From all the dead bodies inside Wikileaks HQ, it should be clear that CHENG! is evil. So, by rights, Chloe should be next to be sent to the giant appalled hairdresser in the sky. However, in a rare act of non-murder, CHENG! decides that he'll simply kidnap Chloe instead. Why? Is it because he once shared a romantic cider and black with a Brighton goth who looked a bit like her? Nope, it's because, according to him, "What's in her head is extremely valuable." That's as opposed to what's on her head, obviously, because that basically just amounts to six cubic inches of Camden market eyeshadow and a baffled frown. With Chloe safely bundled into a lorry, CHENG! calls The Russian Minister For Having a Moustache That Looks Like a Walrus Vagina. And guess what? CHENG! and the Russians were working together all along. As a reward for all his unreconstructed evil, Walrus Vagina tells CHENG! that he'll be whisked out of the country from Southampton in less than an hour. According to Google Maps, Southampton is one hour and 51 minutes away from central London, but let's not worry about logistics. There's a war on, after all. However, CHENG! makes one mistake – he fills his escape lorry with bits of pipe. Chloe grabs one, smacks everyone around the head and leaps out into a forest. It's a perfect, well-executed plan. That is, unless the forest's got a mountain lion in it, in which case sheesh.
As always, 24 has been about cyber-security, the surveillance state, and the contrast with a world of mistrust and extreme reciprocity that is both terror and counter-terror resulting ultimately in life and death international decision making. This week's episode as always, makes some of the narrative elements clearer and muddies others, still building on the problems of US policy operating in other countries, allies or not.
Much of the episode is tying up loose ends in car conversations, as Jack tries to provide proof to the PRC that the evil Cheng is in fact alive when he was thought to have been killed in China three years earlier. A ruse to get more information from the Russian minister fails as shards of glass prove to be fatal when jammed in the neck. Boudreau seems to be rehabilitated from being a traitor, but the real issues come from a liaison between Audrey Heller and a PRC friend whereupon the entire group except Audrey get capped beneath a lamp in a park - not exactly good security planning to avoid sniping but that's where we're left before the finale - the PRC still unconvinced that their aircraft carrier was sunk by its own rogue agent and poised to bomb US bases in Okinawa. Fortunately Chloe awakens but it's unclear whether she'll figure in the finale as Jack will probably save Audrey from Cheng's clutches - the WWIII brink is coming.
In the highly anticipated season finale, the clock ticks toward the final seconds of Jack Bauer's most heroic day. As the world teeters on a terror plot of mass proportions, Jack and the team reunite one last time to avert an imminent international crisis. With little time left and the fate of the free world on the line, Jack is faced with an unthinkable and grave decision. Lives will be lost and the American administration will grapple with the day's most devastating news as the clock stops.
24 Executive Producers Manny Coto and Evan Katz did an AMA (“ask me anything”) on Reddit and have answered dozens of fan questions. We’ve compiled all 68 question and answers below, categorized them, cleaned up the formatting and fixed some typos, so hopefully it should be a lot easier to read. The questions range from serious to very funny and many of them aren’t the type of questions that other publications ask. Definitely worth a read.
Why are the countdowns so LOUD?
Evan Katz: My mother watches the show and we make the countdowns loud to keep her awake.