24: A Gut-Wrenching Episode

You can’t have it both ways, “24.”

For example, you can’t paint Dana Walsh as a cold-blooded, do-everything-to-save-her-own-ass killer one hour, and then in the next episode show her on a video file talking about how she was done helping the Russians and simply wanted to settle down with her boyfriend/fiancé.

(Barf!)

More importantly, “24”, you can’t keep trying to sell us the idea that Jack is some sort of rage-filled loose cannon who only cares about getting revenge, while also having him continue to maintain his near-superhuman mental capacity that allows him to out-smart every single human being on the planet.

One or the other, “24” – something’s gotta give.

Not that it wasn’t fun to see Jack (with an assist from Michael Madsen’s Jim Ricker) thoroughly outsmart the smug Logan lackey Jason Pillar and Pavel the Russian operative who killed Renee a few episodes back.

The episode picked up with Jack enlisting Ricker to help him identify the identity of the Russian gentleman Dana was speaking to in her video file. The hour also began with Cole coming to the realization that Dana had been executed. I understand that Cole and Dana had an extended off-screen relationship we never saw. Regardless, the way it’s playing out for us viewers, Cole is looking like a major chump for being angry at Jack for killing her.

Anyway, while Cole was taken back to CTU, Jack got Pavel’s identity from Ricker and formulated his plan. He’d contact Meredith Reed – the journalist President Hassan had an affair with – and expose the conspiracy to her since she’d provide a sympathetic ear. Don’t worry – I was surprised to see her too. I thought we’d seen the last of Jennifer Westfeldt this season.

Jack set up a meet with Meredith at a department store. Unfortunately(?) Jason Pillar intercepted the call at CTU, due to Jack using key words like “President Hassan” and “department store.” (Just kidding about one of those.) That allowed him to put the call in to Pavel and his team so they could eliminate Jack before he was arrested and spilled the beans about the Russian conspiracy.

Pillar was playing his cards pretty close to the vest, which got Chloe (the second smartest person on this show other than Jack) incredibly suspicious. She enlisted Arlo’s help (welcome back to the fold Arlo!) so she could talk to Cole and find out where Jack was so she could warn him. Arlo got her 90 seconds, but Cole spent most of his time on his high horse before giving Chloe a helpful clue about Jack’s whereabouts. (I’m guessing Chloe will find him in the next episode.)

Of course, it turned out that Chloe was wasting her time because Jack had the entire thing planned out.

He’d used those keywords knowing full well that CTU would intercept the phone call and dispatch Pavel and his team to kill him. This led to a terrific (but all-too-brief) department store shootout. Ricker neutralized Pavel and Jack grabbed Meredith and skedaddled to a nearby abandoned warehouse/storage space. (Who knew New York City had so many of those?)

I’ll give Pavel credit – like Dana Walsh, the guy was a tough cookie. Jack punched him (repeatedly), made small cuts with a knife, blow-torched him (I wish I was kidding about one of those), but he never wavered. This scene was absolutely brutal, but the raw emotion terrifically conveyed by Kiefer Sutherland helped balance out the extreme (in network TV standards) violence.

Jack finally decided to check Pavel’s phone, but it turns out the SIM card was missing. (We all knew they hadn’t shown Pavel falling on the ground for nothing.) The Russian had swallowed it. There was only one choice. Jack whispered “This is for my friend” before plunging a knife into his stomach and retrieving the SIM card. Two thoughts. 1.) That was kind of easy – I thought he’d have to completely cut him open. 2.) EWWWWWWWW.

Jack popped in the card, dialed a number and reached the voicemail of Charles Logan. (Ruh-roh!)

I have high hopes for their impending showdown. I’m not sure it’ll be as classic as their season 5 finale showdown (in which Logan talked Jack out of killing him by convincing him that Jack would go down as Lee Harvey Oswald), but I believe it’ll be good.

Logan continues to be absolute gold. This week, he wanted to make sure President Taylor remembered to give him his props for his role in the peace agreement. The look of disgust on President Taylor’s face was terrific, as was the sliminess of Logan’s request. Pillar tried to strongly urge Logan to distance himself from the soon-to-be-in-hot-water President Taylor, but the guy is too obsessed with his legacy.

President Logan may be completely dominating the U.N./political storyline, but President Taylor will be damned if she directly acknowledges his role in the peace agreement. Let the press secretary do that.

So what’d you think of this episode? Was I the only one who was paranoid about Arlo turning Chloe in? How cool was that veneer that Pillar used to cover up the CTU director’s office? (Have all CTU director’s offices been able to do that?) Finally, will President Taylor survive his face-to-face with Jack?