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Season 8 of 24 is upon us and Jamie has the lowdown on the latest episode.

Let's do a rundown of some of the character so far.

Brian Hastings - The director of CTU New York. He seems to be very much a political creature in the mold of George Mason. He looked really slimy asking Ortiz to fudge his responses if there was an investigation.

One of the (many) implausibilities of 24 is that a higher authority would review the procedures of a subordinate one during an ongoing operation. Hastings' request may have been slimy, but given how little there was to go on, his approach wasn't unreasonable. (It was wrong, but we, the audience knew that because he disagreed with Chloe; but his premise was as reasonable and speculative as hers.) For an organization like CTU to be subject to instantaneous reviews is unreasonable and counterproductive. He differed from Mason only in that he admitted to Chloe that she was right!

Dana Walsh - If Hastings is Mason reincarnated, Dana appears to be Lyn McGill reincarnated. Like McGill she has a huge vulnerability in her personal life. McGil's sister was a junkie. That led to his mugging and eventual death in an attack on CTU in season 5. Dana because of her past seems to be in a similar position. And while she has apparently now been caught in the act, I wonder if she still has a plan for turning the tables on Kevin. Or will her being compromised be the source of an attack on CTU New York?

And there's a general quesiton about CTU New York: In every of year of 24, (except for season 3) there was a traitor and/or attack on CTU. (In season 3, the traitors were really unercover good guys.) Last year there were two traitors in the FBI. Aside from Dana, who else is a mole in CTU? My guess is Arlo.

And how did Dana hide her past in order to get a clearance. We had the same thing with Kim Bauer who injured a policeman as she and her boyfriend avoided (a mistaken) arrest for murder in Season 2. How does a top secret organizaiton like CTU miss these obvious problems?

President Hassan - A noble (or apparently noble) but flawed character. It's interesting that President Taylor is putting pressure on him to go easy on his disloyal opposition. His position is untenable. He's way out in front of much of his country, but he needs to be firm. Liquidating opponents may not appeal to the West, but it might be the only way for him to survive. Still if he ends up torturing his UN ambassador on American soil (not really, it would be in the privacy of his consulate), I can't see how President Taylor will continue to stand by him.

Returning characters:
Chloe O'Brian - Bill Buchanan's immortal line still holds:

Chloe, we're in an active code. We don't have time for your personality disorder, you understand me?

Jack Bauer- OK he's back. We knew that would happen. But still his recovery has an air of "She turned me into a newt ..... I got better."

Kim Bauer - Still annoying; though her daughter is adorable.

President Taylor - She still hasn't grown on me. She's too idealistic. But her divorce from Henry makes sense. It was clear that he disapproved of her decision to allow Olivia to be arrested. Nice touch to make Ethan Kanin Secretary of State. He wouldn't be the first to be both chief of staff and Secretary of State. James Baker had both jobs. (I see that he was also Secretary of Defense in Season 6. So he was SecDef for Democrat Wayne Palmer and had the other two positions for Republican Allison Taylor.)

Renee Walker - There's a theme in 24 that there's a karmic payback for everything Jack does. Sure Jack saves the day, but everyone around him dies. Several characters say this to Jack's face. Last season it was Larry Moss's turn. He added something else:

Renee will not end up like you.

Moss was defending his (ex-)girlfriend. But in Season 8, it picks up and Renee is just like Jack. Remeber the disheveled Jack at the beginning of Season 2? That's Renee now. She lost her (ex-)boyfriend. She got some measure of revenge, but lost her job for getting it. Last year, every step of the way until the end, Renee fought being like Jack. When someone she had guaranteed protection too dies, Renee blamed Jack. When she had to hold a woman and her baby hostage she detested the job. But now Renee is Jack. She has ended up like him.

Actually she's worse than him. Jack may not be able to control everything, but under Vlad's command, Renee is powerless. Even when Marwan Habib had him shackled to the wall, Jack was not powerless.

One thing about Renee's character that doesn't quite make sense is that last year she was reluctant to adopt Jack's methods. Now we learn that before last year she was undercover with the Russian mob. In order to survive it's inconceiveable that she did everything by the book when she was undercover. This new backstory undermines her operational innocence last year.

We're only a quarter way through season 8 and it is shaping up very well. Here's a nice essay on 24's storytelling. And in these two posts Gregg Easterbrook has fun with some of 24's implausibilities.