Season 9, Live Another Day: 8pm-9pm, The fuse is lit?

If you put China’s only aircraft carrier in the Red Sea it better go off before the final act ends. I’m pretty sure that’s what Chekhov said.

Jack’s chasing down CSCS to yet another London train station—where Julian Jr. told CSCS to go. CSCS gets there, calls JJ on his scrambler mobile, JJ tells CSCS where the money and passport are, CSCS finds them, JJ tells CSCS to drop the goods through the mail slot, which CSCS does, then asks, “Where’s the car????!!!!” only to finally realize there is no one on the line, there’s no way out, no car, JJ’s just a selfish crook, just like CSCS, but what’s it matter anyway as Jack was on his tail with backup—as if that little car woulda done him any good. Jack’s clever enough to find JJ running away and follow him and Chloe to the platform, but not clever enough to shoot down a train as it pulls out.

Just to give them all time to get back to CIA HQ, we cut to commercial, then Black Goon taking charge of HQ as senior agent on site, then PH. PH, drinking “just one” after Audrey catches him mixing scotch and Alzheimer’s meds, is all set to head back to the US with his tail between his legs (for not getting drone bases outta the Brits) and hand over the tattered reigns to VP. Only to get the call (brought to him by Mark) telling him the day’s not over—JJ has the override box. Just what he needed—yet another reason to keep the scotch at a single (or the opposite).

We also had time for the replacement analyst to figure out and tell Kate that CSCS framed Kate’s hubby. Just in time for Jack and CSCS to arrive. Jack has his second sensitive moment of the season, empathizing with vengeful Kate that wrecking vengeance doesn’t make you feel better. Sheesh, as if he’d know.

Jack wants to interrogate CSCS because CSCS has been trained to resist interrogation. BG, in charge and given a personal presidential order to give Jack whatever Jack needs, still tells Jack not to go over the line. So, cool, we’re back to the olde-tyme Jack, torturing to get answers because torture works so well! Jack mostly minds his manners, CSCS has an angle and will sell it for immunity, Kate’s fit to be tied (literally?), Jack tries to go postal, but BG breaks it up once CSCS’s hand pays the piper.

Audrey and Mark are still working things out as only they can, and with the goodwill we’ve seen so far this season with how folks work out their differences, we think there’s hope. Till the subject turns to “Jack.” Mark’s jealous! Been hiding it well this day. Too bad Audrey’s not great at talking him down. Heck, she can’t talk to him when he’s like this, and she tells him and us so, so she walks out. You shouldn’t do that when he has an angle, and a Russian angle at that. He calls his Russian pal and gives up Jack. And I’m wondering didn’t he just learn that Jack’s still working on getting the box with presidential powers to boot? Don’t worry, he soon will again. And will be unable to call off the Russians in time.

Kate and Jack play good cop/bad cop with CSCS in the infirmary—guess who’s the bad one. Yup, Kate with her mad-on for vengeance. Gun to the head does the trick. CSCS gives up the code of the tracker he planted on the box. Now, why didn’t he tell us from the start, run this as an up-and-up sting to catch JJ? Why didn’t JJ stop to consider the box would have a tracker? Probably because in this short season we don’t have time for any more plot logic. Jack’s gotta get to the box in only another episode or 2 (sorry, I’ve lost count, though pretty soon the hours gotta start flying by to make it to 24).

So, the tracker’s active and Jack’s active, still in full Mighty Mouse mode.

While he’s closing in as we find out something we shoulda known the moment JJ’s crew told him they’d be ready for it in “15 or 20 minutes.” Never is time uncertain on 24. Indeed, JJ and Chloe reach the backup hideout and find all their peacenik friends brutally tied up and murdered, slaughtered. We are given the dignity of dramatic pause as it starts to sink in to JJ and Chloe. Though only starts to, for how could they ever figure out that the dirty deed was done by the Chinese?!? The same Chinese JJ’s been dealing with? The same Chinese with the aircraft carrier in the Red Sea? No? Yes? Who knows? But it is the Chinese guy who tortured Jack and Audrey for months. Chloe knows. They put on some gratuitous torture and threats that wouldn’t work on me (like Kate’s ploy wouldn’t have, either), but they work on Chloe, who hacks into the box so the Chinese can use it. Once in, they kill JJ (not before he tells Chloe a secret that she can’t believe he kept for so long), and order a US sub to blow up the only Chinese carrier! On the clock as always, 24 didn’t even think about taking a Crimson Tide moment before the torpedoes hit their mark.

And why didn’t Jack arrive alive? Remember the Russians? Not a block from saving the day, just in time the Russians in a freakin’ truck t-bone Jack and Kate in their SUV, knocking it on its side. Another Bambi v. Godzilla moment? Heck, no! Jack and Kate extricate from the now-rotated-90° SUV unscratched and mad enough to start shooting things. But those extracurriculars took the precious time the Chinese needed to light the fuse for WWIII: the explosion of the carrier. Sphere: Related Content