Magic Lamp

Last time on “24”: We found out that: Jack’s father, Philip, asked Marilyn to call him Susan, which is bound to surprise the whole family; Susan is working to simplify the inheritance math by plotting to kill his grandson Josh; Josh has no idea his grandfather might now want to be called Grandmother; putting Reid in a basement office really made him mad; resigning during a big crisis seems to be standard operating procedure in President Wayne’s White house; the scary special effect the blew up a few episodes ago is getting a lot more mileage by being shown onscreen more than Kumar did, probably because it has a better agent; Gredenko spelled sideways is Tancredo.

The following summary occurred between 3 pm and 4 pm:

3:00 pm – Jack excitedly runs up to a burning UPS truck, only to realize it’s a CTU van disguised as a UPS truck. He immediately calls Bill to let them know that Federal Express seems to be at work here. Jack tells Bill that Milo and Marilyn are being pursued by “hostiles”, which is Jack Code for “soon to be dead guys”

3:03 pm – Milo runs with Marilyn and disguises them both as a dumpster, which completely baffles the thugs that were chasing them. One of the thugs makes a phone call to Jack’s dad, and informs him that Jack is dead, and that Marilyn escaped. He tries to draw Milo out by saying that Milo doesn’t look like a field agent. Milo nearly yells that he’s better than Edgar, but stops himself.

3:05 pm – The dumpster disguise isn’t as good as they thought. Milo devises a plan where he’ll shoot and Marilyn runs. Milo remembers his part, and Marilyn forgets hers, yelling “line!” to someone off camera. It appears that the whole terrorist plan is to disable CTU by hurting all the analysts in their typing arms, because the thugs shoot Milo in his right forearm. Just as Milo is about to be shot in a very painful way, Jack shoots two of the bad guys in a very painful way first. The last remaining thug improvises a Marilyn shield to keep Jack away. When Jack says he’ll shoot, the thug decides that lead poisoning is a bad way to die and gives up.

3:06 pm – Jack does a quick field analysis, decides that Milo will be OK, and goes over to hold Marilyn against the wall by her throat. Marilyn lets Jack know it was his father’s men that were after them and that Josh would have been killed. Jack is shocked. He realizes that Marilyn called his father “Susan” on the phone, and he’s not prepared for that. He recovers quickly, and gets the information from Marilyn about where Gredenko’s house is. Jack calls Bill to tell him that he’ll need a full tactical kit, Milo is whimpering about one little bullet hole in his arm, to send a team to get Gredenko, and that he’s going to take a little personal time.

Commercial

3:14 pm – Chloe goes to talk to Morris, and suggests that he talk to a shrink or to his sponsor, but Morris refuses. Nadia informs them both that Milo was shot and he’s up for a medal. Morris points out that he had a 3/8” DRILL in his arm, and now he’s mad.

3:16 pm – Jack asks Marilyn to call Philip, and she’s a little apprehensive that Josh might be killed. Jack says that “he’ll do everything in his power” to get Josh back, which is not a good sign for Josh.

3:17 pm – Philip starts to try and talk to Josh about what a great evil mastermind Gray was last season, but Josh doesn’t want to hear about it. Josh goes back to watching the local perky news team explain what nuclear fallout might do to those picnic dinners people have planned for the weekend.

3:18 pm – The bad guy that Jack captured calls Jack’s father and explains everything, except the part that he’s captured. Philip asks to talk to Marilyn. At first Philip is upset that Marilyn didn’t call him “Susan”, but they get past that. She tells him that she wants to see Josh, and they argue on the phone. During a commercial, Josh gets up to listen to what his grandfather is saying on the phone. Philip tells Susan that he can’t see the future for her or Josh. Marilyn seems really astonished now, since first Philip wanted to be called “Susan”, and how he claims he can see the future. Josh picks up on the whole “I’m going to kill Josh” theme, and seems pretty sure that “kill Josh” doesn’t mean “go get some lunch at Burger King later”. Marilyn hands the phone back to the thug. Philip tells the thug to bring Marilyn to where he’s staying.

3:20 pm – Josh asks to go get a soft drink from a vending machine, and goes to leave. Philip pulls a gun on him, letting him know about his strict “always order from room service” rule. Philip says, “No one’s life is worth the destruction of everything I’ve built”, which is coincidently Microsoft’s secret company motto.

Commercial

3:25 pm – Back in the electrical closet that Reed calls an office, Lennox returns with a TPS report with President Wayne’s schedule. Reed tells Lennox that all he needs to do is to let someone in the back way, and that person will “carry the ball”. Lennox quickly translates this from Reed’s native Weasel to English, and realizes this means “kill President Wayne”. Reed tells Lennox that they’ve got a “security specialist” (Weasel speak for “hired killer”) coming, and they’re going to blame the whole thing on Assad, and no one will be the wiser. Except briefly, for Wayne… and probably Assad.

3:27 pm – Lennox goes to talk to President Wayne, who’s putting the finishing touches on Assad’s speech. Nice to know that on a day like today, Wayne has time to write speeches for other people. Must be a hobby. Anyway, Lennox decides that he’ll be snotty to the president one last time, and Wayne tries to apologize. Doesn’t seem a good enough of an apology to Lennox, because he doesn’t tell Wayne about his impending doom. They sit down to read Wayne’s speech which has magically gone from the computer screen to written form in Wayne’s notebook.

3:28 pm – At Gredenko’s hideout, they’re STILL working on getting a new pattern programmed for the remaining nukes. I think this would have taken Chloe no time at all to do, so Gredenko must be working with a rank amateur.

3:29 pm – Morris is either at the CTU liquor store, or he’s gone out to buy a pack of cigarettes and a Red Bull. If he did go outside, he must have gotten over his fear of kidnapping and power drills, or he’s read ahead a little in the script. He also buys a scotch whiskey, which must be “Scotch” as in “McDonald’s”, because he throws up right away. He starts to cry, Chloe calls him to come back, he stops crying, and as soon as he’s off the phone, he starts crying again, but takes a breath mint to calm himself down. That arm must still really hurt a lot.

3:30 pm – Jack arrives at the garage of the hotel, and tells Marilyn to get dressed in a slinky bulletproof vest. Jack doesn’t wear one because…. Well, because he’s Jack. He gets the thug they had stored in the back seat, and they head upstairs.

Commercial

3:36 pm – Morris heads back into CTU, noticing that Milo is back. He asks Milo how he’s doing, nearly decides to compare scars, but decides not to. Morris goes back to work.

3:37 pm – Wayne butters up Lennox some more, telling him that his suggestions for Assad’s speech are pretty good, especially all the deletions of “death to the infidels”. Lennox leaves to talk to Reed back in Reed’s electrical closest. Reed really presses for the clearance for this “security specialist”, which Lennox says he’ll do. Reed leaves, and Lennox makes a phone call to the head Secret Service agent at the bunker! He’s going to try and help Wayne! Lennox tells the agent that he’s going to go see him. As he opens the door, we find out that Reed is not only the sort of guy that would try and get President Wayne killed, but he also listens through doors to people’s private phone conversations! This guy has no shame. He barrels through the door and knocks Lennox to the ground, they argue briefly, and Reed knocks him out. Reed steals Lennox’s phone, calls someone to let them know that Lennox doesn’t need to meet with the head Secret Service agent. Reed has sunk to a new low…. Now he’s stealing other people’s airtime minutes.

3:39 pm – At CTU, they’re having another meeting to find out why they’re always having meetings. They also discuss the house where Gredenko is probably hiding. Chloe and Morris go to reset a backup module, which is needed for an operation that’s about to take place in two minutes. “Reset a backup module” is Chloe talk meaning “I smelled alcohol on Morris’ breath.” and now she’s going to tell Bill. Morris convinces her not to tell on him.

3:42 pm – The operation is about to start, and the tactical CTU guys are all ready to go. No sign of Jack, which does not bode well for the tactical CTU guys. They go through the house, not finding anything.

3:43 pm – Jack is headed up the staircase to the hotel room, and gets a message from CTU about Gredenko not being at the house. They go into the room, only to find it open, and not in the least bit suspicious. No sign of Philip or Josh. The phone rings, and its Jack’s dad. It turns out that Philip is across the street in other building! He’s got Josh on the roof for some fresh air, at gunpoint. Josh must really not like fresh air.

3:44 pm – Jack and Philip argue. Jack tries to convince Philip to give himself up because, hey, just maybe the government will overlook the whole “a nuclear weapon went off today” thing. Jack finally convinces him to let Josh go by exchanging himself as the hostage.

Commercial

3:51 pm – Milo tries to get some sympathy from Chloe, but it doesn’t work. Milo asks about the whiskey on Morris’ breath. Chloe says that Morris didn’t “metabolize” the alcohol yet. Milo REALLY wants to tell Bill, but Chloe gives him a look at that says she’ll metabolize a taser on Milo if Bill finds out, and convinces him she’ll say something if Morris isn’t really OK.

3:52 pm – Jack and Marilyn discuss their plan in a stairwell that I’m sure is heavily soundproofed so Jack’s dad can’t hear a thing. Jack gives Marilyn a gun saying it’s just like a mouse, but instead of “point and click”, she can “point and shoot”. Jack tells her NOT to call CTU.

3:53 pm – Jack goes up the staircase and yells that he’s unarmed, when clearly he’s got two under each shoulder. He finds his dad in another room on the roof. Philip tells Jack to put one foot in, while Josh puts one foot out and to keep doing that until Josh leaves, or they both finish doing to Hokey Pokey.

3:54 pm – Josh runs to his mother, and they both run downstairs.

3:55 pm – Philip says that Gredenko blackmailed him by watching last season and figuring out that he was involved in President Palmer’s death. Gredenko told Philip that he wanted to keep around some of the bombs for special occasions like weddings and tail gate parties. Philip gave him the bombs that were supposed to be destroyed. Jack points out that his father wouldn’t be in the trouble he’s in, if he didn’t try to cover it up. Philip tells Jack that if he just would have turned to the dark side, everything would have been OK. Then he calls Jack a “civil servant”! Jack starts to point out that he’s a “civil servant with a license to kill”, but stops himself.

3:57 pm – Philip tells Jack to get on his knees. Jack makes a really heartfelt speech about how he had to go his own way, how he never meant to turn his back on the family, and that he was sorry. Jack waits a little while, starts to yell, and then realizes he just apologized to an empty room. He runs outside to look for his father and finds a phone on the ledge! The phone number listed is (310) 597-3781. (I called it; it’s some kind of “24” hotline). It’s hard to tell if Jack’s upset about making the speech to thin air, or happy about finding the phone.

3:59 pm – Jack calls the phone number, and he’s talking with PRESIDENT MANILOW! He’s butched up! A beard and everything! He tells Jack to meet him alone! As soon as possible!

4:00 pm – Time’s up!

NEXT TIME: JACK STARES DOWN MANILOW! DUCT TAPE FINALLY SHUTS UP LENNOX! IT LOOKS LIKE THEY’RE GOING TO INJECT WAYNE WITH PEPSI! HE’S A COCA-COLA MAN! THEY’RE GOING TO BOMB WAYNE!

Be sure and catch all of Steve’s summaries of Season 6 of “24”!

LAST TIME ON 24: Just happened; you really don’t remember that?

The following summary occurred between 2 pm and 3 pm.

2:00 pm – Fayed’s helicopter lands after being able to fly around on the day a nuclear bomb went off, and no one seems to have realized this might be out of the ordinary, even if he is in a medivac helicopter. He calls Gredenko to let them know he has an arming device, while his thugs pull more silver suitcases out of a van. Gredenko is mad since his scheme requires five detonations, he’s only going to be able to use it for three, and he will NOT be able to get store credit for the other two. Gredenko tells Fayed that he has trucks coming in from Nevada, since California seems to devoid of trucks that are up to the job, and he’s decided to outsource. The trucks will be there in two hours.

2:01 pm – Bill calls a meeting at CTU to remind everyone of what they’ve all been working on so hard for the last few hours, and wants status updates on why they’re not making any progress. Chloe volunteers that it’s probably all the meetings they keep having to have status updates, but no one hears her says this. Milo, Nadia and Bill recite Gredenko’s biography from the Biography Channel, just to make it clear to everyone that he’s not a nice guy. Bill uses his superpowers to figure out that since the e-mail that they retrieved said “Pacific Time”, Gredenko, maybe, quite possibly, but not for sure, could be in Los Angeles. What are the odds of THAT? Bill tells Chloe to figure out how Gredenko go into the country.

2:03 pm – Chloe sees Morris come in, and says she’s drilled that he’s there; she stops herself, says, “Thrilled! I mean thrilled!”, and a woman takes Morris in the back to have his arm looked at before Chloe can apologize.

2:04 pm – A large group of CTU tactical guys come in with Jack, stunning all the extras that are in CTU. Bill tells Jack that Gredenko and Fayed have been in contact with each other, and Jack goes to talk to his father for more info. On the way there, Chloe thanks him for saving Morris, and that she’s really glad that Fayed didn’t kill Jack. Jack says he’s glad about that too, since if he was dead Chloe would be standing there talking to thin air. Jack thanks Chloe.

2:07 pm – Jack’s dad is busy going through all of Gray’s stuff, deleting cell phone messages, going through his wallet, and generally getting rid of any evidence, since someone at CTU seems to have forgotten that might have been important. Jack walks in and apologizes for killing Gray, but says he had to because he wasn’t scheduled to be in any more episodes. Jack asks about Gredenko, and his father tells Jack everything Jack already knows, and then rubs it in about Gray some more. Jack’s father is one sweet guy.

2:08 pm – Chloe goes to check on Morris, and his doctor is a woman that was a blond officer from Star Fleet headquarters in Next Generation! Chloe doesn’t notice this continued Star Trek coincidence, probably because she now has brown hair instead of blonde, and goes to see Morris. Morris is pretty down on himself, about programming the arming device and all, and despite Chloe reassuring him, he’s still pretty upset.

2:11 pm – Cell phone reception inside the concrete walls of CTU is still amazingly good, because Jack’s dad makes a phone call to Carson. That company he started must be pretty darn important (I’m thinking Microsoft), because Jack’s dad wants to be sure that Gredenko doesn’t implicate him in anything that’s happened so far, so he wants Gredenko dead. You’d think that with everything that happened the last few years, CTU would have technology to actually monitor what’s happening INSIDE CTU. I think Jack’s father is just mad that his phone isn’t as cool as Jack’s.

2:12 pm – Jack tells Bill that his father doesn’t know anything more than they do. Bill uses a lot of nonsense technical jargon to explain that Milo figured out that the e-mail originated from a local network, and that one day, if they’re lucky, Milo might know ten percent of what Chloe does.

2:14 pm – Jack starts to leave, and Bill tells him that he’s been on YouTube and saw what happened while Gray was being interrogated. He says that Digg has already gotten 3000 hits on it, probably because Jack exceeded protocols.

2:15 pm – Jack’s pretty mad about what happened, and tells Bill that he really really didn’t mean to kill Gray. Bill offers to cover up the whole thing, and Jack says there won’t be a tarp big enough after today is over. He convinces Bill to submit the report as is, and to tell the truth. Bill asks why he’s talking about game shows at a time like this.

Commercial

2:20 pm – Wayne is personally working on the speech that Assad wrote, since they’re really low on staff. The evil vice president Noah calls Wayne while Assad is in the room. Noah really wants to detain people and the cabinet wants it done too. Wayne says he doesn’t care if the coffee table wants it, he won’t do it. Noah points out that Assad has been a pretty bad guy. Noah plays the “I brought experience to this candidacy” card, Wayne blows him off after the vent.

2:22 pm – Assad points out that Wayne that with everyone against him, and this being an obvious foreshadowing technique used previously in the show, things might go badly for Wayne.

2:23 pm – Speaking of going badly, Lennox goes into a room marked “High Voltage” where we find Reed’s office. Reed says that they moved him down here after they took his red stapler away. He also tells Lennox that many people like him want to do what’s best for the country. Lennox asks what he means by that, and Reed dances around what he’s talking about by using euphemisms. Reed also uses a bunch of clichés, which seem to convince Lennox. Reed says he wants to know President Wayne’s itinerary when Assad makes his speech, which makes Lennox uncomfortable. Reed says he’s not the architect of the plan and that he’s just a conduit. Lennox says he’s acting like he’s a sump pump, but goes along with whatever the plan is.

Commercial

2:31 pm – Jack goes to talk to Marilyn who still doesn’t seem to be very upset. She nearly thanks Jack for doing it! Josh does some of his best acting here, completely off camera. Jack mentions that they’re looking for a Russian, and Marilyn gets a weird look on her face. Jack’s Bauer-sense tingles and realizes that Marilyn knows more than she’s saying, so he takes her to a different room.

2:33 pm – Jack’s father is STILL creeping around CTU, and it’s clear that no one is bothering him because he’s wearing an “I’m Jack Bauer’s Dad” badge. He sees Jack and Marilyn go off into another completely secure room with glass doors that no one could possible see through to read lips. Marilyn says she followed Graham one night to see where he was going, and it turns out that he wasn’t a crime fighter by night, but was meeting at a house with some Russians. Jack convinces her that they can retrace the steps back to the house.

2:35 pm – Jack ASKS PERMISSION from Bill to follow up on a lead! Clearly, the days in that Chinese prison have taken their toll. The old Jack wouldn’t have asked permission!

Jack’s father goes to Marilyn and asks what she and Jack were talking about, and she tells him everything. She asks Jack’s dad to watch Josh.

Bill is going to send Milo out into the field with Jack! Milo is in the background kicking and screaming, because he’s heard what happens to “people out in the field with Jack” before. Some of the CTU extras try to give him a going away cake, but he doesn’t even look at it.

Marilyn tells Josh to stay with Jack’s dad. Jack’s dad tells her that Josh will be “safer” with him, which is an odd definition of the word “safer”. Marilyn tells Bill that Josh and his grandfather are going back home, and Jack notices his father doing a creepy Norman Bates stare from the next room.

2:36 pm – Jack’s father calls Carson and asks for a “secure house” in LA. Carson tells him the most “secure house” in LA isn’t in LA, but agrees to try and find one anyway.

Commercial

2:43 pm – Chloe tells Morris the status of the plot so far, and tells him to get back to work. Morris doesn’t fall for this, and starts to make Chloe mad. She slaps him, and when he asks why she did that, she says it’s because she doesn’t have her taser with her. She tells him to quit feeling sorry for himself, and get back to work.

2:44 pm – Jack and Marilyn drive to the house, and Milo has set up at a safe distance six blocks behind, where he’s pretty sure that he can’t get hurt.

Marilyn notices Jack’s hand makeup, starts to talk about China, which makes Jack uncomfortable. She starts to ask about why Jack didn’t want to go work for his father, but joined the military instead.

2:45 pm – Marilyn gets a phone call. It’s Philip, Jack’s dad. Philip wants to talk a bit, and mentions that if Marilyn takes Jack to that house, Josh is going to get hurt. Oh, and that he killed Gray. And made Jack feel bad about it. Now he wants her to call him “Susan”! Ok, this guy is getting weird, even for “24”. He tells her to go to a new address (not the Russian’s house), where some sort of exciting plot twist is going to happen. Susan threatens to kill Josh if she doesn’t do it.

2:47 pm – Susan gets back into his car and tells Josh they’re going to a hotel.

Jack and Marilyn drive right by Gredenko’s house, and Marilyn nearly tells Jack what Susan just said, but doesn’t. Jack’s Bauer-sense doesn’t go off. She points to the street where Susan told her to go, and Jack tells Milo the location.

2:48 pm – Gredenko wants to know how long it’s going to take to program the nuclear bombs, and the guy doing the programming is clearly not a Morris or Chloe because it’s going to take him twenty minutes to re-program the new targets. Gredenko says that they’re going to get revenge for losing the Cold War, and that Fayed and company will take the blame.

Commercial

2:53 pm – On a television monitor at CTU, they sneak in another shot of that expensive nuclear bomb cloud special effect as Bill goes to talk to Chloe about the location of the house Marilyn pinpointed. Chloe every astutely realizes that the new location is a mile away from where Jack and Marilyn were just looking, but forgets this when she sees Morris walk back in towards the computers.

2:54 pm – Another person who deserves a bit more credit for realizing what’s going on is Josh, who tells his grandfather Susan that everyone keeps treating him like a “stupid little kid”. Susan asks why Joshikins would say something like that, which Josh doesn’t like. Susan does what people like that do, and keeps lying about what’s going on to Josh.

2:55 pm – Marilyn points out the house that Susan wanted them to go to. They drive around back, and we see that Milo has been riding in a very non-descript large UPS truck. They all get out and start getting ready to storm the house as Marilyn tries to talk to Jack, but everyone’s so busy they ignore her. Marilyn and Milo stand further away, for safety, behind a sturdy chain link fence.

2:56 pm – They storm the house, see a bomb, and it explodes just as Jack dives through a window. Milo gets Marilyn back into the UPS van, and they start driving away, as we see some of the people that set the bomb driving after them. Milo does some really fancy driving, probably learned during his stint with the UPS NASCAR races. The bad guys chase after the truck, which crashes. Lots of machine gun fire, and Milo pulls a grenade pin to blow up the truck, as he and Marilyn try and run for it. The truck blows up with most of the packages inside, but this doesn’t faze the bad guys because they go running after Milo and Marilyn.

Jack calls for any agents around, sees the truck, and calls for an EMT.

3:00 pm – Time’s up!

NEXT TIME: THE BAD GUYS CATCH UP WITH MILO AND MARILYN. REED AND LENNOX PLOT! SUSAN THREATENS JOSH! JACK YELLS AT MARILYN! MARILYN TELLS JACK THAT HIS FATHER WANTS TO BE CALLED SUSAN NOW, AND THAT HE JUST TRIED TO KILL JACK!

Be sure and catch all of Steve’s summaries of Season 6 of “24”!

Previously on 24: We learned that: Jack’s father practices VERY tough love; Gray is now an even more appropriate name for Jack’s brother; The very scary looking vice president has a very non-scary name: “Noah” and is currently being housed in a plane somewhere over the United States; Engineers are so scarce in California that people are recruiting them at gun point.

The following summary takes place between 1 pm and 2 pm:

1:00 pm – Jack, flying in the JackCopter, calls Chloe to find out where Morris might be, but she has trouble with the recent Microsoft upgrade. Jack talks to Bill and lets him know that Gray is dead. Jack says that it’d be great if Bill would tell Gray’s wife and son about Gray’s anatomy. Milo goes to talk to Bill about Chloe. Milo says she’s screwing up. Chloe, who despite being the best analyst they have at CTU for many seasons running, is immediately sent to the dugout by Bill. You’d think Bill would know better than that. Milo nearly immediately finds a great picture of Morris being abducted, and it looks like Jack’s plan is to sneak up on them using his helicopter.

1:04 pm – McCarthy’s girlfriend is driving while he holds a gun on Morris, who gives a complete breakdown on who they are, just to prove that he’s been doing his homework.

1:06 pm – Jack somehow forgot to bring his quiet helicopter, and McCarthy hears it. The girlfriend drives really wildly, because everyone knows that it’s easy to ditch a helicopter, especially with Jack following you. There’s a lot of wild driving, and McCarthy gives his girlfriend a few tips on how to drive especially wildly. The car drives under the 110 interchange, and Jack loses sight of them.

1:07 pm – Fortunately for McCarthy, there’s an Avis rental dealership underneath the bypass and he starts looking for a rock to start the car. Meanwhile, Morris tries to get the girlfriend, Rita, to unlock the keys to his handcuffs, even promising to give her some really cool looking shoes, but it doesn’t work. Rita does seem to be a bit surprised to find out that the nuclear weapon that went off was due to her boyfriend, but she still doesn’t help Morris after he tells her that.

1:08 pm – Jack’s helicopter lands at one of the conveniently located helicopter drop-off points for carpools, and he gets out and hops around on a few car roofs to get down.

1:09 pm – McCarthy finds a pickup truck he likes, they all get in, and they drive off. Meanwhile, Jack has everything completely under control by pulling a gun on an empty car. Jack looks mad that he fell for the old “switch cars under the over pass” trick. Milo tells Jack that he can’t figure out where the car went, so they lost McCarthy. Chloe looks at Milo as he apologizes, and gives him that “you’re an amateur” look.

1:10 pm – Fayed and McCarthy talk on the phone. Fayed is getting impatient, because it’s been a few hours since he’s had an engineer, and he really wants one right away. Fayed tells McCarthy he has the money. McCarthy stops the truck for some reason, and starts up the Garmin GPS. Rita must work for Tom-Tom, because she just out and out shoots McCarthy, and dumps his body on the road. Since it’s California, the proper authorities will be alerted in a few days.

Morris is pretty happy about this until he realizes that Rita just wants to have the money for herself! People in LA that just want money? Who would have thought?

Commercial

1:16 pm – At the White House bunker, we find out that Lennox was behind getting Wayne to be president. Turns out all he had to do was go over to his house and ask! Wow, there are going to be a lot of senators and governors pretty surprised that’s all it took for Wayne to be come president! An aide walks in, and tells him that Assad’s starship just landed, and that he’ll be materializing at the bunker shortly.

1:17 pm – Lennox storms off, and finds his #2 weasel guy, Reid. Lennox gets mad at some furniture and pushes it over while whining about not having any of his ideas listened to. Wayne is putting forth his own agenda! How dare he! Lennox says he’s going to resign. (I bet Haig will be mad about that). Reid, realizing his job will be gone if Lennox leaves, tries to convince him to stay, but Lennox won’t listen.

1:18 pm – Reid is even more of a weasel than we thought, because he’s on the phone with someone named Carson. Reid tells Carson everything. Carson tells Reid that Lennox might stay if he finds out what they’re planning, and I’m guessing it’s not a new Starbuck’s store. Reid goes off to see if he can convince Lennox to stay.

1:20 pm – Milo tells Bill can’t figure out how to get to the right pictures, because there are way too many in his Flickr account. Gray’s wife and son enter CTU, looking none too sure about the place. They must have heard about the gas canisters from last season.
Bill asks Mrs. Gray if they can act dramatically in another room, and she agrees. Bill tells her that Gray is dead, which she takes remarkably well. Bill says that they’re bringing Gray’s body to CTU for an autopsy, which will be easy since they’re so used to doing them, what with all the bodies Jack is always bringing in. Bill gets Josh and tells him to go act dramatically in the other room with his mother.

1:22 pm – Milo gets a call from Jack, who wants to talk to Bill. Jack’s found McCarthy’s body and is checking it for loose change, gum, and directions to Fayed’s secret hideout, but he doesn’t find anything. Jack does find a cell phone that received a phone call about five minutes ago, and asks for a trace. Bill asks the obvious, “Do you think the call was to Fayed?” Jack tells him that since McCarthy probably didn’t call for an ambulance, that yes, it was probably Fayed. Jack uploads the phone data to CTU so Milo can look at it.

1:23 pm – Over in the Terrorist Apartment Complex, Rita wanders down the hall with Morris to Fayed’s apartment. They enter, and Rita is surprised that they have a strict dress code for women there, and she and Morris are immediately searched. Rita tells Fayed that McCarthy is out on the street waiting. Morris tries a “I’m not the data analyst you’re looking for” mind trick on Fayed, but it doesn’t work. Rita wants the money now, and Fayed says that she’ll have to wait.

1:25 pm – Fayed tells Morris that he has to make devices to arm the nuclear weapons. Morris takes a quick look around, doesn’t see the necessary Radio Shack parts there, and tells Fayed that he won’t do it. One of Fayed’s guys hits Morris, who falls to the ground. Fayed pulls out a PSP and tells Morris to mod it to use with the bombs. Morris still refuses, so Fayed’s guys start hitting Morris with bats (the “ouch” kind, not the “flutter” kind). That is definitely not going to help Morris figure out how to program that thing.

Commercial

1:29 pm – Jack wants to know why it’s taking so long for Milo to figure out how to make a phone trace. Chloe wants to try, and makes the trace in seconds, WHILE she’s talking to Milo. That’s our Chloe! The location is given to Jack, who drives off in a crescendo of dramatic music. Bill tries to give Milo credit for it, but Milo tells him it was Chloe. Bill wants Chloe to go back to work.

1:31 pm – In the presidential bunker, Assad comes to visit with Wayne under armed guard, which promptly waits outside while they both go into the bunker conference room. No one seems to think there’s a problem with leaving him with President Wayne. Wayne and Assad chit-chat for a while, and Wayne hatches a plan to get Assad onto TV. He wants Assad to give a speech to all the extremists out in the world, and to let them know that they should give up, because it’s time for peace. Wayne says he’s pretty sure that most of their caves get cable, so they’ll be able to reach most of them. Assad says he doesn’t want to be a puppet, and Wayne says that he shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss that because you can make a lot of licensing money that way. Wayne tells Assad that they can’t wait for him to decide when to make the peace deal announcement.

1:34 pm – Jack’s out in front of the Terrorist Apartment Complex with a bunch guys holding weapons they look anxious to use, and one of them has set a perimeter. I swear I heard him say, “All Hail The Perimeter Maker Curtis!”, but that might have been a backfiring truck. Anyway, they have some people in plain clothes watching Fayed’s building, which should make them stick out like sore thumbs in fashion conscience California. They have TAC teams outside, but the building hasn’t been CTU-enabled, so there are no cameras inside. They think Morris and Rita are inside.

1:35 pm – Jack talks to Bill and it’s going to take a while to find people inside the building, so they decide to set off a fire alarm.

1:36 pm – Back at Fayed’s apartment, they’re giving Morris a bath, but they don’t seem to be very good at it. The alarm goes off, and everyone’s confused for a few seconds. One of them starts singing “School’s Out” but stops when Fayed smashes the alarm on the wall.

1:37 pm – Fayed realizes that CTU knows they’re there, and gets out a big terrorist drill which he uses on Morris’s shoulder, not even thinking that that might be Morris’s typing arm. He threatens Morris that he’ll do it some more if he doesn’t help.

1:38 pm – Rita bursts in and says that she just wants to leave, without the money. Fayed takes the fact that she wants to leave WITHOUT the money as a personal insult and shoots her. He starts the drill up again, and Morris agrees to do the work before Fayed has a chance to use it.

Commercial

1:43 pm – Reid walks into Lennox’s office, and tells Lennox he can’t resign. Lennox says he can’t change Wayne’s mind. Reid then says, “What if I told you that the climate could change?” Lennox launches into a speech about global warming until Reid interrupts him and says that there are other people that believe a change in leadership would be a good thing. Lennox wants to know who these people are, and Reid says that he was just speaking abstractly. Lennox says he doesn’t speak “abstract”, and wants to know who the people are. Reid really gives a BIG hint that the vice-president might be taking over soon. Lennox doesn’t go along with this, and Reid seems pretty surprised.

1:45 pm – A firefighter on a bullhorn is talking to people about 10 feet away from him, and they look pretty annoyed. CTU downloads a bunch of info to Jack, and they pinpoint where the terrorists probably are, along with a drug dealer and a handicapped old woman who is probably scared out of her wits right now.

1:46 pm – Back at the terrorist apartment, Morris tries to explain it’s going to take some extra time to do the work, especially since his arm still REALLY hurts.

1:47 pm – Jack’s weapon of choice this time is a shotgun, and he’s working his way to the apartment.

1:47 pm – Morris completes the programming he needs to do, and we see a little nuclear pacman eating dots across the screen. They bring out a silver suitcase with a nuclear weapon in it, from the nuclear weapon closet they’ve been keeping it in. They tell Morris to “Arm it! Arm it!” while hitting Morris’ drilled shoulder, laughing at their little pun. Fayed tries it, it works, and he takes the suitcase away. He tells one of his thugs to kill Morris, who looks pretty disappointed about this new development.

1:48 pm –Explosion through a wall! Shooting all over the place! They really make up for the lack of shooting the last couple of episodes, but still seem to miss Fayed leaving the apartment. Someone forgot to watch the front door! They find Morris, and he’s alive. Chloe looks happy as she gets this news.

1:49 pm – A CTU tactical guy walks in and tells Jack about a nice little package in the next room. Jack kneels down, opens it, and it’s a nuclear weapon. In the understatement of the season so far, he says “CTU, we have a problem”, and asks if anyone from Apollo 13 is available.

Commercial

1:55 pm – Chloe promptly captures the title of understatement of the year when she tells Jack that he needs to “be careful”. They discuss the bomb, it’s explosive properties, and how they might be able to disarm it. Despite this, one of the guys starts talking to Jack about how Fayed escaped, how he got away in a helicopter, and what the weather is like. This tactical guy is lucky Jack doesn’t shoot him in the thigh, just to get him to shut up. Chloe continues to give Jack instructions, and accidentally tells him the wrong info. Fortunately, she gets an updated Acrobat Reader, downloads a new schematic, and saves the day just in time.

1:57 pm – Jack’s pretty happy that everything is over, until Morris tells him that Fayed now has a nuclear arming device that works. This annoys Jack.

1:59 pm – Back at the White House bunker, Lennox gets info from CTU about Fayed still being at large. He calls Reid, and tells him to tear up the resignation letter. Lennox says he wants to discuss the climate again!

2:00 pm – Time’s up!

NEXT TIME: Is in a few minutes…

Be sure and catch all of Steve’s summaries of Season 6 of “24”!