24: 5:00 a.m.-6:00 a.m

Thoughts:

-- Tony: "Red Line." Why, yes! There is a Red Line in D.C.! Holy shit! After months of kicking the hell out of our local geography, could the show finally be getting it together?

"Westbound." Well...um, we don't really think of the Metro in those terms (any local would just say, "towards Shady Grove." But I guess it's plausible that Tony, being a tourist and all, would look at a map of the Metro, and think "westbound." Yeah. Sure. That makes sense. So far, so good!

"To Washington Center." Fuck! Exactly what is "Washington Center," Tony?

-- If there's one thing this season needed more of, it's Jack killing dudes. But if there's two things this season needed more of, it's Jack torturing dudes. And I can't think of a more pointless thing to say to Jack Bauer than, "Please, just give me the morphine."

-- Metro station employees fucking wish they had booths that nice. Actually, as nice as our stations are, I would trade them for a layout like that in a second. Where did they film those scenes? Canada?

-- It'd be really funny if there weren't actually shadowy figures stalking Kim at the airport, and years of being around Jack had just made her paranoid, but obviously, they are shadowy figures.

-- I don't know why, but I'm really looking forward to Glee.

-- Oddly enough, they did stick the real Metro logo on the fake Metro train. I...guess they get points for that? I don't know.

-- Ha! Even in fictional Metro stations, the escalators don't work.

-- It's nice that after seven seasons, Jack's learned you can't transport a prisoner with anything less than a full convoy with weapons at the ready, otherwise the terrorists will intercept you and they will rescue him. Even with all those preparations, though, it still seems like a 50/50 shot that the FBI's going to lose Tony.

-- Two-hour season finale next week. They really picked it up this week, but they need to finish strong in order to salvage a season that, while not bad, has mostly been a disappointment.

Jack's confirmed kills: 0 (25 for the season)

Jack's Words of Wisdom: "I have nothing left to lose. You either tell me where that canister is, or so help me God, I will lay you down right here, right now."

Overall grade: B+