5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

The reason for the extremely delayed post is because I have been systematically kicking the shit out of myself for the past couple of days in Puerto Rico. Injuries I inflicted on myself include the most severe sunburn ever, dropping a chair on my toe so the nail split in half and falling down stairs which resulted in a bruise literally the size of a slice of bread. I wish I was exaggerating. But it was a good time none the less.

Kiefer Sutherland in a suit. As soon as I stop drooling I can get on with this post.

Ok I'm good. Logan and Jack head over to the Russian consulate so they can chat it up with the guy who supposedly knows where Gredenko is. Logan convinces Jack that the best way for him to get the consulate to talk is if he goes in alone. Jack is not down with that, but Logan eventually convinces him. Logan seems to be sincere about just wanting to help the country, which is making me like him as a character. So he goes in, they chat it up and the consulate, Markov, tells him he doesn't know where Gredenko is. During this scene, I noticed that Logan has one blue eye and one brown eye. I think that's really cool. Logan comes back out and tells Jack that Markov is lying about not knowing where Gredenko is. Logan explains that he's done enough lying to know the signs, which is a vast understatement.

We learn that Assad was killed in the blast and Wayne is severely injured. He's in surgery after taking shrapnel in his chest and neck. No one knows if he'll survive, so Vice President Daniels now has to take over his duties. After a cabinet meeting, which now includes warden guy from Shawshank Redemption as the secretary of defense, everyone starts looking for Lennox. When they realize he's missing, the secret service is told to do a sweep of the batcave looking for him. Reed runs back to the bunker where he's being held and convinces the bomb maker not to kill him, that Reed can reason with him. Reed tells Lennox that none of them will be suspects, that everyone will think Assad planted the bomb. He lets him go and outside of the room they are greeted by secret service. Lennox automatically tells them that Reed and the bomb maker are the ones responsible for attempting to assassinate the president and they are arrested. I did a little fist pump when this happened.

Back in the limo, Jack orders the driver to pull over just outside of the gate. He calls Chloe and asks her to shut down the security cameras long enough to get him inside. Logan can't believe that Jack is going to do the same thing he did at the Chinese consulate which landed him in China for almost 2 years. I can't believe the writers are doing the exact same thing that they did in season 4. Jack sneaks back onto the property and a Russian guard stops him and asks him something in Russian. Then Jack responds in Russian. WHAT? Jack speaks Russian? That's convenient. So even though Jack couldn't possibly look more Aryan, he responded in Russian, so he must be ok, and the guard lets him go. Chloe shuts down the system and Jack rushes in to Markov's office where he promptly punches him in the face.

Jack yells to the security guards outside that he's holding the consulate hostage at gunpoint. I feel like Jack really didn't think this through. What good could possibly come of this? But Jack never thinks things through, so he starts beating the crap out of him. Markov tells Jack that he hasn't spoken to Gredenko since he arrived in the U.S., but Jack never told him that's where he was. Gotcha. Now Jack gets serious. He picks up Markov's cigar cutter and tells him he will start losing fingers one by one if he doesn't tell Jack what he needs. Markov still pleads innocent, and Jack takes off his pinkie. With a gun pointed at his head, Markov finally tells Jack that Gredenko is in the Mojave Desert. He is preparing to launch aerial drones to deliver the nukes. I don't know what this means, but Jack is not happy about it and punches Markov one last time in anger. He starts to walk towards the door and the security guards detonate a bomb that knocks Jack unconscious, and he's taken into custody. Now he's the only one who knows where Gredenko is.

Bill, who never seems to be doing any work, calls Karen. We see that she's in a diner waiting for her flight. Karen's a high ranking official and she can't get a flight to Los Angeles? She's been chilling in a diner for 6 hours watching Fox News on her Sprint phone? Anyway, Bill tells her that there's been an attempt on Wayne's life and that the veep is in charge now. Karen doesn't like this one bit and decides she has to go back, knowing that Daniels was in favor of Lennox's earlier proposals.

Lennox is being questioned about the plot against the president. The guy questioning him suspects that Lennox was initially on board with the plan, then had seconds thoughts. He's very astute. Lennox denies that and says that he only pretended to go along with the plan to get more information to give to the secret service. So Lennox is still quite weaselly, but at least it's for better reasons now. VP Daniels comes in to question Lennox and says that when he addresses the nation, he will blame the bombing on Assad. Lennox is like "nah don't do that, it ain't cool b" and Daniels says that the American public will support his plan more if they believe Assad was behind the attempt on the president's life. He tells Lennox if he isn't on board with that, then he'll continue the investigation. Daniels addresses the nation and explains that he'll be suspending civil liberties for the time being. He does this with an incredibly sinister and booming voice, because if you're a man on 24 you have to have an awesome awesome voice.

Jack pleads with the Russian guard holding him hostage. He explains to him why he needed to torture Markov and convinces him to call CTU with the information he obtained. He finally agrees to and leaves the room, and as he gets on the phone with Buchanan, another Russian guard shoots and kills him.

This was a vastly better episode than last week's, especially since Morris was only in it for half a second. I have a feeling that Nadia will soon be punished for being Arab, which could lead to some interesting plot twists. I think this was one of the most blatant examples of Jack not thinking things through before doing whatever he wants. Really nothing good could come of him going into any consulate. I'm a little disappointed that this is pretty much exactly what happened in season 4, when Jack snuck into the Chinese consulate to get a suspect. One thing that's different about this season is that everyone is letting Jack do what he wants. In previous seasons, there was always someone trying to stop Jack from doing his renegade thing. It added to the drama, and there was always one person, usually Chloe, who had to look over their shoulder to make sure no one knew they were helping Jack. Also, I feel like there should be a more prevalent feeling of danger. There are three nuclear bombs out there somewhere, and no one seems to be all that worried. And where's Fayed? There should definitely be more of him. Oh well. Fellow fans, we're halfway through the season. How bittersweet.