TVSquad

(S08E09) Now the clock is really ticking.

Farhad's crew raised the stakes for the season with a plan to set off a radiological bomb in New York. And things finally erupted in a big way with the Dana/Kevin/Cole storyline. Jack got Renee out of the hot seat, but it cost him his plane ride back to his family (again).

The moral of this episode? You just can't trust anyone these days.

Josef stabbed his daddy in the back by stealing the nuclear rods, only to get gunned down by Farhad and friends. Looking to make a big bloody statement, Farhad's goons double-crossed their boss with a plot to use the rods as a weapon. And Weiss set Renee up to take the fall for the mission's failure (I never trusted that guy). Let's talk about that last development.

(S08E08) "Hey! Why you gotta focus on the negative?" - Kevin to Dana/Jenny

He was stabbed, beaten, electro-shocked and strung up like a side of beef, but that didn't stop Jack from busting out of the basement of doom with relative ease. Luckily for Jack, it seemed like Bazhaev's goons forgot to bind his legs. (Why do bad guys always forget to bind the legs?) Our hero only had to employ some fancy footwork to crack his torturer's neck and escape.

Then, like some tiny feral jungle creature, Jack pounced on another goon, bit him on the neck and drained him of his blood!

OK, maybe that last part happened a little differently, but seeing skinny little Jack jump that chubby baddie was like watching a vampire bat attacking a cow. It was the funniest moment of the season so far.

(S08E07) I'm going to whine a lot about this episode, so that's just a little warning to anyone absolutely loving this season of '24.' But first, let's talk about the great scene where Renee goes ballistic, stabs Vladimir, then accidentally stabs Jack. Then Jack takes the knife out and hurls it at the other guy coming in the door. Awesome!

Ok, now for the bad stuff. For one thing, I thought we were going to get to see Renee kick some major butt this season. So far, she's just a wimpy female with a big fat vengeance chip on her shoulder who still gets knocked around by the bad guys (excepting that awesome scene noted above). Come on, Renee! I want a female Jack Bauer, not some sniveling sap!

(S08E06) "If you're talking about what I think you're talking about, we don't do that anymore." - Hastings to Jack, on using unsavory methods with the Russians

Oh, snap. The Russians may have bought Renee's cover, but that doesn't mean she's out of danger. Just the opposite, especially given the fact that she's a loose cannon and doesn't seem to care whether she lives or dies at this point. Or maybe that's not necessarily true.

It's not you, Jack. It's me ... or maybe it's you. Hey, they brought it up by putting Jack in front of a Senate subcommittee in the first place for his methodology, and then partnering him with an FBI agent who's not comfortable with his aggressive tactics. It's just interesting to me as a long-time faithful that I find myself viewing Jack differently, too. Maybe it's because he skipped a year, but he just comes across as more extreme to me than in the past. But, as I said, it could be me. Maybe Jack is the picture of consistency and I've changed.

When Jack asks for something, if there's any resistance he immediately screams "Now!" or repeats the question in a roar. When Renee or anyone second guesses any of his suggestions he tells them that they're out of options and that they don't have time to do anything but his idea. Don't get me wrong, this season is one of the most exciting yet, but you have to wonder. Do we really need someone like Jack Bauer running around torturing people and sending innocent girls to their deaths to bring in the bad guy? Is it worth it?

In mid-April, we reported that the '24' producers were studying potential story lines for the seventh season of the FOX hit series, one featuring Quebec's separatists. About two weeks later, it was confirmed that Jack would go through his next action-packed awful day in a different scenery. In early July, we learned that writers had planned to have the action set in Africa and the U.S. but that the network sent them back to the drawing board because that story line would be too expensive. Eventually, official spoilers started to leak and FOX announced the names of actors joining the show (more after the jump).

But yesterday, FOX sent out a press release so juicy that it had some people pinch themselves to make sure they weren't dreaming!

Spoilers after the jump!

Supernatural put the brakes on the big story arc this week to deliver a good ol' monster of the week episode. That was a little disappointing after "Hunted" set up the major story for the rest of the season, but it had its good points too. A lot of issues were resolved at the end of that last episode and that brought back a sense of spirit and adventure that we haven't seen from the Winchester boys for a while.

We did get a couple references to the ongoing story. Sam was talking to Ellen about tracking down Ava and later there was drunken Sam making Dean promise to take him out if he turns evil. That was a strange scene. The story of it was good, but the performance was lacking. Jared Padalecki is usually great in those scenes, but drunk Sam didn't really work. When he first started talking I thought that he had been posessed by Margaret. I didn't get that he was supposed to be drunk until Dean told us. I like the revelation that Sam thinks if he saves enough people that he can change his destiny, but I don't think we needed him to be drunk to reveal it.