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After a brief helicopter chase, Kiefer manages to escape on foot from both the Air Force and the NYPD without breaking a sweat. He leans on an old army buddy (Michael Madsen) for support and supplies. At the U.N., Ethan urges Taylor to come clean for the sake of her presidency, and she reluctantly agrees until stupid Logan convinces her to stash Dana in a black site to continue the cover-up instead. Minutes after Chloe gets the transfer order, she also gets a call from Kiefer, demanding her help. Chloe reluctantly agrees to that, but after the extraction squad led by D.B. Sweeney shows up, Chloe instead decides to use a fake address as bait to catch Kiefer. Ethan is so repulsed by Taylor's decisions that he hauls off and quits, then confronts an unrepentant Logan, for all the good either action does him. Kiefer knowingly walks right into the trap, fooling Chloe and CTU right back. That done, Kiefer recruits Cole for his rogue operation. As Dana is dragged into a torture dungeon and the waterboarding begins, Taylor gives her triumphant press conference, stubbornly deaf to what her conscience is clearly telling her.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!This week in the previouslies: President Allison Taylor, President Charles Logan, Dana Walsh, and Jack Bauer, whose interrogation-room beating of Dana was pretty shortened here. Logan sure didn't waste any time filling that second-president vacuum, did he? Also, these previouslies are notable in that they're the last time we hear anyone mention Renee Walker.
Kiefer's stolen CTU helicopter swoops in over Manhattan, while he resolutely ignores Chloe's attempts to get him to talk to her from the CTU floor. Arlo says Kiefer can hear her; "Comm's on, he's just not answering." Cole chimes in to say that Air Force helicopters are closing in. And indeed, there they are, a pair of Apache CGIs, zooming in to flank Kiefer like a gunship sandwich. He can hear them on his headset ordering him to turn around. Instead, Kiefer hurls the chopper into a banking dive, his eyes on a convenient helipad that has appeared somewhere below. The Air Force pilots report back that Kiefer just landed on the "Cooper Building," but there's not much they can do beyond watching from above as Kiefer hops out of the chopper (without even turning it off, looks like) and heads for the roof ladder. On the ground, two NYPD squad cars are closing in, sirens and flashers going full blast, when what they really need is a lot more squad cars. All of them should do it. Kiefer clambers all the way to the sidewalk using the fire escape, then evades the approaching cars and helicopters by the highly advanced tactics of blending in with pedestrian traffic and ducking under a tree. He joins the crowds on the sidewalk, the only thing separating him from hundreds of New York pedestrians his purposeful stride and angry expression of resolve. And even those match hundreds of other New York pedestrians. Well, that was easy.
At CTU, Cole comes up to Chloe to ask what's going on. Chloe quickly explains to him about how Dana has proof of the Russians' involvement, and Kiefer's going to come after her to get it. Cole says that's impossible. "He'll either figure it out or he'll die trying," Chloe insists, and dispatches Cole to the field to start an interagency search for Kiefer with the NYPD. And at 10:05:23, she tells Arlo to start searching satellites and traffic cams. Chloe looks sick as she returns to her old desk, with a graphic of Manhattan and three helicopter blips still up on the big screen in the last place we saw them. She's either upset that she has to chase after her best friend, or because it looks like all the screens have frozen up again.
At the U.N., Ethan and Taylor are already aware of Kiefer's escape and the resulting search, and they're not happy. Taylor stresses, "If Jack gets this evidence and exposes the Russians, the agreement is over." Ethan gently adds that her presidency might be over as well. "You covered up the Russians' involvement. That's grounds for impeachment. Possibly a criminal indictment...But it may not be too late to step back and limit the damage." Taylor looks up hopefully from the chair she just sank into, as Ethan advises her to expose the Russians herself. "Which will effectively end the peace deal," she whines. "But it will save your administration," Ethan says. Insisting that the evidence will come out eventually, one way or another, he tries to convince her they can take another shot at the peace deal, "If not during your administration, then during the one." Taylor doesn't believe it, but she accepts Ethan's wisdom and asks him to prepare a statement announcing the U.S.'s withdrawal from the peace agreement. She'll make it at the press conference coming up in forty minutes. Ethan takes her hand and tells her she's doing the right thing, and she gets up and leaves. She boards an elevator with a couple of Secret Service agents at 10:08:26, looking defeated. She rides it all the way down that way, so I'm relieved to see her not suddenly stand up straight and do something like order Ethan's arrest as soon as she's out of view.
Instead, we get the -worst thing; waiting at the bottom of the elevator is Logan. "Madam President," he greets her. She barely gives him a dirty look before ducking into her office. The Secret Service agents posted at her door allow him to follow for some reason, and they're left behind closed doors together as Taylor tells him it's over, given the evidence that's out there. Logan says he agrees, which surprises her a bit. "I expected more of a fight from you," she says. Well, he's still here, isn't he? He says he's pragmatic, but disappointed, and Taylor wryly says he'll have to find some other way to rehabilitate his rep. "My own personal disappointment aside," Logan says modestly, "it's a loss for the world." Taylor agrees, and gets ready to call Dalia Hassan to throw herself on her mercy. "Before you do, there is one thing you might consider," Logan says. Yes, here it comes, and unfortunately, Taylor is all too receptive when he says there is a way to save things, even though it's totally evil. "Obviously you can't grant Walsh immunity. The evidence would become public record. You need to control the evidence by keeping Walsh off the grid." Taylor doesn't like the sound of that, especially when Logan gets more specific: "Classify her as an enemy combatant and incarcerate her in a private facility." Yikes, this is getting dark fast. He's even got a private security firm in mind and standing by, which is one of the creepiest things he's said so far. As they sit down, Taylor weakly protests that they can't keep Dana locked up forever, but Logan says they won't have to. "Ms. Walsh may not give up the information willingly, but she will give it up. And once we have it, it won't matter what she claims." Taylor stands back up and accuses him of suggesting "physical coercion." Without standing, Logan admits, "It is repugnant, even immoral. But isn't morality relative considering what's at stake here?" He also stands when she uses the dreaded T-word (torture), saying he's talking about "preserving a peace accord that is crucial to the security of this nation, and that can only happen if you acquire and control the evidence." He says he understands her objections. "I am trying to be as open and candid with you as I have ever been with anyone. And the truth is I regret many of my own actions when I was president. But I've also had the time and the distance to see past them, to a place of clear and deep understanding." This is some hardcore Palpatine shit right here. Mesmerized like a deer in his headlights, she asks, "What do you understand, Charles?" He answers, "Wielding the kind of power that I once had and you had now can change the world. But that often requires making impossible choices that challenge our most sacred ideals. If you're not willing to do that, you should take Ethan's advice and pull out now." Yes, by all means, listen to Logan's philosophy. Look where it got him, after all. We leave Taylor to ponder this choice at 10:12:22, but if there were any chance of her listening to the distinguished Secretary of State on her right shoulder rather than the disgraced ex-POTUS on her left, she would have thrown the latter out of her office at 10:09:11.
10:16:52. At CTU, Arlo's found an eight-minute-old traffic-cam photo of Kiefer's face that's clearer than most professional headshots, taken at 25th and Cleveland. Unfortunately, that intersection would seem to place Kiefer in one of seven other states. No sooner has Chloe given the order to have Cole redirect his search than she gets a call from President Taylor. With Logan supervising, and in a voice that sounds sick with stress and guilt, Taylor tells Chloe she wants Dana transferred off-site. Chloe resists the idea, but Taylor insists, and informs her, "Agents from a private security firm are coming there to pick her up." Chloe likes this even less, and Taylor argues, "You know as well as I do that Jack has contacts throughout the government, some of whom might be sympathetic to his situation." Chloe: "Awkward pause." "I'm not suggesting that you're one of those people," Taylor fumbles. Can anyone else here think of a better candidate? In any case, Taylor's clearly lost her personal charm as well as her ethical compass. All Chloe can say is, "Yes, ma'am." Taylor tells her that a guy named Mark Bledsoe and his team are already on their way. After Taylor hangs up, Logan tells her she made the right call. That must be reassuring, coming from him. She insists that his men use "every method of non-coercive interrogation." Logan says a little too quickly that that's already covered. "No one wants this to get ugly," he says. "Oh, it's already ugly, Charles," she huffs. Well, at least she realizes that much. I think my favorite part is how she takes Logan's recommendation at face value without even vetting the company. For all she knows he owns it and has been planning this for months.
Kiefer is just finishing up a transaction at a storefront cell phone shop, having just bought a half dozen or more unboxed phones, which he stuffs into his man-purse. "I don't need the chargers," he says. He certainly never has before. Even so, is it prudent of him to be the guy who came and bought a bunch of phones he didn't want chargers for? Might as well walk in and tell the cashier, "Hello, I am up to no good." At 10:18:52, he makes his first call on his first phone as he leaves the store. It's to Chloe's cell, and while he walks and talks, she tells him to come back in. Kiefer ignores that and says he needs to get to Dana. "The president said she's lying," Chloe points out. Kiefer says Taylor's the liar. Chloe reminds Kiefer that it's the president's call, not Kiefer's. Kiefer snaps, "She's covering up evidence of a terrorist attack against this country. She no longer has the call." Harsh. Looks like the Jack Bauer Impeachment Committee is back in session, complete with its one member. Kiefer actually says to Chloe, "You don't want to go against me on this." Harsher! Chloe asks if he's threatening her, and he says he's just asking for help. Chloe argues, "You're being hunted by every law enforcement agency in the city. You're not thinking clearly." "Right now I'm the only one who is," he says. Chloe begs him to come in and they'll figure something out, and he snots that he'll come up with a plan B on his own. Rather than letting him hang up angry, Chloe asks what he's going to do with the evidence. "All I need to do is expose them," he says. That's good enough for Chloe, who I guess apparently thought Kiefer was going to put the evidence into a gun and shoot the president with it or something. So she finally cracks and tells Kiefer about Taylor's plan to transfer Dana using a private security firm, although she doesn't know where yet. "Find out. I'll call you back," he says. He hangs up and throws the phone into a handy trash can, which I guess explains why he bought so many. Clearly he's committed to this course at all costs; getting the truth out is worth not only becoming a fugitive, but putting more lithium into landfills.
In some creepy, technology-lined survivalist sanctum, Mr. Blonde himself, Michael Madsen, is wearing a Bluetooth and bent over some electronic device he's working on. Although his clothes are aggressively casual, he's also wearing military dog tags and has a nasty old burn scar up one side of his neck. A call comes in, lighting up half of his computer monitors without actually telling him who it is, and when he answers it he hears Kiefer saying into his ear, "Jim, it's Jack Bauer." Jim's already heard about Kiefer's fugitive status, probably from all the tech crap he's surrounded by, and he wonders, "What'd you do this time, Jack?" Declining to answer, Kiefer says he needs weapons and equipment. "Can you make that happen?" Jim says he can make almost anything happen. "You know that. The problem is that you're a walking bulls-eye. The last thing I need is you on my doorstep." "You wouldn't have a doorstep if it wasn't for me," Kiefer says. "I'm calling in a favor. I'm gonna tell you what I want and I want it ready when I get there, you understand me?" Wow, Kiefer's getting a little shirty with this dude. That must be an awfully nice doorstep. If it were me, though, I think I'd rather make do with a chair or even a makeshift plywood ramp than have to deal with this crap. Jim sardonically agrees with me, telling Kiefer, "Well, I see you haven't lost your personal touch." Getting into a cab, Kiefer starts rattling off his shopping list: "A comm unit, two MP5s, an assortment of assault rifles, and body armor." He pauses to give the cabbie directions, and adds a "full surveillance package" to the list before the editing abruptly cuts him off. And before, presumably, the cabbie who's overheard Kiefer's terrifying end of the call either kicks him out of the cab or calls Homeland Security.
Repairs are already underway to the CTU security tunnel at 10:21:45 as a van pulls up. Out of the shotgun seat climbs D.B. Sweeney as Mark Bledsoe, rocking a cop 'stache that complements his droopy features. Like Juergen Prochnow, D.B. Sweeney's another one of those actors who I'm surprised has never been on the show before. He's calling Logan's assistant Jason, who's loitering in Logan's borrowed U.N. office with him. Bledsoe wants to know what he's supposed to do with Dana after they have the evidence. Jason just tells him to give her back to CTU. "Without the evidence, she has no teeth. She can't hurt us." Bledsoe isn't so sure, and he has a solution. "We can make it look like the prisoner was killed while she was trying to escape. Wouldn't be difficult." Wow, that's direct. So basically, he's trying to upsell a basic Grab & Grill job into a Grab, Grill & Kill Executive Package. Jason uncertainly says, "I'm not sure we're willing to go down that path." Bledsoe shrugs that it's his "professional opinion," and tells Jason to get back to him after talking it over with "the client." Which of course means Logan. Could this get any creepier? No, don't answer that.
By now, Chloe is coming to meet them, and Bledsoe and his team have been outfitted with CTU visitors' badges that I don't remember seeing before during this season, even on Prady (whose cooling corpse has still not been discovered, as far as we know). The printer must have spit them out during the EMP or something. Chloe introduces herself and starts leading them through the facility, asking where Dana's being taken. Bledsoe says he can't share that: "The whole point of this exercise is to keep Walsh off the grid." Chloe argues that she's responsible for the prisoner, and asks to see the presidential order for the transfer. When he impatiently says they should have gotten it by now, she pleads EMP (even though everything is clearly working again) and insists that she can't let him take Dana without seeing the order. "We could wait," she offers/threatens. "Might take an hour, maybe more." Bledsoe sighs, pulls it up on his phone, and hands it to Chloe. As they start walking through the building, Chloe babbles her apologies to distract from the fact that she has just pulled a flash drive from her pocket and is dumping Bledsoe's phone as they speak. She needn't have bothered with the diversion; Bledsoe's not even looking at her while she's got his phone in his hand
. So the boss of this private security firm is neither particularly private nor secure. And I'm beginning to have doubts about his firmness.
Chloe, Bledsoe, and Bledsoe's two goons enter Dana's CTU holding cell, which is built on the same design as the interrogation capsules, only larger and presumably without blood-gutters in the floor. Bledsoe formally bids her good morning, introduces himself, and informs her that she's being transferred offsite by presidential order. The part where he says good morning is my favorite. Dana's antennae are up before she's even been manhandled out of the chair, with Bledsoe's men dragging her out by the arms while she demands that Chloe tell her what's going on. "Where's Bauer? Where's my immunity deal?" Yeah, she's out of the loop for an hour and the loop turns into a line. Chloe tells her to just do what they say, but she makes them drag her out, while she begs Chloe for help and protests that they're going to kill her. "Thank you for your cooperation," an unflappable Bledsoe tells Chloe before following Dana and his team down the hall. His gratitude doesn't seem to make her feel any better about this.
Chloe pulls the contraband flash drive out of her pocket at 10:24:42 and ducks into a conference room off the main floor, where she can peruse the order at her leisure on her own phone. There's Dana's name and photo, and the shows her "classified destination" as th Street, New York, NY, . Those evil mercenaries are taking her to a nonexistent Brooklyn address with a Manhattan zip code! Chloe has a phone call to make.
But the person she's calling is Cole, who's busy with the NYPD. He breaks away to answer, and she tells him that Kiefer just called her about Dana. "I told him that she was being transferred to an offsite facility and I would give him the address. And I almost did. But I can't, I'm under presidential orders. Besides, I don't think he's right. We have to find him before he gets himself killed." Cole wonders what it means if Kiefer is right. Chloe insists that they're going to follow their orders to bring him in, and Cole listens to the boss and says, "All right." After taking a look at Kiefer's traffic-cam photo still up on the conference room's big screen, Chloe steps out to the floor and calls for everyone's attention. "We're mobilizing a sting operation in the field to be led by Agent Ortiz. The target is Jack Bauer. Let's get to work." It's 10:26:22, and I assume Taylor's cool with her putting U.N. security on the back burner like this.
10:30:45. One of Jim's many monitors reads "Security Alert." Picking up a handgun, he checks the four security monitors covering the hallway and sees Kiefer coming up and knocking. Hey, he doesn't have a doorstep! Of course the gun he's got wouldn't do any good against Kiefer anyway, so he holsters it before undoing the triple locks on his door. "Did you get what I needed?" Kiefer demands. "Nice to see you again too, Jack," Jim says, but Kiefer isn't amused; he just wants the goodies. Jim directs him over to a table where everything's already laid out. When did Jim find time to go out and get all this crap? Does he live in the Matrix or something? That would explain all the monitors, at least. While Kiefer checks the gear, Jim tries to fish for more clues about what Kiefer's being chased for. "It's not about what I did," Kiefer dodges. "They're afraid of what I'm gonna do." Kiefer ignores Jim's hinting question, ducking to a back room to make a phone call. He reaches Chloe for an update on Dana's destination, and Chloe gives him one more chance to think about what he's doing and turn himself in. He's adamant, and finally she sends him to an industrial laundry at 141 Juniper Valley Road (that's in Queens, but at least it exists). Kiefer writes it down, says it's ten minutes from there (which I'm sure makes his planned route of great interest to many Queens-Manhattan commuters), and he'll call her back. She even says she'll have blueprints by then to help walk him in. "Thanks, I know I put you in a spot," Kiefer says. "Yeah," Chloe says stiffly before they hang up. Kiefer tosses the cell phone in Jim's wastebasket (which Jim seems to be fine with, surprisingly, for how paranoid he seems), and tells him to stick around in case he needs him later. Jim tries to tell Kiefer he can't come back, and now they're even. "I'll let you know when we're even," Kiefer says. But then he stops himself and asks nicely, because Jim looked for a second like he was going to ask Kiefer to lend him an ear, and that's the last thing you ever want be asked by Michael Madsen. I'm sure Jim will be around later; you don't cast Michael Madsen for a one-off guest shot as a freelance Q.
At 10:32:56, Cole drives up to an old laundry and meets up with a CTU field team led by a Handsome Black Agent. Cole informs them, like they care, that this place was seized by the DEA a year ago and has been a CTU safe house ever since. That's good for us to know, but I'm sure the CTU agents didn't find that factoid quite so vital. "Everyone stays out of sight until Jack's between our choke points. We do the takedown when and only when I give the order. We get this right, we take Jack by surprise before he has a chance to fight back." Just then Chloe calls with the news that Kiefer's on his way. "Remember, non-lethal force," she says. Cole reminds her that his men might need to defend themselves, and Chloe says she'll call when Kiefer does. Just don't hit redial by accident.
At the U.N., Ethan enters Taylor's office with a fancy folder containing the statement she's had him working on futilely for the last twenty-five minutes, even though she had no intention of using it for the last twenty. She tells him she's decided not to withdraw after all, much to his confusion. So she explains to him about Dana being taken "off the grid, out of Jack Bauer's reach," and the plan to "acquire the evidence," which he's so not down with. "Authorizing the illegal detention and torture of a prisoner?" he asks. "How far are you willing to go to protect this lie?" "As far as necessary to preserve this treaty," she says. "It's vital to the security of this nation! What I am doing is for the greater good." Ethan recognizes Logan's words and realizes it was his idea, but although Taylor looks away sheepishly, she says it's her call. Ethan sits down across from her and starts trying to reason with her, psychoanalytically, talking about how she seems to think this treaty will somehow make up for the fact that her presidency cost her her husband and children. Which she doesn't seem to appreciate much. He begs her to reconsider, but she cuts off the debate and says they need to move on, handing his folder back to him. Rather than quitting on the spot, as I kind of expected him to, Ethan gets up to leave and heads for the door. But then he quits. "Madam President, unless you stop what's being done in your name, I can't be a part of this any longer." He promises to keep it quiet and says he'll cite his health concerns. "After all, I'm here against doctor's orders." She begs him not to abandon her when they're so close, and he says he 's listening to his conscience. And then he gets in one last dig about hers: "Anyway, you've got Charles Logan now. Only room for one of us." He nods formally, saying, "Madam President," and leaves with his folder. It's 10:37:02, and I hope that statement ends up framed at his house.
At 10:41:24, Dalia Hassan is working on her speech in a dimly-lit conference room with Jamot. Apparently the two of them represent the whole of the IRK government now. She's a little worried about creating the false impression that she's making a power-grab, until Kayla enters to remind her of Hassan's words: "He said the best way to dispel public misperception is to address it directly." Dalia says she'll do that, but of course the real point of the exchange, as demonstrated by their sappy smiles, is to show that Kayla's on board now. As Jamot discreetly leaves with a reminder that Dalia's expected in twenty minutes, Kayla apologizes for earlier. Dalia gets it. "You lost your father
today, and you were afraid of losing me as well." Kayla admits that she still is, and Dalia hugs her. Kayla wonders, "This peace agreement father died for -- how could so many people be so violently against it?" I've decided I like Kayla better when she's away from her parents. With them, she's written like a naïve teenager. Without letting go, Dalia lectures, "Some people are so invested in their fear and hatred, peace is the most threatening thing they can imagine." Is that in her speech?
I'm sure it's just a coincidence that from there we cut to Kiefer, peering and sneaking through a chain link fence and privacy hedge across the street from the fake safe house at 10:43:12. I should also mention that this 141 Juniper Valley Road looks completely different from the one in Google Street View, probably because it's really in L.A. Kiefer has traded his man-purse for a giant duffel strapped to his back, and we can see him casing the site through his scope from behind the cover provided by an overfilled Dumpster. Even if they can't see him coming, they'll be able to smell him. He calls Chloe to say he's there, and she advises him to sneak in via the side entrance north of the loading dock, which should be out of the sentry's line of sight. Chloe tells him that Dana must be in a room in the southwest corner of the building. Of course Kiefer has no way of knowing that Chloe's talking to him about this allegedly illegal operation from the middle of the main floor where everyone can hear her, but he should really notice that she doesn't sound as stressed out as she usually does when he puts her in this kind of position. Kiefer hurries to disconnect, because he's making his move, running alongside a passing truck to conceal his approach to the building. Chloe switches lines to tell Cole that Kiefer's on his way in, and Cole can already see him from an upstairs window. Cole in turn alerts his men by earpiece, and they take up positions on either side of the open warehouse corridor that they expect Kiefer to enter by. Best-laid plans, right?
But Kiefer's not in yet. Before entering, he unshoulders his giant duffel to unload and strap on an assault rifle, then pockets a tear gas canister or something before stashing the duffel between some parked trucks, where the duffel's size will allow it to blend in nicely. So why'd he need all that other crap from Jim in the first place? Just to show him who's boss? Using a dental mirror, Kiefer sneaks around another truck and scopes out the sentry on that side of the building. Then he bangs on the side of the truck to lure the guard over. This works, and the CTU agent cautiously approaches, gun drawn. But he's not cautious enough to avoid getting socked unconscious the moment he comes around the corner. Kiefer quickly takes the agent's pulse to make sure he's alive, then tells Chloe he can see the room. "No hostiles in sight. I'm going to try and grab her." She tells him to be careful, and he copies. Then he pulls out his earpiece and heaves the agent up over his shoulder before entering the building, grunting with the effort. Come on, Kiefer, that little dude can't be heavier than the duffel you were carrying. Break his arms and use them as shoulder straps if you need to.
There's a moment where we see Chloe communicating with Cole, who's stalking the building with the Handsome Black Agent, hoping to close off Kiefer's escape route. But Kiefer's not where he's supposed to be. Instead, as everyone watches, a giant hanging sack of laundry comes coasting along the motorized rack overhead, with the unconscious sentry draped over it. "Son of a bitch," one of the agents mutters. No shit -- CTU has been holding on to people's laundry for a whole year? Now they all have to break cover and start sneaking around trying to find Kiefer, which doesn't work. And not because Kiefer's hiding inside the laundry sack, as I initially suspected, but because he's sneaked around another corner. When one of the agents comes around, Kiefer disarms and grabs him, then holds his rifle to the man's neck, ordering Cole and the other three to put down their weapons. He doesn't seem all that surprised to see Cole. Cole says he can't comply, until Kiefer threatens to kill his hostage. Cole isn't about to let his guy die for a fake safe house, so he gives the order, and all three CTU men toss their guns on the floor. Kiefer pushes his hostage toward them and covers all four with his gun, telling Cole to make them get down and then come towards him, kicking the dropped guns towards him as he goes. "How did you know?" Cole asks. "I know Chloe," Kiefer says. Oh, so he was aware of this all along. Looks like he was right about Chloe not wanting to go against him. He tosses Cole a phone and tells him to call CTU. "You're gonna tell her that her plan worked and you've got me locked down and ready for transport." Cole dials and puts it on speaker so they can all hear Chloe as Cole says Kiefer's caught, and unhurt, and Cole's men are fine too. And apparently CTU has given up on the use of duress codes, because Cole doesn't seem to make any attempt to use one, as far as I can tell. Not that Chloe would know them all, having been back on the job for only a month. "I know I should feel relieved, but I just feel worse," she tells Cole. Cole reminds her it's for Kiefer's own good, like she said. Then he hangs up and tosses the phone back. Oddly, Kiefer doesn't immediately throw it away. I'm not at all sure why Kiefer didn't have Cole use his own phone for that call; that seems less risky than potentially alerting Chloe by having his call come from an unfamiliar number. Not that that happened either, of course. Kiefer tells Cole to secure his men at 10:48:13.
10:52:32. Cole's been taking his time because he's just now finishing up, leaving his men lying facedown on the floor with their wrists and ankles secured with zip ties. CTU's HR department is going to be hearing about this, you can be sure. Cole asks Kiefer what's . "Follow me," Kiefer says, and leads Cole into the room. There, he tells Cole to sit down and lowers his weapon. "You're why I'm here, Cole. I knew Chloe would send you. You're the only reason I risked it." Wow, and with Walker not even cold yet. Oh, he's saying he wants Cole's help with this. "I know you well enough, Cole, that I know you don't want to be part of this cover-up." After nineteen hours, they're likethis. Cole asks how Kiefer knows Taylor's lying. "Because she told me to my face," Kiefer spits. "Why the hell do you think she came down to CTU to talk to me?" Because you don't break up with someone over the phone? "She didn't want me to get the evidence from Dana," Kiefer says. "She wanted to shut me up and lock me down." He reminds Cole that he's not clean either, having protected Dana earlier. "You lied for her. Which enabled the Russians to provide nucular materials to Hassan's opposition." Of course, Kiefer still doesn't know the half of that. "They facilitated his assassination, and what, you lost four of your men today, right?" Four? Is that all? I guess I can't think of any besides Owen and King at the dockyards, and then the two agents on the rooftop at the end of the first hour. That's actually a pretty good day, considering. Kiefer says he's offering Cole a chance to make things right. Cole doesn't say anything, and Kiefer tells him he has a decision to make. "What if you're wrong?" Cole wonders. "I'm not!" Kiefer snaps. Which he knows, because he never is. "Look, I can't do this on my own," Kiefer says, dropping a handgun on the table in front of Cole. That's a pretty trusting gesture, but if what Kiefer says is true, refusing to help Kiefer and arresting him are effectively the same thing. "Your call," Kiefer says, looking as vulnerable as he possibly can. Cole picks up the gun, still thinking about it, and finally shows what side he's on by holstering it. "Chloe says she's in a safe house a few miles from here," Cole tells Kiefer, and let's hope for their sake that she let the actual address slip at some point we didn't see. Kiefer says Cole's men need to think Kiefer took him hostage, so he levels the gun again and yells at him to start moving at 10:54:46. Cole rises, his hands spread, and lets Kiefer lead him out past his zip-tied men.
It's official: "Dalia Hassan to address United Nations as new IRK head of state," reads the onscreen headline in the TV. Which is correct even though it's Fox News. Watching in his temporary office, Logan is surprised to see that Ethan has just drifted silently in behind him. Logan, who has already heard about Ethan's resignation
, smarms about how he's glad Ethan's looking after his health, but Ethan tells him, "I'm leaving because of you. Because of what you started here." He accuses Logan of doing all this on purpose without telling Taylor what his plan was. "She didn't ask," Logan lies, "because she knew it was best for her to preserve her own deniability." Which she did for almost an hour there. Logan says Taylor knows what she's doing. Ethan warns, "Stop this cover-up before it's too late. This peace is no good. There's too much blood on this treaty for it ever to hold." And worse, Logan's grubby fingerprints are all over it as well. Logan condescends that all treaties ever written had blood on them. "Not like this," Ethan protests. He says Taylor wasn't like Logan. "Wasn't like any politician I've ever known." Logan, thinking the current version is an improvement, smugly agrees, "She's finally got some teeth." Ethan issues some vague, poorly-backed threats to Logan, who offers to let him sit down and excuses himself to watch the address. "Get some rest, Ethan. You need it." Ethan walks out of the room, leaving Logan to savor his victory over him the same way Olivia Taylor did last season. And we all remember how well that worked out for her.
At 10:57:02, Dana is dragged into a dark room somewhere with a bag over her head. There's a table full of nasty-looking instruments, which Dana sees as soon as they remove the head-bag. She also sees a scary-looking board with straps attached. Bledsoe wastes no time, telling Dana he needs to know where the evidence is that she promised Kiefer. Looking gray, Dana protests knowing anything. "If that's the way you want to play it, fine," Bledsoe says, and his men waste even less time dragging her over to the board. So now she'll get to have a choice between enduring torture, or giving up the info and getting killed. Sucks to be her.
At the U.N., Taylor's press secretary (who was apparently under the impression that it's Business Casual day in the Taylor administration) is busy prepping the press room while Taylor meets up with Dalia in the wings. Dalia thanks Taylor for her help with the speech: "My husband would have been grateful for the support you have given me." Taylor manages to thank her back without going all "Telltale Heart" on her, and takes the podium to begin her speech. She doesn't bother to hold for applause, which is good because there isn't any. Dalia is behind her on her right, while Novakovich, the nerve of that man, is behind her on her left. Her speech starts with a grim shout-out to Hassan's assassination, as Ethan takes up a position at the back of the room, like he can stop Taylor now with a disapproving look. She does fumble a bit at the sight of the Ghost of Secretaries of State past, but as she restates her resolve that peace will prevail, "no matter the cost, no matter the compromises" (which sounds like a tough sell), he sadly looks at the floor and wanders out in defeat for the third time this hour. Taylor continues speaking as other splitscreen windows show Dana being strapped down and swung horizontal, and Bledsoe dispassionately begins the waterboarding. And here's the difference between how good guys and bad guys torture: people like Kiefer do it with imagination and drive, whereas people like Bledsoe turn it into a rote activity devoid of imagination. Sad, really.
Taylor's speech shifts to the subject of how awesome Dalia is. Chloe and the troops are watching from CTU, as are Logan and Jason from their office, although they're doing so more smugly. Cole and Kiefer are in a car together, with Kiefer driving. Presumably he's retrieved his duffel, and put it in the trunk, although I don't hear sparks flying as the back bumper drags on the pavement. Taylor yields the podium to Dalia, and suddenly all the people in the room seem to realize for the first time that hitting the palms of their hands against each other can make a pleasing sound. It's 11:00:00.
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.
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