24: 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

I definitely did not see things happening in this way.  I kept trying to figure out Adrian’s plan.  I mean, was he going to sell the weapon to enemies?  That did not really fit what we saw of him, since he was trying to release secrets to the world (there are easier ways to get rich in his circumstance than just stealing a potentially powerful super-weapon).

I never considered that he would be trying to use the weapon to help end war (or whatever his silly plan actually entailed).  Then he and Chloe show up at the secret clubhouse and he finds all of his people have been killed and most of them look like they definitely suffered.  The Chinese show up and we see that the bad guy who tortured Jack all those years ago is back and he is not a happy camper.  He wants the device in order to start a war.  He uses it to have an American submarine sink a Chinese carrier (I thought the Chinese only had one or two aircraft carriers).  This looks like the beginning of a war…

Speaking of Adrian..he admits to Chloe that he suppressed information that showed her family was killed due to an accident, not some weird nefarious plot to bring down anyone close to Jack Bauer.  Then the Chinese guy shoots Adrian in the head.   I figured he would not make it out alive, but did not see him taking a bullet that soon.  Or that unceremoniously.  I thought for sure that he would sacrifice himself to save Chloe or something.

The majority of the beginning of the episode was Jack chasing Steve, who is trying to meet with Adrian.  Once Adrian has the device, he just hangs Steve out to dry, which allows Jack to catch him.  I loved the stuff at the CIA base with Jack and Erik.  Jack has a great line to Erik “Just so we’re being clear: I wasn’t asking. That was me being courteous” in regards to being the one to interrogate Steve.

Jack does what he does best.  He starts mindfucking Steve, who has decided to become a smug asshole.  He knows that they cannot do anything to him.  He put a tracker on the device and he will give it to them if he gets immunity.  Jack has another great line here “I can assure you—full immunity is not on the table. But your hand is.”  He then starts smashing Steve’s hand with his gun.

Luckily, it is Agent Kate who does the final torture.  She goes in and threatens to kill him for betraying her husband that way (who we finally learned killed himself in prison).  He is scared and tells them about the tracker and gives her the code.  Turns out that it was all part of Jack and Kate’s plan.  Steve is going to be executed for treason, so much for his immunity.

While all this was going on, Mark screws up yet again.  He calls the Russians and gives them Jack’s scrambled secure cell phone information (at least that is what I think he gave them), which will allow them to track Jack and grab him.  Then Mark learns that Jack is the one leading the assault on Adrian’s clubhouse.  Oops!  He then keeps leaving messages like a crazy ex-girlfriend asking the Russian guy to call off the operation.

Needless to say, Russian cell phone service sucks and they do not get the message and then crash into Jack and Kate’s car, which leads to a pretty good gun battle.  So now Jack is being chased by the Russians while he is trying to stop the Chinese bad guy from starting a third world war. There are two episodes left and it looks like it should be pretty exciting.

 

Author: Ngewo