More boring back story with Starbuck and her ex-boyfriend……oh, no, I’ve already got drool on myself. If only she was “Starbuck”, he’d be flat on the ground by now. The plot of this side story is quite simple – squeeze the girl for inside info from CTU. Wow, like that’s never been done before.

Oh yea, what’s with the name “Arlo”? I just chuckle every time I hear it :p

Seems like Mr. Prez likes to control people with fear; he also has his first spat with MPAT. Round two is with his wife; do we care? No.

The episode finally gets to the only relevant bit – Texas Chainsaw Walker gets to meet Vlad. It seems these bad guys have PhD’s in reverse psychology. This is how it works:

(1) “Hey, you’re a rat I’m going to shoot you”. “Noooo please don’t shoot” = DEAD!

(2) “Hey, you’re a rat I’m going to shoot you”. “Oooh, please shoot me. Shoot MEEEEEEEEE, I have no reason to live or anyone to go to…so KILLLLL MEEEEEEEE”. “Oh, you’re cool. You’re back in!”

…and that’s how Renee gets back in. I think Jack let out a brick right there in the car.

You will see some familiar faces this season – starting with the game show host from “Slumdog Millionaire”; this is certainly a step up for him and to have the honour of battling it out with MPAT (Madam President Allison Taylor) is quite something I guess. Next up is Starbuck, the hottie from Battlestar Gallactica – I guess it’s one of the perks of working at CTU; you’re life may be at risk but at least you’ll have something nice to stare at while you’re dying, well, that’s if the CTU blows up or something. That’s the draw back of field work…but is it?

Not if you’re Jack, as HAW (Hot Agent Walker) is back and can I say “Hot Damn”, her hair looks incredible :p Freddie Prinze is playing the role of “head of field ops” and is a pretty good one at that. Chloe is also back of course, minus her rather annoying ladies-shoe-sniffing’ husband.

Whilst Jack’s reputation precedes him – nothing has really changed in 24-land. CTU is still being run by some dumb schmuck, and they are focussing on the *wrong person* yet again. But then again, if they ever just *listened* to an iota of what Jack was on about, the show would be called “12″ or maybe “6″ :p That would be bad for business so there it is.

Another delightful character is the brother of President Hussan – Mr. Toupee – cause he has such a bad hair doo, it’s rather amusing. The highlight of the show so far though, at least for me, has been HAW. She’s back, and she’s like Jack when he was in Season 3. She’s hopped up on drugs, just loves torturing people, and making bad guys cry.

Jack has gotten rather soft since season Season 7, and I think she might make him cry in episode 5. So, do I prefer the “I’m going down a dark ally” HAW, or the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” HAW? Not sure tbh, she’s still hot but there is an odd glint of “crazy chick” in her eyes now…it’s definitely got Jack worried and maybe just a wee bit hot for her too? Ah, only time will tell I guess.

I would highly recommend following Eddie @ TheBauer, once you see each episode for his brilliant take on affairs in 24-land. Most of the names above (apart from Mr. Toupee) were originally coined by him.