24 Review:
"9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m." (Episode 8.18)

Despite what he'd like you to believe, Jack Bauer is a creature of emotion. Even if controlled, logical emotion. Throughout the course of a day, the guy buries more bad experiences than a normal person deals with in a lifetime. "How does he cope with it?" you begin to wonder. Does he cope with it? Maybe after all is said and done he breaks down and has a Beatrix Kiddo-esque moment on the bathroom floor, sobbing with teddy bear close by. (Hey, you never know.) But you mess with his girl, and things get scary for the opposition... fast. 

After Renee Walker is gunned down, you begin to see the Jack of old reemerge. You know, he's just got that look about him—like he'll do anything to get quick results. First, he visits Sergei Bazhaev, the Russian mobster who transported the nuclear rods earlier this season, at his arraignment. In a private conversation, Jack threatens to kill his family if he doesn't tell him who's behind Renee's death. Unlike a similar threat to a terrorist hours ago, you actually believe he'd go out of his way to make good on this one. Apparently, Sergei does, too, as he claims the Russian government was backing the day's unfortunate events. The good news for fans is that he points the finger at Dana Walsh as the only lead he knows has answers. Next stop...

I mention the fans because we've built up such unique vitriol for Ms. Walsh—both as a goody and a baddie—that as morbid as it sounds, we want some sort of payoff. Or more frankly, payback. If Jack only loses it on one person, it has to be her. When he slams her head into the table, it's a release both for him and viewers, much like the interrogation scene between Batman and the Joker in The Dark Knight. There's so much injustice and so many laws broken by the other side we just want a moment of pure vengeance, where our side can lower the standard of play to their level, if only for a few seconds. Call it torture, whathaveyou. We can argue all day if it's right or wrong or somewhere in between. The fact is it's basic human emotion. The "high road" is an idea—a standard that on paper, we'd like to believe is always attainable. This idea is a constant in our republic; things like the emotions of man are not. Is it OK to give an unarmed prisoner holding valuable information a few good whacks to the face to get her to talk? Eh, it's dicey. He's pretty much kept it together the entire day, but his girlfriend was just murdered, so we as viewers empathize.

On the more diplomatic side of things, ex-President Charles Logan is back in the game, using "leverage" he has with Moscow to get them to sign the IRK peace agreement. Isn't Gregory Itzen great in this role? The slimy, weaselly politician blackmailing the bad guys. He's so good he has you rooting for him in almost every scene in last night's hour. Even as he's telling President Allison Taylor that factions of the Russian government were behind the day's atrocities, you find yourself momentarily agreeing with him: that President Taylor must look at the greater good of the peace deal and sweep Moscow's dirt under the rug. What a wonderful scene between the ex-president, current president and her closest adviser. Like the classic devil and angel on the shoulder, a quickly-recovered Ethan Kanin waving the flag of good. It's a dark moment because the president—a woman who last season chose nobility and the law over her own family—opts to trust the serpent and save her legacy, rather than go with what we believe to be her gut instinct. Only hours ago she was willing to let a dirty bomb detonate in the heart of Manhattan because she knew it was wrong to give in to terrorist demands. Now, her precious deal and a Nobel Peace Prize (speculatively) is in peril if the public and the IRK discovers Russia's involvement.

To keep it under wraps, she pays CTU a visit and orders Jack to not pursue the Dana Walsh interrogation. A man's undying loyalty to the presidency is called into question. Will he roll over or go rogue? It's kind of obvious. With six hours remaining, he's not going to let himself be locked down for debriefing, especially in the wake of Renee's death. So he hijacks a chopper and takes off, much to CTU director Chloe O'Brian's chagrin.

**GUILTY PLEASURE MOMENT**

Before Jack interrogates Dana, Chloe briefs her fiance, Cole (Freddie Prinze Jr.), telling him his former love is essentially a Russian spy. The look on Freddie's face is gold. Like, is there anything else I didn't know about this nutty broad? Wow. And then she asks him to intervene if Jack gets a little crazy. Yeah right. When Jack does begin roughing up Dana, Chloe tells Cole to stop him, to which he calmly replies, "Let him play, Chloe." A vicarious living experience, I'm sure.