Good & Bad: '24: Live Another Day' (7/7/14)

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“24: Live Another Day” Hour 11

Plot: I don’t want to say things I can’t take back, but this episode wasn’t terrible. Not terrible at all.

                Jack and Kate win their shootout with the Russians thanks to a helping hand from the back up crew that was following behind their car. They soon find themselves in the command center which was recently occupied by Cheng and his cohorts. Thanks to a clever ruse by Chloe involving a cell phone audio recorder app, they find out Cheng is not only not dead, but he’s very much involved in the day’s predicaments.

                While people are finding out stuff, Jack tells the Prez that Cheng is still among the living, Audrey overhears this and then Jack finds out the Russians found him because of Mark. Uh-oh. Jack goes and yells at Mark, the Prez is all “Treason!” and stuff, but Jack has other plans.

                He sends Mark into the Russian guy with two moustaches’ pad to help find out where Cheng is. Russian guy is working with Cheng by the way. Jack and Kate storm the place shortly after, shots are fired, Mark wrestles moustache guy and eventually moustache guy ends up dead with a giant piece of glass in his neck. So … no Cheng.

                Meanwhile, Cheng. He’s driving around with Chloe in tow, planning on leaving the country and then causing more mischief. At some point Chloe elects that she’s done being a hostage. So she beats up a bunch of Chinese dudes with a pipe, jumps out of a moving truck, rolls down a giant hill, hits her head on the ground and goes all unconscious. I guess, as far as escape attempts go, we can call that a … push? Cheng’s dudes are looking for her, but the British army shows up and scares them off.

                Near the end of the episode, China is getting ready to attack America since it thinks America blew up its ship and it’s up to Audrey to prevent this.

                Which means you might as well start the prep work for WWIII now.

Anyway, Audrey goes and meets up with the Chinese leader’s daughter and gives her some evidence that will hopefully get America off the hook. Naturally, since this is an Audrey mission, everything goes wrong, everyone ends up dead but Audrey, who finds herself captured by the enemy and in need of saving. Awesome. 

Good: Cheng don’t care ‘bout China since China don’t care ‘bout Cheng. Cheng teamed up with the Russians and plans to break the world. He’s like a small, Asian version of WWE’s Rusev. Only instead of a gorgeous blonde by his side, Cheng has a portly Russian dude with a moustache on his upper and lower lips.        

Good: Chloe playing games. She picks up that cell phone and the mind reels with possibilities. What’s she going to do? Use it to hack into the CIA database and alert them to her location? Reprogram it to be a laser? Text Jack the word “H3lp?” Nope, she knows she’ll get caught with it, hits record so when Jack finds it, he knows what he’s up against. That’s the opposite of Audrey in every way.

Good/bad: I don’t know. I honestly have no clue what Mark’s motivation is. Sometimes he seems like he was genuinely trying to help by forging the Prez’s signature and turning Jack over to the Russians. Other times, he just seems like a dick who just doesn’t like Jack.

Bad: Jack is now 12 years old. In one episode he says: “I don’t want you to hate me forever” and “He’s a covert Intel operator, you idiot!” You do know that if you don’t show a little hustle here, forever could be like 7 minutes and then the Chinese start nuking everything in sight. You idiot.  

Bad: Not to be outdone, Mark chimes in with a “I know you hate me for what I tried to do to you,” of his own. Well, when you put it like that, it kind of sounds like you tried to hook up with his girlfriend while you were drunk. Not, you know, tried to doom him to a good solid life of extreme torture and prayers for death.

Good: Chloe kicks some butt. Looks like she’s picked up a thing or two after spending all those years hanging out with Jack. Has Chloe rubbed off on Jack? I think the 12:00 that’s currently flashing on his VCR at home answers that question.

Bad: Kate spends the entire episode just scowling in the car and she still did more than Audrey. Zero and angry faces is better than what Audrey managed.

Good: Mark goes into the mustache house. Everything about this is tense and awesome. It’s way too short, but it’s nail-biting, even though I don’t know if I’m supposed to like him or want him dead or not. One of, if not the best sequence of the season. This is “24” at its best.

Bad: Audrey. Audrey, Audrey, Audrey. We need to talk about this “helping” thing you keep trying to do. Sometimes the best way to “help” is to lock yourself in a small room and wait until the coast is clear. Or go somewhere else. Like Kim Bauer is currently doing. That way, no one has to worry about saving you AND the world. Doing one is hard enough.