’24: Live Another Day’ Review: “5:00 P.M. — 6:00 P.M.”

Are you ready for the wackiest hour of '24: Live Another Day' yet? This episode has it all: car chases, terrorist attacks, gun fights, torture, mothers killing children, nieces wishing aunts dead, computer technicians facing murder and Presidents Skyping with known terrorists. Read on for our recap and review of "5:00 P.M. -- 6:00 P.M."!

THE EPISODE:

A badly injured Simone is examined by paramedics and loaded into a waiting ambulance. Witnesses explain what they saw, and a traumatized Yasmien explains that Simone killed her mother.

At the warehouse, the Mi5 agents round up survivors and Jack takes a call from Chloe. The number they've traced belongs to Simone and Chloe tells him all about her accident. Suddenly, Chloe gets a message: "Get out of there." She goes to her window and sees cops approaching. Chloe tells them which hospital Simone is heading for before she hangs up. Jack and Kate drive out as fast as they can.

Mark tells Heller that Margot gave them untraceable contact information and is daring him to negotiate. As they ponder this, Jack calls and fills everyone in on Simone. Heller agrees to put her under guard and Jack tells him about how the Prime Minister nearly botched the entire operation.

Right on cue, the Prime Minister arrives and they exchange some harsh words. They have less than an hour until Margot's deadline and the Prime Minister says that he refuses to sit idly by. He brings up Heller's condition, but the President says that if his health posed any threat to anyone, he'd resign.

The paramedics struggle to stabilize Simone when her phone rings. Margot is startled to find herself speaking with a paramedic, who tells her Simone is in bad shape and that she should head down to the hospital to speak with the police. Margot and Ian talk over the situation. They have a man, Kareem, in the area. He'll investigate and see what the cops know.

At the CIA station, Gordon runs the retrieval program against Navarro's wishes. In his office, Navarro receives a phone call from his mysterious contact, who turns out to be none other than Cross! Cross tells Navarro that Gordon is going to discover that they've been selling secrets to the Chinese and to take care of the problem. Navarro hesitates, but Cross reminds him that they framed Kate's husband and will go to prison if they don't take him out of the picture.

At the hospital, Kate goes to speak with Yasmine while Jack goes to Simone. Simone is still unconscious, but the doctor agrees to let Jack speak to her when they stabilize her.

Meanwhile, Kareem changes into hospital scrubs and gets his gun ready.

Kate sits with Yasmine and they have a heart-to-hear conversation. Kate learns that Simone is her aunt and that she wanted them to get out of the city, but the young girl knows nothing about Margot. Yasmine wishes death upon Simone and Kate leaves her. Kate calls Jack and tells him that Simone was betraying her mother and that they have a shot at getting her to talk. Kareem listens from nearby and calls Margot, letting her know what he knows. Margot asks Kareem to find out exactly where Simone is in the hospital. She tells Ian to move a drone toward the hospital -- Simone has betrayed them once already and it won't happen again.

At the CIA station, Navarro meets with Gordon and tells him that he's needed in the field. They're short on agents and someone needs to go pick up an evidence package. Gordon is happy to help.

In a rare moment of downtime, Heller meets with Mark and Audrey and tells them that the Prime Minister knows about his Alzheimer's. He says that, when this is all over, he wants to speak with the Vice President about preparing a transition.

At the hospital, Simone comes to and Jack immediately begins interrogating her. She recognizes Jack from earlier in the day and refuses to betray her mother to him. Jack grabs her injured hand and twists it. She passes out before she talks. Jack apologizes to Kate for resulting to torture and admits that he just plain hates terrorists.

Then they notice Kareem nearby and immediately know he doesn't belong there. Kareem opens fire and flees, with Jack and Kate hot on his heels. Two cops join the chase and open fire, killing Kareem. Jack searches his body, finds his phone and learns that they have eight minutes until Margot attacks the hospital with a drone. Jack yells for them to begin an evacuation.

Chloe ducks into a pub and pulls out her laptop. She tells Jack that Kareem's number for Margot is re-routed and is a dead end. Jack pulls Simone out of her bed and tells her that Margot is trying to kill her. She doesn't believe him, so Jack leaves her to die. After a few seconds, Simone changes her mind and begs Jack to take her. He lifts her up and pulls her out of the building.

Jack, Kate, Simone and Yasmine all barely make it out before the drone fires, destroying a large portion of the hospital. Margot orders Ian to scan the crowd to see if Simone survived. They find her, Jack and Kate getting into a car and Margot orders him to lock on and open fire. It barely misses and Jack, knowing that they're being tracked, begins evasive driving.

Jack weaves in and out of traffic as Ian struggles to lock on. His next shot is another near miss, destroying a nearby building instead of his target. Soon, he only has one missile left on that drone. Jack drives into thick traffic and can't move any further. The trio abandon their car and hijack an SUV. Jack drives them under a bridge, parks and steals another car at gunpoint. He puts a large stone on the SUV's gas pedal and lets it drive out from under the bridge on its own. Ian hits it with a missile and it explodes. However, Margot and Ian review the footage and realize they destroyed an empty car as Jack and his crew escape in the other direction.

Gordon reaches his destination: a small boat docked on a river. But there's nothing there ... except the hired killer who opens fire, hitting him and sending him flying into the water below.

At the embassy, Mark meets with the Russian Deputy Minister, who demands that he hand Jack over. Mark says it's impossible since Jack is now helping with the terrorist threat. The Deputy Minister realizes that Mark forged the President's signature and threatens blackmail. Mark promises to hand Jack over to them when the day is over.

In the car, Jack takes a call from Heller. He learned about the attack on the hospital and wants to know if Simone will talk before Margot's deadline. Jack is honest and says no. Heller requests that Jack come meet with him.

At the docks, Gordon crawls out of the river, injured but very much alive.

Heller calls Margot and the two of them share words. He wants her word that she'll call off the attacks if he turns himself over to her. She promises that no one else will die if he complies. Heller says that he's made up his mind.

OUR REVIEW:

Oh, man. This episode.

'24' has always been a crazy show, but it has rarely been crazier than this episode, which featured one of the series' best action set pieces to date. There few things as pleasurable as Jack Bauer driving through the streets of London, evading missiles fired from a terrorist-controlled drone. It's a bonkers sequence that's so massively entertaining that you can forgive the occasional hiccup in production quality. '24' is at its best when it gets truly goofy while wearing a completely straight face, and this was easily the highlight of the season so far.

The sheer amount of wacky action in Jack's storyline is actually matched by the subplots this week. As groan-worthy as it is that Navarro is a mole, the reveal that he's working with Cross is the kind of left-field twist that really doesn't make any sense but is so audacious that you can't help but admire it. Between this revelation and Gordon's botched murder, it looks like we'll actually be getting some real momentum on this storyline sooner rather than later.

The rest of the pieces being moved into place seem promising, too. President Heller is prepared to give himself over to Margot, which would make this the second time his captivity has been a major plot point in '24' history. Mark is still wheeling and dealing with the Russians. Margot is completely unafraid to blow her entire family to smithereens with missiles. Yeah, we'll forgive the slightly slow past two episodes -- the pay-off has been pretty fantastic.