Season 9, Live Another Day: 9pm-10pm, Raveling threads

 

The OK Corral has lots of legs. Jack and Kate are in the same gunfight we left them 5 minutes ago, taking cover behind SUVs and picking off Russians with ease, getting missed as they flit about as if Spock had mind melded with them, too.  Backup arrives to corral the Russians left standing, but too bad the gun fight caught the eye of Chinese (but not the Brit authorities? Aren’t they watching all those cameras, too?). Evil freelance Chinese with the box skedaddles with Chloe in tow (they like her for her brains, though she tries their patience by trying to sneak a stray cell phone with her). Jack and Kate get there just too late, but Kate finds another cell phone that was on record—they play it back, and Jack hears his former torturer, whom everybody thought was dead. Put that together with the Russians’ ambush that Jack linked to Mark, and the threads of the tapestry start tying themselves up.

Meanwhile PH’s long day is plodding along. In staff meeting with what appears to be the Joint Chiefs somehow in London, he sees that the Chinese carrier looks like the San Diego fireworks of a couple years ago. Jack calls to tell everyone who’s responsible, and just ‘cause it’s Jack they all believe EFC is still alive. Audrey’s a bit shaken as he tortured her into catatonia, but she’s alright now, as she tells worried Mark. PH sends the sub responsible for the ‘splosion to clean up the mess and finally gets a call from the Chinese premier. Premier isn’t buying the “Ooops” theory, isn’t buying the dead Chinese renegade theory either. In other words, he’s not looking happy, and he’s not going off half-cocked, but he’s not saying what he’s up to. Staff scramble, including Audrey who has a contact who might help convince premier it was an accident.

Jack calls Audrey for yet another tender moment. Normal Jack things are gonna happen, and he doesn’t want her to hate him. She says she could never hate him, and do what has to be done. Cool! Jack has an open hand and clear conscience. That’s a load off my mind, worried as I was that with Audrey’s specter hanging over him we were in for a booring final episode and a half.

To get this party started, he stops by to see his old buds PH and Mark. He barges into the staff meeting without needing to incapacitate any security (booring!), and hustles PH and Mark into a private room. He uses the ol’ gun-to-the-head trick again (booring!—this is what he needed Audrey’s approval for?), this time on Mark, and Mark cops to (almost) everything—forging PH’s signature, putting the Russians onto Jack, everything but being a worried, jealous, overprotective, Jack-a-phobe hubby. PH is ready to arrest him for treason (might as well, ‘cause Jack has other plans, so whatever PH wants or says doesn’t matter), but Jack thinks the Russian ambassador could clue them in to where the Chinese are. Sure seems that Mark might as well have mentioned the worried hubby angle—that might have garnered him some more sympathy.

Jack and Mark head out on Mark’s 1^st field trip, with Kate in tow. Mark’s all worried, wanting to know what to do when the bullets start flying—Jack deadpans, “Duck.” They’re going to the ambassador’s house, er, residence. CIA is helping with figuring out the security, but Mark has to go in 1^st because their files are old. Mark talks his way in, feigning he’s seeking asylum with lots of top secret post-Snowden intel. And even we don’t know whether he’s lying! So much the better to pull off a ruse.

We’re surprised to see the plan works like clockwork (booring!). Mark gets in to the ambassador, gets asked what he wants, and he says $$$. Ambassador sneers, saying, “It’s always money.”  But wait! There’s a commotion! There’s a drawer with a gun! We remember Mark’s in the field for the 1^st time ever and nervous. There’s a tussle for the gun. Jack and Kate are making mincemeat of the security (booring!), Mark remembers he’s supposed to keep Ambassador occupied, they tussle some more and crash through a glass door just as Jack and Kate finish mopping the floor with the goons. Great, another fine mess for Jack (and Kate) to clean up.

Even more so when they see it was real glass, not the Hollywood stunt glass that shatters harmlessly. No, this glass stuck a shard in Ambassador’s jugular. Which he is stupid enough to pull out. Or stupid like a fox so that Jack has no chance to torture him. And torture used to be such an important part of this show. Kate looks surprisingly like Mark as they both stand there twiddling their thumbs. Jack sends Kate to find a towel as Mark is a better twiddler, but it really seems either an article of clothing would be faster or it doesn’t really matter. Ambassador lives long enough to say, “You’re not getting anything outta me, copper” and for Kate to return with the towel.

And Jack’s suddenly outta angles.

But wait, I can’t keep all these threads going simultaneously in a blog, so you’ve gotta be thinking there’s more going on somewhere that’ll give that resourceful Jack hope. Captive Chloe clocks a couple o’ Chinese while they’re kidnapping her to the docks for an escape, and she escapes! Except she does it by jumping out of a moving van going 50 mph and rolling down a forested hill. She doesn’t look to be in very good shape, mostly or more unconscious, and no one, not even she, knows where she is.

OK, what about Audrey and that mysterious Chinese contact? They meet in a spooky park w/ Audrey’s security all around (since when does she rate her own security?). We’ve learned Chinese premier has jets and battleships on the move (I sure hope those jets can keep up with the battleships), but no one knows where to. Still they’re slow enough that some back channel work like what Audrey’s up to could stop them before WWIII starts for real. Audrey makes her pitch to her pal, who pauses for dramatic effect before saying, ….

Really, what’s the point of that pause? Is she really gonna say, “Nope”? Maybe it’s just more gratuitous suspense. Maybe there’s not enough plot to eat up the entire hour, so she’s stalling for time. Maybe this is this actor’s only screen time, and she’s making the most of it.

If you chose door number three, you’re right. Sniper takes her out. Then takes out both security dudes (seems like a prudent sniper would take them out 1st). Then Audrey gets a call from a familiar voice—a chilling EFC, who tells her to cool her heels.

Oh, and for the record, in case the suspense was killing you, Audrey’s gal pal agreed.

We close out this hour with Kate and Jack rifling through drawers and computers and Chloe’s eyes opening. That’s as much hope as there is for the final hour, and the only question I’m left with is "how come it’s not a 2hr season finale?" 'cause these threads ain't gonna ravel themselves.

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Season 9, Live Another Day: 3pm-4pm: Where’s Jack?

So, where’s Jack? Was it good or bad that it took me a day or two to realize how little Jack did this episode? Good, I guess, because it means that I was plenty entertained by the rest of the story. We saw Jack at the start as Kate (character formerly known as DQ) has him in custody only to lose him to the Marines who don’t think the CIA has any jurisdiction in the embassy. And here’s where Jack does almost the only real thing he does all episode—Marine questions him and he stonefaces (that’s not the real thing, but wait because I gotta set the stage), 

 

(he’s pretty good at that, but  is he the best?), then everybody wants to know where the crooshall missing cirkit is—get ready for Jack’s one real thing—they start asking around, and Kate (who has it!) offers that it musta gotten lost when the Marines blasted their way in, and that’s clever, too, as she infuses the comment with a disparaging tone that starts to deflect attention from their questions. And here’s the brilliance of Jack (and the writers)—Jack goes just wild enough to fully distract from the question, Kate figures she can slip out unnoticed and does so. And the Marines and the viewers don’t even realize the brilliance!

Other than that? Jack gets delivered to Pres. Heller and on the way Audrey spots him. Jack tells PH just enough but not enough, saying he’s got a lead, but anybody else would screw it up, so if you don’t let me play, I’m taking my ball and going home. I hope you can save the day without me, but you can’t. Jack even promises to give himself up after he saves the day, let the Russians have me, just let me go into the field again, please? OK, he didn’t say, “please,” so maybe that’s why he stays stuck in that windowless room. (PH and the writers disappoint me here, not having any angle Jack didn’t think of to use for bargaining.)

Audrey then finds him and spends some quality time alone, up close, and personal with him. He’s almost as good at stonefacing her as the Marines. I still have the memory of her having been memory-wiped into a zombie and not knowing Jack some seasons ago, but though married (“Mark treats me well,” Jack is kind enough to inquire after), she still wants something from Jack. Luckily, she walks out before any of that something happens, and that’s about it for Jack this episode. What else happens that’s so interesting?

Pres. Heller and everybody else learn Jack was right, as the Air Force loses control of and touch with drones of death. Good thing they’re the latest stealth technology with no IR signal, no radar presence. When will we learn to beware of the ultimate weapon? OK, yeah, no great surprise there. But how ‘bout this: Audrey heads out to setup a meet between the Brit PM and PH (1^st indication that Audrey has any kind of official status here), Mark heads out, too. And the 24 world comes crashing down (is there any other way?) as he apologizes. He says he was wrong, the one who let his emotions cloud his judgment when he argued to take Jack down. Where’s the drama in that? Where’s the dramatic tension as he plots to get his way? What happens to the forged presidential signature on the rendition order for Jack? The good guys are gonna start acting like a team? I never saw that coming in a 24 season.

And then there’s the terrorists. MEH snuck traceability into Mummy’s message of ultimatum to the world (give me Heller or I blow up Britain). CIA finally figures it out, and CIA station chief Steve leads the charge of field ops to the location. MEH asks to take a break from flying the DoD so he can see wifey, and Mummy says Sonny learned enough from watching MEH that MEH can go—but be back in 15 min so you can blow something up. MEH sees wifey, tells her (will he ever learn?) his new plan—the traceability, plus hiding evidence that proves wifey’s innocent; she looks all doe-eyed, lovey-dovey, thank you my one true love! He heads back to the dirty job of piloting the DoD.

But he looks at his watch! Mummy, all coy, asks what’s he nervous about (I’m wondering why look at the watch? It’s not as if the traceable message included a timer, but this is the clock-watching 24 we’re watching here). Mummy says they found his handiwork and converted it into sending the CIA into a trap. Sonny takes over again, goon hits MEH, and everybody heads downstairs. Mummy holds a gun to MEH’s head, MEH pleads for wifey, who still loves him, to save him, and wifey, apparently no dummy, or at least a good agenda-driven terrorist gives us the blank eyed stare. Mummy pulls the trigger, ending one more possibility for drama in this series, although no one really thought it’d ever amount to very much, did you? New-widow doesn’t shed a tear.

CSCS and field ops now are headed into a trap without knowing about Sonny’s itchy but green trigger finger. Kate, remember her?, thinks something’s fishy—how could Mummy have been sloppy enough to leave a trace? Kate (even though CSCS again took her off duty, so OK, there is some drama left in her and in this show) calls her new BFF Chloe, who finds something screwy in Mummy’s transmission, tells Kate, who once again upon the word of someone she knows only as a wanted criminal immediately convinces everybody at CIA that they don’t know what they’re doing. CSCS and team hightail it outta the empty estate just as Sonny drops the laser-guided missiles from DoD#1. Live feed from the team goes down, and no one—not CIA, not Pres. Heller, not Brit PM watching with Heller—knows what happened to the team.

But they now know the one lead they had, the one lead they were counting on, the one lead that meant they didn’t need Jack, wasn’t all that good. Think Jack will hold a grudge and not play ball when they come crawling back, now that they know he was right all along?

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