24 brought the goods last night after two sub-par (for its standards) episodes. Both hours were full of action, contained a good amount of plot, revealed a new bad guy, and showed us the wickedness of one Phillip Bauer.
24 seems to always ride a wave of excitement from episode to episode. The ebbs and flows of each season consistently appear, giving us a few episodes with lots of action, followed by a couple calmer installments. I wonder if this is done on purpose by the writers to give the audience time to catch their collective breath, or if it's just how the plotting of a show like
24 has to work. Either way,
24 was back on track last night.
Here's what went down last night, in as brief a way as I can explain the events.
Jack Bauer:
Jack begins the episode beginning the hunt for Morris, who has been kidnapped by McCarthy. He follows him with the help of Milo from CTU in a helicopter. When McCarthy drives under a freeway overpass, Jack loses sight of him, and then lands the helicopter on top of two semis. Which was awesome.
He realizes that McCarthy has switched cars. Up ahead on the road, he finds McCarthy's body. His cell phone is still on him and Jack uploads information about a call McCarthy made five minutes previous to CTU. They trace the call (who they assume is from Fayed) to an apartment complex.
Jack and a huge CTU Swat Team make a perimeter around the apartment building. They don't know exactly which apartment Fayed and Morris are in, so Jack orders a building-wide fire alarm. By process of elimination, they find which apartment Fayed is occupying.
They raid the apartment just in time to save Morris's life. Jack and team kill all the terrorists, except for Fayed, who escaped through a secret tunnel. It is then that we realize that Fayed has left an armed nuke in the apartment, set to go off within ten minutes. With Morris knocked out, Chloe has to remotely walk Jack through the manual disarmament of the nuke. It gets tense, but Jack succeeds in disarming the bomb.
With no leads, Jack heads back to CTU. He is confronted by Buchanan about his behavior during the torture of his brother, and that it was Jack who was responsible for his death (but he really wasn't). Jack tells Buchanan not to hold back, and to make the investigation as thorough as need be.
Jack talks to former beau Marilyn Bauer, trying to learn anything he can. She admits that she followed Graem to some Russian's house one night. Since CTU's only lead is currently a partial e-mail intercepted between Fayed and a Russian baddie named Gredenko, Jack gets Marilyn to take Jack to the house. Leaving her son Josh with Phillip Bauer, Marilyn departs with Jack and a team from CTU. Bad idea.
On the way to the Russian's house, Marilyn receives a call from Phillip. Phillip says the he will kill Josh if she doesn't follow his directions to take Jack and team to the wrong house. She obeys. The house they arrive at has been planted with a bomb. Only Jack escapes. Milo helps Marilyn escape from some Russians, but they become separated from Jack.
Fayed:
Fayed waits at his safehouse apartment for McCarthy to arrive with Morris. McCarthy's hot assistant (who killed McCarthy, wanting the 7 million dollar payday for herself) arrives with Morris. Fayed tortures Morris, first with a bat, then with a tub of water and then by by POWER DRILLING A HOLE IN HIS SHOULDER. Yikes.
Morris eventually gives in and arms the nukes, allowing Fayed to detonate them remotely at any time. When CTU shows up, he slips away through a secret tunnel, which leads him to a secret helicopter, which he flies away. We learn that he answers to Gredenko.
The White House:
A lot of hemming and hawing in this story line, mostly revolving around Lennox wanting to resign (because the President shot down his Arab Internment plan), but rethinking it when one of his subordinates (played by Chad Lowe) tells him there is another option. This option is shrouded in secrecy, but it involves something diabolical that will take down the President.
So, that is pretty much the gist of the episode. Next week will see Jack learn about his father's true loyalties. He is sure to be devastated and on a new rampage as a result.
-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer