24 Recap: 3/19/07

As you may have heard, Lindsay is reportedly out of rehab and looking for a boyfriend who is more mature and settled. Um, does that just scream "Bone" or what?

Recapping this week's episode of 24, also known as Day Six: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM...

Outside Moscow 90210, Jack is checked out by a medic who says he has floating rib fragments that could cause internal bleeding. Ricky Schroder takes Jack off the case and sends him back to CTU. Meanwhile at CTU, Bill is on the phone with VP Daniels, and tells him that Gredenko has five RQ2 Aerial Drones he is planning to use to carry the nukes. RQ2? Isn't that the morning after pill?

Out at Gredenko's Desert Hideaway, Resort, and Nuclear Drone Launch Site, Gredenko tells Fayed they have to hurry because the Americans are on the way. Fayed says there is only one drone ready. Gredenko says they must launch that one now and leave. He phones his remote drone pilot and tells him to take off. The drone pilot, who we will come to know as Victor, pulls out a cool flight stick--which kinda looks like the old Tron joystick--and launches drone number one.

Back at As the Counter Terrorist Unit Turns, Morris somehow loses track of the drone on satellite. Milo--who has evidently become Morris' unofficial AA sponsor--becomes suspicious and tells Chloe to check his breath. Chloe walks over to Morris and plants one on him.

Morris: "What was that for?"
Chloe: "Just checking your breath."
Morris: "Got to love this place."

Chloe proclaims that Morris is clean. I know this is random, but I just suddenly got the feeling Milo would have been great in Red Dawn. Wolverines!!

Meanwhile, Jack has arrived and sees Marilyn--who has apparently just been standing in some room for the past couple of hours--and stops to chat. Marilyn tries to, ahem, check Jack's breath, but he turns away. She says she always regretted the way things ended between them. Which I'm thinking is Marilyn-ese for "Josh is your son."

Jack tells Marilyn he can't let her check his breath until he finds out what's going on with Audrey. Marilyn can't believe Jack hasn't already heard, and tells him Audrey was killed in a car wreck in China! Audrey is dead?!?! Jack. Is. Stunned. He storms over to Chloe's station and demands to know why she didn't tell him about Audrey. Chloe looks uncomfortable. Then again, when does she not?

Hello! We have terrorists to catch, people!

When Buchanan tells Daniels they've lost track of the drone, Daniels tells his assistant to assemble a meeting of the Joint Chiefs. Karen, who we find out is National Security Adviser, makes it back in time for the meeting. Daniels says if another nuclear bomb goes off in the US, he will launch a nuclear strike against Fayed's country. Karen objects. After the meeting, Karen and Tom argue.

Chloe discovers there's a leak at CTU, which is allowing Victor to block their tracking satellites. Bill orders everyone's computers checked. Ricky tells Chloe to check Nadia's first. Chloe says it looks like that's where the leak is coming from. Nadia is taken to holding where Ricky interrogates her. And by interrogates, I mean chokes and makes her cry. Meanwhile, Morris finds the drone pilot's address, which turns out to be just three blocks from CTU. Bill prepares to send a team over when Jack happens by and asks to be on point. Which is CTU speak for "in charge."

Karen goes to visit President Palmer. The doctor tells her they had to induce a coma. She asks if he can bring Palmer out of the coma for a matter of national security. The doctor says not without consent of the family, because it would endanger Palmer's life. The camera pans to a tearful Sandra Palmer, watching her brother thru a window.

A field team, led by Jack, storms the drone pilot's compound, shooting the pilot and two other guys. Jack takes control of the joystick, which now looks more like Flight Similator than Tron. Now I love Jack, but shouldn't Ricky Schroder be playing the video game? I mean, this is the role he was born to play! Jack sees that San Francisco is the target and is told he has less than four minutes to steer the drone away from the city. He manages to do so and Chloe finds an industrial park where Jack can land it. The suitcase nuke does not detonate.

Buchanan calls Daniels and tells him they were able to divert the drone, but that while it did not detonate, radioactive material was released. Despite objections from Tom and Karen, Daniels tells his Defense Secretary to proceed with plans for a nuclear strike.

The good:
More Chloe! And the Chloe kiss.

Jack finding out about Audrey.

Having Karen, a voice of reason, back in the bunker.

The Nadia did-she-or-didn't-she conundrum.

The bad:
Almost no action at all this episode.

Audrey's dead.

Did you know...
Ten out of ten men prefer the Chloe-kiss breathalyzer to the traditional electronic device used by most law enforcement.

Questions:
Is Audrey really dead? Part of me doesn't believe it, or doesn't want to believe it.

Why was there no Martha or Charles? The ex-President gets stabbed and appears to be slipping away in the back of an ambulance, and the next week, they don't even show him?

What happened in Denver? When Ricky is making Nadia cry, she says, "I know what happened in Denver."

Did Nadia intentionally leak information? Or was it someone else?

"So I know I had at least a mile to fall. Is there life after Denver? Is there life after Colorado at all?"