What did you think of 24: Live Another Day Episode 9?

I’ve never trusted Adrian to really be who people think he is. He helped them track down Yates far too easily. Actually, now that we’ve seen him admit to running a mirror of Chloe’s computer when she was AWOL, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was doing the same thing with Yates and has therefore been following the device since the moment Yates walked it out the door. I’ve always figured that Adrian had a lot of involvement in developing that device. The question for me has always been whether he really did kick Yates out and he stole it, or if he let Yates go with it as part of a grander plan.

With option one, it just means that Adrian’s spent today trying to help them manouver into a position where they could get it back without being overt about it, and I could buy that story line.

With option two, he’s gotta have some larger plan because he wanted the device out there and in play, but now he wants it back. He and Yates may have had this plan to sell it to Margot and split the profits then steal it back. But then there’s the questions of 1) Why Margot and 2) Why not just keep it for themselves to begin with if they knew what a kickass device they’d created and what they could do with it themselves?

Maybe it’s just that he wanted the device tested in a real world situation and figured it wouldn’t be too hard to get it back once Margot was done? If he’s got some personal plans for using it, it makes the authorities take him more seriously if he can say, “You know someone who worked under me built this thing, you’ve seen it in action, so you know I’m not bluffing when I say I can eff some crap up now that I’ve got it back.” It puts him in quite a powerful position, with government leaders potentially willing to bend to his requests because he’s in possession of such a weapon that could bring them down. He’s a person who believes that governments should be put in their place, that’s why he made it his mission to expose their secrets. He doesn’t like them having the control they do. With the device and the information he’s gathered, HE is the one with the control over the governments. He could pose a MAJOR threat to ALL governments. He could hold any or all of them to ransom. He could force them into situations where he’s dictating international policy. He can make the world a better place by forcing a situation where all information is free and no governments keep secrets from anyone.

If something like that is going on, I’d say it’s a case of someone who started out with a less violent agenda, he was just a left wing kinda guy who always spoke up and tried to do what he thought was right to make the world a better, more informed place. But over the course of his life he’s become increasingly frustrated with the powers that be and now he’s had a gutful and has morphed into this egomaniac who thinks he’s gonna save the world from all the evil politicians by controlling them.

Back to the question of: Why give it to Margot? I’ve still got my little pet crack theory tucked in the back of my mind that Adrian is Margot’s first (not really) dead husband. It’s a pretty random assumption, I admit, (though they did make a point in this ep of putting emphasis on them avenging Ian’s STEP-father, reminding us that some other guy was the bio dad of Margot’s kids), though it could explain why Adrian would intentionally let it fall into HER hands. He’d know her well enough to know that she’d only use it in a limited capacity with the drones and that she (and the device) would remain in a nearby location. He may even expect that she’d be an easy person for him to take it back from when she was done. He could have just knocked on her door, been all, “You’re welcome for the device that let you avenge your second husband’s death, figured I should make it up to you somehow for having ditched you and kids. Seeing as how you’re done with it, can I have it back now plz?”

As to the question of why Adrian was bothering to get involved with selling stuff to the Chinese, it may just be that he needs to make deals for cash sometimes, purely out to necessity, to keep Open Cell up and running. They may not pay rent, but all that hardware don’t come for free. Also, if he DOES have some big plan that this has all been building up to, he knows that Open Cell isn’t gonna keep going forever, at some point he’s gonna make his move, and then people will be after him and he’ll need money in his pocket so he can go on the run.

About Open Cell and Chloe and their role in it all. I think Yates was the only truly nefarious geek in that lot. I think the rest of them just believe in the ideals that Adrian sold them, but they don’t have any idea that the organisation is really a means to his own evil end, and they’re just pawns to help him gather all the information he needs. Chloe’s about to get a reality check, and will be the one in a position to be able to stop him.