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After leaving Tokarev's steaming guts on the floor, Kiefer sends Meredith Reed on her way with the evidence. Logan, obviously highly motivated to contain the story, leans hard on Taylor to have Reed arrested. Chloe and Arlo are closing in on Kiefer's buddy Jim, but Kiefer has already cut Jim loose so he can go after Logan on his own. Which he does by going full-on Jason from Friday the 13th and mounting a one-man frontal assault on the line of traffic containing the limousine Logan's taking to meet President Suvarov. Jason Pillar's CTU assault team is close behind, but Kiefer gets Logan to spill everything before letting him go -- including the name of Russian Foreign Minister Mikhail Novakovich. Chloe springs Cole to help make contact with Jim while Kiefer goes after Novakovich. Meanwhile, Reed manages to contact Kayla Hassan and tell her some of what she knows just before getting arrested by the FBI and having the evidence confiscated. As for Kiefer, he gets re-stabbed in the gut while going after Novakovich, but still manages to singlehandedly wipe out him and all his men. So what's left for him to do? Well, Logan calls up President Suvarov to tell him that he didn't say a word to Kiefer about Suvarov's personal decision to have Walker killed, so Kiefer must think he's done. Except it turns out that before Kiefer released Logan, he put a bug on him. Again! So it looks like Kiefer's going to spend his last hours going after a foreign head of state. That should be fun.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!In tonight's previouslies freeze-frames: Meredith Reed, Jason Pillar, Chloe O'Brian, and of course Jack Bauer. Or at least the version of him we've been watching lately
Logan is in his temporary U.N. office putting on a new tie. Looks like he picked the most hideous one, too, with purple squares and red octagons. He's also smugly watching the TV, where Taylor's press secretary is not only announcing Ethan's resignation for "heath reasons," but talking about how Taylor "sought and gained the counsel of former president Charles Logan." This is all of course as truthful as one would expect watching a White House press secretary speaking on Fox News. Finishing getting himself arranged, which turns out to require a whole slideshow of reptilian facial expressions, Logan mutes the TV as an assistant enters to let him know that his car to the heliport is ready. That would be the heliport where Russian president Suvarov is expected to arrive, after his plane touches down at JFK in the half hour. Logan turns the volume back on as soon as she leaves, surprisingly not at all put out about having missed part of someone talking about him on television. He must be TiVoing it at home.
Logan's cell phone rings and Logan, suddenly remembering that all is not well, answers, "Tell me you have a lead on Bauer." But Logan's man Jason Pillar's got nothing, except the sniper-slaughterhouse Kiefer left in the neighboring building at the end of the last hour. Jason says that Kiefer evaded the cordon, and so did Meredith Reed. "Also, he's killed Pavel." Jason says he can keep this contained for now, but if Kiefer's already passed the goods on to the media, it won't matter. Logan remains stubbornly optimistic, especially since the press secretary just told the world about Logan's role in the peace process. Well, the public part. Obviously she left out the part where people were illegally detained and tortured and killed and all those other hallmarks of a Charles Logan operation, but eventually people will be able to figure that out. Jason warns Logan that Kiefer "didn't just kill Pavel. He butchered him." Indeed, we even get a close-up of Tokarev's messy insides lying on the floor below him. I sometimes think that actors on 24 have a better sense of their own mortality than other actors. They have to realize their characters could be killed off at any time, which means that nine times out of ten they'll have to play not only death scenes but dead scenes. And now this poor guy has to show up for a day of shooting so he can be bloodied, tied up, and paid to spend who knows how many hours half-bent over a pile of his own prop-guts. That's got to make a person rethink his career. Jason tells Logan, "I don't think Bauer's just looking to expose the Russians' involvement...this guy's out for blood." "Then you'd better find him and stop him, haven't you?" Logan says, and hangs up with instructions to keep him posted. That's certainly been working well up until now.
Kiefer is dragging Reed (and I hope it's not too confusing that I refer to Meredith Reed as "Reed" while referring to the Reed Diamond character as "Jason" even though everyone calls him "Pillar" lately, while I'm the only one who doesn't refer to "Tokarev" as "Pavel," but anyway let's keep this moving) down an alley, but she plants her feet and demands to know what happened. Kiefer says she's in danger. "You want to get through this alive, you're gonna do exactly what I say. Do you understand?" Because if she doesn't, he'll kill her? While she's nodding, Jim catches up and says he can't get a trace on the number Kiefer called (that would be Logan's phone, from Tokarev's phone) unless he goes back to his techno-sanctum and does it there. Kiefer tells him to get on it and continues leading Reed along their not-so-merry way. She asks what he plans to do when he finds everyone else involved. "It doesn't concern you," he says, which doesn't seem entirely true; I mean, she seems pretty concerned. When she asks how she's supposed to trust him when he won't tell her what's going on, he says, "Because I'm not the person who's trying to kill you." Yeah, yet. He tells her about the video he gave her being the only proof of Russian involvement, but he's looking for further conspirators, adding that President Taylor is among those trying to cover it up. Kiefer explains why that is, and I'm just going to gloss over that because we've already heard it a dozen times in the past few hours. So where does Reed come in? "I need you to break the story in case I don't make it," he says. She suddenly looks at him all melty as he says, "I think President Hassan deserves that, don't you?" Reed is so moved that she seems to have forgotten that Kiefer still reeks of half-digested borscht. He asks for her cell phone, which he then takes apart and throws aside. Jeez, rude much? "The authorities are going to start monitoring your usual forms of communications," he explains. "You can't go home, you can't go back to your office." She should go to Kiefer's place; it's probably the one place in the city where nobody's looking for Kiefer. "Is there anyone you work with you can trust?" he asks. Reed names her editor, Gary, and Kiefer says he can get her to a pay phone and she's on her own from there. He's nothing if not a gentleman.
Taylor, Dalia Hassan, and Jamot get up from the U.N. conference table at 1:06:25, their work on the treaty apparently done. Now there's nothing left but to have some poor admin type it up in Word, get all the headings and margins and page breaks right, and print it off. Let's hope there's still enough time. They all exchange compliments (and apparently Jamot has been promoted to minister of something during his time off-screen), until Logan sticks his stupid face in to interrupt. Taylor introduces him to Dalia, and he's so predictably unctuous that he's practically hitting on her. Not that we expect anything less. Then he asks for a minute with Taylor, who knows this can't be good. As soon as Dalia and Jamot walk on, the smile Dalia's been wearing this whole scene vanishes and she quietly asks Jamot whether he's found out what Logan did to keep the Russians on board. Jamot says he's polled the delegates and found nothing, but offers to bring their intelligence services in. Dalia politely declines. "I trust President Taylor. We have to assume that if she involved Logan it was for a good reason." I don't know how the two of them manage to fit into that elevator with so much dramatic irony.
Alone in the Conference chamber with Taylor -- and again, is there a way to make sure none of those microphones is on? -- Logan blurts that Kiefer escaped with the evidence. When Taylor angrily says he told her that wouldn't happen, he admits, "Clearly I was overly optimistic." What else is new? He adds that Kiefer's in contact with Meredith Reed, and the stunned president is still absorbing that body blow of an update when Logan tells her to call Reed's publisher. "Deny any foreknowledge of whatever evidence she has and demand that they do not run the story." That'll be convincing: "Hello, this is the President of the United States, and I just wanted to tell you that whatever evidence you're about to get, I have no idea what it's going to be. Also, don't print it." Taylor understandably hates that idea, but Logan tells her to invoke national security, which is so important it allows any president to get away with anything, ever. "New lies to cover old ones," Taylor moans. Yeah, that's usually how that ends up going. Logan warns that it's her only choice now: "You don't need me to tell you the damage that your criminal prosecution will do to this country." "This country survived your presidency," Taylor reminds him rather than simply saying, "Look who's talking," but he says it won't survive hers. "Me, I inherited my presidency. I was never nearly as popular as you are. And most of my alleged misdeeds never made the press." Right, alleged. "But if you were to bare your sins to the people who put you in office? You are a beacon of righteousness." In fact, as he points out, she even had her own daughter prosecuted for murder. Which is true, but that had to be easier than it sounds on account of how Olivia was an asshole. "You're a poison!" Taylor hisses. "I never should have let you do this." Logan slimes that all he did was "give recommendations" and "make arrangements," but the final decisions were all hers. Of course neither of them is going to point out that it was the plans Logan made and the people he brought in who have fucked up every stage of this, because Taylor's still got too much integrity and Logan still has none. "I've studied you for a number of years, Allison," he adds, calling her by her first name now that he knows he's got her by the short and curlies. "You've always known what needed to be done and were willing to do it." Which in this case means calling Reed's editor. "I suggest you do it now. You have a signing ceremony to prepare for. And I need to go meet President Suvarov." He leaves her standing there looking miserable, but he looks pretty confident that she's going to do what he says. It's almost like being president all over again.
At CTU, Arlo and Chloe are working on their secret project in a conference room when Arlo shows her a live feed from the CTU team going through Kiefer's slaughterhouse. Which, in addition to the sweetmeats on the floor, includes a view of the gun that killed Walker. "That's gotta be the shooter," Chloe says matter-of-factly. "Jack did this and you still think you're going to be able to talk him down?" Arlo asks. Chloe says she has to try. "Pillar and his people are just going to kill him and I can't let that happen." So where's she going to talk him down to? Meanwhile, she's found a record on Jim. His file says he's James Ricker, a former Green Beret who served with Kiefer in the Gulf. Arlo points out that Jim's dead, having been killed in a Basra chemical plant explosion seven years ago. That would explain the nasty burns on the side of Jim's neck, though not why he's still walking around. "Then he must have a twin," Chloe says sarcastically, because the store surveillance from the scene of the shootout with the Russian agents clearly shows him walking around. Noticing the suspicious looks Eden is giving them from out in the hallway, Chloe decides it's time to break this up. She sends Arlo back to his desk with instructions to cross-reference Jim's photo with the DMV database so they can find him, presumably under an alias. Start with the last name "Blonde" and they might get lucky.
At 1:11:56, Kiefer's walking down a busy street when his cell rings. But who still has his number? Oh, right, Jim. "You didn't tell me that was Logan's phone that I was tracing, Jack," Jim grumbles. "That's a serious line you're crossing there, pal." Whatever, Kiefer's crossed more lines than a professional football player, even before the last few hours. Bored, Kiefer asks Jim, "Are you gonna give me the location or not?" Sine nobody can ever say "or not" to Kiefer, Jim not only tells him that Logan's in a car, he uploads the route from the Secret Service deployment grid directly to Kiefer's PDA. And there it is, map and everything. Why did Kiefer spend so much of his time fucking around with CTU and all of its bureaucratic second-guessing when he knew this guy? I mean, Jim might carp a little bit, but he always folds like an origami skyscraper in the end. Jim gives Kiefer one more warning: "This path you're on, there ain't no coming back from it." Maybe Jim should be a little more concerned about the mug who's been an accessory to all of this. Kiefer says he doesn't have a return ticket booked anyway, and lets Jim off the hook, telling him to start erasing any connections they might have. Probably should have done that hours ago, before Kiefer called him "Jim, thanks for everything," Kiefer says. "Bye." He tosses down the phone, throws his giant duffel into the open back of an unattended banana delivery van, and drives off down the alley. It's 1:13:16.
1:17:34. Taylor's assistant brings her some aspirin and a glass of water, because Logan is still giving her headaches even from outside the building. Taylor dismisses her as Tiny Tim from Homeland comes in, apparently having been summoned. Taylor brings up Reed, whom Tim remembers, and Taylor tells Tim that Reed plans to publish "an unfounded story regarding Omar Hassan's murder." Tim asks what it's about, and without answering, Taylor tells him to "contact the FBI. Have them search the Sunday Magazine offices, locate Reed, and seize whatever evidence she purports to have." Tim doesn't get it, and protests, "They'll accuse you of censoring the press." Yes, but only because that's what she'll be doing. Taylor snaps that she knows what she's ordering, so shut up and do it. Although she can't look at him when she says it. "Yes ma'am," Tim says, getting up to leave. One suddenly finds oneself missing that insubordinate hothead Rob Weiss, doesn't one?
At 1:19:15, Kiefer drives his stolen banana truck into an alley, pulls out his "duffel of justice" (TM Wing Chun, from to me on the couch the first time I watched this) and asks some catering staff hanging out by an open door, "Drop-off or receiving?" They direct him right into the building. Apparently those are the magic words for admission anywhere, at least when the dude saying them is literally panting under the weight of his equipment. What do they think is in there, the wet bar?
Reed's editor, Gary, is at work -- stressing out about assigning a profile on Logan, coincidentally enough -- when Reed calls from a pay phone. Kiefer left her at least nine minutes ago, and she's just now getting around to calling? Maybe it took her this long to remember how a pay phone works. She tells him about the video she's got connecting Russia to Hassan's death, which she got from Jack Bauer. Gary's a little stunned that she's been in touch with such a wanted person, but agrees to meet at "that diner with the coffee you hate" in fifteen minutes, and to keep it to himself. Good thing he's an old-school type.
Somewhere in a relatively private spot behind a chain link fence, Kiefer starts unloading his giant duffel. Among the equipment he unearths is what looks like a big, black, bulletproof mask, which is one scary-ass artifact. Even Kiefer looks a little nervous to have that Jason-meets-Vader puss staring back up at him. But presumably it's less scary from the inside.
Meanwhile, Logan is in the back of his limo, on the phone with Novakovich and telling him not to panic. Which isn't really working, for obvious reasons. "We both knew that Bauer would be a difficult problem to solve," Logan shrugs. Novakovich frets that Kiefer's working his way up the conspiracy. "How long before he gets to me?" I'd say within the two and a half hours, max. Although that timeline might be shortened if Novakovich leaves the fortress-like U.N. to take a little breather in his hotel suite. Which, naturally, is what he appears to have done. Logan assures him Kiefer won't get to him, since Novakovich himself said Tokarev wouldn't talk. "I promise you, Bauer's never going to know." Is there anything more terrifying than being reassured about something by Charles Logan?
At 1:22:25, the limo turns down a narrow, single-lane street that passes under a narrow bridge, part of an unbroken line of traffic. What an awesome idea for a supposedly secure vehicle. Suddenly, on the curb, Kiefer appears in his paramilitary-slash-Jason gear and starts shooting out tires. Presto, instant traffic jam, and Logan's limo is in the very middle of the underpass, unable to move forward or back. Kiefer raises his rifle and starts slowly zigzagging back and fourth between the stopped cars, already shooting at the Secret Service limo. The agents call for backup while Logan stares ahead in craven horror, all but sobbing, "That's Jack Bauer! Don't just sit there, he's coming for me!" He's a lot less sanguine than he was on the phone a minute ago. The first agent gets out as another tells Logan to sit tight; "We're armored and the glass is bulletproof." Kiefer exchanges shots with the first agent, whom he wounds in the leg. Out gets a second agent. This one-at-a-time strategy they're using against him is a real winner. By now, people in the other cars are out and fleeing to the surface, and Kiefer's only one car away. He knocks the first agent out with a boot to the face, then keeps closing in. He takes a bullet in the vest that doesn't even slow him down. The other agent falls, and Kiefer kicks him unconscious too. There's only one agent left in the car. Kiefer sticks his masked face up against the glass of the backseat window to see Logan for himself up close, which makes him a terrifying spectacle to his target. But only because Logan doesn't pause to think that confirming Logan's presence has the corollary of how embarrassed Kiefer would be right now if he had the wrong car. "Kill him!" Logan sobs. But Kiefer climbs up on the hood and hits the bulletproof windshield with a few heavy shotgun blasts. The agent who was driving just looks irritated rather than scared, like he knows what's coming and it's all for that complete dick in the back seat. The glass weakened, Kiefer kicks a hole just big enough to fit a tear gas canister. Which he then drops inside, and puts his boot over the hole he made to trap the gas inside. Nice touch, that. Logan and the agent try to tough it out, but have to crawl out eventually. Kiefer goes up and grabs Logan by the scruff of the neck, making no attempt to disguise his voice as he growls, "Mr. President? Get up or I will kill you right here. Move!" He drags him toward a padlocked gate, but if an armored limo and a Secret Service detail isn't going to stop him, what's a padlock going to do? Kiefer shoots it to kill and drags Logan through the gate and out of sight. It's 1:25:23.
1:29:42. Chloe comes up to Arlo, who has indeed found an old address for Jim Ricker under the name Simon Strocker. But then he moved. Fortunately he left a forwarding address, "right here in Soho." A forwarding address? I'm starting to think that Jim's a lot better at acting paranoid than actually being paranoid. Chloe notices a sudden burst of activity around her (even though it's conveyed by showing, like, two guys walking past) and asks Devin what's up. Devin tells her that Jason has requested backup. "Jack Bauer just kidnapped Charles Logan." "Again?" Chloe doesn't say. "How the hell did he pull that off?" Arlo asks Chloe in amazement, as though this is the first time. Chloe looks up at the frosty glass of Hastings' office and says she needs to hear what's going on in there. "Follow me." Oh, good, she's going to get a drinking glass. I was wondering when we were going to see the CTU break room.
Inside, Eden's on the phone with Jason, who tells her they're on the way to the tunnel. "How the hell did Secret Service let this happen?" Eden makes excuses for them, like the show needs their cooperation at this point, and says she's working on getting him schematics for the tunnel. Isn't it just a tunnel? It has one end and then another end, right? By this time, Jason and his squad have arrived, and they run down to the tunnel at 1:30:56. to the shot-up limo, none of the Secret Service agents saw anything that could be of help. Or they did, and they just all hate Logan so much they've decided to let Kiefer have him. Jason himself has to look around until he finds the shot-off lock and the open gate. He asks Eden for the schematics, and leads his team in. By now Chloe and Arlo are listening in through a patched in phone, so she hears Jason telling his men to shoot Kiefer to kill on sight. At least she doesn't react like that's news, but she doesn't say "I told you so" to Arlo, either.
By this time, Kiefer has found some underground workshop or something where he can pin Logan against the wall and remove his mask. Wow, he looks angry. He should put the mask back on, it's less scary. Logan cowers pathetically, of course. Kiefer tells Logan about what he got from Tokarev's cell phone. "I know how it looks, let me explain!" Logan whines. Kiefer accuses, "You sent him to kill me, right?" Logan can't cop to it fast enough. Kiefer asks why Logan ordered the hit on Walker, and Logan says he was brought in after that happened, by Taylor. Even though he basically stalked Taylor until she agreed to talk to him, in secret, after "bringing him in" through the back entrance so nobody would see him. Logan yammers quickly that he called his sources in Moscow, who told him about the conspiracy. "I told the Russian delegation I had evidence to that fact and the names of everybody involved, just to keep them in the conference!" Kiefer demands to know what evidence, and Logan says he was only bluffing about that, but it worked. "But you, you were determined to screw things up," Logan accuses. Kiefer socks him in the gut for that one, and Logan admits that while he's part of the cover-up, he had nothing to do with the conspiracy, the terrorist attack, "Or your friend's death. I'm not the bad guy here." Doesn't he mean "this time?" Kiefer puts his gun back up to Logan's throat and says, "But you know who is." He wants the name of the Russian official who gave the order, and starts counting down five seconds. The two more than he gave Dana must be out of respect for Logan's former office. "Mikhail Novakovich!" Logan yells over the counting. Kiefer raises his gun to Logan's face and says, "You're lying," just to make sure he isn't. Logan invites Kiefer to check the rest of Tokarev's phone log for calls from Novakovich. Hearing a noise coming from somewhere, Kiefer slaps a hand over Logan's mouth, which someone should always be doing at all times anyway. "Say another word and I'll drop you right here," he threatens. The cavalry is approaching, at 1:33:53. Kiefer drags Logan into another room and forces him to his knees. "Please don't kill me, Jack," Logan begs. Kiefer hisses in his ear, "If I was going to kill you, you'd already be dead." But he's more than happy to apply one of
his famous sleeper holds. Kiefer leaves the inert ex-POTUS on the floor, and somehow gets out -- without Jason or any of the CTU guys seeing him -- before Jason finds Logan on the ground and has Eden call the paramedics for his boss. And given what happened after Kiefer and Logan's last tense tête-à-tête, three seasons ago, a bug-sweeping team might be in order as well.
Arlo and Chloe quit eavesdropping -- because they've been listening in this whole time -- and return their attention to the issue of how to contact Jim. Arlo wonders what Chloe plans to do . Aside from the fact that Jason will know if they divert someone, "all of our agents are fully deployed in the field. There's nobody to send." "There's one," Chloe reminds him, at 1:35:32. Oh my God, who could she mea--? Oh, it's Cole. Never mind.
1:39:52. Eden accosts Chloe in the CTU hallway, upset because she just heard that Division is releasing Cole into Chloe's custody. And if Eden's mad, imagine how Morris will feel. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm still in charge of U.N. security," Chloe snits. Why would she have noticed? "You've taken away all my resources, and not that it's any of your business, but Agent Ortiz designed the entire U.N. operation. The signing is in two hours. His assistance in the field is vital." You wouldn't think it's possible to say "vital" snottily, but Chloe's powers of snottiness are more than up to the task. Eden says she'll need to clear it with Jason, and Chloe leaves her to it. "To me you have bigger problems, like not finding Jack Bauer." Good thing Chloe doesn't have that problem.
Reed is sitting in a coffee shop, where a giant news screen is playing old (i.e. yesterday) footage of Hassan. A barista comes up to tell her she has a phone call, and she comes up to the counter to take it. Still in his office, her editor Gary tells her that the FBI showed up before he left, and they're looking for her. Maybe he'll hit the door a little faster time one of his reporters calls him with a desperate story. He says he didn't tell them anything, but they have an executive order and are throwing around the words "national security risk," which at this point is one of those phrases that always makes me worry more about the response than the actual threat. Reed says it's a cover-up, and Gary tells her to protect the evidence. "I told them I haven't had any contact with you, but for all I know, they're tracing this call. You better get the hell out of there." "Go where?" Reed whines. He's your boss, not your dad, Reed. An agent bangs angrily on the locked glass door of Gary's office, and Gary claims to just be cancelling an appointment. Which he sort of is. While the Feds work on breaking in, he quickly tells Reed that he'll try calling someone at the Justice Department, "But until then, lay low. Now go." Reed goes.
At 1:42:06, Cole paces in his cell until Chloe hands an order to the guard outside and comes in. "Let's go," she says. Cole wonders what's going on, and Chloe says she needs him at the U.N. "Are you coming or would you rather wait here for your federal prosecution?" Cole goes with the former. In the hallway, Chloe quietly gives Cole the real story: they found Jim, who is now also ex-CIA, officially deceased. "Most likely he's gone into business for himself, dealing arms or intel. In any case, he's not going to be happy we tracked him down." Maybe not, but he should be more embarrassed than anything else. She wants Cole to go talk to him. "Are you good with that or are you still not taking sides?" Cole has taken one, and he asks whether any more "intel" has "surfaced" on Kiefer. "Yeah, you could say that," Chloe understates.
At Novakovich's hotel suite, one of his guards tells him that Suvarov's plane just landed at JFK, and Novakovich wants to go meet him at the U.N. Meanwhile, in the parking garage below at 1:44:02, his driver gets the call to bring the car around. But before the driver can even get behind the wheel, Kiefer appears, dressed once again in his civvies, and bounces the driver's head off the roof of the car a few times before demanding, "Where's Novakovich?" Well, he would have gotten in the car in a couple of minutes from now if only Kiefer had waited. The driver is briefly resistant, but when he finds a gun at his throat, he starts rattling off suite numbers, instructions for getting on the secure elevator, and guard positions. Kiefer gratefully pistol-whips him to the ground and stomps over to the elevator, pumping a shotgun. The he switches back to the pistol, and effortlessly double-taps two guards as soon as he comes around a corner into their sight. He loots one of the corpses for its elevator key card, which he swipes and hits the button. But while he's waiting for the elevator, one of the Russians turns out to be only mostly dead and comes after Kiefer with a knife. He manages to stick Kiefer with it before Kiefer twists his arm around and uses it on his attacker. This time he's really and truly most sincerely dead. Finally the elevator arrives, and as Kiefer gets on, he checks his shirt and his hand comes away bloody. Damn, second time today he's been stabbed in that spot. It's 1:45:56.
At 1:50:13, Cole is loading a couple of big duffels into the trunk of a CTU car, although the two of them together don't add up to one Duffel of Justice. "Better to have it than not," he tells Chloe when she questions whether he needs a whole arsenal. "Besides, Ricker's a trained killer. He's gone to a lot of trouble to stay off the grid. Also, I have to consider the possibility that Jack's with him." Oh, so one of those duffels has an air strike in it? Cole isn't as concerned about bringing Kiefer in alive any more, "After what he did to Logan....He terrorized a tunnel full of commuters with automatic weapon fire. He shot Secret Service agents." Oh, and he gutted a dude, too. Did Chloe tell Cole that part? "He shot to wound," Chloe says lamely in reference to the Secret Service guys. Cole says Kiefer only cares about revenge. "Does that sound like the man you know? Like the man you're trying to save?" Chloe continues to insist that this is about exposing the Russians. Cole wants her to be sure. "Because if Jack's there, and he makes a move other than complete surrender, I'm putting him down. Still want me to go?" Chloe knows she has no choice. And it probably doesn't hurt that in a match-up between Kiefer and Cole -- well, never mind, that hypothetical match-up was over before I could even finish that sentence. "Whatever happens, call me at the U.N.," Chloe says. Exit Cole, with a squeal of tires, at 1:51:35.
Somewhere at the U.N., some chick is telling Kayla the plan for the signing ceremony. Kayla will be honored to get to sit to her mother, but points out that she has no official government post. Before we can go down the rabbit hole about how five hours ago neither did Dalia, someone else enters to tell Kayla that there's a woman on the phone insisting on talking to Dalia. But since Dalia's in a meeting, she's wondering if Kayla can take it instead. They run things pretty tightly over there at the U.N.
Obviously it's Reed, calling from a pay phone in a hotel lobby. She makes the mistake of giving Kayla her name, and of course Kayla isn't all that keen on letting her talk to Dalia, or even to herself. You know, because of Reed's history of Hassan-fucking. Reed gets that, but insists that there's something Dalia needs to know before she signs the treaty. "It's about the people who really murdered your father," Reed blurts. "What you don't know is that those people were working under the orders of Russian agents." That's got Kayla's attention. She takes down a number Reed gives her (for the pay phone?), even as Reed sees what looks like a couple of plainclothes FBI agents getting closer. She quickly hangs up and starts trying to cross the lobby, but another agent who just walked in calls her name, and a moment later she's suffering a bullshit arrest for the second time in as many days. A female agent ransacks her purse -- because the purse-tossing should always be left to the ladies -- and hands the lead agent the memory card she finds inside. "You're under arrest," the agent declares, and she's frog-marched to the door. That'll teach her to carry memory cards around.
At 1:53:56, Taylor is moping out the window when Tim enters. He's already learned about Reed's arrest and the confiscation of the memory card. "No one sees what's on it but me," Taylor says. "Understood," Tim says, and withdraws. Tim may seem like an undistinguished bureaucrat, but his ability to learn about things almost before they happen must make him a valuable member of the administration.
Somewhere under New York, Logan is on a gurney with an oxygen mask in his face, being wheeled along surrounded by an army of agents and paramedics. Big baby. All he's endured is a little manhandling, a punch to the gut, a sleeper hold, and a snootful of tear gas and he's acting like he's at death's door with a battering ram. Jason insists on riding in the ambulance with him, but first he tells the milling uniforms to clear out so they can talk. Logan pulls down the mask and manages to gasp to Jason, "Novakovich. Bauer knows. Warn Novakovich. Bauer's coming after him." Jason tells the EMTs to hold off while he makes the call. Is it too late? Maybe if they had a Tim Woods on their side.
There's a phone ringing in a hotel suite somewhere. There's also a body on the floor outside the door, with a gun nearby. And another body. And a puddle of gore on the cream carpet. And a smeary red trail leading from
that puddle to a hapless Russian dragging himself along the rug, presumably to answer the aforementioned phone. Oh, and there's another dead guy. And yet another: Mikhail Novakovich, flat on his back, nailed to the floor with a fireplace poker (!) through the belly and his head floating in a puddle of blood. I don't know what's worse; that Kiefer just wiped out a Russian Foreign Minister and his entire security detail, or the fact that we didn't get to see it. It's Novakovich's phone that the lone survivor is trying to get to, and when he does, he politely answers, "Yes?" Awesome. Just because you're a victim of an off-screen mass murder doesn't mean you have to abandon the social graces. Jason has to spend a few seconds figuring out who he's talking to before the man explains, "We've been attacked. It was Bauer." He says Novakovich is dead, like everyone else, including himself, practically. Jason asks if Novakovich said anything to Kiefer. "I need an ambulance," the guard whines. Jason tells him to answer the question first. "Nothing," the guard says. "Bauer just came in shooting. But he was bleeding. I think he was wounded by one of the guards." Jason lies that an ambulance is en route and hangs up at 1:56:16. Then he returns to Logan, shoos away the EMTs that have re-settled around him like roosting pigeons, and tells him that Kiefer killed Novakovich and all his men. Well, at least that's one less awkward conversation Logan's going to have to have later. Although I'm looking forward to seeing how Taylor takes this news.
Splitscreen. Logan pulls off the oxygen mask, apparently having just decided to get better. No shit, if he can survive getting knifed by his crazy ex-wife, he can live through a confrontation with Kiefer. Taylor continues staring out her window. Chloe's driving herself somewhere, presumably to the U.N. to supervise her non-existent security force there. Reed is being driven somewhere by the FBI. Cole is en route to Jim's techno-sanctum. And as for Jim himself, he's just poured himself a stiff drink. Apparently when Kiefer told him to start erasing all their connections, Jim decided to start with the synaptic ones. For which I don't entirely blame him.
Cut to the motorcade carrying the Russian president from the heliport. Looks like the missus stayed home this time. Suvarov's personal cell phone rings and he answers it. "Yuri, Charles Logan," Logan chokes out. Suvarov grumps about Logan not showing up at the heliport to meet him, and Logan mirthlessly chuckles, "I ran into some trouble." Can Suvarov not tell that the dude sounds like someone curbstomped him while wearing golf cleats? Logan breaks the news: "It appears that Mikhail Novakovich was just murdered by Jack Bauer." Obviously Suvarov is stunned. He asks how Kiefer found out what Novakovich had been up to. "From me," Logan says. "The lunatic was gonna kill me, Yuri, what can I say? Think of it as sacrificing a rook for a king." More game metaphors. "Then Bauer has no idea that Novakovich was operating under my orders?" Suvarov asks. So Suvarov's the bad guy at the top of the bad-guy pyramid. Which at least explains why he's made up to look like Grandpa Munster now. Logan assures him, "As far as Bauer is concerned, the trail ended with Novakovich. He's being hunted by every law enforcement agency in the city, and I've heard that, he, heh heh, he's been wounded." Gregory Itzin is such a ham sometimes, but he's got the chops to get away with it. Even though Logan's a dick with an anti-Midas touch, I'm so glad they brought him back. "There is nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal," Suvarov points out. Logan points out that maybe Suvarov never should have ordered Walker killed, then. "That's what stirred up the hornet's nest." Suvarov argues, "If I had known that you were going to find out about our activities and use that information to blackmail me into signing Taylor's peace agreement, I wouldn't have bothered with the woman." Logan claims he just wanted to get back in the game. "You wouldn't begrudge an old friend his second chance in the sun?" So has everything been fully explained? Has this conversation between two people who already know half of what they've been saying to each other been sufficiently expository to all of us? And to anyone else who might be listening in?
Good. Because as Logan speaks, the camera slowly zooms in on a tiny metal dot attached to the inside of his shirt collar. And because of it, Kiefer can hear everything they've been saying on a mobile listening device of his own. Oh, Logan, you moron. Fool you twice, shame on you. Kiefer's looking pretty shaky as Logan promises to meet Suvarov at the U.N. ASAP. Then he takes out his earpiece, shoulders that giant duffel that never seems to get any smaller, and staggers away, leaving us to contemplate the big red blotch he left on the alley wall he was leaning against. It really stands out on account of how everything else in New York City is either blue or gray, at least according to how this whole season has been photographed. It's 2:00:00, and I finally just figured out why Russia's only had one president during a period when we've had four: theirs just hasn't had enough contact with Jack Bauer. Yet.
Series finale week. I can hardly believe it myself.
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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