Episode Report Card Gustave: B- | 0 USERS: N/A YOU GRADE IT Day 2: 11:00 PM - 12:00 AM
By Gustave | Season 2 | Episode 16 | Aired on March 24, 2003
In times like these, we all need a hero. Yeah, sing it, Pearl Jam...I mean, Creed. 24 has returned. An all-new episode starts now. Electric blue Kiefer. Electric blue Spawn. Electric blue Palmer. Nice of them to acknowledge the other cast members one more time. I guess Fox is getting cocky about the new ratings and assumes that we're all on board, because there's no Kiefer intro speech this week about this being the longest day of his life, despite our three-week hiatus.
Previouslys. The B-O-M-B must be flown and detonated over the Mojave Desert. Kiefer volunteers to fly the plane for what is essentially a suicide mission. Palmer takes Air Force One to Los Angeles. A Fauxraqistani intelligence liaison shows up at CTU and immediately starts clashing with Soul Patch. A recording is found in Syed Ali's apartment that links the B-O-M-B to "three Middle Eastern countries." Spawn finally gets a hold of Kiefer by phone, only to find out that her father is going to die. Mason sneaks aboard Flight 86 and relieves us of a Kiefer-free show. Holy shiitake! It's a mushroom cloud!
Mojave Desert. The mushroom cloud is still abloom. I've always thought that mushroom clouds were really pretty -- despite the fact that they're caused by the mega-deadly explosion of a nuclear warhead -- and this one is no exception. It's all saturated red and gold like a Maxfield Parrish landscape or an old Rheingold beer ad. At CTU, the agents watch the explosion on a variety of video screens. Soul Patch is dumbfounded. Lesbo-Carrie is dreaming of all the sweet pussy she's going to get from all the terrified women of Los Angeles. Meanwhile, on Air Force One, Palmer sits with PoorMan'sHumeCronyn and watches the explosion from the air in his private cabin. Through his window, it just looks like a sunrise. He's fascinated and yet terrified by the sight of it. A grief-stricken Rolaide enters his cabin and studies his reaction. From the highway, Spawn cries over what she thinks is the death of her father as she watches the mushroom cloud that took him looming over the mountains. A sad piano theme plays as she turns away and sits down on the curb. "Daddy!" she cries, running her fingers through her hair and giving us a nice long look at her immaculate manicure. An electrically generated boy's choir sings in the background.
A flare is lit. And then another. And another. It's Kiefer on the ground, signaling for a CTU chopper to bring him back to CTU. Trumpets announce the arrival of a chopper that lands amidst the smoky blue and orange flames streaming from the burning flares.