imam Gohar comes to pray with him. Which seems to make him feel better.
In Taylor-related news, Ethan confronts Olivia about Hodges's death and makes her confess to her parents. Henry wants to protect Olivia by covering it up, but Taylor's insisting on doing the right thing, which leaves her feeling quite alone, with no one to turn to but Ethan. That'll learn a woman to become president.
In the final moments, Walker wrestles with the decision of what to do with Wilson, and Spawn shows up at her comatose father's bedside to insist on donating whatever she needs to donate to effect Kiefer's experimental treatment against his will. Dude, he is going to wake up pissed.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!No previouslies at all this hour. That never happens! It's almost as though someone knew all along that this would be airing immediately after the episode.
Sudden daylight has also reached the area outside the airport parking ramp, and the fire department has finished putting out Bob's car and covering up his crispy corpse. One of these days there's going to be a 24 spin-off, all about the local fire department following Kiefer and his friends around and putting out the stuff they blow up. If anything, they'll be busier than Kiefer. Walker's talking to Chloe back at base over walkie-talkie, about that laptop that Spawn recovered. Chloe says tracing it back to whoever it was communicating with will be harder than it looks; it's "encrypted, with multiple relays." You can totally tell by the cursor bouncing all over an animated world map on the monitor, like in Sneakers but with better graphics. Walker tells Chloe to get back to her when she has something. Overhearing, Spawn asks if there aren't any other leads to where Kiefer is. Walker points out that Spawn's the only reason they have this one. It's a testament to how little Walker knows Spawn that she's able to make this comment without her head exploding. "Except my father's dying, and we don't know how much time he has left," Spawn complains. Like Walker's going to say, "Oh, why didn't you say so?" and conjure Kiefer into their presence. Shut up, Spawn.
Having just escaped from Tony and the Faux-yer's complex, Kiefer finds a not-quite-closed garage door somewhere and squirms underneath it on his back. He finds himself inside a taxi garage and sets about breaking into one of the cabs. But suddenly Tony's there, reaching his gun under the door and shooting at him. Careful, Tony, don't shoot him in the virus! Kiefer dives for cover, but happens to notice the hanging controls for the door. Dodging Tony's shots, he rolls over to it and hits the close button. Unfortunately, Tony ducks back out before he gets squished. Kiefer notices that the cab Tony shot up is now leaking gasoline all over the floor. And a moment later, Tony is trying to force the garage door back open by stabbing through it with the tines of a handy forklift. Realizing he's trapped, Kiefer does what anyone would do in this situation: he wades across the puddle of gas he's standing in to grab a road flare that's conveniently sitting on a workbench. While Tony continues raising the door (He tried to kill him with a forklift!), Kiefer kneels in the fuel and tries to strike the flare, but it's tricky with handcuffs on. Also, I'm not sure he really wants it, if you know what I mean. By the time he gets it lit, Tony's made it inside, and he runs over and kicks it out of Kiefer's hands, sending it arcing through the air to burn out harmlessly on dry concrete. Kiefer tries to crawl to it, but only gets pistol-whipped into unconsciousness and dragged out by the feet for his trouble. Nice escape, Kiefer.