Culture: 24 - 3AM to 4AM

24 is at its best with gunfire, running around and Jack involved with generic mayhem.

The Chinese assault team depleted by Jack take Josh away but leave behind a small contingent to keep the CTU team bottled up.

Implausibility alert: I don't think they would have hesitated to kill all of the CTU personnel to keep them from following them.

Anyway, with the short handed Chinese commandos trying to put the lid on the CTU staff, Jack, Nadia and Morris manage to keep the Chinese agents at bay as Doyle and his team storm back in to restore order.

Jack and Doyle and the rest of the gang chase after Chang and his guards and Josh. The running gun battle is nice and lively after the previous hours of political intrigue and interpersonal angst. Josh is rescued by Jack but of course we knew it wouldn't be that simple.

Meanwhile, "super-agent" Lisa Miller finally cracks and tries to kill Bishop. Reminds me of a previous season when another betrayed woman was used to try to get information from traitor hunk and that guy wound up dead. Well, in this case, Lisa almost winds up dead but the agents who were parked one block away finally get there and rescue her and force Bishop to feed the intel to the Russians. Of course, the Russians were watching Bishop so they knew it was all a set-up and they implacably continue to threaten the US base in unnamed Central Asian country

Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles, Grandpa Bauer has the chip and the Chinese don't have Josh anymore which leads him to make a deal with someone else. He calls up the acting Prez and demands Josh in exchange for the chip. In the swiftest command working its way down the chain of command, Jack is told to go one way while Josh is snatched going the other way.

Its 3:59AM and we have two hours to go.