Cross and Chloe arrive to find that all of the members of Open Cell have been murdered, their bloody bodies strewn around the warehouse. That’s when Cheng Zhi reveals himself. Fans of “24” will remember him best as the man responsible for kidnapping and torturing Jack and Audrey and his plans this season are just as devastating. He shoots Adrian in the head and uses Chloe to activate the device. She watches in horror as he instructs a U.S. nuclear submarine to fire at and destroy a Chinese carrier, something China probably won’t be too happy about.
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.
The Cold War narrative returns this week as the renegade Cheng Zhi emerges again not so much as Diabolus ex Machina since the Russians also return. Apparently the Chinese connection linking Navarro, Kate Morgan and Mark Boudreau will be bridged by the Russians, whose own FSB tactical team emerges as the override device is revealed to be the nuclear version of a universal TV remote and is spirited off to Adrian Cross. Navarro gets tricked into revealing the location of the device without actual substantive torture, although Jack does break his hand. Chloe will see Cross die only after resolving some of her paranoia about the death of her child and husband. The subplot includes the revelation that the override device was actually Cross's hacker fantasy in making full transparency of all military secrets of any country universally available in order to promote disarmament / World Peace (sic). This never gets resolved although Chloe's cynicism provides the perspective that while States might disarm, there will always be rogues and asymmetric reasons that will compromise such efforts, after all in order to finance his efforts Cross had to build the device using Chinese money only to have it appropriated by Yates and al-Harazi for their drone hijacking. Accordingly, it seems that now Cheng Zhi, the MSS spook from Jack's attack on the PRC embassy in LA some several seasons ago, does not represent the interests of the MSS leaving the more Sinophobic elements of the audience to wonder why the PLA would allow anyone much less using a US attack sub to sink a PLA Navy ship. We revisit briefly the neocon desire to nuke Western Asia but the next episode will see whatever clarity can come from a major naval provocation as the Russians continue to want Jack Bauer's rendition. With only a couple of episodes left can any resolution occur with what seems to be the brink of WWIII. The hint seems to be a plot device similar to Fail-Safe's compensatory response and which was deployed in earlier seasons.
In the penultimate episode, Audrey pursues diplomatic channels to try to prevent a full-scale war. Meanwhile, Jack Bauer leads Kate Morgan and Mark Boudreau on a mission to locate their target before it’s too late and the world is changed forever.
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.
If one looks closely, it's clear that the platform and London Underground train at Liverpool Street Station are the same ones used earlier in Day 9: 1:00pm-2:00pm at both Waterloo Station and Charing Cross Station. All three scenes were filmed on the same disused Jubilee Line platform at the real-life Charing Cross.
Q: Heard about the new German-Chinese restaurant?
A: The food is great, but an hour later, you're hungry for power.