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Tarin gets word from Samir that he's busted, and when he sees the NYPD moving in early -- against Kiefer's orders, no less -- he makes a run for it, dragging Kayla with him. She soon finds herself in front of the terrorists' webcam. They're using her as leverage to demand something called "File 33" from President Hassan. Hassan feigns ignorance, until finally admitting that it's a file on all the weaknesses in American defenses -- including how to disable the radiological detectors that are the only thing preventing the bad guys from getting the fuel rods into Manhattan. Hassan is tasked with stalling the terrorists with a fake file while Kiefer and Cole track down Kayla. And Tarin, in turn, is tasked with killing Kayla if her father doesn't come through with the goods. But instead, Tarin runs away with her again. Apparently he had second thoughts or was a double agent all along. Tarin is shot in the escape, but Kayla gets away, the terrorists in hot pursuit. She calls in and directs Kiefer to the hideout while Dana directs her to CTU, but Kiefer and Cole find the hideout empty and abandoned. But at least Arlo's tracking the bad guys' car with an aerial drone, so that's okay.
Dana has to meet with Prady, Kevin's probation officer, and spins a pretty convincing tale about an ill-advised one night stand with Kevin. Prady, however, is not convinced, and won't be gotten rid of. In fact, he insists that Dana give him CTU's footage from the evidence lockup robbery, and Dana's about to hand it over and give herself up.
But then! Turns out Tarin's not dead after all; he just faked Kayla's escape so she could drive the getaway car right into CTU. And in the trunk is a ticking EMP bomb! CTU goes completely and spectacularly dark when it detonates, so that'll about do it for tracking the bad guys. The only good news is for Dana: if all of CTU's data archives are wiped, she's just gotten her first break of the season.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Tonight's previouslies freeze-frames feature Dana Walsh, Jack Bauer, Kayla Hassan and Samir Mehran. Big promotion for Samir!
Okay, so I'm just going to tell you right now that I thought this was a great episode. Unfortunately, those are the hardest to pick apart, which made this recap a bit of a challenge to write. Apologies in advance that I couldn't seem to find my long knives this week.
From the CTU floor, Hastings calls for attention so that his whole staff can get the full exposition. IRK nationalists are looking to detonate a dirty bomb in Manhattan, and CTU's only lead is Tarin Faroush. But what about the radiological detectors at the bridges and tunnels? Hastings explains, "We believe he wants to disable our defenses so they can smuggle the bomb into Manhattan." Hastings throws it to Chloe, who reports that Tarin's at the Teodore Hotel with Kayla Hassan, who has been warned of Tarin's involvement and instructed to prevent him from leaving. Hastings asks when their guys are expected to get there, and Dana chimes into say NYPD is almost at the staging area and CTU is ten minutes away. Hastings tells Chloe to work with the NYPD, but Chloe defers to Dana, saying she's better at that. "Fine," Hastings agrees. "Jack Bauer's heading field ops. Dana's on point with NYPD. Arlo will run aerial. Let's get to it." And Hastings is on exposition, but since he has completed those duties with alacrity, he can kick back for the rest of the hour.
As the buzz of activity resumes, Arlo heads over to Chloe to ask who he's supposed to be reporting to now. Chloe blows him off, so now poor Arlo doesn't know whom to hit on. He just tells Chloe that the drones are in position over the Teodore Hotel. In the background, Dana cuts a look at Chloe, probably worried that she's losing her position as Arlo's favorite target of sexual harassment.
Tarin is still waiting for Kayla to come out of the bathroom. She turns on the shower to throw him off, and goes to the window. Tarin tries to hurry her along by calling through the locked door (not that he has his own shirt on yet, but then again, not that anyone could blame him). But she's already trying to leave on her own -- out the window, until she discovers it won't open more than a few inches. While he tries to make sense of the suspicious noises emanating from within, his cell phone rings. He goes to answer it, and it's Samir, warning him that Marcos talked and Tarin might be compromised. Grimacing, Tarin tells Samir about the call from her mother. "Get out now and bring her with you," Samir instructs. "We're moving to the phase." But doesn't Tarin need a ride? Samir says that someone named Hamid is on his way. Tarin finally puts his shirt on and calls to Kayla again. She asks for one more minute, and he again tells her to hurry. Kayla just looks trapped, but now she's doing it faster.
The CTU convoy is on its way as Kiefer gets Tarin's file uploaded to his dashboard computer. Kiefer also wants hotel schematics and access to its security systems on his screen. I want Kiefer to keep his eyes on the damn road. Dana sends him the goods, adding that Tarin and Kayla are in room 514 and hotel security is ready... to let the cops in. What, hotel security isn't going to be part of taking down a terror suspect? Raw deal for them. Hastings asks what their ETA is, and Kiefer says it's about eight minutes. In the meantime, he wants to talk to the NYPD guy in charge at the site. Dana gets a Sergeant Amos on the line, and he's all impatient about having to wait for CTU when he's already in his staging area. Kiefer tells Amos that Tarin Faroush has the daughter of President Hassan as his hostage. "We'll make sure that girl doesn't come to any harm," Amos blusters. Cole cuts in to say that Tarin's actually the priority. "Like I said, we'll handle him," Amos says, to Cole's visible frustration. Kiefer warns Amos not to underestimate Tarin: "He was president Hassan's head of security. He knows what he's doing. I want your men to set up a perimeter and wait for us." He promises to let Amos know if Tarin leaves the room. Amos doesn't promise anything. Which is just about the nicest thing anybody is going to have to say about him pretty soon.
Kayla and Tarin are still deadlocked on opposite sides of the bathroom door, but at least Kayla is mostly dressed now. Tarin goes to the window and moves the curtain to look outside. The sidewalk and street below look quiet and abandoned -- as they should, at three-ish in the morning -- until three heavily armed, black-clad figures trot into view. Smooth, Sergeant Amos. Tarin throws his jacket on and gives Kayla one more warning before smashing in the door. "Stop this game!" he yells in her face. "We walk out of here right now." He grabs her hand and pulls her along, threatening, "Believe me, the last thing I want to do is hurt you, but I will!" So I guess he's dropped the pretense of being in love. Or else he's just really bad at pretending.
At CTU, the hotel security cameras show the two of them heading into the hallway. "Someone must have tipped them off," Kiefer realizes, watching on his dashboard computer, without realizing that the tipping off was done by stupid Sergeant Amos. He starts to tell Amos to hold off, but Amos is insisting on moving in now, no matter how many times Kiefer tells him to stand down. Cole watches on the dashboard monitor as Tarin and Kayla wait for an elevator on the fifth floor, until Tarin notices the security camera and smashes it with his pistol. Dude is tall. Kiefer reports this to Amos, and again orders him to back off. Amos refuses, already on his way up the stairwell. Tarin is hiding around a corner with his hand over Kayla's mouth as the three cops reach the fifth floor. After a moment, Tarin jumps out shooting, taking down two of the cops before they see him coming. One of the dead cops is Amos, and he's lucky he got killed before Kiefer got a hold of him. Tarin shoots the third after spotting his reflection in a hallway mirror, then grabs the squawking police radio off one of the corpses, pausing to read the name tag (Faulkner) on the body's vest. While dragging Kayla down the hall, Tarin speaks into the radio in a flawless American accent, saying, "This is Faulkner. I'm hit. Amos and Martin are down." He's really hitting those Rs hard. It's kind of awesome, enough so that I looked into whether the actor, T.J. Ramini, is really American (he isn't). Assuming he's really talking to Officer Faulkner, Kiefer asks where the target is. "He's heading toward the fire escape on the south side. He's got the girl!" Tarin-as-Faux-lkner responds. Cole is giving orders to reposition accordingly, but Kiefer isn't fooled. "NYPD, target is impersonating an officer. He has the girl. I want you to fall back and cover all exits!" Well, that clever tactic bought Tarin almost five seconds.
Tarin ditches the radio, then leads Kayla down a dark staircase while the CTUmobiles scream down the street at 3:08:27. The CTU floor crew burns off a few seconds trying to get a handle on the situation, which gives Tarin time to get Kayla to a back exit. When two cops yell at him to drop the gun, he holds it to Kayla's head instead and shields his body with hers. Arlo is just now getting the drone's video feed up and running, and he sees a cab pulling up at the end of the alley, behind the cops currently squared off against Tarin. The feed is also up on Kiefer's monitor so he can warn, "Officer Bellow, behind you," even though I don't see any names on the deployment grid. Bellow turns a second too late, and the cabbie shoots both him and his partner. Tarin owes that driver a BIG tip. Oh, that must be Hamid. Tarin and Kayla run to the cab and get in, while Kiefer watches via the drone feed and notifies the cops on site. The ones who are still alive, that is. Arlo tracks the cab all the way to the Delancey underpass, where he loses it. And Chloe doesn't have any traffic cams to pick it up. "We're two blocks from Delancey," Cole tells Kiefer. The cab still hasn't emerged from the tunnel. Dana says the NYPD is 90 seconds away. Cole makes Kiefer throw the CTUmobile into a screaming Louie, and a moment later they're in the tunnel, which is practically empty. Except for the yellow taxi parked at the far end, facing the direction it came from. "I got the cab, I got the cab," Kiefer says, screeching to a halt in front of it. He and Cole hop out with heir guns leveled, using the truck for cover. Kiefer hollers at the driver to open his door. Has he not noticed that those windows are tinted awfully dark? It looks like a taxi for celebrities. Cole and Kiefer approach it, and Kiefer opens the driver's door himself. Of course, there's no one inside. Cole starts giving orders to start the search; "They were here less than 30 seconds ago!" Still, Kiefer is convinced they're already gone, and he asks Chloe for "a kidnap and electronic intercept package" to meet him at the U.N. He needs to talk to Hassan, because that's who the terrorists are going to want to talk to . "That's why they kidnapped his daughter." Get Kiefer, thinking ahead. If only he could actually be ahead.
As Kiefer and Cole get back into the CTUmobile and drive back up the tunnel, another splitscreen window shows a swarthy man walking up around another, taller man, standing with his back to the camera in what looks like an abandoned bank vault. He's surveying a chair set up in front of a scary-looking flag. Of course all Middle Eastern nations' flags on this show have Arabic text on them just to make them even more scary-looking. "Tarin just called. He has the girl," the man says. The taller man, who turns out to be our very own Samir, dials his phone and reaches a guy somewhere else, who's busy with a soldering iron and some electronic gear at a workbench. This guy asks Samir where the nuclear rods are. Samir says they're not in the city yet, as they have yet to disable the radiological detectors yet. "Then how will you bring the rods to me?" "It's been taken care of," Samir says. It's 3:11:38.
3:15:54. One of the act-in splitscreen windows shows Prady, Kevin's probation officer, checking in at CTU security, which can't bode well for Dana. Elsewhere at CTU, Chloe is briefing Hastings on the latest developments. Hastings takes it pretty calmly, since it's not like he has President Taylor or Rob Weiss to report to this hour. Apparently when they evacuated the U.N. a couple of hours ago, they evacuated the whole damn season. A uniformed CTU guard walks past them on his way to Dana to tell her that Prady is there to see her. Dana thanks him, then takes off her headset and asks Chloe to cover for her for a few minutes. Chloe gives her a "WTF" look, or more accurately a "WTFITTWAOARAB" look (meaning a "what the fuck, I thought this was all over and resolved already, bitch" look), but doesn't say anything. Dana walks over to meet Prady in the hallway and leads him into a conference room. He's still keeping up the harmless hayseed act, pretending to be all awed by the surroundings and asking what Dana does. "Intelligence Analyst," she says, and starts to tell him about the major situation going on. Prady promises not to take up too much time. As politely as she can, Dana says, "It's three in the morning, you're 2,000 miles from home, you mind telling me what's so urgent?" She shouldn't do that, because he's totally about to. Prady opens the thick file he's carrying and presents her with a photo of his charge, Kevin Wade. It's actually a pretty good picture, and Dana doesn't try to hide her reaction as Prady watches her carefully. "You know him, don't you?" he asks. Dana admits it, and says she should have been honest with Prady when he called earlier. She starts to tell him about meeting Kevin at a bar a few days ago. Prady interrupts to ask if there was another guy with him, as Kevin was traveling with a guy named Nick Coughlin. And there's Nick's mug shot, right there in Prady's file on Kevin. Dana lies that she never saw him. Prady accepts that for now and moves on, asking what happened with Kevin. Dana looks around guiltily before starting a story about how they talked, and she drank too much, and they ended up in his van. "You had sex with him," Prady guesses bluntly. Dana admits it, but claims she hasn't had any contact with him since. "The whole thing was a mistake," she says, and gives a pretty convincing performance about being emotionally overwhelmed, not to mention in kind of an awkward position now, as a result of being engaged. Prady doesn't seem to totally buy it, but he plays along. "I'm not looking to ruin your life," he says. "I just want to retrieve Kevin before he gets in more trouble than violating his parole." Dana says she hopes he finds him, then and turns to leave. But of course Prady's not done yet. He's gotten word of the evidence locker robbery from a friend of his at the NYPD a couple of hours ago. Too bad for Dana that friend wasn't Sergeant Amos. And of course Nick's prints were on the assault weapon. "What I'm afraid of is, where Nick is, Kevin is too, and I really need to find him," Prady says. Dana maintains that she can't help. "You're sure about that?" Prady asks. At least Dana doesn't appear to be fooled by his aw-shucks, cornpone bullshit. She says she has to get back to her desk, and Prady again offers to talk to her supervisor to arrange a break for her. "Or I could wait here, stay out of your way until you have some time." Dana agrees to that second option, as long as he stays where he is. "Of course," Prady says. Dana leaves him to it, even favoring him with a crinkly-eyed smile. She's making a go of this, for sure.
At the Hassan residence inside the U.N., Dalia Hassan is wondering how Kayla got lost again. It probably doesn't make her any easier to deal with, knowing she was the one who found Kayla in the first place. Hassan reminds her that it was their own people who kidnapped Kayla, because that's what someone would say in this situation. Nabeel knocks on the door to announce the arrival of CTU. Hassan meets them in the hallway. Kiefer introduces himself, adding, "You already know Cole Ortiz. We deeply regret not being able to find your daughter." Dalia angrily asks how they lost her in the first place, and Cole says Tarin was warned. He leaves out the part where it was the NYPD who helped warn him by jumping the gun. Dalia starts finger-pointing, but Hassan just wants to know what the terrorists want. Kiefer turns the question around on him, saying Tarin knows everything Hassan knows. "He took your daughter because he's trying to leverage something from you. Do you have any idea what that could be?" Hassan doesn't. Or at least he says he doesn't. Cole says they need to hook some shit up to Hassan's phones so they can monitor when the terrorists try to contact him, which of course they will. Upon getting Hassan's consent, Kiefer leads a small army of CTU techs into the suite. Better hope Meredith Reed doesn't call, because that could be awkward.
Tarin is dragging a blindfolded Kayla through that bank vault, plunking her down in that chair in front of the flag. "Do what he says and you won't get hurt," he whispers into her ear before moving away. "Who is 'he?' Another traitor?" Kayla demands bravely. Samir steps forward to remove the blindfold and basically say, "I know your father is, but what am I?" He orders Kayla tied up. The tying begins, all captured by a video camera that's hooked up to an internet feed, while Tarin looks on in distress; he'll never get her in front of his own camera after this. It's 3:22:54.
3:27:12. The Hassan suite has been more or less transformed into a mini CTU, with laptops and everything set up on every available flat surface and a few unavailable ones. Dalia's cell phone rings, and no number is displayed. Kiefer thinks that's it, and asks Chloe if they've got the eavesdropping hookup set up. "We're working on it," Chloe says, casting a glance behind her at a distracted-looking Dana. Kiefer tells Dalia the drill -- answer it, and keep the caller on the line as long as possible. When she answers, Samir's charming opening line is, "Your husband is a traitor to the people of the Republic. He alone has made our actions necessary. He cannot be trusted." Man, telemarketers are getting pushy lately. Dalia asks where her daughter is, and Samir threatens that seeing her again depends on Hassan's actions. Hassan takes the phone as Kiefer impatiently growls, "Chloe, we need to be hearing this." Dammit, I knew Dana's problems were going to start fucking with her job performance. More than just not being there for several hours, I mean. Dana finally gets the monitoring connection up and running. Hassan asks who he's talking to. "I'm a loyal servant of the Republic you're trying to destroy. Now shut up, Omar, and listen." Well, that's rude. Omar wants to talk to his daughter, and Samir tells Omar what he wants: "File 33. That is the price of your daughter." "I don't know what that is," Hassan says. Samir gets that Hassan had to say that. "You're a vain man, concerned about appearances, and the Americans are listening. But please, don't insult me by saying this again." Hassan again demands to talk to Kayla, so Samir says he's sending an IP address, presumably hooked up to the same kind of software featured in the movie Untraceable. "Give it to one of the people listening in." Samir puts down the phone to don a ski mask at 3:29:02, and joins Kayla in front of the camera with an empty plastic Ziploc bag in his hand. Something tells me he isn't planning to use it to keep his vegetables fresh. Kiefer types in the IP address, and a moment later, on the big screens at both the Hassan residence and CTU, is a live video image of Kayla, bound and gagged in front of the IRK flag. Hassan tells Samir to leave her alone. "It's me you want." Samir insists he wants File 33. Hassan maintains his ignorance, so Samir pulls the plastic bag down over Kayla's head. Tarin looks shocked as she gasps for breath, and even ice-queen Dalia just about loses her shit as Samir gives Hassan 15 minutes before Kayla dies. Hassan promises to find the file. "Whatever it is, I'll get it for you!" Samir rips off the bag and the screen goes blank except for the words, "No Input Signal." The call's over as well. Rude! They didn't even say goodbye.
Kiefer immediately asks Hassan what File 33 is. Hastings is also calling the residence from CTU, wanting to know the same thing over the speakerphone. Kiefer and Dalia both press Hassan to spill, and after a long pause, Hassan orders Nabeel, "Show them." He repeats the order when Nabeel hesitates. While waiting for it to come up, he tells Dalia he'd do anything for Kayla, including giving his own life. "Then give them this file," Dalia insists. Nabeel soon has it ready on the laptop. Hassan types in a password, and there's File 33, up on both big screens. Ugh, it looks like a PDF. The terrorists aren't going to be happy about that. "Hastings, are you seeing this?" Kiefer asks. Hastings is. He says, "Mr. President, this file appears to contain operational details on all U.S. antinuclear defenses...including our radiological detection arrays." He wonders how Hassan got such classified material. "How do you think, Mr. Hastings?" Hassan asks bitterly. "For 20 years, your nation has threatened mine, with everything from economic sanctions to military attack! So we gathered intelligence and found weaknesses in your defenses. We did what any other country would do." Kiefer tell Hassan he can't let him hand it over to the bad guys. "We're talking about the lives of tens of thousands of people." Dalia cuts in to ask about her daughter's life. "With all due respect, madam, your family brought this threat to my country," Kiefer snaps. "We're doing the best we can." Not to mention the fact that if the dirty bomb does get through, it's ten to one Dalia's standing on ground zero.
Fortunately, there may be a compromise. Chloe cuts in to say that Arlo isolated some background subway noise from the video and cross-referenced it with train positions. "There aren't a lot of trains this late at night, especially within the radius they could have traveled to," Arlo volunteers. Chloe interrupts that they have to be near the F train stop by the Williamsburg Bridge. Kiefer says Cole and he are on their way, and accepts Hastings' offer of a second team, as well as asking for aerial support. Before leaving, Kiefer tells Hassan to stall the bad guys when they call back. They'll set up a fake file for him to send and everything. Hassan doesn't think it'll work, but Kiefer's just hoping it'll buy them enough time to find Kayla. "We'll do whatever we have to," Dalia cuts in. Kiefer thanks her, and heads out. I'm just looking forward to seeing what happens when the terrorist realize they've been Rickrolled.
At 3:33:37, Tarin is leading Kayla to another room in the basement of the First National Bank of Terror. He zip-ties her to another chair and looks guiltily into her face before removing her gag. She says his name, asking why he's doing this, but he begs, "Please don't say anything." Why remove the gag, then? He leaves her sitting there. In the room, which Kayla can actually see into through a small, square window, Tarin meets up with Samir, who asks him if everything's okay. "They're never going to hand over that file," Tarin insists. "Killing her was never part of the plan." Samir reminds Tarin that he was willing to die in Hassan's limousine earlier. I still don't know why, but I give the show credit for not expecting us to just forget about it. "You assured me your feelings for this girl would not get in the way," Samir says. "So tell me, do I need someone else to take care of her?" Tarin says no. Samir tells him, "Stay strong. We're almost there." Samir leaves Tarin to give Kayla a long, guilty look at 3:35:36.
At 3:39:54, Chloe asks Arlo how the search is going. He's got it narrowed down to six square blocks, but with Kiefer and Cole six minutes out (per Dana), Chloe says they need to narrow it down faster. The second TAC team is leaving CTU now. Arlo happens to glance over to the hallway, where Prady is wandering up the hall. "Uh, Dana? Who's that?" he asks. Dana turns, sees her tormentor, and says, "Nobody." She goes to intercept Prady, politely but firmly leading him back to the room where she left him and saying that if he doesn't stay where he is, she'll have to ask him to leave. She should be so lucky. "I'm sorry, I had a question," he says, all innocence. He just got off the phone with his NYPD buddy again, advising him to ask Dana about the security cameras at the evidence lockup. "It turns out they malfunctioned, for the exact duration of the incident." Dana duhs that somebody must have disabled the cameras, then. Prady says it wasn't Nick and Kevin. "A crowbar's about as high-tech as those two get." Which is where Dana comes in; Prady thinks someone helped them." Dana leads him back into the conference room at 3:41:06. Prady continues that according to his friend, "all the raw video from every government facility feeds right here in to CTU." Plus the digital images are archived every eight hours, and the metadata allows her to "trace the exact source of any service outage. So everything I need to solve this is right here. You can get it for me, right?" Yeah, I knew this was going to happen. Dana says they don't just hand that information out to people, but Prady's got himself an IDRAN, an Interagency Data Request Authorization Number, from his friend. "He said everything should fit on a hundred-gig thumb drive. Is that gonna be a problem, getting that for me?" With a look of defeated resolve, Dana says no, and leaves a very happy Prady waiting in the room.
Kiefer and Cole are doing some more driving, using the dash monitor to look over the search grid, which is still at 12 possible buildings. "Still too much ground to cover," Cole says. Fortunately he's distracted from the hopelessness of the search by his ringing cell phone. When he answers it, Dana whispers, "Cole, it's over." Keeping his tone businesslike so as not to tip off Kiefer sitting to him, Cole says he's not sure he heard her. Dana says the parole officer knows everything, and wants the raw feeds. "I'm gonna give it to him, Cole... I just thought that you should know." "Why don't you wait?" Cole asks crisply. He tells her not to do anything, and they'll talk about it when he gets back. Dana refuses, saying Cole will just get into more trouble on her behalf and she doesn't want that to happen. So she hangs up on him. Cole is probably worried not only about Dana going down, but himself as well; anyone who knows about the robbery can probably follow the thread to the deaths, and the cover-up of the corpses. The more I think about that part of it, the more convinced I am that Cole should have just left Kevin and Nick where they were and let Gary Sinise try to figure it out. They were both killed by Nick's weapons, after all. Anyway, Kiefer asks Cole, "You got a problem?" Cole says no, and Kiefer snaps, "Good, because I need you to keep your head in this, you understand?" Cole agrees. Sure, Kiefer's a little grumpy, and I would be too if I were in his situation and saw this stupid storyline beginning to encroach on mine.
At the Hassan place, he's worried about being able to fool the terrorists with the fake file. Dalia sits down with him and says he has a gift for making people listen. "Say whatever you need to to buy time." She has faith in Hassan. Nabeel calls over and says, "I'm sorry. It's time." The chair and the flag are back up on the screen, awaiting only Kayla.
Who sits in her "green room" chair until Tarin comes to cut the zip ties. "The deadline is here," he says. "Your father has not responded." "You hate him that much, you would do this to me?" Kayla says. She says she doesn't want to die as he undoes her handcuffs, and as he lifts her to her feet at 3:45:12, he says, "Then let us pray that for once your father does the right thing." Being dragged to the room, she pleads some more, saying this isn't him, "And I know in my heart that you love me!" Tarin is now at the entrance to the camera room. He looks in at Samir and the tech at the desk, then back at the guard and the exit, and he whispers to Kayla, "Let's go!" Whoo-hoo! They make a dash for what I guess is another exit, and Samir yells at the guard to stop them. As he does, Tarin waits around a corner to pop the guy in the stomach with a fire extinguisher. After successfully doing that, he takes the guard's keys and leads Kayla up a stairwell. Emerging into an alley, Tarin hits the button on the key fob, and a car parked nearby chirps obligingly. Tarin hustles her over to it as she says, "My father will help us!" "He's surrounded by traitors," Tarin argues. "We have to get to CTU." They get in the car and Tarin starts it. He hands her a cell phone, telling her to call the CTU number that's programmed into it. The tech suddenly appears in the open car window, and he reaches in and grabs Tarin. Tarin has to exit the car so he can knock the man out, so he's vulnerable when Samir comes out of the building and fires a single shot. Tarin falls to the ground. Kayla screams his name, but with Samir approaching, she gets behind the wheel and floors it, Samir firing after her. She gets away clean at 3:47:02, aside from some damage to a parked car she sideswipes on her way out. But then Samir also shoots out that same car's windows trying to hit her, so I think it's probably going to end up on both of their insurance records.
At 3:51:14, the Hassans are left staring at a screen where nothing is changing. Dalia wonders if the Americans stopped the call to prevent them handing over the file. "They could have gotten our daughter killed." But all they can do about it now is stress out.
"Why aren't we seeing anything?" Hastings asks at CTU. Because there's nothing to see. Technology has its limits, after all. Chloe says Arlo picked up what may have been a very faint gunshot four minutes ago. And Kiefer's still a quarter mile out. Dana calls over to say Hastings should take the call she's on: "It's Kayla Hassan. She's in a car. She's escaped." Hastings jumps on the line to ask if she's all right. "No!" No, I'm not all right!" Kayla cries. She says they might be chasing her, and she doesn't know where she is. Hastings orders his people to track her cell phone, and tells her to stay on it and tell him what happened. Kayla does so, with admirable efficiency. "[Tarin] told me to call CTU. That it was the only safe place." Kiefer cuts in on the call to see if she can tell them anything about where she was being held. "It was dark... and it was empty." That narrows it down. "It had a vault, like a bank, but abandoned." Okay, that's better. I originally thought this character was going to be a simpering daddy's girl, but she turns out to have some range. Chloe, who is also listening in, is already cross-referencing. Kayla wants them to tell her father that Tarin helped her escape, and "that he sacrificed his life for me." Chloe says the Republic Commerce Bank at 9621 East Broadway (the NYC addresses on this show are getting downright Escherian) closed a year ago, and it's the only bank in the search area. Kiefer calls for drone support and the second CTU TAC team to be sent there at once. Kayla's phone has been triangulated by now, so Dana takes over the project of guiding Kayla in to CTU. Better hope she doesn't get distracted again.
At 3:53:23, Kiefer's CTUmobile pulls outside the bank with a second one behind it. Kiefer tells them to cover the exit and send the second team down when they arrive. He and Cole shoot out the glass door -- which seems like insufficient security for an abandoned building -- and enter. They go right downstairs to the vault level, and it's obviously the same place where Hassan's daughter was being held and starring in her own reality show (working title: Bagging Kayla), but there's no one there now. Not in the rooms, not in the vault. But there's the makeshift TV studio with a chair and the flag still in place. Cole and Kiefer proceed to the room, where they find the entrance to a tunnel system that the terrorists must have left by. Chloe has the schematics up already, and says there are two -- no, three exits. Three underground routes into the vault? I think I just figured out why this bank closed. Chloe assigns Arlo the task of getting the drone to cover all three of them.
Meanwhile, Samir quietly leads his men to another exit and out into the street. Arlo catches all four of them on his drone camera, and reports their location. Kiefer leads Cole back to the surface to intercept. Hastings asks where Kayla is. Dana says she's at the tunnel entrance now and will be there in two minutes. "Security's standing by." Hastings actually smiles and tells everyone good work, which is pretty premature even not knowing what's going to happen in the two minutes. Dana glances over at 4:56:07 to where Prady is standing and glaring at her with increasing impatience. Hastings specifically congratulates her. She thanks him ,and gets up, saying, "Will you excuse me for a few minutes." He does, but his good mood is burning off quickly.
Arlo reports that the bad guys are all getting into an SUV. While Kiefer and Cole and the others are piling into various vehicles to follow, one of Samir's party looks around. Arlo captures a freeze-frame of the blurry face and sends it over to Chloe for facial recognition. She runs it. "It's Tarin Faroush!" she says in confusion. Wait, what? Looks like somebody pulled a Marathon Man.Arlo says he's supposed to be dead. But there he is, on the big screen, larger than life and twice as handsome.
And also in the back seat of an SUV to Samir, who tells him he did the right thing. "She'll die for a good cause." Tarin just looks sad. Is he going to change his mind again?
Chloe tells Kiefer and Cole that one of the bad guys is Tarin Faroush. "Kayla said he sacrificed himself to save her, but he's still alive." "What the hell's going on?" Cole wonders. Excellent question, Cole. I have no idea myself. Kiefer realizes the terrorists demanded a file they knew they'd never get, and says he needs to talk to Hastings, who is already on the line. "You cannot let Kayla Hassan in!" Kiefer says. "The terrorists faked her escape. They wanted to get her to CTU." Hastings asks why. "What's the best way to disarm New York's radiological defenses?" We don't have time for a pop quiz right now, Kiefer. Fortunately he doesn't wait long for the answer before supplying it himself: "Taking out CTU. There's gotta be something in the car, some kind of a bomb. You need to stop her now!" Hastings asks Chloe where she is. "My God," Chloe says, watching Kayla's approach over the monitor. "She's in the tunnel!" Man, I knew that tunnel entrance was going to be trouble one of these hours.
Hastings takes off running, hollering, "Security!" The slow, melodramatic approach Dana had been making toward Prady is rudely interrupted by Hastings yelling at her, "Dana, with me!" She immediately breaks into a sprint herself. Kiefer asks Chloe for a current location on Tarin's car, and she says it's crossing into Brooklyn and taking the first exit off the Williamsburg Bridge. "We cannot lose him, do you understand me?" Kiefer says. Which can only mean they're going to lose him.
Kayla pulls right up to the underground security entrance at CTU, with alarms going off everywhere. The uniformed guards scramble, telling Kayla to get out of the car at gunpoint. Hastings yells at Dana to call the bomb squad, and she picks up the security desk phone to do so. The uniformed guard looks inside the car Kayla just got out of and notices a fat cable running through the back seat and disappearing between the cushions, probably plugged into the cigarette lighter. "Hastings, Did you stop that car?" Kiefer says, "Not in time, Jack," Hastings responds. "Hold on, just hold on!: The back seat is lowered, revealing a very large cylindrical device in the trunk with a digital timer on it. The readout? 17 seconds and counting. So either the terrorists had her arrival at CTU timed down to the half-minute, or the timer was wired to a GPS that was programmed to start a short countdown when Kayla hit the tunnel entrance. I don't mind doing that work when the episode is this good. "It's an EMP!" Hastings yells, and runs back inside. Kiefer asks if they can shut down their systems to protect the drones, but Hastings says there's no time. The guard gets behind the wheel of the car to try and move it away in time, ignoring Hastings' order to get away from it. Everyone else runs away, and the guard looks up just as the timer hits zero. There's a blinding flash and a shockwave that first totals the car, then sends everyone tumbling to the floor. That covers the other guards still in the tunnel, Hastings, Dana and Kayla, and Prady. The glass of the security entrance (yet another bad idea) shatters. On the floor, every screen goes blank-white and every headset sends a painful scream into its wearer's ear. It's a chaotic scene, with the lights flashing in and out and nobody knowing what's happening and everyone screaming like they're on the fricking Poseidon while it's flipping over.
Okay, so now maybe you're feeling the need to go back through the episode and make sure everything still holds up, but I've already done that, and it does. That scene between Tarin and Samir, arguing in the bank vault? Obviously that was for Kayla's benefit, to get her to trust Tarin and feel more indebted to him so she would do what he said during her "escape," calling CTU instead of her father. Samir fired at least some real bullets during the fake escape, but obviously he was careful to miss. None of the plot points are driven by characters having to be stupid; Sergeant Amos notwithstanding, Tarin still could have escaped with Kayla, because that whole fiasco was more about cranking up the action than serving the plot, which I'm fine with. In fact, everyone else was at the top of their game. The terrorist plot doesn't hinge on CTU being able to find the hideout in time, as it sometimes has in the past, and I love their diabolically clever plan to play CTU and then knock them out with brute force. Obviously it's not something that could have been thrown together in the past few hours, but it's been increasingly clear during that time that Samir has been working on this for quite a while. Even the Dana storyline, which you know perfectly well how I feel about, was handled brilliantly, with the building suspense of the noose slowly tightening around her neck, while she finally got to show off some of those deception skills we've been hearing so much about. And the EMP attack is not only a shocker ending that's completely earned -- and I totally didn't see it coming, despite the promos flogging the twist all week -- it's just what the doctor ordered for Dana's particular situation. "Here you go, Mr. Prady, a thumb drive containing all the data you asked for. Hope you don't mind that it, and indeed all of the archives I pulled them from, are now completely blank through no fault of my own." And if all that's not enough to convince you I thought this was one of the best episodes of 24 ever, feel free to go back through this recap. You'll see that most of the jokes are about the characters, not the show itself. That right there is a recapper's stamp of quality. Well played, 24. Well played, indeed.
Still driving along, Kiefer helplessly says into his headset, "Chloe, can you hear me? Those drones right now are our only way of tracking down those terrorists. You need to pass them off to the NSA." Yeah, I think it's too late for that. "Dammit, we're blind," Kiefer tells Cole. For the second time in a row, Cole asks what the hell is happening. "We need to contact the NSA," Kiefer says defeatedly. "The terrorists just took out CTU." It's 4:00:00.
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M. Giant is a Minneapolis-based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, follow him on Twitter, or just e-mail him at M.Giant[at]gmail.com.