24 Review:
"1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m." (Episode 7.06)

The intensity and sense of urgency is definitely beginning to pick up in Season Seven of 24. When we left Jack Bauer last week (or last hour, if you prefer), he and the good guys were faced with a triple threat. The president's husband was about to be offed along with his dead son's former girlfriend in what would look like a murder-suicide by his own hand. FBI agent Renee Walker was being buried alive by Jack and Tony. And one other more small thing: The clock just ticked to 1 p.m., the deadline by which President Allison Taylor could call off the invasion of Sengala. If the invasion goes down, the rebel colonel Ike Dubaku will unleash terror in skies over America.

So essentially, something was bound to happen this week, right? It seems in some ways, the tempo of the show is slower than in previous years, but it's finally once again easing into its own time zone.

Still under pressure from advisers and high-ranking cabinet members to call off the invasion of Sengala, President Taylor is holding firm and going forward, believing the FBI will recover the prime minister and his wife. Colonel Dubaku, however, is tired of waiting and carries out another demonstration. But this time, it's real. Just outside her office window, the president witnesses two planes crash in midair. Because the incident happens far enough away from the White House, there's an unsettling, creepy silence from hers and the audience's vantage point. No loud boom, no in-your-face explosion with dazzling effects, no faces coupled with personal stories on the planes and hardly any warning or buildup. Just a quick, tiny fireball followed by some black smoke in the clear blue sky. That's hardly the avenue one expects to see in today's entertainment. And yet, that scene feels more truthful than some of the show's most intense moments.

As almost anyone could've predicted, Agent Walker is still around. Big surprise. New, strong character who's like a Jack-Bauer-in-training and they're just gonna leave her in the ground for good in the sixth hour? Thankfully, Bill and Chloe come to the rescue. After they revive her, she's a bit put out, but you would be, too, if you were shot in the neck and buried alive with your hands tied behind your back.

But Henry Taylor's situation isn't so good, as he helplessly watches his aide butcher his late son's love. (Knife killings are always gruesome, aren't they?) In the end, Henry is last man standing, so you'd think this lone wolf will finally go to his wife with information that her office has been compromised.

Getting to this point in a 24 review and barely mentioning Bauer is like watching a press conference after a Cleveland Cavaliers game hardly containing a whisper about Lebron James: You know his presence is invaluable and a constant anchor, but sometimes others step up their game. Let's just say Jack has things under control on his end. Sometimes, that's all you really need to say.

The conclusion of this hour begins sizzling the first, big would-they-dare-do-it moment in the new season, involving an attack on a small Ohio town with a population of about 30,000.  Moments like this so far in the show's history include a deadly, weaponized virus in a hotel, an attack on a mall, the meltdown of a nuclear power plant and of course, the dirty bomb in L.A. Would they do it? It's never a question of if, but rather of when.