Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Girl Troubles
By M. Giant | Season 8 | Episode 5 | Aired on 01.25.2010
lyin' to you!" she twangs back up at him from the floor, insisting that she only got out of prison first because she was a minor. Kevin, suddenly friendly again, says he doesn't care, now that he knows what her job is. Counting the cash she brought, he says she has access to some good shit through her CTU connections. "Bank codes, Port Authority Manifests, Stock Exchange." She says her access isn't unrestricted, but he says she'll figure it out. "Whatever it is, payout's gotta be at least six figures, okay?" She gets up and goes to him, begging, "Please, Kevin?" I hate this so much. I hate seeing Katee Sackhoff having to do this. But then I guess if you have a dark, formerly groundbreaking, critically acclaimed one-hour drama series and it's got a really stupid subplot, who else are you going to call to carry that subplot than Katee Sackhoff? Kevin seems to take pity on her, promising to never bother her again if she does this one thing. She sobs that she can't. He takes her face in his hands. Say it with him, everybody: "You can, and you will."Outside Vladimir's hideout, in their respective vehicles, Kiefer is telling Walker that they've been living in a hotel called Bella Noche in Avenida Juarez, which apparently doesn't keep records for the sole purpose of harboring criminal activity. Fits with their cover story and it's impossible to check. He says he'll keep filling her in when she goes inside. And here comes Ziya, telling her, "Come on, let's go." The two of them head toward the entrance as Kiefer watches.
This is when Chloe calls Kiefer to say, "It's not pretty, Jack. She had a real problem on her hands." She tells Kiefer that Vladimir was "completely obsessed with her. It turned violent." And they cast Callum Keith Rennie? What a stretch for him. "Did he rape her?" Kiefer demands, displaying a curiosity about Walker's lady bits that doesn't seem strictly professional. Chloe says it looks like there were a couple of attempts. She admits that Walker never mentioned this to her or Hastings. Chloe asks Kiefer what's up, and Kiefer says what he's thinking: he knows that she tried to kill herself at least once. Chloe wonders if he's speculating that Walker's trying to get herself killed tonight. "I don't think she cares what happens to her either way," Kiefer says. As though we couldn't tell that about her the minute we saw her hair.
The goons let Walker and Ziya back into the warehouse at 8:43:22. Walker is thoroughly patted down, and then sent to walk across the room to where Vladimir is leaning against a toolbox with his back to her. So I think we know who the real toolbox is. She says hi and he turns around, fidgeting like a nervous suitor. She notices that his face looks different, although it looks the same to me as it did in the surveillance photos. "I had it done in Caracas. What do you think?" he asks. She says it makes him look younger, and asks for the name of the doctor. "He's not practicing any more. A sad story." Oddly, Vladimir does not look all that sad. Vladimir asks what she was doing in Mexico City. She says she had business there, and he wants specifics. Names, in fact. While waiting for Kiefer to supply her some through her earpiece, she gives Vladimir an "oh, really, Vlad? Really?" look, and then rattles off the names Kiefer relays her. He suddenly seems to notice that she looks different too. "Your eyes. Your skin. You look like hell." Look at that boy flirt! "It's hard to look your best with a gun in your face," Walker points out smoothly. With a nod to the henchman who's been pointing a weapon at her head this whole time, Vladimir gets to see that she looks the same even without one. "Have you been sick?" he asks. "Maybe you picked up a little hepatitis C on your travels?" Dude's got game! He asks where she stayed, and she tells him the Bella Noche. He says she must know the politician who gives it cover, then. Kiefer asks Chloe for that information, because it's not in the cover profile, and she quickly starts digging. Walker tries to fill the time by acting all annoyed with Vladimir. You know what? I bet if Dana had finished this herself instead of having to dump it in Arlo's lap, this information would have been in it. I'm still not invested in the Kevin Wade storyline, but if he gets Walker killed I'm going to have a major bone to pick with him. Luckily for everyone, Chloe comes up with the name Raul Castillo. Walker says it to Vladimir through her teeth and asks, "Are we done playing twenty questions now?" He says they are, and that he'd forgotten how much fun she is. "You're not like other women. You have balls." Clearly Vladimir is unaware of certain varieties of prostitutes. "You always did say the nicest things," she says, and asks if they can talk business. Vladimir's answer: "Tie her up!" As she and Ziya wonder what's going on, he says, "You gave me all the right answers, Renee, but you're not telling the truth." He can't think she's working undercover, can he, having just cut off Ziya's thumb? Does he think that's in the CTU Field Manual? The real one, I mean, not the old one with all the Post-Its® sticking out of the pages covered in blood and Kiefer's handwriting? Whatever the case, he orders them both stuffed in the trunk of a car, while Ziya loudly babbles about how he knows nothing about this. When the trunk lid closes, Kiefer gets an earful of feedback. Back at CTU, Chloe figures the car must be armored. From where he's sitting, Kiefer sees a car pull out into the alley, and follows with his headlights off while Chloe monitors via satellite. "I think this operation just blew up," Kiefer says. Chloe asks if he wants to intercept. "Not if the car is armored," Kiefer says. "I'm gonna need tactical support." Chloe says she'll tell Hastings. Kiefer adds that there are four men in the car, and they have to assume Walker is being taken somewhere to be killed. And because it's Kiefer, he can't end the scene without a loud, frustrated, "Dammit!" It's 8:48:24.
8:52:43. Some dude in a shirt and tie, presumably the doctor Josef was mentioning earlier, finishes up a phone call with his wife just before the Bazhaev brothers come stumbling in. Josef plops Oleg on a couch and says, "I need your help." The doctor picks up the phone to call an ambulance, and finds himself looking down the barrel of Josef's automatic. Josef says nobody else can know about this, and to make sure, he has people outside the doctor's house right now. "The light in your little daughter's room just went out about ten minutes ago." The doctor gets it, and Josef lowers the gun. He says Oleg has radiation poisoning. "His symptoms seem quite advanced," the doc says, and says he might not be able to do anything. Josef threatens him some more, and the doctor asks what he came into contact with. "Uranium," Josef says. "Weapons-grade, 235." He's certainly free with that information. Papa's going to be pissed. Too bad they couldn't go see House, to whom he could lie and House would still figure it out.
Kiefer's following that black car down the freeway while on the phone to Hastings back at CTU. He says the TAC teams are three minutes away, and they have orders to engage only on Hastings' say-so. This does not make Kiefer nearly as nervous as you might think. "Any percentage in letting this play out?" Hastings wonders. Kiefer thinks not: "This operation is over. Vladimir didn't take the bait." Chloe reports that the car looks like it's heading to the BQE, and Kiefer warns that they need to do this soon. After a moment, Hastings gives his teams the green light.
"This is good. Pull over," Vladimir says. The car does, next to the river, at 8:55:03. Which is kind of confusing, because even though Kiefer can hear Ziya recommencing his panic-babble when the trunk lid is opened, he's still following a moving vehicle. Kiefer realizes they're tracking a decoy, and orders Chloe to find the car Walker really left in. Chloe pulls up the satellite footage while Hastings tells the TAC teams to hold off. Chloe says a second car left five minutes after the