24

Spoiler alert. If you haven't seen the 2/17 broadcast yet, don't read any further.

All I can say is that it's about damned time that Jack took out Nina. Apparently, she became the go-to girl for international terrorism after she left CTU. I mean, were there no other terrorists for Jack to run into? Or maybe she was just the West Coast terrorist on duty?

Anyway, it was a bit of poetic justice for Jack to face Nina down on the very spot where she killed his wife. But now that she's gone, do we know why she was a terrorist? Clearly she wasn't ideological. What motivated her? Nina Myers we hardly knew ye.

What's with the drug addiction interrogation? What difference does a month make? As though Jack took an extra month for recreational use before it was "necessary" for him to be addicted. And then, Chappelle and the interrogator are willing to lie about the month in which Jack started using. So, why have the interrogation at all if you'll just sign off on the report so that Jack looks good? I had to laugh at this storyline.

Apparently, Chappelle's hypocrisy gets worse next episode; I saw a teaser with him interrogating Jack about his shooting Nina in self-defense. They made a point in this episode of showing her hand reaching--twitching?--toward the gun on the floor. But the security video in that room can't see Nina's hand because Jack is in the way. Come on, Chappelle-- Nina had just murdered the entire emergency room staff. If Jack was even in the same building as Nina, he was acting in self-defense. Besides, just moments before this you were ready to lie to make Jack's drug use seem more palatable. Ai-yi-yi!

Chase has a baby and Kim is upset. Good grief. "All My Children Search For Tomorrow As The World Turns."

Palmer sends out Sherry, his Mistress of the Political Dark Arts, to make the Milliken problem "go away." When she returns, he wants to hear the gory details. Excuse me, but that makes no sense at all.

So, overall, I thought it was a pretty good, pretty tense episode. :-)