‘24′ 9.05 Recap: “You’re Gonna Have to Do It My Way”

Much like Episode 3, this week’s new episode of ’24: Live Another Day’ mostly just repositions all the chess pieces on the board. However, unlike that third hour, this one is still pretty engaging, despite the fact that Jack Bauer doesn’t even have a line of dialogue until halfway through the episode.

Jack has surrendered to Kate Morgan, but the Marines can’t find Tanner’s flight key. Of course, Kate is hiding it from them. Jack acts like he’s resisting arrest so the Marines will clear the room, including Kate. Once outside, she reveals to Ritter than she has the key and then contacts Chloe to complete the transfer. Kate inserts the key into her laptop and Chloe is able to upload the remainder of the information.

Chloe’s boss, Adrian, quickly discovers a hidden code broken up and embedded in the flight key that would give an outsider access to control the drones. Chloe relays this information to Kate, who sends it to Navarro and Jordan at the CIA. Jordan confirms that it’s valid, and Navarro contacts President Heller. The President wants to talk to Jack immediately, and Mark Boudreau informs Heller than Bauer is already on his way.

In a nice little twist, Mark apologizes to Audrey, telling her that he let his bias against Jack cloud his judgment. It’s nice to see that Mark may not be a weasel for the rest of the series. And, of course, Mark being a decent guy will make it harder for Audrey to jump back into Jack’s arms after he’s done saving the world.

President Heller instructs his military commander to ground all drones. However, over at the terrorist hideout, Margot sees that she’s losing control of the drones and orders Naveed to get back as many as he can. He manages to regain control of six of them. Naveed talks Margot into letting him see Simone, and Margot’s son Ian takes over control of flying the drones in the meantime. Simone is still in bed recovering from having her finger chopped off in the last hour. After making the mistake of telling her his plans before, Naveed does it again. He explains to his wife that he hid their location inside the signal of a video message that Margot just sent out – which demanded that President Heller turn himself over to her or London will suffer the consequences. Yep, Naveed is just too stupid for his own good.

Jack finally arrives to meet Heller, who asks what can be done to stop Margot. Jack says he knows an arms dealer that Margot trusts, but he needs to be sent back into the field to deal with him. The President just wants Jack to give him the dealer’s location, but Jack insists that they’ll never be able to break him in time to stop the attacks. He also promises the President that once everything is over, he’ll turn himself in. Heller asks Jack to think about giving him the info he needs, which is ’24’ shorthand for “I’ll be back next episode and let you proceed.” Jack also gets a visit from Audrey, who bats her big doe eyes at him for a few minutes and almost makes him feel like a human being again. Jack – who always seems to talk like he’s out of breath and hiding from bad guys – confesses that he did kill all the men he’s accused of killing, but he had reasons for it.

Back at the CIA, Navarro learns about the embedded info in Margot’s video message, and forms a team (including himself and Ritter) to raid what they believe is the terrorist compound. However, back at where the terrorists really are, Margot reveals that she already figured out what Naveed was up to and had Ian embed a different location into the video. Navarro and his men are heading into a trap.

Kate, who was told by Navarro before he left that he can no longer have her working at CIA (because the Marines complained about her), gets Chloe to look at the embedded video information, and Chloe determines that it has been tampered with. Realizing that Navarro’s team has been set-up, Kate contacts him and tells him to abort the mission. Smartly, Navarro doesn’t question her and orders his men to evacuate the main house of a large estate they’ve raided. However, it may be too late. Just as they retreat from the house, one of the drones under Margot’s control launches its missiles and blows up the building. Kate can’t reach Navarro, Ritter or any of the other men on her radio.

At the terrorist hideout, Margot tells Naveed that she no longer has any use for him, since Ian has learned how to fly and control the drones by watching him work. Naveed begs for his life and reminds Margot that Simone is his wife and in love with him. Margot gives Simone the opportunity to speak up for her husband. When she remains silent, Margot says, “I think you have your answer,” and shoots Naveed in the head.

Even though I love the show, each entry always has one or two things that annoy me. This week, it’s something as simple as Jack’s meeting with the President. Now, Jack is a trained solider and operative, yet when Heller comes into the room to talk to him, Jack – in the ultimate show of disrespect – doesn’t even stand up. It seems that this is just poor writing/direction rather than intentional, since Jack should know enough to respect the office even if he has some issues to work out with Heller. Then, almost laughably, when Audrey comes in to see him, Jack can’t spring out of his seat fast enough. I know, I know, I’m over-thinking this stuff, but it was the one thing that really stood out to me when watching Episode 5.

Although not a whole lot goes on this week to advance the storyline (other than the attack on Navarro’s team at the very end), this is another entertaining entry in what’s turning out to be a fun reprise of the popular series.

3 comments

  1. That Naveed went out like a bitch, whining and begging his evil wife to save him from his evil mother-in-law. Putting him down was a mercy.

    Beyond that, this episode didn’t offer too much of notable interest.

  2. Scott

    The thing that bothered me the most about this most recent episode was that the CIA station chief ran point on the raid, in the field. I would think that someone who doesn’t normally sit behind a desk would be doing that job. Besides that, he seemed to be the only person involved in the raid who wasn’t wearing a helmet, actually I don’t think that either of our “main players” were wearing helmets. Wouldn’t want messy hair to get in the way of authenticity now would we???

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