24: Momma Said Blow You Up

There are two keys to a good plot twist.

The first is that it (obviously) has to be somewhat of a surprise. The second key — which is actually more important, in my opinion — is that it has to make SO much sense that, in retrospect, you feel like an absolute idiot for not figuring out.

By this standard, I believe “24” pulled off a neat little twist when it was revealed that Tarin — the wrongfully-accused bodyguard of President Hassan’s who we’d last seen getting horizontal in a split screen with Hassan’s daughter Kayla — is, in fact, a mole.

Now maybe you weren’t quite as surprised as I was because you probably haven’t been semi-obsessed with the idea that Kayla was the mole (like I have). I also think T.J. Ramini has been delivering an understated, charismatic performance (it’s almost as if he’s picked up all the charisma Anil Kapoor has dropped) as Tarin. He’s been so good, that it never even occurred to me that he could really be a bad guy.

Either way, the revelation that Kayla has been sleeping with the enemy (granted, they haven’t been doing much sleeping) was one of the season’s most effective cliffhangers. Not too bad for a family/storyline that was getting dangerously close to becoming boring. (They’d been firmly planted in “meh” territory until last night.) Now all we need to do is figure out a way to make Dalia Hassan the president of Kamistan — she appears to have more balls than her embattled husband.

The episode ended with Kayla learning about her baddie boyfriend from her parents, and locking herself in the bathroom. If she’s smart, she’ll take a 45-minute shower to stall and allow CTU to get to their hotel — and if I were Tarin, I wouldn’t really think it was all that unusual for my girlfriend to take a 45-minute shower.

Of course, CTU was only able to get the Tarin info after Jack used a hell of a bluff on would-be suicide bomber Marcos.

If you recall, Marcos had barricaded himself in a hyperbaric chamber and set about manually arming the bomb so he wouldn’t be captured alive. The writers came up with a nifty way of building tension so that the entire episode didn’t consist of Jack pacing angrily outside the chamber. Apparently, Marcos needed to rig four circuits to be able to blow himself up. All I knew is that every time one of those little lights came on, it was bad.

CTU learned that Marcos was American and Hastings sent Cole (welcome back!) to pick up Marcos’ mother, who was about to flee the city at her son’s urging. The scene between the mother and her angry son (whose father was a professor with anti-American ideas who’d committed suicide) was effective, and I thought she was actually going to be able to talk him out of there.

(By the way, I thought this episode — with Marcos in one place and the people he was talking to in another — made excellent use of its split-screen gimmick.)

But then I remembered that this is “24” and Jack Bauer is the hero (damnit!)

Just as Marcos was ready to blow himself up (and CTU had blocked the bad guys from being able to monitor their conversation) Jack went right up to the chamber and informed Marcos that, if he killed himself, he’d make sure that his mom would be killed in the aftermath of the nuclear attack CTU is trying to prevent.

Kiefer Sutherland’s acting was characteristically hardcore, but I didn’t buy this threat for one second. One reason for that is that it’s insane, but another is that Jack appears to be in a better place in his life, so I never actually believed he’d ever follow through on something like that. (Now Jack from some earlier seasons is another story.) I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, it’s just the way things are.

Of course, it doesn’t really matter if I believe it because Marcos fell for it. Unfortunately, the bad guys armed the bomb themselves and Marcos went boom boom before Jack could disarm the bomb. Also, can we all agree that Jack pushing Marcos into the hyperbaric chamber right as he was exploding was simultaneously awesome, hilarious and cold?

Finally, we have to talk about the latest adventures from Dana and Cole. (I’m contractually obligated, sorry.)

Hastings gave them an appropriately harsh reaming when they finally decided to show up. (You can tell he was angry because he’d removed his Bluetooth to yell at them.) He demoted Dana and ordered her to work under Chloe. (At least Arlo hit on Dana again — that must’ve given her a nice sense of normalcy.)

Things seemed to be on the right track (meaning away from the redneck ex) until Dana received a call from Kevin’s parole officer. Apparently, the guy had become fond of Kevin and he knew that Kevin had made a bunch of calls to Dana’s cell, so he demanded to see her.

(Sigh) What can I say? The fact that the parole officer is played by Stephen Root (“Newsradio”, “Office Space”) is encouraging. However, this storyline makes me feel like Al Pacino in “The Godfather Part III.”

Just when we think we’re out of this garbage storyline – the world’s most dogged parole officer shows up.

So what’d you think of this episode? Any chance Jack wasn’t bluffing about killing Marcos’ mama? Finally, what do you think is in store for next week? (Judging from the previews, it looks like we’re in line for a possible beheading and an attack on CTU.)