24 Recap: Ziya Gives It One Thumb Up—and the Other Thumb Hangs to the Side

Welcome back to Season 2. We have the second showing of our “unlikely president” (a Black man in Seasons 1 and 2 and a woman in Seasons 7 and 8) that really was proven not-all-that-unlikely. We have Sherry Palmer II with President Hassan’s wife; the woman behind the man who we can tell is cold, calculating, and not ready to be put on the sidelines. They belong, of course, to the Fake Islamic Nation of IRK (Islamic Republic of Kamistan) which of course is just like our FIN in Season 2. We have the undercover story at the beginning of the season to find out where the nuclear weapon is being held and the body part needed to be chopped off to get there. But I think we had a reveal this episode also—we, once again in Season 8, have a character out for revenge.

In Season 2, we had Jack, a shell of his former self and untrusted by those at CTU because of the worry he was going to go off the reservation. The first impression that you get of Jack in Season 2 is that he’s coming back in despite all of his hardships at the job for one reason—because he’s the one person able to go undercover to stop a nuclear bomb. We hear Jack say that he wants to help CTU out and then get out of town. After a few episodes of being undercover, though, we find out that Jack has revenge on his mind when Nina Myers’ picture shows up.

In Season 8, we have a change in roles: Freckles is a shell of her former self and untrusted by Jack because he thinks she’ll go off the reservation. The first impression is that Freckles will come help out her country because she’s the only one who can and then she’ll get out of dodge and go back to her sad life, but when the undercover story takes place, we also get the picture that she, too, is out for revenge as she takes this mission through a man who brutally beat Freckles in her past.

That’s not the only thing we got (but we’ll get back to that later). We have Ziya, a pawn in Freckles game who has one less hand capable of hailing a cab in the beginning of the episode, and by the end, he’s swimming with the fishes. We have the reveal that Dana/Jenny (Denny?) is hiding an ex-con past where she went to Juvi as an accessory to murder for her ex-boyfriend. Why she doesn’t just call the police, tell them there’s a strange man in her house and have him arrested, I have no idea. Who is going to believe a real, documented ex-con (who I think we can assume committed murder) over a woman who works for a government agency? And now Denny may be her ex’s pawn in getting his life back together, giving him the code to some financial institution…or something. Truthfully, that part of the plot needs to take a turn where either she turns him in or she comes in with a gun and Denny gets rid her ex and his buddy, permanently.

In another part of the plot that I don’t care much for, Baron Wolfgang von Wolfhausen says, “you don’t speak of Beerfest!”—er, sorry, I mean he says to his non-dying son, Josef, that he should just let his other son die. Somehow Josef convinces the Baron that he should at least live out the rest of his life at the family estate because, well, “papa he is my brother, he is your son” was a really powerful line. Amazingly, the police haven’t been by to question the Baron or anyone Freckles is undercover with even though he is ex-KGB* But Josef can't listen to his father and brings him to the doctor anyways and in the car ride there we learn Josef is the good son and his brother is the one in the family business.

*Side Note: I know that CTU is new-and-improved this season, but they put no money into people or intelligence. You’re telling me that they don’t know all the ex-KGB people in their own city (nevermind their own country) on the day the city is in lockdown over a big United Nations pact and the terror alert is high? Why the heck aren't they busting down the Baron's door right now? They got to the apartment of JH's GF in about 3 minutes but they can't round up all the ex-KGB in a few hours? You’re telling me that the only analyst they could dedicate to Freckles and Jack’s undercover mission was Chloe? They had no else they could have assigned to that task to help her out? Is Old-CTU and New-CTU a metaphor for Old Yankee Stadium and New Yankee Stadium? They spend so much money on drones that don't fire anti-missiles correctly because Arlo didn't test them but yet they can't hire another analyst to check Freckles' past while Chloe is on the phone? And, I have to ask this again, how simple is the entrance exam to get a job in the government? Do you just check the box that you haven’t committed a crime and you’re not a criminal and everyone believes you? Do they even know how to conduct a background check? I feel like Dennis Green should come on the screen like in the Coors Light commercials and say “they are who we thought they were!”

And while Josef is the Good Son and has a conscious, we learn that President Hassan is actually a dictator. Who'd a thunk it? It's actually sort of refreshing to see that while he was portrayed as the wholesome reformer, they at least make his character somewhat-realistic. He needs to go to President Taylor and say, "listen woman, you can't have it both ways; either I crack down on terrorists in my country and some human rights get trampled or I let them run rampant and I don't have a government people respect." I mean he sort of says this, but at least this makes his character a bit more believable. And this, juxtaposed to the scene where Josef grows a conscious about his brother shows that good people can be bad and bad people can be good. Wonderful.

But this all masks what I think this season is coming to: Jack and Freckles in a hot, passionate embrace. Jack is shown to have concerns about Freckles' well-being, even hyperventilating after he thought Frecks had been offed. The scene is set that maybe he's just being a concerned Grandpa for a woman in his life. But I think that what's deep-seeded under the surface is that he wants her--badly. And I think his jealousy of this man in her life is going to fester to the point that they have to be together. Look at Jack's past lovers: Teri got killed by Nina, Nina turned out to be a terrorist and he shot her, Claudia got shot by Ramon Salazar, Jack ditched the woman who he was living with in Canada, and Audrey is in a really bad mental state (if you're counting, that's one ditched, one mental, and three dead). Since we're comparing this to Season 2, Jack's "love interest" in Season 2, Kate Warner, went by the wayside as well.

But I think that this season he finally goes after what he wants and gets it (and she's still alive which is a plus in her column so in the words of Herm Edwards "we can build on this!"). I think that Jack and Freckles are more similar than any of those other women, that he can see himself in her, and that he feels responsible for the state she's in and wants to help her and protect her. There is something appealing to Jack about helping people and here is someone on the edge who he can help (I mean she didn't flinch with Ziya was shot). And as someone who has been to the edge and back, Jack knows a thing or two about recovery. If they have to spend some of that recovery time in bed, so be it. Jack does deserve it after all this time.

Season grade so far: B-  I'm still at B-. This season has not hooked me in yet. And even Jack in his ridiculous glasses in the previews of next episode doesn't have me all that excited. I don't know if they're waiting for sweeps week (they did say that the uranium would be there in "about 5 hours") or they don't have an exciting plot this season, but I can't get all that excited just yet.

Best line of the week: "DAMN IT!" - Jack (it took until 8:48, but we finally got one this episode and it was delivered perfectly)

Best moment of the week: It was very subtle, but I love Arlo "covering" for Denny by telling FPjr that his woman had headed home. This was at the same time he was making a cover for Jack and Freckles. I hope he's better at their covers than he is at Denny's

Thoughts? Comments? Did you think she cut off Ziya's entire wrist also?

I've been watching on DVR but want to point you who don't to check out Amanda Rykoff's "The OCD Chick" and the live chat she has going on there.