Episode Report Card M. Giant: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Do You Have the Stomach For It?
By M. Giant | Season 8 | Episode 21 | Aired on 05.10.2010
he call he intercepted, but he's not buying into her theory until she shows him what's on her own screen: a call history showing that two minutes after that mysterious call was flagged, Jason nabbed it and put it in a segregated server, "behind firewalls like I've never seen." Which is saying something, coming from someone who went from floundering n00b to acting director in the space of a day. Furthermore, Jason then made three calls to someplace outside of CTU, but the data on those calls is restricted. Chloe wraps up her case to Arlo: "The question is this: If the call was nothing, then why are they still hiding it? If the call was Jack, then why haven't they dispatched CTU SWAT teams? Why haven't they alerted NYPD?" Actually, that's three questions, but never mind that as she tells Arlo that Jason and Eden are part of the cover-up. "Look at them!" Of course Arlo can't because the walls are all frosty and they're just vague shadows moving around in there. Which, in Chloe's defense, does make them look a lot more like conspirators. Chloe adds, "What's worse is they're planning on taking Jack out." Now, is that really worse? She insists that Kiefer knows too much, and probably has Dana's evidence by now. "That's why I have to find him and I need your help." Arlo hesitates, but then he agrees, for reasons that will remain mysterious for at least this hour. Chloe's going to start by talking to Cole. But, as Arlo points out, Cole's being monitored. Chloe says they'll patch in a video loop, like in Speed, and after some technobabble about how they're going to do that without Jason's knowledge, Chloe decides it's time for a Sprint commercial. She goes to a drawer and pulls out a little black box that will apparently let them set up their own "mobile hotspot," the message being that Sprint is the way to go if you plan to illegally hack into the systems of a highly secure government installation. A moment later, Arlo has the laptop displaying the video feed from Cole's holding cell, which shows him sitting on a bench. Arlo says he can give her 90 seconds, and he'll text her when he's ready. On their Sprint phones, I take it. Welcome to the Now Network, mutineers.At 12:22:26, Chloe heads across the building to holding, glancing nervously at Hastings' office as she passes it. I guess the nice thing about the frosted windows is that now they can't see her either. She approaches the guard posted outside Cole's cell and gives him some tedious errand that she needs him to do right now. Which, since it involves delivering time cards to her office, where Jason and Eden are now, may not have been the best pretext. But at least the guard's out of the way for now and she can go on in. She gets her text from Arlo reading "YOU'RE CLEAR FOR 90 SECONDS." Of course, with my phone, sending that text would have taken about 50. Seriously, Arlo, an apostrophe in a text message? A moment later, Chloe's inside the cell with Cole, telling him she's only got 90 seconds so she's not going to waste any time. Because she's usually so caught up with verbal pleasantries. "I need to find Jack or else they're going to kill him," she blurts. But just because it's Chloe asking and not Jason doesn't mean Cole knows any more than he did before. Chloe says Kiefer must have said something. "What Jack says and what he does are two very different things," Cole points out. I remember when that, at least, wasn't true. Kiefer's young Padawan is quite disenchanted, isn't he? Chloe says Kiefer's trying to expose the cover-up, which Cole says Kiefer doesn't care about. "He's taking out anyone who was anywhere near Renee's death. Starting with Dana. She gave him the evidence. He killed her anyway." Chloe makes excuses for Kiefer, until Cole tells her Dana was executed. "Just like she said he would. There are no good guys here. Jack, Pillar. They end up killing each other, maybe it's the best thing." Okay, then, enjoy the rest of the season, everyone! With less than half the time left on Arlo's clock, Chloe insists that she can talk Kiefer down if she can only find him. Because that worked so well earlier. "I need you to be on my side," she tells Cole. Not the first time Cole's heard that today. "Who am I fighting for?" he asks. Well, Sparky, right now you're in a holding cell, so I think you're done fighting for...well, at least another forty minutes or so. Chloe says they can expose the conspiracy together, then. When even that sweet prize fails to sway him, she snaps, "You just stay here and feel sorry for yourself, I'm gonna go find him." Finally Cole tells her to wait, and says that all he knows is that Kiefer must be working with someone, given all the gear he showed up with earlier. "You want to find Jack, you find his supplier." Oh, that's HUGELY helpful. Chloe thanks him anyway and heads out. In the hallway, she calls Arlo. "I know what Jack's doing. Pull up his files, get me the list of his known associates in the tri-state area. Everyone he's worked with in the past." But does Chloe have time to visit that many cemeteries?
Logan's watching a news channel that's broadcasting the itinerary for the arrival of his old buddy, Russian President Yuri Suvarov, at the U.N. later this afternoon. And to think of how he agonized over giving that exact same information to a terrorist so many years ago. Logan mutes the TV and then pulls out his phone and the little slip of paper holding Tokarev's number at 12:25:15. Logan just has to be the boss of everything, doesn't he? Even covert Russian agents doing wetwork in Manhattan. Logan reaches Tokarev just as he's arriving in a maintenance space. It's a spot that gives him a commanding view of the department store through an air vent, the louvers of which will be just far enough apart to stick the barrel of his sniper rifle through. Logan asks for an update. "My team is in position," Tokarev says, but Kiefer hasn't arrived yet. "I need to know about the woman," he asks. Logan cavalierly claims, "Ms. Reed is aiding and abetting a terrorist. She's a serious threat to both of our countries. Do what you have to." Tokarev looks like he can't believe he's got to deal with this tool, but he what can he do? He pulls a familiar sniper rifle out of its case and screws on the silencer, then levels it out through the vent. It's 12:26:14, and while he's at it, could he maybe take out one of those people who gets to the front of the line at the cash register and spends like five minutes fumbling with how to pay for their shit?
At 12:30: 32, President Taylor is back at the negotiating table at the U.N conference chamber, this time with Dalia Hassan and the IRK delegate Jamot across from her. Of course she's all alone on her side, because her Chief of Staff is in stir and she drove her Secretary of State away by being an amoral dumb-ass. Dalia's all warm smiles, even as Taylor completely spaces on a point that was previously resolved. She asks if Taylor's all right. "It's been a long day," Taylor says. Dalia's quite sympathetic, considering she's been a widow herself for all of four and a half hours. Just then Taylor's assistant enters with a note, and Taylor excuses herself. "There's someone I need to see." I think it's more the other way around.
Yep, it's Logan. In the conference room where she goes to meet with him privately, he gives her "good news:" "We've located Bauer. He has the evidence, but--" Taylor freaks on him, saying that wasn't supposed to happen, but Logan presses on, saying that they know where and when he'll be and that they'll be able to "reacquire" him. Is that what he's calling it now? Taylor heaves a shaky sigh and says, "Let me know as soon as it's resolved." "Resolved" is also a good euphemism. She's about to head back to the negotiating table -- and honestly, they really ought to knock off redlining that treaty and get it to Kinko's already -- but Logan brings up another point: "We are three hours away from the signing of the treaty. Isn't it time for my role in the process to be officially recognized?" OH MY GOD IS HE SERIOUS? Holy shit, he totally is. He suggests an announcement by her press secretary