Over the years, Jack has had some memorable single combat battles with the villians who populate 24’s terrorist universe. His one on one war versus Marwan two years ago resulted in a titanic struggle in a parking garage where, after finally cornering the fanatic, Marwan denies Jack the ultimate release of killing him by jumping to his own death.

No such cop outs this year for the writers. The battle royale between Jack and Fayed was so good, so satisfying, that it should have been on pay-per-view – perhaps as a warm up for Wrestlemania. The two fought with a ferocity rarely seen on TV. The animal like grunts and explosions of sound that peppered the action gave a realistic sheen to the entire fight while both men – exhausted and bruised from their day long ordeal – showed an unflagging will to fight to the death.

But it wasn’t just Jack’s battle with Fayed that made the moment. It was how Jack got to Fayed in the first place. Agent Doyle summed it up succinctly upon reaching the scene as he looked around the immediate vicinity and saw 5 dead terrorists as well as the dangling body of Fayed. “Damn, Jack,” was his quiet, awestruck assessment. Whether he was commenting about Jack’s courage, or rashness in taking on so many terrorists at once, or more likely, the ruthless barbarity of Jack’s attack, Doyle spoke for many of us who have watched as Jack has morphed from a duty bound soldier who did bad things because he loved his country to this incarnation of a terror warrior who metes out justice to those who threaten what’s left of his personal universe with a troubling, personal satisfaction.

The look on Bauer’s face after hanging his nemisis was one of deep emotional release. He had won. And more importantly, he had defeated evil. But at what cost to his own psyche? Clearly – and the writers seem to hammering home this point more and more the last couple of years – Jack is becoming indistinguishable from the terrorists he hunts.

The fact that he’s on “our side” makes us ask ourselves some tough questions. Many of us still excuse Jack for his transgressions against human decency. But what do you make of his goodbye bon mot to Fayed before hanging him? Is there any justification whatsoever for Jack to whisper savagely into Fayed’s ear “Say hello to your brother” as he ratchets up the chain that gruesomely chokes Fayed to death? Are those the words of a hero doing what is necessary to save us? Or an out of control sadist who derives great pleasure in not only killing his enemies but making them suffer in the process?

More of the latter than the former, I’m afraid. And the metamorphosis of Jack from Season 1 to this episode that has seen him change so drastically – from something of a mild mannered family man who would do anything to get the job done to this near monster of a death machine – isn’t done yet. That’s because the one real link he has left to the human race is now a prisoner of those who perhaps did more than any terrorist ever could do in taking away his humanity.

Jack’s two years under torture at the hands of the Chinese helped to create this new personae. Or perhaps it simply accelerated a process that has seen Jack’s purity tarnished considerably once the bad guys began targeting his friends and family. And the fact that his former tormentors now hold Audrey captive will only drive Jack to more extremes in seeking revenge and attempting to get this last, tenuous tie to the human race free from their clutches.

But what about the nukes? Are we done with that plot line and will now watch as the final 7 episodes become little more than a glorified rescue mission? The show can’t have gone downhill that much, can it? Surely the writers have a surprise or two relating to those nukes left up their sleeves. And since they are in CTU’s possession, it’s time once again to put your Official CTU Mole Hunting Hats on because I have a feeling sometime over the next two episodes, those nukes are going to “disappear” from CTU custody and plunge the nation once again into dire straits.

SUMMARY

Drama in the conference room as the missile rises into the air headed for Fayed’s country and a demonstration of…something. Our will to protect ourselves by using a weapon of mass destruction, I guess. But as Lennox tries to point out, the President may just have started something that the rest of the nuclear powers on the planet are likely to finish.

Frantically, Karen calls Bill at CTU and asks if Jack has been able to get anything out of Fayed yet. Since Bauer has just begun his “interrogation” Bill reluctantly tells Karen that he has nothing concrete to offer the President and give him a reason to abort the launch. Karen still tries to convince Wayne that Jack will get the job done but the President isn’t hearing it.

The Admiral reports that enemy radar is now tracking the missile which means there are probably a lot of wet pants in the Presidential Palace of Fayed’s country as that government realizes what is about to happen. Not surprisingly, a call comes in from the Ambassador, pleading with the President to abort. Apparently, they have new information that may be helpful. It seems one of their leading generals has been running Fayed from the time he got to America, directing the nuke attacks.

This information doesn’t surprise Wayne Palmer nor should it surprise us. The fact is, there are several countries in the Middle East we claim as “allies” who have elements within their governments who would like nothing better than to see America destroyed. It is thought that there is a faction within the Saudi royal family who have close ties to al-Qaeda. This rogue faction has allies in the banking, construction, computer, and hi tech industries as well as Saudi intelligence.

Then there is the strange, frustrating case of Pakistan. President Musharaf is beset with internal enemies who strenuously object to his forging close ties to America following 9/11. These opponents reside mainly in the secretive Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI. It was they who created the Taliban back in the 1990’s and who may to this day be assisting Bin Laden in escaping capture.

The question for American policymakers has always been how do we treat countries with these kinds of internal divisions? Even the highest ranking members of the Saudi royal family probably turned the other way prior to 9/11 when Bin Laden was using his government contacts to build up and finance his operation. And Musharaf has had a devil of a time living up to his agreements to fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan, preferring instead to sign agreements that give the terrorists a free hand in provinces bordering Afghanistan to infiltrate and kill NATO soldiers.

The answer is – there is no answer. Or at least we haven’t come up with a coherent one yet. And Wayne Palmer’s “solution” is definitely not the way to go.

At any rate, the attack itself turns out to have been a ruse to get Fayed’s government to cooperate fully. It turns out that there was no warhead on the bird and once Wayne aborts the launch, much to the relief of the Ambassador, he demands information on this General Habib and that the Ambassador deliver it personally to the White House.

For the first time in 6 seasons, Jack Bauer actually hurts his hand from hitting a suspect too hard. After clocking Fayed in the cheekbone with a terrific right hook, he grimaces in pain and shakes the pain from his knuckels. Obviously, being away two years has worn away the callouses he built up over time using terrorist’s heads as punching bags. But he is really letting Fayed have it, delivering blow after blow as hard as he can. It’s interesting because for years, Jack was a one punch knock out artist, putting Ali himself to shame in that department. Maybe he’s gotten a little long in the tooth.

It doesn’t matter anyway because Fayed ain’t talking – not even when Little Ricky tells him that if he friends set off those nukes and they kill more people, he will no longer be the hero of “your jihad.” The way Fayed spits out “I serve the will of God,” in response makes me think that Little Ricky should have probably stayed in Denver interrogating illlegals. He has no clue what motivates the guy and when he raises his gun to pressure the fanatic with a death wish, Jack orders him to desist. Fayed laughs at Little Ricky’s amateur attempts at breaking him. Realizing he won’t get anything out of Fayed this way, Jack decides to take him back to headquarters. On the way, he gets a call from Bill telling him about Habib. This gets Jack’s thinking moving in a familiar direction – outside the box.

Back at the White House, Tom apologizes to Wayne for doubting his strength of purpose. The President then asks Lennox how he got the Veep to drop his challenge. Being cryptic about his gambit of taping Daniels and catching him in the act of planning perjury, Tom says “I’m here to inform you and also protect you.” And, the two don’t necessarily follow each other.

On the way to CTU with Fayed, Jack and Little Ricky have casual conversation about the use of drug induced torture. Jack favors it (having just seen it work on his own brother) while Little Ricky doesn’t think much of it. Just when the subject was getting interesting, their vehicle is broadsided and flipped by an armored car. Helpless and upside down, Jack sees several terrorists exit the van and make their way to flanking positions. Our boys are sitting ducks and they know it.

Jack is out first cutting down a couple of bad guys while Ricky exits, gun blazing and dropping another. But a couple of well placed shots bring down both our heroes and the terrorists free Fayed and hustle him away.

The fact that the episode was barely 15 minutes old gave away the fact that our guys weren’t dead. That and the idea the show still had 7 weeks to go made you suspect immediately that all is not it appears. Sure enough, as the armored car turns a corner, we see a caravan of cars arrive at the scene of the firefight and Jack sitting up suddenly, a Lazarus with a gun. Having to erase two kills from Jack’s body count column was disappointing – until the end of the episode.

With all hale and hearty, we are told that the attack was a ruse. Those were Arab speaking CTU agents (Maybe they could lend a few to the FBI who still, 6 years after 9/11, can’t recruit enough Arab translators to help keep the country safe.) who will attempt to trick Fayed into taking them to his hideout and the nukes.

Following the fake terrorists, Jack tells Bill that he needs an AV hookup to catch what’s going on in the armored car. Glancing over at Little Ricky he notices that the boy is bleeding in the back of the head. Concerned, Nadia asks if he needs medical assistance. Ricky assures her that he’s fine but thanks for asking. Milo looks over at Nadia and wonders if she was thinking of playing doctor with the agent.

Fayed himself looks like he could use a medical break. Between the pummeling of the Longshoremen and sparring with Jack, he looks pretty beat up. But he’s also a suspicious cuss. He won’t take the agents to his hideout unless he speaks directly to General Habib.

This presents something of a problem as Bill discovers when he calls the White House asking the President to set the call up. Apparently, Habib is in the gentle hands of Fayed’s government and being “interrogated” himself. Lennox expresses concern about the plan, believing that regular methods of torture should be used rather than trying to get this call from Habib to Fayed. The President demurs, saying that “If Jack Bauer says that’s a dead end, then it’s a dead end and I believe him,” closing off all objections. But Wayne is noticeably weakening. His hands trembling and his gait unsteady, we realize it only a question of time before his body breaks down again and the country falls by default into the evil clutches of Vice President Daniels.

Meeting the Ambassador, Wayne bluntly tells the diplomat that they absolutely must have Habib talk to Fayed. Out of the question, says the Ambassador. He is not cooperating. We even arrested his family to put pressure on him.

Have you threatened to kill them, asks the President?

Even Tom is shocked to hear him say that. The Ambassador make a big show of being offended but the President satisfyingly bores in on the heart of the matter. “We know how you treat your dissidents” says the President so don’t give us any hypocritical nonsense about human rights. Gulping noticeably, the Ambassador promises to do what needs to be done.

CTU sets up the links to carry out the plan while Bill asks Nadia to translate for everyone. Needing a separate link for that purpose, she asks Milo to take care of it. But Milo is pouting. He thinks she’s being too friendly to Little Ricky, someone he still sees as a mortal enemy. After an intervention by Morris, the two go their separate ways with Nadia perplexed and Milo seething.

With a little geek magic, Habib is on the line talking to Fayed in a couple of minutes and ordering him to hook up with his men. The general also pretends to be angry at Fayed, telling him he “should have sent Sameer” to do the job. The gambit works and Fayed tells the driver where to go so that they can meet up with his men.

When this good news reaches the White House, Wayne rises unsteadily to his feet and dismisses the Ambassador. But something is really wrong this time and after Karen and the Ambassador leave, Tom is the only one there to catch Wayne as he collapses, crashing after his adrenaline high.

As Bill orders precautions against CTU being discovered, Nadia reports the disturbing news that the “Sameer” referred to by Habib has been dead for two years and is probably a duress code used by the general to let Fayed know he was being forced to cooperate. This galvanizes Jack who realizes the jig is probably up and he calls the agent in the armored car with the bad news.

Too late. The armored car has gone into a tunnel and just as Jack was spelling out his warning, the signal went dead. They close in on the armored car only to see it stalled in the middle of the tunnel with the back door open. There are two dead CTU agents and one badly wounded in the back of the car with Fayed no where to be seen.

Jack sees a possible avenue of escape for the terrorist – a door to a maintenance room – and goes through it just in time to see Fayed killing an innocent garbage truck driver. Not alerting Fayed to his presence, Jack pulls an Indiana Jones and gets underneath the truck, grabbing on to the axle for dear life as Fayed rolls away.

Jack tries to tell Bill where he is but the noise of the engine is too great. Bill orders the tape to be run through the audio computers for analysis and tells Chloe to backtrace the satellite so they can catch any vehicle exiting the tunnel.

Back at the White House, Wayne is in a bad way. His blood pressure is lower than Draculas and his brain may be expanding inside his skull faster than Timothy Leary on acid. He demands another shot of adrenaline – something his doctor will not do. The doc even threatens to resign if Wayne doesn’t get his butt down to medical. But the President will see this through on his feet or not at all. And herein lies the potential for more mischief from Vice President Daniels.

And now the grand confrontation begins as Fayed arrives at his hideout with Jack still in tow. Ordering his men inside to get ready and move the nukes, he leaves one lone guard to handle any trouble.

Big mistake. Jack sneaks up on the terrorist and breaks his neck with a satisfying crack. But even though Jack has several targets in his crosshairs, he wants to wait and make sure the nukes are at that location before meting out justice. As he glimpses Fayed closing the cases to the two bombs, Jack very deliberately begins his attack. The first two terrorists are dispatched almost before anyone knows he’s there. The resulting firefight has Jack taking out three more AK-47 armed terrorists, all the while moving toward Fayed with terrifying deliberation.

Recklessly exposing himself and still moving with a purposeful gait, Jack advances toward Fayed, both men emptying their guns at each other in a spasm of hate and violence as they edge toward the final battle.

Jack strikes first with a kick to Fayed’s head. And then it’s all in or nothing for both. Vicious kicks and punches elicit animal like grunts and groans as both men – trained in the deadly art of one on one combat – compete for a prize that each would give up in the right circumstances but that neither will allow the other; life.

In another time, another age, this would have been the way to settle a war. The King’s Champions would take the field and fight to the death. The winner standing over his fallen foe and asking if there were any other challenges. But in these less chivalrous times, Jack bites Fayed viciously on the shoulder as his adversary screams in pain while Fayed whacks Jack with a steel pipe knocking him to the ground.

Both men are near total exhaustion but Fayed is still on his feet. Moving in for the kill, he keeps Jack down with a couple of blows that would have felled a lumberjack, all the while Bauer is moving toward a hoist with a chain link cable. Picking up a piece of steel, Fayed attempts the coup de grace only to find his blows expertly blocked by the cable. It is then Jack proves the old adage “The biggest man in the world will collapse like a ton of bricks if you kick him in the back of the knee.” And that’s just what Jack does, Fayed going down like a sack of potatoes.

Quick as lightening, Jack has the cable around Fayed’s neck and with his disquieting epithet “Say hello to your brother,” Jack flips the lever. Up goes Fayed, hoisted the way terrorists, highwaymen, murderers, and horse thieves have gone to the hereafter for a hundreds of years; the hangman’s noose.

Little Ricky arrives on this scene of horrifying carnage and can only say, “Damn Jack.” No other words appeared necessary. He informs CTU that the bombs are now secured and Fayed is dead. Relief is dominant until, a phone call, a breathless Audrey begging for help, and the oily voice of the Chinese security agent Cheng telling Jack to do exactly what he says or Audrey will die.

Once again, Jack’s life is going to get very, very complicated.

BODY COUNT

A history making night for Jack as he sends 6 terrorists to hell, the most kills he’s had since I began the body count 3 seasons ago.

Fayed takes out two CTU agents and the luckless garbage truck driver.

TOTAL:

JACK: 23

SHOW: 403