24 Review:
"9:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m." (Episode 8.6)

Wow, uncomfortable situations galore defined 24's sixth hour. A Russian mobster coercing an undercover agent into sex. A father coldly killing his dying son to pacify his other son. A white-trash ex-lover leading a CTU analyst astray. The creepy co-worker of that same analyst who just doesn't know how or when to quit. As the clock's seconds tick-tocked to 9:59:59, I half-expected Jerry Springer to close with his final thoughts and signature line, "Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other."

Like last episode, this one happily plods away, taking its time to develop the next act through a series of seemingly unrelated and somewhat-related crises. Naturally, they will all meddle and interfere with each other soon enough, but for now, we're mainly invested in four storylines, the most urgent involving Renee Walker re-infiltrating a Russian gang she'd penetrated years earlier while undercover at the FBI. With Jack's help, she's to set up a deal that would ultimately lead her thugs to hook up with another more serious Russian outfit, the guys selling the weaponized nuclear rods to traitors within the Islamic Republic. The only problems are a) Jack believes she is unstable, reckless and suicidal, and b) Vladimir, the dude she has to cozy up with, is a violent sex fiend who she will probably enjoy torturing/killing later. Especially after this past hour of unwanted-but-ultimately-successful advances and a hand to the throat thrown in for good measure.

While all that's going down, Jack disguises himself as a German buyer wearing '70s Elvis Costello frames. After he wires $5 million into an account, Vladimir orders his cronies to kill him. But just as guns are drawn, Agent Ortiz reigns sniper fire from on high. Yeah, we thought we'd never say it, but we want more Freddie! Since the season premiere, he's slipped out of the foreground, only appearing a couple minutes in the past two episodes. We can only expect this to be very temporary before he gets unnecessarily dragged into his fiance's redneck past.

That may happen soon as the kid from Mad magazine (the aforementioned weirdo coworker) is on to her shenanigans. The dead giveaway? Yup, you guessed it—her, the beater van and its beater owner in the parking lot of CTU. Is there even more blackmail in the air for Dana Walsh (aka Jenny Scott)? Oh, the horror. So she's going to help her ex and his dirtball friend steal $120,000 in the spirit of moving on with her life. Even if this somehow works, Dana is the only person who believes this will be the last she sees of this doughy waste of humanity.  

Besides world leaders getting more and more impatient with President Hassan's countermeasures in response to the botched assassination attempt, the only other important development in last night's episode revolved around the Russians dealing the nuclear arms. The son of the head of that outfit decides to go against his father's orders and tries to help his brother, who is dying from exposure to weaponized uranium. Under gunpoint, a specialist is forced to treat the man. Don't you love these guys? No matter what, they're always dead. You help someone with a gun, one way or another, you're dead! Plain and simple. Doesn't matter how nice you are. It's like Jamie Kennedy's horror-movie survival guide in Scream. In order to survive an episode of 24, under no circumstances can you knowingly help a bad guy pointing a gun at you. Sure enough, a knock at the door, and a pistol with a silencer is awaiting the silent kill. The father sends his henchmen to track down his two sons. They intervene just as the healthier half of the duo is learning of a possible treatment. After returning to the nightclub, the dad shoots the unhealthy son to show his older son that he's never too old to learn a lesson. And that's why you don't go to a specialist to treat your dying brother when you and your father are trying to negotiate this arms deal.

Again, it was a fairly quick-paced hour with most of the action stockpiled for the last five minutes or so. The surprise sniper shootout was nice, but now with both Jack and Renee successfully burrowing into Vladimir's posse, action may continue to slow for the next hour or two before a big payoff. Also, we still have questions about Renee. Her intentions seem all right, but there seems to be some darkside potential. After all, frenemies is what this show is all about.