Episode: 24 8.08 – “11:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m.”
Original Air Date: February 15, 2010
At last, a Jack-centric 24 ep, and one worth waiting these long weeks for. In Ep 8, we’ve got gymnastic Jack, thighs-of-death Jack, naked chest Jack, and eye-threatening Jack. America can feel safe once again, if you don’t count Dana the Dipstick.
We can always tell when she’s upset because her nostrils flare, her brows furrow, and her mouth tightens up. This is her now-I’m-upset expression. She’s hunting down the two morons at a Jersey strip joint, the same ones who robbed the NYPD warehouse of $120,000 with Dana’s guidance. It’s not easy to imagine anyone more stupid than Dana, but those goons are it. So she’s gone goon gunning. And I thought Congressmen were the only ones who took taxpayer money for doing nothing, but Dana does the same thing. She’s either on the phone with Goon #1, Kevin, or skulking in the corners of CTU offices waiting for him to call her, or, as of last night, off into the night to find them and punish them for being dumb. Dumb and dumber. If there’s a backstory here, I’m not the only one who doesn’t care about it; neither do other 24 fans.
The only redeeming thing about Dana is that Chloe doesn’t hate her. The last time Chloe was wrong was maybe never. Chloe covers for her in a debriefing and tells Dana she can be thanked for covering if Dana will only focus on her work and forget about whatever’s bothering her, because first priority is they need to find Jack.
Meanwhile, kidnapped Jack (as Meier) meets Bazhaev and offers $250 million for the nuclear rods, but crafty old Bazhaev suspects Jack is a cop and orders his thug Dimitri to get Jack’s intel about who’s backing him. Fat chance of getting Jack Bauer to talk!
Hassan’s brother, Farhad, hiding out at Bazhaev’s and still waiting for the rods himself, is now told by Bazhaev that he has had the rods in the truck sidelined, pending “Meier’s” identity. Is he a cop? Or is he legit? For the first time, Bazhaev’s surviving son, Josef, gets aggressive and puts a gun to Farhad’s head because he got too nasty with papa Bazhaev. It is decided to return Farhad to the outside to wait for release of the truck containing the rods.
Back at CTU, Hastings demands a full debriefing from Renee, after which he orders a psych evaluation. Some fine acting here by Renee. Dana tells Cole there are things about her past he doesn’t know, but Cole doesn’t seem to care and says he’ll stick with her regardless. They’re interrupted so she never fills him in.
At the U.N., Hassan’s daughter, Kayla, tells him at last that she’s in love with Tarin, one of the guys her father has had arrested as a traitor. “What’s happening to you?” a distressed Kayla asks. It may be the height of his hair that is causing him to behave erratically and continue to have people arrested left and right, in the U.S. and in his homeland of Krapistan.
In the most exciting, action-packed scene of the season so far, we see Jack Bauer strung up by the wrists on some ceiling piping, no shoes, bloody shirt unbuttoned. Dimitri hooks up some electricity and runs current through Jack, including sticking the sizzling prongs into Jack’s stab wound (the one Renee gave him last week). He also sticks his finger into the open wound. Jack pretends to faint from pain, and Dimitri cannot rouse him with slaps or anything else, so he decides to try one more big electrical charge. I think not, Dimitri, you slimy slob! Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the plumbing quick.
Superhuman Jack’s back, as great as ever. When Dimitri comes at him again, Jack swings his legs up and scissors Dimitri’s arms with his fab thighs-of-death grip, forcing Dimitri to electrocute himself, or at least knock himself out. Now Jack swings his legs up to the pipe he’s chained to and, like a crab of steel, he works his way down the piping to a loose joint which he kicks the hell out of until it falls, allowing him to slip off. Just as Dimitri is coming out of the big shock, Jack is on him killing him with a snap, taking his knife and cutting his bonds off. When Jack overhears Bazhaev say he will give Farhad the rods, he plunges the place into darkness using the fuse box. He knifes the first of Bazhaev’s guards, takes his gun and cell phone, calling Chloe to trace the cell and find the location. Jack then takes out the rest of Bazhaev’s men and captures Bazhaev, who had been after Jack with a shotgun.
Via Chloe, Jack conferences with Hastings and President Taylor, who grudgingly agree to Bazhaev’s demands for cooperation if he gets full immunity. Jack passes the phone to Bazhaev: “The President of the United States wants to speak with you.” Bazhaev tells them where the truck containing the nuclear rods is, and CTU rushes to the place, only to find an empty truck. Hanging off the door is Bazhaev’s dead son’s necklace, which he’d given to Josef. It’s clear now that Josef has the rods, which surprises even his father who hadn’t thought Josef had the guts to defy him.
Josef driving another vehicle with the rods, phones Farhad that he’ll meet him with the rods in five minutes and Farhad should “just have my money ready.”
Tune in next week. Maybe we’ll see more gymnastic Jack!
Rating: 4.5 / 5 Stars
