24 In Pictures

Episode Recap

SECOND SEASON Part One
Day 2: 8AM to 12PM

2-1: 8AM to 9AM / 2-2: 9AM to 10AM / 2-3: 10AM to 11AM / 2-4: 11AM to 12PM

2-1: 8AM to 9AM

8:00AM
It's 12:00AM in Seoul, South Korea. A Korean guy is being tortured, his body hanging from some weird contraption and his hands and feet dipped in some weird stuffs that look like what spoiled orange juice might look like. Whatever it is, I can't help but think that plain simple, old-fashioned nail-ripping or closing-door-with-hands-in-hinge would get the job done better. Or they could have at last shown Jack's towel in action. Granted I'm no expert in art of torture, but I bet this is a byproduct of undue fascination with high technology, not unlike those newly-installed fancy upgrades, which you might see at your company, that are not nearly as effective as old ones. Nevertheless, it gets the job done as the tortured guy murmurs, "this season", I mean, "today". Heh, that was hard to guess. This information is passed on to NSA.

8:02AM
Pres. David Palmer is fishing with his son in some undisclosed, secret location. Supposedly it is Lake Oswego in Oregon, but it has been reported by local fans at various forums that it's not the case. It is also established that Lady McPalmer is indeed now ex-Lady McPalmer.
Meanwhile, Spawn (AKA Kim Bauer), who dropped out of high school to grieve her mother who died 18 months ago - yeah, that's right - is au pair with her own Mini-me (AKA Megan Matheson). Mini-me likes a game of hide and seek with PsychoDad (AKA Gary Matheson), which teaches her some vital survival skills.

8:06AM
George Mason, who was supposed to be in D.C by now, is not thrilled about dealing with grandmothers whose knitting needles set off alarms at LAX. He is even less thrilled when directed by NSA to call in Jack Bauer.
Jack, who dons lumberjack attire to grieve Bride of Kiefer's death, goes off to stalk Spawn.

8:08AM
Palmer arrives at Northwest Regional Operations Complex to be greeted by creepy Raygun (AKA Eric Rayburn) and Advisor Ro (AKA Lynne Kresge), who is promoted all the way from Ensign to Palmer's most trusted Advisor of some sort. Raygun reports that the Second Wave, the Middle Eastern terrorist organization which is supported by Fauxiraqistan, is planning a nuclear attack on LA today.

8:12AM
PsychoDad commends Spawn on her great body and keeps sending creepy vibes. Spawn has taken to swiming since her adventure in LA Harbor.
Palmer preaches Bush doctrine to Prime Minister of Fauxiraqistan.

8:16AM
Jack gets a call from his old friend, Mason. Not surprisingly, he still doesn't want anything to do with CTU. Not only Bride of Kiefer died at CTU, but the bastards even refused to trade Jack for Alexis Drazen. If I were Jack, I'd be more pissed about latter. And Spawn doesn't want anything to do with Jack, whom she has wrapped around her finger, I might say. Frankly, I can't help but wonder if Spawn isn't actually enjoying all this freedom. Denied the permission to speak with Her Spawnness, Jack meekly withdraws from Her audience.

8:17AM
Raygun, well, wants to shoot gamma-rays into Fauxiraqistan's ass. He insists on getting Pentagon involved. Palmer, who is not named Bush, is less inclined.

8:18AM
RedHerring (AKA Reza) is speaking in his native Arabic, which means he's suspicous and not to be trusted. Not only that, he talks on his cellphone while driving. (Actually everyone else does, the most offensive offender being Jack himself. Thank God it's not set in NY, or he would've become a bum from all those fines already.) He's to marry Marie (AKA BrideBlonde) this season, that is, today and SisterBlonde (AKA Kate Warner) is hell-bent to stop it.

8:24AM
Jack returns home to his answering machine filled with messages from CTU and Berkeley Alumni Association. Actually they don't show the latter, but I am pretty sure about it. Jack gazes intently at a drawer containing his gun and family photo. I'll go out on a limb and predict that Jack is not going to kill himself any time soon. This LumberJack period is finally over when he is called by President himself to get his ass to CTU ASAP.

8:28AM
Nothing much happens. Darlene (AKA Paula Schaeffer) tries too hard to please. Nina 2.0 (AKA Michelle Dessler) is suspicious. BTW what's up with all these German names (Bauer, Myers, Dessler, Kresge, etc)? Truth is out there.

8:31AM
Mason has even more reason to be upset about the broken promise; he informs CTU department heads - which is about everybody - that LA may go kaboom with himself in the middle of it. Projected casualty is 2.5 million, because anything less wouldn't be high enough stake for Jack's service.

8:36AM
A Middle Eastern guy is assembling the BOMB with a spoon. He's putting some weird yellowish powder into what looks like a warhead to this layman. The terrorists are kind enough to comply with Environmental Protectioan Agency by clearly displaying the sign 'radioactive material'.
Jack hears the news at CTU: Her Spawnness is in danger! Jack beseeches Her Spawnness to go to Aunt Carol's because he has inside information. If she listened to her counter-terrorist daddy, she wouldn't be Spawn, would she? And it would have caused a lot of debates in the forums whether Spawn was switched with FauxSpawn by terrorists. But Spawn displays her Spawnness with brutal clarity and hangs up on Jack.
Jack will save the world on the condition that CTU concentrates its resources on finding Spawn, because that's what it's gonna take to get Kim. He wants update on Her Spawnness from SoulPatch (AKA Tony Almeida) because he doesn't trust Mason. I can only wonder, why did Jack ever trust Mason? He shot Mason with tranquilizer gun for God's sake. SoulPatch shaved off his soul patch, and there was no mole hiding behind it.
Jack learns that the man he put behind bars after undercover work, Joseph Wald has a link to the Second Wave. Usually, it would take 6 weeks to reestablish cover (I imagine much shorter for female agents), but Jack must do it in less than 2 hours. Jack insists that he must talk to Marshall Goren, the state's only witness agaisnt Joe in upcoming trial to take the shortcut.

8:46AM
RedHerring is upset that BrideBlonde is a 'damaged good', I guess he's a virgin then. SisterBlonde learns from her private investigator that RedHerring has had contacts with a certain terrorist financier named Sayed Ali. (I bet one of rejected first name was Muhammad)

8:49AM
Palmer is told by Advisor Ro that the Joint Chiefs are waiting to speak with him on Raygun's say-so. Raygun claims that he would never work against him, but Palmer doesn't get the nuance! No wonder Ex-Lady McPalmer could play him for 7 years.
At CTU, Bang! Jack shoots Marshall Goren the pederast-turned-witness in the heart. And he's going to need a hacksaw! After all, there will be a short cut. This is way beyond badass. This is badmutha. Mason nearly soils himself, and it won't be the last time. In few minutes, whatever it was, Jack is done with his hacksaw and has shaven off his beard clean. Transformation is complete. LumberJack is now BadmuthaJack, ready to blow away all the bad guys in the world.
At Psycho Mansion, PsychoDad is screaming at WifeBlonde (AKA Carla Matheson) and it's time for Mimi-me to apply what she learned playing hide and seek. It's to no avail as she's grabbed by PsychoDad and falls hard on her head.


2-2: 9AM to 10AM

9:00AM
Now we learn for the first time that Palmer is obsessed with mass hysteria. From now on, every other utterance of his ends with mass hysteria, so I lost count.
Spawn and her Mini-me get a SUV from WifeBlonde and escape from Psycho Manor.

9:05AM
In helicopter, Jack orders Nina 2.0 that no other agent get near his operation. He doesn't want them to see whatever it is in his duffelbag when it comes out rolling.
With Palmer, nothing much happens though he gets to say mass hysteria few more times.
BTW, it is now confirmed that there is advanced teleport technology at CTU - this is yet to be disclosed - which allows agents get to anywhere from CTU and vice versa. It was suspected when the witness Goren arrived at CTU in no time. Now Nina 2.0, who was with Jack in helicopter a minute ago, is back at work. It can only mean that there is UFO, from which this technology must have been copied.

9:09AM
At some auto shop, Jack (Roush) has reunion with his old buddy, Eddie Grant. There's a gift for Joe in the duffelbag. Jack must have had too much fun with hacksaw. Out comes the plastic head of Goren. That's good enough for Eddie, so Jack reestablishes his cover in record time, one full minute.

9:16AM
Palmer explains to the press that he cut short his fishing excursion because he already caught his quota. His own environmental policy came back to haunt him. But there is one suspicious reporter who seems hell-bent in starting mass hysteria.

9:17AM
Spawn manages to be stuck in an alley just as PsychoDad blocks it. PsychoDad calls Mini-me, and maybe she will be safer with PsychoDad than with Spawn. Just ask Janet York (of Season One). Spawnness reaches new height when she gets out of SUV to flee on foot with Mini-me. Come on, it's SUV vs. tiny Porsche. Didn't Jack tell her about now legendary 'Gunfight at CTU Corral', in which his SUV crushed Nina's car? But the way it is, it's accomplishment that Spawn didn't run herself over.

9:20AM
Eddie's crony Dave is suspicious that Jack walks off the street into their lair today of all days (or this seaon of all seasons). They have something big planned with explosives and all. But they are not as big spenders as the Drazens, so they have only one van. Dave checks Jack's criminial background with his computer because these bad guys are all high-tech savvy. If Darlene doesn't type Jack's cover fast enough, Eddie will kill Jack. I'm quite certain though that it will turn out okay.

9:28AM
Palmer is again concerned about mass hysteria because that reporter, Ron Wieland will go live with a story at noon that alert condition has been elevated. Palmer orders to bring in Richard Armus, the name at which grown men shudder. Obviously, Palmer hasn't learned his lesson from Carl Webb fiasco(of Season One)

9:31AM
Eddie tells Jack that Joe is too busy and has to come back tomorrow, that is, not this season. That won't do. As Jack floods his car so that it won't start, he watches the bad guys carrying even bigger duffel bags into the van. I don't wanna know what's in them.

9:33AM
Mason learns that the probability of nuclear explosion is 89% to 93%. (I'd like to know how that figure comes about.) He looks like he just soiled himself. At that precise moment, Mason decides to help out on the field in Bakersfied, which just happens to be well outside the blast area.

9:40AM As they hide in an alley, Mini-me complains of a headache and doesn't want to follow Spawn to a payphone. Spawn asks Mini-me to hide behind boxes and never to go anywhere, and goes off to call police. You can just see that Mini-me will give Spawn a taste of her own medicine.

9:41AM
At the request of her PI, Ralph Burton, SisterBlonde ransacks RedHerring's car to find a red herring, I mean, his passport.

9:45AM
Badmutha Jack is at it again! At this rate, half the cast will have maimed limbs and heads. Jack calls Dave an amateur for tying the fuses too tight, and Dave attacks Jack from behind. But, Jack apparently has this ability to see with back of his head and promptly breaks Dave's ankle.

9:50AM
Spawn beats PsychoDad senseless with tire iron. I have a feeling that PsychoDad was FauxYork (of Season One) in his previous life.
Kate tells PI Burton that the last entry in RedHerring's passport is Frankfurt, Germany. Uh oh, it sounds familiar (Season One). Maybe the passport was a blue herring after all.

9:54AM
Palmer tries to persuade the Mass Hysteria-doer Wieland but he won's stand down. The dreaded Mr. Armus drags Wieland away by the arm.

9:57AM
Kim returns to the boxes where she hid Megan. Lo, she's nowhere to be found.
Jack takes place of the incapacitated Dave and learns that the big job is none other than blowing up CTU. Jack forces a smile. That's cool!


2-3: 10AM to 11AM

10:00AM
Run Spawn Run! That's your raison d'etre. Mini-me's misadventure is thankfully short-lived as Spawn soon finds her.
MasonTheChicken, on his way to Bakersfield, is asked to check a lead in Panorama City because he's closest. MasonTheChicken can't think of any excuse.
In TerrorVan 2.0 (It's new color!), Jack's cellphone suddenly rings. It's Spawn. she needs help, of course, that's why she called. For benefit of Eddie & Co., Jack pretends he's talking to his girlfriend and tells Spawn to go to Aunt Carol's. Of course, Spawn doesn't get it and thinks Jack went cuckoo at last. After all, Aunt Carol's in San Jose. Jack hangs up barking to Spawn that she do what he says for once. Instead, Spawn decides to go to CTU.

10:08AM
Eddie & Co. get to a relay station and disrupts the CTU phone lines. Jack is sent to watch out so that he can call CTU to warn them. But the phone line is disrupted, Genius, as you just saw Eddie do just that. Jack then calls President.

10:09 AM
But Palmer is out to stop mass hysteria. Jack asks Advisor Ro to evacuate CTU because it's going to be blown up within the hour. Advisor Ro and Raygun agree that this is diversion from the main nuclear attack. Advisor Ro wants to notify CTU, but Raygun thinks that doing so will blow Jack's cover.

10:11AM
2 telephone repair workers arrive at the relay station. Wow, that was fast. Eddie shoots one of them, but this is what I don't get. Why would right-wing militia guy like Eddie shoot a white guy dead and leave a black guy alive? True, the black guy was more handsome, but still, what about Volk? Only explanation is that Eddie is gay.

10:16AM
Raygun orders SoulPatch to copy and transfer all CTU information about the BIG BOMB onto NSA server within the hour without telling him about the little bomb. SoulPatch orders Darlene to get to it. What a transformation. SoulPatch is doing more work in just 2 and 1/4 hours than he did the last entire season.
MasonTheChicken arrives at some warehouse in Panorama City. It turns out to be the very place that he was fleeing from, hehe. MasonTheChicken, you can't just run away from your fate to be Hero! Ask Oedipus. There is a gunfight, and MasonTheChicken gets to actually use a gun rather than just brandish it. He notices a thick, greenish fume that can't be any good. He inhales that stuff as much as possible, then sees a sign warning radioactive material. Uh oh.

10:21AM
The phone company van pulls into CTU, and the handsome black phone guy tells the security guard that they are there to do a systems check. Not only this guard lets them through after checking only black guy's ID, he doesn't even recognize Jack, who must be a legend there. I guess this is where all those displaced airport security people went. The black phone guy tells Eddie that there's nothing to steal. Eddie isn't trying to steal anything, he's fighting war. He's taking back his country. Jack is prompted to say they are patriots.

10:30AM
SisterBlonde is told by her PI that RedHerring indeed had contact with Sayed Ali the terrorist. PI claims that he contacted Homeland Security. It hasn't yet turned into mass hysteria, but there is now one hysteria recorded.

10:34AM
Jack must have a latent Spawnness gene after all. Jack could have called CTU or stop one of passing CTU people, alert them about coming danger, and instruct them to storm out right after Eddie and Co. depart. But no, Jack must concoct a complex (and masochist to boot) plan that involves locating bombs, drawing a map, writing notes, and entrusting scores of lives into hands of a scared civilian.

10:41AM
Mason the Radioactive Man informs SoulPatch about the lab he just found. A HAZMAT suit tells Mason to take off all his clothes for decontamination. Mason the Radioactive Man wisecracks "You're not even going to buy me dinner?" (I thought HAZMAT suit sounded like a woman, but others thought otherwise.)

10:43AM
Nina 2.0 and Darlene bond together in the restroom. It seems that CTU people do everything in the restroom except what it is for.

10:44AM
In the van, Jack releases the black phone guy with a note intended for SoulPatch, because Jack has 6th sense that Mason chickened out. Then Jack has Badmutha Moment of the Hour, slashing his own head with a switchblade. Ouch!. Eddie finds Jack knocked down and is mad that the phone guy got away, a black, no less. Just as the van leaves CTU, Spawn and Mini-me arrive. Thank God Jack didn't see that, he's having a rough day already.

10:53AM
Advisor Ro and Raygun are fighting over CTU situation. I half-expected Palmer to blurt, "You can't fight here. This is a war room!". But no, he doesn't. Raygun explains that the only losses would be infrastructure and personnel since their intelligence data would be transfered to NSA. Palmer orders the immediate evacuation of CTU.
The black phone guy that Jack sent, Advisor Ro's warning, and SoulPatch's realization all converge at the same moment. SoulPatch runs up to Mason's office to save Darlene, who's still working on data transfer. BOOM!
Debris and dead bodies everywhere. I hope that black phone guy made it. Doh!Spawn and Mini-me made it. We don't know yet about SoulPatch, Darlene, or Milo (Season One) who might have been working in never-shown back room, who knows? Eddie and his gang watch the smokes from distance. Jack is devastated but manages to congratulate Eddie for good job done.

10:59AM
Mason learns that he inhaled lethal amount of enriched plutonium and may live as little as 5 months, I mean, a day. Or he could live as long as a week, which is tiny bit better. I feel so bad about calling him MasonTheChicken or Radioactive Man, so he gets his name back, and I won't call him DeadMasonWalking though it's very tempting.


2-4: 11AM to 12PM

11:00AM
Eddie (&) Bauer listen to the police scanner as casualty reports from CTU come in. SoulPatch is alive, although the fate of his Cubs mug is yet unknown. But Darlene is trapped under a twisted girder. Mini-me is suddenly having a seizure and is taken to a hospital.

11:03AM
In Oregon, the blame game goes on. Palmer doesn't mention mass hysteria this time.

11:05AM
In Panorama City, Mason learns his fate. According to EMT, he will be without symptoms for as long as 3 months, I mean, 12 hours. After that, Mason will be losing even more hair and mental functions will deteriorate until he laspe into a coma.
SoulPatch informs Mason about the CTU bombing and asks him to come back into the blast range. And there is nothing more unfair in the world than when you are accused of something correctly but there is also a legitimate explanation that you can't use.

11:08AM
Wow, Jack is having Badmutha Moment of the Hour of several hours' worth. Just after Eddie takes a call from Joe Wald and writes his address on a matchbook, Jack pulls a gun on Eddie. 18-month hiatus must be taking its toll because Jack does this while he is exposed to Eddie's crew. Jack has to fire 2 guns ChowYunFat style, and kills all 3 of them. Too bad because Eddie was quite cute. I don't know what Jack was gonna do if they didn't resist. Read Miranda rights and sit around waiting for backup? Frankly, I don't wanna know.

11:16AM
At E.R., a doctor tells Spawn that Mini-me showed a pattern of physical abuse. Spawn Alert!! Spawn practically says mea culpa by acting all guilty, though she claims she would never hurt her. But then if Spawn said PsychoDad did it, we would be still wondering if we are dealing with FauxSpawn here.

11:17AM
Raygun and Advisor Ro fight again in the war room. Brats. Raygun wants to evacuate Los Angeles because it will protect Palmer politically if THE BOMB goes off. Advisor Ro claims it's useless because it will take a week. Palmer, of course, thinks about mass hysteria and then decides against evacuation.

11:21AM
SisterBlonde, warned by PI not to tell anybody, of course tells her dad BlueHerring (AKA Bob Warner) about RedHerring's terrorist connection because she wants to spread hysteria. BlueHerring tells her that he already checked RedHerring inside out, and he's clean. He insists that SisterBlonde go to pick up lunch with RedHerring.

11:28AM
SoulPatch calls Mason for password to his computer. Mason's password is, hehe, Hendrix. SoulPatch can't believe it either and has to check the spelling.

11:29AM
Jack in his badmutha mood calls War Room (as Northwest Regional Operations Complex is known hereby) and rebukes Advisor Ro. She killed many lives, many of whom were his friends and co-workers, Jack says. Struck by harsh words, Advisor Ro is momentarily overtaken by Spawnness as she takes the blame.

11:30AM
Wow, this is way beyond badmutha. It's Lucifer-level Badmofoness. Once at Joe's compound, Jack picks up badmofo shotgun, cocks it with single-handed badmofonis, and shoots a pit bull dead. While Jack was wrestling with the pit pull, Joe locked himself into a panic room, which he bought from Jodie Foster at half price.

11:34AM
Spawn calls WifeBlonde to tell her that Mini-me is in hospital. Spawn meets her match for Spawnness in WifeBlonde, who accuses Spawn of kidnapping Mini-me and attacking PsychoDad. After Spawn's advice, WifeBlonde realizes the truth and rushes to door to go to hospital, but PsychoDad stops her. Cue in Psycho theme music.

11:40AM
Jack trades his hacksaw with a pickaxe as an instrument of badmuthaness. But there is no luck breaking into the panic room. Jack now appeals to Joe through security camera: 'Whoever hired you to blow up CTU wants to destroy your beloved Amerika, starting with LA, and merely used you', and so on. It was good idea that Jack didn't remind Joe that majority of LA residents are not of Aryan race.

11:42AM
RedHerring drives with SisterBlonde and suddenly detours from their destination. SisterBlonde now goes into full-blown hysteria and gets out of his car. RedHerring just wanted to show the house he bought for BrideBlonde as a wedding present.

11:45AM
Darlene is about to be taken to hospital, but Mason, who just arrived at CTU newly armed with radioactive resolve, stops it. Darlene is the only one who can decrypt the intel on the Bomb and must be made lucid ASAP.

11:51AM
Palmer confronts Advisor Ro about 30-minute gap lapse between when Jack called ehr and when she notified CTU. Advisor Ro offers resignation instead of explanation. Still Palmer figures that Rayburn was the one who was responsible because, well, he's not Spawn. He's POTUS.

11:54AM
SoulPatch opposed Mason about Darlene but is not sure if Mason is wrong. He feels responsible for Darlene because he hired her. No doubt Nina 2.0 is thinking 'this is moment I was waiting for', and starts to comfort SoulPatch rubbing his back.

11:55AM
Dreaded Mr. Armus escorts Raygun out of war room. I have a feeling that Mr. Wieland is gonna have a cellmate soon. By the time season ends, they'll have to take over Oregon State Prison to make a room at this rate.

11:57AM Jack is having no success in getting Joe out of panic room. I'm not surprised As far as Joe knows, this crazy badmofo killed Eddie, his dog, Goren, and all his crew. And just now, Jack pumped his shotgun on the door twice. I wouldn't go out either. But then, I'm not a white supremacist. Joe opens the door by remote control, gives Jack an envelope with photos of his female contact, and then shoots himself in the mouth. Jack is stunned when he recognizes the woman in the photos. Lo, who other than our beloved villain, Nina Myers!