It's total chaos tonight on 24, as every subplot starts to come to a head, and we are re-introduced to yet another familiar face from seasons past. It's Cheng, everybody! Yes, Cheng is back and still as brutal as ever, now outcast from his own government and apparently out for revenge as he tries to start World War III. Picking up from before though, Jack is still racing after Navarro on the streets of London, and he calls Kate to give her the update on the mole in the CIA. Then he resumes his chase, with Navarro literally just steps ahead of him with the override device.
Cross calls Steve with the new meeting place info, but Chloe comes up behind him to overhear the conversation. Cross hangs up and decides to tell her what he's doing, which is apprehending the device in order to break the firewalls of the world governments and release all the documents they can get. Chloe isn't thrilled about this, but when Adrian asks if she's still with him and invokes the memory of Morris and Prescott, she agrees, somewhat reluctantly. When Steve finally gets to the spot, he finds an envelope filled with money and a passport, so he places the device through the drop off point, but of course Cross double-crosses him (ha! the second time this season I get to use that phrase) and there is no car waiting to pick him up and take him out of the country. So Jack catches up with him and handcuffs the traitor, while Cross makes his way through the train station with the device. Jack miraculously spots both he and Chloe in the passing crowd (I guess anybody would notice Chloe's god awful eyeliner from miles away) and tries to follow them onto the tube, but he's too late as they get away at the last second.
Jack calls the station to let them know that Cross and Chloe have the device, and Kate and Erik want to know if Chloe had been playing them all day, to which Jack says he doubts it but he's unsure. Kate has the new tech guy find out what Jordan had been working on that Navarro didn't want him to, and she's now informed that Steve's the one who set her husband Adam up for treason. She's infuriated by this, but Erik orders her to her office before she can take out her rage on Navarro himself, who's being dragged in by agents for questioning. Jack of course wants to do the interrogating himself, but Erik (who's now acting station head and a pretty bad actor, I finally realize in this episode) is dubious. Jack doesn't care and goes in anyway, first trying to get the whereabouts of the device by offering to take away his likely death penalty for all the traitorous acts he's committed. Navarro laughs this whole thing off, wanting full immunity instead, to which Kate protests from behind the glass with Erik. Jack won't give in, instead deciding to pound his hand in with another witty one-liner (since when was Jack so quick with all these quips?) and gets dragged out of the room himself for it.
Meanwhile Chloe, who's looked uneasy all episode about what she's doing with Cross, decides to double-cross him (yes, I'm going to take every opportunity to use that line while I still can, since Cross isn't long for this world) in the stupidest way possible, saying she has to use a port-a-potty before quickly snatching the device and trying to hail a passing truck. That pitiful escape attempt of course fails miserably, as Cross shoots the trucker and orders her back into the car against her protestations that he's crazy. Finally, back at the residence, Heller is still having the occasional battle with his memory loss as he readies himself to hand the office over to the vice-president, but then Mark comes in with the bad news from a CIA agent over the phone that their own station head stole the override device and gave it to Adrian Cross. Heller just says to give Jack whatever he needs and that he's now staying put for the time being, and Audrey and Mark go into his office to have it out over her feelings for Jack. Mark wants to know exactly what she feels about him, but Audrey storms out without saying anything, so a sulking Mark decides to call the Russians and give Jack over to them right then and there. You really think it's a wise idea to do this now, Mark? While he's tracking down the device that can override nuclear codes? Apparently he does and he gives them the code to Jack's CIA phone so they can track him.
Jack and Kate make a plan to work Steve over so they don't have to give him immunity, and it involves Kate storming into the medical center where he's being treated for Jack's hand smashing, and she kicks everyone out of the room and holds a gun to his head, threatening to kill him, in hysterics over her husband's death (he'd killed himself in his cell). Steve doesn't believe her at first, but when Jack comes in and pulls a gun on her, ordering her away and she won't budge, he caves and shouts out the number for the tracker he placed on the device (when did he do that?). Jack and Kate now take off for the location with a backup team behind them, and back at the residence when Mark enters the meeting room, he freaks out when he finds out that Jack's personally gone after Cross (what did he think he was doing before?). He tries to call the Russians to halt their attack but it's too late.
Cross and Chloe now make their way back to the hackers' new hideout, but they arrive to find that everyone's been brutally slaughtered in their chairs. Cross seems genuinely upset and Chloe looks aghast, but then who shows up but Cheng and his cronies. That's right, he's the one that Cross has been the middleman for, and he is not happy at Adrian's plans to doublecross him and keep the device for himself. He orders Chloe to rework the device from Yates' alterations and when she refuses, he shoots Adrian in the leg and she gives in. By the way, Chloe and Cheng act like they know each other, but I can't for the life of me remember them ever meeting. Somebody remind me, did that actually happen once? Meanwhile, in the car with Jack, Kate confesses to him that she can never forgive herself for not believing in Adam, and knowing her loss of faith in him is what's responsible for his death. Jack gives her a pep talk that includes admitting the actions he took after Renee was killed (who he refers to as his "partner," although they weren't really) and promises her nothing makes it better and she just has to accept it. Erik then warns them that backup is two miles behind and tells Jack not to wait too long to call them in on account of his history with Chloe.
Back at hacker headquarters, Chloe tries to plant a virus in the device but it's spotted by one of Cheng's henchmen, who shoos her off the computer, saying he can now take over. Chloe is ordered to sit next to a barely hanging on Adrian, who now admits to her that since they won't get out alive, he can tell her that he found information a year ago that proves Morris and Prescott's deaths really were an accident, and that no one killed them because they were targeting her. He didn't tell her because he wanted her to stay with him of course. But it's too late for Cross, as Cheng walks over and shoots him in the head, while Chloe cries out in horror. She then finds out that Cheng is using the device to send orders to a U.S. nuclear submarine, telling them to attack and sink a Chinese carrier. She's appalled, but unfortunately it all happens way too fast and the guys on the sub carry out the order with very minimal suspicion about such a drastic move, it must be said. The carrier is sunk, and just as Jack is approaching Chloe's location, he and Kate are purposely hit by a van and ambushed by the Russians, losing all communication with the CIA. They engage in a shootout as the clock ticks down, and it's a pretty big shitstorm of activity, folks. Actually, bringing Cheng in at the last minute to try to start a war with China is approaching ludicrous plot twist territory, even by 24 standards, but given that there's only two episodes left, I'm anxious to see how it all plays out. Tune back in next week everybody! And when the hell is this so-called time jump going to take place? Is it just going to be five minutes of Jack riding into the sunset 12 hours later? I guess we'll find out soon enough.
