24: The Silent (Clock) Treatment

The way I can tell that this season of “24” is getting really good is by how much I’ve been yelling at my TV lately.

The following (remarks) took place between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. during the most recent two-hour “24” extravaganza:

“Look out Jack!” “Turn around Arlo!” “Shoot her, Freddie!” “Yeah, chokeslam her, Jack!” (Despite the last two remarks, I have to insist that I don’t have any issues when it comes to violence against women — I just REALLY hate Dana Walsh, pictured, left.)

The hour opened with 15 minutes to go on Samir’s deadline to utilize the nuclear rods in New York City. We’d seen from the previews that President Hassan was going to blind side Jack and turn himself over to Gen. Brucker’s mercenaries, who would then presumably hand him over to Samir’s men. Since we knew it was coming, I was happy to see it happen within the episode’s first five minutes. (Although all the Secret Service agents who sacrificed themselves trying to protect Hassan a few minutes earlier were probably annoyed.)

Although I correctly guessed that there was no way in hell the producers were going to dramatize a terrorist attack in New York City, the show still did a terrific job of making the minute-long countdown to the detonation incredibly exciting. Although Tarin still appeared to have his reservations, the show made it clear that, had Hassan not turned himself in when he did, the bomb would’ve gone off.

Of course, this was little consolation to President Taylor who literally slapped her treacherous chief of staff silly when she got the news directly from Jack. Taylor told Rob Weiss that he and Gen. Brucker would be charged with treason (I doubt it’ll be light treason). Weiss impressively stood up for himself and reinstated that, “New York is safe.” Well, the guy does have a poin…NO! You can’t do what he did, can you?! Sure, what Weiss and Brucker did was reprehensible, but was it really THAT much worse than, say, Jack killing CTU Head Ryan Chappelle in season 3 at a terrorists’ request? (We were probably more ok with that because we like Jack, and Chappelle was mostly an ass.)

Anyway, Tarin made the Hassan/bomb trade with the oblivious and hobbling mercenary Bishop, who was able to locate the bomb and get it disarmed. Jack got help from Chloe and was able to follow the SUV with Tarin and Hassan after hijacking a Honda Insight hybrid. (Even while hunting down terrorists, Jack is worried about reducing his carbon footprint.)

Right as CTU was about to ambush Tarin and rescue Hassan, he swerved and went into a parking garage, thanks to a tip from Dana. Obviously, I’ve ragged on Dana A LOT this season, but I have to spread the blame all over CTU. More specifically, I hate how dumb the writers made every single CTU employee for not figuring out it was Dana, given that she’s been acting suspicious the entire time by sneaking off and making personal phone calls (and by generally looking evil). I mean, Arlo had even confronted her about her shady activity a few minutes earlier!

Anyway, Jack intercepted Tarin’s SUV as he tried to exit the parking garage, leading to an exciting chase culminated by a terrific stunt that had Tarin’s vehicle flying off the roof and landing with a thud. Jack quickly checked the vehicle and found a dead Tarin, but no sign of Hassan. At first, I was confused as to how Hassan could’ve been transported to a new car with Jack right on his tail, but then I realized that Tarin had been in the parking garage for bit before he ran into Jack, and we never actually saw Hassan in the car with Tarin during the chase. The switch took place before Tarin even saw Jack. (Then I got to thinking as to how Samir got his people to that parking garage so quickly, but then my head started hurting so I let it go.)

I’m going to miss Tarin. I think T.J. Ramini took a stock character and did a lot with it. He was credible in moments of drama, action and romance. Hopefully, he’ll do good things in the future.

By this point, even CTU was able to figure out that Dana was the mole thanks to Jack recovering Tarin’s phone and tracing it back to our (least) favorite CTU analyst. Dana killed a few security guards and tried to make a break for it (if she had no problem killing security guards, why didn’t she just kill Kevin and Nick when they showed up to blackmail her?), but was eventually stopped by a vengeful Cole. I’m sorry, but even though Freddie Prinze Jr. isn’t doing a bad job as Cole, it’s still hard for me to take him completely seriously.

Anyway, Dana disclosed that she’d made a deal and was looking to get paid. She would only reveal Hassan’s location to Jack, because he was the only one who could competently lead such a mission. (Uh oh.) She asked for immunity and compensation, and Jack tried to strong-arm her. Dana stood up to him and forced Jack to make the deal. (Katee Sackhoff as a badass makes MUCH more sense than the actress as the weak, dim bulb analyst from earlier in the season)

Jack took Renee and a team to rescue President Hassan and appeared to make it just before Samir was set to execute him. Unfortunately, it turned out the Internet feed CTU and the president were monitoring was pre-recorded and Jack had gotten there too late. Jack took out Samir and his men, but also found Hassan dead with his throat slashed.

The way this entire sequence was structured was spectacularly tense. Having Jack fail in his oath to protect President Hassan (after successfully recovering the nuclear rods )will make for interesting drama in the coming hours. I mean, when Jack says he’s going to do something, he does, right? (Not so much.)

Most of all, I was surprised by how affected I was with Hassan’s death. I liked the character a lot in the beginning, but quickly became disenchanted with him when he became paranoid and weak. Fortunately, Anil Kapoor’s strong work helped the character rally and display excellent courage in the end. I felt terrible that he was gone.

However, there are still eight hours left. It appears as if the Russians (who Taylor suggested may not have been on board with the peace agreement) are coming. (If you recall, the season’s first Big Bad was the Russian assassin who tried to blow up Hassan’s car.) And so is former President Charles Logan. Strap in, it should be a fun ride the rest of the season.

So what’d you think of this episode? Have we seen the last of Dalia and Kayla Hassan? Were you surprised to see that Ethan survived his heart attack? (I thought he was a goner.) Finally, do you think there’s a Renee-related twist on the horizon? (The show seemed to be hinting at something when Jack told her to follow his directions and she didn’t look too thrilled.)