24 Season 6: Episodes 8 and 9 Recap(Hours 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.)

WARNING: The following post may, and probably will, contain spoilers.

When we last left 24, Jack was starting to track MacCarthy and the just-kidnapped Morris and Daddy Bauer had just killed his evil son. Since this week's two-hour treat was for Valentine's Day, and Valentine's Day is all about getting lucky, I think that luck is the theme of these two hours. So speaking of luck...

• Jack was lucky to materialize in a helicopter out of nowhere.
• Chloe was lucky that once she started acting normally (since Morris was gone) hat Milo could take over for her.
• CTU was lucky that even on yet another short-handed day, that with Morris gone and Chloe pouting, Milo can handle it.
• CTU was lucky again that the satellite was working this time and providing real-time footage of MacCarthy and Hottie Girlfriend driving like a bat out of hell.
• Speaking of MacCarthy, they were lucky they didn't crash due to the odd high numbers of drivers on a day where A NUKE WENT OFF!
• Jack gets lucky in deducing MacCarthy stole a car since there was one missing in a parallel parking spot... under a bridge.
• Which, in turn, MacCarthy was lucky to steal a vehicle with a GPS device to find where Fayed was.
• The writers of 24 are lucky that most viewers will believe that Brother Palmer would invite Reformed Terrorist (Assad) into The Bunker.
• Fish is lucky that PMRL (Poor Man's Rob Lowe, aka, Reed) has a plan to get rid of Brother Palmer, so he won't have to resign.
• Jack was lucky enough to stumble upon MacCarthy's dead body, and was also lucky enough to find his phone. But then the luck ran out, the caller id was blocked – but lucky for him, CTU can decode the data once he uploads it.
• Lucky for us, Fayed told us the following via Morris, "You work at CTU, so you know I have four nuclear suitcase bombs in my possession. You may also know that these bombs need to be reprogramed so I can use them. You are here to create the device to allow me to do so."
• Unlucky for Morris, he didn't finish his quote with, "If you refuse, we'll cold cock you, hit you with baseball bats, pretend to drown you (and make a hell of a bloody ring around the tub that's not in the bathroom, but sitting caddy-corner in the living room) and then drill your shoulder."
• Lucky for Milo that when he can't trace a call that's bounced around the US on several LAN lines, that a pulled-together Chloe can do it in 10 seconds.
• Unlucky for Jack, he shows up at Fayed's apartment complex where there are still tons of people walking around the streets (ON A DAY WHERE A NUKE HAS GONE OFF). Also unlucky, the previously kick-ass satellites are now only giving updates every five minutes.
• Lucky for Jack, the building is on the city's emergency services grid and Chloe, after passing the building's log in screen, can set off the fire alarm to flush people out. Also lucky, CTU can cross-reference heat signatures inside rooms with who's renting what apartment.
• Lucky for Fayed, he knows that the nuke is armed when a message flashes on a computer screen that says, "device armed."
• Lucky for Jack and his force, the nuke didn't explode when they blasted the doors open and shot several rounds of ammunition into the room.
• Lucky for Fayed, he escaped down the ventilation shaft on a rope ladder, somehow got to a helicopter and flew out of range of the FAA's tracking abilities.
• Unlucky for Jack, Fayed left the armed Nuke in the building.
• Lucky for Jack, Chloe has the schematics on hand. Also, he knows how to detonate bombs AND there's a bomb tool kit nearby.
• Lucky for the writers, there's no definition for ultranationalist – so they can define Gredenko's position however they want.
• Lucky for Gredenko, even when CTU knew he had dealings with Brother and Daddy Bauer, they didn't bother to get all the information on him that they could.
• Lucky for Daddy Bauer, he can walk around the porous CTU without an escort and has access to Graem's personal effects so he can delete stuff (why not just destroy the SIM card?).
• Lucky for us, Veep (Noah, the Vice President) is a good villain.
• Lucky for Fish and PMRL, they can walk around The Bunker (which is housing Reformed Terrorist) unnoticed and hold a meeting in the "Danger. High Voltage." room.
• Lucky for Daddy Bauer, CTU is pretty modern in design and has glass walls and doors – so he can see what's going on everywhere.
• Lucky for Jack, Marilyn followed Graem to some Russian's house in the last few months.
• Lucky for Chloe, for some reason Bill sent Milo into the field with Jack, thus giving her an excuse to pull the "we're shorthanded, Morris, so come back and help me (and have my baby)" routine.
• Lucky for Jack that Kim never knew he had an affair 20 years ago with Marilyn.
• Lucky for Jack that he studied the schematics of the house before he went in – since he knew where to jump when he discovered there was a bomb inside.
• Lucky for Marilyn that Milo was the only CTU agent left when the house exploded... she's gonna need a ride.

So that's how the Valentine's treat went down in 24 land. I can honestly say that I didn't see MacCarthy's offing coming, so that was fun to see. But we had quite a bit of plot narrating tonight, and that's just lame. Stay tuned for next week when Jack learns that Daddy Bauer is really the man behind all of this. Ooooooh!