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
y he's only interested in the fuel rods, and entices Bazhaev with a briefer sentence in exchange for his cooperation in that score. "That offer extends to both of your sons, too," Kiefer says, gratuitously showing off his familiarity with Bazhaev's file. "Josef and Oleg." "Oleg is dead," Bazhaev says flatly, and Kiefer's eyes go strangely human. Bazhaev tells him the whole story, except for the part with Josef's detour to the doctor. "I shot him as if he was just a sick dog. I murdered my own son...for nothing." He actually sobs for a moment while Kiefer looks on with, if not compassion, at least curiosity. Then, with no transition whatsoever, Bazhaev looks up and offers to tell Kiefer where the rods are, in exchange for full immunity for himself and Josef. Kiefer's doubtful, but when Bazhaev shuts down, he offers to see what he can do.Kiefer steps away to dial his phone, and again gets Chloe at 11:46:22. He tells her he needs to talk to Hastings, but Chloe says he's talking to Taylor. "Even better, see if you can patch me in," Kiefer says. Pretty presumptuous for a guy who's walking around with his shirt open.
We join that call already in progress. Hastings is just telling Taylor that there's no indication that Farhad has the rods yet when an operator cuts in with news that Kiefer wants in on the call. "Put him through," Taylor says, and tells Kiefer he's on with Hastings and her Chief of Staff. Ethan would be on the call too, but apparently the U.N. is fresh out of Ouija boards. "I'm sorry that it's taken this long for us to speak," Taylor says. Kiefer gets it, and says, "Please forgive me for getting straight to the point." He tells her about Bazhaev's offer of info in exchange for immunity. Is that all?" Rob snarks. "Why don't we give him a parade down Broadway too?" Taylor asks if there's another way. Kiefer says that given Bazhaev's twelve years in a Russian labor camp, they probably don't have time to break him. Even with that battery charger in the back? It's all charged up and everything. Taylor asks what Hastings thinks, and Hastings says, "under the circumstances I'll defer to Jack's judgment on this." Kiefer rolls his eyes. He's never happy, is he? Taylor adds that she needs something to bring to Hassan before her peace agreement falls apart. "Make the deal, Jack." Kiefer says Bazhaev wants it in writing, and Taylor says he'll get it. "But in the interest of expediency, put him on the phone with me." Kiefer carries the phone over to Bazhaev and tells him, "The President of the United States wants to talk to you." Bazhaev gives Kiefer a surprised look for the second time this hour.
On the CTU floor, Cole purposefully walks up to Arlo's desk and asks what's going on. Arlo plays dumb, unconvincingly, then asks what Dana told Cole earlier, when she took him aside. Cole says she told him nothing, and pushes Arlo to share already. "It's none of my business and I don't want to be the one to tell you this," Arlo lies, "but I think she went to meet some guy." Cole scoffs, so Arlo pulls up a surveillance frame from that afternoon, with Dana and Kevin in the parking lot together. Arlo learned from security that the visitor gave his name as Kevin Wade, a "friend." Cole isn't convinced, so Arlo pulls up another frame, this one with Kevin touching Dana's face. Cole is still absorbing this when Hastings walks up. With uncharacteristic discretion (or simply from long years of practice and habit hiding what he's looking at on computer screens), Arlo quickly clears his monitor as Hastings tells Cole that they've learned where the rods are. "I've already scrambled a NEST team. Meet your tactical unit at the helipad. The coordinates will be relayed to you en route." Cole acknowledges, and once he's gone, asks Arlo if he could find Dana. Arlo says he could if there were any drones to spare "What about a cell trace?" Cole asks. Arlo just nods, and Cole tells him to do it. While walking away, Cole dials his own phone.
Dana's phone rings with his call, but she ignores it and puts her phone back in her purse. With the gun that's already in there. Then she looks across the bar to where Kevin and Nick are having their little party, unaware of her presence, even though she's the only woman in the place with clothes on. From CTU, Cole leaves her a voice mail: "I don't know where you are or what you're doing, Dana, but I need you to call me as soon as you get this. It's important. I love you." He gets onto the elevator, joined by a few of his tactical guys. One of them, the youngest, doesn't have his flak jacket quite buckled, so Cole helps him with the clasp. The rookie thanks him and apologizes. "Don't worry about it," Cole says and hits the up button. The doors close on his distracted face at 11:50:32.
11:54:52. Kayla is loaded for Kamistani bear as she charges into the hallway that adjoins the room where Tarin his being held. Nabeel, the shady dude who arrested Tarin, stops her, but she's not easily deterred. A splitscreen shows that Tarin can hear this through the door. Nabeel says he's just doing his job. "A job that Tarin gave you," Kayla reminds him. She only wants a few minutes with Tarin. Nabeel says he can't let her in now; he'll be leaving for their embassy in an hour, and Nabeel will find time for her to see him before then. Kayla is grateful to him, and he tells her to go before they're both in trouble. And then, the minute she's gone, he calls Hassan to tattle. We don't see it, of course, now or at any time in the rest of the episode, but I think we all know where this is going.
Everyone at CTU is watching the TAC team's approach to the truck stop via a live video link. Hastings is on the phone to Cole, warning him that there are two armed men guarding the truck. Cole asks why they won't surrender, since this is part of a deal and all. Hastings explains that Kiefer thought they couldn't take the risk that the guards will take off with the rods, and for all of Hastings' faults, at least he's learned from his predecessors about the dangers of not listening to Kiefer. Hastings instructs Cole to take the rods to Fort Hamilton once he has them, which is getting a little ahead of himself. The spotlight on the CTU helicopter picks out a white truck, with no one in the cab. The chopper sets down at 11:56:35, right in front of the truck. With flawless timing, a CTUmobile rolls into position as it does so, and the camera focuses in on the face of that CTU rookie in the back of the chopper, which means he's either about to die or turn traitor, or both. They all jump out of their vehicles, weapons drawn, and go around the back as NYPD cars close in to create a tight perimeter. Because God knows CTU sucks at that. An agent reads a Geiger counter at a safe level of 30 millirads, and they open the back of the truck. The first thing they see is Bazhaev's man leaning against the end of that big wooden crate, with a bullet hole in his forehead. The driver's also in the back, equally dead. The agents climb up into the trailer, shining their flashlights around, only to find that giant wooden coffin open and empty. "Where the hell are the rods?" Hastings demands, still watching remotely. Cole says the trace radiation indicates they were here, for all the good that does them. "Right now all we have are two bodies, close shot." That young agent calls out to Cole that he sees something, which is a pretty weak payoff for how much screen time he's already gotten. What he sees, hanging from the inside of the truck door, is a necklace with a gold cross. The same one that Oleg was wearing, the one that Bazhaev insisted Josef keep. Well, it looks like he didn't. Josef disobeys again!
In other splitscreen windows, Bazhaev looks disheveled and defeated, not yet aware that his night is only going to get worse. Tarin sits in handcuffs while his guards mill outside the room, and Rob and Taylor look thoughtful, or perhaps just wonder where Ethan is. And then Nick and Kevin leave the bar with a couple of strippers, while Dana watches from across the street in her parked car, gun in hand. Cole continues contemplating the cross