24: 12:00 a.m.-1:00 a.m

Thoughts:

-- Jack and Renee's conversation may be the most romantic thing ever on this show. Sure, they're talking about nuclear rods and getting their alibis straight, but the subtext is undeniable. Really makes you regret all that time the show wasted on Audrey, huh?

-- I really didn't expect to see Josef get killed off this early (and I'm not entirely convinced he's actually dead), so I hope the show has an ace in the hole ready, like when Dennis Hopper showed up in the first season. Because Farhad is probably the least threatening 24 villain ever.

-- I normally don't spend much time thinking about the real world mechanics of how the government on this show works, because that way lies madness. But I'd love to know how Rob and President Taylor "resurrected CTU." After season six, the whole organization was apparently dismantled, presumably after someone noticed that it was always getting infiltrated and that only two employees, Jack and Chloe, had decent performance evaluations. How do you just bring back a whole organization like that? I mean, there'd be all sorts of Congressional oversight matters, and newspaper op-eds, and you'd think the White House would give it a new name for PR purposes, if nothing else.

The fact that I'm fascinated by this question is probably a good indication I've lived in D.C. too long.

-- I'm not buying this whole "pin everything on Renee" business. Why does this operation even need a fall guy in the first place? Sure, everything went to hell, but considering they were dealing with a psychotic Russian mobster, you wouldn't think anyone would be especially surprised by that.

-- Jack assaulting the guard and the evil chick from the DOJ was great, but I'm getting a little tired of Jack getting tased. You'd think by now, he would have developed an immunity to electricity.

-- That 14 year-old kid is Agent Owen? Second in command after Cole? Holy Christ, are you kidding me? Last week, I assumed it was his first day on the job or something, to give his inevitable death a little more resonance. As dead as he was last week, he's ten times as dead now.

-- Is Freddie Prinze Jr. trying out a New York accent, or has he always sounded like that?

-- The only problem with Nick and Kevin getting killed is that it didn't happen five episodes ago.

Jack's confirmed kills: 0 (10 for the season)

Jack's Words of Wisdom: "Son, you better put that down or you're going to get hurt."

Overall grade: B+