24 Recap: “10:00-11:00 A.M.”

Title: 10:00 – 11:00am
Original Airdate: 1/22/07

Oh. My. Goodness. Just when I thought 24 could not have any more jaw dropping shockers this season – especially so soon after last week’s nuke – we learn that Bluetooth, aka the mysterious mastermind pulling Logan’s strings last year, is none other than Jack’s brother!!!!!!!!! I am not exaggerating when I say that my jaw was literally frozen in gape-mouthed stupefiedness for quite some time after that reveal. I mean, revealing that President Logan was responsible for last year’s evil deeds was not that surprising because the guy was so incredibly weaselly and underhanded already. But to tell us that Bluetooth was Jack Bauer’s own BROTHER?!?!? Wow. My mind is blown. And you know what the craziest/most awesome part of this is? Paul McCrane, the actor playing Bluetooth (aka Graham), actually resembles Kiefer Sutherland and could totally be his brother. WOW. Major kudos, 24, for what is in my opinion your greatest plot twist ever.

Of course, several lingering questions remain – like how did Jack know that Graham was up to no good just from that initial phone conversation? What exactly was Jack’s relationship with Graham’s wife, who supposedly “never got over him”? Why is Jack estranged from Graham in the first place? Or his dad, for that matter? And what exactly does Jack’s dad do? And why is James Cromwell playing Jack’s dad, and not Donald Sutherland aka Kiefer’s real life dad? And since we’re delving into family relations, what happened to Jack’s mom? I’m betting that at least some, if not most, of these questions will be answered in the remaining episodes of the season – especially since judging by the previews next week, we’ll soon be meeting Jack’s dad. But not before Jack, who has now clearly gotten his mojo back, gets some hard-core torture done on his evil, traitorous brother, who tried to have Jack killed several times already! Talk about Cain and Abel!! Except, of course, this time Abel gets to come back from the dead and beat the crap out of Cain. “You’re hurting me,” Graham whines to Jack. “Trust me, I’m not,” responds Jack, who is soon choking his brother with a plastic bag. Oh yes, Jack Bauer is back my friends.

As for the rest of the episode, several things stood out for me. First, I’m saddened and annoyed that Regina King is being wasted on such an irrational, infuriating, spoiled character like Sandra Palmer. The woman seems to be incapable of getting reason into her thick-headed, selfish skull. Yes, we get that you’re concerned about your boyfriend’s life – but for Heaven’s sake, woman, the man willingly volunteered to help the FBI spy on terrorists in the jail that clearly have connections to certain other terrorists who, by the way, JUST DETONATED A NUCLEAR BOMB IN VALENCIA A FEW MINUTES AGO. Her boyfriend is doing something very brave and heroic, and still all she cares about is civil liberties being violated and how the FBI should roll over and obey her every command just because she’s the president’s sister. Puh-lease! Thank goodness her brother has a) stopped taking her calls, and b) seemingly woken up and stopped being so naïve and easily persuaded. For instance, his insistence to his advisors that he tell the American Public the truth, as opposed to sugar-coating it with lies, was admirable and very David Palmer-esque. Let’s hope Wayne continues on this upward path towards becoming – or at least trying to become – his brother.

Other moments that stood out for me in this episode were Morris’ continued loving affection, adoration, and major help to Chloe (and as I’ve said before, it’s about time this awesome girl had a man who adored her and treated her well), as well as the continuing tension between the good guys at CTU and reformed terrorist mastermind Assad. From Bill refusing to shake Assad’s hand to the way that everyone at CTU was glaring at Assad, I’m guessing that 24 is saying that Assad was the kind of horrible terrorist akin to al-Zarqawi, or even worse, Osama Bin Laden. It is very hard to imagine either of those two renouncing their Death To All Americans ways, and actually working to SAVE American lives, so I guess then it is understandable that the CTU peeps are very suspicious of Assad. But once again, Assad proved his loyalty and devotion to his new cause by providing CTU with some seriously helpful info, so it was nice then that Bill finally shook Assad’s hand before sending him on a plane to Washington. Let’s just hope that Assad really does mean to help America, and that he’s not just a traitor in serious disguise. Frankly, I wouldn’t put it past 24 to pull that kind of twist, so here’s hoping that they don’t – especially since Assad will be meeting the president soon, and could thus possibly assassinate Wayne! To put it mildly: that would really suck.

LaLa is a writer who currently resides in LaLa Land, aka Los Angeles. LaLa also likes to sing. LaLa also knows some lawyers in a law office. LaLa is also prone to making bad jokes, like this one. And of course, LaLa also loves her some quality television shows with quality actors on them, like House… and The Office… and 24… and, well, pretty much any smartly written show that doesn’t include a fat guy with a hot skinny wife or the words “two and a half men” in the title.