24 Addict

A little help from my friends

2007-11-18T12:00:00.000-06:00

I'm going to be doing an email interview (my first!) with Tara DiLullo Bennett, the author of '24: The Official Companion – Season 5.' She's also the author of the first 4 editions. Here's the bio her publisher gave me:

Tara Dilullo Bennett's Bio:
The most cunning terrorists in the world haven't been able to get the best of Jack Bauer …but Tara DiLullo Bennett has. As the author of the recently released '24 – The Official Companion Guide: Season 5' as well as the Season 1 & 2 and Season 3 & 4 editions, Tara has interviewed (or interrogated) virtually every major '24' cast and crew member.

Tara’s other writing credits run the gamut of today's popular culture including books such as '300 - The Art of the Movie' and 'The Making of the Fantastic Four', as well as countless articles for Titan Publishing's line of officially licensed magazines for programs like '24', 'Lost', 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (YAY BUFFY!), 'Star Trek', and 'Grey’s Anatomy'.

So, I have some questions I want to ask, but I thought I'd see if you guys have anything you'd like to ask yourselves. If you do, post them in my comments or email me.

Thanks!

(And btw, the news looks good on the strike front - writers and the AMPTP have agreed to go back to the table for talks after Thanksgiving! Yay! But you can still help spread the word or participate in the many fan campaigns going on at fans4writers.com. Go join there forums because I gotta say, the 24 fans are getting trounced by the mass of Battlestar Galactica fans over there :) This is the 24 thread there - it's very lonely so join up and join me over there would ya?)

Fans4Writers.com

2007-11-14T14:25:00.000-06:00

So you might have noticed the big white banner at the top of the page there. I encourage all 24 fans who pop by here to give it a click and check it out. It's not an ad, I promise. It's a website put together by fans to support the WGA strike. A lot of the organizers are the same fans who put together that pizza delivery for the writers in the first days of the strike. These fans are amazing and the job they're doing getting our voice heard is nothing short of fabulous.

Here's a little of what Joss Whedon had to say about the fan's support in his latest blog post today:

The point of the meeting was that the WGA is aware of - and a little blown away by – the passion, tenacity, and organizational savvy of the online community. The "Jericho" nuts are the stuff of legend. Whedonesque and the creation of Fans4Writers were spoken of in awed whispers. I’m not kidding: one of the WGA workers asked me, "So, your fans. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?" I swear, having you guys in my corner is like being friends with Zorro. People in the community are amazed.

Excuse me... I've just got a little something in my eye. *sniffle*

If you want to support the writers during this strike, please do something. Get a banner, spread the word, visit fans4writers.com or unitedhollywood.com and learn what it's all about. Fans4writers accepts donations that go towards doing a weekly food drop for people on the picket lines. Join some of the campaigns they've got going to show the networks how much we love and appreciate the writers who bring us our favourite shows.

Want to get fans4writers updates on your cell? Get on Twitter and start following them.

Thanks and spread the word!

If '24' was around in 1994...

2007-11-09T14:10:00.000-06:00

If Kiefer Sutherland had done '24' back in 1994 instead of making really bad movies, this could have been what the show was like :)

...it seemed wrong not post this :)

24 Season 7 becomes another casualty of WGA Strike

2007-11-07T19:31:00.000-06:00

Ahhh well you knew it would happen. According to EW, Fox has decided to postpone the 7th season of Kiefer Sutherland's Thighs of Doom (TM Melia). As rumours spread that the WGA Strike could indeed last until into 2008, the network decided not to take a chance that the show would have to go on a break midseason. They will finish shooting episode 8 and then shut down production later this month. Seems it's important to Fox that the show is able to have every episode from start to finish shown consecutively.

That pleases me.

I am not disappointed though. Fans of several shows are showing their support of the strike by displaying icons on their sites and hell, even delivering pizza to their favourite show writers. I find that awesome (I also believe Whedon-verse fans are some of the best I've ever met, present company accepted. You 24 peeps rawk :) I can deal with a longer wait if it means the writers on my favourite shows can be fairly compensated for their work.

So, I'm putting an icon a Whedonite created for other fandoms up here - feel free to take it and use it on your own blogs and sites (Just please don't hotlink, kthxbye :) ) It'll be at the top of the page.

Will the Strike affect 24?

2007-11-05T16:07:00.000-06:00

The Writers Guild went on strike today. If you're wondering what it means to them and why they're doing it, take a look at what showrunner Shawn Ryan has to say about it.

Powerful stuff and I hope both sides can come to a satisfactory conclusion.

But what's it going to mean for 24 and other shows? From the Chicago Tribune:

David Fury, an executive producer of "24," said that if the writers work past their contract date, as some think might happen if progress is made in negotiations, Jack Bauer may indeed return in January. "As of right now, I think Fox will premiere '24' as scheduled," Fury said, but he noted that "it really depends on if and when the writers are called to walk out. If the strike does hit on Nov. 1, it certainly makes sense for Fox to delay the start, even if the lack of new programming hurts their bottom line."

The last strike happened in 1998 and dragged on for 5 months. I read that it cost the industry over $500 million. A friend of mine in the industry said this is a scary time right now and if the strike does drag on then 2008 could be pretty bleak.

It's an interesting story to follow, to say the least. I think it's still too early to tell how it will affect 24 and other shows because they could strike a deal tomorrow and the point will be moot. But if it drags on, I know I'll be curious to see how it pans out next year.

24 Fanfiction Launched

2007-10-27T16:01:00.000-06:00

Now that the excitement from the 24 trailer release has died down a little, I thought I'd take a moment and let you know about a new feature here at 24addict: 24 (and more) Fanfiction.

Perhaps for some of you who stop by here fanfic isn't really your thang and that's cool. But 24 fic is pretty popular around the 'net and my forums have a very active and very talented community of ficcers and I felt it was time to give them a better home for their stories.

I've been a, well, fan of fanfiction for years. I think it's a wonderful outlet for those of us who want to hang out in a 'verse even when our shows are off the air. I also believe it's a great way to hone your writing skills. Oh I know all of the arguments for and against fanfic but you won't find me getting tangled up in all of that. I'd rather spend my time reading the fabulous stories normal everyday people can make up.

So if you write fanfic, come help me fill up the database with your stories and reviews. The software I'm using for it allows you to write a series, create and participate in challenges or round robins, or it lets you just review the stuff that's already there. It's pretty cool actually.

There isn't very much there yet, I should warn you, because it's fairly new (only been active a little over a week) and it will take time for my forum ficcers to drift over and start adding more of their stuff. But over time I'm sure it will grow and become a great archive for 24 fic.

I know this is a long post but bear with me a little longer if you're still there.

I allow pretty much any kind of fic - this means everything from fluff, PWP to slash and NC-17 stuff. I don't like to restrict imaginations. If the harder stuff squicks you, then please don't read it :)

I also allow other fandoms. I know this is a 24 site, but I don't see the harm in having other fandom fics. So if *cough* anyone has any good Buffy/Angel fics out there... ;)

And finally, I'd love to house original works too, so there's a category for that.

So come visit 24 (and more) Fanfiction and add your stuff, read what we've got and don't be afraid to leave reviews. Our writers love feedback! You might even find a couple of my fics in there somewhere :)

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Season 7 Trailer

2007-10-24T18:03:00.001-06:00

Beyond the Call of Duty

2007-10-16T13:02:00.000-06:00

In the next couple of months I'll be talking about a few books about 24 that are coming out. I think I mentioned a couple of them in a previous post. The authors and/or publishers of these books asked me if I'd like a sneaky-peek at them and who am I to turn down swag? :)

The first one that seems quite intriguing is called, "24 and Philosophy: The World According to Jack" and will drop within the next month. It's a collection of essays from professional philosophers that delve into the philosophical themes of 24.

Click here to read an excerpt from the book (PDF).

Themes such as 'The Duty to Die' and 'Must Chappelle Die?' I read one of the essays and found it quite fascinating. I mean, regular readers here know that one of the over-arching themes of the show is 'Needs of the many outweigh needs of the few' and it looks like this book will dig deep into that philosophy as well as others and give us fans an even greater respect for the show.

Nifty!

For the record, I am not being paid for any of these reviews. Unless you count swag. In which case, I guess I am being paid. Sort of. But I'm not being paid to like the books. Just talk about them :) Frankly, I could use the dosh, but having a new book to read is cool too :)

Kiefer Kiefer Kiefer :(

2007-09-25T08:07:00.000-06:00

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Kiefer Sutherland, star of the television thriller series "24," was arrested early on Tuesday in Hollywood for drunken driving after being pulled over for making an illegal U-turn, police said.

Link

I don't want to report this news :( 1. Never flip a U-y in the middle of the night. 2. Don't drink and drive ya eejit. Reign it in Kiefer. I know you like to have a good time but dude... Don't go all Lohan.

The other not-so-amusing thing about this is everyone I know IRL and online is taking a little TOO much pleasure in informing me of Kiefer's misdeed. Any of you lot read this - I already know about it, thanks ;)

Return of the Cubs mug

2007-09-19T15:09:00.000-06:00

Now, I thought he was dead. I hope I won't have to fanwank too much for this plotline for next season's 24 but I definitely thought Tony Almeida was dead.

Not according to a FOX press release (posted via AICN):

"Bauer's day gets off to a shocking start when former colleague Tony Almeida (played by Carlos Bernard), last seen in Day 5, returns after being left for dead by a terrorist conspirator in CTU's infirmary."

Of course... Yay for Tony not being dead, but I'm still going, 'Huh? I thought he was dead.' I know there was no silent clock for him but still... Oh hmm, I hadn't checked the Fox agent files thingie to see if it said DECEASED over his mug - did anyone else?

Oh well, I've been reading about some season 7 changes (no CTU, location will be DC etc.) but that's about it because as you all know, I'm spoilerphobic and I don't want to know too much. But these changes seem pretty shiny actually.

Season 5 and other stuff

2007-09-01T21:06:00.001-06:00

I needed a Kiefer Sutherland fix so I got it in my head to relive what is arguably the best season of 24: Season 5. Hey, I said 'arguably' so don't give me any flack :)

I as feeling a mite guilty for getting away from the show for so long so I decided to spend Labour Day weekend watching the 5th season. I'm glad I did. It's totally renewing my 24 addiction. I may spend the next few months leading up to the new season watching 1-4 as well.

Notice I said nothing about the 6th season. Yes I will be buying it because I'm anal about having complete collections. But after stewing about it I've come to the conclusion that, in my opinion, the 6th season was pretty weak. Not that there weren't moments of good, I mean let's face it folks, this is me talking here. I'll never have anything truly awful to say about the show. Love it too much, so if you're looking for TWoP-like snark, you won't get it from me.

Anyway, that's my plan, the revisiting of my favourite seasons. It should be fun.

Oh and this is my cool news: I've also been asked by a couple different publishers to review their 24 books they have coming out. On is an officially licensed book called '24 The Official CTU Operations Manual' and the other is called '24: The Ultimate Guide.' I don't have a link for that yet but it's due out in October. I may also have about 5 copies of it to give away here so keep your eyes peeled here and I'll let you guys know.

My first contest :) How exciting!!

Jon Cassar's blog

2007-08-26T20:22:00.000-06:00

24 Director, Jon Cassar has wandered onto the Internets. Forgive me if this is old news but I only just heard about it :)

Seems to be a bit of a blog and a bit of a normal website. Should be cool! I hope he actually updates it frequently. There's a 'Flashback Photo' section where he'll be showing pix from the set of the show from his personal collection.

Rawk.

Garofalo joins the cast

2007-08-21T05:21:00.000-06:00

Janeane Garofalo is said to be joining the cast for the upcoming season. Sweet! I like her.

'Sup?

2007-07-26T14:35:00.000-06:00

What the hell happened to me? I had such high ambitions of posting my thoughts on last season etc. And then... I didn't.

Well I went to Montana for my dad's wedding and much relaxation at his cabin in the mountains. It was very niiice.

And then, well, I got caught up with work stuff. And I've become addicted to Dr. Who. And well, there's not much 24 goodness to talk about other than Cherry Jones on board to become the prez next season. That should rock. I first heard about her when I was in a Gabriel Byrne frame of mind because they did a play together a long time ago. Then she popped up as the sheriff in Shyamalan's "Signs" and I dug her in that.

So she should make a great prez :)

Anyway, I've been messing about with Twitter and decided to add it to this blog over on the left there, so feel free to snicker at my stupid little 140 character ramblings.

24: Day Zero

2007-06-06T05:42:00.000-06:00

I suppose I'm one of the last to mention this, but oh well, it's still pretty damn cool. Ever wanted to see more action from Jack *before* Terry died and Nina was still on the CTU payroll? Me too.

Well, 20th Century Fox and Degree teamed up to release some Flash animated episodes of the show set during that time frame. It's called Day Zero and it's pretty cool. The animation is on the low-tech side but once you get used to it, it's pretty nifty. But best of all, Jack is actually voiced by Kiefer Sutherland himself. So those of you needing a bit of a Jack fix to get you through these long, lonely months without him can have these little episodes to get you by :)

There's more to the site as well with episodes of those live action webisodes called 24: The Rookie and some behind the scenes stuff. There are a couple of interactive sections to explore as well.

Enjoy!

"Get the kid Jack." 5am-6am

2007-05-21T19:43:00.000-06:00

Here we are, the last hour in a very. long. day.

Josh arrives at the oil rig and his crazy grandfather is there to meet him. Josh is visibly shaken and unwilling to be the obedient grandson. He tells Phillip he doesn't want to go anywhere with him but Phillip isn't standing for any lip and tells him he will do as he's told whether he likes it or not (and get off his lawn while you're at it!)

Cheng is nearby and tells Phillip that the submarine is on schedule to rendez-vous with them in 30 minutes. When you think about it, it's actually been quite the exciting night for young Joshua. If he wasn't a pawn in his whacked out grandpappy's little power trip he might actually sort of enjoy riding in a submarine.

Back on the beach, Jack looks on as the trauma team evacuates Doyle. At CTU, a doc tells Morris that Chloe's vitals are strong and she's in no immediate danger. Morris asks why she fainted and the doctor tells him it's probably due to dehydration and exhaustion. But you know, I bet she's preggers. We'll see...

Chloe wakes up and tells Morris she's fine but he won't leave her side. She tells him that if he wants to help her feel better, he'll go help find Phillip Bauer. Reluctantly, he agrees and heads back to the floor. Nadia pinpoints a decommissioned rig and Morris runs a thermal scan on it and they discover it's the right rig. Nadia hurries off to inform the White House where everyone has gathered to discuss tactical options against the Russians.

Lennox tells the room CTU has located Phillip Bauer on the oil rig and one of Daniels' men (not sure if he's a cabinet member or what, all I know is he was the asshole prison warden in Shawshank Redemption) recommends sending in 2 F-18s to just obliterate the rig and everyone on it. Lennox is actually aghast at this plan and reminds Daniels that Josh is on the rig - a young boy. He pushes for the surgical strike by an assault team rather than obliteration by the F-18s (speaking of F-18s, we just had a couple of those suckers in my town here over the weekend. Those are some sweet rides. Loud though.) Predictably, Daniels orders the F-18s in immediately, stating the whole 'needs of the many' routine.

Back to the beach again, Doyle's being loaded into an emergency vehicle and Jack tells him he's gonna be all right.

"Jack I'm sorry." Doyle says.

"You were following your orders."

"Get the kid. Get the kid Jack."

"I will."

That was amazing.

Nadia calls Jack to tell him they found the rig and about F-18 strike happening in under 30 minutes. She orders both Jack and Bill back to CTU for a debrief. Jack doesn't answer her right away and then says, "Fine." But I highly doubt Jack's about to just give up on Josh and go be debriefed. Jack eyes a nearby chopper and Bill half-heartedly tries to talk him out of it after learning of the air strike. Jack tells him he's going to take it because Josh is not an 'acceptable loss.'

Bill tells him, "I'll fly." Right on! It is so awesome to see Bill in the field! I think Jack's proud and happy to go into this with Bill by his side. They walk over to the nearest SUV and begin loading up on weapons. They get in the chopper and quickly take it over. With Bill at the controls, they head for the oil rig.

In Washington, Daniels begins his dance with Suvarov to try and get him to hold off on his imminent attack by explaining the latest development. Suvarov, during the call, receives word that a transmission was intercepted from a Chinese submarine that confirms what Daniels is trying to tell him. Daniels offers a realtime uplink to the mission and Suvarov tells Daniels that nothing less than the complete destruction of the oil platform will suffice as proof the circuit board has been destroyed.

At CTU Jack and Bill put pressure on Nadia to grant them access to a satellite feed of the platform so they can go in knowing what they're up against. Nadia agrees to help them despite the inevitable repercussions.

As Jack and Bill race the F-18s to the rig they make their desperate plans to go in low and try to surprise them. Aboard the rig, Cheng's men spot the chopper moving in. Cheng tells Phillip they need to get into a boat and head west. The boat has a beacon transmitting to the sub. He hands the circuit board back over to Phillip and goes off to his men to take care of the chopper.

Jack and Bill rise up as they approach the rig and Jack takes out the few men guarding the landing pad. Bill lands the chopper and Jack's off, guns a-blazing. Bill's close behind. Jack's hitting a bunch of stuff that blows up and takes out more of Cheng's men until he finally comes upon Cheng himself who's taken a hit. Jack demands to know where Josh is but all Cheng will yell is "You're too late!"

Jack orders Bill to get Cheng to the chopper while he goes off to see for himself if Josh is still on the platform.

He is indeed still on the rig but he and Phillip are making their way to whatever boat Cheng sent them to. But Josh can't take anymore of this and he begins resisting Phillip. He pulls away each time Phillip takes his arm. He tries to clock Phillip but the old fox is too quick. In a stone cold voice he tells Josh that he needs to learn to control his emotions, that he must never allow his emotions to control him. Trying to keep from sobbing, Josh nods and lets Phillip pull him along.

Jack continues to make his way down the rig, taking out flunkies as he goes. But time is running out. The F-18s are four minutes out. Meanwhile Josh and Phillip arrive at the mini-dock. And then that brave boy clocks Phillip something fierce, grabs a gun and now he's got a bit of an upper hand. Phillip doesn't believe Josh will shoot him and in a tone reminiscent of sending a toddler to a time-out, he tells him to hand over the gun.

But Josh refuses, telling him that as long as he's alive, Josh and his mother will never be safe. Phillip tries his twisted reasoning on the boy again but it only enrages him further When Phillip gets too close Josh shoots him near his right shoulder, knocking him back and rendering him incapable of trying to force the gun away. As Josh moves in, full of anger, to shoot again Jack arrives and tells him to lower the gun. But Josh is having a hard time getting past the point of no return. He's so pissed.

Jack talks him down from it though, telling him he wont want to live with the pain of taking another human being's life. The news about the F-18 attack though is what seems to spur Josh's decision to lower his gun. Jack tells him to run up to the top of the platform and get in the waiting chopper. He says he'll be right behind him. Josh hurries up the stairs.

With an icy stare, Jack looks at Phillip. "Get up. Get up it's over!" he cries.

"Then finish it." his father replies.

With such a look of anguish and pain on his face, Jack says, his voice breaking, "No. You are gonna be held accountable for what you have done today."

"I don't think so. You don't have time to carry me. Not if what you said about the airstrike is true. And you don't want to die. Not here. Not with me."

Jack lowers his weapon. His brow furrowed, tears forming, "You're gonna get off easy."

With a last look at his father, Jack races up the stairs leaving Phillip on the dock.

Bill is updated and told the strike team is 90 seconds away. Josh comes running up and tells Bill that Jack is with his father. Bill tells him to get in the chopper. The F-18s are given the order to go ahead. Bill is forced to take off but he tells Jack to meet him on the south side, level three. The missiles are launched. Jack stands on a rail looking towards the chopper. He leaps for the rope ladder dangling from the chopper and hangs on tight. As Bill pulls away the platform is hit by the missiles and destroyed. Man that was a bit of a nail-biter.

The White House and Suvarov watch and confirm that the rig has been destroyed. Suvarov tells Daniels he is satisfied that the circuit board has been destroyed and he will order the withdrawal of all troops and stand down. The two leaders commiserate a little on the events of the day (with Suvarov extending his best wishes on the recovery of President Palmer. Hehehe.) and the crisis is averted.

We move back to the chopper and Jack, still hanging on to that rope ladder, poor guy. As they near the shore, Jack lets go and drops into the water. He makes his way to the beach, man-purse still in tact, (and sorry - mmmmm wet Jack) Jack waves Bill off. Understanding, Bill and Josh head back to CTU.

"We have to go back for him!" cries Josh.

"Jack's not ready to go back yet." he tells him.

Meanwhile, Daniels accepts congrats from folk as he and Lennox make their way to the Oval. Despite being told that all he wants to do is sleep, Lennox insists on getting Daniels to deal with Karen and Bill. He wants Daniels to let them retire with their reputations in tact so that some semblance of trust can be maintained with the American people. Probably because he's victorious, Daniels agrees. Grateful, Lennox leaves to attend to Karen and in a final gesture, he leaves behind the digi recording he had of Daniels agreeing to perjury.

At CTU, Morris checks in on Chloe. And, hehe I was right. She's pregnant. This was a lovely little moment. Even Chloe thought so. "You know," she interrupts as Morris is about to say something, "this is a nice moment. Let's not ruin it by saying something stupid." Hee!

In Washington, Lennox drops by Karen's cell to tell her the good news. She and Bill are pardoned and are free to live their lives without fear of prosecution. Smiling with relief, she tells Lennox she knows he had a hand in it and she offers her hand in gratitude. He shakes it and tells her he actually think he'll miss her. "Really?" she asks. "I can answer that better when you're gone." he replies, chuckling. She laughs in response and walks out a free woman.

Bill and Josh arrive at CTU. Josh runs off into the waiting arms of his mother and Cheng, broken and bleeding, is led off to be interrogated and hopefully tortured a little. Cheng's parting shot though is to tell Bill that his people will not abandon him like we abandoned Jack Bauer. "Get him out of here." Bill says.

Going over to Nadia, Bill tells her that she did good work today. Th compliment means a lot to her, coming from him. But then, puzzled, she looks around for Jack. But Bill tells her he fell off the ladder and made it to shore. He doesn't want to be found. He tells Nadia to let him go.

Leaving CTU, we find ourselves looking at Heller. He's talking to someone on the phone about Audrey. As he hangs up, he hears a noise. Slowly he reaches for the phone but then Jack steps into the room and tels him to put it down. He's still wet and glistening from the water. Heller asks if Jack is there to kill him.

"That depends. Where's Audrey?"

"I told you you're not getting anywhere near -"

"YOU DO NOT TELL ME WHAT TO DO ANYMORE!" Jack screams, raising his gun and pointing at Heller's head. He tells Heller that he just watched his father die and he felt nothing. He says his own father was dead to him years ago. But he looked up to Heller. Heller was the kind of man Jack wanted to be. But Heller took advantage of that.

Thus begins Jack extremely cathartic rant which I reproduce in full here because it's so fecking amazing:

"Earlier today you said that I was cursed. That anyone I touched ended up dead or ruined. How dare you. How... dare you. The only thing I did, the only thing I have EVER done is what you and people like you have asked of me. Why didn't you try to get me out of China?"

"I did try - "

"NOT HARD ENOUGH! You had the political power. Was the timing not right? Was it a little to complicated? Or was I just an acceptable loss?"

"Jack I understand you're angr-"

"SHUT UP!" Jack raises the gun to Heller's head again. "You don't understand a thing about me. But I know you. I know why you're angry at me. And it wasn't because Audrey went to China to save me. It was because when you told her NOT to, she did it anyway. You'll never understand that kind of commitment. That kind of loyalty."

"You're right Jack. It wasn't fair of me to put all this on you, to blame you for what happened to Audrey. I know the sacrifices you made. I know this country owes you more than it'll ever repay."

"I'm not interested in what you think this country owes me. I want my life back. And I want it now. Audrey's all I've got and you can't stop me. In case you've forgotten, I'm very good at disappearing. And if you try sending someone after us I'll kill 'em. Pretty good at that too."

"Simply getting your life back Jack isn't gonna change who you are. And you can't walk away from it. You know that. You've tried it. Sooner or later you're gonna get back in the game and my daughter's gonna pay the price - like your wife did."

"You son of a bitch." Jack starts backing away, disgust all over his face at those hurtful words.

"Jack I beg you to stop for a moment and THINK. Think Jack. You won't be able to take care of her the way you want to."

Shaking his head, exhaustion beginning to creep up on him, Jack asks, "Where is she? Take me to her now."

Heller leads Jack to Audrey's room where she's asleep. He takes her hand. "It's me... I'm here..." But she doesn't wake up. Sadness and resignation in his voice, he quietly tells her, "I know that I promised to take care of you and protect you. But I'm at a crossroads. Right now the best way.... the only way to do that is to let you go. I hope one day you can understand that. I hope one day you can forgive me. ..." Jack looks at her one more time... "I love you with all my heart." He leans forward and places a gentle kiss on her forehead. "I always will."

Mustering the very last reserves of his strength, Jack Bauer gets up and walks away from her. Letting her go.

He leaves Heller's home out the back way and walks to the edge of the property, his gun still in his hand. He stares out at the ocean, looks down the cliff where the waves break against the rock... A last look on Jack's face, and the scene fades away to the silent clock.

Guh! Just... guh! Hands up if you thought he was contemplating suicide. I know I did. Then again I know Kiefer Sutherland is signed on for two more years which takes a bit of the impact of that powerful scene off I guess but if you can let that fun factoid go, man what a super ending. I enjoyed the wrapping up of everything. They took their time with it and we got a lot of good closure tonight.

So that's it kids. No more recapping until next season. My fingers are doing a happy dance but I'll miss it for sure. Maybe I can find some other show to recap in the meantime. Who knows :) But I'll be writing up a sort of season overview/review sometime this week or weekend (depends I'm busy at the paper this week - I'm learning how to produce newscasts so wheee!) so please come back and check it out if your are so inclined. And I'll do what I can to keep the site interesting during the long wait for Season 7 :)

Goodnight guys, and thanks for watching the show with me! It's been a great ride.

"He's been more right than we have today." 4am-5am

2007-05-21T17:58:00.000-06:00

Is everyone strapped in? Please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times. Ready? I am relatively thunderstorm-free this evening so away we go boys and girls...

Nice shot of Doyle's chopper flying over some breaking waves as Josh tries to comprehend what just happened. He demands hat Doyle tell him what his grandfather's doing and Doyle tells him that Phillip has something that could stop a war. He tells him CTU will do everything in its power to recover Josh as soon as they have what they need from Phillip. Calmly, he assures Josh that Doyle will get Josh back no matter what. He recognizes Josh's fear and lets him know he would feel the same fear in his place. Then he injects a tracking device in Josh's wrist that will aid them in their Recover Josh efforts.

Back on the ground Jack continues to plead with the Special Agent in Charge to not go through with the exchange with Phillip. But the SAiC will not relent and tells Jack he's being placed in temporary custody (but not being charged with anything) so that he will not impede the exchange. Frustrated, Jack gets in an SUV and calls Chloe.

Chloe fills Jack in on why the exchange is happening and Jack has no faith in his father's deal to hand over the circuit board. He has Chloe put him through to Karen Hayes.

But Karen is in the middle of a conference call with Daniels and Suvarov. Daniels is doing some serious groveling too. I am enjoying that. Suvarov dismisses the groveling and makes Daniels get to the real point of the call which is when Daniels tells him about the development with Phillip Bauer.

Jack's call goes through to Karen and he quickly tells her that under no circumstances can his father be trusted to uphold the deal. Phillip would have no leverage with the Chinese if he hands over the circuit board and he believes that the Chinese will offer him more. Jack tells Karen that his father is smart enough to manipulate the exchange. Karen tells Jack that she agrees with him but her hands are tied. She says he will have to put a stop to it on her end - but Jack tells her he's in custody. He hangs up with an ultimatum - she needs to stop this and she needs to stop this now.

Lennox joins Karen after the Suvarov call and she tells him everything Jack just told her. Lennox asks if she thinks Jack's concerns are warranted.

"Absolutely. He's Phillip Bauer's son and he's been more right than we have today." she replies.

"Point taken."

Karen tells him that she has an idea that might be a solution to the problem but Lennox will not go along with it if it means having to keep Daniels in the dark - but he won't be looking Karen's way if she chooses to do so. With a tiny grin, Karen makes a phone call.

And who does she call? Buchanan. Woohoo!! I was so hoping there would be more Bill before the end. Unfortunately, Bill's having to endure a bunch of FBI agents combing through his home as a result of a subpoena. Karen tries his cell and finally the landline but Bill's being a bit obstinate in not answering her. Her pleading with him on the answering machine gets through to him and he picks up and listens to her outline the situation.

"What are you asking me to do Karen?"

"Whatever it takes to stop the exchange..."

Doyle and Josh arrive at the exchange and Phillip calls Doyle, telling him to have CTU shut off satellite. He tells Doyle that he's got an uplink into CTU and will know if he's bluffing. Morris confirms that Phillip has hacked in but has no idea how it's being done. After Doyle confirms that Phillip cannot see Josh's tracking device he has CTU shut off satellite. Phillip's next order is to get rid of the chopper. Doyle complies. He then makes Doyle put Josh on the phone. Josh is understandably feeling quite hostile towards his grandfather and Phillip tries the ploy of public embarrassment over his father's (Jack's brother) hand in today's events. He tells Josh that his mother can join them whenever she wants. He tells him that where they're going, he will have the means and the power to help Josh become the kind of man his father should have been. Eeesh. After he hangs up he sends his flunkies to go get Josh.

As they wait, Doyle tells Nadia that he's going to take any opportunity to keep Phillip from getting his grandson. Nadia strongly reminds him that he is not to go off book on this one and they can't begin a recovery effort until the board is back at CTU. As she tries to get Doyle to confirm he will obey orders, Karen Hayes calls Nadia for a status report on the exchange - and on Jack. We learn that Jack is being taken to a holding area at District. Karen requests access to the traffic grid tracking Jack's SUV and refuses to explain to Nadia why she needs that access.

After the call, Nadia is called away to handle Marilyn Bauer who's raising hell because she doesn't know what's going on with Josh. Nadia lies to her, saying he's being debriefed at District but Marilyn's having none of it. Nadia has Morris request extra security to escort her to holding. Morris complies but Chloe just glares at him from across the table. She thinks the whole situation just plain stinks and while Morris does agree, he now understands the need to follow orders.

Back to Jack now. As the SUV turns onto a side road, some crazy lunatic swerves into their lane forcing them off the road. As the drivers gets out to investigate - gun drawn, Bill Buchanan steps out of his vehicle and stalls him until Jack can subdue the other agent in the SUV and get away with Bill. Bill apprises Jack of the sitch with Josh and they take off. That was pretty slick. As they drive off, Jack thanks Bill for putting himself on the line for this. Bill tells him he doesn't need thanks. He just hopes Jack is right about his father. "Unfortunately, I am." Jack responds.

Back at CTU, a strange man arrives on the floor and Chloe gets up and goes to him, giving him a long, comforting hug (awwww.) It's Milo's brother. Chloe takes him off to sign paperwork for the release of Milo's body. *sniff*

At the White House, Karen's computer is hit with a shutdown notice. Looks like the jig is up. She calls Bill and tells him how sorry she is and how much she loves him... and then Secret Service walks in and puts an end to that call. She's about to be arrested.

At CTU, Nadia introduces herself to Milo's brother, Stuart (Stewart? I dunno) and he asks how Milo died. She hesitates and then tells him that he died saving her life. She says he was very brave. Stuart tells her he really wasn't. He was really just in love with her. I have to say, Milo's brother is quite the hottie.

Their moment is interrupted by Chloe calling to tell Nadia about Jack's escape. She can barely contain the glee as she tells her that Buchanan aided in the effort. I love Chloe.

As Doyle and Josh continue to wait for someone to come get him, Josh pleads with Doyle not to go through with it. He's obviously scared and upset. But Doyle tries to play the 'Do it for your country' card along with his word that he will get Josh back. You can tell Josh isn't buying it though. All he can see is he's about to be handed over to his crazy grandfather.

Nadia interrupts to tell Doyle that Jack escaped custody and is on the way there. CTU cannot bring in their tact teams to help Doyle because Phillip will spot them and back of. So Doyle will have to face Jack alone. "I'll be all right." Doyle tells her. But he sure looks nervous. Relief washes over Josh's face as he asks Doyle if his uncle is coming and Doyle tells him he is. I almost think Doyle is a little bit relieved as well. I can tell he doesn't want to hand Josh over either.

In Washington, Karen sits in a holding cell when Daniels walks in. He's pissed and he lets her know it. But she stands her ground and accepts the consequences with a quiet dignity. And when Daniels asks her if Lennox had a hand in it, she protects Lennox who only a few hours ago was one of her worst enemies. What a woman. You go Karen.

Phillip calls Doyle and orders them to walk towards the ocean (the exchange spot was some sort of lookout point on what might be Highway 1 which is California's pretty coastal highway. I probably should have mentioned that earlier.) It looks like Phillip sent a boat.

At CTU, Chloe monitors Josh's tracking device closely despite her noticeable fatigue. Two men in a small speedboat arrive on shore and approach Doyle who's gone down to met them. The flunky sets the container with the circuit board down and Doyle picks it up to verify its authenticity. As he opens the case a small explosion goes off that knocks Doyle down and incapacitates him. As he writhes in pain, unable to see, the flunkies move in and grab Josh.

Jack arrives on scene just as the men are running fr their boat but Jack doesn't have a clear shot without possibly hurting Josh. They get away as Jack looks on helplessly. Then he and Bill make their way to Doyle who, despite his pain, makes a report on the situation, telling them the board was a fake, that it blew up. Bill stays with Doyle as Jack calls in the report. On the boat, the men inform Phillip they have Josh and he tells them to scan him for trackers. They short the tracker.

Jack, as only Jack can do, calmly gives Nadia an update and requests a trauma team for Doyle. He reigns in his anger and saves his "I told you so's" because he's a man of action and he'll set aside his personal feelings when he has to to advance to the next stage.

Back at the White House again, while debating when to call Suvarov with details on the botched exchange, Daniels is eating some serious crow. "Karen was right. And I was wrong." He even admits out loud that he may have been wrong about Wayne Palmer. "Until you sit in this chair, you don't know anything."

Lennox advises Daniels not to prosecute Karen or Bill considering both of them were pretty much right and Daniels was a big giant dickhead (maybe he didn't use those exact words, but that's how I heard them in my head :) ) but Daniels, despite his meal of crow only says he'll take it under advisement for now. There are bigger problems to worry about atm.

Jack informs CTU that Doyle's injuries are not life-threatening but he will be blind in one or both eyes (so much for theories abounding that Doyle is being groomed to take over for Kiefer Sutherland eh?) He asks about the satellite but Nadia says the small boat will be very hard to track. Jack stares out to sea and an idea begin to form. Jack's father's company has shell corporations that own oil leases up and down the coast. Jack is starting to think that his father is on one of the rigs located about 10 miles out to sea. Good thinking Jack!

Aaaaand on a rig (he was right) Phillip awaits the arrival of his grandson. As he turns away from the dock, Cheng is standing there demanding to know when he will get the circuit board. "When I have my grandson." he replies. Cheng tells him he made the right decision to continue to work with China. Phillip replies that despite the mistakes Cheng made today, China is still his future. Whatev.

At CTU, Chloe is combing through files trying to find a matching oil rig to Phillip's holdings but as she searches, her vision blurs and she appears ill. As she walks over to Morris to tell him she's not having luck with the files, she passes out. Eh? Oh noes!

Ugh this 'cap took longer than I thought and I'm way behind on the second hour. Eep1 Good stuff so far though. The shocker for me was Doyle getting blown up and I' dying to know what's wrong with Chloe so I'm moving on to the Big Finish!

This is it kids!

2007-05-21T07:40:00.000-06:00

Tonight's the Big Finish. The Grand Finale. End of the Road. The light at the end of the tunnel...

A 2 hour season finale tonight that will keep my fingers flying and my Tifaux hopping. For anyone stopping by tonight to check up on my recapping progress, I hope to have the first hour done about 20 minutes or so into the second hour. My aim this season has been to be one of the first recaps up so that folks who *gasp* missed anything could get caught up quick. I hate waiting for stuff and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to tonight. I was kind of disappointed in the Simpson's thing last night though. While it was nice to see the show done 24 stylee, Chloe was barely in it and that makes me sad. Even Jack was hardly in it. Ah well.

Oh and I'm sure you're all well aware of the fact that Jack will be back (in what condition though, who knows) for two more Really Bad Days. Gosh I remember when we all waited with baited breath for the Upfronts from FOX to decide if it would get the axe or soldier on. Barring any more renewals, this little show that could will have made it on the air for 8 seasons. That's quite an accomplishment, especially for a show on the trigger-happy FOX network. (Why yes, yes I am still bitter about Drive getting cancelled. And while I'm at it, bring back Firefly damnit!)

Enough prattle. Stop back by the site tonight for recappy goodness. While you're waiting, feel free to drop in on the forums and talk about the show or read some good fanfic. Or pop in the 24addict fan gallery and peruse the large gallery of fan art and wallpapers that I've just conglomerated into one massive album. Or you know, just sit back and watch the show. It's gonna be a circus :)

Reminder

2007-05-20T13:15:00.000-06:00

If you haven't been inundated with ads already, don't miss the 400th episode of The Simpsons tonight as Jack and Chloe from the Counter Truancy Unit show up for some fun with Bart and the gang :)

"The man is a sociopath." 3am-4am

2007-05-14T18:35:00.000-06:00

Well boys and girls, we're nearing the end of this year's crazy ride we call 24. I'll get going on the recap in a mo but I just want to say thanks to all of you who stop by and read some chick in Nebraska's recap each week and an extra special smoochie to those of you who take a minute to leave a comment. I am a comment whore so don't be shy, tell me what you though of the show!

When it's all said and done I'll be posting my sort of final thoughts on the season at some point and then I'll have to figure out how to keep the site interesting and fresh for the next 8 months. Wish me luck on that.

And now down to business...

For the record, I'm in a damn thunderstorm watch and I have an annoyingly large map of Nebraska on my screen. Stupid weather. If they break in during the show I apologise for missing anything in the recap.

Oh for fuck sake. No sooner did I type that then they broke in. *sigh*

The last thing I saw was Morris covering Milo's face. Now we're back and the mercenaries are leading Josh away through the sewers while the rest of the ones left at CTU begin herding CTU employees away to prevent them from following the ones who have Josh.

As Jack's group (which includes Nadia, Chloe and Morris) is led away from the main floor, Jack whispers his longshot plan to take out the terrorists. A really cool hand-to-hand fight ensues as Jack strangles the head merc who killed Milo, Nadia holds her own for a while and Morris manages to take out his guy as well. But Nadia loses her grip on her guy and is struggling to keep him from aiming his machine gun at her face. Just as Jack snaps the neck of his guy (I don't think I'm getting my Thighs of Doom this year :( ) Doyle barges in and shoots the guy about to kill Nadia. How much shall we bet that those two crazy kids end up together?

Doyle's men secure all hostages and the shell-shocked CTU employees will now begin to get back to work. Nadia releases Jack from custody so he can help get Josh and the component back. Jack is under Doyle's command. As Doyle asks for a casualty report, she tells him about Milo. I saw some definite concern on his face when he asked if she was all right. Definitely some sparkage. Jack tells Nadia she did great and then he and Doyle get underway.

Jack, Doyle and a small contingent of agents head for the sewers, hot on the trail of the remaining mercs. But the mercs arrive at their safehouse first and hand Josh over to Cheng who puts him on the phone with Phillip Bauer. Phillip tells Josh that he's going to take him to China so he would be spared the embarrassment of his father's "mistakes" once they're made public. He tells him that in 10 years, China will have surpassed the United States in every possible way and that they will be a part of that. Josh is just dumbfounded at his grandfather's statements and doesn't want to be taken to Phillip.

Just as Josh hangs up with his grandfather - confused and afraid - Cheng takes the phone and marches him to a waiting car. As they start to speed away, Jack, Doyle and the team arrive on the scene and begin firing at the cars. The Chinese get out and return fire (which I don't get, unless Jack took out their tires or something. Why didn't they just keep going?)

Cheng uses the boy as a shield and runs away. Doyle gives Jack cover fire as he chases after them (demonstrating some slick moves as he slides past one hostile like he was sliding into home, shooting him as his momentum carries him by.) They head up to the roof but as Josh is forced ahead of Cheng on some stairs, he turns around and uses his position to kick Cheng in the face and try to make a run for it. Good boy!

Now Cheng is chasing Josh while Jack chases Cheng. It's very exciting. Cornered by Jack on a walkway, Cheng is torn between going after the boy (who has disappeared) and having to surrender to Jack. As Jack demands to know where Josh is, Josh (who was dangling from the walkway right beneath Cheng) loses his grip and is forced to cry out for help. The diversion is enough for Cheng to do a runner while Jack helps Josh.

As they wait for Doyle to arrive and ensure Josh's safety, Jack learns that Josh was made to speak to his grandfather. Momentarily stunned by this development, he begins to ask Josh to try and remember any details that might help them learn his grandfather's location. When Doyle arrives Jack tells him that they need to let CTU know that his father's still involved in this. Doyle asks, "Your father? Why?" Jack replies, "I don't know... I'll ask him when I find him." Grim.

After all that excitement, we move back to the White House and Daniels as he receives a report from Karen on the movements of the Russians in Central Asia. Daniels brings Karen up to date on Lisa Miller's betrayal. In an uncharacteristic moment of honesty, he also tells Karen about his involvement with Lisa. I wasn't expecting him to do that.

Out in the field, Lennox sits in the surveillance van with a team listening and watching Lisa have sex with the traitor. You can tell Lennox is bored waiting for them to um, finish. And when they do, he cracks me up by saying with a sigh, "Aaaand finally we're done." Bwah! That's how I felt last week with my neighbours (thanks for the tips on how to make 'em quit shagging during 24 guys.)

But Lisa's acting too strangely and her reticence is noticeable to Mark. When she gets up to go to the bathroom he makes his move to get the false info off of her PDA, but for some reason, thinks better of it and puts it back. He's on to her. When she joins him for a glass of wine, he calls her on her weird behaviour. At first she tries to pretend all is well but then she snaps, smashes her wine glass against his head and starts screaming about how she put herself on the line for him and instead he sells her out to the Russians.

They start fighting in earnest and as he overpowers Lisa and chokes her into unconsciousness, Lennox and a team burst in and subdue him. Left alone with Mark, Lennox offers him a choice: upload the false info and call his handler to back it up and they will push for leniency in his trial. Or refuse to comply and almost certainly receive the death penalty...

While he ponders that, we check in with Cheng as he informs Phillip that he lost Josh. Phillip then tells Cheng that the deal's off and they will not be getting the component. Now Cheng is pissed because he knows Phillip has the upper hand.

Back at CTU, Division Brassholes have arrived to "investigate" Nadia and the mistakes made that allowed the Chinese to breach security. Morris tries to bolster Nadia's confidence after basically being told how incompetent she is and how much they regret accepting Buchanan's recommendation that she take over as acting Director. Thus begins Nadia's guiltfest over everything that's happened but I thought it was pretty fitting to have Morris try to get her to stay strong.

Back in Washington, Mark made his decision and the info was sent to the Russians. Tom informed Daniels about Lisa's oxygen deprivation issues which upset him greatly. Karen leaves to set up a call to Suvarov so that Daniels can tell him the component was destroyed and back up Mark's data.

Skipping back to Jack - he's able to put Josh on the phone with Marilyn and they have a nice little reunion moment. Josh tells Marilyn what Phillip told him about taking him to China. It' all quite mushy and nice but we are soon headed back to DC for the call between Daniels and Suvarov.

As Daniels offers up whatever evidence Suvarov requires regarding the destruction of the component, Suvarov calls his bluff. He knows the United States has not recovered the component and he gives Daniels 2 hours to provide irrefutable proof it's been recovered or destroyed or else they will move forward with their plans to attack the US base in Central Asia. Unfortunately, this would be seen as an unprovoked attack by American allies and would basically be the start of a war over a piece of circuitry. Stakes are high boys and girls...

Lennox arrives back at the White House when he receives a surprise call from Phillip Bauer. Phillip needs to talk to Daniels...His offer is simple: his grandson for the return of the component. Despite Karen's pleas not to negotiate with Phillip Bauer - a sociopath (and for the record, Lennox agrees, Bauer Sr. is a sociopath :) ) Daniels feels he has no choice but to negotiate.

As Jack and Josh walk to an SUV to head back to CTU, an agent calls to Jack telling hi he has a call. As Jack walks towards the agent with the phone, Doyle comes up to Josh and leads him away to a chopper. Infuriated, Jack tries to beat his way past other agents trying to get to Josh but he can't get through and Josh is led, yelling for his Uncle Jack into the waiting chopper with Doyle while agents keep Jack subdued on the ground.

Tick boom.

Only two more episodes to go. I dug tonight's episode quite a lot. What about you?

"Now let me clean it up." 2am-3am

2007-05-07T18:56:00.000-06:00

A stunned Jack waits in holding when Nadia comes in to tell him Heller left with Audrey. She also reiterates Heller's "request" that Jack stay away from Audrey and that he will be filing a restraining order to hat effect. Stoically Jack takes this in. But rather than dwell, he changes the subject and asks if Audrey's clue panned out. Nadia tells him it did and that CTU is locking the area down.

Jack wants to go on the Op despite still being under arrest. He tells Nadia that he knows how Cheng thinks having spent 20 months with him being tortured (but never broken.) "I caused this mess now let me clean it up." he tells her. But Nadia refuses. Defeated, Jack sits down. But when Nadia leaves, he starts taking stock of his surroundings. I think he's planning a bit of a jailbreak.

As Nadia briefs the team about to infiltrate Cheng's safehouse, I totally picked up a... vibe between Nadia and Doyle. Maybe I'm a little slow on spotting it but I think she's got herself a thang for the blondie. And I think he digs on her too. Maybe it's some form of Stockholm Syndrome or something that started when he was interrogating her earlier in the day. Or maybe she's just trying to make Milo jealous in which case I hope her replacement gets there soon because she's got bigger problems than playing a field agent and nerdy techboy off each other.

Moving on to Cheng himself, we find him presumably at his safehouse where a bunch of hardcore looking mercs are planning some kind of mission. Cheng and his tech person argue a little about whether the mercs (and I don't know if they're really mercenaries, they just look like it to me) are right for the mission. Cheng assures his techie that they are and he orders them to attack the target in 15 minutes.

Back at CTU, Josh (gosh I forgot about him and Marilyn) is watching news reports about the bomb and is quite upset about his father and grandfather's role in it. Marilyn does her best to reassure him. As she quietens him and gets him to rest, Chloe appears to ask Marilyn to go over the transcript of her statement. Chloe also tells Marilyn at Audrey is still alive.

In Washington, Daniels' chippy calls her boyfriend to try to convince him that the government has the component back in its possession. She hopes he will pass this info off to his Russian contacts otherwise she's screwed. Lennox and Daniels listen in on the call. It's quite awkward which amuses me mightily.

I have to pause for a moment. My neighbours have decided to pick this moment to have very loud sex on the other side of the wall in my room that I'm leaning against. It's erm, rather hard to concentrate on this recap while she fakes her orgasms.

...

Well, ok at least they don't take long. Back to the recap after which I will be looking for a new apartment.

Daniels' chippy/ex-assistant/traitorous twit is ordered by Lennox to go back to her boyfriend and find a reason to leave the room so he can access false documents they've planted on her PDA. She's afraid to do it. She thinks she won't be able to go through with it. Daniels coldly tells her he knows she can, after all, she's ben lying to him. Burn!

Back at CTU, Marilyn goes to see Jack to apologise for telling him Audrey was dead. But how could she have known she wasn't? Jack doesn't blame her. But when Marilyn tries to press the issue, Jack loses it just a little and tells her he doesn't want to talk about it. She backs off. But she tells him that she wants to bring Josh to see him before they go in the morning and Jack agrees. And then she tells him she'll 'be there for him' when this is all over. Even Chloe rolled her eyes at that. Is she making a play for him in the middle of all this? Eh?

Doyle and his team arrive on site. They hack past locked gates and make their way into the safehouse. These scenes are intercut with scenes of Cheng giving final briefings to his mercs, telling them their objective is to retrieve the "package." Not sure what the package is yet though but I'm thinking we're being given a bit of misdirection here and that Cheng and his men are not, in fact, at the safehouse but somewhere else. And yep. I was right. Cheng's safehouse was empty but they did find a stockpile of empty crates that were used to store weaponry and explosives. Doyle tells Nadia that it looks like the Chinese have enough arms to plan a major assault. Meanwhile Cheng's mercs have disappeared into the sewers which happen to be 180 yards from their target.

And what is their target? Why CTU of course. Oh dear.

As they make their way through the sewers to CTU, Lennox sends Miss Thing off to her boyfriend even though she complains of being frightened. He basically tells her to suck it up and get on with it. She enters her home and is greeted by Mark. But she's tense and acting wonky which he notices. He keeps trying to be lovey-dovey but she can't bring her self to groiny with him knowing Lennox and everyone is watching via surveillance. She keeps trying to head for the shower to leave him alone with her PDA but he won't let her. So she gives in and has no choice but to put on a webcam show for the boys in the van, otherwise Mark might get suspicious.

Cheng's team arrives at CTU and prepares to infiltrate. While they wait for Cheng's tech guy to take over CTU's systems, Milo and Nadia have a chat and Milo tells her he knows her feelings for him have changed and he's ok with it. I really hope the writers are going somewhere with these two because frankly at this point, I just don't care about them. And if it's just a bit of pointless fluff thrown in to fill time or whatever I'm going to feel cheated.

Anyway, Nadia tries to contact Doyle but can't get through. Everyone quickly discovers that all systems have gone kerflooey and no one knows why. Cheng and his techie smirk in the split screen as they watch the CTU agents scramble to figure out what's wrong and the mercs make their way into the building. Nadia calls a Code Red emergency lockdown.

The mercs blast their way in, and Jack gets his guard to let him out. Just as he tells him he's going to need a weapon, his guard is shot. So while the merc is checking other holding rooms, Jack sneaks out and takes the dead man's pistol and shoots the merc. He then swiftly takes out 2 other guys and gets himself a bigger gun :)

Back in the main room of CTU, the head mercenary demands to know who is in charge. Just as Nadia begins to get up, Milo steps up and tells him he is in charge. The merc then shoots him in the head.

Well damn.

Now I feel bad for my little rant above about Milo and Nadia. *sigh*

Some of the mercs force their way into Marilyn and Josh's room. One of them radios to Cheng, "We found Bauer. The boy is with his mother." and they start dragging him off. But Jack arrives and kills the mercs. I'm thinking Josh is the package. Marilyn tells Jack they came for Josh and he quickly realizes they need to get out of there. Telling them to stay close, Jack and his big gun lead the way through the mazes of CTU.

They make their way into a room with a big vent and Jack has Josh crawl through the space. Marilyn starts to follow but two more mercenaries burst in and Jack is forced to surrender. He and Marilyn are on their knees but Josh managed to get through the vent and now he's wandering around the ducts like John McClane (but decidedly less cool.)

The head merc receives a communication from Doyle an because of this Nadia's position is revealed. He orders her to respond to Doyle's call with the threat hanging over her that if she tries to warn him, he will shoot everyone in the room, starting with her. She responds to Doyle, tells him they've had issues with comm, and that they're working as fast as they can to backtrace sat photos. (I'm getting pretty good at the technobabble eh?)

Jack and Marilyn arrive in the main room and the head merc gets on the PA. He speaks directly to Josh, telling him that he needs to show himself to one of his men or else his mother will be shot. He gets a 10 count to show himself. Of course he does it too. Good for him. Saved his mom's life.

The head merc informs Cheng they have the boy and he orders him to bring the boy. Marilyn is forced to sit among the agents and Jack is still fuming on his knees.

I the final split screen, Lisa is still shagging Mark on camera while Daniels paces in the White House and CTU agents look on, horrified at the turn of events and at Milo's bloodied body.

Cheng makes a call - to Phillip Bauer. He tells him they have his grandson, physically unharmed. Phillip is the one who got the mercs into CTU and Phillip is the one fixing the component so that it's workable. He will turn it over when he has his grandson.

Blimey.

New 24 Transcripts for Season 2!

2007-05-07T09:15:00.002-06:00

I've just uploaded a whole slew of new transcripts for Season 2. A lovely girl called Kat sent me her transcripts of episodes 6-20 so... Yay! Someday maybe I'll have them all but until then, go peruse what's there and drop Kat an email and tell her how cool she is for doing these :)

Enjoy!

"I love you with all my heart." 1am-2am

2007-04-30T19:15:00.000-06:00

Please pardon my recap this evening if I seem a little... giddy during it. The lovely, magnificent, wonderful set decorator who helped in my Angel painting quest just out of the blue sent me, a few minutes ago, some neat pix of the studio sound stages and backlots taken during filming of "Angel" and I'm just a little bit over the moon about how freaking cool she is. I can't stop grinning which is probably not a good thing because I gather we're dealing with a broken Audrey this evening and it's meant to be very serious and heartbreaking for Jack. I'll try to reign it in a little :)

So Jack's being debriefed at the scene as Doyle tries to speak to Audrey. But she's suffering some sort of "post-traumatic reaction" according to Doyle as he updates new CTU director, Nadia, on the situation. Nadia orders him to bring her back to CTU and then she asks him about Jack. Doyle informs her that Jack was going to sacrifice himself to save Audrey and prevent the chip from getting into Cheng's hands. But thanks to Doyle (and good on him to for owning up to his mistake. I don't like his methods, but he seems to be a decent guy) Jack's plans were foiled when Doyle rushed the scene. Nadia assures Doyle that this is all Jack's fault since he went against a direct order. Bitch.

Nadia speaks with Morris about his transfer request and basically tells him to get over it and denies the request. This pisses Morris off but for now, he acquiesces.

Doyle rounds up Audrey and Jack and has them taken back to CTU separately despite Jack's pleas to let him talk to Audrey. Jack is under arrest you see.

At the White House, Daniels *shudder* tells Karen she's valued and that he appreciates her sacrifice (meaning Bill.) *shudder again* Lennox interrupts telling them the Russian president wants to have a chat.

Daniels little tartlet arrives at her home to get sexy for Daniels *shudder* when she's taken by surprise by a man. Literally. They snog. They shag. She has a pretty bra on but still. Yick. We don't know who the guy is yet.

Back with Daniels, Suvarov tells Daniels he's well aware of the events that transpired that allowed Cheng to get the Russian proprietary component. He threatens Daniels with retaliatory action if the US doesn't stop Cheng from getting out f the country with that device.

After the call, Lennox and Karen promise to investigate how Suvarov could have found out about Cheng so quickly. Daniels orders Karen to give CTU anything they need to find Cheng. I bet that means Jack will go back into play.

Speaking of Cheng, he's now uploaded the schematics to a techie who's located an hour away from them. The tech takes a look, but tells Cheng that the chip is damaged and that he can't fix it without the security override. Of course, the chip thing is useless without that override and this pisses Cheng off.

I know one thing about Daniels' chippie's loverboy: He's a wham bam thank you ma'am type. It's not even been ten minutes and they're done shagging and she's off to shower. I know they were limited on time but damn. Anyway, while she's off showering, her guy makes a call to someone - someone Russian. Hmmmm...

At CTU, Chloe approaches Morris in a back hallway. Morris dumps Chloe. Morris makes Chloe cry. Morris makes Melia angry. You do not make Chloe cry. She was just being her usual blunt self Mr. Overly-sensitive. Grrrr.

The District psych guy, Dr. Bradley, arrives to evaluate Audrey. Holy c she's been put through the wringer. She's a "Type 3 Catatonic who suffered severe psychological abuse amplified by pharmacological agents as evidenced by over 100 injection sites on her arms, feel and groin." Damn. She will not be responsive soon enough to suit CTU's needs in finding Cheng without some kind of intervention. Meaning they're going to use more drugs to try and shock her out of her catatonia. Jack's not gonna like that.

Dr. Bradley is a dick. Doyle believes they should give Jack a chance to talk to Audrey before they proceed with the drug plan but Bradley asserts his jurisdiction over Audrey and refuses. Doyle and Nadia tussle a little over her ineffectualness and unwillingness to step on toes.

Meanwhile Jack is left on his own in Holding 3. He's fidgety, worried, probably in pain, worried about Audrey and it's painful to see him just left like that.

In DC, Lisa leaves her lover when Daniels calls her in. After she's gone, her loverboy calls to find out his next move. At the White House, Lennox informs Daniels he found the leak - a lobbyist named Mark Bishop who has a connection to Russian Intelligence. It's loverboy. And now Daniels knows Lisa is the leak. And that they're lovers.

Daniels tells Lennox that the problem is bigger than he thinks. Then he admits to sleeping with Lisa too. The look on Lennox's face during his Daniels' confession is pretty funny - that open-mouthed, deer-caught-in-headlights look. Priceless.

Daniels looks like a lost puppydog (albeit a vicious pitbull-y puppydog) as he wonders what he should do about this. Lennox leans in and says, "...handled correctly, we could turn this to our advantage..."

Back in Jack's holding cell, Doyle comes in, uncuffs Jack and tells him what's going on with Audrey. He tells Jack that he needs to do something to stop the shrink. He whispers to Jack, "Make it look good." and walks away. Jack jumps him, chokes him into unconsciousness and gently lays Doyle on the floor. He makes his way to Audrey and quickly incapacitates the stupid shrink and gets Audrey out of there.

The shrink sets of the alarm and Nadia gets an earful from Milo - "If you had just let Jack talk to Audrey one of this would have happened." You tell her Milo.

Jack makes his a to a lower level with Audrey and holes up in an empty room. He tries desperately to reach her, to make her understand that she's safe. He begs her for some kind of sign that she understands but retreats a little when he sees he's upsetting her. He apologises and pulls her to him. He whispers, "I love you with all of my heart." (*sniffle* .. shutup. I'm a girl.) Audrey reaches for Jack's hand.

As Nadia's entry team blowtorches the door and with sparks flying, Jack tries again to get Audrey to give them something. He puts her in a corner of the room and puts himself between her and CTU agents, gun drawn. He's showing her that he will protect her. As the standoff begins, Audrey utters a single word: Bloomfield.

It's enough to get Nadia to grow a pair and send the shrink away to let Jack keep trying with Audrey. Jack gets Nadia to promise the shrink will not go near Audrey and he relinquishes his gun. Doyle gently leads Audrey away and Jack is taken back to holding.

Phew!

Back at the White House, Lennox and Daniels learn that the Russians are moving troops toward a US base in Central Asia in preparation for a strike should we fail to get the component thingie back. Then the tart arrives and I prepare some popcorn as I watch Daniels confront her over her (inadvertent) betrayal.

Daniels orders her to go back to loverboy and tell them they have the chip back. This is Lennox's plan.

At CTU, hey Heller's back!!! Sweet! He's come for his daughter. But before he leaves he goes to visit Jack. Oh... It's not a pleasant reunion at all. Jack stands up and starts to tell Heller that he will be there for Audrey and help her get through this. Heller cuts him off and warns him to stay away from her. He doesn't want Jack near his daughter ever again. "She went looking for you, and this is how she came back." Jack tells Heller he accepts that responsibility. He begs Heller (Jack has to do entirely too much begging. I hate seeing him do that. In fact, I hate the way Jack is constantly treated.) to let him help Audrey. Heller refuses. And his parting shot as he walks out is to tell him, "You're cursed Jack. Everything you touch, one way or another, ends up dead."

Jeez :(

Angel Painting Update

2007-04-25T12:48:00.000-06:00

Going off topic again, but I thought I'd update those who took a minute to email me with ideas on my quest to find the artwork behind the scrummy David Boreanaz:

It seems my search is near an end and I want to thank the bloke who wrote me with the suggestion of trying to contact the set designers or propmasters for "Angel."

I won't bore everyone with the details of the search but it turns out that I was able to dig up contact info for the actual set designer who picked out that piece of artwork and she told me where she got it etc. She was just lovely and shared a little bit of insight into what it was like designing for "Angel" which gave me all kinds of warm fuzzies :)

To make a long story short (too late!) it turns out the artwork was rented from a local prop shop and is probably not available to buy :( but I was able to write to them about it and I'm waiting to see if they'll give me the artist's name and contact info.

So thanks for letting me take up valuable 24 space with this and thanks to everyone who wrote to give me tips and ideas. I heart the Intertubes!

"You've been a good friend." 12am-1am

2007-04-23T18:54:00.000-06:00

Before I get going tonight I just wanna say that "Drive" is a rockin' show. It's getting better and better every ep :) If you haven't seen it, go do so. If for no other reason than to laugh with me at the sight of Hastings, Nebraska, where Nathan Fillion's character is from, having very large hills (Hastings, Nebby is about 20 minutes from me and well, it's pretty damn flat here in this part of Nebraska :) ) I bet FOX has previous eps online somewhere.

Ok, enough about "Drive." Let's see what happens tonight on "24."

When we last left Jack, he was on the run from his own government. Again. Wayne Palmer collapsed and Scary Daniels is now in charge after all.

Doyle commandeers a civilian's car and is in pursuit of Jack. Jack's in Doyle's SUV and must disable the tracking device so he pulls under a boatload of power lines and does so. Doyle's still on Jack's tail and closing in but without the tracking device it's gotten harder for him.

At the White House, Daniels and Lennox clear the air between them. Lennox gives Daniels his support and says he won't be using the recording against him, even if they disagree on policy in the future. They decide to keep Karen Hayes on in the new administration because she "brings balance." She is the chosen one. Hehe.

Jack calls Cheng and changes up the game plan by stating he has to pick the spot for the drop because CTU's monitoring him. Cheng agrees to met him at a hotel here they will trade Audrey for the component.

Ok. I'm officially squicked. Please oh please don't make me watch Daniels snog his assistant ever again. *shudder* After speaking with Karen and Lennox, Daniels authorizes them to involve "ancillary agencies" to jump in and help with the search for Jack. They leave and I thn get completely grossed out by a mini love scene between "dirty old man" Daniels and his chippy. "I've got the fate of the Western World on my shoulders and all I can think about is you." I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. He asks her to spend what's left of the night with him and she goes home to get a change of clothes. I swear if they show a shag scene between those two I really will vomit.

Meanwhile, Doyle has come to the power lines Jack used to ditch the tracker but the trail's growing cold. Doyle works out that Jack's headed east on the 305 from tire tracks. Doyle remembers Jack using a terrorist's phone so he has CTU start looking for cell calls between Jack and Cheng.

As Chloe and Morris work on that, they have a spat. A fun spat. I enjoyed watching them argue until Chloe went about one step too far and mentioned his arming of nuclear devices for terrorists. Oops. Morris walks away.

At the White House again Karen gets a call from Peter Hawke from the DOJ asking for a meeting in her office. She goes in to speak to him (Hey! It's Dr. Goodman from Bones! I miss him this season) and finds that he's been interrogating Reed about his part in the assassination attempt. Apparently Reed's been singing like crazy to get out of being executed and is offering up information that Karen and Bill covered up the fact that Bill had Fayed in custody previously and let him go.

Karen tells Peter that the facts of Reed's statement are true but there's no cover-up. Two years ago as art of a joint effort between CTU and the FBI Fayed was taken into custody during a border sweep. There wasn't enough evidence to hold him, he was one of many, and he was *maybe* a mid-level player.

It all sounds very plausible, but Peter makes his point: even though Karen resigned earlier in the day to prevent this info from getting out, letting it out now still serves no purpose because once the country discovers that Fayed had been in custody two years ago, the country will demand to know who the hell let him go. They won't care about context or the fact that Fayed only became a high roller *after* his he was freed.

He tells Karen that one of them will go down because that's how this works. The country demands a scapegoat. Peter would rather it be Bill since he's lower on the food chain, but then he looks at her coldly and says, "But you'll do." Damn Dr. Goodman :( When did you get so mean?

And now we move back to Jack. He arrives at the location, grabs his Man Purse and heads for the drop. It's an abandoned, Bates-looking motel. Jack checks out the lay of the land as Doyle hears from CTU. They've found Jack's call to Cheng but it's decrypted. So Doyle is closing in on Jack's location.

While that's happening, Karen goes to have a chat with Lennox about Reed and the info he gave up to Peter. Lennox doesn't have good news for her though because he says that she can't be the scapegoat. It has to be Bill who takes the fall for Fayed's release. Karen is gobsmacked. She doesn't want to betray her own husband like that but Lennox says pretty much what Peter did - Bill is low on the totem pole and Karen is needed in the new administration.

What will Karen do... Hmmm.. Will she sacrifice Bill to save her skin and her career or will she "stand shoulder to shoulder" with her husband and accept blame?

Jack leaves Bill a voicemail. I sort of dug Bill's "Press 1 for immediate danger, press 2 for standard danger" greeting :) Anyway, Jack tells Bill that this call is his confirmation that the component was incinerated in his C-4 blast and hopefully by the time Bill hears the message Audrey will be safe and in Bill's care. He tells Bill where the drop is going down and ends the call with a plea for Bill to please take care of Audrey. "You've been a good friend." He tells him before hanging up. *sniffle*

At CTU, Morris pops into Bill's office and requests a transfer out of Comm and away from Chloe. Bill agrees to work something out. He then gives Karen a call and she lets him know what's the what on the Fayed thing. And she thoroughly disappoints me by tell Bill he has to take the fall. I see her point. She's too close to he President blah bah blah but man, Bill's her husband. This is just gong to shatter their relationship because Bill's pretty pissed off. Bill hangs up on her and walks away from his phone that has Jack's voicemail on it.

Doyle continues cruising the streets looking for Jack and spots something. Off he goes to investigate and Nadia who had been helping him is pulled aside by Bill. He informs her he was fired and that she is now acting director of CTU. Ummm, huh? Nadia?

Security comes to escort Bill off the premises. And I'm sad. Bill can't go out like that. He's a good guy. A White Hat. His deep, soothing voice and ability to remain calm in crisis has been a huge factor in keeping CTU running. And he's Jack's friend. *sniffle*

As Bill leaves, Morris approaches to tell him Doyle found Jack's truck but Bill says, "Good work." and keeps walking. Puzzled, Morris turns to Nadia who makes the Big Announcement. Se tells CTU that the objective remains the same: bring Jack in before he gives the component to Cheng.

And Doyle is indeed at Jack's location now. He raids Jack's truck and gets on Comm with CTU and informs them a limo just arrived. Balls. Doyle's going to ruin the drop. Jack's unaware of Doyle's presence as he watches Cheng get out of the limo and head towards him. Jack informs Cheng that he's not getting anything until he sees Audrey. Cheng orders her brought in. She's gagged and Jack and Audrey get their first glimpse of each other. It's a fleeting, sweet moment but then Jack growls at Cheng to take the gag out of her mouth.

Just as Cheng reaches for the gag, Jack tells him to stop. He'll remove the gag himself. Audrey walks to Jack and he looks at her... the way he looks at her is just heartbreaking. he tenderly removes the gag, gently touches her face and whispers, "I'm so sorry." to her.

Jack tells Cheng that Audrey is to walk out of there, alone, and once she's a safe distance away, he will hand over the component. He hugs Audrey and tells her a cab is waiting for her at a gas station nearby and it has instructions to take her to CTU. Silently, Audrey begins walking away.

Doyle gets anxious because his backup hasn't arrived and Audrey's walking away. Nadia tells him not to let Jack hand over the component. And so Doyle cocks the whole thing up by taking out one of Cheng's men just as Jack tosses the component to Cheng. A firefight ensues. Again. Jack is hit. Cheng does a runner in a hummer with the component and CTU backup arrives. Cheng's men take out CTU's chopper with a rocket launcher which mucks up pursuit of Cheng.

Jack's hit was in his bulletproof vest. As he gets up, he takes out three of Cheng's men. But as he tries to get away, CTU agents apprehend him. Doyle arrives on scene and tells Jack he's in charge. Jack angriy tells Doyle he was set to blow the building with Cheng, himself and the component in it until Doyle screwed it up. He hands over the detonator but Doyle informs him Cheng escaped.

Nadia orders Doyle to arrest Jack and there is much eye-rolling around the table from Chloe and Milo when she gives that order. Doyle cuffs Jack as agents bring in Audrey. But Audrey is out of it. She's panicky and doesn't recognize Jack. CTU agents take her aside and sit her down and she begins looking around crazily and repeating, "Help me Jack. Help me Jack." over and over. Jack looks on as he's being led away by Doyle and he's shocked to see her in this condition.

Tick and boom.

Good stuff tonight folks though I will definitely be haunted by the sight of Daniels and his assistant snogging. *shudder.*

Only 4 episodes left.