When we last left 24-land, Jack and Agent Walker had captured Evil Tony, but after he had given the module that controls America’s infrastructure to General Juma’s top Colonel. President Taylor prepares the country for invasion of Juma’s territory, and federal agents are actually listening to Jack.

After the previously’s, we find ourselves in the Oval Office where Taylor is being briefed on Tony’s capture. She learns that Tony is working for Juma’s regime. An audio recording is brought forth and played for her. On it, Colonel Dubaku, who is now in possession of the CIP device (henceforth known as the the CIP thingie) and is demanding withdrawal of US forces from his country. He gives the US 3 hours to prove troops are in retreat. Taylor dispatches her advisers and tells them to let the FBI know Tony is their only lead. For the record, I love Cherry Jones.

Jack, Walker, Tony et. al. arrive back at the FBI office where Jack and Walker inform Moss that he’s got a leak somewhere on his team. Meanwhile Janice (Janeane Garofalo) preps Tony for interrogation. I don’t quite have a bead on her yet. She’s kind of weird like Chloe, but in a different way. I can’t explain it. Anyway, Walker also asks her to start looking for leaks.

As Jack stares hard at Tony through the glass partition of the interrogation room (again, no fancy security doors with card codes etc. Plain old doors here), Moss informs them that Tony’s working for the Juma regime. Jack tells them they are running out of time (hehe) and that he can get them the CIP thingie. Moss reluctantly agrees to let Jack talk to Tony.

The interrogation begins…

Or so it would seem. It begins with Jack just trying to understand what led Tony down this path. Tony says the government poisons everything. He did the deal with the CIP thingie for the money, plain and simple. Jack refuses to believe him. Soon, Tony’s yelling at Jack for working for the very people who are trying to prosecute him for doing his job. He brings up Terry, and well, there’s a chokehold involved here.

“So help me God I will kill you and you will stay dead this time.” Jack growls.

On the brink of losing consciousness, Tony whispers something to Jack. I can’t make it out, “Deep sky…” something. But I’m assuming Jack knows. He’s shunted out of the room, and he takes out his phone, dials a number and gives an old CTU code – the ‘Deep Sky’ thing… and Bill reveals who he is to Jack. Woah.

Bill!!! Oh I heart him

Bill asks Jack where Tony is and Jack lays it out. Bill looks stoic about hearing Tony’s been arrested. He tells Jack that he needs 10 minutes to set up a VPN line (omg a technospeak term I actually know and use. Freaky.) He hangs up and turns around… and there’s CHLOE!! Whahey! The hottest, sexiest, coolest girlgeek around

Oh for crying out loud, Tony was undercover. Bah, everyone who guessed ‘Undercover’ take a drink.

Bill and Chloe discuss the ramifications of Tony’s arrest and whether they should let Jack in on it and get his help.

At the White House, Taylor’s husband returns and is told that a secret regarding his son’s death was being kept from him. He committed suicide because he was about to be investigated by the SEC for insider trading. President Taylor knew of it but thought that keeping it from her husband would preserve his memory of their son. Meanwhile, she is briefed on stand-down procedures and faces an impossible choice: pull out and preserve American lives, or pull out and condemn thousands under Juma’s regime to death.

Jack gets his call from Bill who explains that (deep breath): Tony was under deep cover to expose government corruption as well as expose several members of President Taylor’s inner council who are working for Juma’s regime. Tony’s role was to always be near the CIP thingie, but now that he’s in custody, the situation is about to get dicey. Bill tells Jack that Chloe is in the FBI’s system – and Chloe chimes in with ‘Hi Jack, it’s good to hear your voice. I’ve been watching the hearings and I can’t believe what the senator said to you… you looked good though.” – BWAH!!

Jack tells Bill that Agent Walker can be of use, but Bill says she’d become a target. Jack agrees to do it Bill’s way and then waits for further instructions.

At the White House again, Taylor’s Husband (I will learn his name, I swear) gets a call from his son’s girlfriend who tells him that the suicide wasn’t real. That it was murder. She asks him for a meeting.

Back at the FBI, Janice finds a leak, but it turns out to be Creepy Sean monitoring FAA flights because his wife is on board one of them.

Chloe is tapped into the system and will begin guiding Jack and Tony out of the building by looping security feeds.

Man it’s like they’ve totally downgraded all the tech. Stripped the show to bare bones and made everyone work with realistic stuff. I mean, they’re using bluetooths for crying out loud

Jack takes out Walker with his Chokehold O’ Doom, grabs her identity card and gun. Bill is on his way to rendez-vous with Jack and Jack begins heading for the room Tony is held in. He takes out Moss and a guard and Chloe begins guiding them out of the building. While they wait for some people to pass by them, Tony apologises for some of the things he said. Unfortunately, while Chloe is helping them escape, Clever Janice and Creepy Sean find a bandwidth leak, which is Chloe. Oh dear.

Janice locks Chloe out, finds a cam feed showing Moss down and initiates a lockdown. Because nothing is ever easy. Let the battle of the girlygeeks commence!

Chloe gets her cams back up but not before the FBI discovers which stairwell they’re in. Chloe spots the ambush so Jack busts a window and they end up on the roof of the parking garage outside. They head north into the garage to meet Bill. More FBI guys pour in and Jack stays behind to draw their fire while Tony heads out to meet Bill. During the shootout, Jack breaks into a car, hot wires it, mutters, “This is gonna hurt.” and floors it while lying down in the seat. The car breaks through the garage barrier, nearly lands on Tony, and Bill arrives to scoop them up and get them out.

Jack demands to be told everything, but Bill makes him wait until they get to his hideout. And just like that, it’s over.

Phew! Hell of an hour! On to the next!