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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.
Walker is back inside CTU at 7:06:26, so obviously she was cleared for reentry. She pulls Chloe aside to tell her about the leak inside CTU that Kiefer suspects, due to the transfer of Hassan to a new car. Chloe also brings up the satellite "glitch" from a couple of hours ago that was also suspicious. "A little too unlucky, especially for us." "Especially" for them? Does fortune usually smile on CTU in ways that I've been missing? Walker says Kiefer has Tarin's cell phone (he became "Tarin" and not "the driver" at some unspecified point), and he wants Chloe to call him on a secure line right away. Chloe pretty much does. Kiefer punches numbers into Tarin's phone and warns, "Chloe, it's encrypted. You're going to have to work fast." Interesting how the "secure area" Kiefer requested for this turned out to be "Chloe's desk."
Hastings is upstairs in his office with his own phone, looking like he's clearing out old text messages or something similarly urgent, when Dana enters asking to get on his computer for a minute. She claims it's to make sure the parameters are reset correctly after the EMP, and that if they put it off, they could lose more data. She says it'll be a couple of minutes, and he tells her to go ahead. "And see if you can get rid of those annoying mouse-trails while you're at it," he fails to ask. While she does that, Chloe calls him down to the floor. Dana hears him say, "What is it, Chloe?" Chloe says she'll explain when he gets there. He's on his way, leaving Dana alone in his office, on his computer. That's the action of a man who's both trusting and trustworthy. As soon as he's gone, she pops her card into the reader so she can update her exit clearance. Which consists of deleting the word "denied" on the screen, one letter at a time. You'd think with all the bleeding-edge technology around here, they could spring for a drawdown menu or something.
Hastings arrives down on the floor, and Walker whispers to him about the mole, and what they're doing to find out who it is. Of course they're assuming Hastings isn't it, but then, see above. Seconds later, Chloe has Tarin's phone records decrypted and up on the screen. Hastings quickly recognizes one of the numbers as among the ones the NSA handed out right after the EMP. Now they just have to trace the number to the handwritten log. Fortunately Chloe has easy access to the list. After flipping through some pages, she confirms, "It's Dana's phone." Hastings looks up to where he last saw Dana, but his laptop -- visible not only through the glass wall of his office, but also the smurfy little Lucite stand he keeps it on -- is sitting unattended. Oooops. "Where is she?" Walker wonders. And what did she do with Hastings' actual desk?
At 7:09:33, she's back at the security desk, ready to make another run at this. She and Jim the guard banter a bit about her migraine as she hands him her card, but when he sticks it in, his screen lights up with "SECURITY CODE 112" and "APPREHEND ON SITE." Someone sure changed her security status so quickly that I can almost forgive the use of "site" instead of "sight." Jim tells her not to move, but she draws a sidearm (has she been wearing that this whole time?) and plugs Jim, then another guard, and keeps shooting while backing out, holding an office drone as a shield until she's clear. Back on the floor, Hastings orders the security monitors up on the screen, and orders Medical to the main entrance as soon as he sees the carnage wrought there. Cole rushes up, wondering about the 112 on Dana. "She's working with the terrorists," Hastings informs him. "She shot two security guards. She's trying to leave the building." Cole flounders in shock, and Hastings tells him about the call they traced with Tarin. Hastings asks Cole a natural question: "What the hell did you know about this?" "Nothing, sir!" Cole insists forcefully. By now, Chloe has Dana up on the garage cameras, and Cole takes off running, ignoring Hastings calling his name. "Notify security. Lock down the exits," he orders his headset. Yeah, I think security got the word already. The ones who are still alive, at least.
In the parking ramp, Dana's in a full-on gunfight with pursuing guards as she tries to make it to her car. After a whole lot of shooting and even some reloading, she manages to get in and drive up the ramp. It almost looks like she's about to get away, until Cole jumps out in front of her, shooting at her car. At least he didn't waste a lot of time in denial. She loses a tire and crashes into a parked car. Cole's the first to reach her door, vaulting ov
er her hood along the way, and he peels her face off the airbag and drags her out of the car He hauls her out by her hair and pins her against a support column, demanding, "Who are you, you lying bitch?" So does this mean the engagement is off? He holds his gun to her bloody mouth until Hastings comes running with some more guards, holding a gun of his own like he's looking for someone to hand it over to. He makes Cole release her, and gets in her face himself, asking where Hassan is. "I want to talk to Jack Bauer," Dana says. "You want answers? Get Bauer." Two uniformed guards drag her off. It's 7:12:36, and this is not going to help Kiefer's messiah complex.
7:16:54. Dana's in one of those dorky little white interrogation capsules that CTU uses now. Obviously if they wanted to question her while the power was still out, they would have been shit out of luck. Watching her being secured there on a video feed while she glances around in a way calculated to project maximum evil, Hastings asks Cole, "If her name's not Dana Walsh, who is she?" Cole says she told him she was Jenny Scott. Hastings asks for more specifics. Cole tells him about her past involvement with a felon, the armed robberies, and the person who ended up dead. "That's all I know, but it's not relevant to finding Hassan." Notice how he left out what happened tonight? Hastings says he'll decide what's relevant, and asks why Cole didn't report it. Cole says he just found out himself a few hours ago, which does not impress Hastings. Cole looks at Dana, still looking around the capsule evilly, and says he was just trying to protect her. Now that kind of seems like a wasted effort, doesn't it? Hastings wonders what was going on when they were AWOL earlier, which is probably something he should have asked at the time, LIKE I SAID. "It's a long story, sir, and it won't help us find President Hassan," Cole insists, without mentioning that telling it would also violate his Fifth Amendment rights. He offers to do a full debrief after the crisis, but wants to stay on until it's over. "Give me a chance to make this right," he begs. Instead of answering, Hastings answers the ringing phone and hears that Kiefer has returned to CTU. "Send him to Interrogation," Hastings orders, and hangs up before telling Cole to go to debrief. Cole protests that Hastings needs him, but Hastings says he needs people he can trust. "Start by getting down everything you know. Then we'll talk." Exit Hastings. Cole is left staring at his fiancée on the monitor, and wondering how he's going to get his ring back. Should he ask for it politely, or just take the whole hand?
Kiefer enters the observation room, where Walker is doing some observing with the tech guy from before. Walker brings Kiefer up to speed on Dana, and the most important part, which is that "she's not saying anything until she talks to you." Hastings bursts in and tells him he just talked to Cole. "You know he was her fiancé?" "That would explain a few things," Kiefer deadpans. Hastings and Walker debate how much Cole might know about Dana, until Kiefer pronounces, "Cole's clean." Well, that's one less thing for everyone to worry about. Hastings wonders why Dana wants to talk to him. "Don't know. Just met her today," Kiefer shrugs, shedding his jacket because there's no room to wear it inside that little capsule. "But I think we should find out, don't you?" It's 7:19:45 as Hastings orders the capsule opened so Kiefer can get in there with her. Handing Hastings his weapon, Kiefer quietly and somewhat pissily reminds him, "I kept up my end of our deal. The nucular rods are recovered. The only reason I'm still here is because I gave President Taylor my word that I would protect President Hassan." He looks ready to rumble, until Hastings agreeably says, "I know." Abashed, Kiefer thanks him and lets it drop. That isn't going to make him feel very psyched up as he steps inside the white cylinder.
Kiefer's first question to Dana is, predictably, about himself, wondering why she wants to talk to him. "Because you're the only one here who doesn't have his head up his ass," Dana says. Exactly what he wanted to hear. She gets to the point, offering to deliver Hassan, because she knows what the bad guys have planned for him. All she wants in exchange is immunity, a clean record, "and I want to be compensated." Is that all? In other words, she wants her share of the cash the IRK agents are sitting on. "I lost a lot of money when this deal went south," she explains. Is that all? She doesn't want CTU to pay for her wedding? A pre-pardon for the other crimes she committed earlier tonight before she turned evil? A chance to reshoot the Battlestar Galactica finale? Kiefer is surprised that this is about money. "Isn't it always?" she condescends. Kiefer wants proof before taking this to Taylor. "In about a half hour you will have all the proof you need," she says. "Hassan's head." Well, he walked into that one. Kiefer loses it, hissing, "You little bitch," and dragging her up against the wall by her throat. Twice in an hour, she gets called that. Everyone in the observation room just observes, although Hastings curses quietly. Kiefer tells her that her only leverage comes from the fact that Hassan is alive, "so stop screwing with me!" Dana grits, "They are going to force him to make a statement and then they are going to kill him, live over the internet." Oh, I hate when that happens. "So I suggest we stop haggling and you start making this happen!" Kiefer lets her go, and says he'll go to Taylor. "But you'd better understand that if we don't recover President Hassan alive, you get nothing." As he heads for the door, Dana says that's why she wanted him. "Hassan is heavily protected. I need someone with your experience running the show. There's been enough screw-ups for one day, don't you think?" You would think that, yes. Kiefer asks her about the money comment she made earlier. "Who was supposed to pay you?" Her only answer is, "Tick tock, Mr. Bauer. You're running out of time." Kiefer leaves her with the last word. As much as I've hated her all season, I have to admit that it was fun watching the two of them go at each other like that.
As Kiefer reclaims his weapon out in the observation area, the tech says the biometrics hold up, which Walker doesn't buy. Kiefer agrees. "This isn't just about the money for her. She's hiding something." But they have no choice but to follow up. "We need to call the president," he says. Fortunately, Taylor is constantly attended by staff who can give her immediate access to missile launch codes, a phone line to the Kremlin, and her giant stack of blank immunity agreements.
At 7:23:05, the Hassan-da pulls through an alley into an off-street parking lot shielded from public view. Still wearing her blonde wig, the driver backs up to a tear in the chain-link fence where one of Samir's men is positioned, and where the lookout on the roof can see them. Hassan is crashed out in the trunk with his eyes half open until she makes with the smelling salts, and the henchman helps him out of the trunk, through the hole into the fence, and down the stairs to a basement entrance of an apartment building. Dragging him up the stairwell, he encounters a little Muslim boy with a ball, and tells him in Arabic, "Get out of here. Go play somewhere else." At the landing, the non-blonde takes off her wig. Well, that should throw off any pursuers.
In an apartment upstairs, Samir waits to the latest of his makeshift TV studios, complete with an IRK flag as a backdrop behind a chair. The bomb tech from earlier enters to say Hassan is on his way up. He thinks they should kill Hassan right away, but Samir insists, "We need him to confess his crimes, renounce his lies." Yeah, that'll happen. The tech says the longer they wait, the greater the chance of a rescue attempt. "He will never be rescued," Samir says in an evil whisper. "He will die. Right here." Well, speak of the devil; Hassan is brought in and plunked down in the chair. Samir stands over him, and it turns out this isn't their first meeting. "You were a general in the Revolutionary Guard," Samir reminisces. "I had the honor of briefing you on our operations in Abul Province. You were a great leader then. What happened? Why did you turn your back on our country?" Hassan, still pretty groggy from the knockout drugs, manages a weak "I'm rubber, you're glue" type of response. They argue for a bit about the concepts of surrender versus peace, and Hassan says he remembers Samir. He asks if Samir in turn remembers the four-day, uphill battle back in the day, when everyone expected them to get their Revolutionary asses handed
to them, but Hassan's belief in victory proved correct. "I'm not saying I'm never wrong, but I believe just as strongly in this peace agreement," he says. "All I'm asking is that you put your faith in me once again. I implore you to stop this madness." Samir smacks him in the face. I think he almost had him until "madness." Samir informs him, "The thing you say will be an apology to every citizen of the IRK. You will beg forgiveness for your treason, and you will renounce the peace agreement." Hassan is defiant, but Samir threatens, "It just depends on how long it takes, and how much pain you can endure." The bomb tech, who is now also a doctor and interrogation specialist, picks up a syringe from what seems to be a whole kit, and gives Hassan an injection in the side of his neck. It's 7:28:02. Hassan's hair is not going to hold up much longer at this rate.
At 7:32:33, Ethan's in a large, sunlit hospital room at the Air Force base. While walking to visit him with Tiny Tim and a gaggle of assistants, Taylor is looking over the immunity agreement and noticing that it's made out to Dana Walsh, even though she's heard that's not her real name. Tim says it'll hold up. "Too bad," Taylor says. "I thought for a moment there we had a way out." Oh, she will. She signs it, and Tim heads off to get it to CTU while she enters the room to talk to Ethan. They exchange greetings, and Ethan asks about Hassan. Taylor gives him the bad news that the terrorists have him. "They're gonna kill him," Ethan sighs sadly. Nice to see his brain wasn't deprived of oxygen for too long. Taylor tells him about the rescue mission that's about to go down, and the immunity deal that's part of it. Reluctantly, she asks Ethan whether Hassan's successor -- whoever it is -- might be like Hassan. Ethan isn't hopeful. "Hassan barely was able to form a consensus in his own administration. It took a man of his charisma and passion to achieve that...without Hassan, there can be no peace." So do we have the stakes sufficiently stated? Good? Good.
At CTU, it's 7:34:34 as Chloe tells Arlo that Dana's about to start the briefing. "Or whatever her name is," she adds. Arlo seems a little out of it. "You work with someone for a year, you think you know them. How did we all miss this?" Chloe claims that she knew all along that Dana was too perfect, "But I never imagined she'd be a terrorist." Arlo blames himself. "Maybe if I'd been looking in the right spot, like somewhere in the vicinity of her face, I might have noticed something useful." Has he totally forgotten nearly busting her an hour ago? "She played us, get over it," Chloe says. Chloe O'Brian, professional therapist.
Cole is busy hand-writing his statement when Hastings enters the room. I hope he hasn't gotten to the part where he killed a guy and then hid his body and that of his accomplice. Hastings sits down across from Cole and breaks the news of Dana's immunity agreement. Cole angrily protests, possibly because this means he's going to have to cancel the wedding himself, until Hastings cuts him off. "I know you've been burned. Professionally, personally. Get over it." Is that on a sign over the entrance or something? He says that Kiefer's running the rescue operation and he wants Cole. And what Kiefer wants, Kiefer gets. "But Dana is briefing the group. Do you have a problem with that?" Cole lies that he doesn't, and Hastings gives him his gun back. "Stand by outside the conference room," he instructs, leading Cole out of the debriefing room at 7:36:12. If Cole ducks back in to rip a few pages out of his statement, we don't see it.
In the briefing room, Dana is giving everyone a quick overview on Samir Mehran. "Altogether, he has about six men left...you killed the rest." This last she directs at Kiefer, who doesn't look too broken up over it. Then a 3-D schematic of an old apartment building is rotating on the overhead screen. This would be the place where they're holding Hassan. Dana tells them where the exits are, and that Samir will have lookouts in place. Dana doesn't know the apartment number -- "If I knew I would tell you," she insists when Kiefer gets crabby with her about it. "Somewhere above the first floor." She knows this because there are neighbors, including families. "Samir will want to use them as human shields in the event of a frontal attack." Well, that's awesome. Hastings and Cole have arrived outside, and Cole quietly struggles to keep his shit together. Kiefer and Dana stare at each other for a while, and Kiefer says it's time to go. "Secure the prisoner," Hastings orders. First he demotes her, then he locks her up. On his way out, Kiefer pauses to make sure that Cole's all right, and says he'll meet him and his men in the motor pool. Cole lingers long enough to briefly lock eyes with Dana on her way out of the room, then shakes it off and says, to no one in particular, "Let's go." It's 7:37:22.
7:41:44. Hassan is looking pretty out of it in his chair, until he gets tasered and rolls to the floor with a cry of pain. They haul him back up into place, his pompadour degrading so badly that he's looking like late-period Elvis after the third encore. "Just read the statement, Omar," Samir says, giving the usual speech about how he can stop this. Hassan refuses, like he's presumably been doing all along. Of course that just gets him tased again, although he keeps his seat this time. Samir threatens, "Read the statement, Omar, or I will start cutting pieces from your body." He'd certainly make a convincing spectacle reading to the camera with parts of himself missing. Hassan insists the peace will happen one way or another. "This peace dies right here with you!" Samir retorts angrily. Then he turns on the tech, saying the drug was supposed to break down Hassan's resistance. The tech says it should (forgetting to remind Samir that he's a bomb tech), and Samir tells him to give him another injection, not caring that it might kill Hassan. While he's prepping it, the other henchman tells Samir they need to come up with a plan B. "He's stronger than we thought. We need to accept it." Samir stops the injection just in time, and orders, "Prepare the internet feed...I will tell the world of his crimes, and carry out his sentence." Samir puts on his ski mask. So it sounds like Hassan's prediction was pretty much dead on. Except I haven't seen a sword yet.
At McGuire AFB, Taylor and Tim are pedeconferencing furiously about the upcoming rescue attempt, and he adds that Dalia and Kayla are waiting for her in, where else, the waiting area. It's 7:44:27 as Taylor rejoins them and tells them Hassan is being held in an apartment building, and CTU is about to move in. Kayla asks if he's still alive. Taylor gives what assurances she can, and Dalia thanks her. Taylor is called into the Situation Room. I guess the Hassans don't get to come in this time. While she walks in with Tim, he tells her about the live internet feed that NSA just flagged. "It's President Hassan." Dude, the NSA is on the ball. It was about thirty seconds between the end of the scene until Tim got that cell phone call. The door closes behind them as Taylor orders the feed put up on the big screen. But is this on YouTube or Hulu or what?
Whatever the case, there's Hassan up on the display, looking battered and disheveled in his chair in front of the IRK flag, with the morning sunlight from the window spilling onto the right side of his face. Samir is standing to him in his ski mask, beginning his own address: "What follows is a list of his crimes." While Samir continues to hold forth, the video is also being monitored live at CTU. Hastings asks if there are any clues they can take from the video. Apparently having just been waiting to be asked, Chloe points out the shadows behind Hassan's head. She can tell there's a window on Hassan's right, which means the apartment faces east. She can even tell they're on the fourth floor, based on the height of the surrounding buildings. Arlo calls over to say a drone is in position, and has spotted two lookouts on the roof. "Patch me through to
Jack," Hastings orders.
A convoy of CTUmobiles is pulling into a narrow alley behind the building at 7:46:32. As he gets out of the lead vehicle, Kiefer answers Hastings' call and takes in the new information that Hastings relays. Hastings also adds that Kiefer needs to hurry; "The terrorist is running a live internet feed. He's reading a list of Hassan's so-called crimes. As soon as he's done, he's going to execute him." Kiefer says they're in the staging area. If he doesn't exactly seem freaked out, it's probably because he's been here, done this. He turns to face Walker, Cole, and the sad little army of a dozen or so other CTU agents assembled in the alley. Kiefer tasks Cole and his team with taking down the lookout, and recruits "Charters" and "Bank" (when did he have time for a meet-and-greet with everyone, anyway?) to join him in the building and locate the right apartment using audio surveillance. He tells them all to silence their weapons, to preserve the element of surprise. "If they get a sense that we're moving in on them, President Hassan is dead. I don't have to tell you what we're up against, and the significance of this operation. Trust your training and let's get this done." He tells them to meet at the rally points in two minutes, because first he wants to talk to Walker alone. And it's not like those two minutes are going to count or anything. He says he wants her along with him on the assault, but since this goes against all his instincts, he needs her to promise to stay behind him and do what he says. He sure knows how to talk to a girl, doesn't he? "Get ready," he says. It's 7:48:03, and let's hope that Samir keeps talking through the commercial.
At 7:52:22, the good news is that the snipers are already in position, apparently invisible to the lookouts despite being skylined. With some skillful coordination, Cole takes out one from the ground while the rooftop guy takes out the other almost simultaneously. "Lookouts are down, you're clear," Cole radios to Kiefer. They start moving in, while the drones can transmit their images live back to CTU. A couple of agents use bolt-cutters to remove a section of iron fencing leading into the lot, and the entry teams climb on through, silenced weapons at the ready. Samir is still yapping at the camera about what a dick Hassan is, fortunately. Soon Kiefer and his team are inside the building. Samir is starting to get pretty worked up, while Hassan just stares into the camera all, "Can you believe this asshole? I mean, honestly." Suddenly, as the team reaches the fourth floor, a guy comes into view, smoking a cigarette. Sentry, or not? Kiefer tells him to get down, first in English and then Arabic. When the guy doesn't, and just slowly backs away, Kiefer shoots him in the chest. Lucky for Kiefer, he turns out to have had a gun on him, not that he ever drew it. That still might be against the rules of engagement, though. Without holstering his own weapon, Kiefer ejects the clip, racks the slide one-handed on a railing, and sets it up on a wall box out of the way, just to keep everyone safe when the shooting starts. Kiefer whispers over his comm to Hastings that there's one less hostile and confirms that they're still good to go. "Yes, Jack, you are still good," Hastings clearly states. Well, there was some doubt there for a minute when Kiefer shot a guy who hadn't made a threatening move.
While Samir continues ranting, Kiefer leads his team into the fourth-floor hallway at 7:54:37. The guy with a handheld listening device starts pointing it at doors, looking for a match to what the video is saying. It takes a little while, but they find the right one. Kiefer carefully picks the lock, as quietly as he can, and goes in low, his gun leveled. Nobody in the front room but a young girl in a hijab, sitting on the sofa and coloring. Not sure how she failed to hear the lock opening four feet from her head, unless that hijab is really thick over her ears. Kiefer shushes her and says they're not there to hurt her. "Where's your mommy and daddy?" Just then the similarly-headscarved mom comes in from the kitchen, and the two residents suddenly start talking loudly at each other in Arabic. Walker snatches up the girl, a hand over her mouth, and dumps her with the agents waiting in the hallway. Come for the raid, stay for the babysitting! Meanwhile, Kiefer grabs the woman, hissing, "One word, and I will kill you." After he flings her to a seat on the couch, Hastings warns into his earpiece, "Jack, looks like Samir's wrapping it up, you need to get in there right now." Kiefer's still taking his time, looking for the right room. All he finds is a closet, but when he pulls the light on, he finds a false panel in the back wall at 7:56:37. And Samir's voice is coming from the other side of it. Probably a sign that he's on the right track.
Meanwhile, in the front room, Walker's still holding her gun on the woman as Kiefer opens the false panel and sneaks through. Just then, Walker happens to look down and sees a blonde pageboy wig on the floor. Hey, I just figured out who that woman is! And while she reaches under the cushions for a gun, Walker figures it out too. Walker shoots first, but just barely. With the non-blonde driver of the Hassan-da now dead, Walker's free to follow Kiefer through the secret passage. In a closet-door mirror, Kiefer can see the back of the chair Hassan is sitting in. "I have a visual on Hassan," he whispers. "Ready to engage." So do it already! He darts around the door frame and starts shooting. The tech and the other henchman, who were hunched over the computer screen displaying the webcast, go down right away. But Samir, out of his initial line of fire, opens up with a machine gun, still wearing his mask. Kiefer takes him down too. But then why does it sound like Samir is still speaking without interruption? Is he so committed to getting his message out that even being dead doesn't shut him up? No, it's worse than that; Kiefer spots the open laptop, running the internet feed and showing Samir still talking on the screen. "No. No!" Kiefer says, realizing what it means. Kiefer goes to it, and then turns around, which is when he sees Hassan, still in the chair, gazing up at the ceiling, his throat cut ear to ear, totally dead. Well, that sucks.
Kiefer and Walker fall to their knees in defeat. Kiefer gently tips Hassan's head forward and closes his eyes in respect. "Sorry," he whispers. I think a more respectful gesture would be to shut down the damn internet feed, now that recorded Samir is saying, "The time has come for this criminal to pay for his treason." In other splitscreen windows, Taylor and Tim watch the continuing feed, as do Chloe and Dana at CTU. "Omar Hassan shall pay with his own blood," Samir, and puts his giant knife to Hassan's throat. We cut away as Taylor moans in horror. "Jack! Jack! Talk to me!" Hastings blares in Kiefer's ear. Instead of waiting for the feed to show him busting in and shooting everyone, Kiefer thickly says, "The, uh, statement was prerecorded. He was dead before we got here." Everyone at CTU looks sad, and Taylor sobs as presidentially as she can while Tim leans defeatedly against the conference table. Finally Taylor pulls it together and says, "Call CTU. I want to know what the hell went wrong. And clear the screens." No shit.
But I think I can answer her question. We know the webcast couldn't have started much earlier than we saw, because Samir gave the order, and that scene ended, and thirty seconds later, Tim got the call that the webcast was already happening. Yet it continued playing a minimum of ninety seconds after Samir killed Hassan, because that's how long it took from Kiefer to enter the room until Hassan's murder was shown on the screen. In other words, the webcast lasted longer than the speech, while CTU was assuming it was happening in real time. This is awful; we all knew that buffering delays in streaming video were annoying, but now they've cost a brave man his life.
Now
Taylor has to go out and face Dalia and Kayla. She takes their hands and says, "We were too late. We weren't able to save him." Now, I actually do feel sad and all, but let's just go over Samir's plan, as I understand it. There are two possibilities. The first is that he planned all along to use Farhad Hassan to help him kill President Hassan and acquire the nuclear rods. Then he was going to use the nuclear rods to build a dirty bomb to force Taylor to hand Hassan over so he could kill him again? Dude really had a hard-on for his president. The other possibility, of course, is that Samir conceived and executed his entire, complicated, multi-party plan on the fly, literally overnight. Which would make him the most gifted project manager on earth who, frankly, deserved the win. Of course he can't tell us anything now, being dead and all, but we still have six hours to learn an awful lot from Dana. And that's the most evil part of Samir's plan, whichever one it was: it's making me want to see more Dana.
Dalia and Kayla cry. It's 8:00:00, not that you'd know that if you were only listening and not watching, because Hassan got himself a silent clock. Wherever Tony is right now, I bet that just makes him madder.
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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.