After the recap, we returned to the surprisingly unblemished Mandy who wanted a deal from the president's office before giving any information. Ah, but we had a little conflict. You see, Mandy was the person who tried to kill Palmer two seasons ago. Of course, we knew that, but did the Oval Office? Apparently they did. The main Secret Service guy (I forget his name, even though he's been featured every season), revealed Mandy's past as a wanted assassin in connection with Palmer's poisoning. Could Palmer grant Mandy freedom when she had in fact tried to kill him? It was an interesting predicament, but sadly, it was resolved almost immediately as Palmer agreed to the deal. Now call me crazy, but didn't this all feel a bit rushed? Shouldn't there have been an episode or more devoted to discovering the link between Mandy and her assassination attempt on Palmer? And then after that, shouldn't there have been more discussion about who she was working for? And couldn't we have had more than three nanoseconds of deliberation from Palmer before consenting to the deal? Point is, all this juicy stuff should have surfaced three or four episodes ago. Cramming it into the finale meant that we had to gloss over it way too quickly in order to pave the way for later nonsense with China. Urgent plea to writers: please follow up with Mandy next season.

Anyway, back in Los Angeles, Mandy informed Jack that she'd tell all once her representatives had confirmed her immunity. Great. Is that stupid Amnesty International guy going to come back? Thankfully no, and after a brief call with her lawyers, Mandy received the go-ahead to babble at will. She quickly gave Marwan's location, saying that he was about to take off on a helicopter. We then cut to Marwan as he climbed into a chopper. In the background, the lights of downtown Los Angeles twinkled in the night, which was pretty impressive considering all the electrical circuits had been completely fried a few hours ago when that EMP went off. Anyway, Jack sped towards Marwan in a CTU helicopter, thus paving the way for Edgar to yell, "I see a chopper!" Or as it was pronounced in EdgarSpeak: "I thee a choppa!" As for Marwan, he seemed to be... playing a PSP? Wow, as a terrorist he should be really more focused on being evil. Oh wait, it wasn't a PSP. No, it was merely a little mapping device, and oh who cares. Point is that Jack showed up and disabled Marwan's helicopter -- with a pistol, of course. Honestly, if Jack had a potato, he would have stopped that helicopter (although, if it were up to just the CTU field units, they probably would have found a way to have not only let the chopper get away, but somehow blow themselves up in the process).

Well, Marwan dashed away from the helicopter and ran downstairs to --- you guessed it -- a parking garage. Hot on his trail was Jack, Curtis, and a random third guy who we'll name Deady McDeaderson. Amazingly, this unnamed sidekick lasted a whole five seconds before Marwan killed him (that's about two or three seconds longer than Jack's typical anonymous sidekick). Sadly, Curtis took a bullet in the shoulder, causing him to go down as well. So this was it. Jack versus Marwan. The final showdown. Would Jack be able to capture this wily terrorist? Not so much. You see, Marwan still had that whole martyr option, which meant that he was more than happy to fling himself over the side of the building. Luckily Jack was able to grab his arm at the last second, but when Marwan pulled out his knife and sliced Jack's hand, well, the rest was history. In one of 24's less impressive visual effects, Marwan fell to the ground below with a jerky swiftness usually reserved for goldfish going down the toilet bowl. Either way, he was dead, and of course, in Washington, Logan went nuts, screaming that Jack promised to bring back the terrorist alive. Who else is crossing their fingers that this guy comes to a bloody demise next season? Not saying I don't enjoy his character -- he is way more entertaining than bland Keeler -- but still, I'm looking forward to his death.

Before Marwan dies, he sings a tune from Man of La Mancha.

Meanwhile, with Marwan dead as a doornail, we could return to that other subplot -- the impending Chinese crisis. With Howard Burn having implicated Jack, China was now ready to rumble. Either the U.S. government hands over Bauer to stand trial in China or we're going to have another war. Well, surely we don't want war, but can we really hand over Jack? Then again, if there's anyone capable of escaping a Chinese jail, it's Jack (and I bet he could do it in exactly twenty-four hours). Of course, there was another option. Jack could have an "accident," suggested Logan's advisor, Cummings. "This administration does not condone murder!" Logan responded with sudden authority. Whoa, when did he get balls? Now, why didn't anyone at this moment say "How about we fake his death? Put him in the witness protection program." Surely that would be the logical thought. But no. Everyone simply stood around tensely, perhaps snacking occasionally on some cookies Mike had baked.

Over at CTU, Edgar and Chloe frantically tried to decode information found on Marwan's helicopter. The two began bickering immediately, with Edgar finally rebuffing Chloe's suggestions by saying they didn't work. "That's because you didn't expand the parameter!" she yelled. DUH! I can't believe he didn't expand the parameter, stupid jerk. Everyone expands the parameter. Sigh.

Posted by B-side on May 24, 2005 1:11 PM