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Jack is back; and so is '24'

I am fixing to do something very un-George Bush-like.
I admit I was wrong.

A week ago, I was sure that Jack Bauer was on his last legs, headed for either the cemetery or an old folk’s home.
Our country was no longer safe in his shaky hands.

That was last week.
Or should I say “last hour?�

This week, Jack was at his best, and “24� was its old action-packed self again.

If you saw the latest version of the movie “Cape Fear,� you remember the scene where the family is high-tailing it out of town and Robert DeNiro is hanging onto the bottom of the family van.
Well, this week Jack takes a similar ride, clutching onto the undercarriage of a trash truck being driven by the nasty terrorist, Fayed.

Once they get to the warehouse, Fayed and his terrorist buddies outnumber Jack at least 5 or 6 to 1.
But guess what?
There is only one man left standing (or sitting), and it is Jack Bauer.
After killing all of Fayed’s machine-gun toting friends, it comes down to Jack vs. Fayed -- mano y mano.
No contest.

Fayed gets in a few good punches, but when all his said and done, Fayed has a heavy chain wrapped around his neck and is hanging from a mechanical draw. The expression on his sorry face is the same one you see in those dead deer pictures that run on the outdoors page of our newspaper.

But before Fayed dies, he gets a sweet goodbye from Jack.
“Say hello to your brother,� Jack whispers in his ear and he tightens the chain just a little bit more.
That is the best line of the year, maybe of the last six years.
It’s like Eastwood as Dirty Harry saying “Make my day.�

And as a sidebar, the “West Wing� portion of “24� even got better this week.
The show ended last week with President Palmer looking like George W. Bush when he orders a nuke strike on the Mideast.
But this week Palmer turns into Doyle Brunson.
He was just bluffing.
It wasn’t a real nuke.
The bluff worked.
The Mideast country’s ambassador, doing everything he can to say his people’s ass from turning into a mushroom cloud, folds his hand and admits he has another nasty terrorist leader living in his country.

Thanks to Nadia (I still want Chloe back), the two terrorists’ conversation is decoded, and Jack gets to do this thing.

Then we get this really strange ending.
Just when Jack should be giving out “high fives� around Fayed’s corpse, he gets a phone call.
The Chinese are calling and it’s not to invite him to the 2008 Olympics.
They have his old girl friend, Audrey, and are threatening to kill her.

Now, this is the old “24� we know and love.

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