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
ding. Wouldn't this be an awful time for her personal cell phone to ring? Of course, it does. She thanks Hastings and ducks out of the room, answering it at 2:34:37 as he watches her go."Can I ask who I'm speaking with?" asks the voice of Jimmy James. Yes, it's literally Stephen Root, calling from his car. Dana unwisely tells the caller her name -- Dana, not Jenny. "Forgive me, Ms. Walsh, for calling at this ungodly hour," he mugs. He says he expected to leave a message and apologizes for waking her. Dana politely asks what this is about, and the caller identifies himself as a guy named Prady, from the Department of Corrections in Little Rock. And he's looking for Kevin Wade. Ooh, just what Dana needs right now. Walking down the hall so Hastings doesn't see her on the phone, Dana lies that she doesn't know Kevin. Which is as stupid as anything she's done, because obviously Prady found her number somehow. The thing to do would have been to go back to the old story she tried on Kevin, which was that he had mistaken her for someone else and was bothering the wrong person. I mean, it didn't work on Kevin, but he knew Jenny Scott, unlike Prady. She might have been able to get rid of him easily. But now Prady's folksy, down-home antenna are activated, because he knows, and he tells Dana, that Kevin called her number from a motel room in Queens. Dana tries to blow it off as a wrong number, and Prady doesn't buy that either, given the number and length of some of the calls. Dana tries to rush him off the phone, using her work crisis as a pretext. Prady gets that, "But since we're both awake, I wonder if I could meet with you in person." Now, in fact. Prady says it won't take long, and when Dana seems less than enthusiastic, Prady offers, still in that mildly demented southern gentleman manner, "If it'll smooth things over, I can call your supervisor." Dana jumps all over saying he doesn't need to do that, and can spare him a few minutes. "Thank you, ma'am, that would be super," Prady says, and pulls over to get Dana's address.
Back at the hospital, Marcos gets a third LED light going. It's a peculiar feature of this vest that as each circuit is completed, it makes a louder and more dramatic sound effect. Someone really did some thorough usability testing on this interface. Meanwhile a CTU crew is only now getting a drill into place. And then what are they going to do when they get through, pull Marcos out through the resulting keyhole? After snagging him with a really long crocheting hook? Owen tells Kiefer that Marcos will be ready to rumble in ten minutes or less, which is not going to give the crew nearly enough time to get to him. Fortunately, Cole has just delivered Elaine into the hallway behind them, guiding her to a seat and telling someone to get her some water. "Take care of that," Kiefer tells Owen, who less than an hour ago was being asked to face down a suicide bomber and is now on butler duty. Cole comes over to report to Kiefer that Elaine came quietly, but she had a packed suitcase. "So he cares enough about her to make sure she got out of town," Kiefer realizes. He heads over to talk to Elaine himself at 2:37:33, pausing to take her water out of Owen's hand so he can be the one to give it to her. Poor Owen. Dude's still got blood on his face, Kiefer, maybe you could throw him a bone. Kiefer introduces himself to Elaine as the guy in charge of field operations. Elaine wants to see Marcos, and Kiefer says he'll take her to him, but first he needs her to sit down so he can explain some stuff to her. So Kiefer's not going to wonder where Cole was either? I can see Hastings letting that slide, but Kiefer should know better. Well, he knows better than to let himself get wrapped up in that stupid C-plot, I suppose.
We don't get to hear Kiefer's conversation with Elaine, because we have to watch Cole answer his ringing phone and listen to Dana tell him about the probation officer situation. Cole totally shuts down, saying he can't do anything about it now. Dana says Prady caught her in a lie, so he's on his way to talk to her. "You're gonna have to figure out a reason why [Kevin] had your number," Cole says. Hey, you're the one who said no one would miss them, smart guy. Dana doesn't think she can pull this off. "What, lie?" Cole asks. "Come on, we both know you're good at it." Ouch. Cole apologizes for that, but tells her this is her job to handle. "Let me know what happens, I gotta go." So I guess the new dynamic of their relationship is Cole decides what to do and then Dana gets to deal with the fallout. I guess that's a start toward evening things out between them.
Still talking to Elaine, Kiefer has just gotten to the part of the story where Marcos is working with people who are trying to hit Manhattan with a dirty bomb. "Now he's going to kill himself in order to protect this plot unless you can convince him otherwise." He gives her the bottom line: she needs to get him to open the door. She asks what's next. "He'll be alive," Kiefer says, and adds that he'll do what he can to help Marcos in exchange for his cooperation. In between being both Grandpa Kiefer in L.A. and dating Renee Walker in New York, I guess. Time to head into the other room. Cole and Kiefer walk her over to the anteroom door at 2:39:45, and Kiefer kicks everyone else out of there. From his listening post, Ali is able to recognize Marcos's mother, and he tells Samir over the phone that it's her. Samir wonders if she'll be able to talk him down, and Ali thinks not. The scene is also being monitored from CTU, as Elaine goes up to the intercom screen and says her son's name. Marcos is pretty upset to see her. "You son of a bitch!" Marcos yells. He really is a terrorist, talking to his mom that way. Oh, I guess he's addressing Kiefer, who's lurking in the background. "Leave us alone! Leave us alone!" Marcos screams. Kiefer exits the room without a word of protest. He can see better on the monitors in the CTU command post in the hallway anyhow. Once he's gone, Marcos asks why she didn't go like he asked. She'll see that and raise him taking part in a terrorist attack. He's getting such a time-out. He doesn't deny anything, and she asks why. "After what this country did to Dad?" She says he never condoned violence, but Marcos thinks he'd be on their side: "He hated America." Elaine reminds Marcos he hated America so much he moved to America, married an American wife, and had an American son. Who is about to kill thousands of Americans, so her argument kind of breaks down if you bring it to its logical conclusion.
While she continues talking, broadcast over the giant monitors at CTU, a message pops up at the bottom of the screen. Chloe realizes it means someone's tapping in, and tells Hastings, adding that she's trying to trace it. Hey, if she can do that, they can let Marcos blow himself up and Elaine can go home. Everybody wins! Except Marcos and Elaine, obviously.
Meanwhile, Elaine is blaming herself for this situation, which Marcos tells her not to do. "You couldn't have done any more, or been a better mother." "She's almost got him," Kiefer mutters from the command post. Don't jinx it! Chloe's voice suddenly pops up in his ear saying they're being spied on, but she couldn't trace it. Kiefer says he'll take care of it from there and asks Owen how long it'll take to disconnect the video system. "Thirty seconds," Owen says. Kiefer tells him to make it so.
Marcos is telling his mom that he knows she's supposed to convince him to open the door, but it's too late. Why? Aside from the conspiracy and attempted murder charges, all he's actually succeeded in doing is assault one CTU agent, shoot a corpse, and cause some property damage to the hospital. And the clubbing seems to have done said agent some good, the corpse had it coming, and nobody seems to work or be in treatment at this hospital anyway so he can just blame it on squatters. Elaine begs him some more, but he tells her to be strong. Kiefer sees this going bad, and orders Elaine pulled out. Cole's on it, as Marcos tells her he loves her and she screams his name while Cole physically removes her.
Kiefer enters the anteroom, loaded for bear. Ali watches remotely, until the screen goes snowy. See? Owen's brain is still working ju