24 Review:
"4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m." (Episode 7.09)

Who is the mole in the FBI?

In the run-up to this week's hour of 24, we were promised that question would be answered. But really, there were only five choices. Let's go through this agent by agent, shall we? You could immediately scratch off Renee, who's been working with Jack most of this time. Although her boss, Larry, is one of those straight-down-the-line do-gooders you love to hate (IE: Ryan Chappelle in Season Three), he's nevertheless a do-gooder. Then, there's Janis. You might be able to see the writers really shocking you by making her the mole, but they've invested too much emotion and time into her. So, that just leaves Sean and his blond office fling. How obvious was it that it came down to one of them? Well, I wrote everything to this point minutes before the episode aired last night, even going so far as to choose above photo, if that tells you anything.

But you have to appreciate the last-ditch effort to make you believe Janis (Janeane Garofalo's socially awkward computer-nerd extraordinaire) had mole potential until the final minute or so of last night's episode. Her snooping around after Chloe arrives and her threatening to blackmail the real mole raised all sorts of red flags, but a seasoned viewer doesn't fold at the first sign of a bluff.

By the way, the actual mole is Sean, and he remains at large. That still leaves the question of who's infiltrated the White House, which leads us to the next big surprise of the episode: Aaron Pierce, the loyal Secret Service agent and one of the most likable characters on the show, has returned. When President Taylor needed Bill Buchanan to send someone to find her daughter and bring her to the hospital, who else could he trust with Jack being in the field? It's nice to get a familiar face back, even as we finally start to become familiar with the slew of new characters this season.

While we're on the subject of familiar faces, it should be said the longer we don't see Tony Almeida onscreen (this was his second hour absent), the more likely he is giving himself to the darkside. Colonel Ike Dubaku's threat and influence has waned the past few weeks, and it's only natural to reveal a new baddie at about this time in year.

So, what's in store for next week? Although it doesn't look good for President Taylor's husband, Henry, he will be in surgery the next five hours. In other words, don't worry about him just yet. The most pressing issue is that because Sean had Jack and Renee arrested by metro police, no one is following Dubaku's innocent girlfriend. Will Dubaku do away with her for her "betrayal?" The better question: Is this really the only crisis carrying over to next week? Prediction: Watch out for Tony. The show is finally picking up the pace, and you'd have to believe it's not going to slow down now.