Dana Walsh is learning some hard lessons about redneck boyfriends and their increasing demands. Fresh after Walsh’s hillbilly hindrance screwed up the simple police depot heist, her country man informs her she will have to keep being his inside man at CTU. Her coworkers are onto her fiasco, and the truth will have to come out sooner or later. Meanwhile, Jack is being torture with a terminal to the ankle and a terminal to his knife wound. Jack claims to be a representative of a European consortium looking to buy the fuel rods, but the Russians are onto him. There is a nice little moment where Jack claims he couldn’t be a cop, since he killed all of those Russian goons last episode. The bad guy comments that the KGB once threw a family (with small children) off a roof in front of him. This rough comparison between Jack’s methods and totalitarian regimes is only touched on, but might have been an interesting theme.
Farhad is feeling the heat from back home, trying to pull off the nuclear deal while Jack tries to outbid him for the Uranium. Farhad is completely incompetent to do such a complex operation. At least the Russian is smarter than most 24 bad guys, pegging Jack’s bullshit immediately. Russian guy’s son forgave his dad fast for killing his bro, and is helping his dad squeeze the goods out of Farhad. Renee is back at HQ overplaying her shaky psychosis, and Hastings is busy being a total asshole on purpose, all while hunched over, menacing glare at his subordinates. Walsh finally tries (unsuccessfully) spills the beans to her fiancé Agent Ortiz. These aren’t pre wedding jitters Ortiz, your girl is going to start screaming in redneck dialects on your honeymoon, and probably a case of herpes to boot.
The Russians are real confident in their torture abilities, but this is par for the course for ol’ Jack, who dismantles his assailant with his toes and a completed electrical circuit. At commercial break, we are all reminded that while President Palmer might be dead, but his ghost lives on to sell us insurance. President Omar has to deal with his defiant daughter, who is actually wearing a Habib for the first time, being 100% westernized up to this point. Is this meant to signify her subservience to her father? It’s high time to explore the subjugation of women in Islam, a theme the show is scared to touch on, though killing muslims is no problem at all. She is pretty forward to admit her security guard love affair, and Dad is pissed! As usual for this family drama segment, the dialogue is atrocious and the acting is terrible.
Jack’s trusty break-necks-with-his-leg trick comes through for him again, but the goon’s cell phone is dead, how unprofessional, but that is why he is dead now. Jack turns out the lights for a little stealth action. This scene is well shot, and brutal in classic fashion, and the shootout is top notch, and Jack takes out the Russian boss with a dinner table. This was a good action set piece, and the season should keep this kind of momentum up. The key is to showcase Jack’s aggression in impossible situations, which this episode focuses on, with weaker characters and subplots put on the backburner. At last, Russian boss shows a little remorse for killing his son, but quickly moves on to demanding full immunity, which 24 Presidents have been handing out like candy for the past seven seasons, and which is a well known get-out-of-jail free card for 24 terrorists everywhere, probably emboldening them to attempt these crazy schemes over and over again.
President Taylor gets a little authority back with tough talk, and quickly hands out immunity, as expected. Ortiz shakes down the sleazy CTU tech, and gets the info on his girl’s shady dealings, which look so much like cheating. Lame subplot, to be sure, but maybe it will end soon, maybe at the strip club where Walsh is meeting up with her ex. Ortiz gets into an elevator with a CTU SWAT team, and rookie SWAT guy gets on. As Ortiz cinches up a loose ammo pocket, you know this guy is going to die so bad next episode. How many more nameless CTU agents must die!?! We end the episode with more of Omar’s daughter trying to save her erstwhile lover. NEST and SWAT are heading for the fuel rods, with amber colored video streaming to HQ. Of course, someone already rolled the Russians and stole the rods, and that someone was Russian bad guy’s son! See you next week.
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