Jack remains unstoppable, but he faces a very wily quadruplet of femmes, and they keep him one step behind all episode.
Two of them are mother and daughter, and they are respectively the brains and the brawn behind this operation to snag drone planes and use them against their owners. Once Jack figures out who, he even knows why; mama’s husband was killed by a drone attack in the search for Bin Laden, and now she is all about payback.
Daughter dearest managed the drone commandeer-er for the test run (resulting in friendly fire on American troops, and big trouble for soldier boy Chris Tanner, the legit operator), and then disposed of him once he got jumpy. Then she reported home, where she has a husband she also has to manage. The interesting twist isn’t that, though Muslim, he’s troubled by her Mata Hari double-timing for the job; actually, he’s more upset about all the people they’re planning to kill, and have killed. Worse news, Mommie Baddest is watching everything on a bedroom spy cam. She takes no chances, and she probably doesn’t like loose wheels.
The other two women who count are Agent Kate and field operative (former) Chloe O’Brien. Kate knows Jack is up to something, but is more concerned about re-apprehending him than finding out what. Wrong move, Kate. Chloe, on the other hand, is fully back on board with Jack, running his tech support like she never stopped, until she gets distracted. Seems (as she breaks down and confesses) she lost Morris and her son to a freak traffic accident that may have been targeted at her, and that’s why she’s gone Goth and paranoid and underground at Freaky-Leaks.
Jack takes a moment to comfort her, which is probably hard on him too. We’d know if his face could still move, for sure. But Chloe definitely needs the support, and otherwise she’s all systems go. Jack leaves Kate to deal with brouhaha of at the council flat, and she decides to take the head thug to his worst enemies (not torture so much as throwing him to the sharks), in order to force him to let on who Jack was looking for and maybe why. Agent Erik, who resented her presence at first, starts to catch on that she’s got the goods. Jack already noticed.
Not yet directly affecting Jack is all the Presidential/Parliament diplomacy, mostly because Chief Assface is keeping Audrey and the President in the dark, not to mention telling the President how to serve the country. At least Audrey seems on the verge of realizing how awful he is, as she tells him to back off with the kid gloves (for her) and the condescension (for her father) by the end of the hour.
It all moved pretty briskly, so I don’t think we’ve seen the actual big bads yet. We’re just scratching the surface, and I’m still willing to see where Jack goes next.