24 Live Another Day: Ep 10. – 8 pm to 9 pm

Damn the Torpedoes

They didn't "train" me for this.

They may have trimmed down 24 to 12 episodes this year, but I think they packed about four shows worth into tonight’s installment. Holy cow, a lot happened. Let’s get started.

We start with Jack informing Sexy Agent Morgan about Navarro’s treachery. Meanwhile, Navarro is on the Dr. Claw phone, arranging a rendezvous with Adrian Cross at Liverpool Street station so he can trade the Override Device for assistance with his escape from London. Chloe quickly finds out that Cross is planning to get the device back so he can hatch a zany plot to hack into several countries military defenses and somehow make war obsolete. (Huh?)

Jack picks up Navarro’s trail and they exchange gunfire in the streets. Navarro, that heartless bastard, shoots some kegs of beer that Jack hides behind and before you know it, the streets are running gold with spilled lager. In a day filled with drone strikes and shootouts, this may be the worst casualty of them all. What a waste.

Cross gets Navarro to drop the device through a chute and takes possession of it. But then Cross double-crosses Navarro, and crosses the station towards the trains, while Jack closes in on Navarro. The double-cross makes Navarro very cross, but then when he tries to cross the street to escape, he is almost struck by a car and then is captured. He should have used the crosswalk. Thus Navarro learns that he should never cross wits with Jack Bauer. I guess that’s his cross to bear.

Did I get my point across in that last paragraph?

Don't hurt him, Jack.

So they take Navarro back to the CIA where they can get his shirt off and prepare him for integration… or possibly a Chippendale’s show.  Sexy Agent Morgan realizes that Navarro had actually framed her husband, who was sent to prison for life for selling secrets to the Chinese. He later took his own life, so you can imagine Kate’s a little pissed off at him. Ritter, who’s now in charge, has to have her separated from Navarro so she won't hurt him. But he will let Jack get near him in order to interrogate him. It’s funny, the Special Activities division clearly uses torture and other extreme measures to get information out of people, but instead of sending him down there they let Jack have at him, as long as he promises not to hurt Navarro. That’s like asking your dog not to eat a hamburger that you left on the floor while you run out to do some errands. 

Jack is not in there for five minutes before he has resorted to bashing Navarro’s hand to get him to talk. He obviously learned his interrogation technique from Batman in The Dark Knight, who tried a similar thing with the Joker. (See below.) But Navarro insists that he’ll only help them find Cross if he gets full immunity.

Stick 'em up, Navarro.

Heller and Boudreau start to have the paperwork drawn up, but the Sexy Agent Morgan storms into Navarro’s holding cell, overpowers the guards and threatens to shoot him in the head. Jack rushes in and tries to talk her down but she wants blood. In a panic, Navarro reveals the code to a tracking device he happened to attach to the device… but the jokes on him, because Jack and Kate planned this little stunt and tricked him into talking. So no immunity for Navarro and now they can track Cross.

Meanwhile, Chloe tries to steal the device from Cross but he catches her and they head for the Geek Squad headquarters, where the nerds are preparing some computer stuff for the device.

Back at the residence, Boudreau speaks to the shady Russian guy and gives him a way to locate Jack via his comm link. This way they can capture Jack and no one will ever know about his forgery. Boudreau is very down on Jack right now anyway and even calls out Audrey for her unresolved feelings for him. But can you blame her? A woman resisting Jack Bauer’s charm is like a dog resisting the urge to eat a hamburger that you left unguarded on the floor.  

CHAAAAANG!

So Cross and Chloe arrive at the Geek Squad hideout, but all the geeks are dead. It’s like Regula One, the space station in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, where Kirk and McCoy find most of the crew slaughtered by Khan, who is relentlessly pursuing the Genesis Device. But in this case, instead of finding Khan, Cross and Chloe are captured by CHANG.

Who the hell is Chang, you ask? His full name is PF Chang. He’s a Chinese operative. Years ago he captured and tortured Jack and then Audrey. He later went on to open a successful chain of Chinese restaurants with tasty food at a decent price and a fun atmosphere. But now he is relentlessly pursuing the Override Device.

He takes the device from Cross and tells them that he needs them to unlock it for him. Chloe refuses until Chang shoots Cross in the leg. Chloe agrees to decode it but attempts infect the device with a virus by clicking a link in a questionable email that she received about male enhancement. But Chang has read her playbook and has one of his guys watching her on a mirrored computer. So once she has unlocked the device, he pulls her off the laptop.

Cross, who knows his time is up, confesses to Chloe that Morris and Prescott where actually killed in an accident and that he lied to her in order to get her to help him. So she has been goth all this time under false pretenses. But she does not have much time to be mad at him because Chang shoots him in the head. So cross him off the list.

Meanwhile, Jack and Sexy Agent Morgan drive towards Chloe’s location while they trade stories of lost love, pain, death, revenge and perseverance. But their chat is interrupted when a truck full of angry Russians rams into them. Yet another shoot out breaks out and the Russians don’t stand a chance against Jack and Jill.

Back at the Geek Squad, Chang uses the device to hack into the USS Massachusetts, a nuclear submarine that loves the Sox and the Pats and is a lousy driver. (Note: In Mass they call it a sub, but in other parts of the country they call it a hero or a hoagie.)

Having seen Crimson Tide, Chang knows how to fake a launch code and he tricks the sub into shooting some torpedoes at a nearby Chinese carrier.

G-4! Hit! You sank my battleship! (Or carrier, in this case.) BOOM!

Has Chang just started World War Three?

What will go first? Heller’s mind or the western hemisphere?

Will Jack end up in the Jack Sack with Audrey before the day is done?

Will the dog eat the hamburger?

Tune in next week to find out.

 We close with yet another round of FIND GOTH CHLOE. Can you find our favorite blacked-eyed  computer hacker? 

Find Goth Chloe

Thoughts, comments, feedback? Leave a comment below. Or hit me up on Twitter at @backinjack. 


NEXT DAY NOTE: I just checked and Chang is actually spelled Cheng. Oh well. I write this thing in the middle of the night after the show. Who's got time for fact checking?