24: Renee Goes Off

So I guess Renee and Vladimir won't be getting back together after all.

Vlad was quite the sweet talker. What woman could resist such sweet nothings as, "Just because I like your face doesn't mean I have to put up with your crap"? But Neal Sedaka was wrong. Breaking up isn't that hard to do, at least when there's a knife handy.

After he brutally struck her, Renee punctuated her resistance and punctured Vlad's hopes of a reconciliation with multiple stab wounds that left him dead, Renee distraught, and the mission in jeopardy. And for good measure, she gave Jack one in the gut too. Then Jack went all Gangs of New York/ Bill the Butcher, pulled the knife out, and dispatched one of Vladdy's baddies with a well-placed cutlery-throw to the throat.

Up until that sequence I was thinking about what a low-key episode last night's 24 appeared to be. No car chases, no explosions, and more of an interior focus as we explored the motivations and paranoia of Bazhaev and President Hassan. We haven't seen this many father-son, brother-brother male psychodramas since The Jacksons Victory Tour in 1984.

Bazhaev sent out more mixed messages than a CTU encryption specialist. He offed his own son, sought a proper church burial (even if it was in the backyard), and told the Russian Orthodox priest that, "This boy is with the angels." Then he confided in his other son, Josef—who had gone to heroic lengths to try and save Oleg by entering the U.S. healthcare system and seeking treatment for the preexisting condition of acute radiation poisoning—that he shot Oleg because he loved him and that this was all done for Josef's future.

Imagine trying to process this as you sit slumped on the floor, surrounded by cases of Pacifico and Jagermeister, in a stockroom: "I want you to understand that everything I have done, I have done for you…There was no other way…not when you're dealing with nuclear materials." Wow, gee thanks, Pops. Pragmatism and self-righteousness is quite the volatile mix, and I look forward to Jack's inevitable collision with Bazhaev, who seems infinitely capable of rationalizing his most extreme actions.

Having survived an assassination attempt at least partly engineered by his brother, what, all of three hours ago, Hassan has unleashed his attack dogs and is clamping down on anyone he considers potentially disloyal. He ordered families rounded up back home and is in the process of rapidly thinning his nattily dressed entourage by ordering that members of his own staff be taken into custody. And now he's on a collision course with his daughter Kayla, who is involved with the just arrested Tarin.

So because I was lulled into a kind of complacency, Renee's murderous turn came as a genuine shock. The nature of 24 is such that, as a viewer, it's easy to grow accustomed, and maybe a bit resigned, to quick resolutions of problems—like Jack getting tortured and then within 20 minutes being able to overcome his injuries and take out a squadron of bad guys. Or, as I had half-expected, that Renee had managed to regain her emotional balance.

Apparently not. I've raised this point before and I have to bring it up again. Will 24 address how Renee went from the trauma of her Russian undercover work from six years ago and returned to the FBI as a seemingly high-functioning agent, only to become a shattered woman all over again after last season's events?

I know, patience, patience. But this is 24. And the clock is always ticking.