Jack Bauer left us with a slight cliffhanger in the previous episode when his car was pulled over and he was taken into custody by the police. I call it a slight cliffhanger because we all know that they could pull a few strings at CTU and Jack would be let off without any problem. That turned out to be exactly the case, as Driscoll was so happy that Jack had executed a plan to follow Kalil that she not only had the police let Jack go, but also put him in charge of the field operations for the next part of the mission. The sheriffs sent for Jack's car, and he was off to track Kalil in hopes of finding the base of the terrorist cell and putting an end to the transmission of Secretary Heller's trial before it begins.

Throughout this whole time, Heller and his daughter Audrey have been fairly pragmatic through their entire ordeal when you come to think about it. Neither one of them wants to go down without a fight, but with the time of the trial, they were willing to take extraordinary measures in order to prevent the inevitable from happening. Knowing that they would likely die in any scenario, they tried to storm out of the castle in the previous hour, but were now chained together in a small cell so they had almost no chance of escape.

Secretary Heller decides that since they are not going to let him live, he must kill himself, but he needs his daughter to provide the leverage on the chains or it won't work. Audrey refuses, but after giving it a moment's though, notices that there is a gas line inside their cell. She realizes that they aren't going to keep her alive either, and they decide to break off the end of a pipe in order to release the gas. Given the circumstances, you have to admit that it would be an easier way to die than say, a decapitation. The two of them shimmy their way over to the pipe, release the gas, and begin their slow wait until death.

Back at CTU, Marianne is just beginning to use her leverage on Edgar to her advantage. She is like the younger, much hotter version of Sherry Palmer. She knows how to manipulate people, and is using it to advance her career.Edgar talks tough and says he isn't going to be anybody's bitch, but caves in when Marianne threatens to tell Driscoll. Marianne wants a level three clearance, which basically gives you free reign to socket, firewall, and pipeline computers to your heat's content. She gets it, but Curtis has his eye on her, and knows that something is going down between her and Edgar.

Driscoll still has to deal with Chloe, and we follow her into the cell. Now it was our dream that Chloe would rise from the ashes like the Phoenix and once again come to rule over CTU with her special type of iron fist. Alas, that was not to be the case, as Driscoll made her pay the price for her disloyalty. The CTU director did show that she is not a completely cold-hearted bitch. (After all, Chloe did help Jack with the plan that turned out to be the right one). Chloe was forced to resign, and therefore wasn't subjected to any sorts of penalties or charged with any crimes.

I was really upset with Chloe's departure, but sort of intrigued as well. All of this time, we been used to Chloe saying things that made others around her feel awkward. Since she was soon going to be gone for good, she must have had some great things to say, and in true form Chloe did not disappoint. First, she addressed her main rival, Sarah, and told her that she wasn't upset that Sarah had watched her, but was appalled at the unprofessional manner she went about it. "If you had only used a Nuemann filter", Chloe said, Sarah would have been able to spy on Chloe without being detected. It was the biggest bitchslap Chloe has doled out since her appearance on the show. But Chloe still has a warm heart. Before she is escorted out, she tells Edgar that he's a geek, but still a good guy and wishes him luck. That's just pure compassion.

Posted by J-Unit on January 18, 2005 1:24 AM