Tonight's "24": Get Ready For The Drop of the Hammer

The thing that I love most about my beloved “24”—besides Kiefer Sutherland, of course—is that when it’s at its best you never know what’s coming around the corner.

If you have not yet seen last week’s two-hour episode—and judging by the ratings, many of you haven’t—stop reading now.

I should have seen it coming. After all these years, I should know that “24” kills indiscriminately. It doesn’t matter who the actor is or how important his or her character is. The show is not afraid to do the unthinkable. Yet somehow there I was. Clutching my throw pillow as the tension continued to build. Until that heartbreaking moment when Jack realized the broadcast from the terrorists had already been taped and he turned around to see President Hassan (the excellent Anil Kapoor) already dead.

It was a great moment and one more time to see just how truly incredible Kiefer Sutherland really is.

But if you think that the show is done putting you through the wringer, you are sadly mistaken. If you’ve seen the promos—and since FOX is infuriatingly hardly showing them at all, my guess is you haven’t—you know that tonight is promised to be “the most shocking moment of the season.”

However, if you follow the show as closely as I do—both on and off-screen—it won’t be a shock at all as you’ll see it coming from a mile away. In fact, I saw it coming from so far away I was sure that it was going to happen last week because things were set up that way so we’d be lulled into a false sense of security before they drop the hammer.

I am not going to give you one single hint as to what I believe will happen tonight because I don’t want to spoil it for any of you who don’t have an inkling about it. But when you find yourself emotionally wrecked at the end of the hour, don’t say I didn’t warn you…

“24” airs tonight at 9 on FOX…

And I’ll be back after the episode for a full discussion of tonight’s events…

Photo Credit: Greg Gayne/FOX