Season 3, Episode Recaps, 5am-1pm

Below are just the episode recaps without all the extra blathering and tangents I tend to take off on :)

5am-6am

6am - 7am

Before I begin I just want to say that this episode ranks, for me, as one of the most emotional... most haunting episodes out of all three seasons. I realise some may find others, such as Teri's death, or Mason's sacrifice, more emotional but somehow, those were different. I cried more during Jack's goodbye to Kim in the plane more than I did for Mason's demise. But to me, Teri was killed by the 'bad guy' and it was definitely shocking and heart-wrenching. Mason was dying anyway and it was nice to see him take the hero route out. But last night's hour was different. And I'll explain later on why.

We begin with Wayne and David discussing Saunder's latest demand. Wayne attempts to justify it, Palmer angry at feeling powerless. But there's no way out. He has to continue to string Saunders along by giving in until CTU can find him and stop him. But it's hard for David to justify killing a top level government agent. How can David be above the law himself and order the execution of an innocent? Why does Saunders want Chappelle dead? We're led to believe from the last episode that Saunders knows Chappelle is following the 'bank trail'. So is he ordering the President to kill him merely as a way of using Palmer like a puppet? 'Look what I can make you do?' Or is he truly worried about what Chappelle may find? He did say that he knew Chappelle... I don't know. I hope all becomes clear soon.

Anyway, back at CTU Jack and Chase arrive with the hard drive from MI-6. He hands it off to Tech for analysing and then goes to see Chappelle. At this point, Jack doesn't know about Saunder's latest deman, and so he and Chappelle basically just catch each other up on what they're doing. They're interrupted by Chloe who tells Jack the President wants to speak with him in private. Palmer then proceeds to tell Jack that he has to deliver Chappelle's body to a trainyard downtown by 7am. I think Jack is stunned by this - stunned and confused. Why Chappelle? He's just a beaurocrat. What possible connection could the Suit have with an ex-MI-6 agent? Jack quickly realises that Palmer has no choice on this one. He knows there are eleven vials of virus out there in the world and after the Hotel, he knows Saunders has no qualms about releasing them. His only hope is to find Saunders before 7am.

Jack hangs up with Palmer and goes off to sort out the information Chappelle is working on. He puts Chloe on it. It was kind of nice to have some Chloe moments this episode. She was in rare form because Chappelle's mad at her for like, twelve things you see :) So while Jack's doing that Tony speaks to Michelle about the suicide capsules he's sending over. He's losing it, I can tell. The quivering chin, the swollen voice, the beads of sweat. The day is taking its toll on Tony and despite Chappele's harsh words the hour before, Tony can't forget his wife may be dying. As he hangs up with Michelle, after promising not to 'say their goodbyes' because the time isn't right, Tony struggles to regain control over his emotions when Jack walks in.

The power of a look says it all really. Jack knows what Tony's suffering through. You could see it in Jack's eyes - sympathy, strength... But there's business at hand to deal with and so they get on with it. Jack asks Tony if he knows of any possible connection between Chappelle and Saunders. Tony can think of none. Nada. He wants to know why Jack is asking. 'Because Saunders wants him dead.' He explains Saunders' demand to a bewildered Tony who then decides he needs to downgrade his security clearance because he's now a flight risk. Jack realises he's going to have to tell Chappelle the truth, but he and Tony decide to keep the info from everyone else.

As he walks back into Chappelle's work area, Ryan asks him what the President wanted. Rather than dance around the issue, Jack tells him flat out. Ryan is of course, visibly shaken. He staunchly denies ever even hearing Saunders' name before this day (which blows my theory that Chappelle might have had a hand in Operation Nightfall...) He's clearly confused about why he's on the chopping block all of the sudden. He's just the Suit. Jack deduces that it has to be because Ryan is on to something as he followed the money trail. He tells Ryan to give everything he's been working on over to Chloe so she can begin digging. I think Ryan, despite being shaken and disturbed by this, holds onto some hope that Jack the miracle-man can somehow find Saunders before 7am. As he tries to carry on working he comes up with an offshore bank account and tries to access it. But of course it's encrypted. "Another brick wall!" shouts an exasperated Ryan. Jack has him send that over to Chloe to break.

As Jack and Ryan work hard to track Saunders we go back to the Chandler Plaza Hotel in time to find Michelle looking upset to see Phillips, her stoic head of Security at the hotel come into the isolation area for those infected. His nose is bleeding profusely, and to see him like that seems to hit her hard. Phillips asks with quiet dignity if he can phone his wife. He just wants to hear her voice one last time. He says they can listen in and he won't say anything about the virus. But Michelle is forced to refuse his request. Man that was heartbreaking. I know she couldn't let him but still... *sniffle*

She turns to face everyone gathered behind plastic curtains. Michelle takes a moment to gather herself and then she tells everyone, in as direct a manner as she can, that they are going to die. She lays out the time frame, the symptoms, and that it will be extremely painful. She then offers them the alternative of the suicide capsules that will be arriving shortly. She wants them to know that they have to make the choice themselves, but that an alternative to a painful death is available. The pain and sympathy in her face is evident and it almost overwhelms you. To have to tell so many people they're about to die in a horrible way and they did nothing to deserve it... What a terrible burden but Michelle handles it well, with professionalism and dignity.

When she's done telling them about the capsules, she's informed by Sunny (I think) that there is that a possibility of an infected guest has escaped the hotel. The guest was a man who was there for a one night stand with some chick he met in a club. He was exposed but left before the hotel had been fully locked down and is apparently unaware of the happenings at the hotel. Michelle speaks to the woman who had come forward once she learned the gravity of the situation and Michelle orders her room to be dusted for prints by a forensics team (one of which was apparently Ed Miller whom you'll remember from Season 2 as the agent Jack drugged in the van with Nina :)

Meanwhile back at CTU, Chloe's a little short with Jack when he asks her to work only on breaking the encrypted account but won't tell her why. Chloe Chloe Chloe... Never question Jack. You just do as he says :) Kim offers to help Chloe and as Jack heads back over to Ryan, he notices Ryan has left the area. Ruh-roh. We then see Ryan trying to head out of the building, but jack was too quick for him. He had alerted security not to let Ryan out of the building and he confronted him in the hall flanked by two more security guys. Ryan claims to have just been going for a smoke. Jack asks Ryan to show him the pack of cigs. Ryan just looks at him. Jack then orders Ryan back to a holding room under the authority given to him by the President. Ryan gives him one of those 'you idiot' looks and holds up a pack of Camel Lights as he heads back with security.

Tony lets Jack know that Chase will head up a strike team to snatch Saunders when the info comes in and that he's ordered a helicopter for him and Ryan to take the to the trainyard. He then gets a call from Michelle letting him know that a possible infected victim has gotten out of the hotel and into the general population and they are working on identifying him. As they're pulling prints from the bar babe's room Michelle asks her to go over exactly what happened as they came into the room. She tells Michelle they began to kiss, they did not turn on the lights but headed for the bed. She says he began taking off her clothes, first her shirt, then her pants and it's then that Michelle notices the woman's belt. It has a metal, flat buckle and after examining it, they were able to pull a partial thumb off of it that did not belong to the woman.

She sends the print back to CTU and as Adam begins attempting to match it, we switch over to some guy sneaking back into his room at home, trying not to awaken his wife. At first I was like, 'Who the hell is this?' before it dawned on me that it's the infected hotel guy. His name is William Cole. Anyway Cole's wife wakes up anyway and questions him, but he just says he's been in meetings or whatever lame lie cheating husbands usually come up with and he heads into the bathroom. As he's washing his face, of course his nose begins to bleed. Dum da dum dum.

Chloe does it again! She decrypts the bank account and it shows that its been accessed as recently as 45 minutes before from a location not far from CTU. Chase is given the go ahead to hit the location. Jack tells Ryan the news and relief emanates from him like cheap cologne. He hugs Jack and begins to feel safe again. And I have to say the hug this time wasn't nearly as awkward as his hug with Michelle earlier in the day :) But the feeling of elation passes quickly as a grim Jack tells Ryan that they still have to go to the trainyard, just in case Chase's mission fails. He tries to assure Ryan by saying it's just a precaution, but there's still a sense of finality to it that forces Ryan to feel a returning sense of dread.

As they head for the roof, we go visit Palmer and find out that his press secretary is beginning to get 'feelers' from the press about what's happening at the Chandler. He tells the President that he appreciates that there are things he can't know but if what's happening at the hotel is connected to the red alert the President ordered, he should know. Wayne agrees and tells him about the virus. Clearly this disturbs the press secretary but he shoulders the info well for now. Palmer doesn't want him going public with anything until the virus is contained.

As Jack and Ryan prepare to board the helicopter, Chase stops them and asks why Jack's not going with him to get Saunders. Ryan tells him that he's ordered Jack over to Division to answer more questions. Chase kind of loses it and unleashes a bit of vitriol at Ryan, saying he's always putting obstacles in their way etc etc.. I think if 24 were on HBO we'd have heard a bit of strong profanity there :) But it was almost bittersweet because we know, and Jack and Ryan know that Ryan's probably never going to see CTU, or fly in a helicopter or anything ever again. He has to put his life in Chase's hands right now - well his hand anyway. It's kind of sad.

So Jack and Ryan fly off in the chopper, Jack at the controls, and Chase heads off to get Saunders. Adam pulls up 300 potential matches on the partial thumbprint and they have the woman at the hotel begin going through them until she finally identifies the guy. We see Saunders in his flat speaking to a flunky. He discovers only three of his operatives were able to reach their target cities before everything got grounded by the red alert. His casualty list has diminished. But this seems of little importance to him. 5 million dead, fifty million dead, it doesn't seem to matter. The flunky also seemed a bit worried about the possibility of the virus spreading beyond 'the Americas' but Saunders assured him that he was safe.

As Jack and Tony land at the trainyard, Tony patches them both into the realtime relay of Chase's operation. In a fakeout worthy of Silence of the Lambs, Chase and Agent Baker (whom you might also remember from Season 2 as the agent who helped Jack with Kate, Syed Ali and the bomb at the airport) take out, I think, five guards around the address Chloe got from the bank account, only to burst into the apartment to find nothing more than a switching node. The apartment is otherwise unoccupied.

Jack's cell phone rings as Chappelle quietly tries to disappear into his seat. With tears in his eyes, Jack answers. It's Saunders calling to gloat and to remind Jack that he expects Ryan's body to be left with his thugs who will be arriving in a van shortly. Ryan's face is pale. I can't imagine the things that might be going through his mind right at this moment. He knows he's doomed, and he knows Jack *will* carry out the order. God...

As they await the arrival of Saunders' thugs, we go back to the hotel and Dr. Sunny Macer grimly announces that the capsules have arrived. At first, the people are reluctant to come forward. What a decision to have to make. If it were me, I would be so torn between holding out hope that it's either all a dream, or that there is a cure because how tragic would it be to take your own life only to have it come out later that there is an antidote? Not that I think there is one of course, I just mean that's the sort of thing that would go through my mind. Maybe I'd feel differently once the pain of it set in.

Anyway, an older couple finally come forward with as much dignity as they can muster and they take the capsules from Sunny. We cut over to Cole, who is thinking he's caught a bug of some kind. His face is ashen and sweaty. he tells his wife he has to get to work.

And that's enough of everyone else. I want to concentrate on the end of the episode. Jack and Ryan are still in the chopper as a black van pulls up and waits. Jack phones CTU and has Adam position a satellite in an attempt to track the van after it leaves. He's sure Saunders will have counter-measures in place but he wants to try anyway. Jack tells Ryan it's time to go and gets out of the helicopter. He comes around to Ryan's door and when he opens it, Ryan says, "My legs are shaking." He says it in an almost perfunctory manner. Almost as if he's outside of the situation and clinically reporting the sensations he's feeling. His voice didn't shake, that I could tell, but just looking at him you can see the fear in his eyes.

"I've got you." Jack says as he helps Ryan out of the helicopter. Gutting.

They walk toward a spot between two trains and Jack asks Ryan if there's anyone he wants to talk to. But Ryan, sadly has no one. He says he has a brother that he hasn't spoken to in years. And he looks at Jack with such a look of.. I don't quite know but it was touching. He tells Jack that he didn't have many friends. So there's no one for him to say goodbye to. I think that's so sad. Jack has Ryan get down on his knees and this shapes up to be a classic execution pose. But with a single tear slipping down his face (an image I haven't been able to get out of my head all day today), Ryan pleads with Jack to let him have some dignity and take his own life. He swears he will not run all the while confessing that when Jack caught him before at CTU he had been prepared to bolt. But now he won't. He couldn't be responsible for the deaths of millions.

Jack concedes and hands Ryan his gun. After an anguishing minute watching Ryan hold the gun to his temple as Jack stands in front of him as witness to this atrocity, Ryan takes it away. He's unable to go through with it. I believe Jack understands. I believe Jack hoped Ryan would be able to do it himself, but he understood when he couldn't go through with it.. He takes his gun back, walks behind Ryan...

"God forgive me."

Jack fires and shoots Ryan in the head. Ryan falls to the ground with a sickening thud. And we see the silent clock tick down the end of the hour.

Earlier in this post I said that Chappelle's death was different. It was in that he wasn't killed by a baddie, he wasn't taken out in the line of duty... He was summarily executed by one of his own at the bidding of a terrorist. Here's a man who, an hour ago, was dinking around on a computer going blind from looking at endless numbers. Suddenly he's given less than an hour to reconcile himself to his own death. I can't even begin to imagine what that would feel like and like I said, the tear slipping down Ryan's cheek as he plead with Jack remains stuck in my head today.

7am - 8am

Well here it is, the day after, and I'm still feeling as though last night's show was more of a transitional show to move the story along. But that's okay. That's not a bad thing because it was still pretty kickass and I'm going to try not to compare to episode 18.

So we opened with Jack staring at Ryan's body. Yep, he is most definitely dead. *moment of silence for friend-less hero Ryan Chappelle*.... You know, I bet Jack doesn't have many friends either. I can't imagine him coming home from a day like this one and stopping off at Albertson's to pick up hot dogs for a barbecue with the neighbours at the weekend. But at least he has Kim......

As Jack stands over the body, Saunders' thugs pull up in the unmarked black van and proceed to check him for tracking devices. Jack stands facing them in classic Jack-and-his-gun pose that I love so very much. One of the thugs stands in much the same pose but doesn't look nearly as cool as Jack. They leave with the body and Jack hurries back to the chopper to head back to CTU. As he flies back he calls Palmer to inform him that the deed is done. Palmer's pissed off and does not want to continue down this road of caving in to Saunders' demands. He asks Wayne to convene the cabinet. (About time too.)

Back at CTU the techs discover a thread Ryan was working up 'on his own'. Why he didn't mention it to Jack during the scramble to save his life remains to be seen, but we find out that Saunders has a daughter. A nineteen year old student at UC Santa Barbara named Jane. When Jack calls in to CTU to inform Tony about Chappelle he learns about this and correctly assumes Saunders will have someone watching Jane so he suggests trying to find a look-alike agent to swap her with while Jane is interrogated. Chloe gets right on it. But uh-oh... The only viable look-alike is Kim. You can tell Tony is not happy about having to tell Jack he needs to send his daughter into the field. Kim is informed about the need to use her but Tony, very benignly I thought, tells her that the choice is hers. He won't order her to do it. Kim bravely agrees. Yes I said bravely. I'd be scared to death to do something so risky - but especially knowing my father is going to go ballistic when he finds out.

As of this moment in the hour the agents are also working on tracking Cole who's out and about infecting as he goes. Cole's nose is bleeding profusely so he goes to a pharmacy, bumps into a lady there and infects everyone with whom he comes into contact. Don't forget that once a person becomes symptomatic, they are extremely contagious. Chase has interrogated Cole's wife who realises her hubby was out cheating on her and voices her opinion that she hopes he dies. She's going to get her wish methinks. But alas, so will she because she was around him when he began to bleed.

As Kim prepares to head for Santa Barbara, Chloe gets a little bitchy about Kim getting sent out in the field. I'm getting the distinct impression that Chloe is going to lose it at some point in the next few hours. She keeps making comments such as 'This thing is out of control.' and looking increasingly more worried. I wonder if she'll go into panic mode and botch something up.

Jack returns and asks Tony for an update on the look-alike. When he finds out Kim's the one, man-oh-man does he go ballistic. Poor post-surgery Tony gets knocked around the room by a furious Jack who refuses to let her go into the field. But Tony's got some cajones because he won't back down. Kim works for him, not Jack and it was her decision to go through with it. So Jack barges into the room where Kim is being briefed and manhandles everyone but her out of the room. I haven't seen Jack this pissed for a while now. I think I like it *flashes her SFU card :)*

Jack informs Kim that he will not allow her to go through with this. He tells her, quite forcefully as he pushes her against the wall that he put her at CTU to keep her safe. But Kim tearfully tells her father that she took the job because she wanted it. That she feels it's her decision - her duty to do as she's asked. This was such a good scene, I enjoyed it immensely. Jack can't think of anything to stop his daughter. He has no choice but to let her, but heaven help anyone who might tell him he can't head the mission.

When she's through being prepped, Jack escorts her onto the helicopter pad and tells her to keep her head down as much as possible and stay at least 10 feet behind the counter of the library where Jane Saunders works. He hands her a gun and they board the chopper. Kind of eerie to think this is the same chopper Chappelle was sitting in just a half an hour earlier. And you know, I've been to Santa Barbara and L.A. and I can't recall how far away they are from each other. I know in 24-land distances are shorter and as a fan one must be willing to suspend disbelief now and again, but it didn't seem to take long to fly to UCSB. But I shall fanwank it if they did fusge that a little. It matters not in the grander scheme of the show.

While they are en route, Palmer addresses his cabinet and catches them up on the events at the Chandler. Why haven't they been told before now I wonder? There was a feeling of stunned horror when they were told that the President has already given in to 2 of Saunders' demands. But Palmer waves off the talk of never negotiating by explaining that he was trying to buy time for CTU to find Saunders. He had no choice but to order Chapelle's death because it could prevent, or at least delay the deaths of millions. He then asks his staff to open up all of their files so that CTU has everything they might need at their disposal.

At CTU, Chloe asks Tony about something regarding Chapelle's 3pm briefing and Tony takes that moment to tell the staff that Ryan has been killed in the line of duty. He doesn't go into detail, but you can see how shocked everyone is. He may not have been liked, but it's still disheartening to lose on of your own. This makes me ponder whether the staff will ever know that Jack killed him. I don't think that would be announced, but eventually, assuming Jack lives through all of this, he will have to be debriefed and surely it would come out then. Would he be vilified for what he had to do?

Anyway, Chase calls in and learns that Kim's out in the field, which pisses him off, but methinks Chase is getting a bit uppity lately. Maybe sort of cocky. I don't know how he ranks in the organization but he doesn't seem to be leery of piping in his opinion without knowing the facts first. Maybe when he learns of Ryan's death and the manner in which it took place he'll learn that he lives on a need-to-know basis and to keep his mouth shut. I'm not dissing Chase because I like him, but the past couple of hours he's gotten a little cocky.

By this time our contagious cheating husband has found his way to an Urgent Care Center (later we learn the address of it and I swear I heard Tony say Something and Morepark - er however it's spelled. Could it be the very same Urgent Care Center where Jack ripped open a man to get a chip only to find himself in the basement of it getting tortured minutes later? I think it might be!) and after a while the staff behind the desk cops onto who he is and he's quickly isolated. But not before he's infected everyone he's come into contact with in the waiting room. Once CTU learns he's been caught, we learn the 'ripple effect' of the fact that he was out wandering the streets in his condition. It's entirely possible that CTU now has to deal with an outbreak.

Now we visit Saunders who receives verification that Chappelle is indeed dead (told you!) Saunders tells a flunky to be sure that Jane is kept in sight constantly because the next few hours are crucial to his plans apparently. He then rings Palmer. Now we get to learn about his 'main event' and his motives (maybe). Seems he wants to 'cleanse' America and prevent further American atrocities by dismantling military operations around the world. I nicked that bit of info from FOX because I'll admit this part of the episode was a bit unclear to me. Saunders said 'The world hates America.' I know that much. Well *I* could have told Palmer that. So Saunders tells Palmer instead and then demands he be given a list of foreign nationals working covertly as spies in their own countries. The list is to be transmitted via the web at the site called sylviaimports.com. (Go ahead, click it :) ). And like I said a post or so ago, the domain is registered to Rodney Charters :) Saunders gives Palmer an hour to comply or he'll release 2 vials of virus.

Jack and Kim land at UCSB and Kim gets into hair and makeup. Other agents have already set up a staging area on campus and are ready for them to arrive. As Kim is made up to look like Jane, Jack gets a little touchy about the shade of the wig Kim is wearing. I can feel his angst at letting his daughter do this. He wants nothing to go wrong and every little detail counts. But there's nothing they can do about the wig. Soon Kim is positioned inside the library bathroom, ready for the swap. An agent spills a drink on Jane, forcing her to go into the bathroom to clean up. She's chloroformed, her clothes are switched with Kim's and Kim heads back out into the library, followed very closely by CTU surveillance. She does pretty well and is soon situated behind a computer and out of site of people in the library - one of whom could be Jane's bodyguard.

While Kim seems to be relatively okay, Jack leaves the monitor to the other agents and goes to interrogate Jane. And what I would have given to be Jane Saunders at this point in time. Phwoar. He wakes her up with the old smelling salt trick (do those things really smell that bad?) and Jane is frightened (understandably.) She's handcuffed to a chair alone in a room with Jack. Oh god I think I just had an orgasm. He asks her to tell him where her father is and of course, she says she doesn't know. They barely speak. They just have dinner twice a year and he sends money. And of course Jack does not believe her. She he lays it all out for her. Everything her father is doing, and very menacingly tells her that there will be no lawyers today. It's just him, and her. *shiver*

Unfortunately, they are interrupted. A man with a red shirt is trying to get Kim to help him and this man is one the agents had been wary of. So Jack goes out to monitor Kim again and has her step away from the desk and go put some books away on the shelf as another library staff member helps the man with the red shirt. As Kim sort of hides in the stacks, the surveillance camera pans away from her and they're unable to see her. It's just then that she's grabbed by Jane's bodyguard and dragged out of the library. In a flash Jack's out of the surveillance room and running across the campus towards the library. Before he gets to it, Kim has managed to knock the guy's gun out of his hand and pull out her own. During their struggle there is a gunshot and the guy goes down (oh for a split second we're left to wonder if it was Kim who was shot, but no it wasn't. Ha ha faked us out :)

As Jack calls for help with the guy, Kim says to Jack, "Saunders is going to know we have his daughter." Tick boom, tick boom.

Phew!! See? Like I said a hell of a lot of exposition, mixed with some action, angst, and anger. Good stuff!

8am - 9am

First, this episode has left me worrying about Tony. The choice he made in this hour was a horrible one to have to make and I'm left to wonder if it was the right thing to do, and what would I do in such a situation. Would I have the nerve to sacrifice a loved one for the 'greater good'? I don't know :(

But we left off with Kim telling Jack that Saunders is going to know CTU has his daughter. This hour we open at CTU with Adam briefing everyone about the containment areas that are popping up. He says they will continue to increase exponentially. One of the neighbourhoods mentioned is Hancock Park. We all know who lives there... (Kate in case you didn't.) They also mentioned a containment area set up in the Silverlake District which, if you didn't know, is Kiefer Sutherland's neighbourhood :) A fun little nod. Well maybe not so fun considering the neighbourhood's about to become infected, but you know what I mean :)

So after Adam's briefing, Tony tells everyone that the mission has now switched from prevention to containment. Back at UCSB, Jack comforts a shaken Kim when one of the other agents lets him know he can question Jane some more. This second interrogation is interesting because Jack has, once again, switched personalities. He's no longer menacing and scary towards her. Instead he's soothing. Firm, but soothing. I think he truly believes that Jane has no idea of what her father's really like. He tells Jane that he knows her father. He used to work with him. Then he shows her images of them on the Operation Nightfall mission (which I have to say was uber-cool to see shots of the building Jack and his team blew up in order to kill Drazen). Jane is still reluctant to believe Jack, but when he plays her the audio of Saunders' latest threat to the president and then a live feed into the Chandler Plaza Hotel and the people dying there, she caves. She tells Jack she has a phone number and that she's only supposed to use it in an emergency.

Back at District, the deadline approacheth on when Palmer is to have that list of spies uploaded to sylviaimports.com. But Palmer is reluctant to release this info and once again is relying on Jack to do something, anything, to allow him not to have to give up the list. Around this time, Secret Service Agent Pierce enters the room flanked by several other agents and informs Palmer that they are invoking Section something something of the Secret Service Code which gives them the power to remove the President from harm. They tell him they will be flying him out of the state. Palmer takes Aaron aside and gently pleads with Aaron telling him that he believes it would be beneficial for the citizens of Los Angeles to know that their President stood shoulder to shoulder with them during this crisis. Aaron relents and leaves the room.

Since Palmer is refusing to capitulate any further to Saunders' demand, Jack has to use Jane as a hostage and get her to call her father. As the deadline passes for the list, Saunders makes a call and says to his minion, "Release San Francisco." And let me tell you, as someone who used to live near San Fran, that was eerie as hell. But then Jane called and he told the minion to wait.

As Jane speaks to her father, one of his minions alerts Saunders to the fact that the call is being traced (man that is some high techy equipment they have there. I want it.) so Saunders has Jane put Jack on the phone. He tells Jack that he knows what he can do. And Jack, looking directly at Jane, says in a calm, soft yet threatening voice, "You know what I'm capable of too." And man do we ever know what he's capable of. My first thought there was that Saunders knows Jack just executed his own boss.

Adam and the team manage to trace the call in time and come up with a location, so Chase heads up a team to get there, Jack takes off in the chopper to meet them and Kim and a couple other agents escort Jane back to CTU in a car. (Now, SB is 100-ish miles from L.A., it's 8 in the morning and traffic has got to be a bitch. Surely it's going to take Kim and Jane the rest of the season to get back to CTU.... Hehehe.. Suspension of belief. Suspension of belief. That's the key.)

While they are all in travel mode, we get to go back to Michelle who has anxiously been waiting for her test results. It's hot in the hotel with the ventilation shut down and she's a little sweaty. The occasional bead of sweat trickles down her face causing her to automatically check her nose to see if it's bleeding. She's surrounded by the dying and by newly panicked people as they begin becoming symptomatic. There's one heart-wrenching lady who's being escorted by Hazmat into the area for the infected, and she's crying and screaming that she doesn't want to go in there and ohhhh god it was hard to see that.

Dr. Macer brings in Michelle's results as well as the results of an unnamed agent in the room with her. Some damn fine, tense moments here as Michelle's wordless reaction could have been interpreted either way. She calls Tony to tell him that she is fine, and she's one of the immune. Tony breaks down and becomes so teary and I just wanted to hug the both of them. "I can't believe I almost lost you." chokes Tony. "I love you so much." says Michelle. After the emotional sigh of relief between the two of them, Michelle explains that she, along with immune people, is being taken to NHS for observation.

Palmer gives an impromptu address to reporters on the stipulation that the leave cameras and recording equipment out of the room. He sternly tells them that he needs their help in getting the message out to the population that the best thing to do is to stay home.

At CTU, Adam is watching Saunders' location via satellite and keeping Jack apprised of any comings or goings from the building. There is the obligatory perimeter set up around the area and all officers have been told to remain out of sight. It's an exercise in futility though because Saunders knows they have found him. One of his flunkies begins to panic so Saunders shoots him because he has decided that the best way to get away would be to wait until there are more agents around. I fail to see his logic, but then again I'm not an evil mastermind so who am I to talk.

As Adam watches satellite imagery, Chloe learns that Adam's sister is in one of the quarantine zones and has tested positive for the virus. She lets Tony know, but doesn't think he should tell Adam right now because it could affect his work. She gets positively snippy about it until Tony snaps and says, "I'm getting really tired of your personality." Lolololol. Poor Chloe, no one 'gets' her. Tony feels dutybound to tell Adam about his sister and of course, Adam is gutted. Tony tells him that he can speak to his sister, but he needs him to stay on and work until the crisis passes. Adam says he will.

Jack arrives at Saunders' location and Chase fills him in on everything that's been happening since he arrived. Then we get to watch Jack and Chase and a few other agents close in on the location in the absolute coolest way possible - they're hanging onto the sides of an SUV, with the doors open and guns drawn. I can't describe it and do it justice. It was just cool as hell. When they stop, Jack gets on a bullhorn and tells Saunders that he's surrounded and that the President will no longer give in to his demands. He also reminds that they have his daughter. Saunders does not answer.

We cut away quickly to find Kim and Jane's car caught at a train crossing. As they wait for it to pass, a man in black on a motorcycle pulls up alongside and looks in the car.

Back at CTU again and Chloe reports to Tony that Adam screwed up the satellite feed and she feels it's because he's under duress and no longer able to do his job. Adam refuses to admit he made a mistake but is soon proven wrong. He apologizes and Tony makes them get back to work. Chloe tells Adam she'll be checking up on his work every ten minutes.

Back at the hotel Michelle is loaded onto a van with other immune hotel guests.

Saunders calls Jack and says he's not coming out, that he needs time to think and asks Jack to come inside. After he hangs up he gets another call telling him some task has been completed. He then places a call to Tony and tells him to open up a socket at a certain IP address. Tony does and is shocked to see video of Michelle held hostage in the back of a van with a knife to her throat. Saunders tells Tony that Michelle will be dead if he doesn't comply with his wishes. He wants Tony to issue a Code 9 to a team watching the Northeast exit of the building. A Code 9 is apparently an order to leave their posts and help in another section. Tony hesitates, not wanting to comply because he knows the implications. As he hesitates Saunders gives an order to take out Michelle's eye. Tony shouts at him to stop... because he'll do it. He issues the Code 9 and the team leaves the area.

Saunders walks out of the building as casually as you please and gets away. Tick boom, tick boom.

I wonder what Jack would have done in that situation.

9am - 10am

First of all, apologies for the delay. I had intended to have this up yesterday but I woke up with a migraine and couldn't shake it all day. So that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Previously, on 24addict...

I was talking about how deliciously juicy Tony's dilemma has become. The true sign of an excellent story, television show or film is whether people are still talking about it after viewing it and the blowback (to use Sherry's favourite term) on Tony's decision during the last hour has been tremendous. Lines are being drawn in the sand and you either think Tony is treasonous, or you sympathize with his problem. You begin to wonder what will happen to everyone's favourite Cubs fan and how can he possibly extricate himself from this terrible mistake? Does he have a plan? He might given how quickly he was able to think on his feet to get Jane Saunders out of CTU.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. This hour was packed with stuff going on so let's get to it.

We began with Jack and the agents standing around outside Saunders' apartment waiting for him to come out - not yet realising that he's not there. Out of patience, Jack orders in the tear gas (as an aside, man that stuff is painfully nasty. Ugh.) Jack is somewhat shocked to see Agent Baker coming around to the front and asks him what he's doing there. Baker informs Jack that Tony called a code 9 and sent them all around. When jack calls Tony to confront him about his tactical error, Tony blames a staff error and the game of 'Cover Your Ass' begins.

After he hangs up with Jack, Tony disappears into Tech One (I'm starting to love this room. Wish I had toys like that, or at least one of those glow-in-the-dark keyboards) and deletes satellite images of Saunders taking off from the database. As he does this Saunders calls him demanding the release of his daughter or else Michelle will be killed - painfully. And while Tony is being threatened by Saunders, The President calls and interrupts. Tony takes his call and informs him that Saunders was not in the building and that they still don't have him. The President sternly tells Tony that he'd better make sure that Jane - their only link to getting Saunders - is kept guarded and safe.

Palmer then sees a clip of Senator Keeler (remember him?) on telly telling the press that he's confident in his handling of the debate and that losing endorsements (since it became evident that the President is truly dealing with a threat situation) means nothing. Wayne tells Palmer that they need to be thinking about what to do about Keeler but Palmer reminds him that now is not the time. Saunders and the Virus should be their only concern right now.

Once it's confirmed that Saunders is not in the building, Chase and Jack head back to CTU, puzzled and trying to work out how he could have gotten away. Jack confirms with Chloe that Saunders had indeed been in the building and I think at this point the vague idea is forming that Saunders could have help from inside CTU to get away.

As Chloe goes through the satellite imagery she notices the frames that are missing and begins to surmise that someone from within the agency deleted them - that it wasn't just a glitch in the program. She interrupts Adam's tearful conversation with his dying sister in a typical Chloe-like manner and while it may have seemed callous of her to pull him off that call, I do believe she actually felt bad that she had to do it. Something about her facial expression made me think that she did anyway.

Meanwhile, Kim and Jane have arrived back at CTU and Jane is whisked off to a holding room as opposed to a white room (call me ignorant here but I never did understand what a white room was in terms of interrogation. Any explanations would be appreciated :) Kim awaits Ray Plachecki (Placheki? I don't know, Polish names can be difficult.) who will be back to question her about the shooting of Saunders' thug in Santa Barbara. Remember she was at CTU earlier to question Jack about his drug use.

Tony steps into Jane's room and talks to Jane who's beginning to realise she's the government's only leverage against her father. She begins to feel afraid that she will be harmed as they threaten Saunders and she tells Tony that Jack scares her. I think if I were in her shoes Jack would scare me too. He just exudes badassness. But Tony assures her that she won't be harmed in any way. Just then, Saunders calls Tony demanding to speak to his daughter. But Tony won't let him until he's spoken to Michelle (who, by the way, has arrived at some sort of abandoned building and is bound and gagged to a chair there.) Saunders has the duct tape torn from her face (and you can even see the marks on Reiko's face after they do that. Ouch!) and she's allowed to say a few words to Tony. After she tells him she's being treated well, she desperately cries out not to 'do it' - "Don't do it!" she says. I'm guessing she means don't give in to Saunders' demands. But the phone is taken away and Tony is forced to put Jane on speaker. Saunders tells Jane not to believe what the government is telling her. But Jane is scared and shakily asks her father if it's true he's doing this thing with the virus. "I only do things for a good cause." he tells her. Chilling. I think Jane realised then that the government is right about him. Tony then picks up the phone and tells Saunders it will take a while to get Jane out. At this point I was wondering if he was really going to do it or just trying to buy some time.

Out on the floor, the uber-geeks have come to the conclusion that someone within Tony's group accessed and deleted those satellite images. When Adam informs Tony of this, he recommends a lockdown and Tony agrees. Then Dr. Macer calls from NHS to ask where Michelle is. Chloe takes the call and is puzzled. She asks Tony where Michelle could be and he tells her that he had her moved to a secret location where she can be quarantined but still do some work as necessary. He also tells her about a call he just received from Saunders and asks her to analyze it to try and locate him. He warns her, however, that the voice is scrambled and impossible to understand. He just wants her to concentrate on the signatures. And he sends her off to Tech One to do this because he doesn't want Adam to know about it for some reason.

Back at Keeler headquarters, amongst the campaign posters that look suspiciously like John Kerry's campaign posters, Keeler learns that Sherry Palmer's on her way over to see him with a proposal. Uh-oh. When she arrives it's all air kisses and niceties for a little bit, until she drops her bomb. She knows that Keeler's campaign is flailing and she has come to offer him a guaranteed win in November. She tells him that David is an accessory to murder - Milliken's murder. She tells Keeler the true events about what happened to Milliken, and offers proof - his pill bottle with prints on it. She explains that Palmer lied to the police chief about Sherry's involvement in order to protect her and she believes that if Keeler blackmails the President with this information, he will drop out of the race. Asked what she gets out of this, she replies that Keeler will place her in some sort of position on his white house staff. Sherry you bitch! Hell hath no fury I suppose, but damn that's cold.

Back at CTU, Jack and Chase have arrived and are brought up to speed on the satellite issue. Neither can believe there's someone else on the inside helping Saunders out, much less someone from Tony's group. Jack questions Tony about letting Division know about the possibility of a mole but Tony says he doesn't want to raise any red flags over there. So jack says he'll call Hammond about it but Tony says not to worry about it as he has a scheduled conference call set up with Hammond and will tell him himself. Which is totally bogus of course and jack is suspicious. So he has Adam confirm that Tony does NOT have a call set up with Hammond.

Around this time one of Saunders' backup tech flunkies (since he killed his other tech flunky) tells him CTU is trying to run a trace on his phone. After Michelle refuses to tell Saunders how CTU is doing it, he calls Tony, holds a knife to her face, slicing thinly and drawing a little blood until Tony gives in and says he'll stop the trace. So Tony commands Chloe to stop the trace. Just then Jack confronts Tony about his lie regarding the conference call and gets Tony to admit that he made a mistake and tried to cover it up. Not exactly true, but not far from the truth either. This whole chain of events is one big mistake he's trying to cover up. "I made a mistake." says Tony. "No, you made two mistakes." replies Jack. Then he informs Tony that he is taking over command of CTU. Defeated, Tony walks away.

Well defeated and now quite agitated and panicky, Tony calls Saunders to tell him Jack's now in charge of CTU. Saunders could care less really. Tony's only objective now is to get Jane out of the building or risk letting Michelle die a horrible death.

Jack knows Tony is still hiding something from him so he pulls Kim out of some conference room and has her begin monitoring everything. I didn't quite catch what she was supposed to be watching actually. I had thought she was watching exits. But then Tony listens in on a call from Jack to Adam as he has Adam send his files to Kim and asks him to send Chloe to his office. Tony then bypasses some kind of security thing (the Whatever Technology -TM TWoP- on the show baffles me sometimes) and locks Chloe in Tech One just after she informs him that she managed to descramble the voice on the phone call she was tracing.

Kim notifies Jack and Chase that Chloe hasn't refreshed her system in a while, knowing that that is something Chloe would never forget to do and when no one can get through to the tech room, they realise something's up. They hurry down to Tech One, override the access code and find Chloe inside and she quickly tells them that Saunders is using Michelle to make Tony do his bidding. Jack locks down CTU, but it's too late. Tony and Jane are gone. Tony Tony Tony... :(

Tony calls Saunders and tells him they only have 30 minutes before he's picked up on satellite and they arrange a meet. We end back on Keeler who has called David and asked for a meeting. Tick boom, tick boom.

How the hell is Tony going to get out of this. Only three hours left!

10am - 11am

*sob* Only 2 episodes left. TWO!! That's it! I can't explain to you how much that sucks.

This hour was very big budgety exciting. Shootouts, explosions, garbage cans flying everywhere. Good stuff! We start off with the agents scrambling to track Tony down. I believe Chloe manages to do it via street cams in much the same way Kim tracked Kyle Singer earlier. Jack heads off in pursuit.

Meanwhile Kim and Chase have a bit of a moment in the quiet few minutes before he has to head out again when they get a lock on Saunders. Chase tells Kim he loves her and wants to be with her - and that he'd transfer out of field ops if she wanted him to. Kim says she'd consider it but, "I'll raise a baby with you Chase, but I won't raise one for you."

BURN! (Sorry I've just discovered That 70s Show.)

Michelle (looking incredibly tough and angry and ultra-cool btw) starts yelling at the guard, reminding him that 800 people at the hotel are dead because of Saunders and that the virus is out. She's trying to make him choose himself over his boss and it almost looks like it's going to work too, but ultimately, the minion just tells her to shut up.

In an SUV, Tony - nervous and sweating - drives to the pre-arranged meeting point where he's to answer a call from Saunders and decide the exchange site. Jane starts to cop on to the fact that Tony's not really taking her to that 'Division place.' Finally Tony just comes out with it and admits that yes, he has kidnapped her, in a sense because her father is holding his wife hostage, and that he has no choice. Suddenly, sneaky Jack swerves out of nowhere and cuts him off. He pulls his gun and orders Tony to step away from the vehicle. There's a great showdown between the two that is totally worth seeing for yourself. I can't do it justice here. Suffice to say that Tony brings up Teri and Jack gives him a good shove for it. There's finger-pointing, garbage can kicking, shoving, harsh words, bitterness, desperation, pleading, blaming... Fantastic work.

In the end they come to a truce of sorts after Jack convinces Tony that Jane is needed to lure Saunders out into the open. Tony reluctantly gives up the meeting point he was heading to and off they go.

Back to Palmer for a second as Palmer informs Wayne that the best way to proceed with the control of the press is to not release any information about the virus yet because he feels the panic that would ensue would only exacerbate the situation. Then Palmer gets word that Keeler is there to see him and the slimy git is shown in. he proceeds to lay out his and Sherry's blackmail scheme involving Milliken's pill bottle with Sherry's fingerprints on it. In exchange for keeping quiet about it, Keeler demands the President resign in any manner he sees fit as soon as the crisis he's dealing with is over. That would leave him free to win the election in November. Palmer kicks him out of the office.

As Jack, Jane and Tony arrive at the payphone Saunders will be calling, Jack's plan is to have Tony force Saunders into picking a secondary location for the exchange giving CTU more time to get a team in place. Tony's not happy about it, but he gives it a go anyway. He tells Saunders that the location he chose is under heavy satellite scrutinization. I don't think Saunders buys it but before Tony has a chance to plead with him, Jack hangs up the phone. This *really* pisses Tony off and we get even more shoving and shouting. Jack says he is positive Saunders really wants his daughter back and that he'll call back. Sho 'nuff :) The phone rings and Saunders has picked another spot. At CTU, Chase heads out with his team to get in place before the meet.

At District, Palmer calls Sherry to berate her for her actions, but it's really Sherry doing the berating. She sips her glass of champagne cooly as she tells David that keeler offered her what David should have offered her: the coveted seat at the table. Instead David just chucked her aside after she did his dirty work. She ends with quite the little poser for David: Is he willing to go to jail over this because she is. His silence is her reply. "That's what I thought." she snaps and hangs up.

As they make their way to the bridge to meet Saunders, Jane questions Jack about her father and his plans. Jack explains that something must have happened to him to make him bitter enough to carry this all out. Jane doesn't take this news very well and you can tell she's terrified.

Cutting back to the holding room Michelle is in, we find her crouched with her back to the door, shrieking like a banshee. The minion yells at her to shut up but when she turns around, she's got blood running down her face from a nosebleed. Ack! Of course she faked it, but the minion doesn't know that and he wigs out anyway. As he's calling Saunders to find out what to do, Michelle knocks him out with a brick and runs away. She grabbed the minion's cell and his gun before she took off and she tries to call CTU, but gets Chloe and static. Chloe can't hear anything so she says, 'Whoever this is I don't have time right now, I have a lot to do.' Or something along those lines, but in Chloe fashion she just screwed Michelle over pretty good :)

Finally she gets through to Kim who immediately connects her to Jack and Tony who've arrived at the bridge. Michelle is still on the run and having problems finding a way out of the building she's in. But Jack, again, asks the impossible of Tony when he tells Michelle she needs to let herself get caught by Saunders. It's the only way they can get to him. Without Michelle as a bargaining chip, Saunders has nothing to exchange for his daughter and would probably be forced to sacrifice her - by that I mean sacrificing his chances of ever seeing her again. I think it's a real testament to Jack's sheer force of will as he convinces people left and right to go along with his plans. Tony and Michelle agree and she gets caught by Saunders. The meet is going to happen.

And back at District, David breaks the news about the pill bottle to Wayne and they have a 'I was stupider than you' moment of brotherly love, and then Wayne says he may have a way out of it. Palmer tacitly agrees and so Wayne heads off to meet some shady guy in a parking garage called Bruce Foxton. He tells Foxton he wants him to get the pill bottle back from Sherry. Foxton asks Wayne if the President knows what he's up to and Wayne says he does.

Back at the bridge, Jack and Chase lie in wait as Tony and Jane wait under the bridge. Soon a trio of SUV's pull up. There's a bit of a standoff and then Michelle and Jane begin to walk toward each other. Their eyes meet as they pass each other - relief mingled with determination in Michelle's eyes and sheer terror in Jane's. As Jane nears the SUV's she panics and tries to run back to Tony. Saunders pops out of his truck and calls to Jane. Jack's got his visual and CTU storms the scene. Gunfire erupts and Jack and Chase call for air support. Saunders complete look of surprise that Jack's there is priceless, but he makes a break for it and heads for a helicopter that he had in reserve. But just as he's about to get in the chopper, two awesome F-18 jetfighters appear and blast the helicopter into next week. Saunders is thrown aside and unable to get up.

Jack stands over Saunders and trains his gun on him. He demands to know where the other vials are. But even now Saunders refuses to give him the info. "You can waste time trying to break me, and kill millions of people. Or you can give me what I want." he says. Tick boom, tick boom.

Man the jets were really cool. Jack and Tony having a go at each other was great to watch, and I loved Michelle's nosebleed fakeout. CanNOT wait for next week, but I'm dreading it at the same time because this incredible season's nearly over.

11am - 12pm

I'm sincerely sorry I dropped the ball on this this week. It was always my goal to have a full recap of the show up right after it aired. Then my recaps got longer and longer and ended up taking me hours to do which caused me to go to bed later and later until finally I said 'screw that, I need my beauty sleep' :) Then one thing after another would come up until I'm left apologizing for leaving it so long.

Anyway I'm sure you didn't come here to listen to me blather on about my shortcomings so on with the recap!

During the opening minutes, the aftermath of the Saunders takedown is happening. Jack is trying to wrangle information out of him about the eleven other vials he's dispersed throughout the country. Techs are trying in vain to extract the information out of his laptop, but Saunders casually comments that he'd never be so stupid as to put that info on it. The abort mission codes for each courier with the virus is in his head. And he won't give them up until Jack can guarantee that Palmer will allow him to fuck off to North Africa... Where Nina was meant to be. Hmmmm...

Meanwhile Tony was taken into custody on orders from Brad Hammond. Jack isn't happy about it but there's little he can do at this time. He tells Tony he'll do what he can for him.

Saunders is still being a butthead so Jack has Jane speak to him to try and reach him in a way Jack never could. It's obvious Saunders loves Jane because the cracks in his manner begin to appear during this sequence. He tries in an almost manic, psychotic way, with a freaky/scary grin on his face to convince Jane that she will thank him one day for what he's doing. It was quite creepy. And Jane isn't buying it either. She sees him as someone else now, not her father - a man she loved. The realization of the magnitude of Saunders' actions is really sinking in now. She leaves him unable to even look at him anymore. Jack watches from the peripheral edges and he knows Jane was unable to break him herself. So he takes Saunders and I think Jane as well and they head off in a chopper.

A phone rings and we see Sherry chilling out on her patio sipping a mimosa as waves crash on the beach behind her. She answers and it's David again. This time it's a recalcitrant David. He seems beaten and Sherry almostcomes off as triumphant. He's willing to offer her that seat at the table she's so desperate to have as long as she backs off her blackmail attempt. Sherry's surprised that David's caving and is reluctant to meet him in some park to discuss this. But eventually her greed overcomes her instincts and she gets ready to meet him.

Little does she know it's just a ruse to get her away from her house while Wayne and this Foxton guy break in and search for the pill bottle. As they wait for Sherry to leave, Wayne's cell rings. It's Julia. She of the terrible timing. She's wigging out and weeping all over the place. I have to say she irks me and can't believe someone as weak and pitiful as her ended up with a powerful and rich husband. Must have been the trophy wife thang happening there. Anyway she desperately wants Wayne to come help her because the the police are coming to arrest her soon and she's afraid. She can't believe that the President is covering for Sherry and the realization dawns on her that she's going to be taking the fall for Milliken's death. Wayne has no choice but to blow her off though because finally, Sherry leaves the house. This is the point where I called that Julia was going to off herself. Go me :)

Jack arrives at the Chandler Hotel with Saunders and Jane in tow. The sight of boil-infested dead bodies fails to move Saunders. His belief in his cause is too intense. So Jack, in his quest to do whatever it takes to get his way summons Jane from the chopper. He then tells Saunders that he will put her into the hotel until she becomes infected unless he gives up the info on the other vials. Saunders doesn't think Jack will do it. Which is really quite stupid on his part because this is the man Saunders had execute Chappelle. And Jack did it. Why wouldn't he stick Jane in the hotel? He has no emotional attachment to Jane and would probably assign her to that file in hs brain labeled 'Acceptable Loss.'

Jack can see Saunders doesn't think he'll do it so he gives the order for Chase to put her in there and what follows is some of the most intense moments on the show since Syed Ali's interrogation. Jane shrieks in terror and Saunders follows suit. His fear for Jane is what ultimately breaks him and just as they are about to open the door to push her in, Saunders loses his will. He shouts to Jack that he'll give up his information. Jane is saved. He tells Jack that the vials are tagged with GPS codes that allowed him to track their locations. The codes are what he has memorized. Jack plops him in front of a computer and soon ten of the eleven vials are tracked. CTU agents around the country are mobilized and head off to intercept each of them. The missing vial is, of course, located in L.A.

Saunders tells Jack that he only knows the L.A. courier by a probably alias 'Arthur Rabens'. Jack gets CTU going on tracing that name. He then sends Chase and Saunders back to CTU so that Saunders can work with a sketch artist to come up with a description of this courier. Jane is to stay at the hotel site... How ominous...

While Jack is talking with Adam about locating Rabens, Brad Hammond gets on the line. Jack briefs him quickly but then launches into a mini-rant about how they should go easy on Tony, but Hammond is going to be a dick about it. Even after Jack reminds Hammond about how he went rogue to save his family and also reminds him that they wouldn't even have known about this virus attack if it wasn't for the work he, Gael and Tony did on getting it. Tony is a resource and an asset and should be allowed to see this through. Hammond is still a dick.

Tony arrives at CTU and in an uncomfortably embarrassing scene he is led in cuffs to a holding room as everyone at CTU silently watches. Michelle is there at CTU as well, but she doesn't see Tony as he's led in. Poor Tony. Once in the room Hammond enters and pretty much tells Tony he's going to jail at the very least. For twenty years. At the most he could get the death penalty for what he's done.

Back at Chez Sherry, Foxton and Wayne are frustrated as the fail to turn up any evidence of the pill bottle. Wayne can't seem to get over the fact that he's the Chief of Staff and here he is committing burglary. Hey, no one asked you to come along wankerboy. Foxton is digging through Sherry's medicine cabinet (ah come on, like she'd really hide it there) and says one of the best lines of the night: "Looks like Sherry believes in better living through chemistry." I don't know why but that really cracked me up.

At an undisclosed area of a park Palmer waits for Sherry. When she arrives they have a discussion about the concessions Palmer's willing to make to stay out of trouble. He's willing to make her a consultant, in on the big decisions. But that's not enough for Sherry. "I want to be your wife again." David is aghast and hesitates for a few moments before agreeing to that. Then in the most cringe-inducing hug since Chappelle hugged Michelle after Tony came out of surgery, Sherry fell into David's arms. The look of repugnance on David's face is palpable. But then Sherry pulls back. She realizes that she's really just being played. For what she doesn't know, but she knows deep down Palmer has no intention of becoming her husband again. She stalks off vowing to continue to help Keeler.

Palmer warns Wayne that Sherry's on her way back and just then Foxton discovers a hidden cellar and with a smug look on his smarmy face he an Wayne head down into it and discover a safe. He can't crack it but knows someone who can get him override codes for it. Wayne begins to panic as he knows Sherry will be there at any moment.

Jack and Chase watch several agents around the country via satellite (Live! Via Satellite on Pay Per View: Bad Guy Takedowns!)take down several couriers, neutralizing the threats in the bigger cities. Chloe traces Rabens down and confirms that he is in Los Angeles and she has a location on him. I'm a little fuzzy on how that all happened but anyway. Jack and Chase take off to capture him.

At CTU Michelle questions Hammond as to why she's not allowed to see Tony. She tries to convince Hammond that what Tony did is no different that what Jacks has done - except she learns that Tony was instrumental in letting Saunders escape from his building by sending agents away from an exit. Michelle did not know this and it's this act alone, IMO that is what sets what Tony did apart from what Jack has done. I'll save my reasons for that for another blog :) Michelle is gobsmacked when she learns this. Hammond asks her to put herself in Tony's situation. Would she have done the same? Michelle has no answer.

Soon, all ten other vials are secure and the country is safe. But L.A. isn't. Chloe guides Jack and Chase as they follow Rabens. She keeps telling them that they should have Raben's vehicle in view, but the streets are empty. Confused, Jack glances around and spots a subway sign. Rabens must be on a train underground. He orders a team of undercovers in as well as a standby Hazmat team and they quickly move into the station after Chloe taps into the subway system and stops the train before it enters the station.

As they prepare to capture Rabens, Wayne hears Sherry come into the house. Foxton refused to leave but cleverly hid away before Sherry saw him. Wayne though, like a deer caught in headlights, turns around to face Sherry who gets all self-righteous claiming David sent him in to do his dirty work. But before we can go further down this road, Foxton pops out and clocks Sherry good, knocking her out. It was priceless :) As she lays unconscious on the floor, Foxton discovers the pill bottle taped to the small of her back and with a triumphant 'Ha!' look on his face, he holds it up.

Back at the subway station, Jack waits for his team to get into place before he tells Chloe to release the train. They all have a very vague description of Rabens because Saunders is being pokey about giving the details to the sketch artist. As passengers step off the train it's a matter of narrowing down the men who fit the description as Chloe tracks movement on the GPS. She notes that the subject has stopped moving and Jack can see a man standing in front of a subway map. He initiates takedown, corners the man at the map and forces him to the ground while his shopping bag is searched. They find a pack of cigs with the GPS device inside. When the man on the ground says he doesn't smoke, Jack realizes that Rabens 'made' them and is still in play (I'm getting better at these terms :) ) Jack locks down the station.

Wayne and Foxton are just about to leave when Julia 'I'm taking you with me' Milliken pulls up at Sherry's house. Wayne follows her inside and is stunned to see Julia with a gun trained on a groggy Sherry, ready to kill her. She tells Sherry that she's not going to take the fall for her sorry ass. Sherry pleads in her oily way, promising the moon if she'll just put the gun down. Wayne pleads too. It's no use. Julia's too far gone, and she plugs two bullets into Sherry, killing her. *moment of silence for a wonderful villain*

As she looks teary-eyed at Wayne, she says she's sorry before turning the gun on herself and blowing her brains out. Shocked and sobbing, Wayne holds Julia in his arms.

Back at the subway, the search begins for Rabens... Tick boom, tick boom.

One more episode. One finale that promises to be incredible. And then it's all over and we'll have to wait another eight months before we can watch a day in the life of Jack Bauer. *heavy sigh*

12pm -1pm

Well this is it, my last recap for the year. When I started this site, I did it because I rented a few DVDs and became hopelessly addicted to this wonderful show - moreso than any other show I've ever seen. I had no friends or family IRL with whom I could share this addiction, and because of the generosity of my best friend who graciously gives me great hosting, I devoted a site to it to add to the plethora of fansites already out there.

I've been overwhelmed with the response 24addict has had and wanted to take this brief moment to profusely thank each and every one of you who surprised me by actually coming back again and again to read what some mad chick in Nebraska thinks about '24.' I never thought anyone would give a toss :)

Ok enough mushy stuff. On with the recap!

Still in the subway station which is in the process of being locked down, Jack phones CTU and we find Michelle back in play and working to help coordinate everything. Jack lets her know that Rabens has not been found yet. Michelle tells Jack that they still don't have a good enough description from Saunders so Jack tells her to bring him out to Chloe's station because they're going to feed her computer images taken of everyone in the station. He then has agents and police break everyone off into groups of ten with a stern warning that no one is to leave their respective groups without Jack's say so.

As Michelle sets up the floor to accommodate Saunders and his entourage of armed guards, Brad Hammond, AKA Chappelle with a bigger salary, listens as Tony gives his debrief. He interrupts Tony's statement to point blank ask him if he put his wife's life above national security. With poignant honesty and a heroic acceptance, Tony says, "Yes I did." I loved that. After Jack, Tony is my favourite character on this show and his quiet dignity in this scene was so moving. There were few words exchanged between he and Hammond after that. I don't think Brad knew what to say. He probably expected more of a fight or an attempt at coverup from Tony. But no... Tony's willing acceptance of the consequences of his actions was truly amazing.

As Michelle continues to make arrangements to bring Saunders out, Theresa Ortega arrives at CTU. Who you ask? Theresa is Gael's wife. She's been informed of her husband's death in the live of duty, and the nature of his death and has come to CTU for his things, and maybe for some answers. She's understandably distraught when she's brought over to Michelle. Michelle leads her into the main conference area and answer her questions. Mainly she just wants to know if Gael suffered. Michelle, honouring Gael's request to tell his family that he died quickly and without pain, tells her that he didn't suffer. She also tells her that Gael was a hero who worked to help his country right up to the very end. This comforts Theresa.

But now Saunders is being led out to Chloe's station and Michelle has to leave Theresa so she asks Kim to help her with gathering her husband's belongings. They head to Gael's desk upstairs near Jack's office but as they leave the conference area, she glances up at a screen with Saunders' image plastered all over it. We get one of those patented '24' moments where the camera lingers just a moment longer on Theresa's face and she has an odd look on her face. I began to wonder if she was really Gael's wife for some reason. I thought maybe she worked for Saunders and was about to help him escape. It was that kind of weird look. Anyway as you'll see, my prediction streak of one came to a very quick end.

Saunders is situated in front of a bank of monitors. He looks suitably beaten yet somehow still arrogant. He doesn't have Syed Ali's pathetic shuffle. Instead he keeps his head up and walks as best as he can while in leg chains. Chloe phones Kim and orders her to come and help her with this, leaving Theresa with a CTU agent as she sadly cleans out Gael's desk.

On each of the monitors in front of Saunders there are images filling in a spot as they are transmitted by agents at the subway station. Each group of ten travelers are told they will have to have their photo taken and their belongings searched before they're allowed to leave. The camera begins focusing in on one man nearing the camera. He's a little twitchy and anxious about having a photo taken (remember he probably does not know that Saunders - his boss - has been taken down.) This must be Rabens. Nervous, but trying not to show it, he steps in front of the camera. Back at CTU Saunders sounds somewhat bored as he glances at the images. We pan over to find Theresa being led out of CTU carrying a box of her husband's things. As she passes Chloe's station, she pulls out a gun and plugs Saunders - just as the image of Rabens comes up on the monitor. She's screaming at everyone, her overwhelming grief for Gael evident as she's taken into custody for shooting Saunders. "He killed Gael! He killed Gael!" She shrieks over and over.

Jack asks for an update from Michelle only to be told that Saunders is dead, shot in the chest. Jack is dumbfounded. How the hell could that happen?? But it would take to long to explain to him why Theresa was there and why she shot him. For now Jack needs to just concentrate on alternative methods of getting Rabens.

Back at District, a very shaken Wayne enters David's office and breaks the news about Sherry and Julia. David is in shock. I don't think he's even registering half of what Wayne is trying to tell him. He backs up and just sort of falls onto a nearby sofa, unable to remain standing. With tears in his eyes he tells David that despite the pain they're both feeling, they're both politically free and clear. Unable to believe the fact that Wayne's even thinking about politics when he's just been told that the mother of his children has been murdered, he sends Wayne away. I think it was very interesting in this emotional scene to see remnants of some of the feelings David probably still has for Sherry. I think it was easy for him to despise her for the things she's done, and had been doing, but I don't think he was ever able to lose the love for the woman he'd known nearly all his life, and once truly loved. So her death was a shock for him. David has his secretary get Kieth and Nicole on the line to give them the bad news.

At the station, Jack and Chase have a quiet moment and a cup of coffee while the passenger search goes on. Chase tells Jack that he's transferring out of Field Ops. "I can still serve my country." he says. He'll just do it on the CTU floor instead. He tells Jack that he thinks Kim wants to make their relationship work, but only if he's not in the field anymore. And Chase also tells Jack its what he wants as well. He doesn't want to be detached from Kim or his daughter. In essence, he's telling Jack that what he as told the day before on the ride back from the prison was true, and he believes it now. Jack simply tells him that he will support whatever decision he makes, and walks away.

As Jack patrols the groups of passengers, his 'we've got a dodgy character here' radar is on full power and he sees a man at the back of the line in one of the groups. He's a little fidgety. It's Rabens, but Jack doesn't know it yet. Rabens has pulled a switchblade out of his bag and slipped it, open, into his pocket. When Jack looks away briefly, he takes off. Jack looks back and realizes the man is gone. As he and Chase race through the station they discover two policemen down, lying in rapidly spreading pools of blood. They had been stationed at an exit. Jack and Chase run up the stairs to the street to find a civilian stabbed on the ground with witnesses milling about. They tell Jack it was a carjacking and Jack calls for transportation. He and Chase leap into an arriving SUV after getting the direction the carjacker headed from one of the witnesses. Jack has also nicked the downed civilian's wallet, gotten his driver's license and ordered Michelle to get him a description of the man's car.

Michelle quickly goes to Hammond to update him, and to try and get him to release Tony for just a little bit because he's the best source they have for coordinating the search for Rabens. Hammond reluctantly agrees and Tony's back in play. Chloe follows traffic cams and spots Raben's car. Tony has several teams take off to intercept as Jack follows in pursuit. They soon have Rabens cornered so he leaps out of the car with his briefcase and runs into a building - a building full of junior high kids. It's a middle school full of kids my daughter's age. Eeesh.

Jack and Chase quickly enter the building while the rest of the agents lock it down. They begin a room to room search for Rabens while we hear an overhead announcement to the students and teachers to remain in their classrooms and lock the doors. Jack proceeds through several rooms, including a sort of lounge area, and he scares a class full of students as he whips around a corner in true Jack-and-Gun fashion. He settles them and moves on.

Meanwhile Chase has entered what looks like a science room and brings back unpleasant memories for me of the day we dissected the frogs in 7th grade, but I digress. As he checks the room, Rabens bolts out and flicks his knife at Chase, cutting him. A fight ensues between them and the bag with the device is flung across the room. The virus detonator slips out of the bag and both men desperately try to reach it. But as Rabens manages to get the drop on Chase who is nearly unconscious on the ground, he sees that Chase has clamped the device to his own wrist. The same wrist of the hand that has a bullethole in it. Unable to carry out his plans, Rabens activates the device and prepares to shoot Chase. But Jack shows up first and takes him out.

He rushes over to Chase and sees the device clamped to his wrist. Jack tries to open it , but the casing is titanium and impossible to break. Chase tells Jack that Rabens had no intention of trying to remove it which probably means there is no key per se. Jack radios Tony and has him connect with another group in the country who have already disarmed a device from one of the other couriers. Tony does, and soon Jack is being walked through the steps to disarm. There are only a few minutes left on the countdown. The other CTU agent tells Jack he needs to cut the green wire. The only problem is there is no bleedin' green wire. The agent tells him they will have to get back to him while they try and posit a solution. Chase valiantly tells Jack to get out of there but of course Jack refuses.

Chases sees Jack glance up and across the room momentarily, and I think Jack saw Chase look at him so he glanced back at the device. Chase follows Jack's glance and sees an axe behind glass across the room. Time is ticking down. The other agent still has not responded. "Do it Jack... It's okay." he says. Brave man. Jack obviously does not want to chop Chase's arm off but they are running out of time (I had to use that phrase at least once in this blog :D ). He goes to get the axe as Chase removes his own belt and fastens it around his arm as a tourniquet. As he squeezes his eyes shut and breathes heavily, Jack swings the axe and DAMN if he didn't chop Chase's arm off! I was hiding behind my fingers just then but I definitely heard the sickening 'thunk' as the axe came down. Chase screamed and passed out. He stuffs a nearby towel around Chase's bloody stump and grabs the device, heading back to a teacher's lounge he'd been in before and noticed a refrigerator. Refrigerators are air-tight and with just seconds to go, he shoves it in there and slams the door shut. With a 'poof', the timer goes off and smashes the vial where the virus floats harmlessly inside the refrigerator.

It's over.

Word has reached CTU of the successful containment of the virus because Jack had radioed for help for Chase as he was running with the virus. At CTU, Tony is taken back into custody. He's allowed a brief, passionate moment with Michelle where he tells her that he doesn't regret what he's done. She is alive and safe and that's all that matters to him. They have a great kiss and then Tony is led away. Goodbye Tony Almeida. Don't drop any soap.

Back to Jack who has arrived at a hospital (rather quickly if you ask me. I know I have to fanwank distances a little bit, but he was only at the school 5 or 6 minutes before and now he's at a hospital and Chase is in surgery... *chants to herself 'Literary license. Literary license. Literary license.') and his ringing cell phone. It's the President. David thanks Jack for his work and says the usual stuff about how the nation is safer because of him. He also tells Jack how sorry he is about making him kill Chappelle. Finally he informs Jack, out of respect for everything they've been through, that he will not be seeking re-election.

"Sir I think that is a mistake." Jack quietly says.

"Mistake or not, it's my decision." Palmer replies.

After hanging up with Jack, President David Palmer stands, puts on his jacket, and quietly walks to the elevator with Wayne and the red door closes on a brilliant character and wonderful actor who breathed life into him. Take it easy Mr. President.

Jack spends a moment pondering what he's just been told when Kim walks into the waiting room. They share a relieved hug and Jack relays info about Chase, who is undergoing surgery to reattach his hand. They hug once more and then Jack asks if she'll be staying there at the hospital. She is, so he tells her that he has some things to do but he'll be back later.

Outside, Jack hurries to his SUV and quickly gets inside. As he fumbles for his keys, the sheer force and weight of everything that happened during this day comes crashing down on him and he cries. He cries for Gael and for his sacrifice. He cries for Tony and the one he's about to make. He cries for Claudia and her senseless death, and for the innocent prison guard forced to blow his own head off in front of him. He cries for the hundreds of people who died a horrible death at the Chandler and for the innocent girl he nearly purposely killed in the same horrifying manner. He cries for Ryan Chappelle who, thought he was a bit of a prick, didn't deserve the death he was dealt. He cries for his daughter who loves someone just like him - the daughter he tries so hard to shield from harm but ended up in danger anyway. Mostly though, he cries for his own soul. Suddenly there's a blip of static and a voice interrupts Jack. It's CTU asking him to come and help interrogate one of Saunders' couriers. Jack doesn't answer at first. A moment of indecision seems to be the vibe I get here. Should he answer and carry on serving his country? Or should he ignore it and quietly slip away... Wiping the tears from his eyes, Jack's broken voice answers.

"I'm on my way." Tick boom, tick boom

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