Despite all of our wishes, Curtis' preferred mehtod was decidedly more rational. He told Marianne that if he helped her, she would live. If she refused, she would die, and not necessarily at the hands of the government. To prove this, he wheeled in Powell's dead body. Marianne didn't know any information, but she would be able to access information from his personal computer at his office. Marianne would have to be present at the office because the computer required a fingerprint to decrypt the information, and the only prints that would work are hers and Powell's. It beats me why bringing the computer would have been so much of a hassle, but maybe they wanted to save time. In that case, why didn't they just cut off one of Powell's hands and do it all without Marianne. As Chase proved last year, CTU is not afraid to chop off a limb in the interest of national security. Marianne, Curtis, and two other anonymous CTU members left to get this information. Since this is the first time we have seen these two characters, there is nothing that could possible happen to them while they are gone.

At the hospital, Jack and his team know that they are going to have to go in and get Behrooz if they have any hope of getting information from Dina. As a bonus, if they can pull of the operation and capture Navi alive, they have another person they can interrogate. Navi is a smart guy, but apparently he had no idea that the laundry room where he decided to seek refuge may have other ways of access besides the door. Therefore, he conveniently has no idea that there is a laundry chute that people can use to enter one side of the room (which happens to be hidden by another wall). Jack must have realized that this would be the case, because he used that laundry chute to enter the room Mission Impossible style. Thank God Kiefer Sutherland is so short, because it was a tight fit.

Jack made it inside the room without tipping off Navi (thanks to the nifty little dentist mirror SWAT teams use) but as the harness he was using to descend was pulled back, it hit the side of the chute with a nice little clang. Navi comes to investigate, and Jack hits him straight in the face with a force that would have knocked most people out. But this is 24 so, things can't be that easy. Jack and Navi do a little fighting, and eventually Navi is subdued, his hands up. Good job Jack, you saved the boy, and got your witness. Now just call in the....BANG! Oh shit, Behrooz just shot his dad. Obviously the kid didn't refuse to kill his girlfriend because he didn't have the skill. He is is a surprisingly effective killer. I wonder what his dad was thinking when he died. I bet it went like "Wow, he may be helping the Great Satan, but at least he is still a good shot."

With her son now safe and her husband pretty incapable of stopping her, Dina is now free to tell CTU everything she knows. She made quite the gamble, because it turns out that she really doesn't know that much, just an address where they got instructions. Tony Almeida, who has effectively become a CTU agent, is officially reinstated by Jack. He is kind of hesitant at first, and I know how tough it is to go back to an employer after you parted ways. But once you saw how much Tony loved getting out of the house, you know that he really wouldn't mind going back. It was sure to be a little awkward after his whole "treason" fiasco, but you know how those interoffice politics go. So Agent Almeida and Agent Bauer head to the address Dina gave them, and it is some empty house in the Valley.

That's right. Zero. The place was completely cleared out. In fact, I was surprised that it wasn't trip wired to explode when somebody opened the door. You don't want to have to leave any sort of evidence around, right? Besides not destroying the place when they were done with it, the terrorists seemed to be really sloppy. He notices a power cord plugged into the wall that leads down to some floor boards, which leads down to a hidden basement, which reveals pretty much the entire planning of the terrorists. Jack must have been lucky and shot whoever was on cleanup duty for the house while he was doing his Splinter Cell impersonation saving Audrey and Secretary Heller earlier in the day.

CTU is quickly working to get background info on the building to see if they can follow a paper trail and get more information. Sarah is now back at her desk. Driscoll was forced to ask her to come back to action since they were a little short handed with all of their field agents getting picked off and Curtis busy escorting Marianne to Powell's computer. After checking out some of the shell companies that have had a piece in the purchase of the house, they come across an interesting name - Galaxy Financial. It means nothing other than its CFO is none other than Paul Raines, Audrey's ex-husband. Oh man, this guy has got some explaining to do.

When Jack hears Paul's name, he calls Audrey right away to get some more information. Actually, he has CTU patch him through to her number, because it must have been erased from his speed dial in all of the craziness that was going on during the day. Audrey has never heard of Galaxy Financial, and she doesn't believe that Paul would have anything to do with a Terrorist organization. Even so, she decides that she is going to help Jack and try and figure out where Paul is so he can question him.

Posted by J-Unit on February 22, 2005 8:16 PM