Day 5: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Characters Introduced:

• Karen Hayes (Jayne Atkinson): In the hour that Lynn dies, someone from Homeland Security that just wants to run CTU her way replaces him. This type of character is so tiring even if Karen does grow into something better eventually.
• Collette Stenger (Stana Katic): One of those bad people in the CTU universe that has access to everything for a price.
• Theo Stoller (Henry Ian Cusick): Who gives a shit about Theo Stoller? It’s Desmond Hume!
• Miles Papazian (Stephen Spinell): I literally wrote, “Miles is a prick” in every single hour he appeared. I hate this guy because all he does is hate on people who work at CTU.

Returning Characters:

None

Key Moments:

• Bill is on the phone with Curtis and is told that chemical response cannot reach CTU for 30 minutes. Jack and Bill discuss how fucked they are. Jack tries to get the catatonic Chloe back to work. Creepy therapist offers to help and Jack has other things to do so he lets him. It may have also been because his next step would probably have been to start slapping Chloe around.
• Lynn admits to the guard in his holding cell that the nerve gas got in because of his keycard.
• Tony is out of bed and sees the dead bodies everywhere.
• Audrey gets Jack through to medical but when he starts talking to Dr. Besson Tony chokes him out so he can kill Henderson. He puts a gun on Henderson but Jack is able to talk him down.
• Karen recommends to Logan and Gardner that Homeland Security takeover CTU and replace the staff with their people.
• Bierko is moving the rest of the canisters to the next target.
• Jack needs Chloe’s help but creepy therapist opens his mouth, a mistake, and leads to Jack choking him nearly unconscious. Chloe snaps to and says she will get to work if it everyone will calm down. New alarms go off because the gas is corrosive and eating through into their safe zones. They will be dead in 15 minutes.
• Bill confirms that the gas will kill them before Curtis arrives. Chloe figures out that Ostroff did something on a computer that needs to be shutdown from that computer. Jack will need to go through a contaminated area in order to shutdown the program. Jack heads into the walls of CTU.
• Jack is spelunking through CTU. He duct tapes a hatch so the safe zone doesn’t get contaminated. Duct tape can do that; I saw Mythbusters. He takes a deep breath and heads into the gas but is stopped by bars blocking his way. He gets back into the airlock and signals Chloe. Chloe finds the bars in another schematic and says the only person that can reach will have to be from holding. Jack calls Lynn and convinces him that only he can do this and he will die in the effort. The redshirt will also die but who cares about him.
• Lynn takes a deep breath and heads into the gas. He shuts down the program and makes it back to the holding cell. Chloe gets the AC working and reports that CTU should be clean in 15 minutes. Jack tells Lynn and the guard that it worked and that he is sorry. The guard dies first and then Lynn gets the close-up slow death. Kim sees how much this hurts her father but doesn’t comfort him in any way.
• Jack is getting ready to head to Henderson and tells Chloe to concentrate on his files. He moves to talk to Kim but she damn near tells him to fuck off. I hate your guts Kim Bauer. Audrey asks Jack if he is all right and he just says “no”.
• Mike and Martha try to explain to Charles that Gardner’s marshal law statement is a bad idea. Martha switches to a personal plea and Charles breaks down because he doesn’t know how much more he can take. These Itzin scenes are amazing.
• Bierko calls Stenger about the schematics he needs for his next attack. Stenger is a female baddie so she is in bed with a man. Don’t be so obvious because I’m growing tired of this 24.
• Karen calls Bill to tell him that Homeland Security is on their way to fuck up your shit, which the prick, Miles, is already doing to their computers.
• The barriers lift and Jack says goodbye to Kim before heading to Henderson.
• Henderson is unconscious and Tony tells Jack that he is taking over. He knocks out the agent with him and gets some wacky drugs ready to finish off Henderson. He stands over him but can’t do it. Henderson does the horror movie awakening and stabs Tony with his own needle. He runs off. Jack rushes into medical to see the aftermath and holds Tony as he is dying. Tony says, “she’s gone” and dies. You hear me 24 he dies. Jack cries. There is no silent clock but I haven’t decided if season 7 exists yet.

Ridiculousness:

• I need to understand something. Does CTU not have shifts of people to do the work? Chloe doesn’t work 24/7 so there have to be an entire lineup of CTU workers who were not in the office when the nerve gas was released. Couldn’t they come in and replace the dead folk? And why does it seem that Homeland Security is firing everyone from CTU? Nerve gas killed dozens of your coworkers so we feel the most humane thing to do will be to fire the rest of you.
• And now we know why a random holding cell became a safe zone, we needed to give Lynn McGill a heroic death. Couldn’t he have at least been in Bill’s office or something? No, they are able to keep one holding room out of whatever number of holding rooms they have safe?

Running Totals:

The healing power of Jack tears: 1 (9)

• Jack loses his best non-Chloe friend.