Episode 6.6, "11:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M."
Airdate: Sunday, Monday 29th, 2007

That's right--we're at 11:00 A.M. on the sixth-longest day of Jack Bauer's life. Next week: Lunch!

Seriously, one of the big comments people make when they first hear about the premise of the show is, "But when does he eat? When does he shower? When does he go to the bathroom?"

The answers to those questions are quite simple. He eats off-camera, he rarely showers, and Jack Bauer goes to the restroom WHENEVER HE WANTS.

Those mundane concerns point toward one of the lesser-known realities of life in 24--it's not ALWAYS a neck-breaking race to some finish line or another. Sometimes, there are actually relatively SLOW hours in Jack's life. Heck, sometimes there are hours where we hardly see Jack at all.

This week, the writers chose to slow things down JUST a hair and give us some catch-up on a few of the subplots coursing their way through season six. We knew this right away, when our first significant scene of the episode involved the final big showdown between Tom Lennox and Karen, which was kind of a let-down if you ask me. Let's face it: There are few actors on television who could out-chew Peter MacNicol when you get right down to it, and Jayne Atkinson, while talented, just didn't stand a chance. Even though Lennox is one creepy-ass worm of a character, it's hard not to root for him when he's so damn good at being slimy. He's even convinced the ex-Mr. Hilary Swank, Chad Lowe, to go rogue and help him bring Karen down. That smarmy bastard! I love him.

Meanwhile, back at CTU, Karen's snuggle bunny Bill Buchanan is dealing with one of those minor plot devices that could be either just a way to kill ten minutes in an episode, or a little seed that will bear some nasty fruit later in the season. Seems that Nadia's security clearance has been altered because she's Muslim, Buchanan doesn't think now is the right time to deal with it, and so Milo logs Nadia in under his name.

Couple things could happen there--Nadia could be evil (which would be a cheap move), do some nasty stuff using Milo's name, leading to much chaos. Milo could just get in some kind of lame administrative trouble for helping Nadia and doing something that's technically "illegal." Or it could be forgotten about completely. Who knows?

In the detention camp, Walid discovers that one of the terrorist plotters smuggled a CELL PHONE into the facility. That's right, a CELL PHONE. Fine, I'll roll with it.

What was a bit harder to roll with was Walid's tactic for swiping the cell phone, which literally involved bumping into the inmate and somehow ganking it out of his pocket. That strained credibility to an extreme.

Anyway, they get the cell, they discover these dudes have nothing to do with Fayed's plot, and they rush in while all the inmates are beating the crap out of Walid. Looks like this subplot has at least reached its first turning point.

And then, there's the Bauer family. Talk about your dysfunctions--Graem Bauer, Jack's brother, has a strong Napoleon complex competing for control against his deep-seated resentment for Jack, who was probably always WAY more popular, athletic, intelligent, etc. After all, who would you want to hang out with: A tall, dashing, risk-taking, crazy smart superhero, or his nebbish brother who's balding and has a bad attitude?

I thought so.

Jack's dad, meanwhile, is played by James Cromwell and brings with him so much bonus gravitas that your TV screen will practically crack against the weight of it. At first, you figure, "Well, if Graem is such a weasel, he must have got it from Daddy, so I bet Pops is a jerk too." Which he may very well be, but he's nowhere near as nasty as either of his offspring. You'll recall Jack trying to suffocate Graem with one of his patented creative torture techniques last week--stuffing a plastic bag over Graem's head until he was near death.

This week, Graem returns the favor and takes Dad and Jack hostage. They get marched outside with their hands tied up, and we see Graem and his thugs have offed an entire CTU response team. Jack and Dad are loaded into a van, where we can only presume that the resentful Graem has ordered them to be driven off and murdered. Graem seems to have no significant problem with this.

Moral of this episode: Always treat your kids right, even the wormy balding ones. You never know when you'll be marched into a van and taken to a ditch to be shot in the back of the head.

iTunes Links

24 - Series
24 - Season 6
"11:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M."