411’s 24 Review: S08E010 – 1:00AM – 2:00AM

Posted by John Gale on 03.04.2010

Several characters go or remain missing, Hastings puts an end to Renee's legal troubles and Jack continues his mission to track down the nuclear fuel rods in the latest episode of “24.”

Hi, everyone. Let’s get to the recap.

First of all, both Kayla Hassan and Brian Hastings got freeze frames in the previously on “24” segment for the first time, always a sign that they will play a big role in this episode.

Kayla and Tarin go AWOL.

Nabil gives Kayla a couple of minutes to talk to Tarin, and she says that her father wouldn’t listen to her, even after she told him of their romantic involvement. Tarin tells her to come closer, and he informs her that some of his men are still loyal to him and will help him escape. He asks Kayla to come with him after he breaks out. She agrees.

While en route to the embassy, Tarin starts to work on his handcuffs, but he’s interrupted when Nabil says that he doesn’t think Tarin is guilty of treason, but he’s only doing his job. Tarin says that he would do the same thing if the roles were reversed, and that Nabil shouldn’t blame himself for whatever happens. Nabil says he appreciates that, but then he suddenly has a gun at his head.

Tarin orders Nabil to hand over his weapon, which he does. He then tells the driver to pull over, and he orders them out of the car. He relieves the driver of his keys, and when President Hassan calls Nabil, Tarin takes the phone too. Finally, he orders them to handcuff themselves to the car, and he locks them inside.

Here’s the video of Tarin’s escape:



Tarin then calls Kayla and tells her to meet him. She says she’ll be there in 10 minutes. When she gets to Tarin’s hotel room, and he invites her in. They embrace, and he tells her that he has contacted an American lawyer he knows that is an expert in international law. The lawyer will meet them in two hours, so they have to find something to do in the mean time. Predictably, they start to make out. Looks like Tarin is going to have a good time. Kayla is very good looking.

Presidents Taylor and Hassan deal with their issues.

Hastings calls to inform President Taylor that Farhad called and is no longer in control of the nuclear rods. Furthermore, the men who turned against him plan to set off a dirty bomb in New York. Hastings has enlisted Jack to bring Farhad back in safely, but the men with the rods are covert members of Hassan’s intelligence forces, so Hastings would like access to their files. Weiss says that Hassan will never do that, but Taylor orders a meeting with Hassan to be convened immediately.

When Taylor leaves the room, Hastings asks Weiss if they are alone, and Weiss says they are. Hastings then informs him that he will not be pursuing criminal charges against Renee. Weiss says that Renee murdered a lead that could have led them to the rods (yeah, because Vladimir was so valuable at that point), but Hastings says they have a new lead now, and they need to focus on that instead of blaming Renee.

Hastings says that Weiss can replace him as CTU director if he wants, but until he does, he needs to stay out of the way. Weiss doesn’t like that, but Hastings isn’t budging. And he even owns Weiss by hanging up on him a half second before Weiss pathetically hits the hang up button. What a loser Weiss is. I like Hastings more with each passing week.

Here’s the video of that conversation.



A few minutes later, Hassan arrives for his meeting with Taylor. He asks about Farhad, and she says that he called CTU to surrender himself. She explains that Farhad's men turned against him, and they’re planning to set off a dirty bomb in New York.

She then gets to the point—the men in question are covert members of Hassan’s intelligence agency, and she needs the files on them immediately. Hassan balks at that, but Taylor says that she’s given him latitude on his domestic situation, and she needs his cooperation now that her country is threatened. She understands Hassan's concerns that handing over the files would compromise his country’s security, but she gets him to play ball by threatening to retaliate if the attack succeeds. She says that she’ll have no choice in that case, and she’s right. He agrees.

A little later, Taylor holds a teleconference with Secretary of Homeland Security Tim Woods and some other Cabinet members. Woods tells her that the rods have the potential to contaminate approximately one square mile. If the dirty bomb was set off in a particularly dense population area, they could be looking at casualties in the tens of thousands.

Director of CDC Landry then says that most of the deaths would be from severe radiation poisoning, and some of the others would die from cancers such as leukemia. Admiral Smith adds that it would be possible for the contaminated area to be uninhabitable for 40 years. They all agree that as bad as the threat is, an evacuation is impossible, and they can’t make the threat public because it would set off a panic. They also decide to evacuate the UN and reconvene the conference from a safe location.

Hassan gets a call from a security agent who says that he found Nabil. Hassan asks to talk to him, and Nabil says that someone helped Tarin escape and that he overheard Tarin talking to Kayla. Hassan hangs up and tries to call Kayla. She ignores his call, and he leaves a message.

As Taylor is getting ready to leave, Hassan arrives. She says that they need to leave the UN., but Hassan says that he can’t leave until he finds his daughter. She implores him to leave, but he says that he can’t go anywhere while the city is under a nuclear threat until Kayla is found.

Hassan ultimately decides to call his wife. She says that she’s not changing her mind about leaving him, but he says that he’s calling because Kayla is missing. He tells her about the nuclear threat, and he begs her to call Kayla because he can’t reach her himself. She agrees to help.

Ok, does nobody on Hassan's payroll know how to use passive triangulation to find someone? We've seen this done countless times on this show (most recently when Arlo located Dana for Cole in the last episode), which is why Jack is always telling people to remove their cell phone batteries when terrorists are looking for them. Kayla still has her cell phone, as evidenced by the fact that she sent her father to voice mail right before she got to Tarin's apartment. And yet, nobody seems to be able to figure out the easiest way to find her.

At any rate, we can be sure that something is going to happen with these two. I was half expecting Tarin to be in on the coup attempt after all and take Kayla hostage. I guess there's still time.

Dana and Cole cover up her crime.

Well, Kevin didn’t make it. Cole is feverishly trying to revive him, but Dana tells him that Kevin is dead, so he should just go. She says that she’ll take the blame for this, so he won’t have to. Cole says that he’s already involved, so they’re going to strip down the van to the point that it’s unidentifiable and dump the bodies in the swamp. He says that it’s not worth her going to prison for the rest of her life for scum like Kevin and Nick.

I know that was brief, but there wasn’t much going on in this plot line that just won’t go away.

Jack can’t save Farhad, but he has a backup plan.

Jack gives instructions to the CTU agents, and they’re interrupted by a call from Farhad, who wants to know how close they are. Jack says they’re still 10 minutes out, and Farhad says that someone is close to finding him.

Several minutes later, Hastings contacts Farhad to tell him that the agents are almost there. Farhad says that he can’t stay where he is, but Hastings warns him not to move. Farhad panics and tries to run for it. He gets shot twice just as Jack and the cavalry arrive. The assassin takes off, while Jack discovers Farhad. He tells Chloe that Farhad is still alive, but he has been hit, so they need those intelligence files immediately.

The gunman calls Samir to inform him that Farhad is dead. Samir asks if he’s sure, and the gunman says that he shot Farhad twice, but he had to get out of there because the police arrived.

While Jack is getting the files, a medic tells him that Farhad is bleeding out and probably won’t make it to the hospital. Jack orders the medic to do whatever it takes to keep Farhad alive. Jack then goes to Farhad’s side to tell him that he’s going to show him photographs of the covert operatives so that he can identify them. Farhad agrees to help, but he dies before he can do so. At the same time, another agent reports that the area is clear, and no hostiles were found.

Jack calls Hastings to deliver the bad news, but he says they have another play. Because Jack and his men came up on Farhad too quickly for the gunman to confirm that he was actually dead, they should leak to the press that Farhad survived and is being transported to a local hospital where he will be questioned. Jack argues that Farhad knows too much, so the terrorists will be forced to make a move.

Hastings is skeptical, but Jack says that they don’t have any other moves. Chloe adds that they can use facial recognition software to identify anyone who is also in the files they just acquired. Hastings agrees to go along with the plan.

It doesn’t take long for the press to report that Farhad is still alive, and Samir is not pleased. The gunman offers to go to the hospital to finish Farhad off, but Samir says that he’ll be too conspicuous. But something has to be done, so they’re sending someone named Marcos because he has an American mother and won’t be suspected.

This Marcos is a young guy (early to mid-20s), and he is in the truck with the rods. He calls his mother and tells her to leave town. She wants to know what’s going on, but he says that he can’t tell her yet.

Well, we can be pretty safe in assuming that the mother is going to be more involved in the story at some point. They don’t just introduce characters like that for no reason. Remember when Dubaku suddenly had a girlfriend last season? It was pretty obvious that Jack was going to use her to get to Dubaku, and that’s exactly what happened. We can expect something similar here.

Meanwhile, Hastings tells Jack that everything is ready to go. Jack then tries to settle Owen’s nerves. He says that they’ll be secure in the event of an attack. Owen says that they should get moving, and Jack quietly agrees.

When they get to the hospital, they rush Farhad in, and Chloe gets the facial recognition software up and running. It isn’t long before Marcos shows up. He parks his car and then activates some kind of detonator. It is revealed that he is wearing an explosive vest.

That’s interesting. Suicide bombers aren’t exactly unprecedented as a terrorist tactic, but unless I’m mistaken, I don’t believe there has ever been a suicide bomber on this show. In retrospect, I find that surprising.

While this is going on, Renee calls Jack. She tells him that she’s been released, and Chloe told her what Jack did. She says that she didn’t ask him to put himself on the line for her, but Jack says that he couldn’t let her take the blame for the failure of their mission because she did nothing wrong.

Jack then adds that he meant what he said earlier—when this is all over, he wants to be with Renee. She says that she’d like that, and Jack tells her that CTU will escort her to his apartment, and they can meet up later. I’m pretty sure that we’ll be seeing Renee at some point again. Inevitably, Jack’s apartment will get attacked or something.

This episode was a little light on action, so I’ll post the video of this conversation. After all, we can never get enough Jack and Renee, especially because we may not see her again for a while:



Jack has to hang up because Hastings is on the line. Hastings tells Jack that they’ve identified the assassin through the facial recognition software. Chloe notices the detonator and warns Jack that Marcos might be wearing an explosive vest. Jack asks if she can disarm the detonator remotely, and she says that she can, as long as she can figure out what model it is.

Jack warns Owen that Marcos is coming, and Owen could not look more nervous. Jack says that Owen needs to stay calm, do whatever Marcos asks and try to slow him down while Chloe disables the bomb.

Marcos then gets closer and tells Owen that he has a bomb, and he’ll kill them both if Owen doesn’t do as he’s told. He orders Owen to hand over his weapon, and then he instructs Owen to take him to Farhad’s room.

Chloe informs Jack that she’s identified the detonator model, but she’s going to need a visual on the vest to disarm it. Jack tells Owen that he needs to get the hostile underneath one of the surveillance cameras and make the hostile show the vest to him.

Owen stops right before the next camera, and he demands that Marcos show him proof of the bomb. Marcos threatens to blow it up right on the spot, but Owen says that if he wants Farhad, he has to show him the vest. Marcos finally agrees, and they get moving again.

Fortunately, Chloe was able to get what she needed, and she and Arlo are working hard to disarm the bomb. When Marcos and Owen get to Farhad’s room, Marcos orders Owen to the ground. He then hits the detonator, but the bomb has been disarmed just in the nick of time.

Owen springs to his feet, but Marcos hits him with the gun. He then fires six shots into Farhad’s chest, but he notices that the heart monitor is unchanged. He realizes that it was a trap, and the CTU agents break in. Marcos then jumps out the window and limps away. Jack jumps out the window onto a nearby car, and he takes off in hot pursuit.

Marcos manages to seal himself in some kind of pressure chamber, much to Jack’s dismay. While Jack calls for a team to help him open the door, Marcos calls Samir to tell him that Farhad was already dead. He says that it was a trap, but he managed to lock himself in an oxygen chamber. Samir says that Marcos will have to detonate the bomb because he can't be captured alive, but Marcos says that the detonator has been disabled. Samir says that Marcos can still detonate the bomb manually, and he’ll talk him through it. Jack then tries to get Marcos’ attention, but Marcos knocks out the camera as the episode ends.

BEGIN DISCUSSION OF NEXT WEEK’S PROMO



As predicted, it didn’t take Jack long to find Marcos’ mother. I’m not sure how, but it appears that Jack is able to talk to Marcos on that screen, even though I thought Marcos broke the camera at the end up the episode. Jack threatens Marcos by saying that if he detonates the bomb, his mother will die too. I don’t know if that means the bomb going off would also kill the mother or if Jack is threatening to kill her separately. Either way, it should be interesting.

Sadly, Dana’s plot line just will not go away. Evidently, some guy is looking for Kevin. I’m not sure if he’s a private investigator or a bail bondsman or what, but it looks like this will continue to cause problems for Dana and Cole.

END DISCUSSION OF NEXT WEEK’S PROMO

All right, everyone. See you back here next week.

The 411: This was a solid episode that wasn’t quite as good as last week’s effort. It still had some good moments, such as Tarin’s escape, Hastings’ shutdown of the Renee investigation and Jack’s master plan to outwit the terrorists into sending someone to kill a man who is already dead.

Final Score:  8.5   [ Very Good ]