1:00 PM - 2:00 PM "BACK ON TRACK"

1:02 Jack is in the chopper, tracking McCarthy. Chloe has trouble with the satellite due to apparent emotional distress.

1:03 Bill learns of Graem’s death about three minutes after.

1:04 Chloe misses one lousy satellite feed, and Milo asks to remove her because of her apparent emotional distress over Morris. This latest bureaucratic shuffle took less than minutes. Remember the old days when it took hours to remove someone? Or back when Tony or Michelle operated with each other kidnapped all the time?

1:05 McCarthy sees the chopper overhead. Finally, some f’in’ action.

1:06 Where does McCarthy think he’s going, moving through traffic like the LAPD are on his ass? There’s a damn chopper tracking him! Then his dumb-as-a-rock girlfriend Rita asks “Are they still there?” Ha.

Oh, the 110 interchange overpass. Crafty bugger, that McCarthy …

1:07 McCarthy begins checking cars for keys like the contestants at the end of the old Hollywood Squares. What the hell? Does everyone on this show know how to hotwire a car? I guess …

1:08 Jack lands the chopper on two trucks. Awesome. Rita gives McCarthy some grief about his plan. “You did not tell me this was about nuclear bombs.” Jesus, women are such a pain the ass.

1:09 Jack is always a minute too late, isn’t he? I also like how the writers are, for once, utilizing L.A.’s unbelievably confusing and complex freeway system as a plotpoint.

1:10 Cool window split-screen between Chloe and Morris. Fayed gives McCarthy the address. Why can’t CTU just intercept this call like they do the rest of the time?

1:11 Morris is overjoyed when Rita kills McCarthy. Ahhhh, good twist. She’s doing it for her own payday. It was only a matter of time before 24 introduced its first retarded female character this season – other than Sandra Palmer. Hey, maybe that’s why this week’s episodes were so good. No Sandra Palmer!

1:16 President Palmer extends olive branch to Lennox, revealing that he was the one who convinced him to run. Lennox is so Karl Rove.

1:17 TIME CHECK: The plane carrying Hassad lands at Andrews Air Force Base roughly three hours after leaving Los Angeles – 4:00 P.M. EST. Isn’t LAX to Dulles a 6-hour domestic flight? I’m just curious if military aircraft can cut that time in half. Maybe they can …

1:18 Lennox finally loses it like a caged squirrel. MacNicol is still this season’s most valuable player. So good. I’ve been waiting for this explosion all season.

1:19 Lennox comments that Wayne is certainly “not his brother.” He’s right. President David Palmer would never have allowed Lennox in the administration in the first place.

1:20 Reed speaks with “Carson” by phone about some sinister plot to remove Wayne. Another president being removed in the course of a day … Old wine in new bottles, I guess. But really, really good wine.

1:21 Marilyn and Josh arrive at CTU. Someone’s definitely not coming out alive. The Bauer family doesn’t have very good luck in this building. Bill ensures Marilyn that “there will be a thorough investigation” involving Graem’s death. Question: Has CTU ever conducted a thorough investigation of anything?

1:22 Jack sure did get lucky finding McCarthy’s body so quickly and so close to the 110 interchange.

1:24 Morris tells Fayed, “Not bloody likely, mate.” Morris is such a wimp. He’s going to reprogram the bombs in 2 seconds once Fayed starts really working on him. Ouch. Are they beating him with a 9-iron?

1:30 Chloe helps Milo trace the call back to Fayed and runs a sat-com overlay filter because the number strings are caught on a loop matrix. I got my boss coffee this morning.

Chloe saves the day and locates Fayed’s address, thus ending the most contrived and quickest CTU worker upheaval ever. Chloe’s emotional distress has disappeared.

1:32 Assad arrives at the President’s bunker. I find it hard to believe that Wayne would negotiate with him directly face-to-face. There goes that whole “We don’t negotiate with terrorists” thing. Nice going, Wayne …

1:35 Jack gets briefed at the building of Morris’ location by Agent Billy Bush. Inside, Chloe and Nadia track the residents with thermal imaging. Jack asks if the building is linked to the city’s fire emergency system. Chloe replies that all L.A. apartments with more than 10 units are required to. Does she know all useless Los Angeles city code?

1:37 Fayed tells Morris that his “time is up” and drills a hole in Morris’ shoulder blade with a power drill. Yeah, he’s going to feel that tomorrow.

Fayed kills Dumb Blonde. Absolutely shocking. Seriously, I did not see that coming.

1:38 Morris gives in and agrees to program the detonator. What a pussy …

1:43 Reed pitches the idea of removing the President to Lennox. I think Lennox is more of a patriot than I took him for. He’s devious, and he’ll do what he wants to get his way as long as nobody gets hurt, but I think he plays by the rules for the most part.

1:46 CTU sure is good with obtaining computer records of apartment residents in a pickle.

1:47 Question for Smock. McCarthy said this job could be done in a few minutes by an advanced programmer. Does this mean Smock could arm a suitcase nuke?

1:48 Morris goes ahead and arms the nuke. What a fucktard.

1:49 Jack is always a minute too late, isn’t he? Good shootout inside the apartment.

1:50 Jack discovers suitcase nuke and delivers the line of the night: “CTU, this is Bauer. We got a problem.”

1:55 Chloe talks Jack through disarming a nuclear bomb. Shouldn’t there have been a bomb squad outside with the field team??? Why does Jack have to do this?

1:56 Jack: “Come on, Chloe, we are running out of time.”

1:57 Jack: “Chloe, we are almost out of time.”

1:58 Jack disarms the bomb and chastises Morris for giving Fayed something that actually works with the nuke. I can’t imagine being yelled at by Jack Bauer, but it would probably be quickly followed by me crapping my pants.

1:59 Lennox changes his mind after reading the flash about Fayed? That’s all it takes? Lennox is playing him. He’ll be a mole inside this splinter group, gaining intelligence for the President.

1:59:58 … 1:59:59 … 2:00:00