24, 8.12 - "3:00AM - 4:00AM"

WRITERS: Chip Johannessen & Patrick Harbinson
DIRECTOR: Nelson McCormick
GUEST CAST: Stephen Root, Nazneen Contractor, Mido Hamada, Necar Zadegan, T.J. Ramini, David Gianopoulos, Rizwan Manji, Hrach Titizian, Charlie Bodin, John T. Woods & Jenny Levine

[SPOILERS] It's been a long time coming, but the midway point of Day 8 finally gave us an hour's entertainment that was worth tuning in for, even though its three main inciting moments (a kidnapping, a blackmailing, a bombing) weren't exactly new turf for 24. Regardless, there was a pace and level of action that's been sorely lacking this year, and it even remembered to leave us with a genuinely thrilling climax.

To recap: Tarin (T.J Ramini) realized girlfriend Kayla (Nazneen Contractor) has become aware of his allegiance to the terrorists, so took her to an abandoned bank vault hideout, where his boss Samir (Mido Hamada) threatened to suffocate her in a live web-feed to President Hassan (Anil Kapoor), unless he gives them "File 33" (classified intel on America's anti-nuclear defenses); Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) and Cole (Freddie Prinze Jr) had 15-minutes to locate Kayla while Hassan tried to stall his daughter's kidnappers; and Dana (Katee Sackhoff) met with Wade's parol officer Prady (Stephen Root), who it seems has enough information on Wade's activities to implicate her in the recent robbery she was coerced into helping him pull off.

Like I said, there was nothing new about anything happening here, but after eight seasons on-air you can't seriously be watching 24 and expecting it to be fresh as a daisy. All you can hope for is a sense of urgency, a compelling throughline, some narrative logic, good performances, plenty of stunts, and mounting excitement. Then, possibly, the occasional surprise might escape amidst the noise and land a blow when you least expect it.

And that's what we got here, when Tarin had second thoughts about letting Kayla die, so sacrificed himself during their escape bid, enabling her to flee to CTU in a stolen car. The twist being that the whole escape was just a ruse; Kayla's getaway car had been equipped with an EMP device, Tarin's death had been faked, and the episode ended with Kayla pulling up outside CTU as its electro-magnetic pulse detonated -- knocking out CTU's technology and throwing Jack and the other field agents into the dark. We've seen CTU similarly disabled before (the bomb of season 2, the lethal gas attack of season 5, the armed takeover of season 6), but it's rare enough that it still managed to cause a stir, and for the first time this season I'm actually eager to see the repercussions next week... if conditioned to expect a disappointment.

Was this the best episode of Day 8? For me, yes. There was nothing especially innovative or jawdropping about it, but it sustained its momentum very well, it was great to see Jack in the thick of things, everyone at CTU gave intelligent support to the mission at hand (excusing Dana's time-outs with Prady), and a few surprises thrown in for good measure. The start of an upward trend? I hope so.

Asides

-- Where was Renee throughout all of this? Did she leave CTU last week? Did I miss or forget something?

-- Will the NSA take the slack until CTU get back on their feet? Whatever happened to Division?

21 MARCH 2010: SKY1 (HD), 9PM