24 Season 2 TV Review – Individual episodes

On By In Reviewss

Seeka, Liam Carey
and Dom Robinson summarise
24 logo
Season Two Broadcast on

BBC2, Sunday, 10pm
BBC3, Sunday, 10.45pm (next episode)

    Cover

  • Running time: 45 minutes
  • Year: 2002-2003
  • Sound: Dolby Surround
  • Languages: English
  • Widescreen: 1.77:1 (16:9)
  • 16:9-Enhanced: Yes

    Directors:

      Jon Cassar, James Whitmore Jr, Rodney Charters, Fred Keller

Producers:

    Michael Loceff, Andrea Newman and Cyrus I. Yavneh

Writers:

    Joel Surnow, Howard Gordon, Michael Loceff, Remi Aubuchon, Gil Grant and more

Music:

    Sean Callery

Cast:

    Jack Bauer: Kiefer Sutherland
    Kimberly Bauer: Elisha Cuthbert
    Kate Warner: Sarah Wynter
    Senator David Palmer: Dennis Haysbert
    Sherry Palmer: Penny Johnson
    Tony Almeida: Carlos Bernard
    District Director George Mason: Xander Berkeley
    Ryan Chappelle: Paul Schulze
    Keith Palmer: Vicellous Reon Shannon

WARNING: Spoilers are contained
throughout this season two synopsis.

Synopsis for: BBC2 / FINALE

Click on the images for info on the DVD Box Sets

JACK IS BACK… AGAINST HIS WILL in “24”,

Given the first season’s devastating denouement, when the longest day of agent Jack Bauer’s life concluded with the loss of his wife Teri, he could hardly be blamed for quitting the CTU and effectively becoming a recluse. Still in mourning, estranged from his equally shell-shocked daughter Kim, and out of action for more than a year, he would not be the most obvious person to call upon in a time of crisis.

But a crisis is exactly what David Palmer, the onetime Senator who owes his life to Bauer and who now occupies the Presidential Office at the White House, has on his hands. A group of terrorists known only as Second Wave are going to set off a nuclear device somewhere in Los Angeles. Today. Palmer insists that Bauer is the man to stop them, and personally makes the call to ask him back.

The question is, can Jack overcome his grief to thwart the fatal threat to millions of American citizens, and possibly to the world’s future?

One thing’s for sure. It’s going to be another long day.

Background information:

None presented upon entry. “24” throws the viewer straight into the action, right on the stroke of 8am. Information is revealed over subsequent installments on a strictly need-to-know basis. Concentration therefore recommended, but helpful summaries are offered prior to every new episode.

Jack Bauer: Kiefer SutherlandEPISODE 1: 08.00am – 09.00am :

One year later, a new terrorist threat emerges at 8.00am on an unspecified day. US Intelligence sources, using extremely brutal interrogation techniques, have discovered when an unofficial movement known only as Second Wave are planning to explode a bomb in L.A. It’s to be sometime in the next 16 hours. President David Palmer is immediately alerted.

Second Wave have operational bases in a Middle Eastern state, but talks with its prime minister break down after he denies all knowledge or involvement, leaving Palmer’s military chiefs keen to prepare for a possible retaliatory strike. Suspicious of their eagnerness to arrange these plans, the President instead calls the CTU. He has one man in mind for the task of preventing a nuclear holocaust in California that will leave millions dead. Jack Bauer.

However, Bauer has not returned to CTU service after what happened previously, and refuses to take their calls. Only the direct intervention of Palmer, and a personal phone conversation between the two of them, is able to bring Jack in voluntarily. Yet, as soon as he is initially briefed on the situation, Bauer doublebacks with the sole intention of getting himself and his estranged daughter Kimberly (now working as a nanny for a wealthy young family) as far away from L.A. as quickly as possible. Kimberly refuses to listen, and then Jack has a change of heart when he thinks of the loss of life such an attack would cause. He goes back to CTU. He will help, but on his express terms.

George Mason is still in charge, but Tony Almeida is the only person Jack will deal with. He is entrusted to have Kimberly taken somewhere safe, while Mason is forced to lean on local Police to allow a key witness from an ongoing case against the National Security Agency’s prime suspect in the Second Wave plot be brought into CTU for questioning.

Meanwhile Reza Naiyeer, a young man of Middle Eastern origin, is about to get married to Marie, the youngest daughter of a wealthy businessman named Bob Warner. Marie’s elder sister Karen always had doubts over the true nature of his motives, believing her father’s money was the real factor. Subsequent investigations carried out by a private detective, however, reveal something rather more sinister; Naiyeer’s financial records show dealings with an international financer who has terrorist connections.

Kimberly’s nannying job proves to be less idyllic than it appeared, as the little girl’s highly strung father is prone to sudden oubursts of violence and abuse. Already made uneasy by a blatant pass he made at her over breakfast, Kimberly is caught in the middle of another bout domestic violence as she attempts to protect the girl.

CTU are given the witness, a serial kidnapper who has struck a deal so as to escape doing prison time for his offences. Jack begins to talk to the man, then without warning pulls his gun and shoots him dead, before asking for a hacksaw.

Kate Warner: Sarah WynterEPISODE 2: 09.00am – 10.00am :

Freshened up and now clean-shaven, Jack Bauer prepares to go undercover and ingratiate himself back into the circle of Joseph Wald, a former CTU agent gone bad whom Jack worked with several years ago before turning him in, and who is facing trial for terrorism. As a gesture to prove he means business, Bauer takes along a bag containing the severed head of the man he shot in the interrogation room, who was the only witness prepared to testify against Wald.

Still on the floor after being hit, Kim coaxes Megan, the young girl in her charge. to make a run for it with her while Gary, the abusive father, completes his phone-call in the adjacent bathroom. They make it into the family 4×4, and drive off. Gary fails to stop them, and can only call his security firm to track down the vehicle.

Suspicions in the media have been aroused by the President’s aborted field trip to tackle the imminent terrorist threat, and rumours are already circulating. In an attempt to avoid mass public hysteria based on unofficial reports of an emergency situation developing, President Palmer arranges an informal press conference in the grounds of his woodland retreat. He jokes with the reporters, and buys himself some time with his answers. One reporter, however, refuses to be taken in by this show of casual bonhomie from the President. Palmer’s aide discovers that the reporter in question is to go live on-air at noon with a story claiming to reveal the truth about the current national security alert.

Jack is dropped off by helicopter, and drives to Wald’s car-repair garage – a front for his various operations. Wald himself isn’t there, but another of his team, Eddie Grant, was an acquaintence of Bauer when he was last undercover. The head in the bag is enough to convince Eddie although one of the other men, Dave, is extremely dubious of Jack’s story about being an old friend just out of prison for taking Wald down. Enough, in fact, to immediately run a computer check on his credentials. This catches out the CTU, who haven’t yet downloaded the bogus files for Bauer’s undercover alias, but just as Eddie begins to doubt Jack and thinks about killing him, everything checks out as the details are frantically transferred to the server by Paula, the CTU’s new computer programmer.

Kim drives towards the nearest Police Station, but roadworks force her to take a detour down a side alley…. straight into the path of Gary, in his open-top sports car. With nowhere to go, she and Megan flee by foot and hide from view. Eventually, he gives up looking. The girl is in a lot of pain from the blow to her head, and refuses to continue on to the Police Station, so Kim leaves her concealed by packing boxes and heads off to find a telephone booth.

As her sister continues with the wedding-day plans, Kate Warner calls the private detective back, asking what he needs on Reza Naiyeer to confirm his terrorist links. A passport, with dates and destination details from the last six months is required, so Kate makes a beeline for Naiyeer’s car while her prospective brother-in-law is distracted in conversation. Searching frantically through his belongings, she eventually gets the information she’s looking for, but Naiyeer almost catches her in the act. Returning to the house, she relays the details to the detective.

George Mason receives a highly confidential report from Division on the estimated likelihood of a terrorist detonation. A figure of 89-93% is given. Silently, Mason packs away his things, takes his gun and makes his way out of the CTU building. Before he reaches the doors, he’s approached by Tony Almeida who doesn’t buy Mason’s explanation of following up a lead in Bakersfield. An agent has already been assigned there, but Mason pulls rank and claims he is now the one carrying out the task. When Tony questions his motives, implying he is just selfishly getting out of the danger zone, Mason is visibly riled.

In an unprecented move, Palmer requests a private interview with the reporter Wieland. An experienced journalist, Wieland knows the story must be close to the bone for this speedily-arranged audience with the President to even be taking place. Without confirming anything, Palmer asks that Wieland refrain from going public in the best interests of the American people. The reporter’s reply of “I’ll think about it” forces Palmer into acting out of character; he makes a call to the Secret Service agents outside the grounds to stop Wieland as he leaves, and take him away to a holding cell.

Having walked just around the block to a payphone and dialled 911, Kim suddenly notices Gary’s empty car across the road. Before she can get through to the emergency services, he appears right behind her and breaks off the call. Kim refuses to tell Gary where his daughter is and a violent, prolonged struggle ensues. She gets away, but upon returning to the place where she left Megan, Kim discovers the girl has gone.

Jack learns from Eddie that a major job is going down today, and the final preparations are made. David, however, continues to vent his suspicions over Jack’s presence, especially since Bauer is still hanging around after apparently saying his goodbyes when Eddie suggests he come back the next afternoon if he wants to see Wald. Jack floods the engine of his car to create a reason for not leaving immediately, enabling him to watch Wald’s van arrive a short time later from his vantage point underneath the car bonnet. Dave observes Jack’s activities, giving him yet more verbal grief and telling him to go, but Bauer uses the situation to seize his chance to get in on the job. A brief one-sided fight with Dave leaves the latter with a broken ankle, and Eddie asks Jack to come on board. He’s in.

As the van heads out into the city, Eddie reveals their intended target is a government building. The CTU.

George Mason: Xander BerkeleyEPISODE 3: 10.00am – 11.00am :

As Kim continues to search for Megan, the LAPD are brought in by the girl’s father who is being treated for the wounds sustained during his struggle with Kim. They will treat it as an abduction, and Gary provides them with Kim’s details.

The first stage of Eddie’s plan to reduce the CTU to rubble is to sabotage the telephone lines from a nearby relay station so that repair workers are called in, providing the opportunity to hijack their van and gain access to the heart of the CTU without creating suspicion. Jack makes an urgent call to Palmer’s office while they wait. He can only reach his aide, Lynne Kresge, but she treats the information about the imminent bombing of the CTU seriously enough to alert the President, who is in the middle of another press conference, immediately. However, Eric Rayburn disagrees with her judgement of the situation, insisting that any intervention will blow Bauer’s cover, and blocks all Kresge’s attempts to inform Palmer.

Jack gets a call on his mobile as he travels with Eddie’s crew to the relay station. It’s Kim. She’s found Megan and needs help as the police will be looking for them. In order not to blow his cover, Jack pretends its his girlfriend calling, ignores her pleas, and simply instructs Kim with cold insistence to go to Carol’s place in San Jose. Bewildered, Kim then calls Tony Almeida but the inteference on the line makes it impossible to hold a conversation, so she lets them know she’ll get a bus to the CTU herself.

Mason is told to break off from following the lead at Bakersfield and to go to Panorama City, where a vehicle belonging to one of the suspects’ on the NSA watch-list has been spotted. It’s outside a locked garage facility. Having broken in, he leads a team inside, where they see what’s left of the materials used by the terrorists to construct their nuclear device. Suddenly, they are ambushed by gunfire. In the subsequent shootout, toxic gas is released in the facility. Mason spots a radiation warning sign lying on the floor, and urges an evacuation.

Repair workers from the telephone company arrive, only to find Eddie and co. waiting for them. One of the technicians is shot dead, as Jack watches on helplessly. The other is given exact instructions to heed, to facilitate entry into the CTU headquarters. Security clears them after a thorough check, and the phone company van enters the underground carpark.

Rayburn decides the best course of action is for the NSA to cut its losses and at least ensure all the data from CTU is salvaged. He calls Tony Almeida – the senior agent in Mason’s absence – and tersely requests all the files relating to the nuclear strike by copied to the NSA servers by 11.00am. The process is virtually impossible to complete in such a short space of time, even if Paula is given complete access to Mason’s office to set up the encryption process for sending the data to NSA. No reasons are given, and Tony suspects something is very wrong. He gets Michelle to find out if the other CTU units across the country have been asked to do the same. They haven’t. He then calls Mason to voice his fears, but the Director is in the process of being checked by Hazmat for contamination, and has to hand over his mobile.

The investigator hired by Kate Warner to check up on her sister’s fiancee confirms that the information taken from Reza Naiyeer’s passport shows he does indeed have terrorist links. Shaken by the news, Kate does her best to act as if everything is alright, but struggles to keep her composure when Reza and Marie ask her to come and meet one of his relations. She runs off, but when Marie follows her and asks why she behaved so irrationally, Kate pretends that it’s just emotions running high on such a big day.

Eddie’s crew make their way through the CTU complex, leaving Jack in the van to keep watch with the one remaining repair worker tied up in the back. Knowing time is running out, Jack makes a rough diagram of the three charges’ locations, frees the technician (breaking cover in the process) and tells him to give the piece of paper to Tony Almeida. Bauer then cuts himself on the head and lies down in the van to create the impression of the repair worker escaping after attacking him. When Eddie returns, he accepts the story since he is more concerned with getting clear away from the CTU before his explosives are detonated.

Eventually, Palmer returns from his press conference only to find Kresge and Rayburn in heated discussion, the former having realised the latter’s part in preventing Jack’s information from getting through to the President. When he learns of the CTU situation, he is furious with Rayburn for not informing him sooner. Rayburn’s prepared to suffer damage to “CTU infrastructure and personnel”, but the President does not share his views. Kresge is sent to call CTU immediately with an order to evacuate, but it’s too late. Tony has already done so himself, sensing that the building must be under serious threat.

Paula is still trying to complete the data transfer upstairs in Mason’s office when Tony comes to get her. Staff begin to make their way towards the exit, but the charges go off before most are out of the building. For Kim and Megan, just arrived at CTU in the belief they’re finally safe, the chaos comes as a particular shock. Surrounded by falling debris and wounded workers, they keep moving.

A block away from CTU, Eddie and Jack witness a cloud of smoke billowing from the CTU building. Palmer is told of the explosion. Hazmat complete their decontamination of George Mason, but the consequence of his exposure is severe: the concentrated amount of plutonium was lethal. He has, at best, a week to live. Maybe as little as 24 hours.

Kimberly Bauer: Elisha CuthbertEPISODE 4: 11.00am – 12.00pm :

A decimated CTU is teeming with emergency services, trying to deal with the repercussions of the bomb blast. Fatalities are into double figures, with many more critically injured. Mason, about to be taken to Hospital, gets a call from a shattered Tony. The bomb hit before CTU’s data on the nuclear strike had been transferred to the NSA server, and Paula – the only person who can complete the decryption process – is trapped under the debris. Still unsure of his immediate future beyond the next few hours, Mason at first declines to return to the CTU and passes responsibility onto NSA without giving the real reason for his evasiveness.

Jack travels with Eddie’s crew to a safe point well outside the city, whereupon they prepare to dispose of the van. As Eddie makes a call to Joseph Wald in order to obtain his next instructions, Jack pulls a gun on him. Eddie’s men see what’s happening from the van, and start shooting at Jack. With two guns blazing, Jack quickly takes them out before also killing Eddie as he tries to escape. Taking Eddie’s saloon car, Jack heads for the address Wald provided. On the way he calls CTU, only to be shocked by the news that the building wasn’t evacuated and there have been several casualties. Unable to speak directly to Tony, Jack passes Wald’s location onto the next-in-command, Michelle Dessler, and reassures her that he’s made arrangements for Kim to already be out of Los Angeles.

In fact, she is still only just making her way out of the chaotic CTU complex with Megan in tow. Suddenly, Megan has a seizure. Nearby doctors whisk her off to the ER, where it transpires that pressure to the brain caused by an earlier blow are to blame rather than anything connected to the explosion, and several other fractures to the girl’s body showed up in X-rays. The consultant suspects Kim of abusing Megan, although she of course knows immediately who the culprit is. Kim calls Carla, Megan’s mother, urging her to come to the hospital. Carla adamantly defends her husband’s behaviour even when confronted with the facts, but she agrees to go. Gary’s standing at at the door when she tries to leave.

Kate Warner cannot cope with the revelations concerning her sister’s fiancee any longer, and confides in her father. However, he is apparently sceptical of the Private Investigator’s findings, claiming that he has already run even more thorough checks via his own people, and satisfied himself that Reza’s dealings are all above board. When Reza appears, Kate attempts to leave, but her father cajoles her into accepting Reza’s offer of a lift to pick up some food. An uneasy silence on the journey is broken by Reza’s attempts at genial conversation, and then makes a detour to show Kate a “secret”. Kate panics, and threatens to get out of the car is he doesn’t pull over. To her chagrin, the secret turns out to be a brand-new house that he’s bought as a suprise wedding gift for Maria.

Having had the likely course of deterioration explained to him in detail, Mason is then informed that his condition is not contagious. This prompts a change of plan, after Tony calls him again requesting the password to his computer so that someone in IT can finish the decryption. Paula, finally freed from the debris, has lost consciousness and is suffering from severe internal bleeding that will be fatal unless she undergoes surgery as soon as possible. However, there is in reality no-one else who can do the job, so Mason elects to stop Paula from being taken to ER and instead be revived on-site to complete the data transfer. Tony initially disputes the decision, but deep down recognises the heartbreaking fact that either Paula is given a chance to live, or all vital information on the nuclear strike is lost, and Mason has made the right choice.

Arriving at Wald’s hideout, Jack puts the blooded cloth from his self-inflicted wound back to his head, and feigns desperation in a bid to entice Wald from behind his front door. It works, and once inside Jack traps his man at gunpoint, making Wald aware of the bigger terrorist plot, and telling him that the CTU hit was simply a secondary attack to cripple any thwarting of the planned nuclear explosion. Jack hounds Wald repeatedly for answers, names and information until a dog enters the room and attacks him, allowing Wald to escape into a reinforced shed out the back which is impregnable by any means available to Jack.

The Lynne Kresge/Eric Rayburn stand-off continues to simmer until President Palmer calls the former into his office. Sensing that Kresge is hiding the truth of her inability to inform him of the CTU targeting as soon as Bauer alerted NSA, he berates her for failing to save innocent lives by her actions until she silently confesses Rayburn’s role in blocking her access to Palmer. He then coerces her into telling all, before sending for Rayburn in order to fire him with immediate effect.

Eventually, Jack’s continued hectoring of Wald pays off. With very little time before a SWAT team is due at the hideout, Wald ends his vigil inside the steel-enhanced chamber. Jack is allowed in, and handed an envelope with photographs of the person whose instructions Wald had been following. He then commits suicide in front of Jack, rather than face a return to prison. Jack looks through the pictures…. the woman Eddie mentioned as his only contact is in all of them. It’s Nina Myers, a.k.a. Yelena.

RezaEPISODE 5: 12.00pm – 1.00pm :

The medical team continue to try and revive Paula, while the CTU debris is still being cleared around them. Jack calls in with the information on Nina that Joseph Wald gave to him. Mason then arranges for her to be brought in for interrogation, but he won’t allow Jack to handle the questioning in case the desire to avenge Teri’s death affects his judgement. Paula briefly regains consciousness, long enough to give the encryption codes with her final, gasping breaths. She flatlines before reaching the CTU exit doors.

Kim keeps out of view at the hospital, but runs into Gary again in one of the corridors. She sees two policeman in the distance, coming towards them. Gary gives her two choices; face charges of kidnapping and a certain prison sentence if she tries to incriminate him for abusing his daughter, or leave now – never to return – and he’ll tell them it was all a misunderstanding. Kim opts for the latter.

Once outside, she phones Jack. He brushes off her comments over his behaviour during their last conversation while he was working undercover, and insists she go to Aunt Carol’s immediately. When pressed, Jack explains why it’s not safe to stay in L.A.; Kim is shocked, and decides to go back for Megan. She can’t do it alone, so she asks her new boyfriend Miguel to help. Tony has been alerted to Reza Naiyeer’s link to Syeed Ali, and heads off to the Warners’ house. He arrives with another agent in tow, whereupon Tony takes Reza into the Dining Room to answer questions about his part in the financial dealings with known terrorists. The interrogation will continue well past 1pm.

President Palmer is informed that an Ambassador from the Middle Eastern state housing Second Wave is due to arrive in the US for talks on how to assist in preventing the nuclear strike. Eric Rayburn’s replacement, Roger Stanton, is sceptical of this initiative, believing it to be a means of obtaining intelligence under the guise of co-operation. The meeting takes place, and Palmer agrees in principle to the Ambassador’s suggestion of mutually exchanged intelligence resources. Lynne Kresge shares Stanton’s objections to such open sharing of sensitive information, so Palmer ensures any material that could jeopardise U.S. agents overseas is removed before the files are handed over.

At CTU, a handcuffed and shackled Nina Myers is led to the hastily-assembled interrogation room in full view of the remaining workforce. Jack, ignoring the heavy-handed prompting of Michelle to obey George Mason and leave the complex, sees Nina’s return. Mason begins the questioning himself, but fails to get anywhere. Myers refuses to offer any information until she is granted a full Presidential pardon. Her request is passed on to Palmer via Ryan Chapelle, and with reluctance Shadow Asylum is granted. The President makes a personal call to Jack, acknowledging the anger the decision must be causing him, but pledging to one day “make this all right”. Mason, coughing and wheezing quite noticably now, heads for the bathroom to take some more anti-nausea tablets.

Jack has been watching him for a while, and when he finds the pack of pills left behind by Mason he guesses what must be happening. Michelle is coerced into providing Jack with a full log of Mason’s activities throughout the day so far, including his brush with the highly toxic plutonium at the warehouse. Armed with this information, Jack confronts Mason and blackmails his superior into handing over Nina’s interrogation to him.

Miguel arrives at the hospital, where Kim tells him of the bomb threat and her need snatch Megan back and get them all away to safety. He agrees to do everything he can.

No sooner have the foreign Ambassador and his aide boarded a helicopter to take them to their own private jet, than President Palmer is shown the breaking news broadcast on television. The chopper, having exploded into flames, plummets to the ground in front of his disbelieving eyes.

Jack readies himself for the task of facing Nina one-on-one for the first time since the immediate aftermath of his wife’s murder, watching Myers’ face on a monitor screen as she sits in the interrogation room.

Nina MyersEPISODE 6: 1.00pm – 2.00pm :

A shaken President Palmer returns to the underground bunker facility with Kresge and Stanton. He airs his suspicions that those responsible for the helicopter crash are not terrorists but people within the US government. To Palmer’s surprise, ex-wife Sherry is waiting for him, with an urgent matter to discuss. She has heard from an inside source that a full military evacuation of L.A. has been authorised. Taken aback, Palmer agrees to her plea for a private meeting. Beforehand, he checks out the evacuation story. It’s true. Lynne Kresge discovers that it was Stanton who carried out the order, but when he’s summoned into Palmer’s office he confesses that the original request was made by Eric Rayburn. A contrite Stanton admits his error in assuming Rayburn had acted with the full consent of the President. Palmer orders the evacuation to be cancelled.

Jack takes the papers with Nina’s pardon into the interrogation room. She won’t reveal the name of her contact until she is taken to them, so Jack dispenses with the softly-softly approach. He throws the table out of the way and rams Nina’s chair up against the wall, grabbing her throat. Mason sees this on the monitor, and goes in to halt the interrogation. Jack tells Mason that it’s all part of his plan to unsettle Nina, and make her believe he has complete authority to do whatever he deems necessary to extract the information CTU need. Mason agrees to turn up the interrogation room temperature, and allow Jack to continue.

Kim and Miguel look for a way to gain access to Megan’s room in the hospital. The doctor won’t let Gary discharge his daughter until the causes of her injuries are more thoroughly investigated, so he quickly gets Megan ready to leave before the doctor returns at the end of her rounds, and makes arrangements with his secretary for a flight to Mexico City. Miguel creates a diversion for Kim by phoning the hosptial with a bogus accounting issue related to Gary. While an annoyed Gary is forced to take the call away from Megan’s room, Kim makes her move. She eventually persuades the girl to go with her, and down to the stairwell where they rendezvous with Miguel. However, security has already been notified of Megan’s disapperance by a fraught Gary, and their escape routes have all been blocked.

Jack rattles Nina further by shooting two bullets narrowly wide of her head. Her composure disppears, and she reveals the name and location of her contact. They will have to meet with them to find out anything else, since Nina was not privvy to the information regarding the nuclear bomb. CTU immediately set up an armed escort which will take Nina and Jack to Visalia.

Palmer meets with Sherry in private, and hears of how his administration is being threatened by several members of his own government. Sherry’s demands to know what exactly is going on are met with details of the nuclear bomb threat. She offers to help Palmer by seeking out the identities of those u ndermining his Presidency. He consents to arranging a safe and secure line of communication to pass on any information she can unearth.

With Marie Warner’s wedding day in jeopardy, and her relationship with sister Kate in disarray, Reza Naiyeer continues to vehemently deny his guilt until finally making a confession when Tony goes to handcuff him in front of the window, with his recently-arrived parents standing outside in the gardens. However, Reza claims to have merely covered up for his boss, suspecting something was awry. Thus the attention switches to Bob Warner, while Reza is reuinted with a distressed Marie; still furious that her own sister should have secretly hired a P.I. to check out her fiancee and adamant that Kate stay well away from her in the future.

Every exit at the hosptial is guarded, so Miguel decides to create a disturbance that enables Kim and Megan to get away unnoticed. As they walk across the car-park, Gary spots them from a hospital window. No sooner has Miguel joined up again with the girls, than Gary appears behind them. In the ensuing struggle, Kim is flung against a car, but Miguel knocks Gary out cold with a kung-fu kick to the head and then at Kim’s behest steals his keys. The trio head off in Gary’s sports car.

As Nina travels with Jack and a second agent, she attempts to verbally antagonize the two men. Suddenly agent Miller passes out. His drink was spiked by a smiling Jack, who now has an uneasy Nina all to himself.

Jack & NinaEPISODE 7: 2.00pm – 3.00pm :

The armoured van carrying Jack and Nina reaches Warden Airbase, and they board a plane to Visalia with two FBI agents in tow. Nina attempts to incriminate Jack over the drugging of Miller, but nobody’s interested. Jack’s autonomy is compromised by the FBI presence, who force him to act by the book for the duration of the short flight. Nina is made to change into civilian clothing while standing right in front of him.

President Palmer’s chief-of-staff Mike Novick belatedly turns up at the compound, with a brief to investigate the possible conspiracy within Palmer’s administration. Surprised to find Sherry back on the team, Novick advises the President to concentrate on the day’s unfolding crisis while he observes key personnel at close quarters, as the internal situation is something that can be dealt with in due course. Roger Stanton, as Eric Rayburn’s former boss, is Palmer’s greatest concern, and Novick agrees to discreetly check him out. Lynne Kresge informs a disbelieving Palmer that Nina Myers is being taken to Visalia by none other than Jack Bauer.

A deteriorating George Mason calls his estranged son, John, but can’t persuade him to see him even when he says it’s urgent. Desperate, Mason orders his son to be picked up by CTU agents. Brought in handcuffed, John is stunned by Mason’s gesture of $200,000 that’s to be transferred immediately into his account and the subsequent confession that he’s dying. Mason urges John to leave town as soon as possible to avoid “something bad” that’s going to happen in L.A..

Arriving at Davenport Airport in Visalia, Jack prepares for the next stage of the operation. Nina finally reveals the exact location of her contact Mamud Faheen; a thrift store not far away called Crescent Collectibles. There’s a SWAT team in place to accompany Jack and Nina. Once Nina enters the building, she is given 30 seconds before Jack’s team make their move. They plan to ambush Faheen before he can commit suicide; it’s Nina’s job to convince him that she’s genuinely been released from prison and not arouse his suspicion.

Faheen comes downstairs to meet her, and they hold a conversation in Arabic. Nina has been fitted with an audio/visual bugging device so that everything can be monitored and relayed to Jack outside. However, Faheen remains in the shadows and CTU can’t get the definite ID they need before going in, and then contact is lost as Nina goes to embrace him. Jack, unable to wait any longer, gives the green light and the building is quickly raided from all sides. Faheen is found on the floor, while Nina is apprehended by Jack as she tries to escape through the roof exit. For a few moments, he fights the temptation to kill Nina there and then, but – hands shaking – he opts to only arrest her.

The Warner household is in disarray after Reza implicates Bob Warner in his confession to Tony Almeida. Kate accuses him of shifting the blame to suit his own ends, but Reza is adamant that he has merely told the truth. Mason is updated on developments, and orders both Reza and Bob in for further questioning. As he leaves, Bob quietly asks Kate to contact their lawyer. When she questions how a tax attorney can possibly help, Bob assures her that they will know what to do. Suspicious, Kate goes to her father’s computer when everyone has left and tries to access his private files. She phones the investigator’s office for assistance.

Palmer arranges a meeting between himself, Mike Novick, Lynne Kresge and Sherry. The two women had not previously been properly introduced, and after the meeting – during which Kresge steadfastly refused to accept the President’s conspiracy theories, offering apparent hard evidence to back up her views – there is a rather frosty exchange between them, with Sherry pointing out to Lynne that her husband’s rise to power wasn’t achieved alone. All of this is overheard by Palmer, who later tells Sherry to try and respect Lynne’s position a little more.

Heading out of L.A. in Gary’s car, Kim and Miguel are pulled over by the Police for speeding. The officer sees Megan sleeping in the back seat, but they manage to convince him that there is nothing else untoward happening. He lets them off with just a warning, but as he returns to his own vehicle, the officer suddenly notices blood dripping from the boot of Gary’s car. Miguel is told to open it. The policeman also asks Kim to get out of the car, and she is horrified by the sight of Carla’s dead body in the boot.

Kate and the FBI guyEPISODE 8: 3.00pm – 4.00pm :

Arrested for murder, Kim and Miguel are ushered away in separate police cars. When the officer who originally pulled them over for speeding mentions to Kim that her boyfriend has told them some story about a bomb in L.A., she confirms it and begs the cop to phone CTU for verification. He asks the police station to put him through to the FBI, but an overload with the bureau’s phone network makes it impossible.

Jack oversees the interrogation of Mamud Faheen, but despite Nina’s involvement the contact refuses to co-operate. His patience evaporating, Jack attempts to break with protocol yet again, but the other CTU agents draw their weapons in order to stop him from taking Nina and Faheen back to L.A. by himself.

Questions are beginning to be asked about Ron Wieland, the investigative journalist currently holed up at the President’s underground complex. Sherry Palmer, having spoken privately with Wieland’s network, goes to her ex-husband with an offer to smooth over the situation by talking to the troublesome reporter directly. Her suggestion is approved, albeit with reluctance. However, the tete-a-tete doesn’t go quite to plan, as Wieland refuses to buy into Sherry’s promise of unlimited access and exclusive rights to report from the Presidential Operations Centre, in return for not running the bomb scare story. The failure to silence Wieland doesn’t deter Sherry from trying to convince the President of her continued value to his cause.

At CTU, Reza Naiyeer and Bob Warner are questioned individually. Tony is given full licence to be as uncompromising as is necessary to extract the truth. Reza maintains his innocence, while Bob reveals himself as a covert CIA consultant. For five years, he has secretly worked as a conduit for the CIA without having direct contact with any of the criminals or terrorists involved. His credentials check out, leaving Mason to conclude that Reza has to be lying. Mason loses his composure, grabbing Reza as he talks in a corridor with Marie, and starts screaming at him. Tony quickly intervenes. Back at the Warner home, Kate – with the help of Paul Koplin, the private investigator’s boss – discover regularly accessed Government-encoded files when they hack into Bob’s computer, as well as financial records of cheques made out to Sayeed Ali signed by Reza.

The truck transporting the nuclear device is temporarily held up by a blown tyre. It’s fixed by a passing driver, but when the three men entrusted with bringing the bomb into L.A. resume their journey, one begins to express serious reservations. A heated discussion ends with two of the men dead, and the truck in an off-street alley.

On the plane back from Visalia, Nina once again tries to elicit information from Faheed. Their conversation, as it was at the Crescent Collectibles, is in Arabic, with Michelle and a translator at CTU relaying the details of what’s said back to Bauer, sitting at the rear of the plane. Jack’s concentration is interrupted by a phone call from CTU, who have Kim on the line from the L.A. police station. Kim explains her predicament to Jack, who gets Mason to handle her release as he’s preoccupied with events on board the jet.

While he’s engaged in this three-way call, Nina suddenly slits Faheen’s throat with a sharp piece of card she slipped into her jacket when in Faheen’s store. All attempts to save him prove fruitless, but Nina insists she found out “everything” before she killed him. With the ball in her court once again, Nina claims to know the bomb’s location and demands to be taken to San Diego. Michelle replays the recordings of Nina and Faheen’s discussion, discovering a new name mentioned in connection with Syeed Ali.

The officer who arrested Kim talks to her as they wait at the police station for her release to be finalised. Quietly, he begs to know more about the bomb threat. Kim, worried that Megan might be kept in L.A., tells him as much as she knows.

Kate Warner and Paul Koplin leave the house and walk towards his car, discussing what they’ve found. Out of nowhere, they are ambushed by two men and thrown into a van.

President Palmer arrives at the Operations Centre in time to witness Ron Wieland speaking live on television with his news story of the bomb threat, and of Palmer’s deliberate deception of the public. Nobody within the President’s circle knows how Wieland was able to escape, and so Armuss, the security agent in charge of keeping the reporter quiet, becomes the immediate suspect.

En route to their new destination of San Diego, Jack sits opposite Nina and talks movingly about Teri. Nina stares dispassionately ahead. Suddenly, the plane is rocked by a massive explosion….

Jack at the air crashEPISODE 9: 4.00pm – 5.00pm :

Losing altitude fast, an emergency landing site is nominated. Jack relays the co-ordinates to Mason at CTU, but the plane continues to freefall and could end up short of the designated area. Nina refuses to reveal the exact location of the bomb, fearing Jack will kill her once she has fulfilled her part of the deal, even though everyone on board might be dead when the jet crashes. The agent assigned to protect Nina from Jack’s possible retribution loses patience and threatens her at gunpoint for the information, then the plane goes down short of its target before Jack can provide Mason with fresh co-ordinates.

President Palmer accuses Sherry of being involved in Ron Wieland’s release, only for Mike Novick to show CC footage of Armuss entering the holding cell and escorting the reporter out. Sherry accepts her ex-husband’s contrite apology, and advises him to be honest with the media about the situation, but their conversation is interrupted with news of Jack and Nina’s jet going down.

Satellite photographs reveal that a ground-to-air missile was fired at the plane. Mason elects to send in an armed search-and-rescue team, as whoever fired the missile will now be looking for the wreckage to make sure there are no survivors. As he discusses the situation with Michelle, his nose begins to bleed. She voices her suspicions that Mason is suffering from radiation poisoning to Tony, who only minutes earlier had learned the truth first-hand when he questioned Mason’s suddenly renewed commitment. Tony tries to feign ignorance, as Mason requested that nobody except they and Jack need know, but Michelle sees through it. She wants Mason to stand down because of the effect it could have on his judgement, but Tony placates her with a promise to intervene if and when that happens.

Under Mason’s orders, Reza is taken into the same interrogation chamber as Bob Warner in an effort to see which one breaks first when they are played off against each other. Details of the nuclear threat are revealed to the pair, and immunity is offered to whoever provides the information that links to Syeed Ali. The room is hooked up to a voice-monitoring device, which clearly shows Reza to be telling the truth as, genuinely horrified at the catastrophic implications, he berates Bob for being dishonest and for setting him up. Soon after, despite Bob’s threats, Reza tells the CTU what they need to know and is led outside while guards have to restrain Warner. He asks to have a brief moment with Marie before leaving. She tearfully condemns Reza for betraying her family, and walks away.

Jack, impaled by a branch, crawls out of the plane debris and looks for the other passengers. He finds Agent Phillips seriously injured, and further afield Nina’s upturned seat, with Nina still chained to it. Jack has to give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. As they make their way from the wreckage, a team of soldiers swarm the area. From their khaki camouflaged uniforms, Jack immediately knows they are not the CTU rescue unit. From behind a cluster of bushes, they watch as the soldiers scour the debris and excute Phillips. When Jack is spotted, an exchange of gunfire follows. He uses a flare to disable an advancing soldier, then takes his gun and ammunition. With Nina’s help, Jack takes out most of the others until running out of firepower but unbeknown to him she has kept a round of ammo back for herself. When the CTU team finally arrive and clean up the remaining troops, she picks up Jack’s discarded machine gun, loads it, and takes him as hostage. The CTU team are forced to stand down. Nina demands to speak with President Palmer.

Kim and Miguel are still at the police station, waiting to be released. However, the chief officer has overruled CTU’s orders because no elevated threat status has been decreed, and the pair will now be taken to the main LAPD as originally planned. Megan is to be picked up by her aunt, who lives in Santa Barbara. Miguel estimates it to be about 100 miles from L.A., a safe enough distance from the potential blast. Kim is convinced that her father will eventually sort everything out, although Miguel is less sure.

Kate Warner is awoken from her drug-induced slumber by Syeed Ali, who orchestrated her abduction. She is taken to Paul Koplin in an adjacent room. They both deny any knowledge of Ali’s activities and of seeing anything on Bob Warner’s computer files, even when Koplin is tortured with an electric sanding tool. Eventually convinced they have no information of value, Syeed Ali shoots Koplin dead and tells one his men to do the same with Kate now that she is of no use.

The press conference arranged for President Palmer is approaching, but first he has to deal with Nina Myers’ call. He asks Mike Novick to answer, but listens in on the conversation. Myers asks for total immunity for a crime she has yet to commit, in return for revealing the bomb’s location. Puzzled, Palmer asks for clarification. The crime in question is to be Jack Bauer’s murder. With no bargaining power, and no weaknesses to exploit, the President, Jack and the CTU reluctantly agree. Nina tells them where the nuclear explosive is. She is told that as soon as the bomb threat is nullified, she can kill Jack. Fighting back tears, Palmer promises to make sure Kim is safe and taken care of, then heads out to meet the press. As he leaves, he compliments Lynne on the improvements made to his speech, alterations which were actually made and insisted upon – by Sherry.

As he awaits his execution, Jack tells Nina that it’s not over….

Tony AlmeidaEPISODE 10: 5.00pm – 6.00pm :

After grimmacing at the end of the last episode when he told Nina she would be pardoned for Jack’s murder in advance, Palmer delivers a speech that admits yes, they did get a bomb threat… but that they get these every day, and only shout them to the world when there’s really something to worry about.

While we’ve had some episodes that have ended with a real cliffhanger, you just knew Jack Bauer couldn’t be killed when the clock struck 5pm, given how he’s the central character.

As luck would have it, the cavalry show up all around the Jack and Nina, and the former causes the latter to bite a bullet as the CTU guys swoop in. As Palmer gets word that Jack’s okay, he tells Nina he’ll still let her off if Nina’s vital information turns true. In all the confusion, Jack gets close enough to whisper something in her ear that scares her but that we can’t hear.

Near the CTU copter, he recognises a specific tattoo marking on the arm of a soldier who tried to off him. He gives Palmer the news that the man was part of a deep cover group from Fort Benning, run by the NSA…

We have a brief bonding moment soon after as Michelle talks to Mason and since he won’t be around this time tomorrow, he tells her she should follow her dreams and not be stuck in a crummy dead-end job where you can get bumped off in an instant.

Roger Stanton’s in the frame as the man in charge of the division that recruited the baddies Jack identified, yet he continues to be defiant to the last that he even knows the time of day when Palmer presses him on the issue.

Since Miguel managed to procure a lighter from the cop earlier on, he asks Kim to get the bandana from his pocket and they prove how effective fire in an enclosed space can be. The cop car overturns and two of its occupants are trapped and injured. Kim escapes after radioing for help.

Mohsen stayed behind after Syed Ali left the building and attempts to dissect Kate’s ear while she’s still wearing it. I thought they were already pierced. Jack and co. show up outside the building ready to pounce.

Reza had no choice at the start of the episode to help the authorities out by tracking any computer movements made on Bob Warner’s computer, despite protesting his innocence time and time again in an English accent that sounds so fake but apparently it’s real so he must just be a terrible actor. Marie shows up all lovey-dovey and says she’ll wait for him outside the office and understands what he has to do.

Jack frees Kate by storming in, but if they want to capture this man who they think is Ali at the time, they’re shit out of luck as he’s swallowed a cyanide pill and his vitals are fading fast, but let’s just be glad his last job was not as a dentist.

Sherry tells Mike Novick about a supposedly shut-down communications network called OPCOM which ties Roger Stanton in with the bad guy Jack found before. Proceedings are made to arrest Roger, and… while we were led to believe Sherry was doing all this in the President’s interests, she phones Roger and tells him she’s let them in on the network as it won’t drop him in it totally and it’ll let her get closer to her ex-husband for later on. She’s managed to get the code from a previous deputy director to access the network, in a bid to keep her hand in.

As the episode draws to a close, Tony tells Jack how things are going with Reza and Bob Warner, Jack is informed by Kate that she knows some Arabic and overheard that Ali was off to pray, which causes Jack to get a list of every mosque nearby within a 15-mile radius. Michelle and Tony let each other know that they fancy each other and that they’re on for the horizontal mambo tomorrow if there still is a tomorrow…

Finally, as Reza plunders through the computer files, he finds the shipping order they were after all along… but can it be true that only Marie had access to it? Surely not. A shot rings out – and kills the authority-type sat next to him. The gunslinger is none other than Marie, who tells him she never expected him to find out about the order. Did she ever really love him, though, in the two years they spent together? “You really are very sweet”, she confides as a tear rolls down her cheek. One more shot Reza’s down too.

(Why is it, though, that the baddies only deliver one shot to the chest that might not do the trick, rather than to the head which is a sure-fire (sic) way of putting their lights out permanently?)

Kate Warner and Jack BauerEPISODE 11: 6.00pm – 7.00pm :

So, 13 episodes to go and where are we. Kim has made her escape into the Angeles Crest National Forest (boobs bouncing as usual!), and hidden from the rescue helicopters under some brush. Marie, having killed Reza and the CTU guard opens the Mac on the floor and removes the hard drive. She gets a call from Ali telling her that she must go and pick up the nuke trigger from a locker in town. He tells her that the van drivers Basheer and Marko are dead and the mission depends on her now. He warns Marie to change her appearance, and she dutifully agrees. Ali then enters a mosque for what he believes will be his last prayer service.

Jack drives Kate to the closest mosque and preps her for identifying Ali. He reveals that Ali is, in fact, a suspect in a nuclear terrorist attack on the city. George Mason phones Jack with news that Kim disappeared into the forest after the accident. Jack pleads with George to find her.

Novick learns that there is not sufficient evidence to take action against Stanton. It will also take too long to obtain a warrant. He advises President Palmer to remove Stanton from his post immediately, and deal with the ramifications later. Novick also intimates that he should do whatever possible to get Stanton to reveal what he knows about the bomb. Meanwhile, Sherry phones Lynne to ask what is being done about Stanton, but Lynne has not been apprised of the situation. Sherry urges Lynne to find out.

The CTU SWAT team sets up a command point in a parking structure near the mosque. Jack instructs the team leader not to make a move until the prayer service has ended because they need to grab Ali on his way out of the building. Yet they still do not even know if they are at the correct place. Kate offers to go into the mosque wearing a hijab over her face to see if Ali is inside.

Stanton is denied access into the government files on his computer. Colonel Lamb and a pair of MPs approach him. Lamb places Stanton under arrest on the authority of the President for conspiracy to commit treason. As he is escorted out, StantonÂ’s eyes meet PalmerÂ’s. Lynne comes into the PresidentÂ’s office to tell him that Sherry has been trying to reach him. When he takes SherryÂ’s call, she asks what he will do about Stanton. Palmer says he is having Stanton questioned, but Sherry disagrees with his hasty decision. Despite her help in gathering information, Palmer sticks to his guns.

Tony tells Michelle heÂ’s glad she told him how she feels, but before he can tell her how he feels he gets a call saying Bob Warner is becoming aggressive. Warner is demanding to be freed because he believes that Reza is lying about his terrorist connections. Tony rushes in to the interrogation room and tells him if he doesnÂ’t calm down, heÂ’ll lock him up for the night. When Bob asks about his daughters, Tony tells him that Kate is with one of their agents but he does not reveal the true situation.

As Kate puts on traditional Muslim dress, Jack briefs her on what to do inside the mosque. Jack hands Kate a device to alert the SWAT team should she feel she is any danger. Kate enters the mosque and, makes her way down to the womenÂ’s section checking out the praying men. She spots Syed Ali, and rushes out of the building when he looks up at her. Jack stops Kate as she exits, and she informs him that Ali is inside.

At the O.C., Novick informs Palmer that RogerÂ’s last call has been traced. It was to Colonel Sanders at CIA HQ in Langley, Virginia. The President enters the interrogation room and offers a deal to Stanton to reveal what he knows in return for immunity. Stanton responds by denying all knowledge of the bomb. Jack gives the CTU agents KateÂ’s description of Ali, and instructs the team not to move until Kate picks out the terrorist from the men leaving the mosque. The agents ready themselves at all points surrounding the building.

As they observe the entrance of the Mosque from across the street, Jack thanks Kate for her courage in assisting the investigation. Kim makes her way through the forest, but stops when she hears the sound of a wild animal. She makes a break for it when she sees a cougar in the distance, but her ankle gets caught in an animal snare. The cougar follows her, and watches her from a rock above. Kim begins to tremble as the animal looks at her like Johnny Vegas eyeing a Guinness.

Palmer returns to his retreat and speaks with Ted Simmons, one of his Secret Service agents who had once served in a special unit out of Fort Myerson performing covert ops for the CIA. Palmer asks Simmons to act outside of his duties of the Secret Service under his direct orders. He is authorised to use whatever means necessary to extract information from NSA Director Stanton.

Michelle is informed that Reza and the agents guarding him were murdered. The last time the agents communicated with CTU, Marie Warner had just arrived. Tony contacts Jack and recommends that they treat Kate as a possible suspect. Jack, however, is sure that Kate knows nothing about her sisterÂ’s terrorism activities.

Marie enters a lumber mill wearing a short brunette wig. She approaches the foreman about needing something from her boyfriend MarkoÂ’s locker. The foreman is reluctant to open it. She comes on to him and the two enter his office and close the blinds.

Roger Stanton is restrained in a chair with his bare feet submerged in a tub of water. Agent Simmons holds defibrillator paddles while he questions him about his connection to the nuclear bomb. Stanton calmly denies any knowledge. Simmons shocks him through the temples. Palmer coldly watches the interrogation from a monitor in his office.

Tony apprises Bob Warner about RezaÂ’s murder and CTUÂ’s suspicion of Marie as the killer. Bob doesnÂ’t believe this story, and accuses Tony of deception.

Nightfall, and the prayer service files out, but Kate cannot identify Ali—yet. Jack’s suspicion of her is aroused. He orders his team to raid the mosque, and keeps Kate with him. Inside they find a man on fire. They believe its Ali and conclude he has committed suicide rather than be captured.

Marie removes the trigger from Marko’s locker and leaves, having clearly given the foreman a ‘Monica Lewinsky special’.

The dead man in the mosque is wearing clothes that match AliÂ’s description. Yet Jack notices that the pants on the corpse are too short, and he realizes that this is not Ali. He alerts the agents surrounding the building that Ali is still on the scene.

Jack Bauer gets toughEPISODE 12: 7.00pm – 8.00pm :

Oh boy! WeÂ’ve seen Jack get mean before, but in this episode, he gets downright ruthless, if not cold-blooded as he begins to get his hands dirty with Syed Ali.

We join Jack halfway thru the day as he tells the man in charge of the Mosque about the bomb. He tells Jack that he will try and speak with Ali if they can catch him. One of the agents finds a trap door under a rug that was not detailed on the architectural plans. Jack crawls inside to find Ali.

Ali calls Marie to tell her the plan has changed and to meet him at their pre-arranged rendezvous point. Should he not arrive in half an hour, she knows what to do. Suddenly, Jack grabs Ali and prevents him biting the cyanide tooth. The violence depicted in this scene originally caused this episode to be aired with a viewer discretion warning.

George plays the good cop and begins talking to Bob Warner. He asks him to give any information he might know about his daughter to give them a clue as to why she is working with Ali. Bob is incredulous about MarieÂ’s possible involvement with the terrorists. Mason sympathetically probes a little deeper; eventually Warner opens up and tells George that Marie ran away a few years ago when her mother died in London. When she returned a few weeks later, she seemed more distant. The interview is interrupted by Michelle telling him they found a clue in Ali’s burnt clothing. A new computer expert arrives to analyse the burnt fragment. Is this the new Milo?

The interrogation of Roger Stanton continues with Palmer watching with apparently cold indifference on a monitor. Mike informs him that Jack is now interrogating Ali.

George rebukes Tony for working on locating Kim, and tells him to divert his attention back to finding the bomb as she is safely out of the blast radius. This is about priorities. He storms away ordering everyone to stay focussed on the bomb, but almost collapses in pain as he clings to the rail on the stairwell.

Kim is getting colder and more frightened with every passing minute. Still stuck in the hunters trap she hears something—or someone—approaching. Fearing it may be the cougar she hides. A man approaches, clearly the hunter. He asks Kim why she’s there, she gives him a quick partial answer neglecting to mention that she caused the accident, and the car was a police car. Seemingly dissatisfied with her answer, the hunter releases her anyway.

Back at the Mosque, Jack is still interrogating Syed Ali. As expected, the terrorist refuses to talk despite JackÂ’s savage beatings. Michael Parkinson could learn a helluva lot about interview technique from Jack Bauer!

Kim’s foot is being bandaged by the kindly hunter; he tells her he must take her to the ranger station. When she refuses, he offers to take her to his place for the evening. The head of the Mosque enters the room and attempts to convince Ali to give up the bomb. As he speaks, he begins to move closer and I found myself wondering if HE was about to kill Ali to prevent him disclosing the location of the bomb. He tells the terrorist that the murder of millions will not get him into paradise, but Ali’s twisted view of the beautiful faith has him convinced him he is following AllahÂ’s will and he says they will discuss the matter further when they meet again in Paradise. The man leaves, and is escorted back upstairs, but not before telling Jack that he wants to try again later. Agent Baker tells Jack they have recovered the number Ali called last on his cell. Kate recognises the number as Marie’s. Jack then tells her that Marie killed Resa and the agents. She refuses to believe it. Jack tells Kate that she can phone her sister, but that she must keep her on the phone as long as possible so they can pinpoint her location.

Kate calls Marie’s cell using the CTU network so that they can track her phone. Agent Baker has disguised their signal so it will appear as KateÂ’s number on MarieÂ’s caller ID. Marie is in her car and senses something is wrong by the wavering tone of KateÂ’s voice. She tells her sister that she knows Kate knows. With the cell phone, traced Marie tosses her phone out the window where it is crushed in to the tarmac by another car. CTU got a lock on the phone, but could not get an exact location once the phone was destroyed. Jack orders a 10-block radius be closed down by CHP (California Highway Patrol— anyone remember the TV show CHiPs?) and Marie WarnerÂ’s vitals be sent to them.

Back at CTU the Ranger station phones in to say they are still looking for Kim, meanwhile, the new computer imaging expert, Randy Murdock on-loan from San Diego CTU, is making progress on the burnt paper. The numbers on the paper are N32 and something elseÂ…is this a code, a map reference, or something else.

The picture is forwarded to Jack; he rushes back to Ali and demands to know where the bomb is again. Ali refuses. Jack then switches on a TV. Ali watches as his family are tied up in their homes by masked men preparing to execute them. Jack tells him that unless he tells them where the bomb is, he will execute his family. He tells Ali that he despises him for making him do this, but that this is his last chance.

Mike notifies the President that Jack has requested authorisation to execute Ali’s family unless he gives up the bomb. Palmer has a crisis of conscience as he tries to rationalise what’s going on. Mike tells him that collateral damage is part of war, and the planting of the bomb WAS an act of war. Jack continues the mind game with Ali as he watches in horror as his family is bound and staring down the barrels of several pistols. Ali responds by saying he is doing Allah’s work, but while he voices his defiance, the terror in his eyes say otherwise. The President calls Jack and tells him he cannot kill the family. Jack proceeds to continue with a mock conversation in front of Ali when the president has hung up, pretending to make it obvious that President Palmer has authorised the executions. He thanks the president for his support and turns back to the terrorist with icy resolve.

Back at the O.C. bunker, people are starting to ask questions about Roger Stanton. Lynn tells Mike that someone has approached her with evidence of a flurry of communication, e-mail, phone, even face-to-face, between Roger Stanton and Sherry Palmer over the last six months. Mike is stunned; Stanton said he had met Sherry for the first time that very day. Lynn tells Mike that she has a meeting with the currently unknown source in ten minutes off site. Mike tells her he will tell the President once there is definitive proof.

Jack orders Ali to reveal the location of the bomb. When he refuses, Jack gives the word to execute Assad, his eldest son, the one who wants to grow up to be just like his father. The security force holding them prisoner kicks over the chair and shoots the boy in the head out of view of the camera.

Lynn arrives for the mysterious offsite meeting with her anonymous source. The source doesn’t show (or does she?). Sherry is there. She tells Lynn to back off, and claims that the conspiracy is aimed at overthrowing the presidency and the conspirators are feeding Lynn disinformation to discredit Sherry. Lynn doesn’t believe her, believing sherry is involved in orchestrating the whole thing to undermine President Palmer. Lynn walks away leaving Sherry speechless for once. The interrogation of Ali continues. Jack gives the word to execute the youngest son, but Ali breaks, telling him the bomb is at Norton Airfield. He tells him the plan is to fly an airplane over downtown and detonate the bomb in flight. Jack immediately contacts Mason. Michelle realises the numbers recovered by Murdock refer to those on the tail of a specific airplane. Mason orders three CTU units, plus SWAT teams and a bomb squad to get there ASAP; the FAA (Federal Aviation authority) are to be instructed to ground all planes, and he orders two F-16 fighters in the air to intercept in the event that they do take off.

Ali is escorted out of the room screaming his hatred and defiance at Jack. He checks the live feed again and we see Ali’s son get up. It was all an act. Jack and Kate get into a car and head to the airfield at high speed.

But before they arrive, Marie reaches the airfield and delivers the bomb trigger. She installs the trigger in the bomb with two other terrorists. A small private aircraft is in the hangar with them. When they have tested the trigger, they leave to pray.

Jack Bauer againEPISODE 13: 8.00pm – 9.00pm :

So here we are, at episode 13. Will it be unlucky for some? ItÂ’s certainly starting to look a bit dodgy for poor old Kim!

The episode opens as Tony calls Jack to update him on the assault team locking-down the airfield where they suspect the bomb is located. He also tells Jack that they have not yet found Kim. Jack is fretful, and explains that Kim will never try to contact CTU, as she is wanted by the cops. Tony promises to devote every available resource to the search. Meanwhile, Kim and the ‘benevolent’ hunter arrive at his little shack in the woods.

Palmer enters StantonÂ’s interrogation room. Roger confesses that he has known about the bomb for weeks. He admits to the President that his people let it into the country and allowed a second-wave terrorist cell to operate unimpeded. He explains that Colonel SamuelsÂ’ team, the rogue paramilitary unit, was tracking it every step of the way with orders to take it out of play at the last possible moment. Palmer is simultaneously incredulous and furious. Roger tells the President that his defence policy was too passive, but denies conspiring to hijack the presidency, saying he just wanted to give it some balls. The president orders the operation be shut down immediately, but the Stanton explains the Coral Snake team will not respond to any new orders until the mission is complete. He tells Palmer they are at Norton Airfield.

Kim and the hunter arrive at his cabin. He offers Kim use of the shower and some clean clothes, but he stares ominously in to the fire as she thanks him and leaves the room.

Tony gives the names of three more terrorists to Michelle. George orders every available field unit to Norton Airfield after receiving a second confirmation of the bombÂ’s location from NSA Oregon. George calls Jack with an update on Colonel SamuelsÂ’ Coral Snake rogue-troops that are on location at the airfield. He warns Jack that they will consider anyone outside their team a hostile.

Marie Warner prepares to flee the hangar, wishing Omar well with his suicide mission. But as she opens the door, she sees the CTU team approaching. Agent Steve Goodrich, the on-site CTU assault team-leader, passes Jack a dossier containing files of all of the soldiers under SamuelsÂ’ command. Jack co-ordinates the assault with the various teams inside a hangar.

George informs Tony that Division is uncomfortable with leaving CTU running the operation from a bombsite. They will be assuming command of the op when they arrive.

Following her shower, Kim changes into the clean clothes the hunter has provided for her. They begin to chat, and Kim tells the hunter, Lonnie McRae, about JackÂ’s job and the terrorist bomb threat to LA (is it me, or is Kim more of a security risk than Nina is?). She learns that the hunter lives outside of LA because he is paranoid of a terrorist strike. He promises to show her something if she will keep it secret (some hope).

Lynne updates Palmer. Mike tells the President he has found evidence of a new link between Stanton, and Bruce Gluck, a Michigan Senator. Palmer knows that Sherry is well acquainted with Senator Gluck from her work during the primaries. The President says he wants Sherry to be brought into the OC and given access to the secure database. Before Lynne can object, Palmer cuts her off, telling her he doesnÂ’t want to hear any arguments.

Michelle voices her unease to Tony about Division hijacking their investigation, but he assures her she shouldnÂ’t worry. She asks about Mason, and Tony tells her that Division will probably relieve him once they see his deteriorated health.

Urban-combat boot-prints are located leading into one of the buildings at the airfield. Before Jack can move on the bomb, he must take out the rogue military team. Tension builds as Jack and a SWAT CTU team move silently in to position, weapons at the ready. Suddenly, Jack comes across a dead body, and then an entire team. They all bear the Coral Snake tattoo, and have been executed. Agent Goodrich voices the concern we are all wondering about: ‘If these guys are dead, who’s tracking the bomb?’

It’s 8:28 pm, and George is preparing for the arrival of Brad Hammond from Division who intends to evaluate CTUÂ’s suitability for running such a major op. Mason knows if they even suspect he is ill, they will remove him from command. Hammond wants to ship many of the CTU staffers over to Division. Mason argues that it would be waste of an hour and a half transporting everyone, especially with a nuke ticking away. He refuses point-blank to shut down.

Lonnie shows Kim his ‘secret’. It turns out to be a subterranean bomb shelter he has built beneath his cabin in the woods. The shelter is stocked with survival gear weaponry. Kim gets distraught and takes flight as she finally realises that he is off his nut. He catches up with her upstairs, and she tells him that she cannot stay with him, she doesn’t know him, he lives like a hermit with an underground nuclear bunker in his basement, and she wants to be with her family at Aunt Carol’s for the rest of the crisis.

Lynne gives Sherry access cards to the secure database and takes her down to the OC. She tells Sherry that she must not interface with the staff directly, and that she must run everything by her. The two exchange heated words in the elevator. Lynne tells Sherry she is unqualified to lecture her, she doesn’t trust her, doesn’t like her, and doesn’t want her there. With her usual icy-cool panache, Sherry replies ‘Well, now we’re communicating.’

Sherry looks very pleased with herself as she arrives in the OC.

Mike Kramer, the park ranger, arrives at LonnieÂ’s place to search for Kim. He tells Lonnie that heÂ’s seeking a fugitive wanted for murder and kidnapping. Lonnie doesnÂ’t give her up, but asks Kim for an explanation when Kramer has left. She swears she didnÂ’t do it, and he agrees to hide her till the area is clear. Kim says she appreciates it and that he is a good friend.

Palmer gives Sherry an update on the situation. She assures him that she knows whom to call regarding the link between Senator Gluck and Roger Stanton. Sherry thanks her ex- husband, and Palmer apologises for being rude and expresses his gratitude for all her help. Mike informs Palmer that Samuels’ men are all dead and the bomb remains un- located. Palmer tells Stanton. He tells him that all six of Samuels’ commandoes are dead, and it was a professional hit…not the work of suicide bombers. Roger is stunned: ‘You said six commandoes…there were seven.’

Analysis of the burnt page is complete. They pinpoint the planes registration, and the hangar where itÂ’s housed. Tony calls Jack with an update. The CTU teams rush to their vehicles and speed off towards the hangar. A white truck leaves the scene, Marie kisses Omar farewell, and the plane starts itÂ’s engines. She opens the hangar door and the Cessna exits on to the tarmac. Jack pulls into view just as the plane leaves the hangar. A thrilling pursuit begins between JackÂ’s humvee and the Cessna as teams move in to cut him off at the north runway. JackÂ’s humvee draws along side of the plane and he opens fire at the wheels from the back. His driver manages to manoeuvre in to a position where Jack can hit the pilot. He fires another round, wounding Omar and the plane slows and stops. Jack secures the plane and the pilot then calls for the nuke emergency team.

Hammond prepares to leave, having decided that CTU will remain clear until the current threat passes, when there will be a re-evaluation. He hears George cough, but apparently suspects nothing of his sickness.

Back at the cabin, Lonnie is monitoring the police radio with a scanner. He lies and tells Kim that all the stations just went to static. He tells her the bomb must have exploded and they need to escape the radiation by locking themselves in the bomb shelter.

It’s 8:55 pm. The trigger is set to permanent default and the NEST (Nuclear Energy Support Team) tech is unable to diffuse the bomb. As Jack arranges to get the bomb out of LA ASAP, the countdown begins to speed up. The mood grows tense as more NEST techs move in to work on the device, but the ‘bomb’ turns out to be a fake. Jack realises it is a decoy, and the real device is still in play. He radios a warning and instructions to all the team commanders.

WeÂ’re in the final minute. Splitscreen mode: Jack stares anxiously in to the distance; Kim (looking terrified) and McRae take refuge in the shelter. Palmer walks purposefully down the OC hallway, and George Mason looks very relieved indeed.

Palmer re-enters RogerÂ’s room. He tells him the bomb is not at the airport. He pleads with him to disclose anything else he needs to know that could save lives.

The last words in the show belong to a devastated Roger Stanton: ‘Ask Sherry,’ he croaks, ‘Sherry is the one you wanna talk to.’

Interesting 24 Trivia: Xander Berkeley and Sarah Clarke, the actors who play George Mason and Nina Myers are married in real life!

Jack and MarieEPISODE 14: 9.00pm – 10.00pm :

The clock is still ticking! Only 10 hours to go in the series and Jack is almost back to square one. PI Paul Koplin, Reza, a group of Iraqi officials on the helicopter, the agents on Jack and NinaÂ’s plane, plus Paula and a host of CTU operatives are all dead as a result of this investigation, yet all JackÂ’s efforts have so far led only to a decoy. The big guyÂ’s frustration is beginning to show.

As the NEST techs examine the decoy bomb for clues, Jack angrily tries to question Omar. Omar, however, does not speak English. Jack radios an urgent request for a translator.

At CTU, tufts of GeorgeÂ’s hair fall out in his hand from the radiation sickness. Mason calls Jack and asks him how things are going. Jack says he needs him to use reverse-time satellite to trace the plane to its original location where the decoy was loaded so they can discover who the players were from there.

The weakening Mason is popping pills and appears not to have heard him. He is breathing heavily, perspiration saturates his brow, and blood is seeping thru his shirtsleeve. Jack entreats Mason to step aside if he is not fully fit for duty. He is sorry about everything thatÂ’s happened, but right now, they need someone capable in command, and he suggests Tony. Mason lets Jack know there was a seventh commando who may have escaped. Jack realises the condition of the bodies would confirm the scenario that the seventh member of their team was the shooter, and he asks Mason to get a profile of the man. Omar begins to babble something in Arabic, but no one can understand him because the translator has yet to arrive.

Kate speaks to her father. She tells him only that she is assisting a CTU agent in an investigation. They briefly discuss their disbelief about MarieÂ’s involvement, until Kate is interrupted by Jack requesting her aid as a translator.

Palmer briefs Novick on StantonÂ’s claim concerning Sherry’s involvement in the conspiracy. The President summons Sherry, and tells her that Stanton has confessed to facilitating the bombÂ’s access into the US. He tells her that the soldiers tracking the device are all dead now, and they have no idea where it is. Sherry looks horrified. The President asks her if she has done the unthinkable and allied herself with Stanton. Sherry acts outraged; she denies it, claiming that she only met Stanton that afternoon. Palmer tells her he knows that is a lie and orders her to sit down.

Sherry meekly capitulates. He explains they are teetering on the brink of a war with millions of lives in the balance, and since she claims to love him, he pleads with her to help him. She admits to being approached by a friend at NSA representing Stanton because he wanted to recruit her. Stanton wanted to know Palmer’s weaknesses. Sherry admits she told him, but only obliged in order to gain Stanton’s confidence. She did it to protect Palmer, not hurt him. She asks her ex-husband to give her thirty minutes to prove her innocence.

Kate translates for Jack. Omar claims he only played a part in the terrorist plot because Syed Ali promised to pay his family. Kate then asks Omar about the second bomb, but there appears to be a dialect problem and Omar doesnÂ’t understand. The translator arrives and asks Omar the same question. He claims he knows nothing.

When Kate is leaving the hangar, she sees a crowd of people being checked through another building by security teams due to the airfield lock down. Among the queue, Kate is sure she recognizes a woman with short brown hair to be her sister Marie.

In the bomb shelter, Kim is distraught. McRae tells her they will get in touch with her father, but for now, they have to stay in the shelter where they will be safe from the radiation cloud. He offers to try his short-wave radio again, but slyly pulls out a lead from the back and he tells Kim that he could not pick up anything because the radiation has affected the antennae. Kim sobs with fear, and McRae comforts her.

Mason meets Carrie Turner, the new programmer brought in to replace Paula Schaeffer. George tells her she will report directly to him. Carrie has noticed Mason’s failing health, and tells him she means no offence, but rumour has it that he wonÂ’t be around much longer. He smiles at her forthrightness, and tells her to report instead to Tony and Michelle. Carrie informs him that she used to be Michelle Dressler’s boss at District, but that their history will not cause any problems. George makes his way to the stairwell, but suddenly halts and collapses to the floor.

Kate scans the airport travellers being examined by metal detectors. She spots Marie slipping out a back door. But when she begins to pursue her, Kate is halted by a guard. She flashes the badge given to her by CTU, and asks the guard to radio Jack Bauer about Marie. Kate exits by the back door, and runs slap-bang in to Marie brandishing a 9mm and demanding her badge. Marie tells her sister that Syed Ali helped her see the hypocrisy of the United States and of people like her father, who work for the CIA. Kate is indignant rather than afraid, and calls her sister ungrateful, telling her she cannot believe after everything she and their father did for her, Marie could allow herself to be brainwashed by lunatics. Marie slaps Kate, and again asks for her badge. Still indignant, Kate refuses. Marie attaches a silencer and coldly assures her she will kill her sister, just as she killed another loved one, Reza. Suddenly, a shot rings out and Marie screams in pain. She drops her weapon, and falls shrieking to the floor. Jack has hit Marie in the arm. He moves in with his team of and they secure Marie and the pistol.

Marie is brought to an emergency building at the airport. She is still suffering from the agony of her wound. Kate asks why her sister is not being treated for the pain, and Jack explains that he needs every advantage to secure her cooperation. Her sister may be the only one who has information that could stop this whole thing. After Marie is handcuffed to a chair, Jack asks where the bomb is but she is defiant. Jack applies pressure to the wound, Marie screams in agony, and Kate winces at the sound of her sister being tortured. Jack tells her quietly that when she talks, the bullet will be removed, and medication administered for the pain. Marie still will not give Jack anything, saying that she is not afraid to die. Jack doesn’t believe her, he says he knows the look in the eyes of people willing to die for a cause, and she doesn’t have it.

Back in the bunker, McRae tries the radio again. He is unable to hear Kim because of his headphones, and she finds a television set covered up on a shelf. She switches it on and sees that all the stations are fully operational and there are no reports of an explosion on the news channels. It finally dawns on Kim that McRae is a nut, and she might be in danger.

Michelle pulls up a bio of a special ops soldier named Jonathan Wallace, who is believed to be the seventh commando in the Coral Snake unit. Tony asks Michelle to share the file with the field teams and the OC. Carrie comes over to say hello to Michelle, and there is friction between the two. Michelle lets Carrie know that the chain of command is different from their Division days, and technically, she is CarrieÂ’s boss now. Michelle then hands Carrie a stack of files and tells her to start by analysing them.

In a sombre scene, Mason approaches Tony because he doesn’t feel well enough to continue as Director. With a heavy heart, he asks Tony to say goodbye to the staff for him, and hands him the necessary access codes for CTU and Division. Tony is reluctant, and tells George he canÂ’t promote him. Mason tells him he has already spoken to Ryan Chappelle at District and Tony has been confirmed the new Director. Mason wishes him luck and leaves the bomb-devastated CTU in a bittersweet farewell—a strangely ironic contrast to his cowardly exit twelve hours earlier from a sparkling CTU.

Tony settles himself into Mason’s office while Michelle assembles the CTU staff for him. He addresses them about GeorgeÂ’s departure and the new chain of command. Tony announces that due to the current crisis, they cannot afford the time to mourn GeorgeÂ’s impending demise, or the deaths of their fallen co-workers.

Jack asks Steve Goodrich to give Marie a little Demerol for the pain because he needs her lucid for at least five minute to get the information he needs. He then convinces Kate to remind Marie of the things she used to love so that they can break through the brainwashing inflicted on her by Syed Ali. Marie is still muzzy from the painkiller, Kate appeals to her memories of the bond and love she once shared with her and her father. She strokes her hair tenderly, and begs her to help them stop the bomb. Marie says she can’t, but as the Demerol wears off, Marie begins to sob in pain again. Jack refuses any more painkillers until she talks.

In time, Marie relents and tells Jack that the bomb is in a suitcase being transported by a green van to the Arco Towers downtown. Marie knows it will detonate in 3-hours because she saw the timer. Jack asks her to describe the timer, and Marie falters. Jack speaks quietly to her; he knows she is lying because a bomb that size would not have a visible timer. Marie assures him she is not lying. Jack is certain that Marie is trying to lead them astray and the bomb is still on-site, but he is obviously alarmed that she may be telling the truth about there only being three hours left. He orders teams to initiate a grid search of all the buildings at the airfield. Jack and the agents head out to search, leaving Marie alone with Kate. ‘They’re not going to find it in time,Â’ Marie promises her sister. We’re all going to die.Â’

ItÂ’s 9:51 pm and Novick has set up an isolated-feed video call for the President with Steve Hillenburg, a CIA operative at Langley. Sherry watches the monitor as Hillenburg corroborates her story. Sherry had contacted him four months ago because Stanton was trying to recruit her to undermine his administration. Hillenburg operated as SherryÂ’s case-officer without the President’s knowledge in order to maintain plausible deniability and protect both the President and Sherry. He assures Palmer that he has photographic proof, taped conversations, files, and debriefs which will exonerate Sherry. Palmer asks where the meetings with Stanton took place, and Sherry reveals it was in a hotel room for the first month, but quickly assures Palmer she did not sleep with Stanton. ‘I didn’t ask,Â’ Palmer says with cold indifference, and disconnects from Hillenburg. Sherry begs Palmer to realise that she was never part of Stanton’s conspiracy. Palmer hasnÂ’t decided whether she’s telling the truth or not, but he doesnÂ’t have time or energy to figure out if he can trust her. He orders her to leave under threat of arrest, and has the Secret Service escort her to her car.

As McRae sets up a cot for himself, Kim scans the room and spots a hunting knife. She asks McRae to get her an aspirin. As soon as he turns, she hits him in the skull with a heavy flashlight. She brandishes the knife at him and demands that he release her, because she knows that the bomb didn’t go off. McRae disarms her, but insists that he never intended to hurt her. He was just lonely and wanted some company. Kim says that she does not want to stay, and McRae becomes enraged by her rejection. Kim begs him to let her go. McRae takes a revolver from a box, and Kim watches fearfully as he checks the chambers. But after a tense pause, he hands her the flashlight and the weapon in case she runs in to any more cougars. He opens the door and gives her directions to the trail. As Kim begins to leave, he asks somewhat pitifully if sheÂ’ll maybe return sometime. Kim says she doesnÂ’t think so, and runs out.

ItÂ’s 9:59 and JackÂ’s humvee speeds through the airfield. He sees signs of a firefight ahead adjacent to a white van and radios the team involved. Agent Goodrich replies that one hostile is down. Jack arrives, and Goodrich leads him to the bomb wrapped in an olive- drab army duffel bag. The NEST technician confirms that the bomb is nuclear and has a trigger. This is the real McCoy. Jack radios to initiate a level-one evac of the site.

Jack asks how much time they have. The tech is fretful; he tells him the device is unquestionably armed, but he doesn’t know how long before it will detonate. It could be any second.

The clock is really ticking nowÂ…

Jack and GeorgeEPISODE 15: 10.00pm – 11.00pm :

Arguably, one of the best episodes yet, episode 15 opens on a wickedly grim tableau. Jack and a team of NEST techs enter hangar 12 with the bomb on a trolley. The techs purposefully go to work on the device. Jack looks on anxiously as they examine the timer. He hears the senior tech say they are in good shape as he makes a circuit bypass.

But are they really in good shape? LetÂ’s find out.

Having resigned his directorship of CTU, George Mason arrives at Norton Airfield alone. George asks about the bombÂ’s status, Jack brings him up-to-date quickly, but assures him everything is under control, and says surely there must be somewhere heÂ’d rather be. Mason replies: ‘this is the thing that killed me, Jack’; he has promised himself that he would see it through until the device was laid to rest. The techs alert Jack that there is a situation. The trigger has been rendered tamperproof. Jack is horrified to learn there is NO way they can dismantle the device without it detonating. With only 55 minutes left on the clock, Jack orders Agent Goodrich to find a fast plane so that the bomb can be transported elsewhere. JackÂ’s expression says it all as he calls the O.C. to notify the President. He knows what has to be done.

Meanwhile, Kim walks along an isolated country road, shrouded by trees, with only a torch and the moon to light her way. She tries to thumb a lift from an oncoming car, and the vehicle pulls over. The male driver who pulls up just happens to be heading toward San Jose, precisely where Kim happens to be going. She becomes wary, and declines the ride. The young driver begins to get belligerent then scrambles out of the car. Kim draws her revolver on him. He hesitates for a second, and then tells her he doubts that she even knows how to use the weapon. Kim obviously decides that actions speak louder than words, and proves Jack Bauer’s daughter is no slouch with a revolver as she blows out his right side rear window. Kim orders him to get back in the car and start driving. The guy drives off yelling ‘Bitch!’ from a nice safe distance. Kim continues on her way.

As we go to splitscreen mode, Jack is on his cell telling the President he needs a decision. Palmer assures him that they’re analysing as they speak. Jack informs him the plane will be ready to go in 10 minutes. Palmer tells Jack to prep for the two locations they discussed—the Pacific Ocean and the desert—and co-ordinate with the FAA. The President promises Jack he will get back to him as soon as possible.

The O.C. War Room staffers have assembled, and are listening intently as Mike Novick outlines the disaster impact projections for detonating a 10-kilotonne nuclear device in the Pacific Ocean. Lynne gives her own analysis for a similar detonation scenario in the Mojave Desert. Although the calculations point to less health, economical, and ecological impact with the desert scenario, there is a problem. Mike explains that the device would have to be deposited in a very precise location. Since the Cessna they will use as a transport is not a military plane, there will be no means to deliver the payload accurately. Grimly, Mike tells the President that this is a suicide mission—the pilot will have to go down with the plane.

The President calls Jack with the decision—the desert. Palmer tells him that his people have told him the pilot has to die. Jack says that the CTU analysts had already arrived at the same conclusion. The President asks who will pilot the aircraft. With a slight hesitation, Jack tells the President that several good men have already volunteered. Palmer asks Jack to express the undying gratitude of his country to whoever the chosen pilot is, and that whatever family he leaves behind will be taken care of by his administration. Jack assures him he will, and Palmer asks him to get back to him when the plane is in the air.

Mason, who (intentionally?) overheard the conversation with the President, approaches Jack. He notes that he doesnÂ’t see any of the volunteers for the mission, and says he knows that Jack intends to go it alone. George offers himself as a more suitable candidate for the flight. Not only is he an instrument rated pilot, with a current license, but he is already going to die by the end of the day in any case. In his current state, Jack has no confidence in MasonÂ’s ability to carry out a mission of this magnitude without blacking out, or even dying, short of the target co-ordinates. Mindful of the potentially cataclysmic consequences, Jack rejects GeorgeÂ’s offer to fly the Cessna. The stakes are too high to gamble that Mason can hold out. He calls Goodrich on the walkie-talkie and orders him to clear airspace and instigate an immediate evac of the airport. As Jack walks onto the tarmac, ordering the bomb to be loaded, we realise he has elected to go himself.

ItÂ’s 10:17 pm, and two CTU field agents bring Tony a suitcase filled with Syed Ali’s personal effects from the safe house. The agents also have with them one Yusuf Auda, a visiting intelligence liaison from the Arab country suspected of harbouring the Second Wave terrorists. Tony asks Agent Graves if he trusts him, he replies that at the moment, he doesnÂ’t trust anyone. While Graves takes the case to a conference room, Tony introduces himself to Yusuf, who is eager to get involved in the analysis of Ali’s personal effects. Tony is evasive and obviously unwilling to trust this man. Tony asks Michelle to assign someone to baby-sit Yusuf and ensure he doesn’t see anything of significance related to the case. When Michelle informs Carrie that she will handle Yusuf herself, she refers to MichelleÂ’s continuing discomfort in working alongside her. Michelle offhandedly tells her to do her job. Tony Joins graves in the conference room to exam the case. Among the items discovered is a hard drive encrypted with a function so complex they CTU field equipment was not up to decrypting it. Tony thanks the agent and tells him heÂ’ll get their people on it right away.

As the NEST techs load the nuclear bomb onto the Cessna, Jack calls CTU to ask Tony about Kim’s whereabouts. To TonyÂ’s disbelief, Jack reveals that he will be the suicide mission pilot, so he needs to speak to his daughter immediately. Tony promises to find her. He also tells Tony that there is safe in his apartment containing will and a letter to Kim written in the event that anything ever happened to him. Tony assures him heÂ’ll make sure she gets it.

Kim is still hitchhiking along the road when another car approaches. Kim sees the headlights, and checks to make sure the revolver is still tucked snugly in to the waistband of her jeans. The vehicle draws alongside Kim, but this time the driver is a woman named Anna. She asks if Kim is okay and why she is out in the boonies. Kim tells Anna that she fled a date that had gone bad, and Anna invites her along for the ride. Anna lets her use her cell phone to call Jack. The Cessna has been equipped with a clock synchronized to the bomb’s timer by the NEST techs, When Kate inquires if the Cessna is fitted with an autopilot she is horrified to learn it isnÂ’t and that Jack will be the pilot. She calls out to Jack as he boards. He turns to her, and they share a moment, but no words; neither of them can find any for what is happening. Jack shuts the cockpit door, and she watches helplessly as he gets clearance and begins his take-off.

ItÂ’s 10:28 pm when Mike Novick gets word that the Cessna is in the air with the bomb on board. Palmer requests that Air Force One be prepped to take him to Los Angeles. Mike and Lynne try to dissuade him from this course of action, as Commander-in Chief the citizens of the US need to know he is in charge, and directing the situationÂ…not caught up in it. Lynne forewarns him that he will undoubtedly be caught up in the inevitable civil unrest when the situation is announced. But Palmer is resolved to be there to reassure the people in person. The President is then shocked when Mike tells him that Jack Bauer has elected to fly the plane.

Tony patches through to Jack in flight. He has Kim on a secondary line, and connects them. Jack is relieved, but explains to Kim that he has to fly a nuclear bomb to the desert. She asks how he will get off the plane, and Jack sombrely explains he must remain on the plane until the device is sited. Kim becomes upset and starts to cry. Between sobs, she expresses intense regret for the way she has behaved in the past. Jack tells her he has always loved her just as she is, he asks her never to change, and to grow up in a way that would make her mother proud. They say their tear-filled good-byes to each other as Jack tries to focus his concentration back on the situation at hand.

Anna pulls the car over and tries to comfort Kim, but she gets out of the car because she wants to be alone. She no longer cares about leaving Los Angeles, or anything else except her fatherÂ’s fate, and she runs into the night. Michelle brings Tony a decrypted transcript of a recording pulled from Syed Ali’s hard drive. The audio is of a conversation that took place months ago in Cypress between Ali and high-ranking officials of three Middle Eastern governments. It appears to confirm that these nations bought the device and supplied it to AliÂ’s terrorist cell. Michelle suggests that they run a voiceprint authentication on the tape.

Tony phones Air Force One and tells the President what he has uncovered in the recording. Palmer is concerned that CTU’s Division headquarters will have already notified the Pentagon and other agencies, which means everyone will know. Palmer questions why Ali would have taped his conversation, and Tony assumes that Ali may have wanted ammunition in the event one of the countries in question was to turn against him. Palmer isn’t thoroughly convinced, but thanks Tony for his work.

Palmer then tells Mike that the US could soon be at war. It would not only be with those three Middle Eastern countries, but with their allies and other American-hating opportunists. When that bomb goes off, the President’s knows his options will quickly narrow.

As Jack is flying, he senses movement behind him. He instinctively draws his weapon and whirls around to find George crouching behind him. Mason, who has snuck on to the plane, passes Jack a parachute. He says that the hardest part of the flight is over and he can take over the suicide flight. George tells Jack he can handle it from here, unless of course Jack wants to die. Mason thinks he has had a death wish since Teri was murdered. He knows Jack blames himself, but Mason tells him he shouldn’t take the easy way out. it would be far more brave of Jack if he managed to put his life back together, mend the fences with Kim, forgive himself for his wife’s death, and continue to serve his country. Jack ruminates on this seriously. At length, with only twelve minutes on the clock, Jack asks George whether he is absolutely sure he is able to man the plane. Mason assures him he is—that he was meant to do this. Jack gives him final instructions on how and where to crash land. They sit in reflective silence for a moment, and then Jack thanks George earnestly.

ItÂ’s 10:52 pm and Jack is preparing to make his escape, while Mason gets in to the hotseat. He will wait to jump until four minutes before impact so that he can stay with Mason for as long as possible. This is not solely a gesture of friendship; he wants to make sure George is still conscious as he approaches the target zone. He calls Tony about the change of plan. Tony then orders Michelle to send a helicopter to track the Cessna and pick up Jack in the desert.

Yusuf notices the commotion at CTU and inquires about what evidence has been found on the hard drive. Tony refuses him access, saying he does not have high enough clearance. Yusuf becomes irritated because his country has shown good faith in leading the Americans to Syed Ali’s safe house but he is being left out of the loop. Tony stands his ground.

On Air Force One General Bowden from the Joint Chiefs of Staff enters the presidentÂ’s private office. He congratulates Palmer on managing to get the bomb to a relatively safe location, but he has really come to see the President to discuss proposed retaliation plans. The military already knows about the Ali tape, which points the finger at three Middle Eastern countries as the backers behind the Second Wave terrorist group that delivered the device. The general informs the President that Plans for invasion are already in the pipeline even though it is not yet confirmed whether the intelligence is legitimate or if the three countries named in the tape were in fact involved. With a heavy heart, Palmer gives the General approval to activate the plan, but warns him that the military cannot implement the plan without direct authorization from him. After the General leaves, Palmer quietly observes to Lynne that they may be facing World War III.

ItÂ’s 10:57 pm and as Jack loads his parachute to prepare to jump, he inquires if there is anything he can do for George. Mason says itÂ’s okay, and that he got to see his son earlier. He asks Jack to look in on the teenager after he’s gone. Jack swears he will, and places a reassuring hand on George’s shoulder. Mason grabs Jack’s hand in an emotional farewell. They let go, and Jack parachutes from the Cessna and fires a locator flare.

Mike awkwardly informs the President that at this altitude the explosion will be visible on the eastern horizon if he should want to look. Palmer crosses over to a seat with an east- facing window and gazes out of Air Force One with a devastated sigh.

It’s 10:59 pm, with less than sixty seconds to zero hour. While George doggedly steers the Cessna toward Ground Zero, Jack drifts down to the ground. He lands, discards the flare and his ‘chute then shelters behind a rock. The nuclear explosion roars in the distance.

Meanwhile, unaware of her fatherÂ’s narrow escape from the aircraft, Kim sobs as she looks up into the sky to see a faint glow in the northeast. Palmer also witnesses the eerie glow of the bomb from his seat on the presidential jet. His very soul apparently chilled, the president looks away speechlessly.

As the episode ends, Jack looks up to see a massive mushroom cloud blossom on the desert horizon. The blast was a fitting full stop to George MasonÂ’s explosion of heroism and nobility as he gave his life for his country.

The screen fades to black as the clock ticks over to 11:00pm

Syed Ali and JackEPISODE 16: 11.00pm – 12.00am :

If, like me, youÂ’re still trying to catch your breath following the last episode, donÂ’t stop panting yet! The nuclear device may have detonated, but the fireworks are just about to start as we head towards the midnight hour.

The entire CTU staff watches in stunned silence, via a satellite monitor, as a huge mushroom cloud blooms in to the night sky over the Mojave Desert. President Palmer sees the radiance of the blast from his seat aboard Air Force One. At first, he appears transfixed, like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a car. But when he turns slowly away from the window, we see his face is a masque of sorrow, shocked abhorrence, and defeat.

Back on the desolate country road, Kim is convinced that her father has died in the blast. She sobs to herself and mourns her dad. Meanwhile, safe in the desert, Jack triangulates his position with locator flares to signal the rescue chopper. Once inside the helo, he asks the pilot to connect to Tony at CTU to tell him he made it and contact his daughter. However, radio transmissions and cell phones are down due to the EM (electromagnetic) pulse emitted by the nuclear blast. The pilot tells him heÂ’ll have to wait till they get back to CTU.

Tony gathers the CTU staff and, as promised, tells them how George Mason thanked them in advance for their hard work and dedication. Tony urges them to continue working hard. Thanks to their efforts, and MasonÂ’s sacrifice, millions of lives have been save d – a result of which they can be proud. Even though it has been a gruelling day already, the Cyprus tape is still a priority and critical to WashingtonÂ’s planning strategy. After the pep talk, Yusuf Auda, the visiting Arab liaison, approaches Tony after the speech to question why he has been excluded from the investigation. Tony contends he simply does not have authorisation to participate. Because Michelle is still questioning Syed Ali, Tony asks if Carrie will supervise the confirmation of the audio ta pe that asserts AliÂ’s Second Wave operation was backed by three Middle Eastern countries.

Michelle plays the tape to Ali, but he denies being present at any such meeting, or that the Cyprus conversations ever took place. He insists he was in Berlin at the time, saying that he has never even met the men on the recording. The bomb was a Second W ave op only.

Tony consults Agent Gibson and the audio tech team about the tape. Their findings indicate that the voices are genuine. The evidence shows that there is no evidence of editing or splicing, and Gibson maintains it is a genuine and accurate record of an act ual conversation between Syed Ali and the three government ministers in question. He confirms all findings indicate that they sat in the same room and plotted the terrorist attack on the US. Michelle enters the meeting and apprises Tony of AliÂ’s claims of an alibi. She thinks that they should investigate further because if there is any possibility that the tape has been doctored, it needs to be pursued. Carrie interjects in disagreement, saying that physical evidence trumps the word of a terrorist. Much t o MichelleÂ’s annoyance, she then questions MichelleÂ’s limited abilities as an interrogator. Obviously tired of the friction between the two, Tony announces he will present both sides to the President for his decision and closes the meeting.

Mike Novick apprises Palmer on the detonation and its dearth of casualties beyond the pilot. The President learns that Jack Bauer was not the one who piloted the plane. Lynne enters and informs them that CTU has authenticated the Cyprus tape, providing pr oof that the three Arab ministers gave Syed Ali financial backing for the nuclear device. She tells them that, as expected, Ali denied the conversation ever took place. Given the evidence, Palmer has no option but to respond with military action. He issue s an order to release a statement about the nuclear blast. As Lynne leaves to notify the media, he asks her to contact Capitol Hill, to request an emergency session of Congress in which he will ask for a formal declaration of war.

Tony approaches Michelle about the tension between her and Carrie. He agrees that Michelle does not have the proper training to handle Ali. Regardless, Michelle still believes that there is reasonable doubt warranting the squeezing of Ali for further info rmation. Tony assures her that Ali will be interrogated further when he is shipped to Guantanamo, but Michelle obviously thinks that this is the wrong course of action.

It 11:23 pm as Palmer meets with General Bowden aboard Air Force One, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff via videophone. Bowden informs him that they can be ready to begin a rolling start with surgical strikes within six hours. It will take eight to ten weeks to get the ground troops into the Middle East. Lynne interrupts to tell Palmer that Deputy Prime Minister Barghouti is calling for the second time since the device exploded. He does not know that the United States is planning to invade his country, and Ly nne advises Palmer to take the call, else the politician may jump to his own conclusions. The President exits the briefing room to take the call. Barghouti pledges his countryÂ’s full support against Second Wave as they have been trying to capture Syed Ali for years themselves. He asks the President not to rush into a response against his country. PalmerÂ’s responses are measured; they give no hint as to his true intent. He tells the deputy prime minister that the US is merely gathering evidence at this tim e.

A battered and bleeding Syed Ali is carried out of CTU. Jack enters the facility, and Ali curses at him as he passes. Tony gives Jack the phone number of a San Jose sheriff who is waiting for Kim at Aunt CarolÂ’s house. Jack wishes Tony well on his promoti on and enters CTU to call Sheriff Griggs. He is approached by Michelle asking for his help, while Carrie watches furtively from her office. Michelle tells him she believes that the President is planning a major military action based on what was found on t he Cyprus tape. From what Ali told her, she believes the evidence may be flawed. Since Jack was effective at breaking him once before, she wants him to try interrogating Ali again. Jack has Michelle track down Kim with the San Jose number, and he goes off after Ali.

Jack catches up with the CTU agents taking Ali outside the complex. He reassures Ali that they staged the killing of his son, and Jack promises that he will be allowed to speak to his family when he arrives at Guantanamo. Jack then asks about the validity of the Cyprus recording. Ali says that what he told Michelle was true. Jack thanks him and walks away. Suddenly, a single shot rings out. Ali falls dead from a head wound. Jack and the CTU agents scan the surrounding area to locate the sniper.

ItÂ’s 11:31 pm. Tony appears extremely rattled as he and Jack debate who could have known that Syed Ali was being transported. The leak could have come from anywhere because the whole intelligence community knew Ali was captured. Tony suggests that the sho oter is from one of the three countries implicated on the recording, but Jack is convinced that this incident makes a stronger case for the possibility that Ali was telling the truth about the audio being faked. The discussion becomes heated, and Tony acc uses Jack of implying that he is not fit to run CTU. He tells Jack to worry about Kim and let them handle the situation alone. Jack moves off, realizing heÂ’s going to have to get involved himself.

Kim nears a closed convenience store and spots a payphone. She attempts to make a call but all the lines are scrambled. As she hangs up, a store employee approaches from behind. He (Frank Davies) allows Kim to use the storeÂ’s restroom. When she goes in to the bathroom, he locks the door behind them. Surely, by now, Kim must be beginning to suspect that she is a psycho-magnet!

Aboard the presidential 747, Palmer resumes his meeting with the Joint Chiefs as Bowden briefs them on the potential scenarios. He predicts ten to thirty thousand American casualties. Palmer gets a call from Jack and takes it in the next room. Jack inform s the President that Ali has been assassinated, and Jack is uncertain as to the veracity of the Cyprus recording. Palmer tells Jack that he needs hard evidence immediately, and he only has a few hours to get it in.

Knowing how Tony feels, Jack keeps him out of the loop and calls MichelleÂ’s desk from his own. She mentions that an intelligence officer is in the office from one of the targeted countries. As Jack moves to look up YusufÂ’s background, he is spotted by Kat e Warner as she is brought into CTU. She is astonished, and obviously delighted, to see him alive. At the same time, Kate is relieved because the bomb has been detonated safely.

Mike comes to Palmer to give him the good news that Bowden has downgraded his casualty list. The President is unmoved. He has far more pressing matters to wrestle with. He expresses his fears to Mike that they may be acting too hastily in starting a war. Palmer keeps hearing Jacks call in his mind about the actual veracity of the tape. He wonders if they are moving too fast towards a mistake that future generations would have to pay for. Mike is caught in a dilemma. He wants to side with the facts, but ev en he is unsure whether the ‘verified’ Cyprus tape is authentic or not.

Jack enters the menÂ’s room where Yusuf is washing his hands. He introduces himself, but Yusuf is resistant to JackÂ’s requests for assistance because he has been treated with such disdain. Jack presses him, asking whether the tape found in AliÂ’s house may have been compromised. Yusuf ask Jack what he knows, as he suspects it probably incriminates his country. Jack is not at liberty to reveal anything, hoping that Yusuf will help without receiving information in return. Yusuf leaves in a frustration. JackÂ’s cell phone rings. An unknown man identifies himself as the one who planted the bogus tape and shot Ali. The man demands Kate Warner in exchange for proof of what he is saying. He instructs Jack to take her from CTU and bring her to an alley at the inters ection of Meridian and Moor Park. He tells him itÂ’s a small warehouse, and despite JackÂ’s attempts to stall him, he gives him 30 minutes, and then rings off.

ItÂ’s 11:52 pm and Kim is in the convenience store restroom when she hears Davies arguing with a Hispanic who is banging on the door. The man is demanding to be let in to buy supplies. Davies tells the man, Garcia, that the store is already closed, and he calls the police when Garcia becomes threatening.

“ItÂ’s starting,” Kim says dolefully, referring to the expected panic and looting. Davies presses her to find out what that means, but before she can answer, the door shatters. Garcia has smashed a shopping cart through the glass. He lunges at Davie s and g rabs his throat. Kim pulls out her revolver and fires into the air. She orders Garcia to let go of Davies and get out. But, when faced with actually having to shoot him, she backs down. Garcia takes the gun away from her and starts to load the shopping ca rt with supplies.

Jack calls Michelle from inside CTU. He thinks that there may be another way to prove that the Cyprus tape was faked, and he asks for her help. With Carrie still surreptitiously watching her every move, Michelle quietly agrees.

Garcia offers to pay for the goods in the store. He claims he is not a criminal. He wanted only to fend for his pregnant wife, waiting in the car outside. He tells Davies to turn on the TV news, and they see reports that a nuclear device has exploded. Dav ies asks Kim if she knew about this all along. Suddenly, the police arrive and draw their weapons on GarciaÂ’s wife in the car. As Garcia screams at them to leave her alone, Davies grabs for the gun in GarciaÂ’s hand. The weapon discharges in the struggle a nd Davies collapses bleeding. The cops order Garcia to exit the store, but he grabs Kim as a hostage (psycho- magnetÂ…I told ya!).

Michelle goes into a CTU holding room where Agent Baker is debriefing Kate. Michelle tells Baker that one of his files needs his attention, and follows him out of the room. The distraction in place, Jack slips into the holding room and tells Kate that he urgently needs her to come with him. Yusuf watches this occur. So does Carrie, who immediately picks up the phone to notify Tony that Jack is luring Kate from CTU.

11:59 pm. Tony blocks Jack from exiting CTU at gunpoint. Jack tells him to lower the weapon. When Tony refuses to oblige, Jack responds with force and Tony is knocked unconscious. Jack grabs KateÂ’s arm and rushes her roughly through the exit door.

The clock ticks on.

Interesting 24 Trivia: The writers added the ankle injury Tony sustains during the fight with Jack because Actor Carlos Bernard had injured his ankle in real life. If you look carefully, you can see Bernard limping slightly in scenes before the fight.

Jack and KateEPISODE 17: 12.00am – 1.00am :

The ’24’ steam train rolls on unabated and Jack and Kate go to track down the only man who can help them in the latest quest to defeat the terrorists. Kate’s rather in the dark about the whole scenario so she’s going to have to trust Jack, but will she? Well, she’s got no-one else left… certainly no longer her family.

This seemed rather a filler episode as events went on while we waited for the real meat to happen.

Carrie told Tony that Jack escaped from CTU and that she’s alerted the FBI, and also that she thinks Michelle helped him. How will that bode for a future relationship between Michelle and Tony? Or is Michelle really a baddie? Only time will tell.

All the main three politicians, Palmer, Lynne and Novick get off Air Force One and deliberate on whether they should retaliate against the bad guys for the “noocoolar balm”. Everyone, even Vice President Jim Prescott (Alan Dale aka Jim Robinson from Neighbours) thinks the bombing campaign should go ahead, except for Palmer who believes he must hear from Jack before doing anything.

Who’s minding the store? Only Kim and the mad Garcia since the shopkeeper has snuffed it.

Upon arrival at the secret location, Jack asks Kate to stay in the car while he meets with the guy-in-the-know, Capt. Jonathan Wallace, a member of the Special Ops team from Fort Benning – and to prove it, he has a Coral Snake tattoo. A mystery man has been following Jack, but it’s only Yusuf, the guy who was hanging about CTU and now seems to have a purpose.

Wallace was the seventh man who took out his own platoon, so the bomb couldn’t be prevented from going off big time. He also has the proof that the Cyprus recording is a fake, but where is it? That’s what Jack must discover.

Kate’s approached in her car by a baddie, but Yusuf steps in and sorts him out.

Garcia’s wife is taken away from the store. The mad man says he will kill Kate if the police try any funny business. Please do – we really don’t care about her pointless subplot.

Towards the end of the episode, Carrie listens in to a phone call received by Michelle from a man called Danny, who asks if he and the children are safe from the noocoolar balm, but she can’t tell him anything and asks him to remain calm. Danny says he’ll call Carrie, but Michelle thought he’d stopped speaking to Carrie. Danny says this is true as he doesn’t like her and hangs up. Carrie deletes the phone call. Who is Danny? At this stage in the show does anyone care?

Sadly, Kim is still alive as the SWAT team going in to the store and gunfire blasts out. We are led to believe Garcia’s been shot full of holes.

The three wise men (well, two men and one woman) fuss about the nuclear strike action, yet the head of them, Palmer, says the military should stay in the air until he gives them the go ahead to do the deed.

Outside Wallace’s hideout, Kate is made to get into the boot of the car, but just as they’re about to drive off bullets fly down from above. Who can it be? Ooh, no time for that – it’s 1am!

WallaceEPISODE 18: 1.00am – 2.00am :

And because of the fire raining down, Kate gets out of the car and the crew all go back inside. Jack asks Michelle over the phone for satellite pictures to track down where the baddies are. Carrie snitches on Michelle yet again.

Garcia won’t die and Kim tells the cops the gun was hers and all about who she is and what she’s been up to.

Panic on the streets of Georgia, and Palmer tells the military to keep order but it’s not proving effective.

Michelle phones Jack from the bathroom and on her way out is caught out by Tony but she bluffs him about knowing where Jack is, but says he must warn Palmer about acting on the Cyprus recording before Jack’s finished his investigation. Ooh, the sexual tension!

Yusuf, Kate, Jack and Wallace fend off the snipers and drive off but Wallace is hit – badly, but he doesn’t want to take a trip to the hospital so Jack tracks down a local emergency surgery, but will they make it in time? They’d better since Wallace won’t spill the beans until he’s up in the air with Kate.

At the police station, Kim is debriefed by an officer (lucky man :), who tells her they know Gary killed his wife after finding a witness and Gary’s prints on the murder weapon (how convenient), so she’s off the hook for that but is still in big trub for injuring the policeman and escaping with Miguel.

While there she gets to phone her boyfriend in hospital, but is surprised to find he wants nothing to do with her and gives no explanation so she’s none the wiser. As he hangs up, the camera pans back to reveal he’s missing the lower left leg. Must’ve hurt.

She also makes a call to Tony at CTU and says she loved her father. Tony says she can tell him herself when she sees him. She’s confused. He apologises for not being able to tell her sooner that her father’s alive and well and that George Mason took over at the 11th hour (literally).

At the local surgery, Jack points a gun at the nurses to make sure they operate on Wallace immediately. The doctor begins to attempt to remove the bullet, but is pushed away by Wallace and calls Jack over to tell him the evidence is on a memory chip inside of….. and then dies.

Jack is gutted about never being able to find out where the evidence lies and creases up by the X-ray images. Then he looks up and sees a foreign object inside Wallace. The piece of shrapnel inside must be the memory chip! Jack picks up a scalpel and cuts it out of Wallace. Job done!

Tony and MichelleEPISODE 19: 2.00am – 3.00am :

A very packed episode this time round, but how to fit it all in?

Palmer is still deliberating about what to do over the impending war that he could initiate, being egged on by his advisors while himself wanting to lay all bets at Jack’s door. Jack, meanwhile, is still at the clinic with Kate and Yusuf and can’t get through to the President to confirm he knows the recording is a fake.

He gets through to Tony, yet CTU’s phone connections are on the fritz and he can’t quite hear his presidential-bleating pleas, and is just instructed to come back to base within 40 minutes. In the end, Jack does get his info about the chip over to Tony but the latter wants to be sure before going to the top with it.

Michelle talks to Danny on the phone and asks him to sit tight and she’ll call him when she gets the chance, but but who is this mystery Danny? Meanwhile Tony let’s her know about the chip’s contents and she thinks the Pres should know too, but Tony’s still keeping schtum until it’s authenticated.

As Yusuf is still working on the chip, it occurs that some men are heading for the building with a tracker and it doesn’t take long to realise what they’re there for. The gang go their separate ways, with Jack creating a decoy while the other two head over to a designated meeting point and to wait for him until he arrives, but if he’s not there within 15 minutes then just forget him and go back to CTU.

Tony gets through to Palmer while Lynne and Mike are in the room, to tell them Jack’s findings but that nothing is 100% definite yet. Mike clearly is uneasy about lending such trust to the proceedings. Palmer’s still trusting Jack on this one though, although Mike tells him that the people will see the non-attack as a failure, an act of indecisiveness, and even if the other countries are innocent, well, they’ve done so many other bad things that it’s worth kicking off now.

Jack gets out of the clinic and away from the hoods, but is met by two cars. He shoots the driver of one but is electrocuted with a taser, knocked unconscious and carried off. When he comes to, he’s naked and puking up on a cement floor but is soon hung up and about to be interrogated on the orders of a man called Kingsley who’s on the other end of a mobile phone, insisting that Jack tells all for a price, but Jack won’t name a price and so it’s up to the baddies to do their duty.

Michelle and Carrie are still at each other’s throats, and their arguments draw Tony’s attention. When they’re on their own, Michelle tells Tony that she and Carrie used to be friends at Division and that Carrie went out with her brother Danny, but after getting him away from his wife and family she then dumped him. In the end, he lost his family, job and everything else and tried to kill himself. Just at that moment Danny arrives at CTU, says hello to Michelle and then sees red when he sees Carrie, trying to strangle her until he’s pulled off by Tony (oo-er, missus!) As they head off to a corridor together to continue their discussion, feelings run rife and they kiss. Awww!

Jack’s still feeling rough and has had a wooden bar placed in his mouth. The chief baddie cuts Jack and eventually gets his soldering iron out, but he has no electrical problems to fix. Jack’s skin starts to sizzle…

Mike and Lynne meet up in a private room, having earlier discussed again whether the Pres is doing the right thing. Mike asks Lynn what she knows about section 4 of the 25th amendment, and she replies that if the majority of the cabinet feel the President is unfit for duty that they can take over… and Mike asks if she’s with him on this. She isn’t so she’s kept locked up in room 522 for the rest of the episode.

Kate and Yusuf are outside waiting for Jack, but at 2.53am they’ve been waiting too long. Before they can get going, Yusuf is called a “towel head” by a couple of rednecks who have appeared out of nowhere and pulled out of the car and kicked practically unconscious. Kate’s also accosted, so it’s clear they’re not going to touch base any time soon.

Tony calls Chapelle, the character who hasn’t been seen much of in this series although he’s been talked about a fair bit. They chat about Mason and other things, and Chapelle tells Tony he’ll be there within 30 minutes with a couple of helpers as he feels they need backup, despite Tony stating the opposite. After the phone call, Tony tells Michelle that her brother has been sedated and not to worry about Carrie.

Jack’s still being tortured with the soldering iron. He passes out from time to time, but is woken up when the men rip the hair from his nostrils. One time they do this and he doesn’t wake up. They cut him down and start CPR but it’s not working. Jack is dead.

Vice President Jim PrescottEPISODE 20: 3.00am – 4.00am :

Or so we thought… well, not really as that would mean the end of ’24’.

Kingsley’s on the phone again and the baddies are trying to bring Jack back to life with some epinephrine, with one of the henchmen telling Kingsley how Jack has flatlined. When told to fix it, Stark asks the henchmen afterwards what Kingsley wanted. “He just promoted me”, and promptly shoots Stark dead.

Lynne’s still trapped in a room while Novick’s pretending to be nice to the President. Lynne finds a blow torch in a closet.

After the rednecks have beaten Yusuf to a bloody pulp and tried to shoot him, they find the chip but don’t know what it is. Kate stupidly says she’ll take them to her house and give them money in return for it. Once all gone, Yusuf tries to make a phone call but… the lines are all busy because of the day’s commotion.

Even though Jack’s alive, things aren’t improving as the henchmen wants the doc to give Jack some Beroglide, which causes temporary paralysis. While the baddie is otherwise engaged, Jack asks the doc to untie him. The doc doesn’t want to, saying if he does the baddie will kill him. Jack insists, “He’ll kill you anyway. I’m your only hope.” and the doc helps out.

Ryan Chapelle smarms his way into CTU, thanking Tony for not letting Jack’s findings colour his work, yet Tony says he thinks Jack is right.

Lynne escapes when she starts a fire in a bin in her little room, the door-watcher enters and she smacks him with the extinguisher. Ooh, that’s gotta hurt! He runs after her down there stairs, there’s a tussle and… whoops! She hurts down the center of the stairwell and smacks down on the floor, several storeys below.

Palmer can’t get through to the VP for the Nth time that night, so asks his guard what he thinks of this. The guard, who has been in the service since Reagan’s second term, tells him to trust his own instincts.

A new face enters when Kingsley is visited by an Alexander Trepkos, stating that their project depends on military action and the Pres stopping the attack is a big setback. Kingsley tells them not to worry for now.

After more Beroglide, the doctor prepares another syringe and nods to Jack, who says he’ll tell all about the chip. The baddie leans over and gets a syringe in the back of the neck for his trouble, making him gasp for air and collapse on the floor. Jack gets up, shoots the door to get the others’ attention, one henchmen walks in, Jack kills him (where’d the other one go?) and then Jack tells the main baddie he’ll make it quite if a name is given. “Peter Kingsley”, he gasps. Jack shoots him twice.

3.32am and Palmer still doesn’t know Novick’s not telling all and hiding the Lynne and Prescott situations from him. On getting out of there, Novick phones Prescott to check all is continuing and how he should calls Palmer to avoid suspicion of being incommunicado.

Jack manages to call CTU and tell Michelle about the chip, but that’s as far as it gets and cuts out due to static. Tony tells her to trace the call. They’re traced to somewhere between Studio City and Encino, but try to keep it out of the way of Chappelle.

Jack goes over to where he was meant to meet Kate and Yusuf and only finds the latter. He tells him what’s happened and utters the dire one-liner, “Leave me. I’m not going to make it!” and promptly dies.

On hearing about Lynne’s critical condition, Palmer and Novick go to her boarding the ambulance. While Palmer talks to her, she lifts her hand to point at Novick, thus showing who the rat in the house is, but Novick grabs it as if to comfort her before Palmer sees. D’oh!

Carrie tries to blackmail Tony into telling Chapelle about him siding with Jack, unless he gives her Michelle’s job. Tony calls Chapelle over and blabs all about this to him, right in front of Carrie. Chapelle’s not amused but keeps Tony in his job only because there’s no-one else available for now.

At Kate’s house, she disarms the alarm and gives them money but they feel they should kill her anyway. Bullets fly and Jack bursts in and shoots one of them while the others hide in the bathroom, threatening to smash the chip if he comes in.

As the episode comes to an end, the meeting with Prescott and those below him begins.

Trivia: Beroglide does not exist in real life.

Vice President Jim PrescottEPISODE 21: 4.00am – 5.00am :

A very well-rounded episode here. Not as action-packed as previous ones, but incredibly satisfying.

As 4am crossed over, it looked like Jack would never get the chip from the two remaining rednecks, but after explaining the need for it to them one wants to give it up while the other lets his gun off. Jack breaks in and saves the day yet again.

Truth-time is ahead for Palmer as he tells Mike Novick that he knows the bombers didn’t return to their bases and eventally weedles it out of him that the cabinet members are meeting to discuss whether Palmer should still be in his job. They enter a conference room full of video screens and he’s confronted with the realisation that everyone thinks the 25th Amendment should apply. It states that if enough of the cabinet think he’s crap at his job that he should stand down. However, his protests that this should only go ahead in the case of illness or disability fall on deaf ears.

Palmer allows himself to be put through the mill, only on the proviso that if he’s right, then Vice President Prescott will resign.

Jack phones Michelle from Kate Warner’s house and she attempts to access the chip’s contents while he plugs it into the flash-media slot of a laptop. Jack also asks Tony to look into Peter Kingsley’s affair and how PK wants to start a war so as to benefit from the oil industry. News is about that the called-off military strikes may go back on.

All the President’s men are continuing their stance against him and now Ron Wieland has appeared, the journalist he had held in a room to stop him blabbing to the world. Despite the fact that this was done for the good of the country doesn’t stop him whinging about his First Amendment rights, and he gets in a dig about Sherry Palmer visiting him and giving him access to the V.P’s quarter if he kept schtum. The President defends his position saying the safety overrode Wieland’s personal rights.

Michelle can’t decode the chip properly and suggests Jack takes it out of its protective caddy and expose the wires into the laptop… only there aren’t any. It’s been damaged beyond repair and not even the CTU retrieval program will crack it. Meanwhile, Kim appears to speak to her Dad. She’s on her way to the Matheson house ot get her belongings now she’s in the clear and Gary’s in custody. Does anyone still care about her non-plot?

After Palmer and Novick realise that the trust is gone between them, another witness is brought to testify against the Pres’ actions that day – Roger Stanton. The torture scenes make grim viewing and when Roger cracks and there’s just the two of them in the room… the tape mysteriously runs out, just as Stanton is about to confess all about Coral Snake and the bomb being at Norton Airfield. Palmer cries sabotage but no-one listens, except that he’s just had word that Jack has evidence of the faked Cyprus recording. It’s the only thing that can save the Pres now.

Uh-oh, the chip’s knackered and the audio file is gone. The only chance is to track down hacker Alex Hewitt who Michelle discovers coded the chip. Jack no longer has the evidence the Pres requires but is still 100% convinced of it. Dissension in the ranks leads to a voice vote about whether Palmer should continue in office. He loses by one vote and is led away. The bombers head for the Middle East while Prescott is sworn in.

Jack finds and enters Hewitt’s ramshackled home that looks like student digs. It’s empty, but there’s somebody at the door. Footsteps walk in, the person turns round. It’s Sherry Palmer calling out for Alex Hewitt…

Sherry PalmerEPISODE 22: 5.00am – 6.00am :

Another great episode, but one I’m going to summarise briefly since it shows too many characters going back and forth in their dealings between one another. To watch it was entertaining, but to detail it in writing would be boring.

So, Jack’s found Alex Hewitt’s hideout and Sherry’s just turned up. However, Hewitt isn’t at home and the man who’s with her is actually her bodyguard.

The bodyguard is eventually put in his place, Hewitt turns up, numerous conversations take place between Hewitt and Sherry, Sherry and Jack, and Jack and Hewitt, with Jack and Sherry promising Hewitt this and that, both on opposite sides and Hewitt believing one and then the other.

The only thing that matters to Jack is that Hewitt’s his only ticket to prove the Cyprus recordings are a fake and he tells the hacker that he won’t get in big trub for coming forward. Sherry says she’ll offer to tell all, but only on the proviso that she gets immunity from prosecution.

Palmer’s kept in a holding cell for the entire episode while Prescott faffs about with ensuring the bombers go on to drop their payload on the three innocent countries.

Palmer manages to get hold of a mobile (or cell phone, as they’re called over there) to speak to Jack, who tells him that he’s got Hewitt and will be bringing him in just as soon as he can. However, d’oh!, Palmer’s phone gets found out and because the long-serving bodyguard Pierce did all the donkeywork, it’s the lackey who gets arrested and escorted away to be replaced by a chisled-jawed mute. Palmer seethes.

Tony and Michelle have finally had enough of Chapelle’s interruptions and shut him up by leading into a room for a meeting, where Tony is waiting to knock the man out with an ammonia-stained handkerchief. Seemed a little too easy.

Kim’s left the police station and been taken back to the Matheson household to collect her things only… Gary’s back! He’s followed her all the way back there (how convenient!), dispensed with the cop in the car, and when Kim’s finally realised this (for a cute chick, you’re so dumb) it’s nearly too late.

A scuffle in a bedroom occurs leaving the two of them sprawled across the floor and a gun between them. Kim picks it up and calls her Dad, via CTU’s now-legendary answering/forwarding service. Jack tells her to point the gun and shoot at Gary. She does as she’s told, just after Gary gets out a quick “You bitch!”. Jack tells her to fire a second bullet. She does.

Jack’s got his own problems though. While he’s playing happy families, there’s an altercation between Hewitt and Sherry. In the fuss, Hewitt stabs Sherry in the stomach, she collapses saying a wimpy, “Help me!” (Pfft! Yeah, right!), and Hewitt disappears through a convenient hole in the wall. Rather than call for help for Sherry, Jack follows Hewitt into a tunnel…

Alex HewittEPISODE 23: 6.00am – 7.00am :

The penultimate episode and the pressure is getting increasingly tense even if the storylines are rather ridiculous.

Back at CTU, Tony’s being hassled by Division because there’s no way they think Chapelle would be unreachable in a crisis like this.

Jack chases Hewitt out of the tunnel and across rooftops, although our hero is exhibiting a rather nasty heart condition. However, he’s going to be peachy compared to our hacker friend when he walks to the edge of a roof and… pulls a gun on Jack. As he lets a round off Jack nails him in the thigh. The shock causes Hewitt to fall off… but he only falls a few feet onto the next level down. Normally this wouldn’t be too bad but… the back of his head feels wet. Yes, he’s bleeding and he’s not going to last unless the CTU chopper gets to them ASAP.

Palmer’s visited by his lawyer friend Brian who agrees the ex-Pres can appeal but it’ll take time… time they don’t have. After chatting to Novick about Kingsley, Brian is given access to a terminal with limited information. Little by little, Novick leans towards thinking that Palmer could be right after all but will he be able to make amends in time?

Division arrive and lock CTU down, thanks to Carrie’s intervention. She’s been pressing Michelle for information but none was forthcoming. When Division find a locked door they smash it down and find Chappelle inside and woozy.

The chopper approaches Jack just in time as Alex is almost dead, but Carrie calls it back at the last second and an enraged Jack can do nothing but scream down the phone at Michelle and go back to the only one who can help him, Sherry Palmer, but isn’t she nearly dead too?

Novick goes cap-in-hand to Palmer to ask him to speak to the Turkish Prime Minister to let US planes fly over their airspace, only he’s not the President anymore… only they can’t let the Turkish people know about the change at the top before the Americans do. He agrees to this, but only because the alternative would mean US pilot casualties.

Sherry’s still breathing. Jack checks her and sees it’s just a flesh wound. He collapses, she’s shocked and he tells her how his heart was stopped earlier. She tells him he needs a hospital, but he soldiers on regardless.

After an earlier dose of acupuncture, Kingsley talks to a mystery man on a yacht. What can they be up to?

Tony is arrested by Chappelle, but Michelle is holed up in a van outside CTU, talking to Jack about how to recreate the voice of Hewitt on a computer so they can arrange a meet with Kingsley… but how can they still fool the criminal when they have no Hewitt in person? Let’s figure that out later, but Jack only just manages to figure the audio file system out before Michelle is found and arrested too.

Kate Warner goes to pick up Kim from the Matheson’s house, who responds by nervously pointing a gun at her rescuer because she doesn’t believe her Dad would trust someone who he only met less than 24 hours ago.

Strangely, Tony and Michelle are locked in the same holding room (no others available?) He says he’ll take the rap for it all, but she says she’ll take her share of the blame and doesn’t want him to lie for her.

Sherry calls Kingsley to make a deal, to trade Hewitt for all the info about the Cyprus recordings. The computer works and Kingsley believes the voice after Sherry forces his hand. A meeting is agreed in 30 minutes to gate 18 at the L.A. Collusseum. Kingsley fidgets because he’s nervous about the meet, tells his acupuncture girlfriend that he’s heading out of the country after it’s done and that he’ll see her in Lisbon next week. They cuddle. She smiles. He says he’s enormously grateful… then he shows it as he reaches behind him and produces a knife(!) The scene ends before we see the inevitable.

Time is approaching the top of the hour and Jack’s feeling worse than before. Palmer strikes an Abraham Lincolm pose in his chair in his confined room. Kingsley is shown standing over his girlfriend’s dead body.

Jack collapses at the wheel and Sherry tries to steer the car. They crash through a gate and into the reservoir area. Jack looks like he’s dead… again. It’s 7am.

This was the second episode BBC3 showed during which they did NOT talk over or scrunch up the end credits, surprisingly. The only other time was the week after they dropped a big bollock by placing a VOICE announcement DURING the programme about how “Pure 24” was on next, the dumbasses. This was also the last episode to be shown on BBC3 since the finale will be shown only on BBC2 on Sunday August 10th at 10pm. Yes, BBC have shafted BBC3 viewers again by making them wait two weeks, even though it was originally scheduled for a week after they broadcast this episode.

Jack BauerEPISODE 24: 7.00am – 8.00am :

The finale is finally upon us.

Jack Bauer looks knocked out, but comes to. He tries to start the car but it refuses to do so. Sherry gets out. Jack can’t because his seatbelt is stuck. He tells her not to leave but she says she must look after herself, and that Jack’s a very impressive man, but like her ex-hubby, he sees the world in only black and white and that the world’s not as simple as that. He says if she runs she’ll be turning her back on everything and she’ll be connected to the bomb. She tries to defend things by saying it was never meant to go off. He tries to appeal to her one more time but it falls on deaf ears.

Or does it? She returns. He tells her to get the knife out of the glovebox to help him out.

Brian shows a file to he pulled on Peter Kingsley to Novick, and how the baddie made phone calls to Jonathan Wallace as recent as six hours ago. It’s another complex plot twist but it’s the one that convinces Novick to swap his allegiance back, and he promptly calls Chappelle and tells him to find and help Bauer and call him back within 30 minutes.

Kingsley talks to the mysterious boat man over the phone and calls the man “Sir”, so Kingsley’s not the top man? He reassures him that the meeting’s going ahead and that he’ll meet Hewitt.

Chappelle appeals to Tony and Michelle to help him find Bauer. They agree if he drops all charges against them.

Sherry and Jack hijack a passing car and head for a hospital.

7.13am. Kate and Kim arrive at CTU and are greeted by Carrie. Tony says he’ll take it from there. Carrie’s surprised to find that Tony’s released. Tony tells Kate that Marie was brought back to CTU for holding and when her dad, Bob, was released without charge, he returned to CTU to question Marie about killing Reza, nearly killing Kate and helping to detonate a bomb. Kate enters and tells him Marie won’t give him any reasons. He says he can’t accept that. Kate says she couldn’t either until Marie looked into her eyes and started to pull the trigger. They start to leave. Marie calls out “Kate” and rises from her Hannial Lecter-style chains. Either sides of toughened glass, Marie says “You think you’ll be safe out there? You won’t be.” How can someone so cute be so evil?

Tony and Chappelle speak to Jack. Tony tells him Kim’s there and she’s safe. Jack calls Chappelle a sonofabitch and that he’ll hold him personally responsible for the death of Hewitt. Chappelle tries to smooth things over and tells him about the change of the state of play. Jack tells him about the meet and wants a direct audio link to the Whitehouse to keep them fully-appraised of the situation.

Outside the collusseum Jack wires Sherry up and starts fiddling with the laptop in his briefcase so they he knows the link works and that they can authenticate the baddie’s voice when he speaks.

7.24am. Novick tells Prescott about the fact the evidence about the Cyprus recordings will be brought forward soon. Prescott says that proves nothing as he knew Second Wave was involved. The mention of Peter Kingsley and the meeting stops him in his tracks.

Jack’s about to go in. Chappelle tells him to wait 10 minutes until the SWAT team arrives, but there’s not enough time. Sherry’s scared that she might die in this attempt to sort things out, and says “I’m doing this for David. Will you tell him that, in case something happens?” “I’ll take care of it, Mrs Palmer”, he confirms. Sherry sets off on her potential green mile.

Palmer’s released to listen to the meeting with Kingsley because of Sherry’s involvement. He can’t believe that she was recruited by the man some months ago and poo-poos the very suggestion.

Sherry walks into the collesseum. She is alone, except for a roof-top sniper.

7.34pm. Kingsley tells his men not to shoot until they’ve got Hewitt and approaches Sherry, then checks for wires (her’s is a near-invisible and untraceable one, dontchaknow). Kingsley wants Hewitt. Sherry tells him he lied to her and Hewitt. He agrees. She says she’s in as much trub as he is and wants safe haven. He tells her that’s her problem. She throws it back as his too because of the position she’s in. CTU confirm a match on Kingsley’s voice.

Sherry gives Kingsley a phone to receive call from her when she’s safe and she’ll give Hewitt’s location. She asks for the Cyprus recordings which Kingsley produces, except he doesn’t, it’s just their personal phone conversations. She says she wants all of them, including Cyprus, for insurance. He doesn’t see why because only Hewitt’s the one who can hurt him.

Sherry: “Because he forged the Cyprus recordings?”
Kingsley: “That’s right”.

That’s the clincher. Prescott decides what to do now they’ve got the proof. Sherry offers the phone again to Kingsley and tells him she’ll call when she lands, but he calls her bluff. She’s starting to waiver by this point. Kingsley tells his sniper to take Sherry out… no response. That’s because there’s no sniper. He instructs his henchman to shoot her, but Jack stops him and takes out most of the other baddies with the sniper rifle. Palmer’s shocked by the sound of gunfire.

Sherry and Jack make their escape, but first he must deal with punching up the last one alive, until he snaps his neck. Ooh, that’ll hurt in the morning(!)

Jack collapses, Kingsley approaches. Jack tries to reach forward for the gun the baddie dropped which is now under a seat. he takes it, fires… except there’s no bullets left.

Kingsley: “You caused me a lot of trouble today, Jack. You’re not going to give me Hewitt, are you?”

With no answer he pulls a gun on Jack, but is shot dead by a CTU chopper that appeared out of nowhere. The cavalry have arrived.

Prescott aborts the attack with less than three minutes left to go.

7.47pm. The mystery man on the boat is shocked that Kingsley is dead. Another mystery man in a restaurant calls him “Max” and tells him the war is not going to happen (word gets around fast!). Max ensures him that it will and makes another phone call. “It’s me. Go ahead.”, he tells the recipient of the call, who we haven’t yet seen.

Prescott tells Palmer he’ll chuck his job in, along with those who also voted against him, but – aw, shucks! – Palmer lets them off because they weren’t thinking straight. Well, doh ray mee(!) Palmer, you’re lame in not firing their sorry asses. Novick’s not so lucky, though, and Palmer dismisses him for his shitty behaviour after over 20 years in the Presidential run of things.

7.52pm. Back at CTU, Chappelle is praised by Division and passes it on to Tony. With all the acting conviction of a German porn star, Chappelle utters, “What’s up, my friend?” Whispering Tony says, “Well, it’s like this. Either fire me, or get outta my chair!”. Chappelle gets out of his chair.

We don’t get to see Tony or Michelle shag because she’s about to go home with her brother. This is a dull minute or two of the finale when everyone is reunited and tell each other how much they love each other. One, two, three, aaaaaaah!

Have we got a happy ending at last?

Palmer holds a press conference and tells the crowd that everything will be fine and gives a dull speech about freedom. Yawn!

He gets off his podium and walks through the crowd, everyone cheering for him. A woman emerges to hold out her hands and calls out to him too. It’s Mandy, the lesbian, bad bitch from the first three episodes of season one! She holds his hands, he tells her “God bless you”, she steps back and lets him go. What? No expected assassination attempt?

Oh, hang on. She takes a layer of plastic off her hand very delicately and places it in a container. Is this a finger-print job? She calls Max and tells him “It’s done”.

Palmer waves to the crowd, but is breathing heavily. He looks at his hand. It’s covered in strange boils. Palmer grimaces his famous grimace and collapses like a stone statue. The crowd screams. Palmer is dying. The bodyguards point their guns in all directions in response.

The camera pulls out above the scene as Palmer lies on the floor. As the final three seconds tick up to 8am, we hear no usual “tick, tick, tick” sound, just the heavy breathing of a dying President…

Roll on Season 3!

Review copyright © Seeka (eps 11-16),
Liam Carey (1-9) and Dom Robinson (10, 17-24), 2003. E-mail Liam Carey

[Up to the top of this page]

Loading…

No related posts.