'24' Recap: Oh My Freakin' Gawd

Well, they earned back my respect tonight. President Palmer [the lesser] redeemed himself by out-bluffing international diplomats and his own cabinet. Jack Bauer, teamed with Mike Doyle, found that not every method of "interrogation" will work on the martyr-minded madmen. They staged a transport/takeover, hoping that the bad guy would lead them to the two remaining suitcase nukes. Just like classic 'Star Trek', if you are the new, unnamed junior officer on the away team, you won't survive the episode. Jack, now possessing superhuman strength, stowed away on a sanitation truck. That's not exactly correct. Right out of "Cape Fear," he stowed away under a sanitation truck. And then, rather than calling into CTU for back-up, he dispatched the half dozen or so bad guys to Allah. He sent off the uber-jihadi to his death with a gratuitous, "say hello to your brother" [whom Jack had killed a couple years earlier].

Doyle arrives on the scene and assesses how it all went down, quietly marvelling at Bauer's efficiency at killing the bad guys. It could've been hour 24 tonight for all I cared. Then those SOBs [I'm talking to you, Joel Surnow!] put a new plot twist. It's Chi-coms again [I swear I know that actor from multiple episodes of Hawaii 5-0 or M*A*S*H or Bridge on the River Kwai or all three]. This time they have long-presumed-dead Audrey Raines.

Joel Surnow: put us all out of our misery. Kill Audrey now and let Jack start a new life with his former sister-in-law. I couldn't even tell if this season's Audrey is the same actress as previous seasons. Perhaps they're using yet another beloved cliche and making her Dick Sargent without even thanking Dick York. It doesn't matter. I'm bewitched.