1. Karen, still weak from her time at the airport reading women's interest magazines, fired her own husband from his job to save her own job. I don't understand that completely, since she was quick to resign earlier in the season. (Maybe she had a film gig for a few weeks? I finally saw Syriana on Netflix...it was brilliant but I digress...and she had an extremely similar role. Maybe the directors of The Queen are doing Margaret Thatcher's life story next, with Karen in the title role. But I digress again.)
Karen's hand was forced because Chad Lowe has surfaced. In kind of a cool effect, actually, he appears on a laptop screen threatening to bring down the administration because Bill had caught, and released, one of the terrorists (yawn, I can't remember which one) back during season 3 or 4.
This sets the stage for Bill to go all rogue with Jack. The 24 Blog would heartily endorse this plot move.
2. A new character, the unfortunately named but fine looking Peter Hock, is introduced. He is the one who pressures Karen into firing Bill.
This one is a wild card. Hock may not be eeeevil but he sure is Machiavellian. But that is DC for you.
3. As Bill leaves CTU, he leaves Nadia in charge. She moves up from her job in IT (where she was only authorized to set a perimeter) to management (where she can shout "Pursue and Engage" into a telephone, presumably winding up in the ears of hundreds of tac team members). And I'm not sure that I understand this. How did Nadia get seniority over Milo? And how does the guy being escorted out by security get to designate his successor?
This sets the stage for Nadia -- if a mole -- to do something eeeevil. And if she is stupid, but not evil, she can let some high security clearance intel slip during pillow talk with Milo the next time they suck face in the server room. (Milo will then turn out to be evil. Which would at least make his character a bit more interesting. Petulance is far more attractive in a man when he is eeeevil.)
4. Speaking of sucking face, The Evil Veep and Blonde Toady get up close and personal.
This sets the stage for all Friends of The 24 Blog to say, "Eeeewww". And the Eeeewww factor can only go up as the stakes get higher between the two of them. (Wink wink.) The chemistry is about as volatile as limestone. Methinks that the 24 year old writers of 24, all amped up on Red Bull and Organic Blue Corn Tortilla Chips, erroneously believe that this story line will "Pursue and Engage" the fogeys in the 35-44 demographic. Um, nope.
5. Ricky is pursuing and engaging Jack.
This sets the stage for exactly nothing. Friend of The 24 Blog Kate read that Ricky was brought on before the writers actually had a job for him. That is clear.
6. Jack, Jack, Jack. Having decided to become a suicide bomber, Jack has stashed C-4 in his man purse so that he can go up in flames with the stereotypically nefarious Cheng...but only after he exchanges Awwwdrey for a circuit board to the suitcase nukes. This rogue action (previously endorsed by the brain damaged TEYOP) has put him in a world of hurt with Evil Veep's new administration, hence item 5, above.
Ricky screws up by failing to set a perimeter. Because he has rushed in to capture Jack before Jack could press the button on the detonator (huh? was there a detonator in his man purse, too?), Cheng has escaped.
(NB: Cheng now has the circuit board. But since Jack tossed it to him in a dark room, how does Cheng know it is the real thing? And as noted in comments last week, what is up with every firefight happening in the dark?)
This sets the stage for Jack to be under arrest again. It's back to CTU for you buddy. But maybe not...earlier, Jack had left a message on Bill's voicemail, revealing his plans. The old 24 would send Bill in to snag Jack and the two would go rogue together. (With Chloe's help.) Please, please, please let this be the case.
7. Awwwdrey is a mess. Other than hair issues (which I must not beat to death) (again) she appears to be suffering some kind of psychosis. How else to explain that she couldn't set the perimeter to snag Cheng?
This sets the stage for Jack to be tender. The 24 Blog hopes that it also sets the stage for the return of baby boomer hottie William Devane.
Ok, that's it for me. ("M" is back this week...girlfriend, you will be authoring some serious recaps in coming weeks. Because TEYOS (aka thirty-
