24

Tonight's episode was fairly slow moving and mainly set up things for the upcoming episodes. We got revelations about Jack's family, however.

The episode begins where the last one left off with the mushroom cloud rising north of LA. The president's people estimate that 12000 people have died as one square mile of Valencia has been destroyed. The good news is that the fallout cloud is moving away from the city.

Jack helps save the pilot of a chopper which crashed onto a rooftop when it was hit by the shockwave. He calls Col. McQueen and tells him to send a car, he takes back the business about quitting. BTY, it seems that the power grid and every cell phone in LA has been hardened against EMP since none of them are affected.

Evil Terrorist Mastermind (tm) has escaped with his other nuclear bombs and calls up his amoral international arms merchant to get a new nuclear arms engineer to arm his other bombs, the one that President Chapell let go having been vaporized. The arms merchant agrees to find someone who can do the job in between arguing with his skanky gold-digger girlfriend.

Dr. Bashier tells the boys at CTU that they had been trying to get some nukes from a former general in the Red Army, but nothing had come of it. Al Bundy figures out that Jack's father's company had done business with the general and that their contact had been Jack's old man.

Jack calls his brother to find out where the old man is and we get the first major revelation. Jack's brother Graham is the head of the Bluetooth Mafia from last season. He was the one pulling the strings on President Weasel.

Meanwhile at Gitmo, sorry, Palmdale the head of CAIR has agreed to be wired up. Anita Hill hates this. The idea of helping stop terrorists rather than helping put them on the streets to kill and kill and kill is revolting to her. The FBI roughs up the CAIR guy to give him street cred with the club jihad guys. It works and they let him into their circle.

Jack is able to get his SUV across town to his brother's house despite the most massive traffic jam in the history of the universe as everyone with two brain cells attempts to flee the fallout.

At brother's house we learn that Jack and his sister-in-law were an item before Jack met his wife and that sister-in-law may still be carrying a torch for Jack. We meet Jack's nephew and a seed is planted which may bloom into the boy being Jack's son.

Jack asks to speak to his brother in private so they go into his office. There Jack punches him out and starts to torture him for information. I think this family has issues.

In the previews we see the next major revelation. Jack Bauer's father is Zefram Cochrane, the inventor of warp drive. This explains how Jack is able to move from any place in the vicinity of LA to any other place in the vicinity of LA in the space of a commercial break.

Will Jack be able to beat the information out of his brother or will his brother's evil minions turn the tables on Jack and leave him twisting in the breeze?

Tune in next week. Same Bauer time, same Bauer channel.