Monday, April 19, 2004
6am - 7am
Before I begin I just want to say that this episode ranks, for me, as one of the most emotional... most haunting episodes out of all three seasons. I realise some may find others, such as Teri's death, or Mason's sacrifice, more emotional but somehow, those were different. I cried more during Jack's goodbye to Kim in the plane more than I did for Mason's demise. But to me, Teri was killed by the 'bad guy' and it was definitely shocking and heart-wrenching. Mason was dying anyway and it was nice to see him take the hero route out. But last night's hour was different. And I'll explain later on why.
We begin with Wayne and David discussing Saunder's latest demand. Wayne attempts to justify it, Palmer angry at feeling powerless. But there's no way out. He has to continue to string Saunders along by giving in until CTU can find him and stop him. But it's hard for David to justify killing a top level government agent. How can David be above the law himself and order the execution of an innocent? Why does Saunders want Chappelle dead? We're led to believe from the last episode that Saunders knows Chappelle is following the 'bank trail'. So is he ordering the President to kill him merely as a way of using Palmer like a puppet? 'Look what I can make you do?' Or is he truly worried about what Chappelle may find? He did say that he knew Chappelle... I don't know. I hope all becomes clear soon.
Anyway, back at CTU Jack and Chase arrive with the hard drive from MI-6. He hands it off to Tech for analysing and then goes to see Chappelle. At this point, Jack doesn't know about Saunder's latest deman, and so he and Chappelle basically just catch each other up on what they're doing. They're interrupted by Chloe who tells Jack the President wants to speak with him in private. Palmer then proceeds to tell Jack that he has to deliver Chappelle's body to a trainyard downtown by 7am. I think Jack is stunned by this - stunned and confused. Why Chappelle? He's just a beaurocrat. What possible connection could the Suit have with an ex-MI-6 agent? Jack quickly realises that Palmer has no choice on this one. He knows there are eleven vials of virus out there in the world and after the Hotel, he knows Saunders has no qualms about releasing them. His only hope is to find Saunders before 7am.
Jack hangs up with Palmer and goes off to sort out the information Chappelle is working on. He puts Chloe on it. It was kind of nice to have some Chloe moments this episode. She was in rare form because Chappelle's mad at her for like, twelve things you see :) So while Jack's doing that Tony speaks to Michelle about the suicide capsules he's sending over. He's losing it, I can tell. The quivering chin, the swollen voice, the beads of sweat. The day is taking its toll on Tony and despite Chappele's harsh words the hour before, Tony can't forget his wife may be dying. As he hangs up with Michelle, after promising not to 'say their goodbyes' because the time isn't right, Tony struggles to regain control over his emotions when Jack walks in.
The power of a look says it all really. Jack knows what Tony's suffering through. You could see it in Jack's eyes - sympathy, strength... But there's business at hand to deal with and so they get on with it. Jack asks Tony if he knows of any possible connection between Chappelle and Saunders. Tony can think of none. Nada. He wants to know why Jack is asking. 'Because Saunders wants him dead.' He explains Saunders' demand to a bewildered Tony who then decides he needs to downgrade his security clearance because he's now a flight risk. Jack realises he's going to have to tell Chappelle the truth, but he and Tony decide to keep the info from everyone else.
As he walks back into Chappelle's work area, Ryan asks him what the President wanted. Rather than dance around the issue, Jack tells him flat out. Ryan is of course, visibly shaken. He staunchly denies ever even hearing Saunders' name before this day (which blows my theory that Chappelle might have had a hand in Operation Nightfall...) He's clearly confused about why he's on the chopping block all of the sudden. He's just the Suit. Jack deduces that it has to be because Ryan is on to something as he followed the money trail. He tells Ryan to give everything he's been working on over to Chloe so she can begin digging. I think Ryan, despite being shaken and disturbed by this, holds onto some hope that Jack the miracle-man can somehow find Saunders before 7am. As he tries to carry on working he comes up with an offshore bank account and tries to access it. But of course it's encrypted. "Another brick wall!" shouts an exasperated Ryan. Jack has him send that over to Chloe to break.
As Jack and Ryan work hard to track Saunders we go back to the Chandler Plaza Hotel in time to find Michelle looking upset to see Phillips, her stoic head of Security at the hotel come into the isolation area for those infected. His nose is bleeding profusely, and to see him like that seems to hit her hard. Phillips asks with quiet dignity if he can phone his wife. He just wants to hear her voice one last time. He says they can listen in and he won't say anything about the virus. But Michelle is forced to refuse his request. Man that was heartbreaking. I know she couldn't let him but still... *sniffle*
She turns to face everyone gathered behind plastic curtains. Michelle takes a moment to gather herself and then she tells everyone, in as direct a manner as she can, that they are going to die. She lays out the time frame, the symptoms, and that it will be extremely painful. She then offers them the alternative of the suicide capsules that will be arriving shortly. She wants them to know that they have to make the choice themselves, but that an alternative to a painful death is available. The pain and sympathy in her face is evident and it almost overwhelms you. To have to tell so many people they're about to die in a horrible way and they did nothing to deserve it... What a terrible burden but Michelle handles it well, with professionalism and dignity.
When she's done telling them about the capsules, she's informed by Sunny (I think) that there is that a possibility of an infected guest has escaped the hotel. The guest was a man who was there for a one night stand with some chick he met in a club. He was exposed but left before the hotel had been fully locked down and is apparently unaware of the happenings at the hotel. Michelle speaks to the woman who had come forward once she learned the gravity of the situation and Michelle orders her room to be dusted for prints by a forensics team (one of which was apparently Ed Miller whom you'll remember from Season 2 as the agent Jack drugged in the van with Nina :)
Meanwhile back at CTU, Chloe's a little short with Jack when he asks her to work only on breaking the encrypted account but won't tell her why. Chloe Chloe Chloe... Never question Jack. You just do as he says :) Kim offers to help Chloe and as Jack heads back over to Ryan, he notices Ryan has left the area. Ruh-roh. We then see Ryan trying to head out of the building, but jack was too quick for him. He had alerted security not to let Ryan out of the building and he confronted him in the hall flanked by two more security guys. Ryan claims to have just been going for a smoke. Jack asks Ryan to show him the pack of cigs. Ryan just looks at him. Jack then orders Ryan back to a holding room under the authority given to him by the President. Ryan gives him one of those 'you idiot' looks and holds up a pack of Camel Lights as he heads back with security.
Tony lets Jack know that Chase will head up a strike team to snatch Saunders when the info comes in and that he's ordered a helicopter for him and Ryan to take the to the trainyard. He then gets a call from Michelle letting him know that a possible infected victim has gotten out of the hotel and into the general population and they are working on identifying him. As they're pulling prints from the bar babe's room Michelle asks her to go over exactly what happened as they came into the room. She tells Michelle they began to kiss, they did not turn on the lights but headed for the bed. She says he began taking off her clothes, first her shirt, then her pants and it's then that Michelle notices the woman's belt. It has a metal, flat buckle and after examining it, they were able to pull a partial thumb off of it that did not belong to the woman.
She sends the print back to CTU and as Adam begins attempting to match it, we switch over to some guy sneaking back into his room at home, trying not to awaken his wife. At first I was like, 'Who the hell is this?' before it dawned on me that it's the infected hotel guy. His name is William Cole. Anyway Cole's wife wakes up anyway and questions him, but he just says he's been in meetings or whatever lame lie cheating husbands usually come up with and he heads into the bathroom. As he's washing his face, of course his nose begins to bleed. Dum da dum dum.
Chloe does it again! She decrypts the bank account and it shows that its been accessed as recently as 45 minutes before from a location not far from CTU. Chase is given the go ahead to hit the location. Jack tells Ryan the news and relief emanates from him like cheap cologne. He hugs Jack and begins to feel safe again. And I have to say the hug this time wasn't nearly as awkward as his hug with Michelle earlier in the day :) But the feeling of elation passes quickly as a grim Jack tells Ryan that they still have to go to the trainyard, just in case Chase's mission fails. He tries to assure Ryan by saying it's just a precaution, but there's still a sense of finality to it that forces Ryan to feel a returning sense of dread.
As they head for the roof, we go visit Palmer and find out that his press secretary is beginning to get 'feelers' from the press about what's happening at the Chandler. He tells the President that he appreciates that there are things he can't know but if what's happening at the hotel is connected to the red alert the President ordered, he should know. Wayne agrees and tells him about the virus. Clearly this disturbs the press secretary but he shoulders the info well for now. Palmer doesn't want him going public with anything until the virus is contained.
As Jack and Ryan prepare to board the helicopter, Chase stops them and asks why Jack's not going with him to get Saunders. Ryan tells him that he's ordered Jack over to Division to answer more questions. Chase kind of loses it and unleashes a bit of vitriol at Ryan, saying he's always putting obstacles in their way etc etc.. I think if 24 were on HBO we'd have heard a bit of strong profanity there :) But it was almost bittersweet because we know, and Jack and Ryan know that Ryan's probably never going to see CTU, or fly in a helicopter or anything ever again. He has to put his life in Chase's hands right now - well his hand anyway. It's kind of sad.
So Jack and Ryan fly off in the chopper, Jack at the controls, and Chase heads off to get Saunders. Adam pulls up 300 potential matches on the partial thumbprint and they have the woman at the hotel begin going through them until she finally identifies the guy. We see Saunders in his flat speaking to a flunky. He discovers only three of his operatives were able to reach their target cities before everything got grounded by the red alert. His casualty list has diminished. But this seems of little importance to him. 5 million dead, fifty million dead, it doesn't seem to matter. The flunky also seemed a bit worried about the possibility of the virus spreading beyond 'the Americas' but Saunders assured him that he was safe.
As Jack and Tony land at the trainyard, Tony patches them both into the realtime relay of Chase's operation. In a fakeout worthy of Silence of the Lambs, Chase and Agent Baker (whom you might also remember from Season 2 as the agent who helped Jack with Kate, Syed Ali and the bomb at the airport) take out, I think, five guards around the address Chloe got from the bank account, only to burst into the apartment to find nothing more than a switching node. The apartment is otherwise unoccupied.
Jack's cell phone rings as Chappelle quietly tries to disappear into his seat. With tears in his eyes, Jack answers. It's Saunders calling to gloat and to remind Jack that he expects Ryan's body to be left with his thugs who will be arriving in a van shortly. Ryan's face is pale. I can't imagine the things that might be going through his mind right at this moment. He knows he's doomed, and he knows Jack *will* carry out the order. God...
As they await the arrival of Saunders' thugs, we go back to the hotel and Dr. Sunny Macer grimly announces that the capsules have arrived. At first, the people are reluctant to come forward. What a decision to have to make. If it were me, I would be so torn between holding out hope that it's either all a dream, or that there is a cure because how tragic would it be to take your own life only to have it come out later that there is an antidote? Not that I think there is one of course, I just mean that's the sort of thing that would go through my mind. Maybe I'd feel differently once the pain of it set in.
Anyway, an older couple finally come forward with as much dignity as they can muster and they take the capsules from Sunny. We cut over to Cole, who is thinking he's caught a bug of some kind. His face is ashen and sweaty. he tells his wife he has to get to work.
And that's enough of everyone else. I want to concentrate on the end of the episode. Jack and Ryan are still in the chopper as a black van pulls up and waits. Jack phones CTU and has Adam position a satellite in an attempt to track the van after it leaves. He's sure Saunders will have counter-measures in place but he wants to try anyway. Jack tells Ryan it's time to go and gets out of the helicopter. He comes around to Ryan's door and when he opens it, Ryan says, "My legs are shaking." He says it in an almost perfunctory manner. Almost as if he's outside of the situation and clinically reporting the sensations he's feeling. His voice didn't shake, that I could tell, but just looking at him you can see the fear in his eyes.
"I've got you." Jack says as he helps Ryan out of the helicopter. Gutting.
They walk toward a spot between two trains and Jack asks Ryan if there's anyone he wants to talk to. But Ryan, sadly has no one. He says he has a brother that he hasn't spoken to in years. And he looks at Jack with such a look of.. I don't quite know but it was touching. He tells Jack that he didn't have many friends. So there's no one for him to say goodbye to. I think that's so sad. Jack has Ryan get down on his knees and this shapes up to be a classic execution pose. But with a single tear slipping down his face (an image I haven't been able to get out of my head all day today), Ryan pleads with Jack to let him have some dignity and take his own life. He swears he will not run all the while confessing that when Jack caught him before at CTU he had been prepared to bolt. But now he won't. He couldn't be responsible for the deaths of millions.
Jack concedes and hands Ryan his gun. After an anguishing minute watching Ryan hold the gun to his temple as Jack stands in front of him as witness to this atrocity, Ryan takes it away. He's unable to go through with it. I believe Jack understands. I believe Jack hoped Ryan would be able to do it himself, but he understood when he couldn't go through with it.. He takes his gun back, walks behind Ryan...
"God forgive me."
Jack fires and shoots Ryan in the head. Ryan falls to the ground with a sickening thud. And we see the silent clock tick down the end of the hour.
Earlier in this post I said that Chappelle's death was different. It was in that he wasn't killed by a baddie, he wasn't taken out in the line of duty... He was summarily executed by one of his own at the bidding of a terrorist. Here's a man who, an hour ago, was dinking around on a computer going blind from looking at endless numbers. Suddenly he's given less than an hour to reconcile himself to his own death. I can't even begin to imagine what that would feel like and like I said, the tear slipping down Ryan's cheek as he plead with Jack remains stuck in my head today.
We begin with Wayne and David discussing Saunder's latest demand. Wayne attempts to justify it, Palmer angry at feeling powerless. But there's no way out. He has to continue to string Saunders along by giving in until CTU can find him and stop him. But it's hard for David to justify killing a top level government agent. How can David be above the law himself and order the execution of an innocent? Why does Saunders want Chappelle dead? We're led to believe from the last episode that Saunders knows Chappelle is following the 'bank trail'. So is he ordering the President to kill him merely as a way of using Palmer like a puppet? 'Look what I can make you do?' Or is he truly worried about what Chappelle may find? He did say that he knew Chappelle... I don't know. I hope all becomes clear soon.
Anyway, back at CTU Jack and Chase arrive with the hard drive from MI-6. He hands it off to Tech for analysing and then goes to see Chappelle. At this point, Jack doesn't know about Saunder's latest deman, and so he and Chappelle basically just catch each other up on what they're doing. They're interrupted by Chloe who tells Jack the President wants to speak with him in private. Palmer then proceeds to tell Jack that he has to deliver Chappelle's body to a trainyard downtown by 7am. I think Jack is stunned by this - stunned and confused. Why Chappelle? He's just a beaurocrat. What possible connection could the Suit have with an ex-MI-6 agent? Jack quickly realises that Palmer has no choice on this one. He knows there are eleven vials of virus out there in the world and after the Hotel, he knows Saunders has no qualms about releasing them. His only hope is to find Saunders before 7am.
Jack hangs up with Palmer and goes off to sort out the information Chappelle is working on. He puts Chloe on it. It was kind of nice to have some Chloe moments this episode. She was in rare form because Chappelle's mad at her for like, twelve things you see :) So while Jack's doing that Tony speaks to Michelle about the suicide capsules he's sending over. He's losing it, I can tell. The quivering chin, the swollen voice, the beads of sweat. The day is taking its toll on Tony and despite Chappele's harsh words the hour before, Tony can't forget his wife may be dying. As he hangs up with Michelle, after promising not to 'say their goodbyes' because the time isn't right, Tony struggles to regain control over his emotions when Jack walks in.
The power of a look says it all really. Jack knows what Tony's suffering through. You could see it in Jack's eyes - sympathy, strength... But there's business at hand to deal with and so they get on with it. Jack asks Tony if he knows of any possible connection between Chappelle and Saunders. Tony can think of none. Nada. He wants to know why Jack is asking. 'Because Saunders wants him dead.' He explains Saunders' demand to a bewildered Tony who then decides he needs to downgrade his security clearance because he's now a flight risk. Jack realises he's going to have to tell Chappelle the truth, but he and Tony decide to keep the info from everyone else.
As he walks back into Chappelle's work area, Ryan asks him what the President wanted. Rather than dance around the issue, Jack tells him flat out. Ryan is of course, visibly shaken. He staunchly denies ever even hearing Saunders' name before this day (which blows my theory that Chappelle might have had a hand in Operation Nightfall...) He's clearly confused about why he's on the chopping block all of the sudden. He's just the Suit. Jack deduces that it has to be because Ryan is on to something as he followed the money trail. He tells Ryan to give everything he's been working on over to Chloe so she can begin digging. I think Ryan, despite being shaken and disturbed by this, holds onto some hope that Jack the miracle-man can somehow find Saunders before 7am. As he tries to carry on working he comes up with an offshore bank account and tries to access it. But of course it's encrypted. "Another brick wall!" shouts an exasperated Ryan. Jack has him send that over to Chloe to break.
As Jack and Ryan work hard to track Saunders we go back to the Chandler Plaza Hotel in time to find Michelle looking upset to see Phillips, her stoic head of Security at the hotel come into the isolation area for those infected. His nose is bleeding profusely, and to see him like that seems to hit her hard. Phillips asks with quiet dignity if he can phone his wife. He just wants to hear her voice one last time. He says they can listen in and he won't say anything about the virus. But Michelle is forced to refuse his request. Man that was heartbreaking. I know she couldn't let him but still... *sniffle*
She turns to face everyone gathered behind plastic curtains. Michelle takes a moment to gather herself and then she tells everyone, in as direct a manner as she can, that they are going to die. She lays out the time frame, the symptoms, and that it will be extremely painful. She then offers them the alternative of the suicide capsules that will be arriving shortly. She wants them to know that they have to make the choice themselves, but that an alternative to a painful death is available. The pain and sympathy in her face is evident and it almost overwhelms you. To have to tell so many people they're about to die in a horrible way and they did nothing to deserve it... What a terrible burden but Michelle handles it well, with professionalism and dignity.
When she's done telling them about the capsules, she's informed by Sunny (I think) that there is that a possibility of an infected guest has escaped the hotel. The guest was a man who was there for a one night stand with some chick he met in a club. He was exposed but left before the hotel had been fully locked down and is apparently unaware of the happenings at the hotel. Michelle speaks to the woman who had come forward once she learned the gravity of the situation and Michelle orders her room to be dusted for prints by a forensics team (one of which was apparently Ed Miller whom you'll remember from Season 2 as the agent Jack drugged in the van with Nina :)
Meanwhile back at CTU, Chloe's a little short with Jack when he asks her to work only on breaking the encrypted account but won't tell her why. Chloe Chloe Chloe... Never question Jack. You just do as he says :) Kim offers to help Chloe and as Jack heads back over to Ryan, he notices Ryan has left the area. Ruh-roh. We then see Ryan trying to head out of the building, but jack was too quick for him. He had alerted security not to let Ryan out of the building and he confronted him in the hall flanked by two more security guys. Ryan claims to have just been going for a smoke. Jack asks Ryan to show him the pack of cigs. Ryan just looks at him. Jack then orders Ryan back to a holding room under the authority given to him by the President. Ryan gives him one of those 'you idiot' looks and holds up a pack of Camel Lights as he heads back with security.
Tony lets Jack know that Chase will head up a strike team to snatch Saunders when the info comes in and that he's ordered a helicopter for him and Ryan to take the to the trainyard. He then gets a call from Michelle letting him know that a possible infected victim has gotten out of the hotel and into the general population and they are working on identifying him. As they're pulling prints from the bar babe's room Michelle asks her to go over exactly what happened as they came into the room. She tells Michelle they began to kiss, they did not turn on the lights but headed for the bed. She says he began taking off her clothes, first her shirt, then her pants and it's then that Michelle notices the woman's belt. It has a metal, flat buckle and after examining it, they were able to pull a partial thumb off of it that did not belong to the woman.
She sends the print back to CTU and as Adam begins attempting to match it, we switch over to some guy sneaking back into his room at home, trying not to awaken his wife. At first I was like, 'Who the hell is this?' before it dawned on me that it's the infected hotel guy. His name is William Cole. Anyway Cole's wife wakes up anyway and questions him, but he just says he's been in meetings or whatever lame lie cheating husbands usually come up with and he heads into the bathroom. As he's washing his face, of course his nose begins to bleed. Dum da dum dum.
Chloe does it again! She decrypts the bank account and it shows that its been accessed as recently as 45 minutes before from a location not far from CTU. Chase is given the go ahead to hit the location. Jack tells Ryan the news and relief emanates from him like cheap cologne. He hugs Jack and begins to feel safe again. And I have to say the hug this time wasn't nearly as awkward as his hug with Michelle earlier in the day :) But the feeling of elation passes quickly as a grim Jack tells Ryan that they still have to go to the trainyard, just in case Chase's mission fails. He tries to assure Ryan by saying it's just a precaution, but there's still a sense of finality to it that forces Ryan to feel a returning sense of dread.
As they head for the roof, we go visit Palmer and find out that his press secretary is beginning to get 'feelers' from the press about what's happening at the Chandler. He tells the President that he appreciates that there are things he can't know but if what's happening at the hotel is connected to the red alert the President ordered, he should know. Wayne agrees and tells him about the virus. Clearly this disturbs the press secretary but he shoulders the info well for now. Palmer doesn't want him going public with anything until the virus is contained.
As Jack and Ryan prepare to board the helicopter, Chase stops them and asks why Jack's not going with him to get Saunders. Ryan tells him that he's ordered Jack over to Division to answer more questions. Chase kind of loses it and unleashes a bit of vitriol at Ryan, saying he's always putting obstacles in their way etc etc.. I think if 24 were on HBO we'd have heard a bit of strong profanity there :) But it was almost bittersweet because we know, and Jack and Ryan know that Ryan's probably never going to see CTU, or fly in a helicopter or anything ever again. He has to put his life in Chase's hands right now - well his hand anyway. It's kind of sad.
So Jack and Ryan fly off in the chopper, Jack at the controls, and Chase heads off to get Saunders. Adam pulls up 300 potential matches on the partial thumbprint and they have the woman at the hotel begin going through them until she finally identifies the guy. We see Saunders in his flat speaking to a flunky. He discovers only three of his operatives were able to reach their target cities before everything got grounded by the red alert. His casualty list has diminished. But this seems of little importance to him. 5 million dead, fifty million dead, it doesn't seem to matter. The flunky also seemed a bit worried about the possibility of the virus spreading beyond 'the Americas' but Saunders assured him that he was safe.
As Jack and Tony land at the trainyard, Tony patches them both into the realtime relay of Chase's operation. In a fakeout worthy of Silence of the Lambs, Chase and Agent Baker (whom you might also remember from Season 2 as the agent who helped Jack with Kate, Syed Ali and the bomb at the airport) take out, I think, five guards around the address Chloe got from the bank account, only to burst into the apartment to find nothing more than a switching node. The apartment is otherwise unoccupied.
Jack's cell phone rings as Chappelle quietly tries to disappear into his seat. With tears in his eyes, Jack answers. It's Saunders calling to gloat and to remind Jack that he expects Ryan's body to be left with his thugs who will be arriving in a van shortly. Ryan's face is pale. I can't imagine the things that might be going through his mind right at this moment. He knows he's doomed, and he knows Jack *will* carry out the order. God...
As they await the arrival of Saunders' thugs, we go back to the hotel and Dr. Sunny Macer grimly announces that the capsules have arrived. At first, the people are reluctant to come forward. What a decision to have to make. If it were me, I would be so torn between holding out hope that it's either all a dream, or that there is a cure because how tragic would it be to take your own life only to have it come out later that there is an antidote? Not that I think there is one of course, I just mean that's the sort of thing that would go through my mind. Maybe I'd feel differently once the pain of it set in.
Anyway, an older couple finally come forward with as much dignity as they can muster and they take the capsules from Sunny. We cut over to Cole, who is thinking he's caught a bug of some kind. His face is ashen and sweaty. he tells his wife he has to get to work.
And that's enough of everyone else. I want to concentrate on the end of the episode. Jack and Ryan are still in the chopper as a black van pulls up and waits. Jack phones CTU and has Adam position a satellite in an attempt to track the van after it leaves. He's sure Saunders will have counter-measures in place but he wants to try anyway. Jack tells Ryan it's time to go and gets out of the helicopter. He comes around to Ryan's door and when he opens it, Ryan says, "My legs are shaking." He says it in an almost perfunctory manner. Almost as if he's outside of the situation and clinically reporting the sensations he's feeling. His voice didn't shake, that I could tell, but just looking at him you can see the fear in his eyes.
"I've got you." Jack says as he helps Ryan out of the helicopter. Gutting.
They walk toward a spot between two trains and Jack asks Ryan if there's anyone he wants to talk to. But Ryan, sadly has no one. He says he has a brother that he hasn't spoken to in years. And he looks at Jack with such a look of.. I don't quite know but it was touching. He tells Jack that he didn't have many friends. So there's no one for him to say goodbye to. I think that's so sad. Jack has Ryan get down on his knees and this shapes up to be a classic execution pose. But with a single tear slipping down his face (an image I haven't been able to get out of my head all day today), Ryan pleads with Jack to let him have some dignity and take his own life. He swears he will not run all the while confessing that when Jack caught him before at CTU he had been prepared to bolt. But now he won't. He couldn't be responsible for the deaths of millions.
Jack concedes and hands Ryan his gun. After an anguishing minute watching Ryan hold the gun to his temple as Jack stands in front of him as witness to this atrocity, Ryan takes it away. He's unable to go through with it. I believe Jack understands. I believe Jack hoped Ryan would be able to do it himself, but he understood when he couldn't go through with it.. He takes his gun back, walks behind Ryan...
"God forgive me."
Jack fires and shoots Ryan in the head. Ryan falls to the ground with a sickening thud. And we see the silent clock tick down the end of the hour.
Earlier in this post I said that Chappelle's death was different. It was in that he wasn't killed by a baddie, he wasn't taken out in the line of duty... He was summarily executed by one of his own at the bidding of a terrorist. Here's a man who, an hour ago, was dinking around on a computer going blind from looking at endless numbers. Suddenly he's given less than an hour to reconcile himself to his own death. I can't even begin to imagine what that would feel like and like I said, the tear slipping down Ryan's cheek as he plead with Jack remains stuck in my head today.
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