Mike Novick is back. Hide your heart.
Updated 2002-12-16 16:00:00
Visalia. Crescent Collectibles. Nina, Kiefer, and the agents arrive. Nina has been wired for sight and sound. She enters the store. Kiefer and Bitchelle listen in on their Whatever Earpieces to everything that Nina does and says. A SWAT team quietly takes its place. The store looks like a bastard child of Pier One Imports and the Aladdin Hotel in Vegas. Nina asks the cashier if she can see Faheen. The cashier claims not to know Faheen. Nina is all, "Tell him Nina is here." The cashier disappears to find Faheen. Nina grabs a fifty-dollar gift card for some unexplained reason. The best explanation I can think of so far is that the magnetic strip interferes with CTU's signal and keeps her from being observed or heard. Meanwhile, outside, more SWAT team people break through a back fence and cover the rear exit. Kiefer's getting static from his earpiece, so Bitchelle has to give him the play-by-play with Arabic-to-English translation. The cashier pats Nina down for weapons and finally lets her see Faheen. Nina continues walking toward the back of the store until she sees a pair of eyes staring at her from behind a Greg Brady beaded curtain. A gun *****. When Faheen realizes it's really her, he lets her into his room.
They have a conversation in Arabic that Bitchelle can't translate because she too is now getting too much static. Faheen and Nina embrace, and everyone loses their audio. Kiefer gives the signal, and they storm Crescent Collectibles. Agents come from everywhere -- from holes in the ceilings, back entrances, a van even crashes into the front window. After much gunfire and the deaths of both agents and MiddleEasternTerrorMinions, Kiefer finds Faheen's unconscious body but Nina is nowhere in sight. After a commercial break, Nina tries to escape through the basement with Kiefer in hot pursuit. She is almost home free, but her exit unexpectedly has a padlocked gate in front of it. She bashes at the gate fruitlessly. Kiefer catches up with her and makes her drop her weapon and kneel in front of him. He comes up behind her and aims his gun at the back of her head. After an excruciatingly long period of time, he decides to cuff her instead of shoot her. Aw, he's got a crush on her again!
Meanwhile, Miguel, JonBenet, and Spawn are headed for Aunt Carol's. Where have they been this episode? The police pull them over for speeding. Spawn and Miguel turn over their driver's licenses and NoDaddyNo's registration information.
Meanwhile, back at CTU, look who's just been brought into CTU. Sandy! Mason had his son arrested so they could talk. Aw!! Mason unkuffs him and apologizes for being a distant father who put work ahead of his family. Sandy tells him to think hard about keeping his job if he starts a second family. Mason says that he's not going to start a second family, and gives Sandy the account number of a private Swiss bank account that contains all of the bribe money he got caught stealing last season. It will be transferred into Sandy's account, but he needs to leave L.A. first. At first Sandy is too proud and bitter to take it, but soon he realizes the unspoken importance of the situation, bursts into tears, and embraces Mason. "Is it cancer?" asks Sandy. "Something like that," says Mason. He sends him off to Phoenix to go stay with his mother. Sandy tries to learn more, but Mason pushes him out the door. Okay, that wasn't so bad. I actually cried. Damn you, Fox show!
Okay, despite the fact that neither Miguel or Spawn owns the car, the police let them go with a warning until the officer notices some blood dripping from the trunk. He tells them to step out of the car and opens the trunk, which contains -- you guessed it -- the dead body of Crazy Laura. More scary music plays as the screen splits. Kiefer leads Nina back to the military base, and Palmer does something presidential at his desk. The officer calls for backup and has Spawn and Miguel lie facedown on the ground with their heads up. JonBenet gets out of the car to see what's going on. Spawn begs her to stay where she is and not get any closer. The time is 2:59:58 2:59:59 3:00:00 PM.