By M. Giant
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Kiefer gets Bazhaev to call Josef and convince him to bring the uranium in. But before Josef can do that, Farhad and his men shoot him dead and make off with the rods. No sooner has that happened than Rob Weiss calls Hastings to start setting up Walker as the scapegoat for the failed recovery operation, then sends over a Justice Department hard-ass to make it happen. She accuses Walker not only of murder, but of having engineered this whole thing to get back at Vladimir. Kiefer swoops in to try to save Walker, but only gets himself tased after taking part in the woman-choking party this season has become.
Meanwhile, Farhad finds himself losing control of his evil plot, as his henchmen pitch him an even eviler one: build a dirty bomb with the rods now that they can't get them out of the country. Farhad pretends to go along, but it's only so he can escape his own men. He even calls CTU for help, but with Cole temporarily out of the picture (more on that in a minute) and Kiefer in disfavor, the operation to recover Farhad and the rods seems doomed before it begins. Until Kiefer offers to help out, in exchange for Hastings cutting Walker loose.
Cole follows Dana down her never-ending rabbit-hole of stupid, going AWOL to track her down just before she makes her move on Kevin and Nick. She ends up confessing everything to her fiancé instead. Cole steps up to scare them off, which works on Kevin, until Nick kills him and gets killed himself going after Cole. Yeah, I'm thinking that wedding's off.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Tonight's previouslies freeze-frames: Renee Walker, Cole Ortiz (for the first time), Dana Walsh, Sergei Bazhaev, and Jack Bauer. Apparently there were no presidents in the hour, and there won't be any in this one either.
At the wheel of a Mercedes van, Josef pulls up to a loading dock and takes a look at the case behind him holding the rods before opening the door and hopping out. Quite a little jump down for him, there. He's the only person present, even though we just saw Farhad having a little party on this very spot just a few minutes ago. I hope for Josef's sake that this isn't one of those parts of town filled with roaming street gangs looking for people to rob of their unsecured nuclear materials. Although gangbangers with The Bomb would certainly be a departure for the rest of this season.
Meanwhile, back at the restaurant, preparations are being made for Bazhaev to call Josef, with Kiefer and CTU also on the line so Chloe can triangulate the other end of the call. Kiefer dials Josef's cell phone number. Josef answers, thinking it's the belated Farhad, but even when he hears his father's voice, he listens to him for some reason as Bazhaev tells him not to hang up. Bazhaev doesn't play any games, saying that he knows Josef has the rods, and so do the authorities. Kiefer cuts in to introduce himself and say he's there with Bazhaev. "Do what you want with him, I don't care," Josef says coldly. Ooh, that's got to sting. Earlier this month my five-year-old kept threatening not to give me my Valentine until summer, so I know exactly how Bazhaev feels right now. Kiefer says Bazhaev cares enough about Josef to have made an immunity deal for him if he brings the rods in. Josef brings up the Oleg debacle, and Kiefer, even though he knows all about it, has to listen to the two Bazhaevs argue about that for a bit until Bazhaev insists that it's all over anyway. "If you don't bring the rods in they will hunt you down. They will kill you, Josef. I won't be able to protect you!" You know, like he protected Oleg. Josef seems almost convinced, and after a long pause, Kiefer says they need to hurry before Farhad gets there. Bazhaev tells Josef to move, and Josef, having gotten the message, says he's on his way. Just then we see that Josef is already being observed from a nearby rooftop, by a guy with a sniper rifle. "Careful with the rods," Farhad warns softly at the sniper's shoulder. Josef spots the red laser sighting dot on the van in front of him, then turns just in time to catch it-- and the bullet that follows -- in the heart. "Sounded like shots fired," Hastings obviouses. Bazhaev begs Kiefer to help Josef, but he doesn't know where Josef is, and Chloe hasn't completed the call trace beyond narrowing it down to somewhere in Central Queens near Flushing Meadows Park. Hastings dispatches units to that area and orders Kiefer to bring Bazhaev back to CTU. Wonder if his immunity still applies if they don't get the rods?