In typical 24 fashion, as the clock ticks into the morning hours we find ourselves no closer to stopping the days events. I say “we” as if the audience are a vital element in finding the nuclear rods that are about to cause mass destruction in New York. Almost as though we’re overseeing the investigation, ready with our cheers of approval for a job well done and with daggers sharpened for just about anyone who isn’t Jack Bauer.  Mr Farhad Hassan, a dagger to you sir. As it happens we needn’t bother with any sharp objects for Farhad, when his own stupidity is more than useful in speeding up his own demise.

He already has a track record of running away like it’s the last 30 metres of an egg and spoon race whenever the pressure is on. After the failed assassination attempt on his brother, shortly after stabbing a police officer, he ran from the wreckage. Minutes after realising he was no longer in control of today’s events, he clubbed a terrorist with a pipe and seconds after being told to stay still his running days are brought to an end after he is shot in the back while trying to dash from the eyes of pursuers. All this means is that he is now unable to give CTU conformation of the terrorists he was working with.

Bauer is now heading the operation thanks to the deal he made with Hastings for the charges against Renee to be dropped. His plan to draw the terrorists out, is to feed the news false information that the injuries Farhad sustained are not life threatening, in the hope that one of them will come to finish the job. He even gives out the location of the hospital he will be staying in. An iphone application to check on his heart rate is also available but the Facebook mini game “Farhad Hospital Check Up” had to be scrapped because of licensing issues.

If there is anything I have learned about fictional terrorists over the years, it is that they are not subtle. Remember how in the Godfather, they tried to off Vito Corleone while he was in the hospital? Quietly, in the shadows. Not this terrorist group, no thank you. Leave that sneaky creep, creep shadow business to the Italians. To ensure Farhad wont talk, a young recruit is sent with a bomb strapped to his chest to make sure he and the rest of the patients are blown into tiny little pieces.

The young suicide bomber is halted by Chloe, who is able to disable the bomb remotely. Did anyone understand how that was done by the way? Gunshots to the lifeless corpse alongside a perfectly healthy heart rate monitor brings about the realisation that he has been duped. Visibly terrified throughout, he shows his commitment to the cause by evading capture and barricading himself in a chamber of some sort inside the hospital, awaiting instructions on how to set the bomb off manually.

In other, non bomb related news, Cole and Dana have dumped the bodies from last weeks episode about 3 foot deep in a swamp and Presidents Taylor and Hassan have a stand off that only emphases my disappointment at seeing Taylor marginalised so far.

The next hour should be tension filled with Jack and company trying to break into the chamber and stop the bomb from being set off.
Jack Bauer fact for week 6: Los Angeles will never name a street after Jack Bauer because no one will ever cross it.