After last week's pretty darn terrific hour, "12:00am to 1:00am" is back to standard plot-filler status; apart from Tony's infiltration of the Starkwood compound, we mostly just spent our time setting up pegs, or knocking down a few loose ends. Nothing wrong with that, of course—my only real criticism of the hour is that we spent far too little of it with Jack, but since he spent the whole time sweating and twitching at FBI headquarters, maybe that's for the best.
Picking up at Starkwood, the confrontation between Larry and Hodges plays out about as you'd expect; Hodges gets all self-righteous and demands Larry leave, and Larry has no choice but to back down. He does manage to create a diversion just big enough for Tony to slip away, and it's with Tony that we get most of the episode's suspense. He's the lucky bastard who gets to do recon into enemy territory to try and find where those pesky bioweapons are being housed; the President needs confirmation from him and Jack before she's willing to proceed with an air strike, and given how pear-shaped everything went last time, it's understandable she'd want assurances. Tony briefly connects with possibly the only honest man left in Starkwood, chairman of the board Doug Knowles, and the two of them find the most likely location for the materials. But then some of Hodges' men drive by, and Doug decides that the only way to save the mission is to distract them himself. Necessary or not, the move works; too bad it winds up in Hodges murdering Doug back at the office. (Nicely done scene, too.)
Jack is definitely not enjoying being sidelined from the main action, but he's not enjoying the effects of the bioweapon even more. I was expecting the writers to use Jack's worsening condition to make it harder to get an ID on the cannisters, but points to them, they didn't; when Jack collapses, they get a medic in to give him some stuff to hide the symptoms, and the issue is, for the time being, resolved. The medic also mentions what we've all been waiting for, the experimental and highly unlikely but probably going to save the day cure. Too bad they'd need stem cells donated from a close living relative—given the way Bauer goes through family, that means Kim, and he's not having any of that. So we lose some points here, because this means Kim's probably going to show up before the end of the day, and who the hell wants that?
Not much going on at the White House, apart from worrying about the upcoming air strike, but we do get a juicy side-plot with Olivia and her pet reporter, Ken. He demands a visit, and won't take no for an answer; and when she shows up, he manages to worm out all the details of the evening's events. He convinces her to have sex to keep the story quiet, and then tells her he's still going ahead with the story, sex or no. Olivia pulls out her cell-phone and reveals that she recorded their "session," and if he doesn't keep his mouth shut, she'll let the video out to any number of interested parties, including his wife. Y'know, I'm not sure what to think about Olivia, but the cell phone thing put me in her corner—Ken was a whiny asshole, and seeing him put in his place so neatly was extremely satisfying, even if she did have to sleep with him to get the job done.