411’s 24 Review: S08E011 – 2:00AM – 3:00AM
Posted by John Gale on 03.10.2010
A traitor is revealed in the latest episode of “24.”
Hi everyone. First of all, I have to say that last night’s “Lost” was absolutely spectacular. I know this is a column about another show, but wow. And it was just a few episodes ago that we were subjected to a Kate-centric episode, and I was wondering what happened to that show. Anyway, let’s get to the recap of this show.
Marcos and his mom…and Jack.
The episode begins with Marcos working on his explosive vest, as he tries to manually set it off. He looks at some kind of schematic on the wall, which he must have made himself after consulting with Samir.
Meanwhile, Jack gets a report from an agent, who informs him that it will take 40 minutes to drill through the hyperbaric chamber. Owen then shows up to inform Jack that they have the internal cameras up and running, but the intercom is still offline. Owen says that the more pressing issue is that Marcos has already reset one of the four circuits he needs to manually detonate the vest.
Jack then relays this information to Hastings, and he asks for any useful information about Marcos. Apparently, Marcos is from East Harlem. His mother is American, and his father was from the Islamic Republic of Kamistan. He was suspected of collaborating with terrorists and was imprisoned by the Wayne Palmer administration. While charges were eventually dropped, he couldn’t get a job after that and committed suicide. Marcos started working for the IRK shortly thereafter.
Jack says that the mother needs to be brought in as soon as possible, and Hastings says they’ll get right on it. He adds that they have to assume that the terrorists intend to use the dirty bomb to strike a high-value target in Manhattan, which means that they’re going to have to get it on the island first. Chloe suggests that they shut down the city, but Hastings says that they want the terrorists to try to bring the bomb to Manhattan because that will make it easier to intercept it. He says the priority is to make sure the radiological sensors are all functioning properly.
Samir gets a call from the guy who killed Farhad, who informs him that he and another henchman are observing the situation at the hospital. They’ve tapped into the hospital’s security cameras and can report that he has one of the four circuits reconfigured. Samir says that they will be bringing down CTU’s radiological sensors soon.
After the intercom is repaired, Jack tries to talk to Marcos. He says that he knows the original plan was to smuggle the nuclear rods out of the country, and he’s guessing that setting off a dirty bomb in New York isn’t exactly what Marcos signed up for. He adds that if the attack is successful, it will destroy the IRK because President Taylor will be forced to retaliate.
Marcos then rails against the peace treaty, saying that Hassan is signing over his country’s ability to defend itself without a fight. He then goes off about the “arrogance” of America and how it keeps his people down. Jack points out that Marcos is an American citizen, and it was his father who was from the IRK. Jack says that what happened to Marcos’ father was unfair and tragic, but this isn’t the way to honor his memory. Marcos says that he won’t change his mind. He then goes back to work and gets the second green light to come on. Two down, two to go.
While Marcos’ mother is packing, Cole and a team of CTU agents show up at her door. He says that the door is going to get opened one way or the other, so she complies by opening it. The agents rush in, and Cole asks if she knows where her son is. He asks why she’s leaving in the middle of the night, and she says that Marcos called to warn her to leave, but he wouldn’t say why. Cole then tells her that Marcos is trying to blow himself up with an explosive vest. She agrees to go down to the hospital.
When Cole and Marcos’ mother get to the hospital, Marcos has already activated the third light on the vest. Owen says that it will be about 10 more minutes, and Jack grimly says that they’re not going to be able to drill through in time.
Cole says that the mother cooperated and had a packed suitcase. Jack says that’s good because it shows that Marcos cares enough about his mother to make sure she gets out of town. Cole says that the mother didn’t really know anything else. Jack then goes to bring her up to speed, and she agrees to try to talk Marcos into opening the door and cooperating.
Marcos’ mother tries to talk to him, and Marcos tells Jack to get out of the room, which he does. She begs Marcos to tell her that he’s not involved in a terrorist attack. He can’t, and he says he’s doing this because of what happened to his father. She says that he never condoned violence, but Marcos says he would have agreed with what they're doing.
She asks if Marcos really believes that, and he says that his father hated America. She says that he “hated” America so much that he came to America, married an American and had an American son.
She tries to blame herself for not helping him deal with his emotions after his father’s death, but he says she was the best mother he could have asked for.
He tells her that it’s too late. She begs him to stop, but he says that he has to go through with this. He says he’s sorry, and he goes back to working on the vest. Jack has the agents get the mother out of there.
As this conversation is going on, Chloe detects that someone has tapped into the video feed. Jack orders Owen to disconnect the feed. The terrorists lose the signal just as Marcos’ mother has been pulled out of the room. Jack is still there, but they don’t know what he’s saying.
Here’s the video of Marcos’ mother trying to talk him out of what he’s doing.
And here is Jack’s attempt. He uses a slightly different tactic.
Marcos finally gets the last light to come on, and he reaches for the detonator. Before he can blow himself up, Jack warns him that if he detonates the vest, his mother will die too. He says that he’ll escort her to the blast site to ensure that she’s exposed to the radiation and will die a painful death.
Marcos says that Jack wouldn’t do that because he’s a federal agent, and Jack says that he’s more of a “specialist” at this point. Jack adds that if Marcos knew who he was and what he’s done in his life, he’d know that he’s not bluffing. He says that he’ll make Marcos’ mother clean up the mess he leaves from the explosion, and then he’ll take her to the dirty bomb blast site. He then tells Marcos to look in his eyes and says that what happens to his mother is because of him.
Marcos says that if he opens the door, Jack has to promise not to hurt his mother. Jack gives him his word, and Marcos finally sets the detonator down and opens the door. Jack sees that the four lights are on, which means they need a bomb squad to disarm the vest.
Unfortunately, Samir’s men have also noticed that the vest is armed, and they transmit a failsafe. As Jack is working on the vest, a timer comes on. They’ve got 60 seconds before the bomb goes off. Jack keeps working, but he says that if he can’t get the bomb disarmed in time, he needs to know some information. Marcos doesn’t know the target or how they’re smuggling the nuclear rods into Manhattan, but he does know that Tarin is one of the conspirators.
Jack realizes that he isn’t going to be able to disarm the bomb in time, so Marcos asks Jack to tell his mother that he’s sorry. He then runs back into the hyperbaric chamber, and the bomb goes off before Jack can shut the door. He gets knocked to the ground, but he’s apparently ok. He looks up to see blood all over the place, and he reports in that Marcos is dead. He adds that he needs to speak with President Hassan.
Dana has a new problem.
Hastings notices one of the security cameras, which shows that Dana and Cole have finally returned to CTU. Needless to say, Hastings has a few questions about what exactly they’ve been doing the last couple of hours.
Dana and Cole get in the elevator, and he tells her that they need to act naturally. Dana is worried that she got Cole involved in her crimes (evidently, he’s never committed a crime in his life, which isn’t too surprising). She wants him to talk to her, but he says they have to focus on stopping the terrorist threat first. He then adds that he can’t promise that things will be the same, but he wouldn’t have done what he did if he didn’t still love her.
The elevator opens, and Hastings is already there, waiting like a shark. He gets right to the point, saying that they have “holy hell” to answer for. Cole tries to apologize, and Hastings cuts him off. He says that Cole should have been updating him on his “lead” every 20 minutes and observes that Dana somehow managed to find time to change her clothes while “servicing a faulty relay station.”
Hastings clearly doesn’t believe any of their crap, and he says that they would be fired over this if city wasn’t on high alert and they weren’t the best at their jobs. They assure him that they’re done with their distractions, but Hastings demotes Dana, which puts Chloe in charge. That’s always a recipe for Chloe to be even more annoying than usual. Hastings concludes by saying that their performance the rest of the day will determine if they’re able to salvage their careers at CTU.
Since I like scenes in which Hastings is berating people, here’s the video:
It doesn’t take long for friction to develop between Dana and Chloe. Dana is pretty despondent, while Chloe is just being herself. Chloe does her best “diplomacy,” saying that she’s glad that Dana didn’t get fired instead of just demoted. Dana asks Arlo about the drones, and he says that they’re fully functional.
Arlo then apologizes for telling Cole about Kevin. She tells him not to worry about it, and he asks if Kevin is gone. Oh, he’s gone all right. She says that she and Cole will get through it, and Arlo once again attempts to persuade her to go with him instead. Well, good to see him being a creepass again.
Later, Dana gives Hastings an update. He quickly dismisses her, but she tries to apologize again for leaving her post. He says that she let him down and that he brought her in and promoted her because of the skill and leadership ability he saw in her. He says that he doesn’t want to lose either her or Cole because they’re valuable, but he cautions that they’re not replaceable. She says that both she and Cole will accept whatever consequences result from their actions.
She then excuses herself to take a call. The guy on the other line is looking for Kevin because he’s his probation officer. Dana tries to deny knowing Kevin, but she’s quickly caught in a lie, as the probation officer (Bill Prady) points out that Kevin called her cell phone from a hotel room in Queens several times, and some of the calls lasted more than a few minutes.
He says that he would like to meet with her in person as soon as possible because he’s flying back to Little Rock, Arkansas, in the morning. He offers to clear things with her supervisor if that would help, and she says that she’ll meet with him.
My roommate pointed out that it was kind of stupid for her to be scared by the prospect of Prady calling Hastings. They’re in the middle of a terrorist threat, so Hastings isn’t going to want Dana to be spending any time meeting with a probation officer of someone that she knows. He’d tell the guy to get lost and come back after the threat has been dealt with. But I guess she just wants the whole thing to go away and for Hastings never to learn anything about her past. Good luck with that.
Dana starts to panic and calls Cole to tell him about the probation officer. Cole says that she just has to come up with a reason for why Kevin had her number. She says that she doesn’t know if she can do this, and he says, “What, lie? Come on, we both know you’re good at it.” Ouch.
Hassan’s suspicions are confirmed.
At the hotel, Tarin finishes up a phone call. He tells Kayla that his friend at the State Department should be able to secure asylum for them. He says that it will take 12-18 months for the asylum to be granted and that he won’t be able to work legally in the meantime. On the bright side, they will be protected as soon as they file the application, and he does have some savings. Kayla says she doesn’t care about money anyway.
Hmm…it’s too bad that Tarin and Kayla aren’t Olympic athletes in events that we suck at. I’m sure we’d just fast track their citizenship so that they could compete, the way we did with that ice dancer four years ago.
Kayla then gets a call from her mother, and she says that she should answer so that her mother knows that she’s safe. Tarin says that she can make the call after the application for asylum has been filed. Having been sent to voice mail, Dalia leaves a message.
Dalia has returned to the UN, and she tells Hassan that she hasn’t been able to reach Kayla. Dalia then confronts her husband about Tarin’s arrest. She says that Tarin was one of his most loyal men, but Hassan points out that Farhad was too. She warns him that unless he stops acting the way he has, he will have helped Farhad’s goal of destroying the government.
Hassan says that he’s going to get the police involved, and then he tries to apologize to his distraught wife. She tearfully says that he should be sorry because his paranoia and suspicions have driven their daughter away, and now they’re all facing a nuclear threat. Hassan says that she’s right, and that he’ll make changes. They embrace.
Later on, Nabil says that Jack Bauer is on the line and needs to speak with Hassan. He takes the call, and Jack tells him that the suicide bomber is dead, but he identified Tarin as one of the conspirators. Hassan doesn’t exactly look surprised, even if his wife does.
I have to say that this wasn’t exactly shocking. Maybe I’ve just been watching this show for too long, so I know what the writers like to do, and very few things surprise me anymore (the last big surprise was when Tony killed Larry last year). But with that said, it was pretty obvious that when Kayla ran off with Tarin, something was going to happen, and him being in on the conspiracy was the best bet.
Jack says that Tarin needs to be taken into custody, but Hassan tells Jack that he doesn’t know where Tarin is, but he’s likely with his daughter. He explains that he suspected Tarin’s involvement and had him arrested, but he managed to escape while being transported to their embassy. Kayla believed that Tarin was innocent and apparently ran away with him. He says that his wife has been unsuccessful in her attempts to reach Kayla, but Jack says they need to keep trying. Dalia then grabs her phone to make another call to her daughter.
Tarin hops in the shower right when Dalia calls, so Kayla decides to answer the phone. Hassan informs Jack that they finally got through to Kayla, and he says that they need an address. Dalia warns Kayla that she’s in danger because Tarin is involved with Hassan’s enemies.
Kayla dismisses that as her father's paranoia, but Dalia says that CTU just confirmed it. Kayla doesn’t believe it, but Dalia says that she wouldn’t be calling if she didn’t believe it also, given how much she despises the way Hassan has handled everything. Kayla still doesn’t want to believe that Train is a traitor, but she tells her mother where they are. She has to go when Tarin comes out (seriously, that was like a two-minute shower).
Tarin says that he thought they agreed that she wouldn’t take her mother’s call, but she says that she didn’t want her to worry. She adds that she didn’t tell her mother where they are. He then says that they have to get dressed to formally request asylum. She says that it’s the middle of the night, but he says the arrangements have been made. She protests that she hasn’t slept and even tries to use sex to delay their departure, but he’s having none of it.
She takes her clothes and goes to the bathroom. He asks why she doesn’t get dressed in the bedroom, and she says she needs to clean up. I don’t think Tarin overheard the phone conversation, but he’s definitely suspicious.
The episode ends as Jack orders the NYPD to set up a perimeter around the hotel, and he and Cole take off in a CTU vehicle.
BEGIN DISCUSSION OF NEXT WEEK’S PROMO
Here's next week's promo. Hopefully, this will still work, as I had to replace the original video that I had in this spot because it got pulled down by Fox. Ugh. Anyway, this one worked when I submitted the recap. If it gets pulled down too, I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to find the promo somewhere online.
Well, this is interesting. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a promo that had timestamps on things that are going to happen. Then again, I watched the first five seasons on DVD, so it’s not like I’ve seen every promo when it aired.
At any rate, it appears that much of the episode will revolve around Kayla’s abduction (“At 3:15, a terrifying abduction”) and potential execution (“At 3:24, a savage threat”). I doubt she’s going to die, but it should be suspenseful.
Also, a “big twist” is promised (“At 3:52, a twist that will change everything.”) Well, that should be interesting. Originally, my working theory was that either a mole would be revealed in CTU or that CTU itself would be hit. I based that on Hastings running around yelling “Security!”
Neither of those scenarios would be particularly original, but they seem the most likely. I thought Arlo was the most likely suspect to be a mole, as he could potentially disable the radiological sensors on the drones to allow the terrorists to get the nuclear rods into Manhattan. At one point in this episode, Samir said that they would have the sensors down, so that implies that they have someone working on the inside. And since he said they were arriving at a landing, it is implied that the rods will be transported by boat.
The only problem with this theory is that Arlo is seen in one of the scenes in which Hastings is calling for security, and he doesn’t appear to be a suspect. That doesn’t mean he’s not involved, of course, and it’s not like they’re going to show exactly what the twist is. In fact, after consulting with my roommate, we decided that the most likely scenario is that Arlo is the mole, but he shifts suspicion to Dana. That really makes the most sense because Arlo knows that Dana isn’t going to want Hastings to learn of her secret, and she already looks suspicious enough after disappearing for a couple hours. We'll see what happens.
END DISCUSSION OF NEXT WEEK’S PROMO
Ok, everyone. See you next week.
The 411: Yet another solid if unspectacular episode. The main plot involving Marcos, his mother and Jack was well done, as was everything involving the Hassan family. On the other hand, the Dana plotline just will not go away, and it looks like we’re stuck with it for at least another episode or two. Without giving anything away, Fox hyped up next week’s episode even more than usual in the promo, so hopefully it will be great.
