exciting episode
9.7
7:02 P.M.-7:08 P.M.: As the sun goes down, Jack and Mason continue to scope out the wildlife reserve, to no avail. Mason thinks they're wasting their time,
but Jack knows Alexis wouldn't have paid Alan Morgan to shut off the power if the area were clear. Mason receives a phone call, and hears that Alexis just
got out of surgery. He tells Jack they should be there when he wakes up, rather than on the hunt for a red herring. Jack says he wants to continue looking
until 7:20, at which point Mason can send a car to pick him up. Not wanting to argue, Mason leaves Jack there, gets in his car, and leaves the scene. Tony
helps a sobbing Teri and a wounded Dr. Parslow outside to his car. When Teri won't stop crying about Kimberly dying in the explosion, Tony says Kimberly
got out alive and called him. Rather than having the intended effect of making her happy, the news that her daughter isn't dead after all instead returns
Teri to her neurotic, terminally-irritated state. Tony puts Dr. Parslow in his car, and orders Teri, who's busy yammering on about something or other,
to get in there with him. He starts the car and proceeds to head back to CTU, while Teri tends to Dr. Parslow in the backseat. Tony calls Nina at CTU to
tell her that he found Teri at her house, killed a person who was sent to kill her, and is bringing along an injured friend of hers for the ride. Nina
asks him how far away he is. He says 20, 30 minutes. She then tells him to take Parslow to the clinic, where she'll have someone be waiting for him, but
recommends he bring Teri to CTU instead. This way, it'll be easier to have terrorists finish Parslow off easily, while keeping Teri alive. Tony okays that.
Krugman asks his fellow officers lock Rick, Kimberly and Melanie down in the police station. Kimberly begs for a phone call, because she needs to talk
to someone. Krugman brushes her off, and Melanie tells the cop not to listen to Kimberly, whom she lovingly calls a because she lies. Krugman tells
the children they'll get their phone calls after they're put through. Then he grabs Melanie's arm, and orders her to come with him. "You're mine," he says.
Melanie is probably lucky she's not in one of those women-in-prison exploitation movies, else that comment would be a good indication that this is the
part where Krugman takes her back to the showers and has a little handcuff-panky with her. Some other officers cuff Rick and Kimberly to the bench they've
been instructed to sit on. After the officers walk out of hearing range, Rick tips Kimberly off that they'll ask her about Frank and the deal. Since Kimberly
doesn't know anything about Frank and the deal (other than Frank is bad, and so went the deal), Rick advises her to tell them that. Why he advises her
to do this after Melanie already gave the coppers the helpful suggestion that she lies is unknown. Kimberly thinks she should tell them what she does know,
meaning everything that happened her today. She decides to do this simultaneously with her decision that she can't trust anybody, suggesting that she is
more mixed-up than a bag of trail mix. Rick asks her flat out if she trusts him. After scoffing at where her trust in him has gotten her, she says she
does, aware that he is trying to help her. Though he doesn't feel the safe house incident has any relevance to this, he promises he will back up whatever
she tells them. She warns him that he'll get in trouble. Perhaps remembering what Father Bauer told him earlier, he says then so be it. Melanie taken care
of, Krugman comes over. It's Kimberly's turn.
7:08 P.M.-7:13 P.M.: Palmer goes to visit Nicole, who's resting on her bed, to see how she's feeling. She tells him she's relieved actually, because keeping
this secret was harder than she thought. He breaks it to her gently that the worst is yet to come, but they'll get through it if they stick together. And
if ever there were a Palmer family credo, it's "Let's Stick Together." They share a hug, during which time Sherry walks into the room, looking quite the
Stepford Wife. Palmer asks Nicole if she could give him and her mother a few minutes alone. She gets up, gives Sherry a kiss, and walks out. Sherry apologizes
to Palmer for interrupting his "celebration." When he wonders why she didn't take part in it, she tells him she wasn't in the mood to celebrate his election
concession. He feels she's being hasty in her poll predictions. In disbelief, she asks if he really thinks the public wants a president who acts like a
guest on Ricki Lake and airs his dirty laundry on national television. Of course they don't, silly, that's why Bob Dole was president from 1996-2000. Since
honesty is the best policy in Palmer's mind, and Mike told him he still a shot, he really believes he does. Sherry reminds him that it's Mike's job is
kiss his ass. It's her job to nag him to death. Or something like that. After Palmer tears down Sherry's human qualifications, she snipes back how in 13
minutes, he tore down what it took them 25 years to build. We can assume she's not talking about a happy, healthy home there. Receiving nothing more than
the cold shoulder from him, Sherry stands up, heads into the bathroom, and tells him she hopes his conscience will be there for him when this is all over.
Palmer throws her off guard when he questions whether she means the campaign or the marriage. Why pick and choose? Jack scopes out the reserve with flashlight
in hand. He spots something in the distance, and goes over to investigate. What he manages to find are a danger sign and an inviting set of steps that
lead underground. Meanwhile, from a covert camouflage tent, Andre Drazen receives a phone call tip-off from a Harris of Alpha-One that Jack found the place
and went below. After confirming that it was definitely Jack, Andre wonders what he's doing here. Harris doesn't know -- at least not anything more than
the fact that Jack wasn't invited to the party. Jack descends the stairs, but further progress is impeded by a sealed-shut concrete door. Also, by the
strobe alarm that's set off. And the two armed men who shoot him with their tasers when the door opens. And by his loss of consciousness. Thankfully the
two men drag Jack's body inside the compound, so at least he's everywhere he wanted to be.
7:16 P.M.-7:22 P.M.: Jack wakes up in a prison cell, rolls out of a cot, and crawls over to the toilet to toss his cookies. After freshening up, his cell
door opens and another man walks in. Jack tries to explain who he is, but the man has already checked up on him. He tells Jack he knows who he is, returns
his gun and badge, and introduces himself as DeSalvo, Department of Defense. When Jack comments that wherever he is, it's obvious it was intended to be
kept secret, DeSalvo notes that he seems to have had no trouble finding it. He tells Jack they're in a Class Three Detention Center, and asks what he's
doing snooping around. Jack explains to him about the assassination attempt on Palmer. Not good enough for DeSalvo. So Jack elaborates how Alan Morgan
was bribed to shut off the power here at 7:20. By the look on DeSalvo's face at the mere mention of that time, Jack knows something's going to happen here
then. But since DeSalvo doesn't seem eager to tell him what, Jack takes on a threatening tone as he fills DeSalvo in on how many more people the Drazens
can kill unless they are stopped. DeSalvo says a prisoner is being flown in by chopper at that time. Who's being flown in, though, he has no idea, since
it's classified information even to him, and the prisoner is randomly moved every few weeks. He asks Jack what the Drazens want with the prisoner. Since
neither of them know who the prisoner is, Jack can only surmise that they want to kill him or set him free. Not like there's a third option. Whatever they're
going to do, that only leaves them a few minutes. Five according to Jack, but his watch must be slow. He tells DeSalvo to call for backup. DeSalvo thinks
Jack is mad; backup can't get there in five minutes. Jack says call anyway. You never know. People have been known to get from their house to work in just
three minutes. Jack's reasoning for this is that if he's wrong, he'll take the heat. And if he's right, DeSalvo will get to be the hero when everybody
in the building is saved. After a bit of pleading, DeSalvo throws in the towel, and makes the call. Jack thanks him, and asks how many personnel are on
staff. Three guards, a maintenance man, two technicians. If they could revolt at Attica, just think what they could do at this place. Subtly hinting that
DeSalvo might just be a wee bit understaffed, Jack ponders if they could recruit the janitor and the techies to blow the bad guys away. DeSalvo tells him,
no, they're not trained for that. If they need them to kick some Serb butt, it'll have to be with a johnny mop and a power cord. Jack tells DeSalvo to
have them stand by anyway. "To do what," DeSalvo asks. To, I don't know, maybe make the place look like a prison? DeSalvo heads off to tackle the request,
seemingly offended that Jack didn't find the lovely day spa he runs more menacing. Back to the Drazen's secret spy camouflage tent, Andre announces to
his accomplices that they've got three minutes. Harris, the man from Alpha-One who phoned earlier, worries how Andre still hasn't heard from Alexis, who
was supposed to verify his meeting with Morgan. Andre says if there was a problem, Alexis would have called. Unless he's dead. And then he probably wouldn't.
Andre notices how anxious Harris is, and wonders since when does a professional like him get anxious. Harris replies since first Plan A and now Plan B
(and he ain't just talkin' Plan A Recycled either) have both derailed -- that's when. While preparing his weapon, Andre tells him there's nothing wrong
with Plan B. If that were true, Harris says, Jack wouldn't be here. Andre blows his comment off, instructing him to get his men ready. It's time. A group
of camouflaged commandos stealthfully position themselves outside, while inside, Jack teaches his impromptu commandos how to handle a semi-automatic weapon.
No, no, not like a plunger, like a squeegee! DeSalvo checks to make sure all his men are good. They say they are. Jack gives the go-ahead for everybody
to head out. Harris and the rest of the team of camouflaged commandos parked outside on the ground ready their weapons, while Drazen breaks out his binoculars.
The helicopter arrives, right on time. Lights that adorn the prison compound's staircase are turned on. Jack orders DeSalvo to tell his men to stand in
front of the lights so they will be visible. Andre states that they've got 45 seconds. Harris counts how many men they're contending with. Eight, including
Jack. As Andre told him there would only be three guards, this does not compute. A panicked Harris realizes that there are additional men stationed because
they were expecting them. Andre tells him not to worry about it as they'll be disoriented when the power is shut off and the area is pitch black. Harris
has clearly thought things through more than Andre has, since he understands the power might not be shut off. The helicopter lands, and Jack barks the
order for the team he threw together to go. They race over, as Andre begins the countdown from 10 to 0. Nothing happens, obviously, when he gets to 0.
DeSalvo's men claim the prisoner -- whose face is obscured by a hood -- and lead him back to the compound. Andre wants to go in anyway, but clear-headed
Harris tells him not to, as there's more men than they anticipated and the lights are still on. Andre plans to ditch Harris and have the rest of the team
carry out his plan anyway, but Harris reminds him that the men are his, and they'll be obeying his orders, not crazy "Let's rush into brightly-lit detention
facilities with eight entire armed men" Harris. Andre has no choice but to comply. Harris orders the team to stand down, for the plans have changed. Jack
and DeSalvo's team safely bring the prisoner inside. The lights shut off. The helicopter departs.
7:27 P.M.-7:34 P.M.: Krugman is sitting at a table in a holding cell. Kimberly is escorted inside. He tells her to sit down. She tells him her father is
Jack Bauer, hoping to impress him by name dropping disliked agents no one has ever heard of. The name understandably not ringing a bell with Krugman, Kimberly
sits down at the table, and elaborates that he works for the Los Angeles Counter Terrorists Unit. So maybe you could, like, call, and find out that my
daddy is under investigation for trying to shoot the president, then let me go, OK? But Krugman hasn't heard of CTU, which is probably miles and miles
away from the nearest donut shop, and stops her from trying to write the number down. What he wants, he says, is information on Frank Allerd. More specifically,
information on Frank Allerd's plans to buy and distribute a thousand hits of ecstasy. She tells him she doesn't know Frank, having only met him for the
first time a couple hours ago. Melanie need not be present to say what Kimberly is doing right now in Krugman's mind. When both the truth and the name-dropping
fail, shoot for the history-dropping. And shoot Kimberly does, boasting about the assassination attempt on David Palmer. When she asks him how curious
he is that she knows about it, he tells her not very, what, since it's been splattered all over the news for the past 12 hours. Cut down a notch, an embarrassed
Kimberly said she didn't know, since she's been kidnapped all day by the same people who tried to off Palmer. Yeah, no, assassination attempts on potential
presidents are never considered newsworthy, Kimberly. They hide them from the public like Watergate and hope they won't leak. Perhaps Rick should have
advised Kimberly to tell the opposite of the truth, since the truth about what happened to her today is making her look like quite the little storyteller
to Krugman. After she gets done relishing her fantasies about assassination attempts and CTU poppas and safe houses galore, a smirking Krugman alerts her
to the fact that her friend already told him that she has an active imagination. Melanie isn't her friend, Kimberly corrects him, she holds a grudge because
she thinks she's after Rick. Boy, it's just one tall tale after another with this kid, isn't it? Krugman has decidedly had his fill of Willie Whopper,
stands up, and tells her he's sticking her back in the holding cell. Maybe she can impress her cellmate, Bertha, with who her daddy is. She picks up the
phone number she wrote down on a piece of number, and demands that he call it, tell whomever answers that he's got Jack Bauer's daughter, and see what
they have to say about that. Krugman takes the paper from her, and leads her out. Underground, Jack pulls DeSalvo aside, warning him that just because
Drazen and his people haven't attacked yet doesn't mean the night isn't young. DeSalvo begins to wonder, much like Krugman, if Jack isn't making all this
up. Jack begs DeSalvo to trust him that the Drazens are working on their contigency plan. He knows what they do. And it's what he believes in. DeSalvo
tells him he requested backup, and there's not much else he can do. Jack says he can do one thing -- he can let him talk to the prisoner. DeSalvo flatly
refuses, as he's under explicit orders and he can't even speak to the prisoner himself. Tensions escalate, Jack throws up his usual, "But Senator Palmer
will die!" plea, it fails, DeSalvo tells he's welcome to go over his head. Needing to process his new arrival, DeSalvo begins to leaves. Jack calls out
a request to use his phone.
7:34 P.M.-7:38 P.M.: Mike pays a visit to Palmer, who asks him if it's really as bad as Sherry figures. Mike turns on the news for Palmer so he can see
for himself that it's being reported that not only are the current polls holding steady, but in some states, they're actually increasing. An America's
Choice poll reveals that 60% of the people who voted don't care one way or the other how screwed up the entire Palmer clan is. Whereas 18% felt that it
made them less likely to want to vote for him. The report is a weight off Palmer's back, and makes a believer out of the usually incredulous Mike. One
of the aides walks in to tell Palmer that Jack Bauer is on the phone with something urgent. Palmer asks Jack about Alexis, and is told that he's just coming
out of surgery. But that's not why he called, of course; Jack needs him to go over DeSalvo's head. He gives Palmer everything he needs to know about the
place and about DeSalvo. Palmer says he'll do what he can. Jack was snopping around the compound's hallways during the course of the conversation, and
notices a set of wires running along the ceiling. He follows them, and winds up in an observation room filled with monitors. Jack pushes buttons until
he gets one of the monitors to show the cell they've taken the prisoner to. But the man's back is turned, and he won't turn around. Jack is caught red-handed
by DeSalvo, who blasts him at the top of his lungs. Yeah, whatever, replies Jack, who isn't about to let DeSalvo and his crackerjack team of custodial
supervisors stop him from viewing the monitors. The prisoner finally turns around, giving Jack a perfect view of his face. A perfect view of Jack's terrified
face is then given. It's impossible, he tells DeSalvo. The prisoner is Victor Drazen. Whom he killed two years ago.
7:43 P.M.-7:46 P.M.: DeSalvo wants some quid pro quo out of Jack if he's going to risk his job and possibly go to jail for him. With the provision that
this is classified information, Jack tells all about Operation Nightfall, explaining his connection to Victor Drazen in the process. Jack's statement that
he'll lose any leverage he has of keeping his family alive should Victor be broken out of jail prompts DeSalvo to say he'll make another call. This isn't
good enough or fast enough for Jack. He wants Victor moved, he wants Victor moved now, and he wants whoever's present to move him. Sensing Jack's total
gratitude, DeSalvo repeats that he'll make another call. Andre decides to forget about Alexis, planning to take matters into his own hands in regards to
cutting the power. When Harris questions why when Alexis hasn't contacted them, Andre tells him they should assume he's dead. Using a laptop with a map
of the detention compound, Andre comes up with Plan C -- he's found a substation that houses the electricity for the center, so let's blow this joint,
Mr. P! Harris sternly tells him that the idea was not to attract attention. Andre corrects him; the idea was to get his father out of prison. Nina is unnerved
to see Mason walking back into CTU without Jack. She asks him why he didn't return with him. All Mason can tell her is that Jack's a stubborn guy. He also
says that Alexis came to, but won't talk. So he cut off his morphine supply. That'll make him talk. Or cry. Nina realizes he still hasn't told Jack that
Teri and Kimberly are still missing, and angrily questions why not. Mason returns the note, proclaiming that last he checked he didn't have to explain
himself to his subordinates. He makes it perfectly clear that he won't be telling Jack until Palmer is safe and sound. Palmer, who by the way, will probably
be the next president.
7:46 P.M.-7:49 P.M.: There's a party at Palmer headquarters, and though everybody's invited, Palmer himself isn't actually taking part in it. Sherry goes
to see him in his room, hoping he'll come out and join the festivities. When she realizes something is wrong, she closes the door and asks him what it
is. After dancing around the subject a bit, he tells her that she's a confident enough woman to know what she wants... and he isn't confident enough that
she wants him. She dismisses his charge as nonsense. He says he doesn't think she could have done what she did -- lie to him for years and years -- without
pulling away emotionally. Now that she's lied to him, he can't trust her. And if he can't trust her, well, then he can't love her either. The remark brings
out a hatred and disdain that the audience hasn't seen in Sherry in, well, five minutes. She chides him that while he may no longer love her, he will never
leave her. She then demands he get out there and greet all his party guests that were nice enough to show up and fake enthusiasm and spend every day of
the past year of their lives to help put "us" in office. When he questions her use of pronoun, she tells him that's right -- when he's being sworn into
office, guess which woman is going to be standing right by his side. Sherry Palmer: wife, mother, stalker.
7:54 P.M.-7:55 P.M.: Krugman takes Kimberly through a worldwind tour of the group holding cells. First stop: the catcalls of a hundred sex-starved male
inmates hungry for some fine blonde tresses. Krugman drops her off in a cell filled with women who make Melanie look like Mother Teresa.
7:55 P.M.-8:00 P.M.: Jack and DeSalvo are comparing thinks, with Jack concluding that somebody somewhere at some point surmised that Victor Drazen was more
valuable alive than dead, yet wanted him and the rest of the people from his mission to believe he was dead. And since you can't technically have killed
someone who is alive, Operation Nightfall was designed not to work. DeSalvo receives a very brief phone call. Jack expectantly asks if they've got permission
to move Victor. DeSalvo tells him, no, that request is still being processed. What Jack got is permission to interrogate Victor. Until 8:00 anyway. With
DeSalvo monitoring his every move on the monitors, Jack enters Victor's cell and introduces himself to the elder Drazen. He then asks that Victor pardon
his surprise, since much like those climber kids who wrote that "Over the Edge" book, he saw him die. Jack acknowledges that no one could have survived
being blown up like that, then explains that intelligence told him and his men that the building was empty when Victor entered. Jack had no intention of
killing Victor's family, now he'd appreciate it if Victor would have no intention of killing his family. He begs Victor to uphold his wish, since he's
already lost his wife and his daughter, and would just end up losing his two sons as well. If he hasn't already lost one of them... The angry Victor states
that his sons are soldiers. Jack tells him they're not very good ones, since he killed their 7:20 rescue plan, and has called in backup to kill them should
they try again. He knows they will, so he orders Victor to call them off. After Victor rolls his eyes and chuckles, Jack bolts from his chair, and uses
the same tactful manner that got him so very much with Alberta Green, Ryan Chappelle, Frank Simes, Alan Hayes, Lauren Proctor, Sgt. Newmans, and Ted Cofell.
He screams like a maniac that Victor better call his sons off, or they'll die. Ah, no bees with honey for this guy. DeSalvo enters, and instead of throwing
Jack out the same way he was when he interrogated Penticoff like this, he merely announces that he's gotten the okay to move Victor. Jack exchanges somemoreless
