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After the failed attempt on Hassan, everyone knows everything. Cole, who survived the explosion, goes after Davros and nearly gets killed by him, but Kiefer arrives just in time to kill Davros instead. Farhad, learning the jig is up, kills a CTU agent to make his escape. Hastings, man enough to admit he was wrong, springs Reed and vindicates Chloe. And since Davros's corpse turns out to be covered in Russian gang tattoos, Dana decides to bring in an expert on the subject, someone who spent some time deep undercover with the Russian mafia. That expert's name: Renee Walker. What are the chances?
And while they're waiting for her seriously damaged ass to show up, the CTU morgue discovers that Davros has recently been in contact with weapons-grade uranium. Hassan figures out that it's the same uranium that some bad Russians offered the Hassans not long ago, and that Farhad still hopes to get it. So Hastings decides to send Walker in undercover to find the Russian mob boss. Out of concern for her emotional state (seems her idiotic stunt with Alan Wilson at the end of last season led to her firing and a bit of a meltdown), Kiefer tries to talk her out of it, but she's adamant. So Kiefer insists on going along with her. Not that he's able to stop her from cutting a dude's hand off to get what she wants. He is, however, a big old girl about it, which is absolutely hilarious.
On the personal front, Hassan dumps Reed for the sake of the peace process, and Dana's got her increasingly unstable ex rattling around her apartment. She looks like she's going to need to be killing him soon, which I think we're all looking forward to.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previouslies freeze-frames: Brian Hastings, President Omar Hassan, Farhad Hassan, Dana Walsh (because even the previouslies aren't buying into this stupid "Jenny" crap), President Allison Taylor, and of course Jack Bauer.
Unsurprisingly, the president is still being evacuated from the U.N. to her in the back seat, her Chief of Staff is doing what he does best: yelling at Hastings. Although I guess that since there's been a large explosion in the last couple of minutes, it's understandable in this case. "It's a damn disaster, Brian! What do you mean, you don't know what happened?" Taylor chimes in to demand how Hassan is, and Hastings still doesn't know. But he has been admirably quick in figuring out that the original bomb threat was a hoax, and that a real bomb was planted along the evacuation route. "And you drove him right into it!" Weiss yells. Hastings explains what Cole did, and Weiss yells, "You better pray he got there in time!" and cuts off the call. Well, I guess Taylor was done talking to Hastings, too.
Somewhere behind them, a whole section of pavement has been heaved up from the street by the explosion. Cole, alive and conscious, manages to scramble out of his inverted car-becue into a scene of total chaos. Nobody seems to know what to do until Cole shows up to take charge again, so it's super lucky he wasn't killed after all. Hassan's car is still stopped and the driver appears dead. Cole runs up to it and tries to get Hassan's door open. Hassan is barely conscious and his bodyguard points a gun at Cole protectively, but lowers it when Cole says he's with CTU. Cole finally manages to pry the bent car door open and urgently tells Hassan they need to get him to another car. Because this one worked out so well. "Sir, you do not want to stay here," Cole warns. Indeed, because here comes Davros, locked and loaded and apparently unnoticed by anyone as he walks toward Hassan with his police weapon leveled and with obvious murderous intent. What's he been doing during the previouslies, anyway? But then a big black SUV cuts off his approach, and that seems to break his focus. Cole gets Hassan and his bodyguard into that CTUmobile and sends it off, then pulls out his cell phone. Watching this, Davros realizes he's missed his chance and starts walking away, defeated. Assassin fail.
Cole has apparently called Dana's personal cell phone instead of the CTU switchboard. She's relieved he's okay, again, and he tells her that Hassan is also safe and en route to CTU. Dana calls that news out across the floor to Hastings. I'm sure Hastings will rush to call Weiss back to see if he can get yelled at for that, too. Cole tells Dana the assassin had infiltrated the security team, which Dana already knows from Chloe. A cordon is going up now, for all the good it's going to do. Remember how awesome CTU perimeters are? Whatever other issues last season may have had, at least the FBI knew how to seal off an area properly. Fortunately for CTU, Cole has just spotted Davros. I don't know if it's something about the way the guy in the motorcycle cop uniform is walking away, or that Cole recognizes Davros's face from a photo I don't think Cole ever saw, but when Davros sees Cole looking at him and breaks into a run, that's pretty much a giveaway. Cole draws his weapon and updates Dana that he's now chasing the suspect toward a neighboring building. Dana has Chloe put out a priority APB, which doesn't explain how Cole runs right past all these cops and agents and security guards milling around and ends up following Davros down a dark alley on his own. Davros ducks into a building, Cole in pursuit.
Kiefer is still en route to the U.N. in the shotgun seat of Officer Phil's squad car. A pop-up window appears on the car's dashboard computer screen: "PRIORITY OVERRIDE Source CTU D. Walsh TEXT: Hassan bombing. Suspect spotted at 4722 East 47th St. TIME: 19:04." Looks like Chloe V.5.0 has gotten those processing speed bugs worked out. Kiefer asks Officer Phil for his weapon back. "You're bag's right behind my seat," Officer Phil says, like they're in the family station wagon. Kiefer reaches back to grab it, then makes Officer Phil pull a two-wheeler around the corner. I hope this isn't the last time we see Officer Phil. I suspect there'll be some long, tense silences in the squad car when he and Officer John go back on patrol again.
The other three Hassans are stuck in a stationary "evacuation" car while the CTU agent up front tries to contact someone in the car Hassan was in. They can just see it up ahead, but not well enough to realize that nobody's alive in there any more. Hassan's wife tries to get out to get to him, because she likes him during the even-numbered episodes, I guess. Farhad and the agent both stop her, and Farhad pulls out his cell phone to try to find out for himself what happened. Who could he possibly reach right now who knows what's going on?
Oh, right, the guy he hired to make it happen. Davros asks Farhad, "Where are you?" "Yes, we're safe," Farhad says, and asks about his brother. "He's alive. He survived!" Davros groans. Farhad relays this to Mrs. H., remembering to add, "God is with us." Then he asks Davros, "Can you tell me what happened?" Trying to avoid the agents now searching the abandoned building, Davros quickly tells the story. "What would you suggest we do?" Farhad carefully asks. "It's over. Get out now," Davros instructs. "It can't be long before they realize it's you." Well, I have to give credit to Davros for his commitment to customer service. Most assassins, after the shit goes down, don't have time for the client any more, but this guy makes the effort to help guide his employer through those critical post-crisis moments. That goes a long way toward making up for the fact that the assassin-ee is still alive. Although I have to wonder how long they thought Farhad could remain undercover even if his brother had died. But that's all moot, so Farhad hangs up. Mrs. H. says his name, and after a pause, Farhad dives out the door. The CTU agent jumps out to head him off and get him back in the car. Farhad nods like he's going to comply, but then suddenly he pulls a dagger out of his breast pocket and buries the blade in the CTU agent's neck. Seriously, a big old sharp knife. Has Farhad been carrying that around all day? While sitting at a table with not one but two presidents? Because if so, that's the biggest security failing of an entire afternoon that's been filled with them. One hopes that CTU agent has time to think about that as he collapses bloodily against the car window for the edification of the Hassan women. Farhad dashes away in the "confusion." Well, at least he can't get far on foot, and he doesn't have that knife any more. And how many more could he have on his person?
At 7:06:47, Cole is still searching the empty building alone. Somehow Davros appears behind him and orders, "Get on your knees." Cole complies with that order, and also with Davros's instruction to slide his gun back toward him. "Now you're going to walk me out of here," Davros says. Don't worry, that's not a spoiler. He tells Cole to call in and say this area is clear and to move the search elsewhere. "You want to live? Make the call." Because Davros totally won't kill Cole anyway after he gets what he wants, right? Cole touches his comm earpiece (which he should have had on all this time or he wouldn't be in this situation right now) and quietly says, "This is Cole Ortiz, in the southwest corner of the building in pursuit of the assassin." After a long pause in which he mentally gets his affairs in order (although honestly, he's been playing with house chips for the last seven minutes anyway), he says, "He's with me now." Davros looks pissed, and two shots ring out. But it's Davros who goes down, because Kiefer arrived just in time. Having not only gotten inside the search perimeter without difficulty and without credentials, but also apparently having tracked Davros by scent. Kiefer makes sure Cole is okay, then checks Davros's pulse
. He's dead, at least until the Daleks dig him up again. For whatever reason, Kiefer rips Davros's shirt open, revealing a canvas of tattoos on his chest. They look Russian, with stars and Russian minarets and crap. "Son of a bitch," Kiefer breathes, breaking out his cell phone to record the images for posterity. Or whatever freaky-ass dead tattoo fetish website he's launched since the end of Season Seven.
A fresh motorcade delivers Hassan and his guard to the security tunnel entrance at CTU at 7:08:48. Hastings is waiting there for him, and leads him into the bunker, assuring him that his wife and daughter are fine. Hassan asks about his brother, and Hastings is slow to answer. But then he stops walking and seriously says, "It appears your brother was involved with the attack." Hassan is in denial about it and wants to talk to Farhad. Which of course isn't going to happen. Hastings explains, "After the explosion, he killed one of my men to facilitate his own escape. There were witnesses, including your wife and daughter. He is the insider we've been looking for. There's no doubt." Gotta give him credit for such a fast one-eighty. But see what I mean about Farhad's post-assassination plan? It's not like Hassan was the one who busted him; in fact, he was the last to know. Anyway, Chloe pops up to them to report that Kiefer just called in to say the assassin is dead, and sent them some video to prove it. Before letting him get back to work, Hassan thanks Hastings. "I owe you my life." Hastings nods modestly, and tells Chloe to meet in the conference room. But first, Hassan asks to talk to Meredith Reed. Hastings agrees, and as he and Chloe walk away, he grumbles at her, "I saw that...the way you looked at me when he thanked me for saving his life." Which is weird, because Chloe was behind Hastings when that happened. "You were thinking he should have been thanking you?" With uncharacteristic modesty, Chloe says, "I was actually thinking he should thank Jack, then Cole, then maybe me." Oh, all right: heh. Hastings glares hard at her and circles her dangerously, but what he says to her is rather surprising: "I underestimated you, Chloe. You saw what was really going on and I did not. It was a major save. My report will state that." Which I have to give him credit for, even though he says it all in the same tone he uses when threatening to fire her. Chloe actually smiles a bit and returns to her station at 7:11:02. Now how does this computer work again? she thinks to herself.
Hastings goes over to ask Dana about the images Kiefer just sent, and she obligingly puts close-ups of Davros's dead, pale, bloody chest up on the big screen, like everyone on the floor wants to see that. Talk about creating a hostile work environment. Dana also shows him similar tattoos of the bad guys Kiefer killed in the first hour, and says she thinks they're Russian gang tattoos. Always Johnny-on-the-spot, Dana has already sent them to the FBI, and the FBI has helpfully responded with the name of an agent who went undercover with the Russian mob years ago. Not only has Dana got that agent's folder already in hand, she's already had her picked up by one of CTU's remaining helicopters and the agent is being delivered via airmail right now. But who might this agent be? "Chloe, I think you worked with her," Dana mentions offhandedly. Indeed she did; the folder contains a dossier and photo of none other than Renee Walker. I was wondering when she'd show up again. Although I must confess to some disappointment that it's not Janis Gold. Hastings notices that she's an ex-agent, which he assumes means she was fired and the record was sealed. He wonders why they're calling in someone who clearly has some issues, but Dana insists that Walker is the only person who ever got near the famously secretive Russian mob. Chloe just keeps her troubling thoughts to herself. No point in using up all her new capital with Hastings right away, after all.
Somewhere in town, a fancy restaurant is closed and empty, except for a man in a suit watching a news report on the failed assassination attempt. That man is played by Jürgen Prochnow, the German H!ITG who starred in Das Boot decades ago and has been playing baddie after Euro-baddie ever since. In fact, I couldn't believe he'd never been on this show before until I checked to make sure. He mutes the TV to answer a phone call, which turns out to be from Farhad. "Why is my brother still alive?" Farhad demands. In a Russian accent, Jürgen Prochnow smoothly assures Farhad that it won't matter, "once you have the materials in your possession." He wonders if he needs to find another buyer, but Farhad says he's on his way. "Good," the Russian says cheerfully. "We'll have a nice meal waiting. And we'll talk." Farhad jumps out in front a cab and gets in while the Russian hangs up his phone. It's 7:13:05, and clearly a commitment to client service is part of the corporate culture of this gang. Farhad should appreciate that more.
7:17:22. Getting off the elevator to return to the U.N. Council Chamber, Taylor gets confirmation from U.N. security chief Manners that the bomb threat was a hoax and the room is clear. "I'm glad to hear it," Taylor says, shaking his hand warmly. Meanwhile, Rob tells her that Hassan is at CTU, waiting on the line to talk to her. She asks how he is, and Rob says, "Well, he narrowly escaped getting blown to pieces by his own brother so, not too well." Thanks, Chief of Staff Glass-Half-Empty. He pushes her to find out right away if Hassan still wants to continue the talks. Taylor doesn't think this is the time, but Rob insists. Isn't it kind of after business hours anyway? Had they been planning to negotiate all night? Ignoring all these questions, Taylor has Rob put Hassan on speakerphone.
From inside Hastings' office, Hassan hears Taylor express her relief at his survival. "I'm mortified that this outrage happened on U.S. soil," she adds. But Hassan is the one who is embarrassed, what with his brother turning out to be such a fuckhole. "He betrayed me, and worse, he put you in harm's way." Taylor says he fooled everyone. Rob cuts in to ask what Farhad's plan might be, "Aside from targeting you." Taylor cringes at Rob's clumsiness, prompting him to rephrase. "Regime change," Hassan says, unfazed. "Isn't that what you Americans call it?" Taylor offers to let Hassan off the hook for the talks, but Hassan wants to continue. "I would not give [Farhad] the satisfaction," Hassan says, and adds that he's ready to continue when she is. But who will take Farhad's place at the negotiating table? Hassan's bodyguard? But I guess with Ethan not having been seen since the evacuation and being completely absent from this episode, they could just go one-on-one.
After Hassan ends the call, Hastings reenters and Hassan says he wants to get back to the U.N. But first he wants to thank the man who saved his life. Hastings tells him Agent Ortiz is on his way back now. Which is better than saying, "No need to thank me again."
For the second time this evening, Kiefer and Cole get out of a CTUmobile at the tunnel entrance. Kiefer tells Cole to go to Medical, which he agrees to do as soon as he hands Davros over to Forensics. As for Kiefer, he still hopes to catch the last flight to L.A. after his debrief. Cole says it's been an honor and they part friends. Although I can't help wondering why they couldn't talk in the car and had to wait until they arrived to discuss their respective plans.
Inside the building, Chloe greets Kiefer and tells him they think Davros was working for the Russian mob, and they're bringing in an expert. Kiefer's glad to hear that, until he hears that it's Walker. Chloe explains to Kiefer about the flagrant retcon in which Walker has done undercover work with the Russian mob. Chloe asks if he's talked to her, and he says she never returned his calls. We also learn that Walker had a "rough time," as in some kind of breakdown. Yes, I bet Alan Wilson had a rough time as well. Kiefer instructs Chloe, "She didn't want to talk to me then, she's not going to want to talk to me now. I want to respect that. So please, don't tell her I'm here." He goes upstairs for another debriefing, and maybe it's just that he doesn't want her to see him without his briefs (Come on, I can't let them all go by without comment).
At 7:21:42, Davros is already on a slab in the CTU morgue, which is decorated suspiciously like the armory. In fact, if I didn't know better I would suspect it's the same set. And I'm not actually all that sure I know better. The pathologist closes the door on Cole, who then turns to see Hassan and his entourage coming down the hall towards him. Hassan thanks him for saving his life, and Cole modestly shares credit with Kiefer and Chloe. Hassan promises to thank them too, but, "You risked your life for me. You put yourself between me and the bomb. My family and I are in your debt." He's smiling and shaking Cole's hand when an alarm goes off overhead. Cole says it's a hazardous materials alert. He goes back to the morgue, and through the intercom to the closed door, he finds out from the pathologist that it was Davros's body that triggered the alarm. Wow, I knew he was kind of repulsive, but I wouldn't have expected him to be literally toxic. Actually, it just looks like he's been exposed to trace elements of uranium, but not enough to be dangerous. Just enough to set off the alarm, I guess. And enough to let us know that there are going to be nukes this season after all. Indeed a quick readout confirms that it's weapons-grade stuff, and Davros's contact with it had to have occurred "recently," whatever that means. Fortunately, the one person who's in a position to have a theory about what's going on is right there at CTU, and it's President Omar Hassan. "I need to talk to Mr. Hastings right now," he says. But it's 7:22:58, so he's going to have to wait through the commercials.
7:27:14. Chloe stands outside enjoying the nighttime view of the Manhattan skyline and the wind from a chopper landing on the helipad. Out climbs Renee Walker, with a very serious expression on her face, not to say haunted. A more worrying sign of her damaged state is the fact that that formerly spectacular hair of hers is all pinned together in a messy updo. "Hey, Renee, it's good to see you," Chloe says. "This way." Walker silently follows her to the elevator hut. While they wait for the lift, Walker finally mutters, "Didn't know you were back at CTU." Chloe explains about Morris losing his job and her ending up here. So that pretty much exhausts that topic, and Walker doesn't seem all that invested in keeping the conversation afloat. Even Chloe can't deal with that much uncomfortable silence on the ride down, and she says she heard Walker worked for a security firm. "Didn't work out," Walker grunts. I bet her coworkers miss her terribly.
At 7:28:54, Hassan is in Hastings' office to share his theory about how Davros might have come in contact with weapons-grade uranium. It's actually pretty simple: Hassan's country was working on the Bomb, came up short on fissile material, and then Farhad was approached by someone claiming to have access to some old Soviet stuff. Hassan, whose already-giant pompadour actually seems to be visibly growing in this scene, thinks it was the same people who were behind the assassination plot. Hastings asks Hassan if he has any idea where the stuff is now. Hassan reasonably points out, "That man was contaminated recently. Doesn't that mean the materials are here in the U.S.?" Hastings has the grace to look not only disgusted but embarrassed that Hassan has to do his job for him. As is always necessary when transitioning from one crisis to another in mid-season, Hassan lays out the stakes: "We must find the Russians before they can get the uranium to my brother." Because a wanted international fugitive is just a couple of coolers of fissile material away from becoming a one-man nuclear power. Wouldn't it be easier to just freeze his accounts or something?
In a conference room, Walker is going over a whole wall of tattoo photos for Dana and Chloe. For instance, she can tell that Davros was sentenced to three life terms in a Siberian prison camp. As for the other two corpses Kiefer has made today, all three men have the same tattoo shaped like a broken cross. "So what does it mean?" Hastings asks, having walked in unannounced. He introduces himself and repeats the question. Walker says it means they won't talk even if every bone in their body is broken. But of course if you kill them, their tattoos will tell you everything you need to know. Way to think it through, Russian mafia guys. She says the broken cross is the symbol for a group called Red Square, if they actually exist. Hastings assures her they do exist, and they need to find them. "You're aware of the attack in Midtown today?" he asks her. "You mean the smoking crater by the U.N.? Yeah, it was hard to miss." I suppose if one finds oneself on a CTU helicopter, there's a fair chance that the ride will be extra-scenic. Ha
stings alludes to the connection between that and some allegedly loose nuclear material, and says he has a big favor to ask. He reminds her that she went undercover with the Russian mob for two years, and her cover is still intact, which sounds like a neat trick considering how many busts she made. When she asks if he wants her to return, Hastings kicks Dana and Chloe out to talk to Walker in private. When they're alone, he confirms that's what he's asking. This strikes Walker as ironic, but he offers to get her badge back. "I laid down my badge, Mr. Hastings," Walker says mildly. "I took it from my pocket and I laid it down. So why would you possibly think that I want it back?" Because he can't just ask anyone to do something without threatening or bribing them, Hastings asks what she does want, which she says is nothing. It's just that the Russian mob has weapons-grade uranium. "I can do something about that, so I'll go back in. But not for a badge." All Hastings can think to say is "thank you," and invite her to a briefing in ten minutes. He leaves her sitting in a chair, gazing up at the tattoos on the screen, with her back to the glass wall. Careless much?
At 7:32:56, Kiefer emerges from his debriefing to say goodbye to Chloe. Seeing the back of Walker's head in the conference room, he asks how that went, and Chloe says things got weird when Hastings showed up. Like they ever don't, with all his slouching and peering around and Bluetooth-wielding. She also brings Kiefer up to speed on the mildly dosed corpse of Davros in the morgue. "What's that got to do with Renee?" Kiefer asks. Chloe says Hastings asked Walker to go back undercover. Kiefer loses all interest in Chloe--as he so frequently does--goes over to the conference room, and walks in. Walker turns and sees him, and actually smiles for the first time, walking over to give him a hug. She's alive! Kiefer explains how he didn't think she'd want to see him, and she apologizes for ducking his calls. Although she was happy to hear he was okay. I'm guessing this is the first time they've spoken since he almost died and she went rogue. Kiefer says that despite appearances, he's not actually back at CTU, and is in fact supposed to be flying back to L.A. with Spawn as they speak. Explaining how he ended up here, he says, "Old informant knocked on my door, everything went downhill from there." Just use that clip for the previouslies for the rest of the season, okay? Kiefer brings up Hastings' request, and Walker says she signed on. "You really think that's a good idea?" he wonders. He says he's worried about her. I'm worried about the sex-voice he's using. It makes me feel uneasy and slightly gay. "I know what you did," he whispers. She asks him to specify. "You almost killed Wilson during your interrogation," Kiefer says. "Things were so bad the FBI had to let you go, even after everything you did that day." Awesome. So glad to hear how that worked out. Although I do appreciate the fact that there's no mention of what Walker actually found out from Wilson, because honestly, does it matter? Kiefer tells her, "Renee, I know where you are, and it's a dark place." Yes, he's spent a lot of time there. One almost expects him to continue, "It seems like it would be nice given how close to the park it is, but there's a lot of druggie foot traffic. Also, the shelves in the kitchen cabinets are too high and the toilet keeps running until you jiggle the handle and you can't find a three-prong outlet to save your life." She claims to have come back from there, but he says it takes longer than she thinks. She says she's ready, but he disagrees. After having spent one day and two minutes with her, counting this scene. He takes her hand gently, like this is about to get romantic, but then pushes up the cuff of her jacket to reveal scars on her wrist. Nosy much? Hey, maybe she was just trying to get back together with Larry Moss. He says this is too important, but she shuts back down and goes to her briefing. It's 7:35:45.
At 7:40:02, Hastings leads Reed along the hallway to his office, clumsily apologizing. "I'm sure you understand that given the threat to President Hassan, we were under extreme pressure," he excuses. Reed doesn't exactly take the high road, instead saying, "I would have thought that came with the job. Along with the ability to handle it." Then she's ushered into the office, to find Hassan there waiting. Although they're in there alone, they don't exactly rush to each other. Meredith says she heard how Farhad betrayed him, but he says Farhad betrayed hem both. No shit. "And then I betrayed you," Reed confesses. They finally cross the room to each other as she admits telling on him. And she's grateful to him for not bailing on her. "Before that moment I never really knew what you felt for me." Hassan thought he'd made that clear. Aw. But she can tell something's on his mind. He says he saw today how fragile everything he's worked for really is, and he can't jeopardize it. Which is a nice way of saying he's dumping her. She begins to leave, and he takes her arm, only to see his bodyguard outside the glass door, pointedly looking away. She leaves without another word at 7:42:27.
In the conference room, Walker is giving a briefing on her old undercover op. She broke up an arms ring and arrested everyone but the leader, Vladimir Laitanin. Which I find confusing, because the photo on the screen is of Jürgen Prochnow, and when I looked up on IMDB how to spell his character's name it's spelled "Bazhaev." Vladimir is going to be played by someone entirely different, whom I'll be getting to in the act. Whoever Vladimir is, Walker says he's their only possible link to Red Square. Chloe wonders how they find Vladimir, and Walker puts up a mug shot of a guy named Ziya Dachylov. IMDB was no help at all on that surname, by the way. Dana points out that Ziya never turned in Vladimir, even in exchange for immunity, but Walker reminds Dana that she's not an agent but a former felon. Is she referring to her cover or herself? She assures them Ziya will take the deal she plans to offer, which will allow her access to Vladimir to talk about a potential buyer for nuclear material. Cole will be playing that part, by the way. Because Freddie Prinze, Jr. totally looks like the kind of guy who's in the market for some uranium. Maybe if he pretends he wants it for a car stereo. Walker says they'll need to be able to show off some offshore accounts of a couple hundred million, and Hastings says he'll get on that. It's up to Walker and Cole to work with Chloe and put together their shared backstory. Right then, Kiefer walks in, asking to talk to Hastings alone. Chloe, Dana, and Cole get up and leave like Kiefer's their boss instead of Hastings (although honestly, it's only a matter of time), but when Kiefer says, "You too, Renee," she decides to stay. The one other person who doesn't work for Hastings, in other words. Walker tells Hastings he's making a mistake, and he's worried about both Walker and the operation. "She's not ready for this," Kiefer bosses. "You must have other options." Walker insists that she's the only one who knows these people, and Hastings agrees with her. "Fine, then I want to go with her," Kiefer announces. He offers to play the competing buyer, saying Cole doesn't have the experience. "This is how he gets it," Walker says. "Not with nucular weapons on the line," Kiefer snaps. He repeats his request to Hastings, making it official by using the word "officially." "I'd be foolish to object," Hastings says, but doesn't object anyway. Good thinking, Hastings: you're about to send out an undercover team composed entirely of people who aren't even on the government payroll. What could possibly go wrong? They agree to start working up a cover ID for Kiefer. "I'm sorry," Kiefer says to a disgusted-looking Walker on his way out. You'd think they'd be happier about getting the band back together. Even if this particular band is prone to more fatalities than Spinal Tap.
ed, while Hassan rides in a car back to CTU. After the splitscreens, we come back to a close-up of Ziya's bloody stump, while Walker stands over Ziya himself, who is now unconscious on the floor. Kiefer bursts in, his gun leveled, to see her coldly wiping her hands. "What have you done? What the hell have you done?" he bellows at her, like he never de-handed his own partner before, let alone cut a dude's head off. "That's it, this is over," he snits, holstering his weapon. "THIS IS OVER!" Whoa, look who's suddenly come over all squeamish! It's kind of adorable, actually. Unfazed, Walker says, "Maybe for you, Jack. I'm just getting started. Find something to cauterize that wound." Yeah, that dark place they were talking about? I think she's got her books and CDs and DVDs already moved in and fucking alphabetized. She leaves him standing over her unconscious victim. "Dammit," he says, realizing that as much as he hates this, she's just committed them but good. It's 8:00:00.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.