Well, Jack had died from the torture. So the bad guys went upstairs to find some epinehphrine to revive him. They kidnapped a doctor to help revive Jack. They successfully did, then they used to doctor to inject Jack with a chemical to paralyz his lungs, slowly.
When the bad guys weren't looking, the doctor helped untie Jack's hands. Then Jack said he was gonna tell them where the chip was. He did the low voice, come closer gag until the bad guy bent over near him.
Then the doctor stabbed him in the back with the nasty medicine. Jack got the guy to tell him who was on the phone, then he shot him (putting him out of his misery, as it woudl have taken 15 minutes for him to slowly die.)
Jack escapes and goes to the rendezvous point. They ain't there, of curse, but then he sees Yousef, in a phone booth near death. He tells Jack that the unrelated amateur bad guys took Kate to her house. She had promised them money if they just gave her the chip. So he heads over, tries to call CTU, but the cell phone gives out.
Meanwhile Kate is with the bad guys and she opens her safe and hands them a stack "about 20,000 Euros." They go "what is this, you said you had money." They find about $1,500 in cash and are not satisfied. They soon realize they have to kill her, or she will tell on them.
Kate runs for her life, and is about to be shot when --- in comes Jack, killing one of the bad guys. The other ones flee to her bathroom. Jack tells them he is a federal agent and just wants the chip. The oaf threatens to stomp on the chip and starts shooting through the door.
Meanwhile at the president's place, Lynn starts a fire in a trash can and gets the goon to open the door. She hits him with the old fire extinguisher and runs away. He chases her down a stairwell, hits her and she falls several filghts straight down the middle of the stairwell.
At CTU, some new weasal shows up and insists that Tony stop giving any support to Jack. The evil chick tries to blackmail Tony into giving her Michelle's job, but he calls her bluff and she tells the weasal that Tony's still devoting resources to Jack. Tony says "Fire me or deal with it."
The weasal says "I don't have anybody to take your place right now, but you'll pay for this."
President Palmer gets antsy as he can't connect with his vice president and seems to be isolated from his staff. He requests Lynn to work on his staement, but the chief of staff guy worms his way out of that.
Later, the President finds out Lynn has been hurt. She has a head injury, among others. She tries to point to the chief of staff incriminatingly, and he grabs her hand and strokes it re-assuringly.
Then the chief of staff assembles a meeting with the VP and the Cabinet, without the president present. As the episode ends, the VP announces that he is of the opinion that the President is incompetent to carry out his duties.
A mercifully Kim-free episode.
SD