As ticked off as I was last week that Renee “Red Hot” Walker was killed off, an interview that Annie Wersching gave to TV Guide gave me hope for the rest of this season.

SPOILER ALERT, don’t read if you don’t wanna know anything at all – though this spoilerism is more of a general nature and I don’t think will come as a tremendous surprise to anyone.

This was the key: They knew before the season started that she was going to be killed off, and shared the info with her.

One thing the producers knew was that Jack and Renee were eventually going to get together, then he was going to lose her, and that would be the impetus for him to go all kinds of crazy to the point where he’s just covered in blood.

As a long-time fan of 24 and a not-so-big fan of the last few seasons, this makes me happy.

I’ve said before that I’m not really a violent person. I’m kind of a pacifist, even. But when it comes to my action shows and movies, the more blood and gore and guts the better. Maybe that’s how I express that side of my human-ness: Virtually.

Anyhow, knowing that Jack’s gonna go crazy and kill a whole bunch of people will even make me start putting wagers in the weekly 24 Kill Counter at Blogs4Bauer.

Speaking of, we’ll be live-blogging there tonight, as usual. Stop by!

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Yes, terrible, awful things happened tonight on 24. If you haven’t seen it yet, be advised that this post is FULL OF SPOILERS!! STOP NOW IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT YET!.

The Happily Ever After we all wanted...

Another heart-breaker people! I haven’t been that upset over someone’s death on 24 since Tony. But you know what? Thank god 24 has some balls once again. I was happy to have Tony back last season, for my own selfish hormonal reasons, but they just hacked at his character. The writers keep a beloved character around too long, and they degrade exponentially. The only exception being Jack and Chloe, in my opinion. Remember how awesome Nina Meyers was, until she wasn’t? Martha Logan was great, until she really, crazily wasn’t. I would rather Renee go out in a way that gives me the vengeful, driven Jack that I love.

Does Jack deserve that kind of heartache? No one does, really, but this show is based on despair. I spent season one hoping that Jack would prevail, only to be devastated by watching his wife, the mother of his child, die in his arms. Wouldn’t a happy ending be an affront to that premise? Besides, who says romantic love is the only happy ending? Jack finally has a good relationship with his daughter Kim, and an adorable grand daughter, Teri’s namesake, to bring him joy. Why isn’t that enough, at least for now?

I admit my gooey heart was rooting for a happy Jack and Renee ending, but I give the writers mad props for being brave again. Offing Hassan last week, and wrenching Jack’s heart this week, gives me some serious drama and revenge to look forward to, and that excites me.

Plus, the extra added bonus of Chloe finally, finally! getting to run CTU, as it should be.

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OK, look. One of the things that was great about 24, once upon a time, was its willingness to kill off important people. I can appreciate and respect that about a show.

OH, BY THE WAY, THERE ARE SPOILERS HERE, SO DON’T FRAKKIN’ READ IF YOU DON’T WANNA KNOW.

But it’s been some years since 24 was that fearless. And last season’s return of Zombie Tony, only to make him bad, good, bad, good and then just psycho again, that really ticked me off. Better to have given him a silent clock originally and kept him dead.

But tonight’s death of Renee really pissed me off. No two ways about it.

This is, as we know, the last season. Jack deserves a wee bit of happiness, and Renee and Chloe were the only two others worth anything on the show this season. Hastings had redeemed himself, but still, he was a shrimper.

I’m so ticked off right now, I know I’m not expressing it well. In some ways, tonight’s episode was awesome. It showed a fearlessness rarely seen in network television. But Renee was NOT the person to kill off.

Renee was the finest character to join 24 in years.

RIP, Renee Walker. Jack’s gonna make sure your death wasn’t in vain, and that’s the only good thing that could come of this. Jack’s gotta rack up a body count, and that’s never a bad thing. You know, for those of us safe on our sofas, watching.

I only wish that the silent clock were subterfuge this time around.

(P.S.: Chloe in charge of CTU? Frak yeah!)

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OK, let me start by saying that the entirety of Monday night’s episode was about as far from Awesometastic as you can get.

In fact, I almost fell asleep a couple of times. Or would have, anyway, if I hadn’t been liveblogging.

But that 30 seconds or so — you know what I’m talking about — were among the best 30 seconds in the history of this storied show.

Let’s recap, shall we?

Renee stabs the crap out of Leoben Vlad, ’till he’s dead and bloody on the floor. Jack comes in, Renee stabs him in the gut.

Oops.

Jack slumps to the ground.

Suddenly, a bad guy bursts in! Without missing a beat, Jack slides the knife out of his gut and flings it across the room as only Jack Bauer can, stabbing the bad guy in the throat. I think he got pinned against the wall, even.

But wait, there’s more.

Jack and Renee leave the room, whereupon Jack shoots two more bad guys — to death! By the way, he’s bleeding a lot.

They hear other bad guys coming (these happen to be a totally different set of bad guys who were coming to kill the first set of bad guys), so Renee hides in a closet or really huge vent of some sort next to the shower, while Jack gives himself up so he can go undercover and get the nuclear rods.

Did I mention that Jack has a huge blood stain on his shirt that’s still growing when he does this?

I mean, come ON. If that short stretch didn’t energize you and make you fist pump and shout, “YEAH!” then you’re not really a fan of 24.

A few other notes:
• Renee is awesome, but her head is totally where Jack’s was in Season 2. Remember how he was going to fly the live nuke over the desert until George Mason, dying from radiation poisoning, insisted on sacrificing himself instead, seeing as he was gonna die anyway? Yep, just that messed up. There’s hope for the girl, though. I mean, look at Jack now … oh, nevermind.
• Dana Walsh is an idiot.
• Her boyfriend is a bigger idiot.
• Her boyfriend’s friend is the biggest idiot. I mean, REALLY. And who didn’t see it coming that he was going to beat the crap out of the cop with that baseball bat?
• Really, Dumber and Dumbest? You couldn’t just steal money without trashing the evidence cage like you were a pair of monkeys?
• Oh, Dana, maybe if you weren’t so consumed with the grand theft you’re helping to orchestrate (by the way, that was a rather fast turnaround, too bad the morons couldn’t even read a simple four-digit number), someone would have noticed people going in through sewer pipes and stuff, and maybe would know where Jack is. Chloe’s pissed. You don’t want to piss her off. Really. Remember Season 5 when she Tased that guy in the bar just because he was annoying? Twice?
• Arlo, could you be a little less obvious that you have the hots for Dana? I mean, you’re right to be suspicious and all, but that will be little consolation when you’re sent to HR. CTU does not condone sexual harassment. Moles and spies, sure. But sexual harassment? Step off.
• President Cankles – don’t gossip like a schoolgirl about major national security issues. It would be one thing if it were your right-hand-man who was spilling state secrets to the ambassador, while telling him it’s for the Prime Minister’s ears only. But YOU ARE THE PRESIDENT. Mmmkay?
• President Hairbib – please, for the love of all that’s holy, get a haircut. It’s very distracting.

Yeah, that’s it. Please, next week be more of the last little bit of this week and pretty much none of the first 56 minutes? kthanxbai.

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Honestly, it’s hard to get too excited about an episode that was so obviously filler and in which so little happened.

I mean, what does it say when Kiefer Sutherland headbutting a fashion designer on the streets of Manhattan in defense (kinda sorta) of Brooke Shields is almost more interesting than the Monday episode (for the definitive story on this, see Point / Counterpoint)? Especially when there are only three hours left in this day and we still have no idea what the frak is going on.

I guess that’s why I never really got around to a separate blog post on it this week and decided to wait for the weekly blog carnival, which I am always happy to host.

Basically, this is what happened this week:

Tony and Red Not forced the Token Muslim guy to pretend he’s a jihadist so they could blame their bad behavior on “those people.” Thing is, this guy was basically the least enthusiastic jihadist EVAR. Seriously, folks, if anyone in the intelligence (or intelligent) community actually believed this video, that this man who had nothing on his record and just got a bunch of money wired to him minutes before the video was shot (ahem, Chloe had that figured out before Jack even got to the guy’s house, for goodness sakes!) and was SO unenthusiastic about his jihad against the bad Americans, they need a vacation. Now. He couldn’t even convince his brother.

Olivia turned from hard-nosed Bitch to whiny little beyotch after nothing more than a car bomb. And, by the way, the car bomb was a little obvious, guys. Adam from The Jack Sack publicly called it before it happened and on 24, whenever someone is left alone in a car for “just a minute” while the other person goes about 200 yards away to “sign him out,”  you can pretty well bet the car’s going to blow up. And Olivia, SHUT UP! Stop whining girl, you got what you wanted. And it’s a pretty good bet you’ll be caught, even if this was independent of your shenanigans, so I hope you enjoy sullying your mother’s good name. (Kudos to Sprague Grayden, by the way, who is obviously a good actress, being able to play such an unlikeable character after being such a likeable character on Jericho!)

The first husband came home to the White House, the best villain in quite some time bit the dust, Jack apologized to Chloe for not telling her he had mad cow (frankly, Mary Lynn and Kiefer both did an excellent job on that scene) and at the liveblog we said “Mooooo” a lot.

And before Jonas went “boom,” he was renamed Robert Tippet and learned he would have to live next door to Steve Martin doing a mobster impression for the rest of his life. That’s when he put out the contract on his own life.

The main question left, besides WTF is wrong with Tony?, is who the last mole is. The fanbase is rooting for Janis Gold. Don’t disappoint us, Howard.

OK, so to the carnival:

Steve gives us his usually detailed recap, Season 7 – 24 – 4 am to 5 am, posted at Magic Lamp. It’s full of Web 2.0 jokes and made me giggle more than once.

Colin Timberlake gave us Underappreciated Actors: Michael Massee, posted at colintimberlake.com. Anyone who could plot to kidnap Jack’s wife, even at the bidding of Victor Drazen, has a titanium-coated pair.

King Tom wrote Of Patsies, Overachieving Hitmen and a Wasted Supervillain, posted at King Tom’s Kingdom, bemoaning the lack of action this season and the loss of a great Jonas-in-witness protection spinoff, which would have been 24‘s first spinoff in seven seasons.

And Adam gave us multiple posts to peruse at The Jack Sack, including his 4 a.m. to  a.m. Quick Review and his Star Trek Movie Review – love the art on that. You also have to check out his co-produced (with the folks at AlmeidaisGod[dot]com) – “Almeida” music video.

That concludes this edition of the Carnival of Bauer!!!. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Bauer!!! using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Want to host a future edition of the carnival? Say so in the comments and mention your favorite Jack Bauer kill.
Link to B4B’s Point/Counter

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One of my fellow Blogs4Bauer bloggers commented Monday night during the liveblog (had a sick toddler, so I couldn’t watch and blog and snuggle at the same time) that Chewbacca’s girlfriend is the cougar of this season, and I have to agree.

I do not consider that to be a liability, however. The cougar has given us years of laughter amidst the tears.

And, honestly, I consider Season 2 to be equal to Season 5 in awesomeness.

But Season 7 seems to be giving those two a run for their money.

Monday’s Hour of Bauer was quite excellent.

I SQUEEE!d when Agent Aaron Pierce (ret.) showed up. And I recognized his voice immediately. Did you know that Glenn Morshower is the only character other than Jack to appear in every single season so far? Yes, last season he had a poor cameo as Crazy Martha’s grocery shopper, but at least he was still there.

And as craptastic as Season 6 was, without Pierce’s trip to the farmer’s market, we never would have had the Great Kiwi Toss of Day 6, which, of course, immediatley preceded the Great Presidential Stabbing of Day 6, both of which were excellent.

I loved the President just being all, “Bill B., you’re in charge of my security,” and telling Ethan (mole or not? discuss) where to toss it when he tried to prevent her from visiting the Lord Marshal in the hospital.

Anyhow, I had to give Chewbacca’s girlfriend a tip of the hat when she agreed to meet up with her murderous liar of a boyfriend because it was the right thing to do. Agent Walker’s still got a way to go before she’s truly the female Jack, because she totally lets her emotions get in the way. When Jack stopped her from giving the girlfriend a signal to give them if she wanted out, her look could have killed … well, anyone except for Jack, of course. (Never bring a knife to a Jack fight!)

The other big deal of the night was the outing of Queens Boulevard as the mole. We think, at least. Because who knows what QB actually thinks he’s doing? He’s so obvious as the mole that it seems rather anticlimactic.

Very sneaky, though, sending out that warrant. Bastard. WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME! I wonder if he sent the other person into the server room, causing Janis to pull the digital key out, causing Chloe’s monitor to crap out? Oh, and Janis, don’t even try to out-geek Chloe. You can’t compete. Hell, you can’t even compete with Morris, and I hate Morris.

Other notes:
• Loved seeing Sprague Grayden show up. She’s late of my beloved Jericho, and is a very good actress. Kept waiting for Skeet Ulrich to show up, though.
• Did I mention how great it was to see Aaron Pierce?
• Chloe’s complete dissing of Larry and his networking skills (btw, what senior agent sets up the network?? huh? that made no sense, but it was great comic relief) was awesome. And when she tells him that she’d take Jack over him anytime, GO GIRL! I love Chloe almost as much as Pierce. And the first time we met Chloe, she annoyed the crap outta me. She sure grows on you. Like mold.

Make sure to head on over to Blogs4Bauer on Friday for the Carnival of Bauer!!! and on Monday for the weekly liveblog.

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Ladies and gentlemen, we have hit a new high point on 24: An almost-torture scene involving a baby.

Yes, our Jack-ette, Special Agent Renee Walker, handcuffed a mom to a table while her baby was crying and pretended like she was going to hurt the baby to get the dad to talk.

It cost her a little piece of her soul to do it, but she did what she needed to do. Jack’s been there. He can be her sponsor.

This season has some kick-ass women – President Alison Taylor is pretty hardcore, too, saying she can’t expect the citizens of the country she serves to make sacrifices if she’s not ready to make them herself.

She’s way tougher than Larry over at the FBI. Who, first off, is completely unable to be incognito (what the hell was he doing in the hallway while he was talking to Renee on the phone?), and second, is totally a wimp and gives away the keys to his SUV to Jack, who – naturally – totals it.

By the way – were those looters trying to rifle through Larry’s car while Jack’s off offing the bad guy? Is D.C. really that bad now? Just wondering.

All those little details are part of what makes 24 great.

To be sure, the scene was a little boring when Larry waxed poetic about how what makes us different and better was that we don’t resort to torture, blah blah blah, but Jack had the right response: “Not today.”

But the best line of the night was when President Taylor wondered aloud if she could trust Jack.

His response: “Ask around.”

Indeed.

Now, I know she’s a brand-new president and all, but you’d have thought there’d be some secret communique between presidents, some book or something, where it would have a photo of Jack Bauer, with the explanation: Believe everything this man says, he’s saved this nation six times already, dammit!

How could she be president and not know Jack Bauer? Yeesh. How the heck long was he traipsing around Africa and elsewhere?

Last of all, I totally love the insane storyline of Dubaku’s girlfriend and her disabled sister.

That’s exactly the kind of insanity that makes 24 so much fun. A friend over at Blogs4Bauer the other night when we liveblogged commented that this woman’s going to be the cougar of Season 7, and I think he’s absolutely right.

Look, the guy’s trying to keep control of his fictional African nation while launching terrorist attacks agains the United States and torturing the First Gentleman. He CAN’T come over for a lasagna dinner. Sorry. He’s just going to have to reschedule.

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I would recap yesterday’s episode of 24, but not much happened.

For some reason, Emerson (whose British accent was nowhere in evidence) punched out the Sangalese bodyguard instead of killing him. The ambassador and his wife almost gave their lives in their panic room until Mrs. Ambassador chickened out and opened the door.

Jack proved he watched Mr. Wizard as a child; Tony said about 6 words; Chloe and Bill were MIA; Larry got stern with Agent Walker; we learned Queens Boulevard is having an affair.

Whoop-de-doo.

Then things got interesting.

Walker got captured, Jack roughed her up (and all the fanboys enjoyed that very much) and then … Emerson orders Jack to kill her.

We know that Jack is very capable of either killing a good person if he has to (Ryan Chappelle, Season 3, and yes, I am fully aware some might not have considered him all that good, but he wasn’t a “bad” guy) or of making it look like he’s killed someone (Nina Meyers, Season 1, before anyone knew she was a bad guy).

So he does his Season 1 thing, sans bullet-proof vest, by warning Walker that she needed to trust him and she’d live. He shoots at her right next to her ear, probably bursting her eardrum (did you see the blood coming from her ear?), she falls over, probably incredibly amazed that she’s still alive.

But then Emerson orders them to bury her. I’m not sure if he just didn’t want the body to be discovered too early or if he just didn’t trust Jack or what.

So Tony and Jack start shoveling dirt onto Walker, who Jack had laid a plastic tarp over. Buried alive, under plastic. Jack shovels the first mound of dirt onto her face.

Silent clock.

See, that’s always meant the person is absolutely, irrevocably dead.

In fact, the reason so many fans believed Tony was still alive for a couple of years was because he never got a silent clock. Edgar – silent clock. Ryan Chappelle – silent clock. George Mason – silent clock. Even Milo got one, and no one could stand him.

But debate on the fact started immediately. While we were liveblogging over at Blogs4Bauer, some of our readers said they didn’t believe she was dead. The killcount is in question here, folks. It’s very important.

But on Twitter last night, and in conversations with friends, the only thing that’s clear is that her status is unclear. Adam from The Jack Sack told me people were saying you could hear her breathing over the silent clock. Does the breathing negate the silent clock?

I posit this: If Agent Renee Walker is still alive, the silent clock no longer means anything. And it degrades the dignity the show gave to its brave characters.

Sure, this is “just a TV show,” I know. Maybe my last paragraph seems a bit over the top. But the silent clock has come to mean something. I’m gonna be really ticked if it doesn’t anymore.

Just sayin’.

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