Monday, March 20, 2006
Tricky Jack
I love it when the show leads you down a certain path and you follow along on your merry way. It's a little dark and foggy but you're a trusting soul. But soon the light becomes dimmer and you find yourself stumbling a little until the light goes out altogether. That's when you fall down a hole.
That's how I felt when I saw the memory chip burst into flame. I freaking fell for it hook, line and sinker. I should know better by now. For years I've been watching Jack and the tricks up his sleeves and I still fell for it :)
Tonight felt like a bit of a calm before the storm - another transitory episode after a tumultuous couple of weeks with beloved characters dying left and right (yes dear fans, you're going to have to accept that Tony is indeed dead. Wishful thinking isn't going to bring him back and this ain't Days of our Lives where the dead rise again and again.) So we had some info to process, the most important being the intel Jack had to get from CTU's only lead in finding Bierko: an intelligence broker named Collette Stenger.
So first we find ourselves staring at Tony's body with a resolved Jack looking on as the sheet is draped over his body. But we're not given much time to grieve because Jack learns some intel was decrypted off Henderson's computer. Collette Stenger had apparently met with Bierko a couple of times in the recent past and she's in town this time. So off Curtis and Jack go to bring her in.
Meanwhile Homeland Security arrives at CTU under the guise of performing assessments of the place after the attack and loss of personnel. But they're really there to "absorb" the agency into Homeland Security and take over everything. Yeesh. Buchanan's not happy about it but reluctantly agrees to go along with the charade.
Logan - or should I say the Vice-President pulling the strings - declared a curfew for L.A. against Martha's wishes. Just after he made the announcement in a presser, Aaron received a surprise phone call from Wayne Palmer of all people. I didn't see that coming either. In fact I was in mid-sentence with my daughter when his mug flashed on the screen. Apparently Wayne has information that comes from David and Aaron's the only one Wayne trusts to give it to. So he gets past the curfew roadblocks and heads to the compound and that's pretty much the last we see of Wayne until the end of the hour.
Back to Jack and Curtis who have arrived at Stenger's hotel. But she's already left and sold her intel to Bierko. Bierko met her at a safe house and so we know by the time Jack gets to Stenger, Bierko won't be at that location anymore. But before she left to meet Bierko she kissed her lover goodbye and they were to meet at the airport in 45 minutes.
As Jack and Curtis scour the hotel, they run in to her lover on the roof who ambushed them. He ambushed them because it turns out he is an undercover German agent named Theo Stoller who's been working Stenger for her contacts for months. And he won't give her up to Jack.
Jack knows he won't be able to torture the info out of Stoller. So he offers a deal: the NSA "wet list" in exchange for Stenger. The wet list is the National Security Agencies top secret list of terrorist contacts worldwide. Compromising that list would be bad. So Jack gets his favourite geek to hack the NSA server covertly (well as covertly as splashing coffee on a guy to get him away from his computer can be) to get the list uploaded to his PDA.
She gets it done and Jack lets Stoller see the list but keeps the memory chip until Stenger in in custody. Now they're working together to get her. (Ok I just paused to admire the weirdness of those last four words I typed: together which is to get her smushed... together. Heheh. Ok yes I'm easily amused.)
As they wait at the airport for Stenger to show up Jack takes a call from CTU that Stoller forces him to put on speaker. Jack has to admit he gave up the wet list which of course pisses off Homeland Security but they have no choice but to let Jack carry on with his mission. Do they ever have a choice? Nope :)
They manage to apprehend Stenger and Stoller leaves with his intel. And then his intel promptly catches on fire because Jack programmed the chip to self-destruct. Hehehe. Jack rocks.
As they interrogate a nonplussed Stenger they realize the intel she can give them isn't much but what she can offer is good enough to warrant an immunity deal. All she knows about what she sold to Bierko is that they were schematics - but to what, she does not know for her own safety. She's just the broker after all. But she knows the source of the schematics and she'll tell Jack once she has a deal.
So we go back towards the compound and find Wayne stuck at a roadblock nearby. The officers there call the compound and the vice-president, Novick and the President hear the call. But we don't find out who okays it so Wayne can come up to the compound. But whomever did doesn't really want him there. A van appears out of nowhere and fires at Wayne causing him to crash. But he gets out of the car and runs off with three guys in black in pursuit.
Back with Jack, he waits for Stenger to confirm the immunity deal. Once she does, she gives up her info. She tells them where she last met Bierko...
and that the source of the intel is...
Audrey Raines.
Tick boom.
That's how I felt when I saw the memory chip burst into flame. I freaking fell for it hook, line and sinker. I should know better by now. For years I've been watching Jack and the tricks up his sleeves and I still fell for it :)
Tonight felt like a bit of a calm before the storm - another transitory episode after a tumultuous couple of weeks with beloved characters dying left and right (yes dear fans, you're going to have to accept that Tony is indeed dead. Wishful thinking isn't going to bring him back and this ain't Days of our Lives where the dead rise again and again.) So we had some info to process, the most important being the intel Jack had to get from CTU's only lead in finding Bierko: an intelligence broker named Collette Stenger.
So first we find ourselves staring at Tony's body with a resolved Jack looking on as the sheet is draped over his body. But we're not given much time to grieve because Jack learns some intel was decrypted off Henderson's computer. Collette Stenger had apparently met with Bierko a couple of times in the recent past and she's in town this time. So off Curtis and Jack go to bring her in.
Meanwhile Homeland Security arrives at CTU under the guise of performing assessments of the place after the attack and loss of personnel. But they're really there to "absorb" the agency into Homeland Security and take over everything. Yeesh. Buchanan's not happy about it but reluctantly agrees to go along with the charade.
Logan - or should I say the Vice-President pulling the strings - declared a curfew for L.A. against Martha's wishes. Just after he made the announcement in a presser, Aaron received a surprise phone call from Wayne Palmer of all people. I didn't see that coming either. In fact I was in mid-sentence with my daughter when his mug flashed on the screen. Apparently Wayne has information that comes from David and Aaron's the only one Wayne trusts to give it to. So he gets past the curfew roadblocks and heads to the compound and that's pretty much the last we see of Wayne until the end of the hour.
Back to Jack and Curtis who have arrived at Stenger's hotel. But she's already left and sold her intel to Bierko. Bierko met her at a safe house and so we know by the time Jack gets to Stenger, Bierko won't be at that location anymore. But before she left to meet Bierko she kissed her lover goodbye and they were to meet at the airport in 45 minutes.
As Jack and Curtis scour the hotel, they run in to her lover on the roof who ambushed them. He ambushed them because it turns out he is an undercover German agent named Theo Stoller who's been working Stenger for her contacts for months. And he won't give her up to Jack.
Jack knows he won't be able to torture the info out of Stoller. So he offers a deal: the NSA "wet list" in exchange for Stenger. The wet list is the National Security Agencies top secret list of terrorist contacts worldwide. Compromising that list would be bad. So Jack gets his favourite geek to hack the NSA server covertly (well as covertly as splashing coffee on a guy to get him away from his computer can be) to get the list uploaded to his PDA.
She gets it done and Jack lets Stoller see the list but keeps the memory chip until Stenger in in custody. Now they're working together to get her. (Ok I just paused to admire the weirdness of those last four words I typed: together which is to get her smushed... together. Heheh. Ok yes I'm easily amused.)
As they wait at the airport for Stenger to show up Jack takes a call from CTU that Stoller forces him to put on speaker. Jack has to admit he gave up the wet list which of course pisses off Homeland Security but they have no choice but to let Jack carry on with his mission. Do they ever have a choice? Nope :)
They manage to apprehend Stenger and Stoller leaves with his intel. And then his intel promptly catches on fire because Jack programmed the chip to self-destruct. Hehehe. Jack rocks.
As they interrogate a nonplussed Stenger they realize the intel she can give them isn't much but what she can offer is good enough to warrant an immunity deal. All she knows about what she sold to Bierko is that they were schematics - but to what, she does not know for her own safety. She's just the broker after all. But she knows the source of the schematics and she'll tell Jack once she has a deal.
So we go back towards the compound and find Wayne stuck at a roadblock nearby. The officers there call the compound and the vice-president, Novick and the President hear the call. But we don't find out who okays it so Wayne can come up to the compound. But whomever did doesn't really want him there. A van appears out of nowhere and fires at Wayne causing him to crash. But he gets out of the car and runs off with three guys in black in pursuit.
Back with Jack, he waits for Stenger to confirm the immunity deal. Once she does, she gives up her info. She tells them where she last met Bierko...
and that the source of the intel is...
Audrey Raines.
Tick boom.
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Buried
Bear with me tonight guys. I'm buried under a mountain of snow and am having trouble keeping my stupid internet connection going. I'll blather on after tonight's episode as usual but I might have probs getting it published.
I think we're having one of those 100 year storms right now.
But I swear if I lose power during 24, heads will be rolling :)
I think we're having one of those 100 year storms right now.
But I swear if I lose power during 24, heads will be rolling :)
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