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Kelsey McNeal/FOX
Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) in “24.”

President Taylor continues to be played by Charles Logan, Chloe tries to play Jack (reluctantly), and Jack proves yet again that he’s not a man to play with on this, the 19th hour of the eighth day of “24.”

When last we saw Jack, he had commandeered the helicopter dispatched to take him into custody by the Air Force on President Taylor’s orders. Jack knows that his wild ride won’t last too long before he’s shot down by attack choppers, so he finds a helipad and sets down. Despite being under surveillance from the air and from CTU, Jack manages to lose himself among a crowd of New Yorkers.

At the same time, President Taylor, already troubled by her actions from the previous hour, seems ready to take Ethan’s advice and abandon her plan to cover up Russia’s involvement in Hassan’s death and the terrorist attack attempts, even if it means giving up the fragile peace accord she’s sacrificed so much to achieve. But Ethan can’t account for Charles Logan rearing his wily head all the time. Logan gets more face time with the President, “gently” reminding her of how hard it is to make choices when you’re the most powerful person on the planet. President Taylor wants this so bad, and Logan makes it so easy to envision. He proposes that a private security firm abduct Dana and make her disappear. No Dana, no evidence to prove anything. President Taylor grimly goes for this plan, and the wheels are in motion.

Meanwhile, Jack purchases untraceable cell phones, calls Chloe, who brings him up to speed on what’s happening, but also implores him to turn himself in. Jack has no intentions on doing that (duh). But Chloe, knowing that this won’t end up well for Jack, plans a sting operation, telling Jack where the security firm’s planning to take Dana. Speaking of this, Bledsoe, the leader of the firm, “suggests” to Logan’s smarmy aide that the only way to ensure Dana’s silence is to make sure she suffers an “accident” from which she’ll never recover. This is “need to know” intel, and the feeling is, President Taylor doesn’t need to know it.

Jack stops off at a shadowy building, meets a man named “Jim”, a gruff weapons supplier who apparently owes Jack a huge favor, for he quickly supplies Jack with what he needs to go after Dana. Jack then heads for the address Chloe gave him, where Cole and his field ops team lie in wait to bring Jack in.

At the U.N., Ethan is distressed to learn that President Taylor has changed her mind. He tries once more to convince her to heed her sense of moral right and wrong, to look past her personal feelings of wanting her sacrifices to mean something. She’s adamant and won’t be swayed. Ethan later goes to Logan and puts him on warning that he’ll take him down if President Taylor gets burned by her actions.

Meanwhile, Jack infiltrates the building, rather quickly surmises that this is a setup. He thwarts it, gets the upper hand on Cole and his team. He takes Cole to another room, where he reveals that he has proof that the President is implicit in keeping Dana quiet. He asks his young counterpart for his help in intercepting Dana before she meets her designated fate. Cole agrees, and they fake a call to CTU, letting Chloe think that Jack has been apprehended (she’s happy Jack is okay, though). Then, the two of them head for the real location Dana’s been taken, but they’d better hurry: Bledsoe’s already preparing for that “accident” to befall her.

As for President Taylor, she’s going full steam ahead with the press conference announcing the soundness of the peace accord (and Dalia Hassan’s being installed as IRK President). But Ethan’s presence throws her off a tad. Will it be enough for her to reconsider her actions yet again? And what will happen when Jack and Cole find Dana?

Questions. And Hour 20 (can’t believe there’re only five more to the series) will provide answers, and pose new questions, and so on and so on. We’ll recap and discuss again next week.