24: The Final Countdown

There were a lot of contradictions coming into the final episode of “24.”

As much as I’ve loved and enjoyed the show over the years (as I suspect many others have), it’s hard to get too broken up about its cancelation. Not only had the writers basically run out of moles to install in CTU or nuclear weaponry to threaten American cities with, but the show — with its novel, self-contained concept — was really lucky to be on the air more than a few seasons, so getting eight years was an incredible gift.

Then there’s the fact that Kiefer Sutherland and Co. have not made a secret of the fact that they intend to make at least one “24” movie. Since the movie would obviously continue to follow Jack Bauer’s misadventures (unless it was a prequel), that knowledge robbed the series finale of some drama, since we knew it was highly unlikely Jack would die.

One more: the show’s cancelation was announced in the middle of the season, which meant the ending was presumably in the can. Although the end of “24” is a BIG deal, what we got was a relatively no-frills finale that I’m assuming was intentionally open-ended in case the show got renewed. It felt like the show’s final episode SHOULD have been a bit bigger, but there was no way to do that.

All these contradictions were floating around my mind as I settled in to watch the show’s swan song, but I found that most of those worries went away thanks to a solid final two hours of entertainment.

Remember how Jack was apparently bleeding to death after being wounded by a Russian security guard? Well, that was resolved pretty easily after Jack kidnapped Jason Pillar and forced him to suture the wound after sneaking Jack into the building across from the U.N. (Could that security guard REALLY not see Jack crouched in the backseat?) After knocking Pillar unconscious (J.P. Injury #1), Jack picked his spot and pulled out his sniper rifle.

Before he got down to business, he recorded a somber video message explaining the nature of his actions, in the event that he wound up dead or in prison. At first, I assumed he was recording the message for his daughter, but now it occurs to me that he was probably recording it as a sort of general testament that Chloe or someone else could use to expose the truth.

Speaking of the truth, let’s talk a little about Dalia Hassan. As good and compelling as the Jack stuff was (as it usually is), I think Cherry Jones and, ESPECIALLY, Necar Zadegan acted their asses off during that first hour.

Kayla informed her mother Dalia about Meredith Reed’s phone call and allegations about the Russian’s involvement in President Hassan’s death. Dalia confronted President Taylor about it. Taylor tried to put on a defense, but her actions over the last several hours (what with her losing her mind) have clearly taken a toll on her and Jones did an excellent job in conveying that Taylor simply didn’t have the strength to lie anymore.

This led to an intense, emotional and excellent scene between the two leaders which resulted in Dalia VERY begrudgingly agreeing to sign the peace treaty after President Taylor threatened nuclear action. (I believe she’d like that pen back.) Zadegan deserves to have more work after this powerhouse performance.

Dalia could barely disguise her disdain when Yuri, the Russian president arrived. Jack almost made Dalia a very happy lady by taking Yuri out — but Chloe had to go and interfere.

Since Jack had bugged Logan, he knew about Yuri’s involvement. Jack trained his sniper rifle on Logan and demanded that he summon Yuri to his office. Meanwhile, Cole and Chloe learned from Jim Ricker (why did they use Michael Madsen so little in this finale?) that Jack had a copy of the recording implicating the Russians in the day’s assassination plot. Chloe went to look for Jack to try to talk him down from the ledge, but Jack responded by putting her in a sleeper hold. (That sound you heard was my heart breaking.)

Chloe woke up and was eventually able to convince Jack not to assassinate Yuri and assured him that she’d see his mission all the way through and expose the conspiracy. However, to make it look like Chloe had legitimately caught Jack, she had to shoot him. Just terrific, intense work from Sutherland and Mary Lynn Rajskub, who, despite being known for her cranky quips, really ended up being a great dramatic actress.

The bullet ended up going completely through Jack, which made Jason Pillar suspicious. (I thought it was funny that the untrained Chloe’s gunshot ended up being too good.) Pillar creepily searched her for Jack’s audio file, but she had hid it in her phone. (Really, Jason? You didn’t think to look in there?) Pillar eventually figured out what happened, leading to CTU tool Burke foiling Chloe before she could send the info to Arlo so he could broadcast it. It also led to J.P. Injury #2 after Jack Mike Tysoned Pillar’s ear to buy Chloe some time.

The evidence got back to Logan, who handed it over to Taylor. It was always clear that Taylor would eventually confess what she’d done, but the show still found a nice way to dramatize the decision. Taylor backed out of signing her beloved peace agreement.

Unfortunately, she’d already put a hit out on Jack after Logan convinced her that Jack would never EVER stop hunting Yuri as long as he was alive. She tried to thwart the ambush (nice work from Tim Woods in this scene), but it was too late.

Taylor tried to reach Logan, but my boy was not going down easy. He knocked Jason Pillar out with J.P. Injury #3 and #4 (I actually felt bad for the guy) and turned the gun on himself. I thought that was going to be the end of Logan, but (again!) there’s a movie to think about and Logan is WAY too delicious a villain to kill off.

Meanwhile, Jack’s convoy had been ambushed and he had been captured. (I like that he was fighting till the very end, even with his hands cuffed behind him.) Fortunately, President Taylor was able to reach his captors using a CTU drone and called them off. She told Jack she was going to turn herself in and that he’d have to do the same. By that same token, she gave him a little bit of time to allow for his escape.

That led to the second hour’s best scene in which Jack told Chloe that she was the only person…who’d ever covered his back. (Was I the only one who thought he might use the L-word?)

And that’s where our story ends. Our president will resign in disgrace (Cherry Jones deserved better) and our hero will disappear for a while…before coming to a theatre near you.

So what’d you think of this episode? Why bring in Eriq LaSalle (“ER”) in the final hour, but give him nothing to do? Do you think the show would’ve ended differently if the writers had known this was the final season ahead of time?

John "24" Season Rankings: Worst to First

“Lost” isn’t the only long-running and beloved primetime series with a lead character named Jack that is ending this week.

In fact, the end of “24” has somewhat gotten “Lost” (sorry) in the shuffle. While “Lost” is undoubtedly a singular television achievement, “24” deserves just as much attention and credit for revolutionizing the medium and changing the way we watch TV. (And for inspiring the “Damn it!” drinking game.)

Though I’ve seen every episode of “24”, I don’t feel great about ranking my favorite episodes, since they all pretty much flow into each other.

Instead, I’ll rank the seasons, starting with the worst.

Day 6: “24” fans may not agree on much, but I think there’s a pretty strong consensus that this stink bomb was the worst this show had to offer. Jack’s father AND his brother being involved in Day 6’s major threat AND in the season 5 plot that killed President Palmer, Michelle and Tony (for the time being)? No! Wayne Palmer as President? (NO!) Jack killing Curtis? NOOOOO!!!! Jack’s sissy nephew/possible son? (You get the idea.)

The only good thing (other than when it ended) were interesting performances from Powers Boothe as Vice President (and eventual President) Daniels and Peter MacNicol (in all his Peter MacNicol-y glory) as Tom Lennox.

Day 7: The return from the dead of Tony Almeida was an exciting prospect (and Carlos Bernard gave a good performance), and President Allison Taylor was the best “good” president since David Palmer. However, the novelty of Tony’s return quickly wore off and the President Taylor storyline was unfortunately bogged down by a hopelessly stupid First Gentleman. (Although, I did like typing “First Gentleman” during my recaps.)

Though it wasn’t a terrible season, per se, it also didn’t really have enough signature “Oh my f---ing God!” moments, besides Jon Voight’s amusing over-acting. Ok, I take it back – the part where Jack tasered the phone was AWESOME! It should also be noted that this is the season we met Renee Walker, the apparent love of Jack’s life. (I liked her character, but I never bought their love connection.)

Day 8: For a while there, it seemed like the current season was going to give season 6 a run for its “Worst Season of ‘24’” money, thanks to the godawful Dana Walsh subplot (you’ll never convince me she was a mole all along) and what’s mostly been a waste of the New York City locale.

Although parts of this season have actually been MUCH worse than Day 7 (President Taylor and Jack losing their damn minds), I still give it the edge because the good parts have also been much better. (Welcome back President Logan!) Jack’s Iron Man impersonation alone was more spectacular than anything in the seventh season and one of those OMFG moments I was talking about. Depending on how it all ends, I might give this one the prize for Most Improved.

Day 2: There were plenty of things to like here: Jack decapitating a guy at the end of the first hour. A radiation-poisoned George Mason sacrificing himself and saving Jack’s life. The first assault on CTU (back when stuff like that could actually shock us). President Palmer’s poisoning in the finale. I was even a fan of the Kate Warner subplot.

So why do I have this season ranked so low? Two words: Kim…cougar. WAY too much screen time was devoted to an estranged Kim Bauer’s misadventures with an abusive father.

Day 3: This was the point in which the show ABSOLUTELY ran out of ways to keep Kim Bauer involved. (Now she’s a CTU analyst? Riiight.) I also wasn’t too wild about Jack, the heroin addict.

However, this season delivered on the OMFG moments — Jack actually murdering Ryan Chappelle! Sherry Palmer causing Alan Milliken’s death! Jack murdering Nina Meyers! Even if all that hadn’t happened, this was the season the show introduced Chloe O’Brian, and that alone gives it the nod over season 2.

Day 4: The more things change, the more they stay the same?

This was the first time “24” somewhat rebooted itself by ditching Kim as a regular and moving Jack away from CTU and into guarding Secretary of Defense James Heller (Jack would eventually get involved with his daughter, Audrey). Still, the show courted controversy by depicting a seemingly benign Middle Eastern family who turned out to be associated with terrorists.

Although this season was somewhat light on the OMFG moments, the show was reinvigorated thanks to strong supporting performances from the likes of William Devane as Secretary Heller and Arnold Vosloo as baddie Habib Marwan, one of the show’s more underrated bad guys. On top of that, this was the year we first met Charles Logan. Also, I had a big crush on Shohreh Aghdashloo’s Dina Araz.

Day 1: The day that started it all set the tone for this classic show. It also had a TERRIFIC beginning (great fakeout with Mandy being the terrorist in the plane after we were led to believe it was the guy) and an unforgettable ending (the death of Teri Bauer).

The reason I don’t give season 1 the top spot was because of some of the stuff in between. The show seemed to struggle a bit to fit some of the middle hours, even resorting to amnesia. (Never a good thing.) I also have to deduct points for Dennis Hopper’s questionable accent as bad guy Victor Drazen.

Day 5: If season 1 set the template for the show, Day 5 perfected it.

The Emmy-winning fifth season was nearly flawless all-around. It was good in the beginning (those shocking deaths), in the middle (MORE shocking deaths, like Edgar, as well as the stunning revelation that Logan wasn’t an idiot…he was EVIL) and in the end (the classic scene between Jack and Logan, where the president delivers the “You’d be Lee Harvey Oswald” speech). Kiefer Sutherland was never better, and he was never surrounded by so many rich characters, whether they were villains (Logan and Peter Weller’s Christopher Henderson) or just plain cuckoo (Jean Smart’s Martha Logan).

In fact, the only problem I had this year was that Smart and Gregory Itzin didn’t win Emmys (like Sutherland and the show did) for their work as the Logans.

So how do you rank the seasons? Will season 1 always reign supreme in your mind? Where does the current season rank? Finally, how do you want the show to end?

24: The Man in the Iron Mask

Last week, I lightly chided “24” for hedging its bets.

The writers seemed to want us to believe that Jack was TOTALLY out of control, yet they still mostly had enough of his wits about him to execute complicated plans and outsmart every single person around him. (Not too hard to do since everyone else on this show besides Chloe is an idiot.)

This week, I have to give the show for taking a side — they decided to have Jack go ABSOLUTELY bananas and I loved it!

In fact, why don’t we stop messing around and talk about the scene we all want to discuss? How amazing/ridiculous was it seeing Jack donning his own version of an “Iron Man” costume (complete with an incredibly intimidating mask) and unleashing hell in a New York City tunnel on his way to kidnapping Charles Logan.

Now Logan was really the key. Seeing Kiefer Sutherland’s (stunt double’s) rampage would’ve been incredible enough on its own, but the thing that really pushed this sequence to “all-time great” heights was the cowardly Charles Logan whimpering and squealing in the backseat of his Secret Service car. (Particularly satisfying, since Logan had been at his slimy/cocky peak after getting a shout-out from the White House Press Secretary for his role in the peace agreement AND once again playing President Taylor like an increasingly useless fiddle by convincing her to basically wipe her ass with the Constitution.)

I could honestly write my entire recap about this scene. (Don’t tempt me!) If you recall, Jack had retrieved Russian assassin Pavel’s SIM card from the dead man’s stomach and dialed President Logan’s number. With Ricker’s reluctant help, Jack got the location of Logan’s Secret Service detail. Logan, meanwhile, had just finished assuring Russian baddie Novakovich that everything would be fine, despite the fact that Jack had jus filleted his man Pavel. This all led to the assault in the tunnel.

You know what I liked best about Logan’s panicked, “That’s gotta be Jack Bauer…he’s coming after me…closer the door…kill him!” hysterics? (I mean, besides the fact that it was hilarious.) My favorite thing is that it was absolutely realistic. Now, “realistic” is not a word that is tossed around to describe “24” very often, and it certainly doesn’t describe this particular sequence. However, Logan’s terror at this Jason Vorhees/Terminator-like entity coming at him felt absolutely real.

It was so good that it couldn’t help overshadowing their actual face off a few minutes later in which the spooked Logan was all too willing to spill the beans about Novakovich’s and the Russian’s involvement and the fact that he was only part of the cover-up (not the actual plot). In an apparent show of mercy, Jack merely incapacitated Logan and went on his way to find the Russians.

What followed was a “shoot first, ask questions never” rampage that resulted in Novakovich being impaled with a poker (I think having this done off-screen was smart and chilling given the insanity we’d just witnessed.) However, Novakovich wasn’t the only guy who got stabbed. Random Russian Security Guard #3 snuck up on Jack and stabbed him in the stomach.

That left Jack a bleeding, wounded animal as he prepares to take on Yuri (the man behind Novakovich), who is appropriately wary of wounded animals. Turns out Jack had planted a microphone on Logan during their confrontation and he heard Logan’s conversation with Yuri. (Even when he’s in killing machine mode, Jack is still the smartest guy in the room.)

The question now becomes whether Jack will be able to exact his revenge on Yuri before he bleeds out, ala a wounded Maximus killing Commodus at the end of “Gladiator.” (I’m betting yes.)

Then again, there’s always option C: maybe Chloe and Cole will reach Jack and somehow bring him in peacefully. (Nah!)

True confessions time: Was I the only one who thought, “Tony!” when Chloe was talking about there being only one agent who could help Jack at this point. I realize Tony Almeida wouldn’t make sense (unless he happened to be hanging out in Central Park), but my mind still went there. When it was revealed that Chloe was actually talking about Cole, I heard the “Price Is Right” sad tuba music in my head.

So what’d you think of this episode? Why does Ricker bother to act all reluctant if he’s going to help Jack anyway? Could President Taylor get any dumber? Couldn’t Meredith have stashed that incriminating video file in a better place? (At least now the Hassans will know what's really going on.) Finally, what are your predictions for the finale?

24: A Gut-Wrenching Episode

You can’t have it both ways, “24.”

For example, you can’t paint Dana Walsh as a cold-blooded, do-everything-to-save-her-own-ass killer one hour, and then in the next episode show her on a video file talking about how she was done helping the Russians and simply wanted to settle down with her boyfriend/fiancé.

(Barf!)

More importantly, “24”, you can’t keep trying to sell us the idea that Jack is some sort of rage-filled loose cannon who only cares about getting revenge, while also having him continue to maintain his near-superhuman mental capacity that allows him to out-smart every single human being on the planet.

One or the other, “24” – something’s gotta give.

Not that it wasn’t fun to see Jack (with an assist from Michael Madsen’s Jim Ricker) thoroughly outsmart the smug Logan lackey Jason Pillar and Pavel the Russian operative who killed Renee a few episodes back.

The episode picked up with Jack enlisting Ricker to help him identify the identity of the Russian gentleman Dana was speaking to in her video file. The hour also began with Cole coming to the realization that Dana had been executed. I understand that Cole and Dana had an extended off-screen relationship we never saw. Regardless, the way it’s playing out for us viewers, Cole is looking like a major chump for being angry at Jack for killing her.

Anyway, while Cole was taken back to CTU, Jack got Pavel’s identity from Ricker and formulated his plan. He’d contact Meredith Reed – the journalist President Hassan had an affair with – and expose the conspiracy to her since she’d provide a sympathetic ear. Don’t worry – I was surprised to see her too. I thought we’d seen the last of Jennifer Westfeldt this season.

Jack set up a meet with Meredith at a department store. Unfortunately(?) Jason Pillar intercepted the call at CTU, due to Jack using key words like “President Hassan” and “department store.” (Just kidding about one of those.) That allowed him to put the call in to Pavel and his team so they could eliminate Jack before he was arrested and spilled the beans about the Russian conspiracy.

Pillar was playing his cards pretty close to the vest, which got Chloe (the second smartest person on this show other than Jack) incredibly suspicious. She enlisted Arlo’s help (welcome back to the fold Arlo!) so she could talk to Cole and find out where Jack was so she could warn him. Arlo got her 90 seconds, but Cole spent most of his time on his high horse before giving Chloe a helpful clue about Jack’s whereabouts. (I’m guessing Chloe will find him in the next episode.)

Of course, it turned out that Chloe was wasting her time because Jack had the entire thing planned out.

He’d used those keywords knowing full well that CTU would intercept the phone call and dispatch Pavel and his team to kill him. This led to a terrific (but all-too-brief) department store shootout. Ricker neutralized Pavel and Jack grabbed Meredith and skedaddled to a nearby abandoned warehouse/storage space. (Who knew New York City had so many of those?)

I’ll give Pavel credit – like Dana Walsh, the guy was a tough cookie. Jack punched him (repeatedly), made small cuts with a knife, blow-torched him (I wish I was kidding about one of those), but he never wavered. This scene was absolutely brutal, but the raw emotion terrifically conveyed by Kiefer Sutherland helped balance out the extreme (in network TV standards) violence.

Jack finally decided to check Pavel’s phone, but it turns out the SIM card was missing. (We all knew they hadn’t shown Pavel falling on the ground for nothing.) The Russian had swallowed it. There was only one choice. Jack whispered “This is for my friend” before plunging a knife into his stomach and retrieving the SIM card. Two thoughts. 1.) That was kind of easy – I thought he’d have to completely cut him open. 2.) EWWWWWWWW.

Jack popped in the card, dialed a number and reached the voicemail of Charles Logan. (Ruh-roh!)

I have high hopes for their impending showdown. I’m not sure it’ll be as classic as their season 5 finale showdown (in which Logan talked Jack out of killing him by convincing him that Jack would go down as Lee Harvey Oswald), but I believe it’ll be good.

Logan continues to be absolute gold. This week, he wanted to make sure President Taylor remembered to give him his props for his role in the peace agreement. The look of disgust on President Taylor’s face was terrific, as was the sliminess of Logan’s request. Pillar tried to strongly urge Logan to distance himself from the soon-to-be-in-hot-water President Taylor, but the guy is too obsessed with his legacy.

President Logan may be completely dominating the U.N./political storyline, but President Taylor will be damned if she directly acknowledges his role in the peace agreement. Let the press secretary do that.

So what’d you think of this episode? Was I the only one who was paranoid about Arlo turning Chloe in? How cool was that veneer that Pillar used to cover up the CTU director’s office? (Have all CTU director’s offices been able to do that?) Finally, will President Taylor survive his face-to-face with Jack?

24: Oh Happy Dana

I feel it’s only fitting we begin this recap the way last night’s episode ended — with a moment of no silence for one of the most unpopular characters in recent “24” history.

I allowed myself to wonder, if only for a second, whether this much-maligned individual would get the silent clock treatment usually reserved for beloved characters in the show’s universe. Instead, the ticking clock sound which closes out ever hour seemed to come on even LOUDER than usual. And I had a good laugh.

It’s probably no coincidence that I feel like the episode in which Dana Walsh was FINALLY killed is the best of the season. However, there was plenty more to like about this heart-pounding and humorous hour.

The episode picked up with Dalia Hassan praising President Taylor during her press conference, and President Taylor in the background trying not to throw up. That’s because she knew Dana was in the clutches of the private security firm recommended by Logan. Bledsoe was leading Dana’s waterboarding session, but the treacherous gal was hanging tough. More than anything, I wondered how they managed to fake that waterboarding scene so convincingly without actually doing it — major credit goes to the director and to Katee Sackhoff.

Fortunately(?) for Dana, Jack and Cole stormed the safehouse (after Jack actually got around to giving Cole ammo) and rescued her during an infiltration mission that was both convincingly methodical (the way Jack took the guy on the roof out) and exciting. Obviously, the best moment was Bledsoe using Dana as a human shield and telling Jack he’d shoot her in the head before Jack had time to take him ou…whoops, Bledsoe just got blown away. (RIP, D.B. Sweeney.)

Dana went to work on Cole pretty much from the instant she was rescued, trying to convince him that Jack was out of control and only hungry for revenge. (Not an unreasonable position to take.) Tensions nearly boiled over when Cole — feeling frustrated over the fact that he still had feelings for Dana and that she was getting in his head — shoved Jack to the ground, and Jack drew his weapon on him. Still, think how much better the scene would’ve been if Freddy Prince Jr. hadn’t wildly overacted!

The trio went to a bank to retrieve a safety deposit box, which Dana claimed contained the video evidence Jack needed to link the Russians to Renee and President Hassan’s death. (Does Jack even care about President Hassan’s death anymore — I think the fact that he only mentioned Renee’s death yesterday was telling.)

The bank sequence was one of the best in the show’s recent history. Dana once again tried to sweet talk Cole, and just when I thought he was falling for it, he hardened and insisted on opening the safety deposit box himself. (Mini-twist.) Inside, he found a gun Dana had stashed away (TWIST!) which made us think that she was busted. Instead, a blinding light went off (double twist!) incapacitating Cole and facilitating Dana’s escape after she placed a call to 911 and let them know of fugitive Jack’s whereabouts. For a second, I was thinking (hoping) she would put a bullet into the unconscious Cole. (What I’m saying is that Cole kinda sucks.)

Jack predictably disposed of the flunkies who tried to grab him (shooting that guy in the foot instead of the knee was a show of restraint, I think) and chased Dana. After a delightfully anarchic sequence where she may have shot a few tourists, he cornered her in an abandoned building (but forever messed up that terrific brown leather jacket).

Now, there will be people out there who claim Jack crossed a line by killing Dana in cold blood, and I never really love it when my protagonist commits murder. However, Dana had CLEARLY established that was going to do everything she could to save her ass. Besides, this isn’t even unprecedented within the world of “24” (see Jack’s shootings of Nina Meyers and Christopher Henderson, unarmed baddies like Dana who simply had to be put down.)

Still, I have to give the writers (and ESPECIALLY Sackhoff) a bit of credit for somehow crafting a formidable villain this season. You will never, EVER be able to convince me that the plan was always for Dana to be a Russian mole, but it ended up working out in the end because the character became a truly loathsome villain.

The rest of the episode was business as usual, with Logan expertly manipulating President Taylor. Logan’s plan now is to have Jack killed. He’s enlisted Novakovich and the Russian sniper who killed Renee to do the dirty work and convinced President Taylor to install his right-hand man Jason Pillar as the head of the manhunt for Jack. (Much to the delightfully sour-faced chagrin of Chloe.) It’s actually a pretty terrific plan on Logan’s part.

At least President Taylor displayed somewhat of a backbone by hanging up on Logan when he was still talking. (Even better was Logan pretending that Taylor was still on the phone to save face with Jason — Gregory Itzin is the MAN!)

I hate to say this, but if episodes like this one are what we have to look forward to the rest of the year, then they really should’ve canceled the show sooner.

So what’d you think of this episode? Did Jack cross a line by killing Dana? How long until Dalia finds out about President Taylor’s cover-up? Finally, how exactly is Jack going to kill that Russian sniper? (You KNOW it’s going to be good.)

24: Give Peace a Chance

Jack vs. Chloe — it’s the showdown no one wanted to see.

Well, it’s the showdown longtime fans like me — who’ve watched Jack and Chloe work together like best friends, brother/sister, master/obedient puppy over the years — never wanted to see.

To be perfectly honest, not a whole hell of a lot happened in the newest episode of “24” — Jack remains on the run, but has a +1 now; President Taylor is still losing her damn mind — but the inherent drama of watching Jack and Chloe go head-to-head was enough to keep this episode from being a complete dud for a “24” obsessive like me.

Of course, it would’ve been even more dramatic if Chloe had actually been allowed to out-smart her idol.

Remember that exciting helicopter chase we seemed to have on our hands after the end of the previous episode? Well, that got resolved pretty quickly when Jack spotted a helipad and managed to avoid a gaggle of Air Force personnel and other law enforcement. (So much for that whole thing.)

Jack called Chloe and asked her if she could help him get in a room with Dana Walsh so he could extract the information he needed about the Russian involvement in Hassan and Renee’s deaths. Chloe hesitated, but ultimately agreed to help. Jack found a more willing ally in the shadowy and semi-burned Jim Ricker, played by the incomparable Michael Madsen (“Reservoir Dogs”, “Kill Bill”). Ricker hooked Jack up with an impressive arsenal, but I’m more interested in learning a bit more about the relationship between these two men. (Ricker seemed to have, at least, some affection for Jack.)

Chloe displayed a few smooth moves of her own. When the smarmy leader — you can tell D.B. Sweeney of “The Cutting Edge” was smarmy because of his mustache — of the private security firm Logan recommended to President Taylor arrived to transport Dana, Chloe coolly got the guy to hand over his cell phone so she could figure out where they were taking her.

Sometime after that, Chloe had a change of heart, decided to obey the president’s orders and set a trap for Jack. Cole and a team of CTU flunkies were supposed to get the jump on Jack in a CTU safe house, but, unsurprisingly, Jack turned the tables. (Because, once again, in addition to being awesome, he’s also a genius.) Jack enlisted Cole to help him find Dana.

Jack claimed that he knew about the set-up all along because he knew Chloe and that she’d do the right thing. So basically, Jack was playing her the whole time. That kind of takes the wind out of the Chloe-is-a-worthy-adversary-for-Jack sails. The reason Chloe had a change of heart is because she believes Jack is wrong because he’s not thinking clearly. Once again, we in the audience know Jack is actually right about President Taylor shielding the truth about the Russians. I think it’d be more interesting if Jack weren’t quite as infallible these days and if there WERE a chance that he wasn’t thinking clearly and was simply out for blood.

If you think Jack’s angry now, can you imagine how pissed off he’d be if he saw how expertly Logan was playing President Taylor.

Near the top of the hour, Ethan had convinced her to cut her losses and reveal what she knew about the Russians’ involvement in Hassan’s death and effectively kill her beloved peace agreement. Logan – that little devil on her shoulder – got back in the President’s ear and convinced her that sacrifice and making devastating decisions was all part of the job. He also implored her to preserve the peace agreement for “the greater good.”

(President Taylor’s obsession with “the greater good” is as misguided here as it was for the citizens of Sanford in “Hot Fuzz.”)

Logan eventually convinced President Taylor to use a private security team to get Dana Walsh out of CTU (and out of Jack Bauer’s reach) and persuasively extract the information she has on the Russians.

Sigh. I’m just going to give President Taylor the benefit of the doubt and believe that she has literally lost her mind over the course of the last few hours. None of this makes sense. President Taylor seems capable of recognizing that these are all horrible ideas, and yet she goes along with them. (Gregory Itzin is a very good actor, but he’s not THAT good.) Logan brought up the point that many peace agreements have blood on them, but having President Taylor sign agreement with a group of people she KNOWS are responsible for a political assassination is still beyond ludicrous.

Thank goodness for Itzin and Bob Gunton, who was absolutely excellent as the crestfallen Ethan. Gunton was great, conveying a mixture of defiance, empathy and disappointment in President Taylor’s decisions. The scene where Ethan went head-to-head with Logan was also quietly thrilling. By the end of the episode, Ethan had submitted his resignation, but I really hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Gunton.

We ended the hour with Dalia Hassan about to announce that she’s (unknowingly) entering into a peace agreement with the people who helped kill her husband. We also had Dana Walsh about to be tortured.

Hey, maybe this episode wasn’t so bad after all.

So what’d you think of this episode? What was up with Dana begging Chloe not to let the guys from the private firm take her away? (Was Chloe – and were we – supposed to feel SORRY for her?) Finally, will Cole really just stand by and allow Jack to lay the smackdown on Dana? (I just have a feeling he’s going to step in and do something dumb.)

24: Charles in Charge

Gregory Itzin (pictured, left) is a fantastic actor.

If you saw his Emmy-worthy (but tragically not Emmy-WINNING) work in season 5 of “24”, you saw how the man can elevate the stakes on this show to almost Shakespearean heights.

Needless to say, having him back in the series’ final hours is great: both the character and the actor have already made themselves indispensable.

Ex-President Charles Logan was able to bring the Russians back to the negotiating table for President Taylor’s beloved peace agreement. Meanwhile, Itzin was able to make a COMPLETELY unbelievable turn of events mostly palatable.

Sorry, but I just don’t believe for one second that President Allison Taylor – the woman who sent her own daughter to jail for her role in a conspiracy at the end of last season – would sell Jack Bauer and Dalia Hassan down the river in order to preserve her sham of a peace agreement.

Logan was able to get Novakovich and the Russians back to the negotiating table by revealing that he knew the Russian government was behind the IRK’s assassination of Omar Hassan and threatening to tell President Taylor. On his way back to the see President Taylor, Itzin unleashed some classic Logan by vainly and delusionally crowing about how great it feels to serve your country. He also got wind that Jack Bauer was on his way to potentially ruin his plans. (More on that a bit later.)

When he met with President Taylor and a mostly-recovered Ethan, he informed them that the Russians were back on board with the peace agreement. When Ethan asked how he did it, and Logan claimed he appealed to Novakovich’s morality, I laughed out loud when Ethan shot back with, “Seriously.”

The next few minutes hinged entirely on Itzin and he was excellent. Jack had found out from Sergei Bazhaev (remember when he was the season’s main bad guy – seems like YEARS ago) that the Russian government was behind Hassan’s assassination and Renee’s murder (she’s not a political figure, so I can’t say was “assassinated” – sorry).

Logan had to convince President Taylor to lock Jack down and keep him from ruining the peace agreement and Itzin used all his persuasive, slimy and magnetic charm to get the job done. He was the little devil on President Taylor’s shoulder, while Ethan was the exasperated angel. In the end, Logan won out because he was more persuasive and not because his argument made sense. Make no mistake, his argument makes NO SENSE. Why would President Taylor enter into a peace agreement with a group of people she KNOWS actively tried to sabotage it and committed multiple murders to do so.

I give President Taylor for at least having the guts to tell Jack face-to-face.

Jack was still understandably peeved about the latest love of his life getting murdered. I thought the moment in the hospital where the doctor asked Renee if she had any next of kin and Jack couldn’t answer was interesting and quietly powerful. It illustrated that Jack didn’t really know Renee that well, and now he never would. That seemed to make him even angrier.

Jack learned from Bazhaev (as he was getting sentenced) that the Russian government was supporting the IRK, but he didn’t get specifics. For that, Bazhaev said, he’d have to talk to Dana Walsh.

Cue the moment us Dana-haters have been waiting for all season – Jack slamming her head on the table (ouch!) and literally smacking her around until she agreed to cooperate in exchange for immunity. (I liked how ex-fiance Cole wasn’t exactly in a big hurry to get in there and help Dana out.) Unfortunately, Jack would get shut down by the president a little later.

(Quick side note: I can usually ignore the transportation-related leaps of logic this show takes, but last night it was too much. Jack walked into a waiting taxi cab and got to Bahzaev’s courtroom in less than 10 minutes, then arrived at CTU about 15 minutes later. President’s Taylor motorcade appeared to take about five minutes to arrive to CTU.)

The scene between President Taylor and Jack was strong. The heartbreak and betrayal on Jack’s face served as a reminder that, besides being a badass, Kiefer Sutherland is a terrific actor. President Taylor arranged to have Jack shipped off via helicopter, but Jack had other plans.

I thought the moment where Jack was being escorted to the helicopter and Chloe, noticing something was off, asked for audio, only to cut into Jack yelling “I will shoot him!” was hilarious. In a totally predictable twist, Jack did not go quietly into the morning and helicopter-jacked his way to freedom.

The episode may have hinged on a truly implausible turn of events, but I felt like it ended with an incredibly effective and stirring emotional scene. Seeing Chloe run onto the helipad and tell her men to hold fire as Jack escaped was a bit heartbreaking – the two are on opposite sides now. (Though I suspect that, if forced to choose, Chloe would absolutely go with Jack over the Head of CTU job that was foisted on her.)

So what’d you think of this episode? What’s Dalia Hassan going to do when she finds out the Russians were behind Omar’s death and that President Taylor kept that knowledge from her? Where did Logan get his intel on the Russians from? (His assistant seems mighty handy and suspicious.) Finally, where the hell is Jack going with that helicopter?

24: Jack in the Sack

The latest exciting, satisfying and mildly infuriating episode of “24” answered one of the most burning questions fans of the real-time drama have had about the show since it premiered in 2001 and become a phenomenon:

How long does it take Jack to have sex?

Is he a marathoner or a one-minute man (which would be understandable, given all that he has to do on an average day)? Turns out the answer is 20-25 minutes.

With President Hassan dead and the nuclear rods (remember those?) recovered, a downtrodden, guilt-ridden Jack was ready to called it a day after speaking to President Taylor (who tried to comfort him) and took a taxi to his NYC apartment with Renee. I don’t know about you, but I got a weird kick out of seeing Jack do something as relentlessly normal as preparing a pot of coffee in his apartment.

Now that the danger was out of the way (or so they thought) I had no problem with Jack and Renee addressing their relationship. I just wish their kiss (pictured, right) in Jack’s plain kitchen (I bet he’s there about as often as George Clooney’s character was in his apartment in “Up in the Air”) had been less awkward and more hot.

On paper, I like the idea of Jack and Renee together. I certainly like it more than the idea of Jack and drippy Audrey Raines because Renee can at least understand some of the stuff Jack has been through. Unfortunately, though Kiefer Sutherland and Annie Wersching have both done solid work together this year and last, I never saw any believable ROMANTIC chemistry between the two.

Making matters more uncomfortable for our would-be lovebirds was the sniper Russian sniper across the street. The guy had infiltrated the President Hassan crime scene and injected the wounded Samir with a toxin that would prevent him from being questioned by CTU. On his way out, he and Renee locked eyes for an instant. Turns out, he remembered Renee from dealings with Vladimir (remember him?!) six years ago. Novakovich, the Russian diplomat who was so obviously a bad guy last week, tried to talk him out of going after Jack and Renee, but the Russian wanted to tie up a loose end.

There are things that I liked and there are things that I didn’t like about Renee’s death.

I thought having her get shot off-screen while Jack was in the kitchen was chilling. I also really liked that the show realized that we viewers might still be getting our bearings after the death of a significant character last week. Instead of letting us get settled down, the show blindsided us with the death of another important character. With the show canceled, that sort of anything goes/no one is safe abandon can lead to some exciting TV over the next month.

So what didn’t I care for? I absolutely HATE the idea that the show feels like it needs to punish Jack whenever he dares experience a moment of happiness. I realize that the purpose was to give (a now vengeful) Jack something to fight for the rest of this season, but killing his latest love (literally) minutes after a rare optimistic moment for the character came off as exploitative and cheap. They should’ve just had him adopt a dog, and then have the dog get run over by a car on the way home. It felt inauthentic and baffling in a way that Hassan’s death didn’t. (I honestly expected those ER doctors to yell, “Psych!” after telling Jack that Renee hadn’t made it.)

Fortunately, there was plenty more to like about this episode.

How about our girl Chloe getting a promotion? With CTU New York in shambles, Homeland Security’s Tim Woods removed Brian Hastings and installed Chloe as the temporary head of CTU. I now pause to give the writers a ton of credit for making me feel bad for Hastings. I didn’t think that would ever be possible after his thoroughly douche-y behavior in the early hours of this season led me to nickname him CTU (Dick)Head Brian Hastings. I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of him.

I LOVED how Hastings was barely out the door and Chloe was dealt her first crisis – the death of Samir. I worried that the writers would have Chloe get quickly overwhelmed, but I was pleasantly surprised that they instead had her react competently and decisively. She ordered a toxin test that revealed Samir was poisoned. Maybe Chloe should’ve been in charge a long time ago. Think about it – she’s smart and she always listens to Jack, who is right 98% of the time.

In all the excitement, the absolutely stellar return of Charles Logan (neck and neck with Sherry Palmer in the race for Best “24” Villain) was almost overshadowed. I say almost because Gregory Itzin re-inhabited the character in all his slimy glory and left no doubt that he would play a big part in the series’ endgame. Gone was the remorseful Logan who tried to help Jack in season six before he got stabbed by his ex-wife in season 6. (I think the show is officially pretending like season 6 never happened – fine by me.)

President Taylor had asked President Hassan’s widow, Dalia, to step into his position and sign the peace agreement in his stead. After some hesitation, she agreed (I always thought she was stronger than her husband anyway). This caused Novakovich to walk away from the peace talks because the whole point of orchestrating President Hassan’s assassination was to avoid the peace agreement.

At Ethan Kanin’s suggestion (the dude was barely getting wheeled out of the hospital before President Taylor asked for his advice) Taylor turned to Logan who has some sort of mysterious connection to the Russians that makes him extremely confident he’ll be able to get them back on board. The natural assumption is that Logan is in cahoots with the Russians, but that’s a bit too obvious for my taste. Even if that ends up being the case, I’m sure the excellent Itzin will make it compelling and interesting to watch.

So what’d you think of this episode? What’s up with Logan’s administrative assistant? Who’s going to die next? Finally, be honest – you kinda missed Dana Walsh, right? (Hell no!)

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.)

24: You Gotta Have Heart

Before we start this recap, let’s have a silent clock for “24”, which (it was announced this week) will end its eight-season run on May 24.

In a way, it’s fitting that the first original episode that aired after the cancelation announcement sort of encompasses the best and worst of “24” in 2010.

There was the good (a kickass firefight, a strong president and the return of fascinating political intrigue) and the less-good (uninspired repetition; specifically, having a character suffer a heart attack while another withholds pills the way Sherry Palmer did to Alan Milliken in season 3).

Then there’s you-know-who.

If you read this recap, you know that I basically called BS on the Dana Walsh-is-a-mole twist. Last night’s episode — which had Dana helping Tarin get into position to utilize the nuclear rods on Manhattan — did absolutely nothing to change my mind.

All this time, I’ve placed the lion’s share of the blame on the Dana Walsh debacle on the writers. However, I’m afraid I have to lay into Katee Sackhoff a bit after last night. I thought her ominous facial expressions and whispery bad-guy voice were WAY over the top. (When you’re a mole, isn’t the idea to actually try to blend in?) I’m even more disappointed that neither Chloe nor Arlo (who has stopped creepily hitting on Dana for some reason) didn’t really blink an eye when CTU’s satellite feed went out just as they were closing in on Samir and the rods. I mean, the fact that Dana has actually been sitting at her desk (for a change) and doing her work for the past hour should be a big tip off that she’s up to no good.

I really do hate to keep harping on this, but if Dana has really been a mole all this time, how come she’s only recently decided to start sabotaging CTU’s missions. I’ll tell you why — it’s because the writers decided she was the mole about 10 minutes ago! (Hopefully Jack will snap her neck or something when they end up in the same room next week.)

Anyway, on to the good stuff.

Welcome to season 8, President Taylor (pictured, left).

Yes, I realize Cherry Jones has actually appeared on screen this year, but last night was the first time the character was actually a factor.

Samir had successfully gotten the nuclear rods into the city, and Hastings could no longer guarantee the safety of Manhattan. Samir said he’d spare the city if U.S. officials simply handed over President Hassan.

This led to a spirited scene in which Chief of Staff Rob Weiss and suddenly-prominent Gen. Brucker argued in favor of turning over Hassan and averting disaster. President Taylor, not surprisingly, was vehemently against this by saying that even if America suffered some sort of terrorist attack, “We’ll deal with it — that’s what we do. Americans don’t stay down. We rise up together in times of crisis.” Jones’ forceful delivery almost made me stand up and start chanting “USA, USA!” despite the fact that I wasn’t born in this country. More importantly, I could finally see why the fictional people of this universe elected Allison Taylor as their president.

Unfortunately, Gen. Brucker (who is already a more interesting and hiss-worthy bad guy than bland Samir) had other ideas. He convinced Weiss to help him pull off an operation that would have military personnel kidnap Hassan and hand him over to Samir’s men. The terrorist attack would be averted, and President Taylor wouldn’t have to live with handing over Hassan to the bad guys.

Brucker needed Weiss to access Secretary of State Ethan Kanin’s computer to find out the route Jack was using to take Hassan to safety. (I’d left out the part where President Taylor had conveniently asked Jack to oversee the Hassan family’s transport.) Ethan walked in on the men and was about to blow the whistle until his heart gave out on him. (If you recall, the show established earlier this season that Ethan was dealing with a health issue, and you bet your ass the show wouldn’t have introduced that if it wasn’t going to crop up again!)

Despite the inherent horribleness in Brucker’s plan — instead of trying to find the rods and stop the nuclear threat, he thought it was a great idea to order a high-risk mission that would likely result in the death of a bunch of military personnel and Secret Service agents — we were treated to a pretty cool gunfight.

Predictably, Jack, Renee and President Hassan survived. (Anil Kapoor looks funny in street clothes.) The Secret Service agents were all wiped out pretty quickly, except for Agt. Molly O’Connor, who’d gotten a few lines of dialogue earlier and was rewarded with a noble death. (Even though we didn’t see it, I’m assuming she died.)

Jack was able to wound one of the military guys, who quickly revealed their dastardly mission. With 15 minutes left until another attack, Jack has to decide what to do. (It would’ve been nice if the previews for next week didn’t reveal that President Hassan takes matters into his own hands, but whatever.) Also, is it weird that my favorite part of the tunnel sequence was Jack saying, “The son of a bitch hung up on me” after talking to Weiss?

So what’d you think of this episode? Will Ethan survive? (I say no.) Does the show have the balls to depict a terrorist attack in New York City? (I say no.) Finally, I don’t know if you caught the previews, but LOGAN!!! (I say, YES!)

24: Chloe to the Rescue

I’d love to tell you how great it was to see Chloe take center stage for the first time in a long time, but we all know she’s not good with praise.

Instead, I’ll save my kudos for an hour of “24” that had our hero in the middle of an intense gunfight for the better part of an hour, yet managed to make a darkened, powerless CTU seem like THE exciting place to be.

And I suppose I’ll also talk about that stupid twist in the end.

The hour picked up with CTU hurting from the detonation of the electromagnetic pulse bomb. Since CTU offices are already pretty dark to begin with, having the lights out didn’t make much of an aesthetic difference. (Maybe they’re intentionally dark so that, in the event of an EMP, CTU employees will be able to continue working because they’re accustomed to having no light.)

Still, CTU needed to get its power back so they could track the nuclear rods. Jack called the national NSA office, which sent over Frank Haynam from NSA’s New York office and possibly the biggest dickhead in the history of this show. Honestly, this guy made Brian Hastings from earlier this season look like Mr. Congeniality. (Unlike Chloe, I don’t believe Haynam is “probably an ok guy when he’s not at work” — he’s probably a prick to his family too.)

Chloe had an (admittedly riskier) idea to get CTU’s power back quicker (the buzz term of the episode was “trunk line”) so they could assist Jack, but Haynam bristled and eventually had her removed. That led Chloe to force Haynam out of the room at gunpoint so she could try her own method. Haynam got Hastings (who Haynam had rubbed the wrong way earlier) and demanded to have her arrested. Chloe begged for 10 minutes to complete her work, leading to a genuine applause moment when Hastings backed her up.

Sure, Hastings’ about-face may seem a little unbelievable to some. We have to keep reminding ourselves that, even though we’ve been watching these people for months, it’s only been a few hours in the characters’ lives. So having Hastings do this 180 and support Chloe may ring false to some. However, I’m perfectly happy to accept this turn of events because, over the last few hours/episodes, Hastings has proven himself to be thick, but not so thick that he won’t listen to a good suggestion. More specifically, the Hastings character seems to have learned what we at home already know — you should always listen to Jack and Chloe. (Or maybe I was just happy to see Haynam taken down a few notches.)

Then there’s Chloe, who was completely at her best last night. She brought the sour face and the biting quips (telling Dana she’d be a lot further along if she stopped talking to her), but she also demonstrated that undying, almost puppy-like loyalty to Jack.

It turned out that Jack needed all the help he could get.

Jack, Cole, Young Agt. Owen, and Anonymous CTU Agent Who was Destined to Do Something Stupid and Get Himself Killed got pinned down by Samir’s men as Samir and Tarin attempted to get the rods across the East River.

Samir had jammed the field team’s cell phones, so Jack’s only hope was to reach a semi conveniently-placed hard line phone. They seemed well on their way there in a Jack-designed barrier until Anonymous Guy freaked out, got himself shot and basically led to a recreation of the Vin Diesel sniper scene from “Saving Private Ryan.” Agt. Owen, God bless his poopypants little heart, tried to save Anonymous Guy, but ended up getting mortally-wounded himself. (It sucks to not be as famous as Kiefer Sutherland and Freddie Prinze Jr. when there’s a firefight going down!) Oh well, at least Agt. Owen died under the belief that he’d saved Anonymous Guy. And at least Anonymous Guy died being an idiot.

Eventually, Jack himself drew fire from the bad guys (Kiefer’s the star of the show, so none of the bullets pierced his armor) and was about to get shot in the head until Renee re-entered this season’s storyline. (Chloe had actually called her and asked her to help before.) Mostly, I was just glad Jack and Renee didn’t take that opportunity to talk about their “relationship.” Unfortunately, Samir, Tarin and the rods made it across the river and into the city, setting the stage for the nuclear threat that will likely dominate the next few hours.

Samir and Co. will likely have help from the latest (though certainly not greatest) CTU mole — Dana Walsh!

Remember a few weeks ago when I said the two components of a great twist are 1.) that it’s surprising and 2.) that it makes perfect sense in hindsight? Well, the Dana-is-a-mole development sadly only fills one of these requirements. I was certainly surprised, but the reason I didn’t see it coming is because it doesn’t make any damn sense!

We learned of Dana’s betrayal after she strangled parole officer Bill Prady and stored him in an incredibly convenient corpse-sized grate in the room where Prady was waiting to speak to Hastings. (I mean, seriously, is that space specifically there to hide dead bodies? Why else would that be there?!)

Dana whipped out her phone (to call Cole, we presumed), but instead she phoned Samir to tell him her problem had been taken care of. If Dana was the IRK’s mole in CTU all along, why wouldn’t THEY deal with the Kevin Wade/Bill Prady saga, instead of having Dana risk her cover by going on all these dangerous side missions? Also, I know CTU’s HR department is a joke, but are we really meant to believe they hired someone who had a hidden criminal past AND ties to a terrorist organization?!

I hate to be cynical, but it seems to me like the writers realized the Dana Walsh saga was bombing in a big way and desperately came up with way to tie her to the season’s main storyline. I hope I’m wrong.

So what’d you think of this episode? Are you ok with the Dana Walsh twist? Are Chloe and Hastings besties now? Finally, is it possible for Samir to have less of a personality?

24: Boom, Boom, WOW

Things are starting to get really good aren’t they?

There were enough twists and turns in last night’s 24 to make your head spin. (Tarin is bad…but not totally…oh wait he’s dead…but now he’s not, so that means he’s bad…but now he looks like he feels bad…)

With the momentum for this season quickly picking up, I’m going to get the crap out of the way early on. And in case you’re not familiar with these recaps, crap = the Dana Walsh saga.

I feel bad banging this drum every week because Katee Sackhoff is working really hard and Stephen Root is clearly having fun (perhaps a little TOO much fun) playing obsessive parole officer Bill Prady, but this thing is just unbearable.

Assuming Prady is really who he says he is, not only is he the most connected parole officer I’ve ever heard of (maybe he should replace Dana and half the staff at CTU given his vast amount of intel), but his priorities are wildly out of whack. I know Prady has stated that he’d grown fond of the not-so-dearly departed Kevin, but the man can see that CTU is clearly in crisis yet continues to creepily hover and pull Dana out of her station. I mean, can this really not wait?!

Then there’s Dana, who we’re supposed to believe is smart enough to concoct a new identity and pass herself off as an important part of a counter terrorism agency, but the best lie she can come up with is “I hooked up with Kevin a few nights ago at a bar.” LAME.

Fortunately, the air of tension the writers built up around the rest of the episode carried over to this sad storyline – at least for me. When Prady finally cornered Dana, and she tearfully told Cole that “it’s over”, I thought she might kill herself before the end of the hour. That’s the sort of “anything goes” atmosphere this hour established.

The hour had gotten off to a promising start with T.J. Ramini (pictured, right) temporarily assuming the action-star mantle from Kiefer Sutherland.

Kayla couldn’t stall Tarin long enough at the hotel room, and Tarin shot his way to freedom during a nifty sequence. Of course, Tarin had a big-time assist from the overly-zealous Sgt. Amis of the NYPD, who refused to wait for Jack. Methinks that guy had seen one two many movies where the federal government shows up and takes jurisdiction from the local police and wanted to do something about it. Oops.

After predictably evading Jack and Cole (Jack Cole sounds like he’d be a badass character), Tarin took Kayla to an abandoned bank and her captors called President Hassan. They wanted him to hand over File 33.

I thought we might have to wait an episode or two to find out what File 33 was, but this is the new and improved season 8! File 33 contained 20 years of intelligence gathered by Hassan and his countrymen that detailed the United States’ nuclear defense weaknesses.

Obviously, Jack and Hastings (Jack Hastings doesn’t sound so badass) weren’t eager to hand that info over to terrorists, but even I thought Jack basically telling the Hassans that they’d brought this on themselves was a touch too harsh.

Jack and Cole set out to find Kayla before the deadline. At the same time, an ambivalent-looking Tarin had a change of heart and decided he wanted to escape with Kayla. The two almost made it, except that Tarin got cut down – but not before he’d given Kayla the number for CTU. (That should’ve been a clue.)

Kayla called CTU and Hastings was ready to welcome her with open arms until one of Arlo’s drones picked up on the fact that Tarin was still alive and the whole thing was a ruse to get an electromagnetic pulse bomb close enough to CTU to completely disable their operation. (Obviously, Jack was the first person to put all this together, but even he was confused for a second.)

Was there probably an easier way to get an EMP bomb close enough to CTU than staging a fake kidnapping/fake escape? Well, yes because we know white trash can routinely drive up to CTU with no questions asked.

Still, it was more fun this way.

So what’d you think of this episode? Should the NYPD be offended after being portrayed as a bunch of incompetent, impatient nincompoops? How embarrassing would it have been if one of the terrorists’ gunshots had actually hit Kayla as she sped away? (Would’ve kinda killed their plan.) Finally, are you missing President Taylor and/or Renee yet? (Yeah, I’m really not.)

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.)

24: Hospital Visit

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that “24” picked up its game in the same hour it put the Dana/Kevin/Cole nonsense on the backburner. (Or at least in the bottom of a river.)

Things are still far from great — the season still has an undeniably aimless quality to it — but the latest episode was definitely a step in the right direction.

The episode picked up right where we left off last week. Jack was leading a CTU-team (including Agt. “Poopypants” Owen) to pick up Farhad Hassan after Farhad had been betrayed by his cronies (who we learned were actually President Hassan’s covert ops personnel called IRK - seriously). Unfortunately, Farhad ran out into the open like a numbnut and got himself mortally wounded seconds before Jack and Co. arrived. (OF COURSE!)

Jack unleashed the Bauer scream to the EMT working on reviving Hassan (good for the EMT, yelling back at Jack!), but it was too late. Fortunately, in addition to being physically awesome, Jack is a super-genius and quickly devised a cool plan: CTU would pretend that Farhad was still alive and (hopefully) draw out an assassin that could potentially lead them to the terrorists. This is the kind of cool, old-school CTU tactic (that hasn’t been beaten to death) that I like seeing. (Jack must've watched "Weekend at Bernie's" with his granddaughter the day before.)

The plan, of course, worked. A young, American-born assassin named Marcos had been recruited and, after warning his mom (Mare Winningham) to get out of town, he set out to kill (the already-dead) Farhad.

In the episode’s most tense sequence, the fate of thousands of lives rested on the (shaky) hands of Agt. Poopypants Owen. Marcos had a bomb strapped to his chest, so Poopypants had to make Marcos reveal the bomb within sight of a surveillance camera so Chloe (getting a chance to be competent!) could remotely disarm it. And, yes, I realize this was absolutely preposterous, but tense + preposterous = “24” at its best.

Marcos was foiled (I thought having him shoot Farhad’s dead body was hilarious), but jumped out of a hospital window. Despite being injured, Marcos was able to outrun several CTU agents (including a cat-like Jack) and lock himself in a hyperbaric chamber(!?) Remember a few weeks ago when I complained about how the show blatantly drags things out to fill 24 hours? Well, having a disoriented bad guy conveniently come across one of the few places the authorities can’t get to him definitely qualifies. (Eye roll.)

Still, the clever and tense action in this episode gave me some hope for what’s in store the rest of the season. (Jack and Renee’s second consecutive lovey-dovey chat gave me considerably less hope.)

If only the non-Jack parts of the season looked as promising.

Maybe it’s just me, but I like President Hassan when he was the even-tempered charismatic diplomat. I’m just not feeling Anil Kapoor’s performance as the unhinged President Hassan. (Kapoor gives off a natural slickness that makes him an unconvincing loon.)

Anyway, President Hassan flipped his lid (but his hair remained unmoving) when he learned that his formerly-trusted bodyguard had escaped custody and was likely shacking up with his daughter Kayla. (Showing those two getting it on — good use of split screen.) Hassan appealed to his wife for help and spilled some details that might be useful to her if she turned out to be a villain. (I’m still hoping Kayla turns out to be the real baddie – having Hassan’s wife be the bad guy would reek of Sherri Palmer.)

Besides that, President Hassan had a tense scene with President Taylor, who threatened to bomb Kamistan if Hassan’s covert ops people detonated a weapon in New York. (Fortunately, Kamistan isn’t a real country, so jokes on you President Taylor.)

Seriously though, seeing Taylor face down Hassan was encouraging, but our president’s scenes have still been sorely lacking this season. For example, we got the 27th variation of “this is what will happen if the weapon is detonated” scene last night. (You’re not gonna believe this, but thousands of people would be killed.)

I continue to be more intrigued by Chief of Staff Rob Weiss, who tried to bully CTU Head Hastings into scapegoating Renee Walker. Hastings refused, and I was really happy to see him stand up for his own people. I was actually pretty high on Hastnigs until I remembered that he’s apparently perfectly ok with not having heard from his head of field ops or lead analyst in the last hour or so during a major crisis.

So what’d you think of this episode? Why did Marcos wait until his suicide mission to tell his mom to get out of town? (Why not tell her to get out as soon as they got their hands on the nuclear rods and decided to use them in New York?) Finally, isn’t Agt. Owen out way past his curfew?

24: The Torturer Becomes the Torturee

Things were going WAY too well weren’t they?

Jack had escaped his “Lethal Weapon”-esque torture to kick an entire Russian gang’s ass, Dana had apparently decided to take matters into her own hands and seemed to be on the verge of killing her ex, Kevin, and his more-dangerous hillbilly friend Nick. On top of that, it seemed like the good guys were about to get their hands on those nuclear rods and salvage the peace talks between U.S. President Taylor and President Hassan.

Except that this is only episode 8 and if you’ve seen this show before you knew there was no way those nuclear rods would be in that truck.

Sometimes I feel like this show would be better off if it were called “22” or “18”. Too often, the show HAS to throw some sort of absurd inconvenience in our hero’s way because Jack is so ridiculously efficient and effective that he could probably wrap up a season’s worth of conflict in about 45 minutes. It’s a paradox.

Fortunately, the show did a pretty good job of setting up and executing its artificial conflict in Monday night’s episode.

I mean it was obvious that Josef Bazhaev was definitely NOT ok with his dad Sergei mercy killing Josef’s brother, no matter what he said. Personally, I would’ve guessed that Josef was going to end up putting a bullet in his father, but it turned out that stealing his papa’s nuclear rods and selling them to Farhad Hassan was a much more effective “f--- you.”

Other than the Jack/Renee action, this season has (deservedly) taken some flack for not moving very fast. (For example, I’d kind of completely forgotten about Farhad, who really does look like Jason Schwartzman, until he popped up in my TV last night — that’s not really saying much about our season’s big threat.) At least this latest episode was considerate enough to pack in some solid Bauer-power and a strong performance by a supporting player.

This is the part where I praise Kiefer Sutherland for being a more credible action hero in his mid-40’s than most young guys running around on the big screen these days. Sergei had (correctly) pegged Jack as a “cop” and had unleashed his torturer on him. It didn’t take long for Jack to turn the tables on the guy, snap his neck and wreak havoc on a restaurant full of scared Russian mobsters. (What exactly was the point of Sergei shooting all those wine glasses when Jack was hiding under the table?)

At least the stupidly-destructive Sergei was redeemed in my eyes thanks to strong work by Jurgen Prochnow. Watching this previously badass mob boss break down and cry upon the realization that he’d killed his own son for a job that had gone south was sad and afforded a “24” bad guy a rare bit of humanity.

He’d asked for and received total immunity from President Taylor. (Taylor and CTU (Dick)Head Hastings are getting smarter, since they both instantly approved the immunity on Jack’s recommendation.) Unfortunately, when Cole and his team (including a curiously-nervous new guy) arrived, the rods were gone and it seems like they’ll fall into Farhad’s hands after all.

When President Hassan hears about THAT development, he’s likely to arrest everybody (including you and me). His daughter Kayla (who I speculated may be a villain after all) tried to appeal to her father after bodyguard/boyfriend Tarin’s arrest. Now I’m thinking the culmination of this disappointingly-static “Hassan goes crazy” storyline is that he’ll end up having his own daughter arrested. (Personally, I think it’d be more interesting if she were somehow involved in the nuclear plot and President Hassan has been arresting all the wrong people the whole time, but that’s just me.)

I honestly can’t decide what’s worse — that the President Hassan/Taylor storyline is going nowhere or that every person who works at CTU New York (except for Chloe and Freddie Prinze Jr.) is incredibly annoying.

I mean, when I found myself rooting for Arlo, the snarky-jealous-irritating techie, to blow Dana Walsh’s scheme wide open, I knew this was in a bad place. Meanwhile, Mykelti Williamson has decided that squinting REALLY hard = acting whenever Hastings is listening to someone talk. (Ok, I’ll admit I actually find this one pretty amusing.)

Then there’s Dana herself. I mean, who could’ve possibly seen that Kevin and Nick (Jonas?!) were never going to be content with ripping her off one single time. Oh wait, anyone with a brain could see that. So, to summarize, Dana is smart enough to create a new identity, land a high-level job at CTU, but she’s stupid enough to believe that Kevin and Nick were going to leave her alone after she helped them steal $120,000.

She seemed to be on the verge of confessing everything to Cole before he got called into Hastings’ office. (There’s another one of those classic “24” roadblocks.) Now, it appears Dana has decided grab a gun and track Kevin and Nick down at whatever sleazy strip club they’re hitting so she can rid herself (and us) of these fools forever. It probably doesn’t say much that this is DEFINITELY her best idea yet.

So what’d you think of this episode? Who will President Hassan arrest next? How will Jack and Co. track down the nuclear rods now? Finally, is Renee (about to undergo a psychiatric evaluation) crazy or just a little unwell?

24: Sticking it to the Man (A LOT!)

Did you REALLY think a little thing like getting stabbed in the midsection could keep Jack Bauer from killing two armed Russian bad guys?

After several episodes of riding in a car by himself and letting Freddie Prinze Jr. save his life, Jack sprung back into action in a big way during the most shocking scene (of the season?) in last night’s “24.”

Looking back now, I really shouldn’t have been shocked since Vlad and his boys had just about outlived their usefulness (to this season’s plot).

Jack, in his amazing Ernst Meier disguise, met face-to-face with Vlad following the latter’s unsuccessful attempt to double cross and kill Jack. He once again tried to pull Renee out of the mission, but she refused. Vlad started making calls in an effort to make the Meier deal happen, and his first call went to that distinguished Russian bad guy Sergei Bazhaev, who gruffly denied having any knowledge about anything having to do with nuclear rods.

Once Vlad finished making his calls, he seemed ready to give up on the Meier deal. Renee pushed him to keep trying, which resulted in Vlad slapping her first, then punching her HARD. Now, maybe it’s because I was raised primarily by my mom and I would never, EVER put my hands on a woman, but I found Renee’s reaction (one stab in the eye, followed by many to the rest of Vlad’s body) to be perfectly acceptable.

Stabbing Jack in the same fit of blind rage? MUCH less acceptable. Fortunately, Jack has taken so much punishment over the course of this show, that he’s basically a Terminator. He used the same knife Renee stabbed him with to kill Vlad’s #1 henchman before shooting and killing another anonymous henchman.

The good guys seemed to be in a bad place since Vlad had struck out in finding a nuclear rod provider. (We saw Sergei tell the driver carrying the rods to pull over and park somewhere.) Jack lied and told CTU head Hastings that Renee murdered Vlad in self-defense (I’m not exactly sure why that qualifies as a lie, since Vlad hit her). After a mushy scene I’d rather not revisit (“You’ve got me”), Jack and Renee were visited by Bazhaev’s men before CTU could arrive. Jack hid Renee in a small room and let himself get captured so he could get to the rods. Bazhaev’s men took a secret underground tunnel (of course), which meant CTU couldn’t follow Jack and his captors.

So now Jack appears to be in Bazhaev’s hands, which will hopefully make Sergei and his son Josef a little more interesting. Don’t get me wrong, I think Jurgen Prochnow and David Anders are doing fine work as the father-son Russian bad guys. It’s just hard to get invested in them since it just FEELS like there’s an even bigger bad guy looming somewhere out there. (By this point last season, I don’t even think we’d seen Jon Voight.)

Maybe that bad guy will be ex-President Logan. Or maybe it’ll be Kayla Hassan.

Yeah, yeah, I’m probably reaching here, but President Omar Hassan’s daughter has been little more than daddy’s little girl so far this season. Well that’s not exactly true, since last night we got confirmation that she’s in a relationship with Tarin, President Hassan’s most trusted bodyguard (up until last night).

Since things aren’t always what they seem in “24” world, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a more sinister side to Kayla’s personality. Maybe she’s been using Tarin (who President Hassan had arrested last night) to get information on what her father has been up to? Or maybe I’m a little bored by this subplot and I’m hoping for more forward movement beyond scenes showing how President Hassan is losing his marbles. Oh well, at least his hair still looks poofy, even in these stressful times.

Speaking of subplots I’m bored by, let’s talk about Dana Walsh!

I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but the scenes in the warehouse with Dana helping her ex Kevin and his country bumpkin during their heist were actually pretty enjoyable. I liked the little, realistic details (like the guys getting confused by all the numbers Dana was feeding them and going to the wrong cage). I also thought Katee Sackhoff’s acting during these scenes was pretty outstanding. (She sure knows how to look terrified.)

That also made me sad (and a bit mad) when I once again realized how such a good actress was being wasted on such a hopelessly pointless and moronic storyline. Part of the reason I enjoyed the warehouse scenes was that I actually thought we might be reaching the end of this plotline. However, with country bumpkin #2 knocking out that patrolman with a bat, I get the feeling we’re far from done with this nonsense.

(Insert sad trombone sound)

So what’d you think of this action-packed episode? Why was that knife just lying on the floor? Why is there a secret office in CTU? (Is it so troubled employees like Dana can run pointless covert operations?) Is Farhard Hassan still chilling with those Russian prostitutes? Finally, was anyone scared that Renee might kill herself in that small room after Jack stuck her in there alone with a gun?