24 Recap: Season 8, Episodes 5, 6, & 7

I was told by a friend this weekend that my 24 recaps are a wee bit too long. Can you believe that? I have a reader--WOO HOO!! Ha ha. So, here goes my attempt to keep it short.

Episode 5
President Hassan's people are taking people into custody back in their homeland. This disturbs President Taylor and her people. Human rights, blah, blah, blah.

Renee and Jack get Ziya cleaned up and Renee convinces Jack to let her stay on the mission. Renee and Ziya go to see Vladimir. He is not incredibly thrilled to see them and tosses them in the back of a car. They zoom off somewhere (with Jack close behind). Vlad shoots Ziya and almost kills Renee too. She tells him to do it, she doesn't care about living anymore. Vlad said she passed the test. Jack heard the whole thing and is deeply concerned about Renee. As he should be.

Cold-hearted Russian dad tells the older son that he is not allowed to seek medical treatment for his brother. Josef defies his father and heads to a local clinic to get help.

Kevin keeps calling Dana and we find out her little secret that she's trying so hard to keep. She was an accessory to murder and did time in her former life. (Don't you think CTU would have found this on a background check?) She offers him money to leave, but he wants her to use her access at CTU to help him with a big score.

Episode 6
President Hassan's paranoia increases. He doesn't stop the arrests going on back home. He even suspects a member of his staff, Jamot, and has him detained. President Taylor becomes more concerned, and must address and reassure the other leaders at the peace summit.

Renee is in. She talks to Vlad about the nuke deal and convinces him to meet with her contact: Jack a.k.a. German arms dealer. Vlad says ok, but he wants $5 million up front. Vlad starts putting the moves on Renee, but she pushes him off. She's just there for the deal. She goes off to "clean up", which apparently means taking a shower 5 feet away from a guy who wants to do very bad things to you. She comes out and Vlad basically forces her to do bad things, or the deal is off. Barf, I hate Vlad.

Meanwhile, Vlad sends his cronies to meet Jack. As soon as the money clears the account, Vlad's guys pull out their guns to kill Jack. But, POW, POW! Cole snipered their butts. Good thing Cole didn't listen to you, huh Jack? I think I like Cole now. Just a little. Jack has Vlad's attention now.

The Russian brothers arrive at the clinic, and threaten the doc into treating the younger brother. The doctor is setting them up with meds and instructions when dear old dad's men burst in and shoot the doctor. They leave without the medicine, killing everyone at the clinic. Back at the restaurant, Dad berates Josef for disobeying him. He takes out his gun to shoot Josef, but turns and shoots little bro instead.

Meanwhile, back at CTU, Dana finds a large sum of money in a police evidence warehouse. She works out all the details so Kevin and his bud will be in and out in 20 minutes. She meets him outside of CTU to give him an access card. Arlo sees and assumes Dana is cheating on Cole.

Episode 7
President Taylor confides in the British delegate that there are nukes in play. President Hassan says he will get things back to normal in a few hours, but then tells his aide to have Jamot's family detained back home to put the pressure on him. Faroush thinks this is a bad idea. Hassan agrees to his face, but then asks another aide to go through with it. Is Hassan really just paranoid, or was he bad all along? Faroush goes to see Kayla (his girlfriend?), the president's daughter, and he is then arrested too.

Dana walks Kevin through the warehouse to get his money. Everything goes great until the idiot friend decides to get greedy and go through all the evidence boxes. They run out of time and get caught by a guard. The guard calls it in, but then gets bashed in the head by the friend. I'm not sure who is a dumber pile of rocks, Kevin for just being himself, or Dana for putting her career and life on the line. This is not going to end well for her.

Jack goes back to Vlad's place and asks to talk to Renee alone. He wants to pull her from the mission, but she refuses again. She is vital to the mission. Vlad starts making some calls to inquire about nukes on the market. No one bites. Not even Russian Big Daddy, who really does have the nukes. Renee keeps pushing Vlad to make more calls. He gets pissed and slaps her around a bit. She falls to the ground and grabs a knife. You can see in her eyes, something inside her has snapped. Renee jumps up and gives it to Vlad right in the eye. She then stabs him about a dozen times before Jack runs in to help. Renee is in such a frenzy that she swings around and stabs Jack too. OH. MY WORD. One of Vlad's guys comes in and pulls his gun. Jack pulls the knife from his stomach and wings it at his throat. Now, this is getting good!

Russian Big Daddy sends some of his guys over to check on Vlad. Jack manages to convince them that he wants to do business. They walk him through some sewer system and get him into a van. Cole and his team arrive shortly after, but didn't see any vehicles leaving the area. Jack is off the grid.