Episode Report Card M. Giant: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Under Pressure
By M. Giant | Season 8 | Episode 11 | Aired on 03.08.2010
st fine. Ali reports to Samir that he's lost video, but he can still see through his binoculars that Elaine's no longer in the anteroom but Kiefer is. So they can't even see that Marcos just finished wiring the fourth circuit. Marcos picks up the detonator slowly. Casually, looking off to the side so Marcos can admire his profile, Kiefer hits the intercom button and says, "You detonate that vest, your mother dies too." Marcos isn't sure he heard right, so Kiefer clarifies, "I'm gonna make sure your mother's in Manhattan when that dirty bomb goes off." Marcos says Kiefer doesn't even know the target, but Kiefer isn't talking about having her die in the actual explosion. "I'm gonna personally escort her to the blast site so she's exposed to the radiation." Marcos doesn't buy it, what with Kiefer being a federal agent. Kiefer kind of explains about being a specialist brought in for the occasion. "If you knew who I was, the things I've done before in my life, you would know that I'm not bluffing." Indeed, I could give Marcos a whole list of people to ask, but most of them are dead. Kiefer tells Marcos to go ahead. "First thing I'm gonna do is I'll make your mother come in here and clean it up." Dude, that's rough. And then he'll take her to he blast site. "You know how long it takes the human body to absorb a lethal dose of cesium 137?" Well, doesn't everyone? "Five seconds. Followed by twelve days of pain that is so agonizing, morphine can't even touch it." He says it's up to Marcos, and finally turns to the camera full on, inviting Marcos to look into his eyes. Which are pretty scary. Good thing Kiefer framed his face in the camera in such a way as to not accidentally cut them off, because that would have undercut the effect a bit. "What happens to your mother is because of you. Only you." Marcos starts crying as he makes Kiefer promise to leave her alone if he comes out. Sounding like he's passing a kidney stone, Marcos puts the detonator button down and moves to the door. Kiefer backs up and levels his weapon as Marcos opens it and steps out. Kiefer yells at him, and suddenly Marcos, who has been trying to blow himself up for an hour, is all scared of Kiefer shooting him. "Cole, I got four lights on," Kiefer says. Cole calls in for assistance. Meanwhile, Ali can see Marcos outside the chamber through his binoculars, and reports as much to Samir. "They must have talked him out of it, but he's re-armed the vest." As his men finish transferring the crate with the rods into yet another vehicle, Samir tells Ali, "Hang up right now and transmit the fail-safe." Fail-safe? No fair!Kiefer's busy trying to disconnect the vest-bomb himself, telling Cole to keep his men back because he knows what he's doing. Those lights on the vest start beeping and blinking, scaring the hell out of Marcos. And next to them is a timer, now counting down from 60 seconds. Okay, that evens things out a little. This is certainly a warning-rich interface on this vest. I'm sure that when Ali transmitted the fail-safe, his computer monitor lit up with a series of dialogue boxes like, "This action will permanently delete the person wearing the vest. Are you sure you want to proceed? OK/Cancel." Kiefer tells Cole it's a fail-safe (because it's impossible that Kiefer might have triggered this himself with his tinkering), and tells Cole and his men to clear out. "Get this off of me!" Marcos hollers desperately. Apparently the vest doesn't just come off, though. Kiefer's doing his best to defuse the wiring, while Elaine screams from the hallway behind him, pausing only to yell, "Get her out of here now!" Kiefer starts to realize he might not have time, and asks Marcos what the target is. Marcos doesn't know. Nor does he know how they plan to get it into the city, past the radiation detectors. "Who does?" Kiefer yells, and Marcos understands him even though he was talking at the same time. Now is when you'd expect Marcos to give up Ali or Samir, for all the good that would do Kiefer, but Marcos walked in here with more than one bombshell under his jacket, and here's the second one: "President Hassan's head of security, Tarin Faroush!" Marcos says. Whoa! Check out Marcos, delivering the goods! Kiefer's hands are now shaking like they did near the end of last season, and with less than ten seconds left, he looks up at Marcos with anguished eyes and says, "I'm not gonna be able to do this in time," "Tell my mother I'm sorry," Marcos says as the bomb starts to make a noise like a camera flash warming up. At the last moment, Marcos turns and runs back into the chamber. Kiefer tries to close the door behind him. But they left it just a second too late, and the blast hits the door hard enough to make it smack Kiefer and, along with the blast, send him spinning across the anteroom like a racquetball. From where he's lying on the floor, Kiefer looks into the chamber, which now has a really bad red paint job. "CTU, this is Jack," Kiefer says from the floor. "Marcos is dead. I'm gonna need to speak to Predizzent Hassan." It's 2:49:17, and I know he's still shaken up, but he's going to need to get it together if he's going to be talking to any predizzents.
At 2:53:35, Hassan is on the phone begging with the NYPD for their help in the search for Kayla. Nabeel enters, saying Hassan has a call coming in from Jack Bauer. Hassan takes it on speaker, and Kiefer brings Hassan up to speed on the most recent developments, and their new lead: "Before the suspect was killed he identified your head of security, Tarin Faroush, as a co-conspirator." Hassan, to his credit, does not commence jumping up and down, pointing at Dalia, and singing, "Told ya so!" Kiefer tells Hassan to have U.N. security take Tarin into custody. Hassan explains at length about why that's not going to work, giving Kiefer a little TMI about his daughter. He has to admit that he has no idea where they are, and neither he nor his wife have been able to reach her. While Dalia goes for her cell phone for another shot at it, Kiefer tells him to keep trying. "Right now, Mr. Faroush is our only lead." Which means he's doomed.
Kiefer's only lead gets into the shower in the hotel suite. A bathrobed Kayla watches him dreamily, then hears her phone ring again at 2:55:34. This time she finally answers. Hassan quietly tells Kiefer that Kayla's on the phone, and Kiefer says he needs an address. Dalia is already asking her that, but Kayla is still playing coy with her mom, assuming Hassan put her up to it. Dalia then asks if Tarin's with her, and she says not right now, because he wants to stay incommunicado. Dalia breaks the news to Kayla about Tarin being a mole, and Kayla eye-rolls about Hassan's "paranoid delusions." Dalia says it's coming from CTU this time. "You know I loathe your father's behavior and the way that he's handled everything," Dalia reminds Kayla, to demonstrate her sincerity, while behind her, Hassan is looking like, I'm right here. Kayla's in denial about Tarin, who is now getting out of the shower. Dalia asks her again where she is. Finally, Kayla quickly rattles off, "The Teodore Hotel, Suite 514." Dalia tells her to stay where she is, while Hassan relays the location to Kiefer.
Tarin sees Kayla on the phone, and she acts innocently busted as she tells her mom she'll call later. "Please don't tell father we spoke," she lets Tarin hear her say before hanging up. The whole next scene occurs with them still pointing those loving smiles at each other, even though I'm doubting Kayla's going to be getting sprayed down again any time soon. Tarin reminds her of their agreement, and she says she didn't want her mom to worry. "Did you tell her where we are?" he asks. She shakes her head. "Do you think I am stupid?" she asks sweetly. He comes over to her, saying, "You know I could never think such a thing. You are perfection." And it's a credit to his skills as a spy that he can say that without barfing. After a quick kiss, he tells her to get dressed, for their meeting at the State Department. "At this hour?" Kayla asks. She makes excuses