(What is Tony doing though, handing Dina a pen? Was I the only one worried about Tony getting stabbed in the neck with the pen?)

At this point, there's about 20 minutes till the next meltdown, (reactor, not Maya) conveniently about the time left in the episode.

Because CTU is so shorthanded, Jack is the first one that can respond to the missing Curtis problem. Jack heads for the building.

Curtis konks Forbes on the head, gets an access card and cell phone, and calls into the office.

Driscoll briefs the President, who is still flying around in Air Force One. On a bulletin board, someone said that the 24 producers had said the President is flying around as a safety measure. They sure didn't make that clear in the show, though.

On the drive over, there is a touching touch between Audrey and Paul. Does she still have warm fuzzies for her wet fish Brit hubby?

Jack arrives at the building. Curtis has dispatched a guard in front of the elevator. But, instead of greeting the folks arriving, Curtis waits till he and Jack nearly shoot each other to say hello. Jack doesn't want a big strike team storming the floor. Why? More incompetence? What is he worried Marwan might do? Type faster on the keyboard? If time is of the essence, why not go in with guns blazing and find the guy as soon as possible.

(by the way, it was nice to see the return of another of 24's Greatest Hits. That is, SWAT agents piling out of a vehicle while someone was shouting Go! Go!)

Instead, Jack and Curtis take a gentle stroll through the busy office. Marwan notices them after Ali calls to warn him, and fires shots in the ceiling, sending the civilians screaming for the exits. Of course, even though they were mere feet away, Jack and Curtis can't get to Marwan, and Marwan escapes. Too bad Jack's team didn't think to guard all exits leading down from the floor above. And it sure would've been handy to have more personnel up on the office floor. Oh well. Live and learn, Jack.

(By the way, how did the baddies not notice all these CTU agents coming to the building? They found Curtis and Marianne within minutes after they arrived there.)

Curtis quickly takes over the Flux Capacitor, and gets Edgar into the magic Channel 11. Say, how did Edgar know to try F5-Shft-Esc? CTU didn't know of the existence of the Flux Capacitor till a few hours ago. Has Edgar been boning up on tech manuals?

(I can imagine all the good folks over at KARE-11 wondering what all this reactor stuff was coming over their computer screens.)