24: LEGACY 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Quick Review

YEAH! ERIC CARTER BLOWING UP WALLS AND SHOOTING BAD GUYS!

Be one with the bullet, nanananana....

But let's retrace our steps, shall we?

When we last saw Carter, he was holed up with Old Racist Cop and Young Honorable Cop in the evidence locker with S.W.A.T. ready to eviscerate him with hot lead. Carter had to do a very Bauer thing by stealing $2 million for his old war buddy, Grimes, in exchange for a list of sleeper cells on a thumb drive. The closest thing to an ATM for Carter was the police station's evidence stash of cash from a recent drug bust. All of this is obvious and intuitive, but why not just remind ourselves nevertheless.

Carter works his new-found Bauer Powers by getting the Young Honorable Cop to trust him. "I give you my word" might be more meaningful a statement than "I love you" when it all shakes out in this mortal realm. And it works here, as the Young Honorable Cop gives Carter direction on how to break free from the evidence room- by using the C4 that Carter strapped to his hostage police escorts! YEAH, CARTER USED REAL EXPLOSIVES THAT WAS NOT A DRILL. From where did Carter get the C4? I don't remember, maybe it was in his CarterClutch™ all along. The C4 does its job and Carter escapes with Young Honorable Cop leading the way to freedom. Until S.W.A.T. corners them. Oh well!

But it's okay because Former CTU Director and Presumptive First Lady Ingram is on the phone with the police and all is forgiven! STAND DOWN! Phew! Man, does Racist Cop look pissed!

Within a dizzying 10 minutes, we learn that Current CTU Director Mullins and Ingram probably had some history of a romantic nature (that's my conjecture but when you say to someone "We'll adjudicate this later" that carries some FIFTY SHADES of innuendo in my head) and we also learn more definitively that MacBoy and CTU Agent Locke (the lion in human form) had a concrete, romantic relationship that Locke cut off abruptly to protect his career. You work for CTU, they know what you're thinking before you even say it, so stop with this stuff. Meanwhile, Carter is allowed to not only carry the $2 million he stole from the evidence room but he's being given a "comms package" and CTU escort to the drop with Grimes at the train station! 10 minutes, folks. It took me longer to write this paragraph than it did for these events to unfold.

CTU Director Mullins, CTU Agent Locke and Carter playing name that tune

Did I also mention that Carter calls up Nicole to say "Hi, hon, how's everything at the crackhouse?" Nicole is suspicious of Aisha and intuits that Carter's brother, Isaac, is in danger. Carter says "My drug dealing brother can look out for himself" but relents and asks CTU to pull up the conversation and send it to Nicole. This is a favor, I'm sure, that no actual law enforcement agency would ever allow on such a casual basis. It's 24 though, so let's not question these moments.

Back at Degrassi High, Chem Teach and the Chechen Murderess are still cleaning up after Paper Mache Boy (I call him Trevor, remember?), when a Future Valedictorian knocks on the door to ask if she can go over her 100% correct test with Chem Teach. When he opens the door to tell the nerd to scram, he does a poor job of hiding blood on his hand. The kid eventually leaves but this makes Chem Teach worry that his cover's been blown. When they go to finish cleaning up Trevor's albeit tiny brain matter, they realize Trevor is not dead! Where'd he go off to now? Girl's Soccer practice at a nearby field! As Trevor makes his way towards soccer practice, he collapses behind some bleachers. Chechen waves Chem Teach along to move the body before anyone notices this in broad daylight. We all know how this is going to go, right? Within seconds, a girl chases after a soccer ball near them and notices Trevor is bleeding out of his head. "Hey, EVERYBODY come over here! We need HELP!" HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! #busted

"Interrogate me all you like, I hate socializing at these things!"

Back at Major Dad's house, Ingram arrives and tells her husband, Jimmy Smits, that Nilaa Mizrani is a terrorist. Smits is in shock but goes along with his wife's information. He watches a closed circuit feed of Ingram asking Nilaa if she's a terrorist. Nilaa says she's not a terrorist and offers up a jogging path for Ingram to verify her whereabouts when CTU's system was accessed and the Special Forces list was compromised. This subplot gets whacky and I'm skipping to the reveal that comes towards the end so we can package this for easier consumption- Major Dad and Uncle Luis were the ones who used Ingram's login to get the list of Special Forces troops to the terrorists. They set up Nilaa and CTU is buying it wholesale. Why would Major Dad betray his country? To get his son, Jimmy Smits, elected president? I guess they want the incumbent administration to look bad on domestic security. Come on, 24. What happens when we get into politics? Wayne Palmer, need I say any more? This subplot is tedious and silly.

On to better things- Carter meets up with Grimes and they board a train to go pick up the thumb drive. While riding towards their destination, we get the best-written character scene of the episode, where Carter talks to Grimes about coming home from war and facing your demons instead of running from them. Corey Hawkins, the actor playing Carter, is fantastic in this scene- he imbues Carter with integrity and empathy. It's a scene worth watching more than once-- well done.

Carter and Grimes disembark at the next train stop and CTU Agent Locke gets off along with them, looking angry about nothing in particular. Just as Grimes chisels a tile loose from the wall and reveals the thumb drive underneath, bad guy terrorists show up because they were tracking a terrorist phone that Grimes was using the whole time. COME ON, GRIMES! You're so paranoid, you went through 4 burners already but you kept the phone you boosted off a dead terrorist? Locke starts shooting at the terrorists and Grimes freaks out, running off with the money and the thumb drive, and Carter in pursuit. A great little moment happens here- Carter shoots a terrorist on the stairwell below him and as Carter passes the dead terrorist on his way to find Grimes, he takes the time to shoot the very dead bad guy once more! Carter, you were born to do this!

"Get this man a fresh trucker's ballcap!"

Grimes gets shot by other terrorists, including the Ivy League-educated son of the "bin Laden" fella that Carter's unit killed before this season started. Carter shows up as Grimes lay on the ground. Where's the drive? The terrorists have it? DAMMIT! But the camera shows that the drive got dented. That could buy us another hour at least right? Sure!

Overall, a great episode for Carter and everyone else fares less well to varying degrees. So, this was a typical 24 episode and that's fine by me.