Well, a double header this past Monday. Don't know if they (the mysterious "they") knew that episode 9 was a little weak and wanted to buttress it or if they're preparing for a break in the run. (If I remember right there's a gap of a few weeks each season during some kind of playoffs or maybe I don't remember right. This is the first season I've watched as it aired except for the very first episode ever and I was so disappointed that they clearly lied about it being a show in real time that I didn't watch any more.)
Episode 8 was the kind of twisty, double-crossing, outscheming hour that's always worthwhile. The follow-up mostly coasted as it seemed to set up the Next Big Surprise. Just what are the Russians up to? When will Jack learn about his dad? (Well the preview answered the latter.) Did good ole Dad mastermind what the Russians are up to? Did he mastermind last season? Maybe he's masterminded all six seasons in an attempt to teach his son that the world is a tough place. Hey, it'd be more convincing than the "save my company" stuff he keeps spouting.
There's still too much déjà vu. Another plot point is left open because somebody doesn't just punch Jack and say "You HAVE to listen" - first Curtis did that and now Marilyn. Another attempt to remove a Palmer president (Season Two) and possibly even by assassination (Season One). Of course by now Wayne has turned out to be the least convincing president in screen history and most of us want him gone even if we otherwise agree with him. In any case this plot thread needs to be resolved really fast but looks like it's going to drag out several more episodes. I'm expecting the Ally McBeal Guy (though I never saw that show; mainly remember him from Ghostbusters II) to have a crisis of conscience and decide he really can't kill a president. With any luck this will take about five minutes but we probably won't be lucky.
Then we have another CTU office person sent out to the field, this time Milo. Buchanan claims the team may need a tech to read a hard drive (like 80% of their office couldn't do that) but what he really meant was "We need another secondary character to endanger." Unlike Edgar, though, nobody will care what happens to Milo. Morris was something else though he seemed to cave pretty quickly. Yeah yeah, being tortured with a power drill can't be pleasant but c'mon would it really have caused a trained counter-terrorist agent--even office staff--to agree to murder tens of thousands of people? Heck, less than an hour later he's out and about with seemingly no serious harm. Maybe he's another traitor; that's almost a CTU hiring requirement.
It's also interesting that Fayed could make a phone call somewhere out in the greater LA area and a few minutes later a recording is being analyzed by CTU but Jack's dad makes a call from within CTU saying "kill him" and nobody notices. Of course CTU doesn't have a problem letting all these unauthorized people walk around what surely is a top secret facility without the slightest supervision. Didn't they learn anything from the crazed woman in Season Three? And even if you want to think that the call was somehow encrypted (like Fayed wouldn't have done that either) then the call a bit later threatening Marilyn couldn't have been.
Interesting that when Jack talks with his dad he says there are four bombs still loose. Writing/editing error or is he suspicious of dad and trying to arrange a trap?