News > TW RECAP: Twenty-Four, 04-16-07
April 17, 2007
Summary
Tonight's episode took place between 11pm and 12am.
The show opened at the abandoned nuke warehouse, where Doyle thanks Jack for saving the world again. After a few "uh-huhs," Jack slips away and calls the Evil Chinese Guy, whom Jack calls Chang. Evidently, the Chinese torturers were kind enough to tell Jack the name of his captor before releasing him back in the US. Chang asks for the decoder component on the two seized Russian nukes, and says he'll kill Audrey if he doesn't get them.
Back at the White House bunker, Lennox visits Palmer and tells him that he should be in the hospital. Palmer refuses because he knows any sign of weakness will give the VP an excuse to retake power, but Lennox tries to put his mind at ease by revealing the blackmail material he has on Vice President Daniels. Karen Hayes enters the room and tells Palmer that the nukes have been recovered, and Palmer says that they need to move out of the bunker and into the Oval Office so he can give a live statement to the American people.
Back at CTU, Buchanan is debriefing the team. Jack calls Chloe and tells her about the Audrey situation and, as is usually the case when Jack calls Chloe, he asks her to Circumvent CTU Policy and Download a Restricted File, in this case the schematics of the nuke component Jack has been asked to fetch. Chloe retrieves the blueprints by accessing the DOD database from Morris's computer (during the meeting, Buchanan reveals that Morris is in charge of sending a debriefing to the DOD, thus making him the only person connected to their official server). Chloe finds the schematics in, like, three seconds, and gives Jack a millisecond-by-millisecond account of how slow the transfer is going in relation to how quickly Morris is approaching his terminal. Morris almost gets back before the download finishes, but the transfer completes just in time and Chloe goes back to her desk.
Back in the Oval Office, VP Daniels visits Palmer. Palmer thanks him for the whole "threatening to nuke not-Pakistan" thing, right before asking him for his resignation. Daniels refuses, and Palmer threatens him by revealing his knowledge of the Lennox recording. Palmer tells him to have his resignation ready by the end of the week, and Daniels leaves in a huff.
Back at CTU, Morris checks his system logs and tells Chloe that someone accessed some DOD schematics from his terminal a few moments earlier. Chloe admits it was her, and tells him about the Audrey situation. Morris asks her what the hell she's thinking, and Chloe tells him that she trusts Jack and is sure that whatever he wants is the right thing to do. Morris refuses to again be complicit in something that could result in millions of deaths, and walks off to tell Buchanan of the situation. Chloe stops him, and goes to Buchanan's office herself.
Meanwhile, Jack sneaks into the warehouse where the nukes are being held, and tells the guards that he's under presidential order to remove one of the circuit boards because the property has been compromised. When they tell him that they're under orders not to let anyone through, he goes apeshit on them and yells that they are "countermanding a presidential order." He asks for their names and takes out his phone, as if to call the president and tattle on them for being bad soldiers or something. They let him in. As Jack detaches the nuke component, Doyle and his men rush in, guns drawn. Doyle orders Jack to stand down. Jack doesn't, because he's Jack, and Doyle orders one of the guards to whip him with the butt of his rifle. Well, actually, that's not really what he orders: he just yells "DO IT," which is evidently the universal military message for "HIT JACK BAUER WITH THE BUTT OF YOUR RIFLE." Jack is knocked out cold, and Doyle orders he be put under arrest.
Doyle calls Buchanan and, because he's a douchebag, he totally takes credit for "subduing" Jack despite the fact that he just ordered a soldier to do it for him. Buchanan tells Jack that they can't go along with his plan. Jack then calls the president, and explains that he needs authorization to save Audrey. Jack gives him a lot of the "I give you my word, the Chinese won't get the component because that would star WWIII," but Wayne is still nervous about authorizing the operation. Jack then tells Palmer that he will personally assure destruction of the chip by strapping himself with C4 explosives. Palmer is still skiddish for a moment, until Jack utters one of the best lines of the series: "Mr. President...you OWE me." Palmer, powerless to counter against such a badass line, agrees to help Jack.
After the commercial break, Doyle gets off the phone with Buchanan, evidently having taken a full six minutes to hear Buchanan's summary of the two minute conversation Jack had with Palmer. This makes sense, because Doyle is a douchebag. After getting off the phone he's surprisingly lippy with Jack, considering 40 minutes ago he was about an inch away from sucking his dick. Jack tells Doyle that he wants him to be his pointman: once Doyle tells Jack that Audrey is safe, Jack will break the component and kill Chang.
Back at CTU, Morris and Chloe argue about how Chloe is a total bitch for breaking into Morris's system, and somehow Chloe wins the argument. What?
Jack calls Chang, who gives him directions to the meeting point.
At the White House, VP Daniels and his Blonde Sidekick have an extremely awkward conversation where they hold hands and make vague references to "having more time to spend together" as Daniels reveals that he plans to resign. He signs his own resignation letter and walks out to the press room to hear Palmer's speech. Palmer talks about "national healing" and congratulates CTU, but once he begins to take questions from the reporters, he forgets names, steps over his words, and slurs like a drunkard until finally collapsing. Daniels, watching intently, folds up his letter of resignation and places it back into his coat pocket.
Palmer's Badass Doctor comes into the Oval Office and tells the staff that Palmer has sustained a cerebral hemorrhage. He will be unable to regain consciousness for quite some time. Daniels tells Hayes to start up the process of the 25th amendment in order to pass on presidential powers directly to himself, and -- surprisingly -- Hayes and Tom both obey. Daniels' Blonde Bitch Sidekick brings up the president's recent approval of Jack bauer's operation, and, despite Hayes' and Lennox's assurances, Daniels tells them to cancel the operation. Hayes calls Buchanan, who tells the CTU team to shut it down and orders Chloe to stand down from her post. "It's obvious I can't trust you," he says.
As Doyle drives Jack to the meeting spot, he gets a call from Buchanan. Buchanan gives him discreet instructions on how to bring him back to CTU, and advises him to disarm Jack quickly. As if, like, that was even humanly possible. Doyle hangs up and tries to BS jack with some stuff about changing their route, but Jack sees through Doyle's crap after about half a second and pulls a gun on him. Jack reminds Doyle that he killed his partner earlier today, and will do the same to Doyle if he doesn't pull over. Jack kicks Doyle out of the car and leaves him standing on the side of the road as he drives off to the rendezvous point on his own.
Reaction
There was an admittedly pleasant lack of Audrey and Milo in this episode (they got about one line each), so there's really not much to complain about. Still, though, Jack's decision to leave Doyle in the dust essentially makes this the 80th time that Jack Has Had to Go Rogue because This Time It's Personal and The Government Doesn't Understand.
It's similarly disappointing that we've got to deal with VP Daniels taking presidential control once more: Wayne was just beginning to act like a badass, and it was less than two episodes ago that he was cockblocking Lennox and Hayes at every turn. It was fun for a while, but do we really have to go back to his bullshit so soon? Not to mention that Wayne's coma relapse means that we may have to deal with Regina King again sometime soon. This wouldn't be such a bad thing if Regina King was capable of playing any character other than Regina Fucking King.
Also, Doyle seriously needs to decide whether he's a douchebag or a misunderstood good guy: one minute he's telling Jack that he appreciates all he sacrifices for his country, and the next he's bitching him out for caring about Audrey and essentially calling him a scumbag. Jack should have snapped his neck the first moment they met. Then he should have eaten his corpse.
