By M. Giant
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Dana's pretty desperate to get her ass out of CTU before she's exposed, but ends up having to try to shoot her way out. It's Cole who stops her, but she'll only talk to Kiefer. After Hastings shakes Cole down for the truth and gets about half of it, Kiefer and Dana face off in an interrogation capsule. She's willing to help save Hassan in exchange for immunity, a clean record, and her share of the terrorists' cash. Otherwise Hassan will be forced to make a statement and then be murdered live on the internet. Hassan comes face to face with Samir, his former military aide, once again for the first time, and the torture begins. Meanwhile, Chloe briefs the rescue team, which will include Cole because Kiefer vouches for him. When Hassan's will outlasts his pompadour, Samir gets bored and goes online to denounce him. While everyone watches Samir's presentation online, Kiefer and his team move in, following the sound of Samir's voice. But by the time they get there and take out all the bad guys, Kiefer discovers that it's on tape delay, and Hassan is already dead. One silent clock, coming right up.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previouslies freeze-frames: President Omar Hassan, President Allison Taylor, CTU New York, Dana Walsh, and Jack Bauer. And then back to Dana Walsh, who said, "It's only a mater of time before this gets traced back to me. I need to get the hell out of here while I still can." Which I'm pretty sure we can all still agree with.
Dana walks purposefully to the exit, but at the security desk, the guard asks to see her passkey. Apparently it's a new security protocol. "Nobody gets in or out without personally being cleared by Mr. Hastings," the guard explains. She hands over her pass, which he pops into a reader. Exit clearance: denied. Dana pleasantly claims she's just going to her car for her migraine pills and will be right back before anyone even knows she's gone. He gives in and...offers to send one of the guards to her car for her. Dana says that's fine, and she'll talk to Hastings herself. She gets her card back and chirps, "Thank you, Jim!" before heading back in. Jim's certainly in a good mood considering three of his immediate coworkers just got EMP'ed to death three hours ago.
Back on the floor, Chloe is playing back the satellite footage of the Honda leaving the parking ramp one minute after the crash, with a blonde woman at the wheel. They correctly assume that Hassan is inside it, which would make it a Hassan-da. Chloe can't track it, since it left the satellite grid. Uh, maybe it would have been a good idea to widen that grid, given that a highly sensitive ambush operation was set to occur in the area and people always escape from those. Hastings gives the usual orders about APBs and NSA servers and whatnot. Someone tells him Taylor wants an update, and he takes the call on the spot, on his Bluetooth. Taylor begs him, "Please tell me President Hassan survived." Well, Hastings hates to disobey a presidential request, so he says Hassan wasn't in the SUV that crashed. He explains how they're trying to track the car he was transferred into, and promises to keep her updated. End of call.
Now Taylor gets to go back into the Sit Room and tell Hassan's wife and daughter what's going on. She's just told them there's still hope when someone tells her the Russian Foreign Minister wants a word. I'm sure it has something to do with the recent discovery in a CTU holding cell of the long-forgotten, cobwebbed skeleton of Sergei Bazhaev. Taylor makes the necessary promises to the Hassans, then excuses herself at 7:04:42 to talk to "Mr. Novakovich." That's a fun name. The bald, severe-looking minister thanks her for her time and they sit down to talk about Hassan. The minster quizzes her about the status of the recovery operation, and tells her that the peace agreement won't happen if Hassan isn't rescued. Taylor gets pretty owly with him, accusing him of hoping for exactly that. "Your country is looking for any excuse to pull out." That's what she said. He takes exception to that, saying they've been supportive all along. "We are here, are we not?" Taylor backs off, and says she appreciates his support. "And I hope that we can count on it until we find President Hassan." The guy's like, durr. I suspect Taylor's missing Ethan more than ever when she's face-to-face with his Russian counterpart like this. Especially since she's totally blowing it with him.