TNMC

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10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Written By: Robert Cochran
Directed By: Davis Gaggenheim

So what's new in the world of Jack Bauer this week? Well his wife and daughter are still kidnapped, the government is still pursuing him for what they believe was an attempt on Senator Palmer's life, and he's still really tired. Not a good day to be Jack Bauer. However watching it all go down is another matter entirely.

We left off with Jack having the businessman Ted Kofell in the back of Ted's limo. Sure enough, it doesn't take Ted that long to notice that Jack is not his normal limo driver, but by that point Jack has him well under control. They pull over to the side of the road and Jack turns into Psycho-Jack. A truly scary SOB. After getting a background check from Nina on Ted's psychological profile, Jack begins his interrogation. Yet for all the threats that Jack makes, and the towel one is a doozy, Ted still maintains that he has no idea who Gaines is and where Jack's family might be.

Nina meanwhile is still trying to shake off the suspicion of the new chief, Green, whom I affectionately refer to as Super Bitch. And though Nick is trying to pressure her into revealing everything to Green, Nina refuses to risk the lives of Jack's family. Nina and Jack really do make great heroic centerpieces for this show.

Over at the militia camp, Teri is still hurting from mysterious malady. Since I don't think any STD's generate quite that quickly, Eli must have hurt her in some other way when he was raping her. Teri refuses to give up hope though, and rally's to keep Kim's spirit up. She truly believes that Jack is coming for them. Rick comes in, but doesn't want to know anything about what the girls were doing. He's just playing a facade and preparing to get his butt kicked by Eli. Sure enough, when he honestly tells the hillbilly militia man that he knows nothing, he gets the crap kicked out of him. Kim of course starts crying since she might care for the person who kidnapped her. It's that whole heart of gold thing.

As Rick is recovering from his wounds though, he come upon the meeting between Gaines and one of the Brothers Drayson, who are evidently Gaines employers. They have a contingency plan in place that will kill Bauer and Palmer, and one they mean to implement soon. Unfortunately Teri and Kim aren't needed for this plan so Drayson orders their deaths. Gaines is upset at all this because he's pretty sure he's not going to get paid. And with all the death and terror he's spread, he should at least be compensated in some way. The Drayson brothers appear to be some scary people though, because Gaines doesn't push them too far.

Jack meanwhile is beginning to doubt that Kofell might know anything when the man suddenly pulls a knife from hiding and tries to kill him. Nothing like an attempt on your life to confirm your suspicions on someone. Jack wrestles the knife from Kofell's grasp, snapping the man's wrist in the process. This leads to a curious transformation as Kofell all of a sudden speaking in a thick accent in a Slavic language. He taunts Jack and says that Jack is getting everything he deserves. Bauer is on a thin rope of sanity as it is, so he of course snaps and proceeds to beat on Kofell to get information out of him. In the process he heart punches Ted, which is a bad idea due to the fact that Kofell has a heart condition. Jack tries to force feed Kofell his heart medicine, but the Slavic man spits it out defiantly. As the man dies Jack realizes that he might not be able to reach his family, until he remembers that Kofell wanted to go visit a man named Kevin in a parking garage.

Things aren't going so well in the Palmer camp either. He's still worried that Rob plans on killing the doctor who knows the truth about his son Kevin. And David will not stand by and watch an innocent man die to further his campaign. As he sees deceit and treachery all around him though, Palmer finally begins to see that other people have been pulling his strings for a long time now. The question is, can Pinocchio cut his strings and become a real politician. We also get dropped an interesting tidbit about a failed operation two years ago, one that possibly connects Bauer to Palmer. This is undoubtedly the back story of why the Brothers Drayson want to see the two dead. Jack later confirms this story, saying it was called Operation Nightfall. Had something to do with Belgrade and Kosovo.

So Jack is sitting still in the parking lot, with the dead body of Ted set up in a sting operation. Kevin eventually pulls into the garage, and we see that it's the man we used to believe was Alan York. He casually steps into the limo, and after seeing that Ted is dead he calmly pulls out a gun and starts shooting at Jack in the front seat. Luckily the limo is, as Jack earlier pointed out, bulletproof so Kevin just wastes his shots. Jack then precedes to do some fancy stunt driving around the parking lot to disorientate Kevin, before speeding up and slamming on the brakes which tosses the man into the Plexiglas windshield and knocks him unconscious. When Kevin awakes he finds himself tied up. This has got to be embarrassing for him; he's now had his butt kicked by both Teri and Jack. All he needs is to get beat on by Kim and it's a Bauer hat trick. Him and Jack strike a deal though, he'll take Jack to the compound if Jack promises to let him go afterwards.

Teri and Kim are in trouble though since Drayson has ordered their deaths. Getting there a little bit ahead of time, Rick gives them a gun with which to defend themselves. He leaves saying that there isn't anything more he can do and apologizes to Kim. You have to wonder that if they all get out of this alive, how's Jack going to react to his daughter dating her former kidnapper? I'm willing to bet on not well. Anyway Eli has been dispatched to finish them off. He seems genuinely sad and promises to kill them quickly. He's just a big teddy bear is Eli. Teri however whips out the gun and proceeds to fill him full of lead. Or she would, if the gun wasn't jammed. Eli knocks her to the ground and brings out his own gun, but Kim somehow manages to wrestle him to the ground (must be an adrenaline thing) and Teri scoops up Eli's gun and shoots him twice before he can knife Kim.

Thus ends an exciting hour of 24. Next week however promises to be a blowout. It'll wrap up the first half of the season and bring to an end the Gaines arc and fully begin the Drayson arc I believe. There was great acting all around in this episode, but this was definitely Jack's episode to carry. Keifer Sutherland was genuinely frightening as an off-balanced father pushed way too far. I've said it before, but he deserves the Golden Globe he's won. So be sure to tune in next week when all hell breaks loose.

Episode Rating: 9.5 out of 10

-- TJarvis

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