Can Jack Bauer un-brainwash his old girlfriend, or will she be zonked out permanently? Oh, and apparently, there’s a mole on Fox’s action drama ’24.’ Gotta give the writers credit: they’ve never done a mole storyline on this show before! Since…two months ago.
We start things up where we left them: at the abandoned motel room where Jack unsuccessfully tried to blow up Cheng; all he got was a mentally disturbed Audrey Raines, who is currently being talked to by Mike Doyle. As you can imagine, his personable attitude is making them fast friends. Or, not at all. All she says is what she’s been saying: “Help me, Jack. Please don’t let them do this to me.” Not too helpful.
At CTU, Nadia is spouting orders at a random dude, proving that she really wasn’t the right person to run the place. Morris walks in and she wants to clarify why he’s leaving his post: a spat with Chloe. Thus, she denies his transfer. I’m surprised to miss Bill so soon, but I do, and I want him back. Morris presses the issue, and Nadia puts on her grumpy hat, telling him to go back down to his post. Doyle gives her a call, and explains that Audrey’s nonresponsive. Nadia wants to bring her in, and after Doyle admits that he botched the mission, she reminds him that he saved Jack’s life. Which would be a good thing, if he wasn’t trying to help. She orders Doyle to bring Jack back. Seriously, where is Bill? Can I have him back?
Outside the motel, Mike brings Audrey into a helicopter and Jack begs him to talk to Audrey. Mike says it’s impossible, and that Jack’s under arrest. He then watches Audrey in the chopper up in the air.
In the White House, Vice President Daniels (who’s acting Prez now) talks to Karen Hayes about the component that’s landed in Chinese hands, and may start a new world war. He then asks how things with Bill went, and she says they didn’t go well. Then, he apologizes for his gruff manner and tells her he appreciates what she does. So, nice for a minute and this will wear off when, I wonder? Tom Lennox appears and says that the Russian President wants to have a face-to-face with Daniels. I wonder what that’s about.
Elsewhere in the D.C. area, Lisa, the pretty blonde daughter—I mean, aide of the Veep, walks into her apartment and is accosted by a young man, who starts kissing her. Is this her standard greeting? She tells him about Palmer in the coma and Daniels being acting President, while he kisses her. God, what a turn-on politics can be. They seem to be in collusion, but I’m too busy trying to care, as they go into her bedroom and make out.
Daniels, Lennox and Hayes are in a conference room on a video call with Suvarov, the Russian President. He’s calling about the component, which has technology only privy to America and Russia. He wants confirmation that the component was stolen, since he…knew? Daniels tries to smooth-talk his way out of things, but Suvarov’s not having it, even when confronted with Gredenko having been the one who let things get out of hand. Suvarov threatens to do something grave if the component’s not recovered. After the call, Daniels wants to know how he found out. Lennox and Hayes agree that there’s a spy, and they’ll look into it. Lennox also says that the threat is real and should be accepted as such. Daniels tells them to give CTU whatever it needs to get Cheng.
Speaking of, he’s still in his vehicle, looking at the component in awe. He puts it into a computer and uploads some data. He makes a call to another Chinese man in a warehouse, about the diagnostics. The techie says that there’s a problem; they have to find someone who can fix the component’s flaws, or it’ll be useless to them. No, let’s not give these guys more reasons to be onscreen, please?
Lisa continues to make out with her mystery man, when she leaves to take a shower. Once she leaves, Mystery Man walks out of the bedroom to some horrifically obnoxious music that sounds like feedback, and gets some equipment loaded to his cell phone. I’m not sure what it is, but it looks appropriately ominous. He makes a call to a Russian-accented man and says that things are good. So, this is the mole? Well…who cares?
Morris is skulking along at CTU, when Chloe meets up with him to apologize. He says he asked for a transfer but was denied. Chloe does her best impression of someone who’s sad, and Morris explains that it’s been a bad day working with her. She apologizes, and I have to say, the only time Mary Lynn Rajskub worked the sadness was last season when Edgar died, and she said nothing. Anyway, Morris says things have to be over between them, despite Chloe’s protests. OK, if Morris had been on for more than one year and Chloe wasn’t so entertainingly obnoxious, I might sympathize with her crying into a wall.
Karen Hayes and Nadia are on a phone call, briefing each other about what’s going on with the component. Someone from District has arrived to work the Audrey Raines situation. Hayes impresses upon Nadia how important it is to find Cheng. She wants to use all resources available, and Nadia, while being a snotface, isn’t too stupid: the best resource they need, she says, is Bill Buchanan. OK, so she’s not a complete moron. Anyway, the doctor who’s arrived to work on Raines talks to Nadia, and she reminds the doc that Audrey needs to be fixed up real quick.
The doctor goes into Audrey’s room, where she lies sedately in a hospital bed. He talks to her as reassuringly as he can (which is not at all, for those wondering), and Nadia walks in to find out what’s going on. The doctor finds some interesting marks on her arm. Meanwhile, on the first floor, Jack and Doyle make their way to a holding room, and Jack begs him to see Audrey, and to take care of her as best he can. Back in Audrey’s room, Doyle arrives to hear that Cheng has to be found and Audrey needs to spill some beans. They go outside to talk about Audrey’s situation: she’s catatonic and has had severe psychological abuse. The only way to get her out of it is to give her drugs to shock her out of it. The risks are dangerous and Doyle’s against it, offering Jack as an alternative. Of course, the doctor knows who he is and blows off this idea, since he’s been given jurisdiction over the matter. Doyle argues for Jack with Nadia, and brings up Bill as a better boss, they bitch at each other, and seriously, talk about two characters who do nothing for me. Nadia’s an interesting character, but she has no character traits, and all I really want to know about Doyle is whatever the hell happened in Denver.
Lisa and her Mystery Man are finished canoodling, and she gets a call from Daniels, who tells her to get back ASAP. Then, Powers Boothe makes me throw up in my mouth, since he “need[s]” her. Blech. She leaves, confused, as Mystery Man watches her go and then goes off to do some dastardly deed of his own: he calls someone asking about his next move.
In the Oval Office, Lennox arrives, announcing that he knows who the mole is, after doing some sweeps of staffers. A staffer called a lobbyist; why, it’s Lisa! Only slightly more interesting than Mystery Man. Daniels scoffs at this idea, but Lennox says that the lobbyist, a Mark Bishop, and Lisa have been hanging out a lot recently. Hell, they might be sleeping together. And here is the most unintentionally funny moment of the day: Daniels tells Lennox that he’s sleeping with her, too. He explains how things happened, only because I guess we needed more humor. Peter MacNicol does a great job of mixing disgust with a lot of other emotions here. Lennox says that, if done right, the situation may go their way. ‘Cause he’s a weasel.
In his holding cell, Jack ponders things when Doyle arrives, explaining that he tried to help with Audrey, but the doctor is planning on using some dangerous drugs. He says this while uncuffing Jack, and tells him to go do his thing. And then Jack attacks Doyle as part of the plan, choking him. We follow, in essence, the funniest part of the year with the best. Nothing better than seeing Ricky Schroeder get a beatdown. Jack exits the cell, beats up a guard, takes a gun and stalks his way to the hospital room. He ends up holding the doctor to the wall, but nothing’s happened to her yet. Jack takes Audrey with him, despite the doctor’s complaints. Once they go, he sets off an alarm. Nadia, Milo and Morris try to lock things down, and Milo says that if Jack had been able to talk to her, nothing would have happened. I love that everyone on the show, Nadia included, knows she’s not director material.
Morris gets off the phone with security, and tells us that Jack’s still on the premises. Nadia looks around and sees that Chloe’s gone. She then runs into Doyle, and thinks that Jack got out with his help. He says he did what was best, and I’m surprised to be enjoying his character more and more. Morris tells Nadia that Jack’s in a certain sector, and she goes off to catch up with him. Jack sneaks into a techie room, breaks off the card swiper and comforts Audrey, trying to get her to remember him. He does so by basically reading off her biography. No luck yet. Morris has alerted Nadia to the room where Jack’s at, and orders an entry team down to the room. Jack continues to comfort Audrey and pour his heart out to her, trying to get her back to her normal self. After an embrace, she touches his hand, but the moment’s over when he sees CTU agents trying to break in. They do so, and a standoff begins. Things stop when Audrey says “Bloomfield.” The doctor says it could be nothing, but Nadia stands up to him and tells him to stay put in her office. She gives Jack her word that Audrey will be safe. Because people giving their word on this show is worth a lot. Jack gives Audrey off to Doyle, and she’s gone. Jack willingly goes to holding and thanks Nadia.
In the White House, Lennox is on the phone with someone, and he tells Daniels that the Russian Army is planning some serious ammunition. Then, Lisa walks in, and unfortunately for his face, I can’t tell the difference between a lusting Powers Boothe and a pissed Powers Boothe. He dismisses Lennox, and she can tell something’s up. He tells Lisa that the Russians know about the component, thanks to someone on the inside. He says that it’s connected to Mark Bishop, who is in contact with Russian intelligence. He plays a recording of the phone call we heard the start of after Lisa left her apartment. Daniels asks her how long she’s known this guy, and she proves that she is a horrible liar. He says that the situation’s dire, and thinks she’s a good liar, and reminds her that what she did was treason. She gives up and Daniels says that she’s going to go back to Bishop and tell him that the component’s back in American hands. He threatens her that if she spills about their relationship…well, it’s treason, so that trumps adultery. He leaves and tells Lennox that he’s feeling a little better; Lennox says that the sting operation will start soon.
With four minutes to go, Nadia watches Audrey lay silently in her bedroom as…her dad sits down! William Devane is back, and that’s always awesome! He says that he’s arranged to take her away and take care of her. He leaves and asks to see Jack Bauer. He’s escorted to holding, as Doyle asks if Audrey talked to her father. Turns out that Bloomfield may be an actual lead, as it’s the name of a copper company in the area, and Audrey had copper debris on her clothes. Doyle’s about to go when Nadia admits that she was wrong, and is completely incompetent. OK, I added that part. Anyway, he congratulates her for standing up to the priggish doctor. Finally, in his holding cell, Jack gets a visitor: Heller, of course. Jack stands up and says that he’ll take care of Audrey, but Heller, who looks mighty pissed, tells him that he’s not go anywhere near Audrey ever again, since what happened to her is Jack’s fault. Jack’s OK with that, but wants to help; Heller’s not having it. Jack tries to smooth it over, but Heller leaves, telling him that he’s cursed: everything he touches dies. Heller leaves, and Jack looks like he wants to cry. OK, so nice ending. With four hours left, maybe the rest will be equally good. I’m crossing my fingers.
