24: Her Chemical Romance

Last week, I wrote that it felt like the first mini-arc this season of “24” was coming to a close and last night we got that (unofficial) conclusion.

As a result, last night’s episode was kind of a weird hour. It was a transitional episode that set up future storylines (who knew Col. Dubaku’s love life would become a plot point), while also wrapping up the first portion of the season. For example, I seriously doubt I’ll ever say or type the words “CIP firewall” after this week (which is good because my friends had no clue what I was talking about).

The weird combination of wrapping up old storylines and establishing new ones led to, probably, the season’s most uneven hour thus far.

Last week, we left off with Col. Dubaku initializing an attack at a chemical plant in Kidron, Ohio that would kill, according to Homeland Security Tim, more than 17,000 people. The super convenient plot device, I mean CIP device (honestly, was there anything this firewall couldn’t do) was supposed to mess with the plant’s security valves and unleash its toxins.

Fortunately, the facility was run by renegade badass plant manager John Brunner, who apparently has seen too many episodes of “24” and nobly sacrificed his life to save, um, no one since Jack and Co. destroyed the CIP device anyway (more on that later).

Honestly though, the scenes between FBI techie Janis (pictured, left) and Brunner were the most amusing in this episode, mostly because Brunner seemed like a character out of a 1980’s action movie. He somehow made sexism a bit charming, though Janis was having none of his “honey” talk. I guess Brunner from good ol’ Kidron (which, unlike Sangala, is a real place, according to Google Maps) wasn’t used to dealing with big-city gals with attitudes and careers like Janis because he proceeded to call her “honey” one more time.

Unfortunately, their crackling chemistry wasn’t destined to lead to a relationship, since Brunner’s flimsy gas mask (sans goggles) failed to protect him from the super deadly toxin. Oh well. At least his family will get a lovely flower arrangement from Janis.

But only after this whole terrorism thing is dealt with, per Sean’s insistence. Once again, I felt like the writers are putting enough quirky stuff into the FBI office scenes to keep them interesting the same way they did with the CTU scenes in previous seasons. Otherwise, we would have a bunch of stale scenes of people staring at computer monitors and spouting technobabble (that’s what the Dubaku/Nichols lair scenes were for).

How else to explain Larry Moss once again scolding a nameless female employee? I know the guy’s coming unhinged and last night we found out that he and Renee have a “history”, but it’s the little details like him snapping “not now” at that random woman that keep these scenes alive. I’m also having a hard time getting a read on Sean. We know he’s a little jerky, but not completely evil (he DID go out of his way to save his wife). We know he can be cold (demanding that Janis get back to work) and judgmental (Larry’s relationship with Renee), but who is he to talk, since he’s got his won secret office romance going (where the hell is “Erica”?). It just feels like this guy is going to do something big soon.

It remains to be seen whether he’ll be revealed as the FBI mole and it appears like that question is somewhat on the backburner. It looks like we’ll find out who the WHITE HOUSE mole is before we find out which of Agt. Moss’ techies is dirty.

The now-rescued Matobo agreed to meet with President Taylor face-to-face to keep the number of people who know about the new CTU’s double secret covert operation to a minimum. Of course, the first thing Taylor did was tell her “trusty” aide Ethan, who will almost certainly tell Homeland Security Tim, who will, ugh, nevermind.

By the way, I didn’t forget about Team Jack’s raid of Matobo/Nichols’ lair. To be honest, I thought the lead up to the attack — Renee lying her way into the building; Jack, Tony and Bill sneaking around on the roof; Jack and Renee worked their way into the air vent with Chloe’s help — was a lot more exciting than the ensuing shootout. Maybe it was just me, but I couldn’t tell who the hell was shooting who, and the whole thing loses a bit of suspense when you realize that Jack never misses.

Ok, fine, the exploding Michael Lethem (R.I.P original season 7 techie) was pretty cool. At first, I thought Dubaku was going to force him to build another firewall (since, apparently, it only takes about 45 minutes), but blowing him up allowed Dubaku to get away (and was much cooler).

As a result, Dubaku walked out the front door, hopped a bus (I guess people on the bus don’t watch the news or read a paper because they can’t recognize a notorious warlord) and went to his apartment where he soon met up with his girlfriend(?!) who appears to be a waitress(?!) called him Samuel and wanted to confirm dinner plans (?!) I guess she doesn’t watch the news either. This twist would’ve been shocking if it hadn’t been so damn confusing and outta-leftfield.

Dubaku might have to postpone those dinner plans since he’s going to be entertaining First Gentleman Henry Taylor. After literally lying down for the first half of this episode, Henry suddenly regained full use of his limbs. Unfortunately, Ethan had put out an APB on Henry (Ethan needed him to convince the President to give in to Dubaku’s demands) after not being able to reach the deceased Brian. Dead Brian also failed to return Evil Secret Service Agent #2’s phone call, which made him rush up to the apartment just in time to overpower Henry and almost kill him. At the same time, Dubaku called and told Evil Secret Service Agent #2 (or Vossler, if you want to get technical) to bring Henry to him alive.

So instead of using the CIP device (last time typed!) that was destroyed in the gunfight to get President Taylor to do what he wants, Dubaku now has Henry in his back pocket. In case you were wondering, the Henry stuff still isn’t working for me, but at least he’s now integrated into the main storyline, so things should get better.

So what’d you think of this episode? When is the right time for the word “outrage” in a speech? Is there any doubt that Tim is the high-ranking White House mole? (He wanted to stop Ethan from trying to contact Henry, who Tim must’ve thought was in the process of being framed for murder.) Finally, when exactly do we think Tony will turn rogue or at least refuse to turn himself in? (They’re dropping hints like crazy, aren’t they? I’m thinking, hour 15.)