4.23: 5:00am - 6:00am - Blast From The Past

4.23: 5:00am - 6:00am
~ Blast From The Past ~ 
2005.04.23

5:00

Buchanan is on the COM with Jack asking if they have apprehended the woman yet. Jack says she’s hiding somewhere, she has killed Castle and taken Almeida as a hostage, the perimeter has to be air tight. There are 600 rooms at the apartments and they have to search them room by room. They are low on manpower but this is their best shot. DOD has Buchanan running the search for the missile so Michelle will send Curtis to the hotel and get another tactical team to the location. Jack needs LAPD in there now.

Audrey is on the phone with Logan, Mike and Palmer. She is completing the second satellite pass over the country looking for the missile. Mike asks what the chances are that they are going to find it. The chances are not good since it’s a stealth class missile. Mike is aware of this and Audrey says that the closer the missile gets to the ground the harder it will be to pick up. The second pass will be finished in less that 20 minutes.

Michelle is directing traffic at CTU for the apartments. She wants every agent there right now, she doesn’t care if they’re cleared for field work or not, they can bump their clearance up on a provisional basis. Buchanan is off the phone with LAPD, they are sending 9 right now. Michelle jumps on him that this is not enough people, this woman needs to be captured now. Buchanan is aware of what’s at stake here, they have to remain calm or else this will spiral out of control. Michelle calms down agreeing that she’s losing sight of the big picture here, they have to apprehend Mandy alive.

Mandy is surfing the Internet for information on Tony. She’s reading an article on him and Michelle with images of Tony being led out of a building in cuffs and Michelle at CTU. Meanwhile, the real Tony is on his knees handcuffed and gagged with no shirt on in the middle of her apartment. There is blood on the white gag in his mouth and he watches Mandy as she answers her cell phone asking, “What is it Marwan?” Marwan is riding in the back of a van and getting patched up from his gunshot wound in his left shoulder. Mandy has had a problem in the apartment and she has to deal with it. Marwan is leaving in 1 hour and he’s not waiting for her. Mandy will be there. She hangs up and looks at Tony. She cocks her gun and looks out the window. She thinks out loud that there isn’t much time and they are close to finding them, that would be very bad for both of them. She walks to Tony and announces to him, ‘Two years ago you put Michelle Dessler’s life ahead of national security by allowing a terrorist to escape, you committed treason. The question is, is she going to do the same thing for you.’ Tony’s eyes flicker as he looks doubtful at the prospect.

Audrey is on the phone to Mike Novik. She has been unable to detect the missile, there is too much radiant heat. Palmer speaks up wanting to know if another pass will find the missile. Audrey admits that she can do a more intensive pass but it will take 2 to 3 hours. Palmer finishes that the missile is expected to hit before then. He assigns her to compile a disaster scenario for all major urban centres in range. Audrey seems overwhelmed saying that that’s 20 of the largest cities in the country. Palmer wants the whole bag, death rates, emergency plans and fallout predictions for all of them.

Michelle wants Edgar to assign new teams sections with no overlap. The protocol is to maximize for capture. Edgar asks if she wants to revaluate that since she has Tony hostage. Michelle, her voice cracking a touch, says that there is one objective, to take her alive, does he understand? Edgar does, he is to alert the new teams arriving.

Michelle’s phone rings in her office. She picks it up and Mandy tells her to get somewhere private so they can talk. Michelle asks who it is and Mandy is sending her the answer. She stands in front of Tony and takes a picture with her phone. Michelle’s phone beeps and she pulls it away from her ear to look at the image. When she sees the picture she gasps and sinks onto her couch. She starts to tap on her computer as Mandy adds that Michelle knows who this is and she shouldn’t bother to triangulate the call, she’s on a scrambled phone. Michelle doesn’t want Mandy to hurt Tony, he’s safe for now but he won’t be unless she does everything Mandy wants. Michelle understands so Mandy continues she needs help from her. Michelle asks what kind if help, Mandy can hear Michelle is hesitating and calls her on it. Michelle asks what she wants her to do. There are agents between her and her exit, she needs to know how many there are and what their search pattern is. Michelle will have to check but Mandy doesn’t believe her. Michelle admits there are 30 people there and more on the way. Mandy wants the north-east driveway cleared. Michelle doesn’t think she can do it but Mandy tells her to have it done by the time she calls back or Tony dies. Michelle asks when that will be, Mandy says soon so get moving. Mandy hangs up on Michelle and turns to Tony. She muses, ‘Well, she still loves you, the question is, how much?’

Michelle thinks in her office and then calls Edgar wanting him to send the deployment groups to her screen. Edgar is updating and asks if she wants to wait. Michelle says to send it and asks if LAPD is there yet. Edgar answers some are there now and some will be there in about 15 minutes. Does she want it uploaded to her when it comes in? Michelle just stares at her screen until Edgar calls to her again. She says absently to do that.

5:10

5:14

Michelle is contemplating in her office and hears Buchanan outside, coming her way talking on the phone about the nuke. She moves away from her computer as he comes in saying into the phone that the number of deaths is going to be high. He hangs up and asks Michelle where they are on the search. Michelle has nothing, the LAPD is on the way. Buchanan turns to leave saying he will be at COM. Michelle struggles internally for a second and then blurts out, ‘I can’t do this.’ Buchanan comes back and asks what it is she can’t do. She says slowly, ‘I can’t sacrifice the lives of all those people if the warhead goes off.’ Buchanan is really confused and Michelle continues, ‘she’ called. Buchanan asks who called, Michelle explains the hostile who has Tony. Buchanan asks when and what she said. Michelle fills him in that she was supposed to reposition the men, she says grimly, or Tony dies. Emotions welling she looks down at the floor. Buchanan passes her and she closes her eyes for a second. Buchanan wants to be patched through to Jack’s COM. Jack is deploying men when Buchanan comes on and tells him what he knows. It confirms that she is holding Tony hostage and she wants to use him as leverage against Michelle to get out. Jack asks if Michelle is there and she says she is. Jack wants to know which way she is going, Michelle says the north-east driveway. She was supposed to call to confirm the men have been moved. Jack wants Michelle to make Mandy believe that she is still cooperating and Jack promises to do everything he can for Tony. Jack is ready to pull the teams from the driveway and Buchanan thinks that she might use that as a decoy and take another route. That’s all they’ve got and as soon as she is 50 yards out where she can’t re-enter the hotel they will send the teams to converge.

Buchanan returns to Michelle who sadly admits to him that she was going to do what she wanted. Buchanan cuts her off with her name but she goes on, all she could think of at first was saving Tony’s life. She sniffles and he grabs on to her arm comforting her, its done. He leaves her in her office.

The teams are searching the complex as Jack watches. He speaks into his COM unit for all designated teams prepare to move to their secondary positions on his command. Curtis comes up behind Jack and Jack wants him to tell LAPD to arrest anyone that is giving their search teams a problem. Curtis thinks Jack should pull more men off of the search but Jack thinks the hostile is smart, they have to follow procedure as if they have no idea she has been in contact. Jack wants Curtis back with him once he’s finished with LAPD. They are still waiting for new communication from the hostile and Jack says that the forensics team tried to pull her prints but there is no match. They also have no match on her voice print. Jack observes that she has to make a mistake somewhere, otherwise they’re going to be in trouble. Jack gives the green light for all north-east driveway teams to move to their secondary positions, they are a go.

Mandy watches out the window while Tony waits. She sees the movement and then walks over to Tony casually. When she gets to him she pulls a tazer into view and shocks Tony with it. He falls backwards unconscious and knocking over a lamp and breaking the bulb. She keels next to him and pulls up an eyelid to have a look. Mandy gets up and takes her gun out of its holster stashing it in the back of her skirt. She walks over to the door and appears worried. She looks out the peephole and then takes a second to put some lipstick on. She opens the door and slips out leaving Tony lying on the floor. Mandy knocks on the door of the apartment next door, #205. A woman answers the door and she seems to know her. Inside there’s a man and the girl says that they were supposed to stay in their apartments because there was a crazy person or something. Mandy knows and asks where Jos is. The woman says that he just got home, Mandy wants to talk to him. Jos appears and Mandy shoots him. The girl starts to scream and Mandy tells her to ‘shh’, don’t make a sound.

5:21

5:25

Logan enters the room where Palmer and Mike are. He just got off the phone with the Chinese Foreign Secretary and they are still pressing that the US was involved in the kidnapping of their citizen. They are desperate to pin it on them. The Chinese have managed to confirm that it was one of their men from the picture of Bern that Logan tosses on the table. David argues this is not conclusive enough to pin the attack on them and make an international incident out of. Logan thinks that hiding evidence is, David says CTU is trying to stop this and Logan snaps that they shouldn’t have done it in the first place. David reminds him without the information from there they would be nowhere. Logan asks where they are, exactly anyway? Is there some progress that he doesn’t know about? David reasons that they are closing in on an associate of Marwan and if they find her in time they may be able to stop the missile. Logan dismisses this as speculative, he panics that they’re never going to find it in time. This time David snaps back, “Don’t say that.” Mike is listening closely as David says that he must believe that it’s going to be found. Logan is worried, the missile draws nearer to its target which must be them. David says they’re using every resource possible and they will prevent the warhead from going off. Logan wishes he was as confident as David, David says he has to be, he has to remain presidential. Logan asks what he is going to tell the Chinese when he talks to them next. David advises him not to, Mike will tell them that unless they have proof of involvement he doesn’t want to hear from him today. Mike nods.

Buchanan talks on the phone with Howard Bern, the agent from the image. He has landed in San Diego and is on an encrypted line. Buchanan informs him that the Chinese are pressing the issue and they must fabricate an air tight alibi that he was working at CTU San Diego at the time. Everything including reports and phone logs have to match up. Bern asks about his family and Buchanan has them safely at a hotel. Bern’s transport has arrived and he opens the door to the vehicle to find Cheng, the head of security for the consulate, sitting in the back. Bern makes a small attempt to get away but is shoved in the back next to Cheng at gunpoint. The vehicle drives away and two bound shot CTU agents sit dead nearby.

Cheng is calm while Bern asks what the hell this is. Cheng thinks he already knows, he gives the details of the raid and Bern claims to not know what he is talking about. Cheng wants to know why Bern was transferred there from LA, Bern says that Cheng doesn’t know where he came from. Before he entered CTU Cheng had the satellite turned onto the building. As he was questioning a helicopter took someone away from CTU. Bern says it wasn’t him, Cheng yells that it was. His government insists that someone take responsibility for the death of their consul and Cheng believes that Bern was acting under orders. If he tells him who gave the order he will let him go. Bern is not going to tell him anything. Cheng gives the driver some orders in Chinese and tells Bern that he believes he is going to change his mind.

Outside the complex where Mandy is it begins to rain.

Michelle’s phone rings and Mandy is calling to confirm she’s redeployed all the men. Jack and Buchanan listen on the COM, the uplink is on. Curtis and Jack are in a weight room watching the scene, Curtis observes it’s starting to rain pretty hard. Tony is still on the ground unconscious and Mandy asks if she still loves Tony. She says yes, she does love Tony. Mandy warns that if Michelle is trying to play her the first thing she’s going to do is blow Tony’s brains out, does she understand? Michelle does and Mandy hangs up. Edgar and Chloe are filtering the call, Michelle wants the background noise pulled off. Edgar was going to do it and Michelle snaps at him that this is happening now, she shouldn’t have to talk him through this. Chloe has the filters set up on Delta 2 and Michelle stresses that she is not going to have this fall apart because of technical incompetence. Chloe and Edgar exchange worried glances.

From the weight room Jack and Curtis have something, there are two people moving under an umbrella outside building 3’s west entrance. The video feed is up and Michelle’s phone rings again. Mandy claims to have a gun on Tony and her finger on the trigger. Jack watches and appears puzzled, she is walking completely in the open and taking a huge risk. He says they are crossing the street, if they get in a car they can’t stay on top of them. They are heading towards a black Jag and Curtis gives the teams a hold. As she gets in the car, Mandy tells Michelle that as soon as she’s cleared the area she will call her and tell her where she can find Tony. Both people get in through the drivers side of the door and once the door’s closed, Buchanan gives the go for the agents. Two nearby start to move as Jack says no, not yet. It’s too late and Mandy says coldly, ‘I see your men, Michelle, you lied to me you bitch, I’m not going to let them take me alive, got it?’ The car explodes and Michelle screams inside CTU moving towards the monitors, Buchanan catches her and hangs on keeping her on her feet. Jack takes off running with Curtis on his heels out of the weight room. The car gives off another explosion as Jack and Curtis arrive, Jack completely horrified, soaked from the rain and out of breath. He says into his COM unit ‘They’re both gone, she blew herself up in the car and she took Tony with her, they’re gone.’ Jack crouches down in the rain looking at the car then covers his eyes.

5:34

5:38

Jack still out in rain outside the fire, Michelle is sitting on the couch in her office.

Logan is told that Buchanan is requesting a conference call and they are waiting to begin. Logan says they’re all there and Buchanan explains that the woman they hoped would lead them to the missile has killed herself and taken one of their agents with her. Logan whispers ‘Oh my god’ and Palmer asks if there is any evidence. Buchanan figures at this point CTU no longer has any reasonable expectation of finding the missile before it hits it’s target. David wants all state and federal agencies to manage the aftermath of an attack. Even though they don’t know the target they do know that it will be a major city, no matter where it is there will be panic across the country. They need to alert the army and the National Guard and draw up a declaration of Martial Law. Logan lamely says that yes, they need to do that. Mike tells all federal agents need to be dealing with the aftermath and disaster management, they need to redeploy now.

Buchanan calls Edgar and asks him to tell the teams in the field that the operation is over, they are to bring their people back.

Logan is angry that the worst disaster in history is taking place on his watch. He angrily turns to David and says that he gave him the responsibility to stop this and he failed Logan and his country. Logan leaves the room with David and Mike sitting there looking unimpressed.

Michelle sits on her couch in her office starting blankly to the other side of the room. Buchanan comes in and elicits no reaction from Michelle. He sits next to her and she again doesn’t move. He waits for a few seconds before saying that he can’t even imagine what she must be feeling. ‘I know a part of you is probably second guessing the decision to send Tony out but you couldn’t place Tony’s life before the lives of potentially millions of people. It’s the decision Tony would have wanted you to make. It’s your job, it’s why you signed on.’ Michelle finally says something, that they had decided they were going to leave this, go somewhere and start again. Buchanan starts to say something but Michelle has to get back to work, they have to find the missile. Buchanan wants her to go home and she says she’ll be okay. Buchanan is not advising her, he is giving her an order. He leaves her in her office.

Buchanan’s phone rings and he is told that Jack is refusing to take his teams out. Buchanan has orders from the white house and Jack is saying he’s not ready. Buchanan wants him on the video phone in the situation room.

Jack is in the back of the CTU van intently watching and listening to the phone call and explosion. His expression changes when the car blows and he then yells for Curtis to give him ‘more damn volume’ on the phone call. Curtis says they have to redeploy and Jack snaps at Curtis to just do it. Curtis realizes what’s happening here and says quietly, ‘Tony’s gone.” Jack apologises and asks Curtis to play it again please. Jack wipes his eyes as Buchanan comes on asking why they are not redeploying. Jack doesn’t understand what has happened, this woman was a professional, not a fanatic and her next move would have been getting her freedom not killing herself. Buchanan says they both saw it but Jack angrily says that he saw two dark figures under an umbrella. Buchanan tells Jack that he is not responsible for Tony’s death. Jack thinks Buchanan is not listening to him, this is not about Tony, it’s about her and he’s not going until he’s confirmed that it was her. Buchanan gives Jack 10 minutes since he is on orders from the white house.

Jack continues to watch and listen. He wants enhanced video but Curtis says they can’t do it in the field. In frustration Jack asks for a headset, he can’t hear the audio. He gets it just in time to hear Mandy say that they won’t take her alive. Jack wants to back up to just see the last 15 seconds. Curtis asks what Jack sees and it’s not what he sees. Jack gives a half smile and says that it’s pouring rain out and it can’t be heard from her side of the call. She wasn’t outside. She would want to be positioned somewhere where she has a clean light of sight to the car, Curtis gets all teams ready to converge on building 11.

Inside Mandy sees them coming back into the building. She casually observes that it looks like her neighbours died for nothing, they know she’s still in there. She walks over to Tony who is now down to his boxers and no shirt. She gets him to open his palm and gives him the keys to the cuffs. She gives him some track pants and a white striped button up. She says to put them on, they’re getting out of there. When he’s finished she tells him to cuff himself back up and she gets behind him with the gun out. They pause at the door so she can look and seeing the broken light bulb on the floor Tony rubs the bottom of his foot into the glass so it bleeds. She decides it safe to go and behind Tony they leave. With every step Tony leaves a trail of blood from his foot.

5:47

5:51

Jack and Curtis have every way in and out of the building covered. Jack reiterates that they need to take her alive, Curtis is sure everyone is aware of that. On the COM an agent says they found fresh blood outside of apartment 208. Jack and Curtis sprint down there and Jack gets Curtis to take the door. He kicks it on and they find nothing inside. Jack looks down and sees the remnants of the light bulb and the source of the blood. They can figure out which way they went from the tracks. Mandy and Tony are going down a new set of stairs and they go out into a parkade. Tony ducks out of the way of the gun and tries to fight Mandy using his feet and body. He uses his shoulders to get her against a car but she gets some punches in and grabs the gun. Tony is pinned against a car and she tells him to turn around. She puts the gun right to the back of his head when Jack arrives and yells for her to drop the gun, this is over. Mandy turns around so Tony is in front of her. She puts the gun to his neck and threatens that if Jack takes 1 more step she’ll kill him. Tony says, “Do it Jack.” Mandy asks coldly, “Do you really have what it takes to let me kill him while you’re lookin’ him in the eye?” Jack answers, “Yes.” Mandy believes him and asks what’s to stop her from shooting him. Jack doesn’t answer and Mandy realizes that he can’t kill her. Tony stares at Jack while Mandy realizes, “You need me.” Jack can see Curtis approaching through the windows of the vehicle that Mandy is beside. Jack’s eyes flicker over to him and in seconds Jack just says, “Tony.” Tony ducks out of the way and Curtis grabs Mandy and punches her square in the face.

Jack goes straight to the aide of Tony who is on the ground. He quickly un-cuffs him and pulls him up against the car. Slightly panicked Jack grabs Tony around the neck to guide his gaze and wants him to look at him asking if he’s okay. Tony says yeah, he is and Jack yells for the medic to come now. Tony asks if Michelle knows he’s alive. Jack will call CTU on his cell so they can talk in private. Jack updates Buchanan on the situation and Buchanan says that Michelle is not there, he has sent her home. He will find her and patch it through to the cell.

Michelle is sitting in her car crying as the rain pounds the windshield. The phone rings and Michelle doesn’t respond right away. After a few rings she picks it up and Buchanan identifies himself and says simply that Tony’s alive. He explains that it wasn’t in the car and he’s okay. He wants to let Tony explain it to her. Tony’s voice comes through saying it’s him. Michelle starts to cry and whispers, “Oh my God.” Tony consoles her, it’s okay, it was just someone else in his clothes, she needed to keep him alive until she got out. Tony continues that Jack figured it out and was able to save him. She doesn’t know what to say and Tony says she doesn’t have to say anything, he is coming to CTU right now and he will see her in a few minutes. Tony says he loves her and she loves him as well. They hang up.

Curtis has Mandy coming around. Jack goes to her and picks up Mandy by the throat. Jack demands to know where Marwan is and when she doesn’t answer he presses on her throat harder. Jack knows that they’re both professionals, she knows he can force it out of her. In this business you never get second chances but Jack is going to give her one. He can get her a deal for immunity from past and present crimes if she gives him Marwan before the missile hits its target. Jack points his gun at her saying, ‘Either help me now or I will kill you.’ Mandy says to show her the deal.

Bern is tied to a chair and Cheng shows the photo of Bern and says that he was part of the team that assaulted the consulate which resulted in the death of the consul. He asks who led it, who is responsible? Bern claims to not know what he is talking about, he’s wasting his time. Cheng says that if Bern gives his statement he will release him. Bern figures that he will have to release him as soon as CTU finds out anyway. Cheng says that no one will ever know because they will never tell them. Bern asks what he’s talking about. The China Queen is a container ship moored in San Diego, it will arrive in 18 days in China and then he will be transported to a camp on the border of Siberia. Bern thinks he wouldn’t do it but Cheng wants justice and if they don’t tell them who is responsible it will be Bern. His wife and daughters will not be notified, the US government will not be notified and there will be no chance for a prisoner exchange, he will have no escape for the rest of his life.

In the split screen we see Tony, Michelle, Mandy and Curtis.

Cheng threatens that the China Queen is on a tight schedule and Bern is obviously bothered by the idea. All Cheng wants is a name, a recorded statement naming the person responsible for what happened at the consulate. Bern hesitates and asks what happens then. Cheng points and says that he will walk right out the door. Bern corrects that he meant to ‘him’. Cheng says all they want is justice. Bern starts and says slowly, “His name… is Jack Bauer.”

6:00

Miscellaneous Thoughts:

-Well, I’m glad it didn’t come down to the perimeter teams to find Tony and Mandy, we all know they’re useless.

-So, if they needed Curtis at CTU 15 minutes ago, why can he go to the apartments now?

-Okay, I think that giving clearance for something like this is a way to end up with leaks, moles and trouble. Michelle is asking for trouble by saying she will bump up clearances.

-Calmness seems to be the prevailing emotion that is slipping away, Buchanan wants Michelle to be calm, Palmer wants Logan to be calm. Even Jack looses some calmness in this one.

-Is it really feasible that Mandy would be able to find info on the Michelle/Tony angle from last season on line? Is that something that the government would allow to be covered by the media? I highly doubt that word that a federal agent endangered the lives of millions would have been an open trial.

-At least someone doesn’t appear to be afraid of Marwan. Mandy has no fear at all judging by the way she talked to him.

-Anyone else wonder if Mandy and Marwan are… ahem… involved? Why else would he risk waiting for her? Everyone else is expendable, she should be too.

-I think I said that Tony appears to have gained weight this season, well, judging by what we’ve seen here, definitely not. Wow. We really had something for everyone in this episode, Carlos Bernard with no shirt on AND Mia Kirshner just around.

-Okay, so, who called the potential parallel between season 3 and now only reversed? I totally called that last episode. (I think that makes me 1 for about 5 thousand this season.)

-That looks like a nasty wound that Marwan has. Also, I don’t think it’d want to be patched up in the back of a moving van by that guy with a big needle. Are you kidding? One bump and it’s somewhere it shouldn’t be.

-Tony doesn’t look that confident that Michelle will do what he did for her to save him. He knows her so well.

-Michelle is obviously the level head in the relationship, she makes the choices after thinking, Tony is probably a hopeless romantic.

-Does Edgar really think that Michelle hadn’t thought about the fact that Tony is hostage? “oh, really? Well, that changes everything then, doesn’t it?”

-Other then the gag, that’s not a bad picture of Tony that Mandy takes.

-Gotta love technology.

-Mandy is so cruel and so forward. I love it. She’s a wonderful recurring villain.

-Edgar’s gotta know that Michelle is up to something after that call that she makes to him.

-Reiko Aylesworth does a great ‘conflicted Michelle’ when she decides to tell Buchanan about Mandy calling. You can practically see what she’s thinking.

-At first what she said didn’t really make sense. I couldn’t figure out how this fit in with Mandy having Tony until she says that Mandy called.

-Buchanan has no time for consoling Michelle, he’s all business, right to Jack.

-Line of the Week contender: “I can’t do this.” – it changes everything.

-It’s interesting how much Jack respect Mandy without knowing anything about her.

-It was surprising that Mandy was careless enough to have something for Tony to fall into when she shocked him, it makes noise and leaves trails.

-This is the first time I can remember where Tony has been the tazer-ee. He has been the tazer-er though. I think this is the first season Jack hasn’t been tazered.

-Mandy almost looks disgusted as she checks Tony’s pupils – interesting expression.

-Strange to see Mandy look nervous at the door.

-Lipstick = eye candy for the Mandy lovers.

-Sucks to he Jos and the couple that live next door to Mandy. All they did was move in.

-Logan is all smiles when things are going well but as soon as they start to come apart at the seams he’s all over David saying it’s his fault. Jerk.

-Mike is great when Logan has no faith, just practically rolls his eyes.

-Dennis Haysbert is such an electrifying actor. When he yells, people listen.

-It’s hard for Logan to remain presidential since he has never really acted that way.

-If only Bern had had one more thing to say to Buchanan he would have known something was wrong.

-My question is, who is going to take the blame for the 2 dead agents from CTU San Francisco? It was Cheng’s fault they died.

-I can’t believe CTU didn’t account for the satellite imagery. Wasn’t there a less evasive way to get Bern out of CTU?

-It’s not even pleasant listening to Mandy threaten to blow Tony’s brains out. Unpleasant pictures.

-Lets just have a moment for LA weather. In 4 years of 24 all we’ve had is beautiful sun and clear skies. I don’t even think anyone’s ever said they’re cold, now we have rain. Nice. Must have been a nightmare to film.

-The creators of this show say that it will never take place anywhere else but CTU LA because of simply the weather. Anywhere else it’s too hard to film around for 10 months of the year.

-Michelle is on the verge of biting Edgar’s head off, literally. The way she’s hovering over him… actually, she strikes me as more of a vegetarian.

-More people have to listen to Jack. It would have saved Michelle a near heart attack.

-The possibility of Buchanan jumping the gun and potentially getting Tony blown up so he could get him out of the way came to mind.

-Jack couldn’t only not hear the rain, but what about the door closing on the car when Mandy got in? Should be able to hear that clear as day – but not this day, as it’s not clear…

-Where was Michelle running to when the car blew up?

-Jack got really wet from the rain really fast.

-Good thing Tony didn’t die because Jack probably would have been in for another smacking when he got back to CTU. It’d be from Michelle this time, though, for letting Tony get back into CTU.

-Even though I saw the preview thus knew that Tony would live long enough for Mandy to put a gun to his throat, I nearly forgot and freaked out too.

-That’s the ultimate “What he said” from Logan. Yeah, sure, whatever, he knows what he’s doing.

-It’s unbelievable that Logan had the audacity to blame David for not finding the missile. If David hadn’t shown up it’s not like they’d be any better off. Logan would have been sitting in his office for the last 4 hours working on his knitting.

-At least Mike appears to be on David’s side in all this, hopefully he’ll have the brains to leave this administration when it’s all done.

-Anyone else laugh out loud at the ‘it’s your job’ speech? Actually, Bill, well, Tony is technically unemployed AND he wants to leave CTU and never come back. Not so sure that’s what he would have wanted.

-Actually, in all seriousness, we saw that Tony would give his life to save the lives of others which was very touching in his situation.

-Buchanan is just all about the ‘It’s not your fault’. It’s not Jack’s fault, it’s not Michelle’s fault, no one is to blame.

-Jack is just all over this. Thank god ‘cause if it wasn’t for him, Tony would be dead.

-Jack is lying when he says it’s not about Tony. It’s all about Tony, remember? The only friend he has left.

-Even in someone else’s clothes Tony looks hot.

-Smashing the bottom of your foot into glass has to hurt. Anything on the bottom of your foot is painful and he really mashed it in there. Ouch.

-Mandy is so casual that she just killed 2 innocents for no reason, although, I guess that’s the mind frame of a mass murderer.

-Agents are going to be saying “Take them alive” in their sleep after today. In this episode I think it was said about 6 times.

-That running camerawork when Curtis and Jack went for the blood was so jerky, good thing it didn’t last long.

-We all know that Jack was picturing major blood when they were called down there.

-Finally we see some of Tony’s training as a “Krav Maga hand-to-hand combat defence” instructor, even though he has no hands to work with there.

-Line of the week contender: Mandy to Jack: “Do you really have what it takes to let me kill him while you’re lookin’ him in the eye?” Yikes.

-Oh, we really like Curtis now. Yea Curtis!

-Mandy must have a broken nose after that punch. It was dead on.

-It was sweet to see Jack so worried about Tony. The way he was concerned about his wellbeing and then his ability to talk to Michelle. Sometimes I wonder if Jack can feel still and then you see something like that. It really does add to the show.

-For a second I thought Michelle wasn’t going to answer the phone.

-It seemed that Michelle was so aghast with everything that she wasn’t all that happy about Tony being okay. I was starting to wonder if she’d taken a bunch of pills in an effort to kill herself or something. It’d be pretty Romeo & Juliet that way, though.

-Jack gets credit where credit is due, if it wasn’t for him persisting Tony would be dead – now Tony owes Jack again.

-Seeing Jack hold Mandy like that I was reminded vividly of him doing the same thing to Nina, only he was angrier then, and crazier looking.

-Okay, Bern. Don’t these agents have training to deal with torture of all kinds? They are supposed to resist this kind of thing, not cave like a card house. He’s useless, totally and utterly useless.

-I think that the dead CTU agents would be a bit of a lead on Bern. The government would probably figure it out pretty quick if Bern was taken. He seems to not be thinking clearly.

-You know what? After that, I think I’d like it if Bern turned up dead. He’d deserve it.

-An interesting connection that may be just crazy. Marwan told Jack that the US leaders would be forever afraid to appear in public after this day and after the president’s plane was shot down. Mandy was obviously involved in some respects in the events of today. 2 seasons ago with the attempt on Palmer’s life she was the one involved in that as well, she delivered the toxin to David after he spoke in public. Is there a connection here? Is Mandy the one in charge of this stuff? Or is this some weird coincidence. I don’t know if we’ll ever find out.

-Between Mandy, the reverse Tony/Michelle storyline and the consulate coming back to bite them this really was a blast from the past.