24: This Week 4/24-5/1

I'm baaaaaack! I know, I know...everyone went through withdrawal with no 24 update last week--and I humbly apologize; life got the best of me-- but I'm here and I'm ready to rumble about our good buddy Jack Bauer.

So, where have we been? Jack confides in his former boss, Secretary Heller, who then bogarts him, ties him up and proceeds with his own plan which results in the Secretary taking a spectacular swan dive off a cliff. I've gotta admit, I didn't see that one coming at all. I audibly said, "Whoa," as they cut to the wide shot and that Caddy speeds up to take the leap. I thought he'd maybe do some evasive driving on the road, maybe even he'd get out of the car and defiantly give the middle finger to the guys in the copter, but jump off a cliff? Never. So who wants to take bets now whether he's REALLY dead, or was saved?

We also now have Chloe escaping CTU --which isn't hard to do for the bad guys, so why should it for the good guys--and working out of Bill Buchanon's house. And everyone was right: the best line of the last week was when Chloe basically said, "Your equipment's crap but it's all we've got to work with so we'll deal." President Logan confesses to his sanity-hanging-by-a-thread wife of his misconduct of the day, Aaron our Secret Service hero disappears, and Jack is leavin' on a jet plane and we know he'll be back again, but...will he have the tape recording for evidence?! This brings us to this week and the things we've learned!

--that this week's episode was good for such a bottle episode. I mean, mostly we're dealing with Jack on the plane, Audrey's out of action, and we have good back and forth with Karen Hayes helping out at CTU and that's the show. So good show overall. Not great like the last ones have been, but of course....

--Chloe steals the show. Her taking out the tazer and tagging the drunk dude? BRILLIANT! And not once, but twice! I loved it; I was howling laughing. So the Chloe O'Brien line of the week isn't a spoken line, it's the powerful yet subtle hum of a tazer gun. I love that woman.

--that Jack Bauer is still The Man. Sing to the tune of "The Candyman Can".... who can take out an air marshal/knock him out cold/ take his gun, take his badge and take a plane alone/the Jack Bauer can/that Jack Bauer can....
I mean, I've really got to check if this is possible in the real world, but my man cuts open a panel and takes CONTROL OF A PLANE FROM THE BAGGAGE HOLD. That's the power of Jack Bauer. I do wonder though why he didn't enlist the aid of the air marshal instead of just putting him in the hold, but I guess it was easier than worrying about trusting him. After all, Jack did whip his ass and I don't think air marshal's take that too kindly :) Jack don't need no backup! And if I'm the pilot, I'd watch my back as I'm trying to give some lame excuse of a cramp to unlock the door to the cabin. But we are dealing with TV IQs, not real ones, so I understand we must have some dramatic effect.

--speaking of the plane, I don't know about you, but when they were doing the whole Jack to Chloe to get the pilot to not decompress the hold and running through Karen at CTU, it was a little reminiscent to me of the trash compactor scene in the original Star Wars. Chloe as C-3PO: "Curse my rusty innards, I can't save Jack in time!"....I mean, it was just so apparent I started shouting, "Shut down all the planes on the detention level!" If you don't remember this scene, or think this joke has run its course, please skip ahead...

--that the First Lady has taken the one way trip to Looney Toon Town and she ain't comin' back. Poor woman. She gets faith in her husband, he destroys it...she seeks out comfort from her Secret Service man Aaron, but her husband has him taken out....it's a wonder she held onto the sanity she had to begin with. And Jean Smart is brilliant in this episode conveying a woman who's totally on the edge of losing it fully. Again, Emmy nomination in her future, gotta be. And how cold is Logan? She calls to ask him why he didn't confide in her in the beginning and he snaps back, "'Cause you crazy, ho! Why am I going to tell you anything when you're a drop away from drinking the Jesus Juice?" That was just mean and gave you insight into how Logan really feels about her. Two things have to happen: either the First Lady gets to take a shot at Logan or Aaron gets to plug him and stand over him saying, "AND I'm taking your woman!"

--And that Miles is a W-E-A-S-E-L, pure unadulterated sniveling toadie. He follows orders given by the President that are clearly weird unconditionally, but then Karen does something out of line and he calls Mike Novick?! Jerk! Oooh, I hate that Miles. Since we now have Rocket Romano from E.R. (welcome Paul McCrane to the "24" family), can we have a helicopter cut off Miles' arm and fall on him in the medical bay as well?

So only four more hours left, people! Can you believe it's gone by so soon? I can't. And I know they can't tie up everything, but I want to know the final fate of Evelyn, the First Lady's aide who gave up Jack's position to Henderson. Is Aaron dead or just detained? Wayne Palmer has to show up when President Palmer's body gets to DC, so what's the end for him? Will we find out who the heck Paul McCrane and his dark suited cronies are and how he got the President of the US to do all this crazy mess? Will Curtis get to be head of CTU so his life can be ruined? Ooh, maybe Chloe! Can you imagine Chloe running CTU? Priceless. And holy Snakes On A Plane...Jack has to avoid being shot down out of the sky? And here's a thought: a plane full of diplomats--did anyone see a Chinese diplomat? Cause if so, our boy Jack has bigger problems....