The following takes place between 3:00 am and 4:00 am:

3:00 am – Hastings calls a meeting to describe the plot that we’ve already heard about several times. He gets Chloe and Dana to help him explain this to everyone. They do this just in case someone wasn’t paying attention. Arlo asks Chloe who’s in charge of him – Chloe or Dana? He wants to know who he can make rude remarks to. Chloe tells him to do as he’s told, and she won’t taser him.

3:01 am – Kayla is freaking out now that she’s been informed that Tarin isn’t quite who she thought he was, and she tries to create a Bat Signal through the bathroom window. Meanwhile, Tarin gets a call from Samir, who informs him that there’s Marcos paint all over the inside of the decompression chamber at the hospital and that Marcos might have said something besides “Uh oh” before the paint job.

Samir suggests that Tarin take Kayla with him to their secret rendezvous phase, which dares to be even more exciting than the last couple of phases.

3:02 am – Chloe uploads info about Tarin to Jack. Jack is in the car with Cole and is coordinating things with CTU. Dana is coordinating with someone named Sargent Amos. This must be Amos’ first time at a staging area, because all kinds of flashing lights are all around the area. Good thing Tarin hasn’t looked out the window.

Amos is informed that Tarin is in room 514 and has Kayla. Jack and Cole then explain the plot so far to him. Jack informs Amos that Tarin is Hasan’s former head of security, and “knows what he’s doing”. Amos respectfully points out that Tarin must really not understand what he’s doing if he’s attempting to kidnap Kayla.

3:04 am – Tarin is getting really impatient with Kayla who tells him she’s “getting ready” It appears he has no previous experience with “getting ready”, and doesn’t realize he could be there for the next 36 hours.

He paces around and then looks out the window to see, at that exact moment, two strange things – 1) No cars on the streets below and 2) Men with guns headed to the building. The weird part of that is, they’re actually the police, and not just random New Yorkers.

Tarin grabs Kayla and heads to the elevators in the completely empty hotel. Despite his insistence that Amos wait until he gets there, Jack is ignored! Sergeant Amos has no idea the world of hurt that Jack can put him in, so he creeps through the building with 3 of his stealthiest friends.

They are, however, not stealthy enough. Tarin easily shoots them all and they all go down. Apparently all of them forgot to wear their bulletproof vests! Tarin grabs a walkie-talkie and does an impression of one of the downed agents. Kayla takes this prime opportunity NOT to yell and scream for help, thereby helping Tarin redirect the rest of CTU to the wrong end of the building. Well, everyone except for Jack.

It takes Jack about 2 seconds to realize what Tarin is up to, and they’re back on Tarin’s trail.

3:08 am – Tarin and Kayla make it to the alley, where they’re confronted by two officers. A taxi pulls up behind them. The driver, not familiar with the customs of the United States taxi cab system, shoots both of the officers (who also weren’t wearing vests today), in an effort to secure Tarin’s and Kayla’s taxi fares.

Jack asks that all officers look for a yellow cab in New York. They immediately find a dramatic tunnel to drive in, and find the taxi. Jack pulls a gun on the taxi, and it surrenders. Everyone inside is gone. They head back to CTU.

3:11 am – Samir calls his lead terrorist engineer who, like many engineers, is still working on his nuclear bomb hardware project up until the very last minute.

Commercial

3:16 am – Chloe informs Hastings that they’re still looking around for terror, anywhere they can find it.

3:17 am – A guard informs Dana that a “Prady” is here to see her. Dana asks Chloe to “cover” for her. Chloe gives her a look as if to say, “Hey, you already walked off the job at least twice today. Haven’t you learned anything?” Chloe is the master of transmitting complex messages in facial expressions.

Dana takes a long walk to see Prady. He gives her a Hollywood head shot of Kevin, who won’t be answering those agent calls anytime soon. Dana “admits” to meeting Kevin in a bar, but can’t come up with a decent bar joke, since she’s pretty nervous. She explains that she and Kevin really got to know each other much more than she intended, and that she doesn’t want Cole to find out about it. She tells him she has no idea where he is.

Prady tells her that he knows about the break-in at the warehouse and he’s pretty sure that Kevin and Nick were after a case of red staplers. Dana tells him that she doesn’t know anything about that. She says she really has to get back to work on a national security crisis. Prady says he’ll just wait until she’s got more time to talk.

3:20 am – Dahlia is pretty upset that “the Americans” lost Kayla. Hasan points out that their own people took Kayla. Jack arrives, and they rehash the plot some more while Dahlia complains about Americans some more. At this point, the best thing they can do is set up some monitoring devices.

3:21 am – At an undisclosed location, Kayla is wearing a blindfold. It looks like Tarin wants to take her to play a game of Pin the Tail on Infidel, but she doesn’t want to play. He sits her down in a chair, where she meets Samir, who wants to video tape her for an upcoming terrorist recruitment video that they’ve been planning for weeks.

Commercial

3:27 am – Dahlia receives a phone call. The voice says, “Your husband is a traitor to the people of the Republic. Oh….wait… is this Dahlia? Sorry, I thought I might have the wrong number”. She hands the phone to Omar. Samir tells him that he wants “File 33″, which of course nobody except Omar and Samir have heard of. Dana goes scrambling to see if she can find out anything about Files 1 through 32.

Samir tells Omar that he’s got an IP address that he wants to give to CTU. They broadcast the video which is crystal clear, and definitely NOT branded as CISCO technology, because they really don’t want that kind of product placement. Samir is now wearing a Terrorist ski mask, which is kind of ironic, since there’s no snow in Samir’s fictional country. He takes a clear plastic bag, which is also NOT branded in any way, and tries to Ziploc seal Kayla. He tells Hasan to get him File 33, or Kayla will die. The internet video cuts out with no warning, leaving no signal, which is one of the first realistic things that has happened on the show so far.

Jack wants to know what File 33 is. Hastings takes this opportunity to call Jack to join in on the questions about File 33. Hasan is reluctant to show them at first, but finally relents and tells one of his assistants to show them. From the way Hasan was acting, it appeared that File 33 was a book manuscript he’d been working on for the last couple of years, but it turns out that File 33 is something else. Hasan types in his password, and it is, as so many passwords on television are, all stars.

File 33 is a complete description of all US anti-nuclear defenses and the radiological detection arrays. Hastings wants to know where Hasan got it. He says, “I Googled for it.” Jack points out the obvious, that with all the information, Samir will have no problem getting around any defenses. He also points out that if Omar gives over this info, a lot of people are going to die. Not the people that have had a lot of plastic surgery, since they’ll probably live a couple extra decades regardless of what happens, but a lot of other people are going to die.

While this was going on, Arlo was analyzing the video to see if there were any weird noises he could enjoy later, and he accidentally heard a subway noise. Using that noise they were able to cross reference where all the subway trains were at that exact moment and then isolated where Kayla probably is, down to a six block radius. Jack decides to go after her, but needs Omar to transfer a corrupted ZIP file to stall Samir while they’re on their way.

3:33 am – Tarin has taken Kayla to another room, pulls off her gag, and tells her not to say anything. He goes out to argue with Samir about what to do with Kayla. Tarin wants to take her out on a date, but Samir thinks it would be better if he killed her instead.

Commercial

3:40 am – Chloe continues to lead Arlo and Dana in figuring out the exact building that Kayla is in, when Arlo notices that someone let Pardy loose. Arlo asks who Pardy is, and Dana says “Nobody”. Arlo jumps up and screams, “Nobody? Then I’m seeing ghosts!” and runs out of the room. Chloe drags him back in to continue doing work while Dana goes to see how Pardy slipped past all the CTU guards so he could wander around.

3:42 am – Pardy tells Dana that he just found out the security cameras were disabled the whole time that Kevin and Nick were in the warehouse. He also points out that the only technology Kevin and Nick are capable of is “large rock”. He thinks that “someone” might have helped them and since Dana works at a place that takes video of every single video camera in New York and archives it, she might have access to that information. Pardy is pretty good at putting two and two together, and if Hastings were around he’d probably be worried about his job security right about now.

Pardy thinks that “metadata” can help find out and that putting all the data on a “100 gig” thumb drive would be all that he needs. Video would probably be better than just metadata. With all this technical talk, Dana looks concerned that Pardy might know more about technology than she does.

Dana calls Cole about what Pardy is asking for and tells him that she’s going to give him everything he wants, but will have a good cry about it first.

3:45 am – Dahlia and Omar talk about the file, Kayla, and Omar’s impressive Toast Master’s capabilities. It’s time for Kayla’s video again, and it’s not going to be something romantic like “The Notebook”.

Tarin comes over to take Kayla to the video feed, and she pleads for her life. It works! They make a run for it. They decide they need to make a run for CTU. They are so important that ONE guy goes after them, who Tarin knocks flat. They grab his car keys and run to the car. Tarin makes a classic mistakes and gets out of the car, only to be shot by Samir. And dies. Kayla drives away as Samir tries to shoot her too.

Commercial

3:51 am – Omar and Dahlia watch video, only watching the empty chair and flag. CTU has no idea what the heck is going on, which is normal. Dana gets a phone call from Kayla and she explains that she escaped. Jack asks where she was being held. She narrows it down to “dark and abandoned”, which describes most of the Grunge Bands from the 1990s. Then she mentions a bank vault, of which there are only 265,000 in New York, but it gives Chloe enough to go on. Chloe finds it in 3 seconds.

3:53 am – Jack, who was just 4 seconds away from where Samir has been hiding, shoots a glass door that wouldn’t listen to him. He and Cole enter the building.

They look around, but don’t find anything, at least at first. They find a basement area and continue to search after consulting with Chloe.

Arlo spots the terrorists going out the south exit on a video feed that he was using to monitor women in the area.

Hastings finally gives Dana a complement after she informs her that she did a good thing by helping Kayla.

Chloe does a quick analysis of the video that Arlo found, and sees that Tarin is alive! The whole thing was staged in the shortest plot twist ever to hit 24. They wanted Kayla to escape.

Chloe informs Jack of what’s happening, and he realizes what Samir and Tarin are up to. They wanted her to head to CTU so they could blow the whole place up! Everyone realizes this and mass panic hits CTU.

Kayla drives the car right up to the front door. The guards decide that instead of getting the car the heck out of there RIGHT NOW, it would be a lot more fun to look for it. They find it, and it’s easily identifiable by the tell-tale countdown timer, which all bombs are required to have.

Ah, but this is no ordinary bomb. This is an EMP, which is set up to exploded and wipe out all electronic equipment. This bomb explodes, screwing up every single system at CTU, and much to Dana’s relief, all the video equipment too.

Jack loses contact with Chloe and CTU. The terrorists have two problems now: Jack and Chloe, who’s going to be extra mad that someone messed with her computers.

Jack tells Cole to contact the NSA.

4:00 am – TIME’S UP!

NEXT TIME ON “24″ – Shooting! Finally!

SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!

Some thoughts about tonight’s LOST – Dr. Linus:

Dharma did exist on the island, at least long enough for Ben and his father to be there for a while, and for them to leave.

It was great seeing Alex again.

Ben sure digs a nice neat burial plot.

Richard confirmed he was on the Black Rock before.

Somehow, Illana knows all about the candidates. She says there are six, which I presume are Sun, Jin, Hurley, Jack, Kate and Sawyer. I think there might actually be a seventh, but more on that later.

So we find out that that Jacob’s touch make it impossible for the person who was touched to die by their own hand, and I would say from what the young boy who appeared to Locke a few episodes ago, Locke can’t kill them either. He tried to get Ben to kill Illana, because he can’t.

Ah, and all the theories about Widmore being the one that Jacob was referring to when he said someone was coming to the island, were right. Seems like he’s the one that will get the Man in Black off the island.

Now, remember all those people that Jacob touched? Think you know everyone? Hurley, Kate, Sawyer, Jin, Sun, Sayid, Jack, Locke….and Ben. Yep, Ben. I think I mentioned this in an earlier post. Anyway, it certainly means a lot more now.

In fact, it could very well be that Ben might end up being the most important person on the island. What if HE was the person that took over for Jacob? He devoted his entire life to the island. Who better to keep it safe, and to be there to keep the Man in Black in check?

I’m just going to throw this out – What if the only way the Man in Black can leave the island is to transfer his powers to someone else? Who would that be? My guess is Widmore. He and Ben might be the two new replacements for MiB and Jacob.

Finally, I’m glad Ben survived. He’s a great character.

The following takes place between 2 am and 3 am

2:00 am – Fortunately for Marcos, he hid in the one hyperbaric chamber that had a schematic for the exact bomb he’s got strapped to himself. That’s the first thing that went right for him today. Outside of there, Jack gets the lowdown on the make and model of the chamber, because he’s been looking for one for his house. It’ll take about forty minutes to drill into the chamber.

2:02 am – Chloe already has all the information about Marcos including his mom’s name, what his father did before committing suicide, and his favorite breakfast cereal (“Explodios!”). Jack asks CTU to go get Marco’s mom and to bring her to the hospital, because this is exactly the sort of thing that a mom could talk a kid out of doing.

After Jack hangs up, Hastings tells everyone in the CTU conference room that he expects the terrorists are going to hit a high-value target. That surprises everyone that had bet they were going to hit a low value target, and they’re upset they lost their bets with the “high value target” bettors. Hastings asks everyone to watch their monitors, radio transmissions and smoke signals for any sign that the terrorists are moving the bomb. The meeting breaks up and Hastings notices that Dana and Cole are back at CTU, but aren’t making out in the elevator the way they usually do, so he’s suspicious.

2:04 am – In that elevator, Cole tells Dana to act natural, so of course, Dana acts completely unnatural. Cole says that after the terrorist threat ends, he wants to talk over what happened. Neither of them is the least bit concerned that the elevator might be wired for sound.

2:05 am – The door opens and Hastings is waiting for them. He tells them they have “Holy Hell” to answer to. Cole tries to joke with him that he had a nun named “Holy Helen” as a teacher in grade school, but that doesn’t go over very well. Hastings puts Chloe in charge of Dana, and sends Cole to get Marco’s mom. He tells Chloe and Dana that they might have a chance to salvage their careers, which we know is code for they might be able to leave before the show gets any sillier.

Dana takes the Black Pebble of Information Technology, and ceremoniously hands it to Chloe, who takes it and is now in charge. She takes her place at the Lead Cubicle.

2:07 am – Somewhere on the streets of New York, the lead terrorist tells Samir that not only have they been able to penetrate the security system of the hospital, but they’re also able to watch Marcos while he tries to reconfigure the bomb. Marcos has been smart enough to activate part of the bomb, but not smart enough to realize that exploding part of a bomb would be good enough to explode the whole thing.

Commercial

2:13 am – Samir arrives at the secret warehouse where the rods are located. They dramatically open the case to dramatically look at the rods, but the rods have nothing to say, so they sit there looking very dramatic.

At CTU, Dana tells Chloe that nobody has been able to detect any kind of radiation signature anywhere. Chloe tells Dana she’s glad she didn’t get fired, which is Chloe’s way of showing respect for a fellow analyst.

Dana asks Arlo for an update about the terrorists, and in exchange Arlo questions her about what happened to that “other guy” and whether he’s gone or not. Dana resists the urge to say, “Oh, he’s GONE alright”, but confirms that Kevin is indeed “gone”. Arlo shows a brief glimpse of non-creepiness by telling her that he’s glad that she and Cole are still a couple, but then reverts to lizard status once more by hitting on her. Dana actually thinks he’s kidding.

12:16 am – Marcos continues to work on the bomb while Jack observes, thinking that if HE had the bomb, the thing would have already been fixed by now. The communications link into the chamber is up, so Jack talks to Marcos.

Jack tells him that by blowing up a bomb in New York, the IRK are going to be in deep trouble, because New Yorkers generally don’t stand for that kind of thing. They’ll have most of Manhattan’s population invading Hasan’s fictional country if that happens, and there’s NO accounting for what would happen then.

Marcos responds that Hasan signed “my country away”. Jack feels it necessary to point out that not only was Marcos born in the US, that he used to watch Barney when he was young, and that in fact his name is really just Mark. Marcos won’t listen to Jack and goes back to trying to remember enough of his electrical engineering classes to get the bomb wired up. He’s up to 2 LEDS on his jacket.

Commercial

2:23 am – In a hotel room somewhere in New York, Tamir is in bed with Kayla. He gets off a phone call with a friend in the state department, who he called to brag about what just happened and to find out about getting political asylum. They’ll be able to get it, but they’ll have to go into hiding for about a year or so. The fortunate part of that is that they won’t be able to work in the US while the asylum petition is being granted, so this might be their way off the show. He tells her that they’ll have to dip into their savings, and they’ll have to do a lot more shopping at the Dollar Store from now on. Kayla’s phone rings, but they don’t answer.

2:24 am – Dahlia is the person on the phone, and she leaves a message to have her daughter call her back. She has an important message about, oh, a large dirty bomb that could go off at any minute, and that it would be a good time to get the heck out of New York. She hangs up in time to see Hasan.

She and Hasan rehash their subplot for a while: Tamir was arrested because Hasan is paranoid. They decide to involve the police. He gets so confused he calls Dahlia “Kaylia” by mistake, but she doesn’t notice. He tries to comfort her.

2:26 am – Over at Marcos’ mom’s apartment, she’s packing to go to her sister’s house. Cole pretends to be a pizza delivery guy, and doesn’t let her know that he’s really from CTU until after she gives him a very generous tip.

Cole tells her that Marcos has been a very bad boy, has been surfing the Internet in all the wrong places, and now he wants to blow himself up. Well, not so much “up” as “completely apart”. She leaves with Cole to go talk to Marcos.

Commercial

2:33 am – Dana tells Hastings that Cole will be at the hospital with Marcos’ mom in about ten minutes. She decides that this would be a great time to bring up the whole “I was gone at a bad time” again with Hastings, and realizes that all she’s getting for her trouble is another chewing out. She rapidly apologizes and makes a mental note to leave things well enough alone. Her phone rings.

2:34 am – Dana answers the phone and it’s Milton from Office Space! Milton says his name is a probation officer named “Prady”, and he’s looking for Kevin. He’s suspicious that Kevin called her a couple of times. He wants to meet with her. He has to get the address of CTU, mainly because he’s from out of town. If he were a native New Yorker, he’d know exactly where CTU is, since they all seem to know.

2:36 am – Marcos is getting a LOT better at the whole “wiring the bomb” thing, because he just got the third LED to light up. The crew outside continues to drill into the chamber, which at this point will spray little Marcos bits through it since he’s really close to finishing rewiring the bomb.

2:37 am – Cole arrives with Marcos’ mom, and Jack explains the situation to her.

Meanwhile, Dana calls Cole in a panic, because of Prady. Cole tells her to make something up about Kevin, like he got tickets to an off-off-off Broadway water ballet, or SOMETHING… just anything to throw him off the trail.

2:38 am – Jack tells Marcos’ mom that she needs to do whatever she usually does when Macros is a bad boy, since she’s the only one he’ll listen to. Marcos sees her and freaks out. He can’t believe that she’s there. He’s so embarrassed that she would show up at his first explosion. She tries to talk him out of it.

2:39 am – While this is going on, Chloe notices that there’s a signal degradation in the video feed, and she’s pretty sure that someone else is watching everything that is going on. She’s not talking about the millions of people watching right now; she suspects that the terrorists are watching this channel to see if Marcos is going to blow up or not. She also suspects they’re routing this to a pay-per-view channel to drum up extra terrorist funding.

2:40 am – Macros tries to convince his mom that she’s really a great mother, other than the whole thing where he turned into a spy and wants to blow himself up. Jack tells them to disconnect the video feed, because of the pay-per-view going on. Marcos tells her goodbye, they grab her and pull her out of the room. Marcos gets the final LED going, when Jack goes in to have a talk with him.

Jack explains that he knows all about New York, and if the dirty bomb goes off, he’ll personally take Marcos’ mom to a restaurant near the detonation site and will force her to order something she’s not going to like to eat and make her pay for the meal. But first, Jack’s going to make her clean up all the Marcos parts from the inside of the chamber, because they’re going to need to use it again later today. Jack tells him that she’ll be singing “My Radiation” (“People try and blow us up, talking about my radiation”…) soon.

Macros can’t believe what he’s hearing. This day has been really, really bad for him. He makes Jack promise to not hurt her, in exchange for not blowing up. Marcos exits the chamber.

2:44 am – The terrorists who had been watching the video feed since it gave out switch back to using binoculars and see that Marcos is out! Jack’s working on the bomb trying to deactivate it. NOW we find out that there’s a fail safe code, and Samir wants it transmitted. Everyone in the room with him looks at him as if to say, “NOW you tell us you had a fail safe code? Why didn’t you say something before??”

The four LEDS on Marcos’ jacket start blinking, which is the universal bomb code for “something bad is about to happen”. There’s a nice little timer in the jacket too, which starts counting down. This must have been the deluxe version of the bomb vest, because you can bet the lower-priced version didn’t have all these options on it. Jack struggles with the bomb, but realizes he can’t disarm it. He asks Marcos for the name of the person putting all this together, and he names Hasan’s head of security, Tarin. Jack tries one last time to disarm the bomb, tells Macros that he can’t do it. He pushes Marcos into the chamber, tries to shut the door and… well, the bomb disarms Marcos. Disbodies and dislegs him too.

Jack is thrown clear of the explosion, but this will do nothing to help his tinnitus. He asks to talk to Hasan.

Commercial

2:53 am – Jack calls Hasan to tell him that Tarin is in on the plot, which is the first time the word “plot” has actually be used correctly on the show. Hasan tells Jack that his daughter has run away with Tarin.

2:55 am – Dahlia finally gets a hold of Kaylia. Even SHE can’t keep her daughter’s name straight. Dahlia can’t believe that Tarin is in on the plot, but finally gives up her location. She hangs up just in time to see that Tarin has been watching. Tarin wants to leave but Dahlia stalls, and goes to get dressed.

2:59 am – Jack explains to the rest of the agents that nothing exciting is going to happen, so they’re just going to end the hour here.

3:00 am – TIME’S UP!

NEXT TIME ON “24″ – KIDNAPPING at 3:15! THREATS AT 3:24! 3:52 A TWIST HAPPENS! HASTINGS YELLS “SECURITY”!

SEE YOU NEXT TIME!

A few thoughts, observations and questions about tonight’s LOST episode – Sundown

Jack was in the hospital when Sayid saw Nadia.

The only reason I can think of that Jin would have been in that chill chest at is that he went to deliver a message to Keamy.

Why on earth did Kate leave with Claire, Sayid and Locke, especially after seeing everything she did in that courtyard?

So, we find out that Sayid was dead for TWO HOURS, which is much longer than I thought.

It sure seemed that Dogen knew that Sayid was going to kill him, even before he did. He seemed resigned to his fate.

Where they heck are Jin and Sawyer right now?

In thinking about this over the past week and after seeing what we saw tonight, it seems as though they’re setting up Jack and Hurley to be the new head honchos on the island. Jack as the new leader of the remaining “Others”, and Hurley as a Jacob replacement.

Yeah, I know, I know…Hurley? Really? Well, Jacob has been hanging out with Hurley a LOT. Everyone else that’s left seems to be a lot more reactionary than Hurley too, so that’s in his favor.

I’m really beginning to believe that once they find a way to kill The Man in Black (MiB) in the form of John Locke, someone is going to have to take over that role, whether they like it or not. If MiB is telling the truth, that he was a man at some point in the past, something caused him to turn him that way. If they “kill” Locke (whatever that means at this point), someone might have to take over.

—

A couple of things about last week’s episode.

The person coming to the island is very likely to be Widmore.

Linus and Friendly were names that were scratched off on the wheel.

Claire confirmed that Smokey showed up as Jack’s Dad to her. That means that Jack’s dad himself and Smokey may be been appearing in the same guise all this time.

That’s it for now.

What did you think?

Previously on “24″, we found that: So far, Fahrad is good at hiding; Kevin and Nick are not good at hiding; Security guards should hide from Jack; Everyone is looking for where those darn fuel rods are hiding.

The following takes place between 1 am and 2 am:

1:00 am – Outside the UN, Kayla and Tarin rehash things we’ve heard on previous episodes. Tarin wants to escape the subplot he’s in, and he wants Kayla to go with him. She’s seriously considering doing it too, since it’s very unlikely she’ll get to meet Jack Bauer, and that’s who she really wanted to meet.

1:01 am – Ever since Cole shot Nick, he’s been trying to resuscitate Kevin, who died of a knife wound last week. Dana convinces him that after a week of trying, if Kevin isn’t coming back to life, he’s never coming back. She wants Cole to take off so she’ll take the blame, but he has a much better idea: They’ll detail the van and dump Nick and Kevin’s bodies in the handy swamp they just happened to be parked right next to! Cole thinks that not only is the only way out of this situation, but if someone happens to find the bodies, they’ll just think that Nick and Kevin are some kind of swamp creatures… which wouldn’t be far from the truth.

1:05 am – Hastings is on the phone with Mrs. President to let her know that Fahrad told them all about the plot about letting off the dirty bomb somewhere in New York City. She asks, “Why would they do this?” Hastings knows the answer is “to impress girls”, but tells her that the bad guys feel they’ve been backed into a corner. Hastings tells her that Fahrad has agreed to help CTU to prevent the attack, most likely as a speed bump when they find him, kill him, and try and drive over his body. Jack has agreed to go get Fahrad, or whatever is left of him. Hastings says that CTU has discovered that these bad guys are part of an organization called the “IRK”, which, since all the other three-letter acronyms are taken, is the name they’re stuck with. It also happens to be the noise that people make when Jack punches people in the face, so it’s a good omen. Mrs. President wants to have a meeting with Hasan, because she thinks that actual work gets done in meetings.

After she leaves, Hastings tells Rob that they’re not going to go after Renee, and hangs up on him, which is the first really good thing Hastings has done all day. Even Rob can’t believe it, and he slaps a wall just to show how upset he is.

1:07 am – On his way to Fahrad, Jack has a meeting in back of one of the CTU vans. And, just like in every other meeting, there’s some guy on a laptop playing Tetris, and not paying attention. Jack says something to him, and the guy recovers enough to realize what Jack asks, and agrees to get some information downloaded – because we all know that without downloaded information, well, where would we really be, after all?

The kid next to Jack, who looks like he’s personal friends with Dora The Explorer, gets a phone call from Fahrad through CTU. Fahrad has been waiting all week for Jack to show up and tells him that “someone is here and they’re close”. Just the strategy you want to use when someone is close by and wants to kill you: Make a phone call, and talk.

1:08 am – Hasan meets with Mrs. President, who tells him that Fahrad has surrendered. She rehashes everything we already know about to fill a little time. She tells Hasan that she needs information on every asset (which is Government Talk for “spy”) that he has in the United States so Fahrad can identify them. She tells him that if a bomb goes off here, then, and I quote, “neener neener” she’ll bomb his fictional country. He agrees to give her the files.

1:10 am – While Tarin is being transported, his friend tells him “I’m just following orders”, which is the only cliché he could think of. Tarin finds the key that’s equipped in every back seat of generic four-wheeler vehicles. He picks the lock on his handcuffs and gets the driver to pull over right next to a bus stop. He gets them out of the car and they argue a bit about how bad its going to be for each of them. They handcuff themselves as Hasan calls one of Tarin’s escorts. Tarin wants to get them in the back in the car. Now, the best thing about this is that they’re doing this in the middle of downtown New York, so no one is the least bit suspicious of what they’re doing.

Hasan, unable to get them on the phone, realizes they might have a red map instead of a blue map, and tells an assistant to keep trying to get a hold of them, and to get CTU the files they requested.

After he gets the guys into the back of the van, Tarin calls Kayla, tells her that it worked, and he’ll meet her soon.

Commercial

1:17 am – Fahrad is on the phone with Hastings now, making yet MORE noise. Hastings urges him not to go anywhere, and in the grand tradition of “24″, he ignores this advice. Fahrad takes three steps, is awarded the lead medal for the Bungled Escape Attempts event, and falls down. The judges give him a score of 2.4.

At that moment, Jack arrives with his CTU team of SWAT guys. The SWAT guys immediately find Fahrad. Jack makes a call to CTU to get Fahrad some medical help.

Meanwhile the guy who shot Fahrad calls Samir, the lead bad guy right now, in Samir’s favorite restaurant, Denny’s. Samir is assured that Fahrad is no problem anymore, except for the police (CTU), who might save him.

1:19 am – Fahrad’s in deep trouble, but they’re going to try and stabilize him enough to get some information. After he’s given them the information, he can die and leave the show.

Some anonymous CTU SWAT guys search a warehouse for remaining bad guys or any spare fuel rods that might be laying around but don’t find any.

Fahrad is dying but agrees to look at some photos that Jack is getting from CTU. Fahrad’s condition worsens and Jack, not having any medical expertise, thinks that yelling will help. It doesn’t . In fact, all that happens is the medic that is working on Fahrad yells back at Jack… one of the few people that has done so and lived to tell the tale. At least so far. Jack lets the medic get on with his work.

1:20 am – Rob, who is at the UN with Mrs. President still, is completely freaking out about what happened with Hastings, but has time to give a Cisco-branded Telepresence conference, which is not a product endorsement at all, unless it is.

On the Cisco-branded Telepresence device, Mrs. President is briefed by someone about the potential bomb. He likes to give geometric hand gestures as he talks, first a circle to represent 300 pounds, and then a small square which represents a 1 mile area. He tells her that he has to use small geometric hand gestures because if they were actual size, he’d have to run a pretty long way, and they’re all in a hurry.

He also tells her that if the bomb goes off in a densely populated section of New York, rows and rows of people icons aren’t going to exist any more, so it’s a pretty serious situation. Besides that, people will die of radiation poisoning, the area will become uninhabitable for forty years, and other bad things. In other words, the east coast would get to experience the exact same thing as California, when Jack watched a nuclear explosion last season. Mrs. President looks like she can’t believe it actually might happen AGAIN on her watch, and is thinking of ways to explain how this is not her fault.

They say that a city wide evacuation is out of the question, since alerting people to the situation would cause a panic. It might also eliminate the possibility of getting rid of the production of “CATS” once and for all, which is something they hoped would be a nice side effect of the bomb going off.

They decide to keep this from the public because it would cause mass panic. So, instead, they decide to tell all the UN delegates so they can evacuate the building, and cause mass panic when everyone else in New York sees that the UN is being evacuated.

1:22 am – Hasan’s men find the van that Tamir escaped, and they’re baffled how it happened. The guy did hear Kayla talking to Tamir on the phone. Hasan commends him for having such excellent hearing, what with being able to hear all that while locked in a van and all.

1:23 am – Hasan calls Kayla, but since she has caller id, she doesn’t answer. Instead, she meets with Tamir in a hotel room. Tamir has contacted an American lawyer.

1:24 am – The medic tells Jack that Fahrad is dead. Jack decides to use Fahrad as bait. At first Hastings is hesitant, since fishing is frowned upon in New York, but then he realizes Jack wants to pretend Fahrad is alive to draw out the terrorists.

Commercial

1:29 am – Dana and Cole are still working on wrapping up Nick and Kevin’s bodies, sinking them to the bottom of the swamp. Cole seems amazingly adept at this, considering this is supposedly his first time doing it. Dana thinks this would be a great time to discuss their relationship, but Cole doesn’t want to talk about it.

1:30 am – On a fake news channel, Samir finds out that Fahrad is alive, even though we all know he really isn’t. The guy who shot Fahrad can’t believe it. He tells Samir he shot him TWICE. (To put that into prospective, this is equivalent to shooting Jack 437 times). Samir decides to send Marcos, since his mother is American and they’d never suspect him. Apparently Samir has heard somewhere that every background check includes a check on what nationality your mother is. He says that Marcos is in the van, right next to the nuclear rods, so they better get to him fast before he mutates or gets superpowers.

1:32 am – In the van, Marcos calls his mother, and tells her to leave to go to “Aunt Shelly’s”. His mother doesn’t want to go at first, but is finally convinced. Samir enters the van and tells Marcos that “it’s time”. Marcos says, “To dance?” Samir appears to imply it’s time to go.

1:34 am – Jack instructs some guys getting Fahrad into an ambulance to make him look like he’s alive. One guy wants to turn Fahrad into a marionette, but Jack says they don’t have enough string, so they’ll have to improvise.

Hastings calls Jack to let him know that they’ve set everything into motion. Jack thinks that the terrorists are going to try to ambush the convoy on the way to the hospital. Hastings has CTU units in beds on the route. Maybe embedded on the route. Maybe both.

Remember that new CTU SWAT guy, Owen, that Jack spotted a while ago? He’s back, and he’s still nervous. Not a good sign for Owen. Jack assures him that with a three or four year contract, there’s no way he’s going to die on the show any time soon, not realizing that not everyone on the show has the same contract he does.

Jack climbs into the ambulance, and we’ve got ourselves a convoy, minus CW McCall.

Commercial

1:39 am – Back at the UN, Rob tells Mrs. President that everything is set for the evacuation. She apologizes for making his job “challenging”, even though he’s been on the job since the beginning of the season.

Hasan arrives to tell Mrs. President that he’s not leaving with everyone else, because his daughter is missing, and so is his former head of security. This former head of security will have less security for his head if Hasan finds him.

1:40 am – The ambulance arrives at the hospital, pretty much to everyone’s surprise, since they expected an ambush. They’ve decided to move the ambush inside instead. Chloe uses some cool software to not find anyone they’re looking for, but it looks cool all the same.

Marcos drives up in a car and checks out the cool new vest that Samir gave him. Marcos looks perplexed as to why the vest has all those little blocks of clay on it, and all those wires. He decides to go into the hospital, since it has better lighting and he can get a good look at it there.

1:44 am – Renee calls Jack to see how he’s doing, and to rehash yet more of the plot, which they do for a short time. Jack tells her that he wants to be with her when they’re done, and tells her to meet him at his apartment.

1:45 am – Chloe’s software finally works! They found Marcos, and know where he is… he’s headed for – surprise! – Owen! Jack lets Owen know what’s going on, tells him that Chloe has mad leet skillz when it comes to remote disabling of explosive vests, and not to worry. Owen looks worried.

1:46 am – Marcos asks for Owen’s weapon, which he hands over. Marcos wants to go visit Fahrad, which must take a while because we’re going to commercial.

Commercial

1:51 am – Dahlia’s on a plane when she receives a phone call from Hasan, who lets her know that Kayla is missing. He tells her that Fahrad is dead, and that she needs to call Kayla to get her back and safe as soon as possible. Dahlia asks one of her assistants to go get the captain, who will likely tell her that despite all the movies she’s seen, he’s not going to be capable of landing a plane on a busy New York street, even if it is to pick up her daughter at some hotel.

1:52 am – Inside the hospital, and for the last six minutes, Owen is STILL escorting Marcos around. This must be one heck of a big hospital. It’s also possible that Owen is using one of his special detour techniques he learned while he was a cab driver. In any event, they’re headed to Fahrad’s room. Marcos looks completely inconspicuous, except for the really, really lumpy blue coat he’s wearing. Oh, and that detonator he’s holding in plain sight. They finally reach an elevator, and take it.

Meanwhile, Chloe, whiz that she is, has been able to identify the detonator, but without a REALLY good look at it, she’s not going to be able to disarm it. Jack tells Owen (through an earpiece that Owen is wearing) that he has to get Marcos under a surveillance camera so they can get a good look at it. In fact, if he could get him to hold the detonator right up to the camera, really close, that would be even better.

1:54 am – Owen stops Marcos in the hallway, and tells him that he doesn’t believe that he has a bomb. He finally reveals it, and Chloe gets a good look at it. She runs it through a database that matches by scrolling through pictures, which takes a lot more time than it should. She then tells ARLO (of all people) the frequency to send to the mobile communications unit to disable the bomb. He says it’s going to take a few seconds.

They reach the room, Marcos pushes Owen floor! Marcos hits the detonator button and….nothing. A couple more clicks. Nothing! Owen gets up but Marcos pushes him to the floor, pulls out a gun and shoots Fahrad! He pumps about six shots into Fahrad and yet, the heart monitor is still going! Marcos can NOT believe his luck! First, they give him a bad detonator, and THEN they send him in to kill someone that can’t be killed by bullets. Marcos is having a super bad day.

Jack bursts into the room, and Marcos shoots once more, misses and runs out of bullets. Jack puts his gun away and tells Marcos that all he wants to do is talk to him. Marcos decides it would be a good time for a gravity experiment and jumps out the window!

Even doing THAT the vest doesn’t go off. It doesn’t even kill Marcos. He’s going to have one embarrassing story to tell if he ever sees the rest of those terrorists. He gets up and runs away. Jack jumps down after him.

Marcos, realizing that he’s badly hurt and that he’s already at a hospital, goes back into the building. Marcos happens to find a decompression chamber to lock himself into, and Jack can’t break into it.

Marcos calls Samir and tells him that Fahrad is dead. Again. But not really again, because he was dead before. He also tells Samir that he “got away”, which is a new definition of the word that includes being trapped in a decompression chamber. Samir tells him that he can help Marcos set the bomb off manually. Jack tells Marcos he just wants to talk. Marcos REALLY doesn’t want to talk to Jack, and smashes the video screen and microphone on the inside. They lose contact.

2:00 am – TIME’S UP!

NEXT TIME ON “24″: MARCOS TRIES OUT SOME ELETRICAL ENGINEERING; MILTON FROM “THE OFFICE SPACE” LOOKS FOR KEVIN; JACK THREATENS A MOM; MARCOS’ BAD DAY CONTINUES.

SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!

Just finished watching the latest episode of LOST – “Lighthouse”, and I thought I’d jot down a few thoughts:

1) I really want to know whose name is written at 108 degrees.

2) Seems like every episode this season has had a mirror in it. Mirrors played a part twice in this episode: a) When Jack saw his scar in the mirror and b) When he saw his childhood home in the mirror in the lighthouse. I thought it was interesting that Jack couldn’t quite remember when he got the scar. Is that part of the disorientation (ala Desmond) when his mind traveled to that time period?

3) Claire’s “friend” being who it is makes me wonder if she sees him exactly the way we see him.

4) Interesting seeing Dogen cross paths with Jack at the conservatory. All this “they cross paths in the other timeline” stuff is starting to get a bit old though, and they need to start coming to the point of all that happening.

5) Anyone else think that Claire was going to take off Jin’s foot with that axe?

6) Where is Sawyer now that UnLocke showed up at Claire’s camp?

7) Those must have been magic smudges on Hurley’s forehead, because they kept changing, at least at the beginning of that scene.

8) Did you see who was listed at 20 degrees, and at 51 degrees?



What did you think of tonight’s show?

I’ve gone back and forth about how LOST is going to end, and what the whole meaning of the “sideways” timelines are, and how everything might resolve in those timelines.

I obviously don’t have the answer to exactly what will happen, and anyone outside of the actors and the people in the writer’s room don’t have the answers either. That being said, I want to float this idea out there:

The two timelines co-exist. The “sideways” timeline, is the result of what happened when the bomb exploded. Everything on the island went underwater. At the same time, and a few years later, the 815ers we’ve come to know are running around.

Remember how Ms. Hawking once said that time has a way of course correcting? We’re in the middle of the mother of all course corrections. Think about this: If people in one time line are dead, and alive in another… why not the island? In other words, it’s possible that since two islands couldn’t exist at the same time any more than two people could exist at the same time, one of the islands had to go. The island that we’re seeing with the 815ers will continue. In other words, it’s not going to sink any time soon just because the other one did.

This leads to an interesting (well, at least I think so) hypothesis: Since two people probably can’t exist in the world at the same time without the timeline course correcting itself, we’re going to see each of the people that haven’t died yet…well, die. That would likely mean that “bad luck” Hurley would die. Sawyer, who at this point appears to be the one that’s going to save the island from Smoke Monster Locke, will likely survive. Feral Claire will likely die too. It’s also possible that the people that died in the old timeline will be back, and will continue to live: Charlie, Shannon, Boone, etc.

At some point the people that survived will become aware of this whole situation, probably through memories in much the same way that Desmond became aware of two time periods.

I don’t have much more about this for right now, but I thought I’d float that out there. What do you think?

After Jack kills people with his feet, he likes to wash those feet off using leaky pipes; When Russians don’t like table settings, they’ll use a shotgun to rearrange things; Arlo is still a big, weasel; Josef left a necklace behind as his calling card to become known as the super villain “The Jeweler”; It should have occurred to someone to look for a eerily glowing truck, since it’s the one carrying the radioactive fuel rods.

The following takes place between 12 am and 1 am:

12:00 am – Josef arrives with the fuel rods. He doesn’t seem the least bit winded, despite what it must have taken to single-handedly get that thing in the back of the van. Meanwhile, Jack is with Bazhaev and coordinates a call to Josef through Chloe. Josef answers the call, expecting an apology about the pizza he ordered for delivery, but it’s just his father Sergei.

Jack, in an attempt to scare Josef into giving up the rods, announces that “Jack Bauer” is talking to him. Jack tells him that Sergei was able to negotiate an immunity idol away from Survivor, even though it’s on another network. Josef isn’t impressed by this at first, because he’s still pretty upset about Sergei shooting Olaf. Finally, after Sergei points out that people with real guns are going to start coming after him. Sergei also says it’s likely that the nuclear fuel rods are going to make Josef’s hair fall out. Josef finally asks how handing over the fuel rods would work and agrees to hand them over.

Unfortunately for Josef, Fahrad is on a nearby rooftop with a guy holding one of those laser pointers. The guy points the laser pointer at Josef, sets off a loud “bang” sound effect and Josef falls over dead from fright.

In his deft management style, Hastings wants Jack to bring back Josef to CTU, clearly not paying attention to the fact they have no idea where Josef is. Fahrad and his bad guys get to the van, not realizing that the phone Josef was using was still on. Jack over hears part of their plan, which is that they need to make a new plan. At this point, one of the bad guys who has had a very bad experience with overage charges, sees the cell phone and stamps on it. This doesn’t seem to faze any of the other people with him, since they’re used to his hatred of cell phones.

12:07 am – Chloe analyzes the voice they were able to record from the cell phone before it was smashed, and discovers it was indeed Fahrad.

Arlo comes over and tells Hastings that Rob from the White House is on the phone.

Chloe calls Jack to ask how long it’s going to take to get Bazhaev to them, and to ask how he is doing after getting zapped with a car battery jumper cable. Jack says he is O.K. because he already cheered himself up by killing a couple of the bad guys. He then asks to talk to Renee who offers to sew him up as soon as she sees him, since she WAS the one that knifed him. They make some idle conversation about how Renee has to stick to her story, and that everything will be all right.

12:08 am – Hastings is in his office, and man, he’s excited because he gets to take custody of a real live Russian mafia guy within the next 15 minutes. He takes Rob’s call, and Rob rehashes everything we’ve seen over the last 8 minutes.

Rob is worried that Hastings is going to fail, which while it would be bad for Hastings, Rob asks Hastings to see the big picture: It’s going to be REALLY bad for Rob if things fail. So, he hatches a plan: Blame Renee! He’s already set things into motion, and has even ordered some “Blame Renee” t-shirts and bumper stickers. Hastings doesn’t want to blame Renee for anything, even questioning the fact that Vlad was stabbed fifteen times, since technically it could be self-defense. If it had been 200 times, then maybe it could have been on purpose, but even then he isn’t sure. Rob is sending Kristin Smith to “handle” everything.

Commercial

12:14 am – Cole gets a phone call from Arlo, and asks about Dana. Arlo starts to explain that he suspects Dana is the last Cylon, but Cole just wants to know where she is. Arlo sends the coordinates of where Dana is to Cole’s phone, and Cole leaves to go after her.

12:16 am – Dana pulls up her car to a secluded area where Kevin has parked his van. It wouldn’t have been any kind of problem finding it, since the van is light blue with dents and large white pull tabs on top. Kevin and his buddy are in the van with a couple of girls. Dana is in her car with a gun, a silencer and a couple of bullets.

12:17 am – Hastings asks Arlo where Dana is. Arlo tries to deflect the question by asking “Why, do you need her for something?”, which is possibly the stupidest question of all time, considering what’s going on right now at CTU. An analyst tells Hastings that Kristin has already arrived, breaking the land speed record to get there, even by CTU standards.

Kristin has pretty much decided that Renee is already guilty, and has even brought a hangman’s noose with her. She also wants a video tape record of what happens in the room, but doesn’t want any close surveillance of what’s about to take place when she talk to Renee. Hastings doesn’t find this the least bit suspicious.

12:18 am – Renee is in the room, looking pretty concerned, and I have to say that it looks like someone else’s hands on her neck because it looks like she has giant man hands. In any event, Chloe comes into the room with something for Renee to sign. Hastings interrupts, and asks Chloe to leave while Kristin “talks” to Renee. Chloe protests, because she’s seen ‘24′ before, and knows what might be going on.

12:19 am – Fahrad and Samir drive to a staging area, and try to figure out a way to get the nuclear rods out of the country. They suspect that Fed-Ex or UPS might be the best way to do it, but they still have to figure out what kind of packing materials to use.

They get out of the van, and Samir introduces Fahrad to all the guys he’s recruited. Fahrad is a bit surprised to find out that Samir’s solution to get the rods out of the country is to blow them up. Samir explains that the best way to get America’s attention is to set a bomb off. Fahrad realizes how crazy this is, but goes along with it anyway, since that’s what you do when you’re alone and there are 15 guys with guns standing around waiting for you to agree with them.

Commercial

12:27 am – Kristin questions Renee about her relationship with Vlad, trying to play both good cop and bad cop at the same time. Renee looks suspicious of Kristin’s questioning, especially the part where she asks about Renee stabbing Vlad 15 times. Renee insists she acted in self-defense. Kristin keeps asking Renee to “do the right thing”. Renee doesn’t answer, because it’s more dramatic this way.

12:31 am – Jack arrives with Bazhaev. Chloe meets them, and tells Jack that Renee is being debriefed by Kristin. Skipping the opportunity for a stupid joke, Jack asks Chloe where this is taking place, because he realizes that they’re setting Renee up to take the fall for the failure of the mission. If the mission is a success, a lot of people will take credit. If it fails, Renee will be the one that is blamed. Jack explains this is the way things happen at companies all over the world, and it’s happening right now at CTU.

12:34 am – A guard tries to stop Jack from entering the debriefing room, which works for about one millisecond. In the next millisecond, Jack is able to disable to guard, use the guard’s own hand to unlock the security door, and knock him out to the floor. Jack enters the room and tells Renee not to say anything because she’s being set up. He even gets his hands around Kristin’s throat to “explain” things. They go to leave.

The door opens and the guard Jack attacked confronts them with a gun. Jack treats this with utter contempt, since it’s only one gun, and hand gun at that. As they move to leave, a cowardly guard zaps Jack with a taser from behind, knocking him down.

12:33 am – At Fahrad’s nuclear fuel rod party, they’ve finally figured out how to use the fork lift and now have the fuel rods several feet off the ground. Fahrad asks about how they’re going to blow this up. Samir says that getting explosives is easy, since they’re close to an Explosives-R-Us outlet, but getting a detonator is something they’re working on. Fahrad announces that he knows a professor with a degree in detonatorology, but he needs to talk to the professor in private. Nobody finds this the least bit suspicious. Samir tells him to go use a phone, and someone escorts Fahrad to the office.

On the way to make the phone call, Fahrad makes small talk with his escort: How’s the weather been? How are the kids? What is the intended target for the nuclear bomb? The guy won’t answer, so Fahrad grabs a handy wrench and hits the guy with it. There’s a brief struggle, and Fahrad takes off running. Everyone else realizes Fahrad is running, and they take off after him.

Commercial

12:39 am – Jack is escorted to Hastings’ office, and he interrogates Hastings briefly about the woman from the Justice Department coming in to frame Renee. Jack wants to call Mrs. President, but Hasting points out that she’s not very inclined to protect someone from murder charges, considering she sent her own daughter away for that. Hastings asks Jack to sit down, and Jack does, only because he chooses to do so, and it puts him into a good attack position, just in case something needs attacking.

12:40 am – Chloe enters Hastings office to let them both know that Fahrad is on the phone, and wants to talk. Good thing Fahrad has CTU on speed dial. Fahrad tells them that he needs help. Since he lost the fuel rods to some people that are even crazier than he is, who want to blow up something in New York, he wants help getting the heck out of there. Hastings assures him that they’ll get him out. Fahrad doesn’t realize the irony of this, since that’s pretty much what they told Josef about forty minutes ago, and that didn’t end up very well. Fahrad tells Hastings he’s near a boat warehouse. Hastings tells Chloe that someone named “Owen” has to get a team together and get Fahrad. From the way she reacts, Chloe doesn’t seem to have much faith in “Owen”.

Since Jack is done debriefing Hastings, and has the information he needs about the nuclear weapons, he leaves. Hastings says that Jack has to leave the building, which is all Jack wanted in the first place.

12:42 am – After all this time just sitting around in her car, Dana watches as the women that were with Kevin and Nick leave, and then makes her move towards the van. At that moment, Cole drives up, surprising Dana. She asks what he’s doing there and he says, “We’re in the middle of an operation, you can’t just leave your post”, not realizing he’s done the EXACT SAME THING. They argue briefly, and Cole insists that Dana explain what’s happening.

She tells him that she her real name is Birdy Goobleplop, but had it changed to Jenny Scott.

Commercial

12:49 am – Fahrad is still hiding, and Samir’s men are still hunting him. Back at CTU, Arlo explains to Hastings the layout of the area where they’re looking for Fahrad. It turns out that “Owen” is the same guy that Cole helped with the vest in the elevator. “Owen” looks about 12 years old. Hastings uses his vast experience with field ops to tell Owen that it’s a standard op. As Jack leaves, he points out that there’s nothing standard about it. Hastings, realizing that Jack is usually right about these things, asks him what he means. Jack points out that operations like this are a little trickier than usual, especially since there’s no “Jack Bauer” involved. Jack tells Hastings that he’ll bring in Fahrad in exchange for covering for Renee. Hastings insists that Jack stay on for the rest of the mission. Jack agrees.

12:54 am – Dana explains about the warehouse robbery. Cole realizes that Dana is there to kill Kevin, and doesn’t want to hear anything she has to say. He gets out of the car, and it appears he intends to give Kevin and Nick lead poisoning. After discussing the situation with Kevin and Nick, he gives them the option of leaving the show right now, or going to prison. Kevin agrees to leave. Cole slams the door shut.

Nick really doesn’t want to hear about this, and after a brief argument, stabs Kevin in the same place in the gut where Jack got stabbed. It turns out Kevin isn’t nearly as tough as Jack is, but is able to warn Dana before Nick shoots Cole. Cole shoots Nick, and Kevin dies in Dana’s arms.

1:00 am – TIME’S UP

NEXT TIME: Jack and Renee exchange love phone calls; Dana and Cole practice making mummies; Mrs. President finds out about the bomb; Fahrad is STILL on the phone with CTU.

SEE YOU NEXT WEEK

Interesting episode! We finally see the appearance of “The Numbers”: 4 – Locke, 8 – Reyes, 15 – Ford, 16 – Jarrah, 23 – Shepard, 42 – Kwon. If those are the “candidates” for Jacob’s replacement, as of right now we can cross off 4 and 16, since Locke is dead, and by all appearances, Sayid probably isn’t far behind. That leaves 8, 23, and 42. And, while Un-Locke says that he’s not sure if “42″ refers to Sun or Jin, I would guess it would be Jin, simply because all the rest of them are guys.

A new mystery – That blonde kid that kept popping up, said something like “You know the rules, you can’t kill him.” Sure seems like he was talking about Sawyer, and if that’s true, I’d say we have our Jacob replacement, if it finally comes to that. Sawyer alluded to that last episode when he told Kate that he guessed that some people were just meant to be alone.

So who was that kid? A mini Jacob? An older Aaron? No telling so far.

More characters reappeared with Locke – Helen, Rose, Ben, Hurley. I thought it was pretty funny that Randy (Locke’s boss) was a jerk in both timelines.
Ben, from the brief time we saw him, seemed pretty much the opposite of the way we’ve known him. This version of Ben seemed desperate to try and control things, but was frustrated that he couldn’t.

The biggest question now is, how does Un-Locke expect to get off the island, even with Sawyer’s help?

What did you think of the episode?

Edit: Forgot the very first thing I was going to post: Did you notice how Helen said something to Locke about having his father come to the wedding? Sure surprised me to hear that!