Episode Report Card M. Giant: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Nuclear Family Meltdown
By M. Giant | Season 8 | Episode 8 | Aired on 02.15.2010
t foil the terrorists, maybe he can at least flood their basement. It's 11:25:56.At 11:30:13, Kayla Hassan is insisting on seeing her father. She seemed like such a simpering dishrag at first, but now that chick looks like she's got some steel in her. When she's allowed in, she says they need to talk about Tarin's arrest. Hassan weasels that Tarin is going to their embassy to "help clarify a few questions. Strictly routine." Kayla's not fooled, and reminds Hassan that Tarin would have died in a successful assassination attempt, being in the targeted car and all. But even that doesn't convince Hassan of Tarin's innocence. He says there are plenty of people willing to die for a cause. Including Hassan, a few hours ago, before all this went down and his elevator quit going to the top floor. He commends Kayla on her loyalty to her friend, and Kayla breaks the news that they're "in love, and have been for almost a year." Hassan is stunned: "You've been carrying on with this man behind my back?" he demands, as though he himself hadn't trusted his life to "this man." Kayla calls him on his bullshit, which she should given the whole Meredith Reed fiasco, and begs him not to let Farhad's betrayal turn him against everyone. With tears in his eyes, Hassan says, "I can't think of a better way to completely infiltrate my life and influence my judgment than getting close to my daughter." How flattering for her, really. Hassan forbids her to see him again, and says he needs to get back to work. "What's happening to you?" she asks, and leaves without an answer. But I think we can guess. Next hour, I assume we'll see Hassan discovering some suspicious calls on his own phone, whereupon he will order his own arrest and interrogation, which will continue until he either dies or confesses to himself.
Kiefer hasn't succeeded in getting that pipe loose yet, and Dmitri's about to wake up. Finally it breaks loose, and all the water in it must have already dripped out, because it comes down bone-dry. The racket rouses Dmitri fully, and Kiefer barely gets his hands unhooked from the pipe in time to deflect Dmitri's onrushing knife. Even with his hands and feet still tied, Kiefer is able to break Dmitri's arm, then wrap his legs around his neck and snap it. Then, with Dmitri's own knife, he cuts his bonds and relieves Dmitri's corpse of the gun Dmitri should have used in the first place. Seriously, why get in close with a guy who already subdued you while hanging from the ceiling? Kiefer also finds Dmitri's cell phone in a shirt pocket, but the battery is dead, so no joy. Kiefer realizes he's going to have to leave this room, so he sneaks out, Dmitri's gun leveled. People are talking out in the kitchen, but he stays out of sight, just able to overhear Bazhaev's informing his men that he plans to unload the rods to Farhad as soon as possible. Kiefer glances over, and spots the building's circuit box, which is in a highly convenient spot. Bazhaev is still barking orders as he and his men emerge into the dining room -- and find themselves plunged into total darkness. Well, that should slash the cost of filming the rest of this scene. But then the emergency lights come on a moment later, and a quick look outside (excuse me, through a crack in a heavy velvet curtain that I'm certain actually conceals a solid soundstage wall) verifies that they're the only building on the street without power. "It's Meier. Cover the exits," Bazhaev orders. He sends one of his men to check the fuse box. That's an enviable gig. The hapless goon assigned to this project takes a flashlight and checks all around. The coast appears clear, but as soon as he reaches for the main switch to turn it on again, Kiefer jumps down on him from somewhere, quietly kills him with Dmitri's knife, finds his cell phone, and dials. I hope he's calling the health board, because there's some nasty shit going on in this restaurant tonight.
Actually, the call goes straight to Chloe, who's pretty excited to hear from him. "Everyone's been looking for you," she says. "Where are you?" Kiefer just tells her to trace the call and send a TAC team, then puts the phone down. He's got some people to kill and he wants to get right to it. He sneaks through the kitchen, all but repelled by the exit sign that offers an escape to the street. Instead, he makes his way upstairs. From the kitchen's upper level, he can see the heads of two of Bazhaev's goons framed in the round windows of the waitstaff doors, and quickly shoots them. They go down fast enough, but Bazhaev himself suddenly has a shotgun, and he opens up with it. Kiefer almost finds cover in time to avoid stopping some buckshot with his shoulder, but not quite. He comes out another exit, snatches up one of the dead henchmen's Uzis, and engages Bazhaev in a brief gunfight before rolling and diving under a table. Bazhaev approaches slowly, firing shell after shell through his own tables, linens, and place settings. Except he's shooting at such a shallow angle, I can't see how anything could be going through. But it sure is quiet in there now. He bends down to check under one of the tables, and it attacks him. That'll learn him to shoot at his furniture! Oh, it's just Kiefer, rising up from beneath it and hurling it onto Bazhaev. The Uzi at the ready, Kiefer uncovers Bazhaev from the wreckage and finds him bloody, unconscious, but alive. It's 11:37:37. Now he can relax. Assuming there aren't any more goons in there, of course, which apparently he is.
11:41:54: Cole and Hastings come down from CTU's upper level, talking over the situation at the restaurant. Apparently it's been all secured during the commercials. Hastings suddenly wonders where Dana is, and Arlo says she left about fifteen minutes ago. "Something about fixing a faulty relay at our 17th Street station." Cole asks why she didn't send maintenance. "Good question," Arlo says pointedly, before relaying Dana's story that she had to manually reboot the firmware. "That's what she said, anyway." This doesn't escape Cole, but Hastings is more interested in what they have on Bazhaev. Chloe's already got a whole dossier coming together, and she starts putting photos of Bazhaev up on the screen. Hastings announces to his people that they have an ID. "His name is Sergei Petrovich Bazhaev. Ukrainian national, 61 years of age." They think, correctly, that he knows where the rods are, and they'll be bringing him back to CTU for interrogation. Cole heads off to coordinate that, sharing a long glance with Arlo. A long, long, glance. Wait, are we sure it's Dana that Arlo's really after?
Walker comes downstairs to ask Chloe if what she heard about Kiefer is true, and Chloe confirms it. She says Walker needs to go to Medical, and promises to tell Kiefer where she is when he gets back. As if that wouldn't be the first place he looked, after the armory.
Over at the restaurant, an EMT is patching up Kiefer's shoulder, saying he'll need to get to the hospital later. Sure he will. What about the knife wound? An NYPD cop hands Kiefer a PDA with Bazhaev's file already uploaded onto it, and says CTU's people are five minutes away. Pulling his shirt back on, but still not buttoning it, Kiefer pages through the file before walking over to where Bazhaev is being attended to by an EMT of his own. Kiefer asks for a moment alone with him, and it's granted. Kiefer assumes casual interrogation pose #13B, sitting on a chair backwards, facing the subject. Without looking at Kiefer, Bazhaev says he knew it. "I should have trusted my instincts and killed you on the spot." Instead of telling Bazhaev that he's hardly the first to make that mistake, Kiefer says, "You can add it to your list of regrets." He adds that CTU has the goods on him. "It's over, you know that right? You're finished. At the very least, we've got you on kidnapping and murder, and that's before CTU rips this place apart and uncovers the rest of your criminal activity." Wait, what murders does Kiefer know about? Does he plan on pinning the deaths he just caused on Bazhaev? That hardly seems sporting. Kiefer says Bazhaev's luck