“24” Day 7, Hour 14: Morris Should Have Stalled For Time

Lesson Learned: “Every war worth fighting involves collateral damage.”

Thank Jonas Hodges for the lesson of last night’s episode and for the wonderfully warped remark, “Tell them to pack their pajamas and toothbrushes, it’s going to be a long night.” That comment puts Hodges as villain in a spot reserved for the “mayor-who-turned-into-a-big-snake” in an end-of-season apocalypse on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Maybe Hodges will get blown up, too, before Day 7 ends? Maybe the bioweapon he imported will even turn him into a big snake first. Now that would be an impressive climax.

Day 7 has so far resembled a set of Russian stacking bad guy dolls. First Dubaku, the little genocidal maniac. Then Juma, the Sangala rebel bigwig. Then Hodges, a megavillain who may be about to wipe out a good part of the Eastern Seaboard to bring down the government. He doesn’t seem to be in it precisely for the money – a refreshing change in this era of Madoff and AIG – unless he is worshipping the dollars that will go down the tube if Starkwood, his company, is forced out of business.

This episode opens with the reappearance of Morris, Chloe’s oddly sexy and self-serving hubby (don’t we all just love those really smart scoundrels?) who arrives at FBI headquarters to pick up his wife and finds she may be facing 15 years in the slammer. Meanwhile, Renee is being suspended and rather than go home, she returns to her office to clean out her desk and help Jack identify John Quinn, the man who killed Ryan Burnett as he lay helpless in a hospital room. Moss knows she’s been helping Jack but Janis can’t crack Renee’s encryption so they turn to Morris. No fool, he negotiates Chloe’s release and in about half a minute the code. Wow, that man is a programming superhero, a regular Iron Man of the keyboard! He should have made it look harder, and I guess it was pride that made him show off (and another chance for the series writers to take a dig at FBI ineptness). I doubt Janis will recommend him for a job anytime soon. Moss has Renee arrested for helping Jack.

Quinn is a trained soldier who works for Starkwood. Since Sen. Mayer had been investigating Starkwood, Jack decides to pay the senator a visit. There, he and the senator learn that Starkwood has used Sangala as a base to develop a bioweapon.

Mayer, who has been such a weasel up to this moment, believes this. And, in one of the best quiet moments ever on 24 – in which viewers are still on the edge of their seats because the FBI is on its way – he and Jack have a conversation in which Jack admits all his regrets about his family and the friends he has lost, then adds, “I regret most that this world even needs people like me.”

Mayer understands, sympathizes. When someone knocks on the door and says it’s the police, Mayer tells Jack he shouldn’t have to go it alone. He needs to trust someone. “Trust isn’t my greatest asset,” Jack responds.

“Son, you have to start somewhere,” Mayer tells him, opens the door and gets shot and killed by Quinn. A chase ensues and Jack brings down Quinn. As Quinn is dying, he tells Jack the weapon is already here. Using Quinn’s cell phone, Jack sees a text that it has come into the port at Alexandria.

Next week: Darkness. Nasty weapon. Evil arms dealer. Tony and Jack together again. Ethan resigns – or does he?