24 Recap: Jack’s Revenge and Denny’s Grand Slam

24 is best when Jack is teetering on the brink and revenge is a driving emotion. For a person as unpredictable as Jack, it seems odd to say, but you can really predict that he’s going to do the right thing in the end. But when he has something driving him towards revenge…well, watch out bad guys. In Season 1 he had his family’s safety, Season 2 he had the goal of avenging his wife’s death, Season 3 was the return and death of Nina, Season 4 was the kidnapping of his girlfriend (Audrey, though this wasn’t really enough of a drive to keep him going all season), and Season 5 was avenging President Palmer’s death. The general theme that had been absent for a few seasons was back in full force once that sniper bullet went right through Freckles. Last night, we got a glimpse of the ultimate revenge plot: Jack Bauer has 4 hours to kill as many people responsible for Freckles death as possible. Strap in your seats, folks, because 24: Season 8 is not going to be making a clean landing.

Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone

John Wayne rode off into the sunset at the end of his movies, but Jack Bauer is not John Wayne. A tip of the hat to the 24 writers for realizing that (and needing a “jumping off point” to their movie) and making sure Jack’s last day on TV was like his 7 days before: controversial and full of twists and turns. Something snapped in Jack the second that Freckles was taken away from him as so many women had been taken away from him before. And because he’s never going to be the same, it makes the viewing audience that much more invested in Jack’s revenge. It’s Guy Pierce in Momento, Denzel Washington in Man on Fire, Uma Thurman from Kill Bill, Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver, and Sayid in LOST all rolled into one. Someone HAS to pay.

So how did we get to the shocking ending and--finally!--Denny’s death? Let’s review

We open up the episode with Dalia Hassan giving more gratitude to Taylor about her integrity…ugh. It was sort of a great speech, but it lost me when she said that. It was like when Michael Bluth and Maybe sang “Afternoon Delight” on Arrested Development. AWK-ward. FOX News covered the speech and followed the speech with one of their talking heads railing against the Muslim world and blaming Hassan’s death on the Liberals. Damn you, Obama, and your lack of American citizenship!

Sorry, but Glenn Beck just gets me so emotional. Back to the show! We Logan and his Executive Assistant talking about how they’re still committed to the “you know what” ending after Denny’s interrogation. I don’t get it. They’re going to share her as a sex slave like in Pulp Fiction? They’re going to turn her into a body suit like in Silence of the Lambs? Oh, wait, they’re just talking about killing her? Lame! Speaking of that interrogation, we open up on the scene of Denny getting waterboarded. Oh joy. More torture! Bledsoe tells Denny that she can stop this if she tells him where the evidence is and she says “bring it on”. I don’t think she’s talking about the cheerleading movie.

Speaking of torture, Jack is doing surveillance around the building while he cracks the window for FP jr so he can sit in the car. Seriously, could Cole not have gotten out of the car and helped? Did he need to check his BBMs for the day? Respond to some Facebook wall messages? Well Jack gets back in the car and Chloe calls FP jr. Him and Chloe talk and she says she feels bad but Jack threatened her and she’s never seen Jack like this. FP jr looks like he’s now torn about the situation. He looks even more torn when Jack gives him back his real bullets and he realizes he’s been carrying around blanks for a whole episode…sucker! Back at CTU, Chloe tells Arlo The Horndog that Jack needs a complete “eval” when he comes back. Arlo isn’t so sure that’s necessary. Chloe really does. We now are supposed to get that Chloe is really worried for Jack’s mental and emotional well-being. Got it.

Jack and FP jr. finally enter the building after Jack takes out a “sentry” (why ever “guard” this episode was called a “sentry”, I will never know, maybe the 24 writers had a macro for “sentry” and just decided to implement it this episode). There’s a lot more guys to get by, but Jack clears the room by reporting sniper fire on the roof. All units are a go. Jack points a gun to the surveillance lead’s knee, gets Denny’s room, and knocks the dude out. Jack blasts into the interrogation room and finds Bledsoe with a gun to Denny’s head. Bledsoe warns Jack to put his gun down or he’ll shoot. Jack decides that he’s not wasting any time with negotiation anymore* and puts one right into Bledsoe. Negotiate this, asshole! They grab Denny and start running. Jack fires and there are two more guards down…and another around the corner. Jack throws a flash grenade and escapes. Chloe and the rest of CTU realize Jack is out. Chloe realizes Jack has been two steps ahead of her the whole time and sports her first awesome Chloe-face of the episode. She puts out an APB on Jack. Oh, it’s on.

*Side Note: There are 4 hours left of the show. Jack does not have time to fuck around anymore. There’s not enough fucking time for that shit. It’s time for trigger-happy Jack!

“Tell Me What I Can Do”

We head back to Jack, FP jr and Denny driving along in the SUV. Jack tells Denny that she’s going to take her to the place where the evidence is but the deal is off the table now that the President has drank Logan’s Kool-Aid. She’s not so keen on telling Jack now that the deal’s off the table and says it’s the only thing keeping her alive. Jack gives her his word that if she hands over the evidence, he’ll protect her. With a laugh, Denny informs Jack that’s not good enough for her. “Your word?” Denny scoffs.

Well you don’t scoff at Jack Bauer. He pulled the SUV over, dragged Denny out, put the gun on her head and starts his count to three. FP jr yells at Jack to stop At one, she looks in his eyes and realizes that he’s serious. She says that it’s in her safety deposit box. Seriously? It was that simple? This box was a joint account with FP jr but it’s in her name. Burned again, FP jr. Denny tries to get in FP jr’s head and claims that Jack is going to go buck wild to kill everyone responsible once he gets the names. He tells her to shut up and throws her into the car. FP jr then throws Jack to the floor and Jack draws his gun. After a tense moment, they make up (FP jr is not a good actor).

Taylor gets the news that Jack’s out and runs out of the press room (this is a long conference for 24 standards). She gets on the phone with Logan (speakerphone, really?) and tells him that they need to fix this. “Denny was not safer in the safehouse,” she claims. They argue. Logan tells the President she can’t have buyer’s remorse. Then Logan suggests sending his Executive Assistant to CTU to oversee things. She agrees and then hangs up on him. Methinks there will be more buyer’s remorse*. Mikhael want to speak to Logan. The Attache for Mikhael is there and he’s a lot scarier than Logan’s Executive Assistant. They want to talk about Denny. Logan wants the Russians to kill Bauer and says it’s in everyone’s best interest that they do. They have the covert assets to do the job, claims Logan. Wait, there are Russian operatives in New York? Crap. Arlo and Chloe are talking about the manhunt when the Executive Assistant barges in to CTU. He has a hot assistant (oh that private sector!). He takes over and changes Jack’s status to “armed and dangerous” and to use whatever they need to kill him. Awkward Chloe face alert!

*Side Note: Taylor is now Chevy Chase from Vegas Vacation. No matter how far she’s in, she doubles down and plays some more. At this point, she’s with Randy Quaid digging through the desert for buried cash. She needs Nick Papageorgio from Yuma to win her some cars or something. She’s leveraged worse than Donald Trump at this point. And she’s idiotically conducting way too much of her business over the phone. Ever heard of Nixon, Madam President? You do not want your voice on anything that’s recorded. Can you just free Rob Weiss from jail and let him try to fix everything for you? At this point, you’ve committed way more crimes than he did.

Denny and FP jr walk into the bank (doesn’t someone notice that he’s sort of forcing her along?) and talk. He’s convinced that Jack wants to hold those responsible, responsible. He thinks that dignified Jack will make sure that the Russians are tried by the Hauge. She’s not at all convinced and thinks that he wouldn’t the chance in front a “Toothless Tribunal”. She repeats that she thinks Jack is going to kill everyone. FP jr tells Denny to shut up. 20 episodes too late, FP jr. But thanks for finally saying it. Denny and FP jr are escorted to a room and she offers the “truth”. Denny talks about how she had a record and was young and out on her own and some Russian guy could give her a start. Denny says that she then fell for FP jr and was trying to get out of the situation by using the evidence to blackmail. He doesn’t believe her. He shouldn’t have. She has not only a gun (Family Guy reference?)…but a flashbang in her box! FP jr goes down! She shoots the safety deposit box guy, calls the police on Bauer (her best acting of the season)…and escapes! But not before touching FP jr lovingly, because she’s so conflicted in her emotions.

CTU is a power struggle as they try to get the bank’s surveillance on Cisco Surveillance manager. They’re trying to do face recognition for Bauer and quickly scan through everyone. They find him (it took the authorities a few days to find the Times Square bomber using the same technology? This is why we need a real CTU branch of the government). The Executive Assistant sends the Russians to kill Jack while in custody. Jack is about to get captured by two policemen when he sees Denny walking across the room. He takes hold of one guard, gets the other to drop his weapon (yelling "do you know who I am?"*), apologizes (wait, for what?), shoots that guy in the foot (oh, that), and leaves.

*Side Note: I'm not sure we do know who you are, Jack. But we do know you're a bad motherfucker at this point

Denny is shooting innocents as she’s trying to escape and Jack fires back in the middle of the street. It’s the O.K. Corral in the Wild West [Village]. Jack follows her into a construction site (no police sirens yet?). Jack throws his jacket and gets Denny to use up her ammo. He follows her and gets her to give the evidence to him. Jack keeps the gun pointed at her and walks slowly up towards her. She desperately asks "what can I do?." He says "nothing", sniffles, and shoots her point blank in the chest—and then once in the neck for good measure. Ding dong, the witch is dead! WHOA!

Conclusion

Whoa. Jack has shot people in cold blood before (Drazen at the end of Season 1, Nina in Season 3), but you knew this one was just the beginning of many deaths on Jack's hands. There was a lot less Taylor/Logan BS and more Jack shooting people this episode which was certainly a nice change of pace. It's 4 hours until the end and Jack is a man on the edge. Chloe can't stop him. FP jr can't stop him. CTU, Logan, and the US Government probably don't stand a chance either. Jack's just out for blood at this point and I'm ready for the ride to the end. And Denny's dead which is something I've been wishing for since about episode 1. Three more Monday nights left. Jack Bauer is all about revenge at this point. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick...

Season grade so far: A- Maybe an A by season's end. This was exactly what 24 needed to do: give Jack a real mission. The whole "do your duty and protect your country" bit was old. We needed the old Jack back. He's back. Oh boy. And the Nina Myers-esque scene where Jack was sure that Denny had nothing left to give him and then killed her was cathartic for Jack and the audience as a whole. And it ended one of the Worst.Sideplots.Ever. since Kim Bauer's cougar episode in Season 2 (and wait until Milton's body starts smelling up the office!).

Best line of the week: “Tell me what I can do,” Denny to Jack. Perfectly delivered (best acting from Denny all season), perfect question for Jack...and one that he answered exactly how you'd expect. The only answer out there. "Nothing." Total awesomeness.

Best moment of the week: The last two gun shots. One shot in the chest let us know that Jack was a man on a mission--the second one to the neck showed us that this is take-no-prisoner Jack. I fear for even Chloe's safety at this point if she crosses him. That last shot was for all the people Jack held back on killing all these years. I feel like it was a message to people like Logan--I'm coming after you and I'm not going to think twice

Ari's body count: 92. Jack killed Bledsoe, two around the corner, and one more before the flashbang (I'm guessing they were just temporary blinded but didn't die). Denny killed the safety deposit box guy and an innocent bystander. And then Jack killed Denny. Love it. More deaths!

Thoughts? Did you love it as well? Scared by new Bauer or excited? Ready for the last three Mondays of 24, ever? Leave your comments below and let us know!

All pictures from FOX.com