Husbands And Wives
Updated 2007-03-16 17:00:00
A wounded Kiefer gets loose inside the locked-down Russian Consulate, but after Consul Markov orders the phones shut down, he's got no way to communicate Gredenko's location, except to take a couple of hostages and wait around for one of them to bring him a magic phone. Which will arrive too late, in any case. CTU and the Veep respond with a three-pronged strategy. Prong One: Buchanan has his new head of tactical ops (Ricky Schroder) get ready to launch a strike on the Russian Consulate in order to get Markov and Kiefer out. The problems with Prong One are that this is basically an act of war, and that Ricky Schroder's playing a raging *****. Prong Two: Logan offers to help again, this time by trying to win the Russian president over to his side through their respective wives. The problem with Prong Two is that the ex-FLOTUS wants nothing to do with Logan, no matter what her current boyfriend Aaron says. And it hits yet another hitch when Martha sticks a paring knife in Logan's shoulder (a prong within a prong, as it were). Prong Three: The Veep enlists Tom's assistance in blaming Assad for every bad thing that's happened today, giving him cover to threaten the Mideastian ambassador with a nuclear strike on his country if they don't help to find the terrorists. The problems with Prong Three are that it bothers Tom's conscience, and also the fact that it's *****ing insane. Prong Two ends up working first, but only sort of. Suvarov orders his Consul to surrender, but when Markov refuses, Suvarov gives CTU the green light to go in shooting. They do, killing Markov, rescuing Kiefer, and learning that Gredenko's in the Shadow Valley. And unlike the good guys, he hasn't been wasting the whole hour; Fayed has arrived with the bombs, and the nuclear drones are just about ready to launch. And then Logan flatlines in his ambulance.