24: PTSD, Love and Spies

The final five hours of the season are now here, and things are starting to move somewhere, for once in this season. Which, it's kind of sad that it takes Cheng to speed the season up, but, I'll take what I can get. Here's what happened last night, play-by-play:

Act I.
Doyle and his men clean up all the C4 that Bauer implanted. Doyle talks to Audrey, asking if she knows anything about Cheng and his men. She just stares straight ahead and repeats, "Help me, Jack. Please don't let them do this to me!" The fact that she repeats that same line over and over, while looking blankly ahead, makes me think of Princess Leia's hologram message in Star Wars. Back at CTU, new honcha Nadia wants a perimeter sweep to find Cheng and his men. She also tells Morris that his request to be transferred out of CTU LA has been denied. Morris is mad, but Nadia will have none of it. (Her body language says "Bite me.") Doyle calls Nadia up, informing her of what happened last episode out in the field. Doyle laments that if he didn't interfere, the chip - and Bauer - would have been destroyed, and that he goofed it all up. Nadia says that he saved Jack, and that's what's important.

Lisa Miller arrives back home to find Mark Bishop, her [other] boyfriend. Lisa mentions that she has a half hour, and then blabs about her day at work. He tells her to "stop talking" as they go into the bedroom. Ew! Stop it, 24. I don't like this season of love. It's just creepy! In the White House, Acting President Daniels thanks Karen for firing Buchannan. "I appreciate your sacrifice." Lennox enters, telling him that there's a teleconference with Russian President Suvarov, and pronto! Apparently, the Russians already know about the chip, much to the surprise of Team Washington. Daniels points out that it was a Russian (Gredenko) that brought the chip - and the nukes - to American soil in the first place, but Russia pretty much threatens to attack the US base in Russia, which would, in affect, start World War III. (This teleconference brought to you by Cisco!) Meanwhile, Cheng tries to upload the chip to his techie, but the circuit board is damaged and they need someone "with expertise" to fix it.

Act II.
Um... Lisa and Mark Bishop are done... She goes to take a shower. Mark Bishop gets up and uploads all of Lisa's personal information onto his (cell phone?), all while in his boxers. (The cameraman, or woman, really liked that. Creepy season.) Basically, Lisa is being used by Bishop to help spy for the Russians, without her knowledge. At CTU, Chloe confronts Morris, where he tells her that it's "uncomfortable" working with her, which is the biggest understatement EVER. Morris is especially mad that she brought up the fact that he helped arm nukes for terrorists. Chloe is sad. Morris tells her that "It's over," which, they DIVORCED each other years ago, so, weren't they "over" in the first place? Chloe's still sad, and, according to Closed Captioning, she "sniffles," then "sobs quietly."

Karen talks to Nadia on the phone. Karen mentions that there's a mole either in LA or DC. Karen pretty much tells at Nadia to find Cheng, then Nadia yells at Karen that she shouldn't have fired Bill, and it's the most underplayed telephone cat fight ever. Karen basically tells Nadia to shut up, then hangs up. Milo then gets a 15-second cameo. A Dr. Bradley, from Division, comes in to talk to Audrey, who is now back at CTU and in the deadly medical wing. Audrey is still unresponsive and has sores all over her arm. Bauer wants to talk to her, but Doyle locks Jack up in a holding room. Bradley quickly diagnoses that Audrey has over 100 injection sites all over her body and is a level 3 catatonic, or something, and basically needs to be shocked out of her current state - with deadly drugs! Doyle and Nadia don't like it, but Bradley's from Division, so he outranks everyone, as Nadia acknowledges. Doyle is mad, saying that she should have stood up to him. "It's what Buchannan would've done." Nadia gets mad. Somewhere, some 24 fan is coming out with "WWBD: What would Buchannan do?" bracelets.

Act III.
Lisa gets a call from Daniels, telling her to come back to the White House, now. After she leaves, Bishop calls his handler, asking for his "next move." Lennox then informs Daniels that the source of the leak is from a lobbyist named Mark Bishop, who has apparent ties to Russian intelligence. And talks very frequently to Lisa Miller. Lennox pretty much has to spell it out for Daniels that Bishop and Lisa are sleeping together. This unsettles Daniels, who confesses to Lennox that he's been sleeping with Lisa as well. Lennox has this terrific look of absolute horror on his face for the next 3 minutes. Daniels says that after his wife, Nancy, died, he turned to Lisa for comfort and... yeah. Lennox quickly strategizes that they can use this dirty love triangle to their advantage.

Back at CTU, Doyle avoids filling out paperwork and field reports by going in to Jack's holding room and uncuffing him. He fills Jack in on the doings of the evil. Dr. Bradley. Doyle wants Jack to stop him, by any means necessary. So Jack fakes an attack on Doyle, steals his keycard, attacks people in front of Audrey, a PSTD victim, and kidnaps her out of CTU medical. Yeah, that'll help. Bradley and Nadia institute a lock down. Milo, getting his second cameo, asserts that if Jack were allowed to talk to Audrey in the first place, none of this would have happened. Nadia? Still mad at all her co-workers.

Act IV.
Morris has found Jack via CTU's security cameras. Nadia notices that Chloe is MIA. Nobody else cares. (Ha!) Nadia also figures out that Doyle conspired to help Jack break Audrey out of CTU medical. When asked why, Doyle pretty much says "because I'm difficult." Man, they are all such kids! Jack and Audrey hide in a room, which Jack locks and jams. Jack then comforts Audrey, telling her that she's safe. He then gives Audrey her bio and life history, to help her remember herself. Kim Raver does this absolutely awesome thing with her eyes darting around and trying to make contact with Jack, and it's also kind of sad, because this is by far the best acting I've seen from her. Meanwhile, Nadia and her men try to enter, using power tools. Jack asks Audrey about Cheng, but she's unresponsive. Jack tells Audrey that he loves her. They hug. She holds his hand. Aw!

Nadia's men break into the room. Doyle points his gun at Jack, Jack points his gun at Doyle and I think this is at least the third standoff between these two men in the past three episodes. Audrey utters "Bloomfield," which just could be Audrey trying to remember "Bloomingdale's," which means she just really wants to go shopping. Dr. Bradley says that Audrey is a raving lunatic and that "Bloomfield" could mean nothing. Nadia, estatic to finally have a lead, gets the courage to tell Dr. Bradley off. She promises Jack that Bradley won't touch Audrey again and has him put back in custody.

Act V.
The Russian army is apparently moving into striking distance of the US base. Lisa Miller comes face to face with Daniels, where they re-hash this hour's developments. Daniels plays a recent tape of Bishop talking to his handler, asking what his "next move" is. Daniels does this very intimidating circle-walk around Lisa, saying that he always knew she was a liar, he just didn't think she'd lie to him. Daniels says that lying to him is pretty much treason, which he's not okay with now, despite what happened a few hours ago. Daniels commands Lisa to make Bishop believe that they got the component. Lisa's sad. Daniels feels better.

Back at CTU, former Secretary of Defense James Heller just happened to be within an hour's drive of CTU and is talking to her in the medical ward. He then tells Nadia he wants to speak to Bauer. Doyle then trots up and tells Nadia that "Bloomfield" may be the location of Cheng's base of operations. Nadia is very happy, but tells Doyle that he was right. Doyle says that Nadia was good, too. Their eyes lock for a second. Uh-oh... (Ew!)

Bauer comes face-to-face with Heller for the first time in years, last hearing that he survived a fall from a cliff. (Don't ask.) Heller tells Jack that he's not allowed near Audrey ever, ever again, that what happened to her is a result of her loyalty to him. He says "stay away" about a hundred times. He tells Jack that he is "cursed," that everything he touches, one way or another, winds up dead. Jack is very sad.

Next week: Bauer wants to "clean his mess up." Lisa plays Sydney Bristow, but without the wigs. Marylin Bauer returns for some odd reason at 2 in the morning, and something happens, involving an attack by Cheng's thugs. But considering they showed flashes last week of armored men at CTU and Nadia surrendering, I'm pretty certain it's an attack at CTU. And the reason why? Well, from what I've heard, it's not just to repair the chip. And what happens as a result of this raid will help set up the final hours. Excited yet? Good. Because the anticipation is soo much better than what will happen.