Best episode of the season? I'd probably say so. We had some twists, some clever moves by
Jack Bauer and CTU and some good, solid action. What else can you ask for from
24? The big twist at the end was jarring, if not a tad bit expected. It's going to be interesting to see the direction the rest of the season takes. Will nukes be involved at all? Is Phillip Bauer going to be coming back into the picture? How will
Wayne Palmer hold up?
What follows is a non-linear recap of last night's Bauer-centric episode.
Presidential Bunker
The nuke is in the air, on its way to the Middle East in retaliation for the earlier nuclear explosion in LA. Wayne Palmer's sudden change of decision has flabbergasted both
Thomas Lennox and
Karen Hayes. Karen calls CTU, hoping they've found from Fayed some information that will change Palmer's mind.
With only two minutes until the bomb detonates in the Middle East, Palmer gets the foreign ambassador on the phone, who, under threat of attack, reveals that they have a man in custody in relation to the earlier attacks. His name is General Habib.
Palmer calls off the strike. It turns out that they were withholding information from the US. It also turns out that Palmer was bluffing the whole time. The missile that was fired was a blank and Palmer just didn't want anyone to know he was bluffing to keep the charade up.
Palmer implores the anonymous country to get all the information out of Habib that they can and by any means necessary.
Wayne Palmer is not feeling well, his health deteriorating. At the end of the episode, after an affirming talk with Thomas Lennox, Palmer collapses to the ground.
Jack Bauer and Fayed
Jack Bauer has a detained Fayed all tied up. He punches him in the face at the beginning of the episode. Fayed will not give anything up. That means they're going to need a change of plans. CTU decides to transport him back to headquarters.
On the way back to CTU, the vehicle that Jack, Doyle and Fayed are riding in is all of a sudden rammed into, head on by an oncoming van. A shootout follows and Jack is shot. The men in the other van are Arabs and they've come to rescue Fayed...
Except it was all a set up.
Jack sits up after playing dead for a few seconds and so does everyone else. CTU decided to send in a fake rescue team to pick up Fayed in the hopes that he would then lead them to the last two suitcase nukes. The plan goes as well as can be hoped in the beginning.
In the van with Fayed, he is introduced to the men who “saved” him. He obviously has never met any of them before and is skeptical. He asks for a gun and they reluctantly give him one. They try to get a location out of Fayed, but Fayed will only go to the bombs after he has spoked to General Habib directly.
They finally get Habib to cooperate and get on the phone with Fayed, only after threatening the lives of his family. Habib calls the van with Fayed and the two talk. Nadia does the translating for all the CTU agents. The phone call seems to go off well, with Habib telling Fayed to go get the nukes. Fayed then gives his van's driver directions. CTU follows.
However, Nadia at CTU soon finds some suspicious things in the phone call transcript. She thinks they may have been talking in code. Sure enough, Fayed kills everyone in the van while in a tunnel. Jack and CTU get there as fast as they can. Jack races into what is a sanitation bunker inside the tunnel and finds Fayed about to drive away in a big sanitation truck. He has a shot at Fayed and could've killed him. Instead, Jack decides to ride upside down, underneath the sanitation vehicle.
Jack tries to call CTU, but they can't hear him because he's underneath a car on the freeway. Fayed takes Jack to where the nukes are. It is a wearhouse, guarded by upwards of ten of Fayed's men. After scoping it out and realizing that Fayed wants to detonate the bombs in downtown LA, Jack starts firing. He kills everyone but Fayed. They both run out of ammo, so they engage in some hand-to-hand combat. Who do you think wins? Fayed ends up dead, hung from a metal chain.
CTU shows up and everyone rejoices because they have found the bombs.
BIG TWIST: Jack receives a phone call at the end of the episode. It is Audrey Raines on the other line. She tells Jack to save her. Then, the evil Chinese guy from late last season gets on the phone and tells Jack to call him at a certain number in ten minutes and that he can't tell anyone about the call or Audrey will die.
-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer