Season 6; Hour Eleven (4:00PM - 5:00PM)

Air Date: 26 Feb 2007
Reviewer: J

Hour Eleven; The Return of Logan.

Only it wasn’t nearly that exciting. We pick up with Gredenko being evil at some airplane area and seething about how the Arabs and the West will destroy each other. I’m not really sure that’s true. In fact, I think it’s a lot more likely that if the “Arabs and the West” truly went to war, there’d be something of a scorched Earth policy in place akin to what I described a few reviews back. That is, we’d scorch their Earth. But that’s neither here nor there. Gredenko is a Russian villain straight out of 1985. I’m bored with him.

What we do know is that Logan is back in the mix. He’s confined to his retreat in “Hidden Valley” California, the place we referred to last season as “Camp David Palmer.” It’s almost jarring to see the images from the retreat and the white, split-rail fence and the stables where Martha hid last year from Aaron. Speaking of Aaron, I hope he’s not still assigned to this post. And on the subject of Aaron, if it came out how Logan had planned to have Aaron killed, I wonder how eager the current Secret Service men will be to throw themselves in front of bullets for the deposed President. All questions that will have to be answered another time or, more likely, never.

We learn that the President somehow brokered a deal where he was never publicly exposed as the traitor and murderer that he kind of was. The public doesn’t know that he was involved with terrorists or the nerve gas or any of that. Which makes me wonder how his removal from office was explained. I did like how Jack learned about this and was more than a little bit pissed off… what’s neat is that because we don’t see much of what goes on between seasons, we’re learning the current situations just as Jack is.

At Camp David Palmer, Jack and Logan have an interesting exchange, during which I remembered how much I loved having Greg Itzin’s acting on the show. He really makes Logan Logan and I was enjoying him immediately, even if the need for him on this season is kind of contrived.

I enjoyed Jack smirking at Logan when Logan said he just wanted to help them with their investigation along with his “I’m listening.” I also like that they’re doing their best to tie this season into last season. Graem, Gredenko, Logan, Phillip Bauer… all supposedly connected to last season’s plot. Graem and Logan are really the bridge to it and the writers are doing a good job of cobbling it together as they go. Because you know they are.

Logan explains that the Russian Consul General, a Russky named Markov, is connected to Gredenko and that Logan can exploit him because of his involvement in the conspiracy last season. Logan didn’t give him up so he expects to use this against Makov. Frankly, to save his own ass, I have a hard time imagining Logan not giving people up freely, but then I harken back to last year when Charles was ready to commit suicide in order to protect Graem and others in the Bluetooth Gang. So maybe Charles is indeed deeper than the nearest puddle.

Jack doesn’t like where this is headed but agrees to talk to Wayne about things. Wayne has to grant the temporary furlough for Logan and obviously has some reservations about doing so. The phone exchange between Logan and Wayne was one of the chill moments of the season, I thought. Logan reminds Wayne – and all of us – about two seasons ago when David Palmer came to the bunker to help out the floundering Logan. And Wayne points out that he repaid that help by having David killed. Logan claims to only want to help the situation and to help Wayne’s Presidency much like David helped his. This rings bit hollow to Wayne (and everyone else with a heart and brain) but Wayne grants the brief release. Which makes me wonder who the hell agree to this sequestering of Logan in the first place. It couldn’t possibly be Wayne, who must have wanted Logan in a jail cell.

In our current round-and-round-we-go plot, Morris is still fighting the urge to get hammered at work. Morris, I feel you, man. Chloe does some snooping and calls his AA sponsor, who turns out to be the wrong one, she storms in on Morris taking a deuce in the mens’s room…blah blah blah. Morris manages to defend himself but then dumps out his whiskey bottle. So he was hitting the bottle? He wasn’t? He was about to? I can’t quite tell. What we can tell is that Nadia thinks Morris is a liability but Bill agrees to keep Morris on his tasks – for now. After all, Nadia has restrictions because she’s got a middle eastern background, Milo has a hole in his arm and Chloe is…well, Chloe. So who the hell else is going to do Morris’ tasks? One of these extras milling around?

At the bunker, the WASPY Carson (“Bruce” Carson, according to the Fox Website) is apparently also good at assembling bombs. What is he, exactly? A policy advisor who is a quick stuffy at building bombs out of tape recorders and highlighters? I’d say he’s more MacGuyver than policy wonk. Or maybe he’s both. Maybe we should put Carson on a ballot. In addition to his practical skills, he’s got helmet hair and is dashingly, Duke-lacrosse-team handsome. Heh.

Tom Lennox is chained to a pole in a rather compromised position for a chief of staff. Wayne keeps asking about Lennox’s whereabouts and Reed keeps running interference. You’d think this would eventually alert someone that there’s an issue. Like, oh, I don’t know, the Secret Service agent whom Tom called and said he HAD to see him. I mean, I know that missive was cancelled but still.

Carson, cold-blooded Washington insider that he is, wants to kill Lennox and make it look like a suicide. Reed defends Lennox and tries to persuade Carson not to do this since he thinks they can get Lennox to come around once the VP is in power. Wait, did someone hit Reed in the head with a Maglite, too? What does Tom have to do to prove he’s going to rat them out? Shit, Reed, you can’t really still be hoping for a reference, can you?

Carson and Reed talk some more about being patriots throughout this episode. Wait, they play for the New England Patriots? I’m not sure tom Brady would approve of this President-killing nonsense. Wait, he means the other kind of patriots. The kinds that will kill the US President in a demonstration of their patriotism. Oh, those kinds.

Reed is having clear hangups about killing the President and possibly killing Tom, which means to me that he’s not long for this world. But we’ll see. He does regain his resolve enough to get into the press briefing room and plant the tape recorder bomb in the podium. I did like Tom’s slight look of “What the hell’s he doing there?” as he entered the room and saw Reed behind the podium looking shifty. Naturally, the Secret Service looked into this. Only they didn’t.

Poor Assad, who’s being set up to take the blame for all of this and just a few hours ago was operating quietly at his house in L.A., has a nice moment with Wayne where the two appear to be forming a bond. Of course they are. Because one of them’s about to die.

This episode was notable for the limited amount of Jack it contained. After his initial convo with Logan and then Wayne, Jack spent the rest of the hour at Camp David Palmer getting into a sharp suit so he could enter the Russian Consulate disguised as one of Logan’s Secret Service agents. I guess they happened to have a 38 Short suit with 26 inch pants on hand.

Oh, and the consulate? Really, Jack? You really think that’s the best idea? When he pitched the plan to Bill, Bill understated that they “don’t have jurisdiction there.” Um, yeah, Bill, if there’s one person who knows that I think it’s Jack. As always, this doesn’t deter Jack. And why would it? How much worse could a Russian prison be from a Chinese prison?

While Logan’s getting ready in his own room, he looks at a picture of him and Martha longingly. Oh, jesus, just the vision of Martha is making me shudder. I hope she’s off making sweet love to Aaron somewhere. Somewhere far away.

Back at the bunker, we have the climactic scene of the hour. Wayne demonstrates for us why he’s not worried about Tom – he thinks Tom’s just being petulant in his disagreement with the President’s policies which is actually kind of accurate. Reed assures him Tom will be there for the speech, although I’m not sure why Wayne is so hell-bent on this. Does Tom normally blow Wayne kisses while Wayne’s on the air to make him feel loved? Does he remind Wayne to smile and angle his head just right so the light glints off it in a Presidential way?

Assad steps up to the podium to give it a whirl and Reed slips out and punches in the activation code to a PDA that Carson rigged up for him. Assad, ever-alert, notes the explosive liquid running down the podium and sees the blinking tape recorder. He yells “bomb!” just before it goes off but wouldn’t it have been funny if it was just a regular tape recorder? Everyone would have freaked for nothing. But it’s not a regular tape recorder. It’s one that you probably cannot get at Staples. It explodes and it looks like there are casualties. Sure enough, agents are down and so is Assad. In fact, so it the President, whom we learn is code-named “Citadel.” He’s alive, but conscious? Not so much.

If you’re waiting for a final set of split-screens and a last scene, you’re out of luck. We end on Wayne being down and knowing this probably means VP Daniels will take office, possibly just as he’s landing in D.C. (Unless he’s on one of those Keeler-length flights.)

Will Daniels wonder where Tom is? Will Reed turn himself in? Will Jack be involved in the death of another consul general? Will he use Agent Bern on this mission since Bern has experience with consul raids? Will Carson’s hair move?

We’ll find out, maybe, next week.