24 – Day 8: 8:00pm – 9:00pm

his weekend has been the perfect storm of awesome. On Sunday, my Indianapolis Colts busted their way into the Super Bowl. Then, the New Orleans Saints, the team from my favorite town in the world, clinched the other spot. This evening, the Lady Purdue Boilermakers beat No. 4-ranked Ohio State in basketball. Now, we have an excellent episode of “24.” Let’s get rolling on this review.

Debrief

• After the threat on his life by his brother, Hassan is arresting militants in his home country. Farhad contends that, once he has the uranium, it will not matter. He will have the uranium when he gets payment to Sergei in four hours.

• After Renee cuts off Zia’s thumb, Jack wants to stop the operation, but Renee is confident (aka nuts) that she can get Vladimir to buy into her cover. When she was undercover previously, Valdimir attempted to rape her and was obsessed with her. His suspicions about her still exist and, after killing Zia and almost killing Renee, he buys into her cover.

• Kevin calls Dana and demands she come home. It turns out that Dana is an ex-convict and went to prison as an accessory to murder. Kevin says he will leave Dana alone if she gets him some sort of lucrative information out of CTU.

• The peace treaty is falling apart, since Hassan is arresting people in his homeland. Taylor says she cannot support Hassan if it continues. Later, Hassan’s wife leaves the UN, scorned by her husband’s affair.

• Josef Bashaev, Sergei’s son, is taking his brother to a doctor to cure his uranium poisoning. They have the doctor’s family in sight and will kill them if he cannot save Josef’s brother.

Agent Philboy’s Assesment

Overall, I really enjoyed this episode. First of all, I was relieved to only write a review for one hour of real time. I know it may sound silly, but there’s just way too much ground to cover in these two-hour blocks. It made everything move quickly tonight.

Renee is completely unhinged isn’t she? I think it’s fantastic, but it sets up an interesting dynamic that I hope the writers had the confidence to explore. In Renee, with all of her amputation and lack of will to live, Jack is looking at a mirror of a) what he used to be and b) what the job can do to someone if they get too deep and let it eat at them. How soon we forget that, a mere handful of seasons ago, Jack was addicted to smack from going undercover with the Salazar drug cartel and was perfectly willing to behead a guy to get the mission accomplished. I’m sure it’s been said before, but Jack has really been to hell and back and now is his time of reckoning, where he will sort out what all of it means and how it factors into his future with his daughter and her family. Of course, they could cower away from getting that deep and focus on the action. But, I hope not.

Also, I hope that we explore in more detail the political ramifications of today’s events. Usually, when politics enters “24,” it’s only because it’s hampering the President to do whatever CTU wants. But, in this instance, the peace talks were already near completion when the day’s events started. While I’m sure Presidents Taylor and Hassan will have to make some difficult calls regarding Jack, Renee and the whole CTU gang, I think they have bigger fish to fry.

I’m still disappointed with the Dana-Kevin storyline. Kevin wants her get information, but we all know Chloe will figure out what she’s doing. Come on, she’s Chloe. I still just don’t see where this can go without being a complete waste of time.

What I Learned This Week

• Apparently, killing people and maiming people under the guise of working for the government can be classified as “rough patch.”

• Even CTU can’t escape having that one guy in the office who makes inappropriate jokes.

• CTU has the worst background check ever. EVER!

I spaced on last week’s Kill Count, but I know that Zia was the only death this week. I’ll look back at all of my notes and make sure to have an up-to-date count by next week.

Do you think that Jack is recognizing how much like Renee he was once? If so, do you think he cares?