24- Season 7: 5 am – Cat Fight Club

We are fast approaching the end of the day, and Fox is promising that the conclusion of this season of 24 will hit us harder than a head butt from Keifer Sutherland. Based on last week’s previews, we were looking forward to a big confrontation between Jack and Tony. While the two friends-turned-foes did come face to face, the real showdown tonight was between Janice and Chloe. And, meow, did the claws come out.

We pick up with Tony preparing Jabron for his subway ride. Tony continues to remind him that if he does not cooperate then his brother will get it. Tony outfits him with an ear piece that gets such good reception that it even works in the subway. Not once does Jabron have to say “can you hear me now.” Meanwhile, I have to go into my kitchen to check my phone because I don’t get bars in my living room. I need to get on Tony’s team so I can get on that phone plan. I bet they even have unlimited texting. They sure seem to have unlimited resources, because when Jabron gets to the subway and attempts to tell the cops what’s going on, he finds out that even the transit cops work for Evil Almeida.

Back at Jabron’s apartment, the guard continues to suffer from the neck wound that Jabron’s brother gave him. Jack is not one to let a gift like this go to waste. He refuses the bad guy morphine until he tells him all he knows about Tony’s plan. Then he allows just enough morphine to get the pain out of the goon's voice, so he can call Tony without raising suspicion. They put Chloe on the case to trace Tony’s location, which naturally raises Janice’s hackles. The pissing match begins as the two ladies attempt to one up each other. This is on the level of a Tyson/Holyfield battle, except with biting remarks instead of the actual biting of ears.

Chloe wins round one when she is able to pinpoint Tony’s location, but Janice rallies back when she is able to retrieve the target information from Tony’s damaged PDA. Finally, Chloe delivers the knockout blow when Janice demands a “thank you” and Chloe refuses to give any sort of validation. The winner and still champion, Chloe O’Brien. (And let’s face it, no one likes Janice.)

Jack and Agent Lohan ram into Tony’s van and take him into custody. Jack punches Tony a few times in the face, but Tony doesn’t seem to mind. Jack uses Tony’s cool ear phone to speak with Jabron, who is being sized up by a suspicious white guy on the train. (Thank you for the racial profiling lesson, 24.) Jabron eventually finds the bowling ball bag that Tony’s girlfriend hid under the seats and rushes it out of the station and into the eagerly awaiting hands of Jack Bauer. He might as well be the one to take the bag, since he’s already infected. Jack hightails it into a Hazmat truck and gets the canister into a safe container before it blows. The last time Jack did something like this he had to cut off his partner Chase’s hand, when he was dealing with that virus a few seasons ago. So this must have seemed like a walk in the park to old Jackie Boy.

Meanwhile, Kim Bauer is at the airport, where her flight has been delayed for a little while. Not bad considering the entire airline industry was paralyzed by Dubaku’s mid-air collision early that day. You’d think things would still be a little more chaotic. Meanwhile around here, if it’s a little foggy they close down La Guardia, JFK and White Plains for a week. Kim notices a guy who is seemingly stalking her so she joins a friendly couple in the terminal in order to feel safe. Unfortunately, the stalker was really an agent keeping an eye on Kim for Jack and the nice couple is actually in league with Tony and his group. The agent ends up getting choked in a bathroom stall by the bad guy, kind of like that scene in like in Austin Powers. I kept hoping for the bad guy to ask “Who does Number Two work for?”

Back at the White House, Big Red scolds Sherry Palmer Jr. (Olivia) for leaving the White House premises, but she turns on that old charm and seemingly wins him back over. It turns out that Olivia’s assassin actually did kill Hodges, because Fabulous Martin vouched for her. So now she has to pay the assassin and cover up the whole thing.

But you can’t fool our boy Aaron that easily. Big Red smells a rat, so he calls the recently deposed Chief of Staff so that they can get a hold of the office recordings that he suspects will implicate Olivia. We even get a Mike Novick reference during his phone call. Woo hoo!! On a side note, if you happen to catch the movie Star Trek: Generations, look for a certain, strapping red headed helmsman on the deck of the Enterprise at the beginning of the film. Think about it, Aaron has shared a screen with Captain Kirk and Jack Bauer. That’s pretty bad-ass, if you ask me.

Back at the subway station, all is well. Jabron is reunited with his brother and it feels so good and Jack is comforted by Agent Lohan, who hugs him and tells him he can finally rest. You have to excuse Renee Walker, this is her first day on 24. She doesn’t yet fully realize that you can never rest on 24. When you rest, bad things happen, like getting kidnapped by the Chinese… or getting a video call that tells you that if you don’t free Tony, your daughter will die. And the latter happens to Jack tonight.

Next week, it’s the season finale and Kim’s in danger again, although there is not a bear trap nor a mountain lion for miles.

Will Tony escape? Will Olivia bring down her mother’s administration? Will Jack live? Will Keifer Sutherland stay out of jail long enough to film another season?

Expect some of the answers and probably a few more questions before it’s all over.

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