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Kiefer and Cole bust into where Dana's being tortured for the evidence, and get her sprung after a lot of sneaking and a little shooting. That's the easy part, because Dana has Cole and Kiefer at each other's throats almost immediately. Taylor is freaking out, but Logan has a solution: put his own man, Jason Pillar, in charge at CTU. Because what Taylor needs right now is more help from Logan, she goes along, and Chloe doesn't have much other choice. Even further behind the scenes, Logan secretly offers to feed the Russians information on the search for Kiefer. Meanwhile, Kiefer takes Dana and Cole to their bank to retrieve the evidence, where he has to let them out of his sight. Dana takes the opportunity to make an escape and call the cops on Kiefer, but leaves Cole alive. Fortunately for Kiefer, two NYPD uniforms aren't enough to take him down, and he pursues Dana on foot. And then he catches her, and gets the evidence from her, and murders her. No silent clock for Dana, in case you were wondering.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!In the previouslies freeze frames this hour: President Allison Taylor, President Charles Logan, Dana Walsh, and Jack Bauer. Plus a lot of that helicopter chase, because even though it's not strictly relevant to what happens this hour, filming it was too expensive to show only once.
Dalia Hassan is addressing the press conference at the U.N., and she's pretty good. My favorite part is where she gives President Taylor a big sloppy rimjob for her "integrity and moral courage," and the fact that "she is someone on whom my husband built an absolute trust." Taylor manages not to burst into flames right there behind her on the podium. With a final shout-out to Hassan and the peace process, Dalia concludes, "On this, the last day of his life, may the world prove that he was right." Applause. Watching from his office, Logan dreamily says, "What a magnificent woman." I refused to check him for tenting four years ago and I'm refusing again now. Logan's horny reverie is interrupted as his assistant, Jason, gets off his cell phone. The caller was Bledsoe, who didn't have good news regarding Dana's interrogation. Logan says they were expecting that, but there's something else: "Bledsoe wanted confirmation." Tapping his fingers on the desk for a long, expectant moment, Logan finally asks, "About what?" About what to do with Dana after they're done with her, of course. Logan thought that was covered and impatiently wonders why Bledsoe's asking, and Jason says he was double-checking "that we're committed to the same outcome." Which Jason said they were. "Not that I have any idea what you're talking about, you understand," Logan says seriously. Awesome.
Dana's waterboarding is still underway. Katee Sackhoff claims to have actually submitted to this, and it certainly looks real. Perhaps she's under the impression that getting waterboarded on camera = automatic Emmy, and I'm not one to argue. Bledsoe calls a momentary halt, and Dana's cranked upright. Bledsoe gives her a tip: "Take short and shallow breaths. You'll recover faster and then we won't have so much downtime between sessions." Just what she wants. He again asks about the evidence, and she chokes out that she was lying to Kiefer earlier when she claimed to have evidence, bluffing and stalling for time. Unconvinced, Bledsoe says, "We begin again in ten seconds." He counts all the way down to six before Dana says, "Bring it on, you son of a bitch." That shortened her reprieve by about a second, and the torture begins afresh. And I know I've bitched about the torture on this show, but it's pretty insidious that after some of the sadistic crap it's shown us in the past (and will again week, according to the previews), this looks relatively tame by comparison. And of course Katee Sackhoff not faking it doesn't help. Seriously, they couldn't have found her a little rubber sheet to hide between the folds of that towel or something?
Kiefer is scoping out the exterior of the building, and is lucky enough to notice an open alley gate. Returning to the rain-spotted CTUmobile he came here in with Cole, he reports the sentry on the roof, and the ones in front they can sneak past via that alley. Cole asks what they do once they have Dana. Kiefer says they have to make a deal: let her go for the evidence. Cole hates the idea. "Cole, we both lost friends today," Kiefer reminds him quickly. "Dana had a hand in that, but only a hand." He wants the people in charge. Just then Cole's cell phone rings. It's Chloe, and Kiefer tells him to answer it or she'll know something's wrong. "If she doesn't already," Cole says, making the common mistake of overestimating Chloe. Has she even bothered to check that CTUmobile's GPS tracker?
When Cole picks up, it turns out that Chloe's just calling to get an ETA and some free therapy. Cole provides both (ten minutes, and "you did the right thing, Chloe"), but the news that Kiefer threatened Chloe for the first time seems to give Cole a bit of pause. The call ends with Chloe unaware of anything being wrong, and Cole tells Kiefer not to be too hard on her, like he's ever going to see her again. "She was only doing what she thought was best for you." Kiefer says he knows. He reaches into his jacket for something he almost forgot: "You're going to need these," he says, holding out a magazine of ammunition. Cole pulls out the gun Kiefer gave him at the end of the last hour and checks the clip in it: blanks. Kiefer apologizes about as sincerely as you'd expect, and as Cole takes the live ammo, he calls him a son of a bitch. Kiefer nods in agreement, "Yeah, I know." Time to move. I think the most upsetting part of that whole exchange was the part where Kiefer "almost forgot." They head across the street and into the alley at 8:08:23, through a pissing rain that doesn't show up on camera but that makes Kiefer squint and button his 70s leather jacket. They break into a jog as soon as they're clear of the street, and look nothing at all like a couple of dudes sneaking into an alley for a tryst.
At CTU, Arlo is on the phone with somebody about CTU's security for the signing ceremony (oh, that) when he gets a call on his headset from Chloe, high above him in her office. He switches lines and they look at each other through her glass wall as she asks him who the psych officer on duty is. Arlo says that's Melissa Anderson, who did all the grief counseling last night. Which was apparently so arduous that she's still on shift well into the morning. Chloe wants her to check Kiefer out when he arrives. "You really think that's necessary?" Arlo wonders. Chloe says she wouldn't order it if she didn't. Arlo's on it. This is all very interesting and totally moot.
But it gave Kiefer and Cole enough time to ascend to the roof, which is fortunately uneven and cluttered enough to allow them to avoid being seen by the rooftop sentry. The bad news is that the access doors are all locked from the inside. Staying out of sight, Kiefer climbs up and hides behind a large A/C unit long enough to overhear a security check. "Command, this is unit four, roof's clear," Kiefer hears the guard say into his walkie-talkie. Kiefer quietly signals to Cole, who throws something and ducks back down out of sight. While the sentry comes over to check it out (instead of taking the fire escape and getting into a cab to LaGuardia, as anyone should do in this situation), Kiefer sneaks up behind him and gets in a brief fistfight which results in the sentry being hurled off that level of the roof. The unfortunate man plummets an entire half-story, which knocks him out cold. Even better news: Kiefer spots an open access door, to which they now have a clear path. This is going smoother than shit through a goose.
A minute later, they're both inside and quietly making their way down the stairs, remaining unseen and seeing nothing suspicious. Until a few levels down, when Kiefer can spot at least four shadowy figures who for some reason are standing where they can't see the door. Kiefer and Cole duck into a hiding spot where they can regroup and plan, and Kiefer comes up with this: "You make that cover, I'll draw them out." He ducks further back and speaks quietly into the walkie-talkie he stole off the sentry, telling "Command" that he's taking sniper fire from across the street and needs backup. The guy running the laptop in a separate room, whom I shall cleverly call "Command," orders all units to the roof, despite the fact that unit four's voice now sounds totally different and the fact that if anyone were to storm the hideout, sniping at it from a neighboring building would be about the dumbest way to do it. Kiefer and Cole stay hidden until everyone runs for the stairs, then continue their exploration. Once all the bad guys are on the roof (save Bledsoe and Command), one of them reports back that it's quiet and there's
no sign of their sentry. While Command tries to raise unit four, Kiefer darts in behind him, puts his gun to his head, and demands, "Where's Dana Walsh?" Command doesn't spill right away, but when Kiefer presses the muzzle of his gun to Command's knee and says, "Last chance," Command tells him, "First room on the left." You can't blame Command for rolling over. He's there for the money, not to get maimed for some higher cause. Although there are worse places to shoot a laptop jockey than the leg; if anything, having a shattered femur would make me more productive, not less. Kiefer thanks Command and pistol-whips him into a nap. The guys on the roof are on their way back by now. With Cole in his wake, Kiefer stomps into the torture chamber, where Bledsoe has cranked Dana upright again and is using her body as a shield while holding his gun to her head. Kiefer threatens to kill Bledsoe, who isn't buying: "You won't take the shot, it's too risky. I'll kill her before--" Yeah, that's Kiefer taking the shot. Looks like Bledsoe called that one wrong, big time. He's dead now. Kiefer tells Cole to release Dana and take her out the back, toot-sweet. Cole hurries to comply while Kiefer takes up position at the door. He shoots the first two guys who pop around the corner, Lethal Enforcers-style, and a moment later Dana is free. Cole drags her out while Kiefer stays with them. Switching to a revolver for some reason, or maybe just to show off, he pops another guy in the hallway and sends Cole on down the stairs: "Get going, I'll be right behind you." Kiefer empties his revolver at two more guys, then lobs a flash grenade and takes off. It's 11:15:32, and it looks like they could have done just as well if Cole had been carrying blanks after all.
At 11:19:43, Arlo interrupts Chloe's vital busywork to report that one of Cole's agents from the laundry just managed to get free and call in, after Kiefer failed to fall for the trap and, according to the agent, took Cole hostage. Chloe turns to a desk jockey named Devon (who's certainly benefiting from CTU's growing shortage of mid-level speaking roles) and tells him to pull up satellite on th Street. "Why?" Devon asks impertinently, apparently already bucking for a demotion. Instead of giving him one, Chloe explains that that's where Dana's being held, and thus where Kiefer is going. Arlo's a little slow on the uptake, so Chloe has to explain that Kiefer didn't fall for her trap; "He probably knew what I was going to do before I did." She turns to everyone and announces, "Jack Bauer's no longer in custody of CTU." Which he actually hadn't been since he stole that helicopter almost an hour and a half ago, but never mind. "Agent Cole Ortiz is with him, most likely as a hostage. Our priority is to find them now." Devon puts the satellite picture up on the big screen, and there's a shot of corpses being loaded into ambulances. Chloe takes one look and immediately decides, "We're too late." It doesn't seem to occur to her for a moment that one of those bodies might be Kiefer's, and indeed, why would it? She reissues the APB on Kiefer and orders, "Get me the White House." I think she means the U.N., because nobody's actually at the White House right now. Dingbat.
In the now-officially-stolen CTUmobile, Dana, in the back seat behind Kiefer with Cole to her and holding a gun on her, asks where they're going. "You tell me," Kiefer says. He wants Dana's video file. Dana reminds him that she agreed to trade it for immunity, like the events of the past hour didn't tip her off that maybe that part of her plan had maybe gone a tad sideways. Kiefer tells her what's what: "The president's decided the peace agreement's more important than the truth. As far as she's concerned, that file can never see the light of day. But I still want it." Dana asks what the deal is now, and Cole says, "You give us the file, we let you go." Kiefer even gives her his word to that effect. Dana gives a cynical laugh and says she doesn't believe him. Pissed off, because he is so not accustomed to having his word questioned, Kiefer throws the truck into a turn, and they instantly go from a busy street to an abandoned spot under a bridge. Kiefer screeches to a stop in front of a concrete support pylon at 11:21:48, gets out, and drags Dana out with him. As Cole follows, looking like the third wheel he currently is, Kiefer roughly throws Dana up against the pylon and demands to know where the file is. "That file's the only thing keeping me alive!" she manages to choke out, despite the fact Kiefer's fingers are back in the old grooves they've already worn in her throat. Kiefer says no, he is. And then he pulls his gun and presses it to her chest. If it's true that he's the only thing keeping her alive, he's doing a shitty job of it, and is about to get worse. "I'm gonna count backwards from three, and then I'm gonna kill you. Three!" Dana desperately appeals to Cole, ("Two!") who yells Kiefer's name. "Back off!" Kiefer screams at Cole. "One!" "Safety deposit box!" Dana cries, and adds that it's specifically at First Unity Savings. She has a joint account there with Cole, but the box is in her name. "Which means I'm the only one who can access it." It also means she's a pretty sloppy spy, keeping her top-secret materials at the same bank she was sharing with her fiancé. Cole says that's at Lexington and 59th. Unsolicited, Dana insists, "I had nothing to do with Renee's death, Jack. I didn't even know she was a target." Kiefer interrupts, yelling at Cole to put her in the car while she's trying vainly to remind him she was in a CTU holding room when it happened. While Kiefer turns his back, suddenly looking very distraught after the fact, Dana works on Cole's mind, saying Kiefer's using him. She would know about using Cole, and to his credit, he basically says that. Dana doesn't agree with Cole's claim that Kiefer's just going to expose the conspiracy: "He's gonna assemble the evidence, make a list of the guilty, and then he's gonna execute them one by one, starting with me." And he's got a whole four and a half hours left to do it. Cole stuffs her in the car as she says this is not about the truth, but revenge. Then he stomps over to Kiefer, yelling, "I can't do this!" and shoving Kiefer to the ground. Whoa! Nobody pushes Kiefer around. Maybe that's why when Kiefer sits up, he's got his gun leveled at Cole. They pant furiously at each other until Kiefer lowers the weapon, saying, "She's just trying to get inside your head." Cole knows that, dammit, and Kiefer gets up and tells Cole to speak his mind. "Were you gonna pull that trigger?" Cole demands. "I needed her to think I would," Kiefer says, which is not the same as no. Furiously flexing every muscle in his entire head, Cole finally spits, "Yeah, okay." He gets back in the car, this time in the shotgun seat. Kiefer gets in behind him and starts it up. There's going to be so much hate sex later, and I don't even know who's going to be having it.
At 11:23:57, Dalia is taking questions. One reporter begins with condolences on the death of her husband and asks what the reaction is back home to recent developments. As she gives a serviceable answer, Taylor's assistant enters -- with Tiny Tim from Homeland at her side -- and hands her a note. After unfolding it, Taylor looks stricken and walks right off the podium, in front of God and CNN cameras and everybody. In the privacy of the adjoining Council Chamber, Tim confirms that Kiefer took Dana, and all he can tell her about his current whereabouts is that a search is underway. And we all know how well searches have been going all day. Also, Logan is so insistent on speaking with Taylor that he's the one who wanted the press conference interrupted. That's certainly the highest priority, so Tim hands her a phone and tells her to hit redial before he withdraws.
So in this room full of microphones, any one of which could be live without her knowledge, Taylor calls Logan back and demands, "How in God's name could this have happened?" "Madam President, the important thing is not to panic," Logan responds in his most infuriatingly conciliatory tone. Taylor reminds Logan that he said Dana would be more secure with his guys. "We didn't move her out of CTU solely for security reasons," Logan reminds her in turn. Taylor asks, "Do you have me on speaker, Charles? Pick up the damn phone." Chastened, Logan picks it up and admits he wasn't thinking. "Apparently neither was I," she retorts. Now she realizes. Logan correctly says, "It's a little late for buyer's remorse, Madam President. "Especially because I was calling with a solution to our current problem." Oh, awesome, because he's certainly been Mr. Fixit all morning. He wants to put someone into CTU whose loyalties are certain. Taylor protests that she can't replace another director today, but Logan hurries to say he's just thinking of someone who'll be in charge of the search for Kiefer -- namely, his own man, Jason Pillar. Logan rattles off Pillar's impressive resume, but says he's open to any better ideas Taylor might have. Here's a better idea: don't listen to Logan. Seriously, every recommendation he's made to her since showing up just a few short hours ago has blown up in her face, and she's going to let him get in even deeper? Unfortunately she has to go, because just then Taylor's assistant pokes her head in to say Dalia's almost done. So Taylor tells Logan to go ahead. "But that's it, Charles. No more excuses." Yes, Charles, if you end up destroying the peace process and getting Taylor impeached and jailed, she is going to be so mad this time. Logan commences smarming, until Taylor hangs up on him. Logan tries to play it off for Jason before hanging up, which is such a telling character note; even in front of his most trusted guy, Logan feels the need to
pretend to be King Shit of Turd Mountain for Jason's benefit. Pathetic, really. Jason walks right out of the room to head to CTU. It's 11:27:16.
11:31:34. A Secret Service agent ushers Russian Foreign Minister Novakovich into Logan's office, as well as the assassin who killed Samir and Walker hours ago. How totally brazen. After exchanging some tense pleasantries, Novakovich asks what Logan wants. Logan was hoping for privacy, but Novakovich assures him that his "attaché," Pavel Tokarev, is in the loop already. The attaché to the Foreign Minister of Russia does the man's wetwork for him? That's almost as shocking as the fact that he's the only male delegate in the building who isn't wearing a tie. Logan sits down across from Novakovich and explains all about Dana, a danger Tokarev scoffs at. "She was handled with complete deniability," he says, so offended that he almost doesn't look sad for a minute. Logan insists that they can't take the chance, especially now that Kiefer busted her out. As Novakovich gives his attaché a dirty look, Logan adds, "Apparently he has a personal interest in exposing this evidence." Which of course has nothing to do with anyone in this room. Novakovich points out that Taylor must want this kept quiet too (and when did he find out in the first place that Taylor had learned the truth herself?), and Logan says that he knows Kiefer. "He will never let this go. And I don't think the president is willing to do what is required." In response to this delicate statement, Novakovich bluntly asks, "So you expect me to kill Bauer for you?" Logan's like, "Yep pretty much." He tells Novakovich about having his own man running the CTU search, and the minister is suddenly intrigued. Logan pulls a "closed-channel phone" out of a drawer, saying it's impossible to intercept. Well, if he says so. "My man at CTU will use this to feed real time information to your people as to Bauer's whereabouts." But how's he going to do that when the phone is here and he's there!? Dammit, Logan blew it again. But after a pause, Tovarek picks up the phone, and both Russians walk out without another word. I guess that's a yes.
At 11:34:27, Kiefer and Cole flank Dana as they frog-march her up the steps of the bank. Kiefer says he's probably a walking "Wanted" poster by now, which means Cole will have to take Dana in alone while he hangs out in the lobby. Which is totally not a public place at all. Cole mentions that one of the bank employees is an old high school buddy of his who's helping them with a mortgage. Interesting use of the present tense, but not nearly as interesting as the fact that Dana opened her safe deposit box not only at her fiancé's bank, but at her fiancé's friend's bank. Worst spy ever. Kiefer warns Cole, "You keep her inside your strike zone. She sees an opportunity, she's going to take it. You trust her for nothing, you understand?" Dude, she's standing right there. I know she spied for the Russians and facilitated a terrorist attack and killed a bunch of people her own damn self, but that's no reason to be rude. He sends them on ahead, and Dana immediately starts in on Cole, arguing with him as they walk through the lobby. Dana is arguing that Kiefer isn't going to play nice with the bad guys, whatever he may have told Cole. "They're Russian diplomats with full diplomatic immunity...You really believe Jack Bauer wants to trust some toothless international tribunal to mete out the justice to the people who killed Renee?" Yay, Katee Sackhoff, for almost making that line sound like something a person would actually say. Cole's heard enough, and drags her along to the bank's inner entrance. "You're hurting me," she says. "You'll live," he shoots back. We'll see. They enter the bank while Kiefer hangs in the lobby, watching a bank employee in a suit -- Cole's friend, probably -- meet them and then lead them toward the back. It's 11:35:56, and Kiefer looks like he just realized that maybe letting them out of his sight wasn't his best move.
11:40:14. Chloe has Arlo up in her office, going over a search plan with him, when her speakerphone rings. It's Devon, reporting that Jason Pillar is on his way up. Arlo's never heard of him, but Chloe knows about him from his work in DIA under President Daniels. I'm embarrassed to admit that I had to look up DIA, which turns out to stand for either Defense Intelligence Agency or the Detroit Institute of Arts. Jason himself enters the room, followed by a tall, blond porn actress who's seen better days. Okay, that's uncharitable; I have no way of knowing if she's been in adult films. Jason introduces himself to Chloe, and also introduces his "associate," whose name is "Eden Linley." All right, total porn star. Chloe's literally, "Okay, so why are you here?" Jason says the White House is unhappy with the search for Kiefer, so they've put him in charge of the search. "You'll retain your position as acting director for the time being, with authority over all other CTU operations." Chloe asks Arlo to excuse them, and as soon as he's gone, Chloe argues with Jason, telling him they've done everything possible. Jason is unimpressed, and points out that not only do they not have Kiefer in custody yet, Chloe's earlier instruction to Cole to use non-lethal force isn't exactly appropriate under the circumstances. Chloe argues that Taylor doesn't want Kiefer hurt either: "She knows what he's done for this country, and so do you." Jason says Kiefer will destroy the peace agreement if he isn't stopped, "And the president can not let that happen. It's time to take off the kid gloves." With that, Eden demands some technobabble access, and Chloe reluctantly agrees. And with Chloe still standing right there, Jason makes a big show of changing the use of force guidelines to unrestricted. Yeah, that'll win Chloe's trust and ensure she doesn't try to sabotage him or anything.
Lurking in the bank's outer lobby, Kiefer feels pretty exposed, especially when one bank customer looks at him a little too long on her way out. He refrains from killing her on the spot, ducking into a side hallway instead.
Meanwhile, in the back, Cole's banker buddy is leaving him and Dana alone in a meeting room. Cole plops her into a chair, and wonders why she seems to find this amusing. Shrugging, she says this wasn't how this was supposed to happen, and says he deserves to hear the truth. Cole says it's a little late for that, if she's even capable of it. Ouch, I bet that hurt her almost as much as the waterboarding (not). Dana says he doesn't have to believe her, and tells her story. "I was a kid. A kid with five years of prison behind me and no future to speak of. A guy came to see me, a Russian. Said that he could give me a fresh start. I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into." She probably just thought he wanted her to write some essays on Dostoevsky for him. She claims that she's been trying to dig herself out ever since she met Cole. "You're right, I don't believe you," Cole says. Can't fool him. Dana says that's why she created this evidence in the first place: to use as leverage so the Russians would leave them alone. Yeah, that would have worked. Disgustedly, Cole says, "There is no us, Dana. There never was. It was a lie from the beginning." Dana is pretty convincing when she says she loved Cole, but then she was really convincing about a lot of stuff, for a long time.
There's a knock on the door, and there's the banker with her safe deposit box. He sets it on the table and leaves them to it, and Dana thanks him like this is no thing. She reaches for the box, but Cole isn't about to let her open it. Good thing, too, because when he lifts the lid himself, he discovers that among the other stuff in there is a silenced handgun. Cole picks it up and says, "You never give up, do you?" He doesn't know the half of it, because while he's standing there thinking he outsmarted her, a beeping noise comes from inside the box. As stupid Cole looks inside and Dana turns away, a little flash goes off. Dana shoulder-checks a blinded Cole into the wall, which is apparently enough to make him go nighty-night. People are really easy to render unconscious this hour, have you noticed that? She takes the gun from his hand, and when the banker buddy pops in to make sure they're all right, she shoots him twice. Looks like Cole will be skipping the reunion. Committed to customer service to the very end, thought, the banker has the consideration to fall into the room, so Dana can easily close the door. Then she pulls out the stuff she needs from the safe deposit box: the computer file, which is in the form of a chip encased in Lucite that goes in her back pocket; a passport; and a small brick of Benjamins, both of which she sticks into the back of her pants. Lucky the mini-bomb doesn't seem to have damaged any of it. She picks up the gun, gives Cole a long look and a gentle touch, and totally doesn't kill him. Then she picks up the phone to call 911. She tells the operator where she is and says there's a guy in the lobby she recognizes from the news. "I think he has a gun. Oh my God, he's looking in my direction!" she simpers in fake panic, then hangs up and drops the act like a hot potato. She leaves the room at 11:46:53, once again failing to kill Cole. So maybe she likes him after all. Or else that's what she wants him to think.
11:51:12. At CTU, Arlo announces out that 911 just got a call about Kiefer being sighted at the First Unity Bank. Jason demands confirmation. His pet porn star Eden is already trying to get into the bank's surveillance system, but running into trouble with the technobabble protocols. Jason snaps his fingers at Devon, ordering him to help. Devon hesitates, looking at Chloe, but Jason insists he comply. So much for Chloe still being in charge. Devon heads over to Eden's desk, and a moment later, there's a Cisco ad up on the big screen under the banner "Video Surveillance Manager." Nice move, there, Cisco, repositioning your 24 product placement from "whizbang" to "kind of creepy." The computer scrolls through all of the bank's available camera angles, looking for a facial recognition match, and there's Kiefer on the sidewalk outside. Jason orders
a call to NYPD and sneaks off to make his own call with his secret phone. So I guess he remembered to bring his along after all.
At the U.N., at 11:52:36, Tokarev is in a hallway conference with his boss and another delegate when the mate to Jason's phone rings in his pocket. He steps outside to answer, and Jason gives him directions and the skinny on the 911 call. "Then the police are already on their way," Tokarev points out. Jason says he'll just have to take Kiefer out after he's in custody, then. And what could be easier than that? Other than shooting him through his apartment window when he was exposed, unarmed, and carrying a human being, and we know how that went. Tokarev hangs up and walks off, without bothering to report back to his boss. Although I guess they probably don't want that other delegate to know about the secret assassination they're trying to carry out to protect their role in the very public one that happened earlier. Hate for someone to get the right idea.
"Brown jacket, freeze, police!" a uniformed NYPD officer bellows at Kiefer in the bank lobby. As everyone else in the lobby scatters, Kiefer complies with the order to get on his knees and interlock his fingers behind his head with his back to them, cursing silently to himself. At least this way he's in a great position to see Dana walking right past the bank doors on her way to another exit. As one officer approaches to cuff him and the other radios rather prematurely, "We got him," Kiefer grabs the closer officer's hand, twists him around, and holds him hostage with his own gun, using his body to shield himself from the other officer. Keeping his gun leveled, the officer with the itchy radio finger tries to talk Kiefer down, but the only thing Kiefer wants to hear is whether the officer knows who he is, which he does. Kiefer threatens to kill his hostage if his partner doesn't drop his weapon and kick it over to him. The officer complies. "I'm sorry," Kiefer says, and shoots the other officer in the foot. He goes down, and the hostage is unconscious now as well, because either Kiefer had him in a sleeper hold or all the sets in this entire episode are suffused with aerosolized Benadryl or something. Kiefer walks out, unloading the cop's gun and dropping it and the clip on the floor before walking out with his own weapon drawn. On his way out, he tells someone to call an ambulance for the cops. Because he's nothing if not a gentleman.
By now, Dana is out on the street, walking quickly and keeping her gun "concealed" by holding it pressed against the leg of her jeans. Which totally works, of course. Kiefer emerges from the building, glances around looking for her, then spots her across the street and takes off in pursuit. She breaks into a run when she hears the horns of the cars he's jaywalking in front of. As the foot chase commences in earnest, we're in splitscreen mode.
CTU is watching the live satellite feed of Kiefer dashing around on the street. Novakovich looks pensive while his attaché looks patient; Taylor walks with the IRK delegation to meet him; and Logan sits thoughtfully in his office, wondering what he can fuck up .
Dana and Kiefer exchange a few shots on the street (she hitting a bystander, which of course he doesn't), until she dashes into an empty building that seems to be under construction while he reloads. He's right behind her, while she hides around a corner and kicks off her shoes. That's a dangerous move during a remodel. Sure, an angry and determined super-agent hell-bent on revenge is chasing her with a gun, but have you ever stepped on a loose sheetrock screw when barefoot? That shit smarts. She looses a few shots at him as he tries to get closer to her without breaking cover, but he's able to track her progress through the building. He makes a dash, drawing her fire, and she heads up a staircase and lies in wait. Sensing where she is, Kiefer takes off his jacket. At this rate, they'll both be naked by the time this is over. He tosses it into her line of sight, and she takes two shots at it. And now her gun is empty. She drops it and runs across the upper floor, looking for an exit. But just when she's about to duck through a plastic curtain, Kiefer bellows at her from behind, "Don't you move!" Chase over. Caught, Dana raises her hands and turns around. Kiefer asks if she killed Cole. "I could never do that," she says self-righteously. Whether Kiefer believes her or not, he wants the file now. But before pulling it out of her pocket, Dana wants to make a deal. Kiefer reeks of disinterest in anything she might possibly have to say. Dana pulls the chip out and holds it up so he can see it. Yep, looks like proof of Russian involvement, all right. Kiefer makes her put it down on the floor, slowly. So what ? Kiefer's having a little trouble with this himself, blinking with anguish as he gets in close to her, but his gun never wavers. "Jack, tell me what I can do," Dana says quietly, like they're a team now. "Nothing," Kiefer says. "Nothing." Because after all, she gave him the file, so he has to let her go now, right? Like he gave his word he would do? Although it might be argued that in trying to escape, assaulting Cole, shooting a couple of people, and now trespassing in this, she didn't hold up her entire end of the deal. And then he shoots her in the chest at point-blank range. She sprawls on the floor, mostly dead, and he puts another round in her while she lies there. A drop of sweat tumbles from Kiefer's chin before he picks up the file and walks out. It's 12:00:00. Cole's sister is never going to get that call back about the bridesmaid's dresses, is she?
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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