24- Season 7: 3 am – Visting Hours Are Over

3 am

Not much happened tonight on 24, and yet there seems to be a lot to write about.

Tonight we meet the mysterious group that Tony is working for. Alan Wilson is the only one of the players that we actually get to know at all. He’s the guy that’s been calling the shots with Cara Bowden, the woman who slipped Hodges the suicide pill. We learn that this group is made up of a people from different independent military companies like Starkwood, who want to shock the country into shape, opening the door for them to seize more power. Or something like that.
Bottom line is that they are powerful, ruthless and computer savvy.

Alan Wilson is played by Will Patton, who is one of those guys that you will recognize from a million movies. He’s been in a ton of stuff like Armageddon and Copy Cat. You might remember him in the movie Silkwood, which is ironic since that movie also dealt with a person who was contaminated by a deadly substance. He was also in The Postman, with Kevin Costner, which is a movie that is so bad that you will be begging for a deadly pathogen to put you out of your misery by the end of it.

Anyway, the deadly substance in the canister has been successfully smuggled out of Starkwood by Galvez, with help from Evil Almeida. Tony leaves the helpless Jack on the ground and then shoots his way outside the FBI’s perimeter. He meets up with Galvez, who demands to be paid for the canister. After Tony pays him, Galvez turns on Tony but he’s no match for Evil Almeida. Even with a self-inflicted bullet wound, Tony still manages to wrestle and kill Galvez with a shower curtain. But Tony misses a great one-liner opportunity in the bathroom. I would have said, “It's curtains for you, Galvez.”

It occurred to me that Tony has become the evil version of Jack Bauer, kind of like Venom to Spiderman or even Jeannie's brown haired, evil twin sister on I Dream of Jeannie.

Cara Bowden, Hodges fake lawyer, shows up at Tony’s room to take the canister back to the group. But Evil Almeida proposes that they strike today with the canister instead of taking the pathogen back for reproduction and an attack at a later date. Cara has Wilson run the idea by the group in their funky, evil chat room; “Can’t-See-Your-FaceBook”. They vote in favor of Tony’s plan, so in a way, Tony has taken control of the mysterious group.

Meanwhile, Jack has pretty much taken control of the U.S. Government. First Stuttering Jack tells Agent Lohan about Tony. Then he gets his shots to overcome his weakness… kind of like Roger Clemens, except Jack Bauer didn’t lie to Congress. (Allegedly. Wink.) After he’s back on his feet he convinces Madam President to fire up the old CTU servers so they can track some recent terrorist activity. You know what that means… Chloe is finally called back into duty. We find her asleep in a hotel room with her son Prescott and Morris. So much has happened in the past few episodes that when Jack tells Chloe about Bill Buchanan’s death, it strikes a chord with us because we had almost forgotten about it in all the commotion.

Jack also pays a visit to Hodges, who is being held in secret at the FBI. Like Tony and his gunshot wound, Jack and Hodges both seem to be doing fine despite their recent lethal infection and heart attack. Jack realizes that the only way to get Hodges to talk is for them to fake his death and offer him witness protection so his family will be safe. Jack finally gets Hodges to spill the beans and they learn about the mysterious group and their plans, even though we don’t get any names. Jack deduces that they must be planning to attack today, because he and Tony think alike.

So Chloe ends up back at FBI headquarters, where she once again gets to face off against Janice Garafalo, who is not happy about the possible illegal methods they are resorting to in order to address this new threat. That is until Jack deals with her, not with torture, but with a can of verbal whoop ass. Unfortunately, Jack cites President David Palmer instead of Madam President, which tips off Chloe that all is not well with Jack.

Meanwhile, First Daughter Olivia is not happy with the deal that they give Hodges, since he was the person responsible for her brother’s death. So first she half-kiddingly asks “Big Red” to kill Hodges, but naturally, Aaron wouldn’t do that. So then she calls some dude named Martin, who happens to be in bed with some other dude. Martin seems to be some kind of gay assassin. Not a person who kills homosexuals, but a homosexual who kills people. Regardless, Olivia thinks he is fabulous and arranges to meet with him in 15 minutes… or just after the first commercial break next week.

Meanwhile, Evil Almeida and his team move in on an Arab fellow who will be used as the fall guy in the next big attack. By framing the foreigner, the mysterious group will rise to power by appearing to be the heroes. It’s similar to Syndrome’s plan in The Incredibles, if you think about it.

So next week we head into the home stretch of this season of 24. Only four more hours left. Can you believe it?

Questions? Comments? Feedback? Drop me a line at jack@backinjack.com or post a comment below.