Carrie (Claire Danes) on the lookout for a terrorist threat in a public park

For those who are spoiler-sensitive, SPOILERS ABOUND. I will be talking about a climactic moment towards the end of the episode, so prepare yourselves. I will give a warning for SPOILER ALERT as I approach the delicate information for those who are interested in the rest of the review, but don’t want this part spoiled for them. Now, back to our regularly schooled program.

Obviously, everyone is going to point to the painfully tense sequence at the end of the episode (the only other show that can makes me that fearful, as if my own life were in danger is “Breaking Bad”) when they tell you how awesome this episode was. Despite my mutual adoration, I would like to point to a few other moments that separates this show from the rest of the dramas out there.

The first one took place in a ratty gym, where Brody’s best friend, Mike, was perfecting his jump shot. Since the reveal that Brody is in fact involved with Abu Nazir, I have picked up on Damian Lewis’ subtle facial expressions that indicate when he is feigning interest or loyalty and I can pick out when he is genuine and in the moment. That scene at the gym was a elaborate mixture of both, played with precision by both the character and the actor. His motives at this point are clear. Mike is a means to an end. If Mike can convince Jess that he needs to “serve his country somehow” for his sanity, then he can reach the objectives of his jihadist boss. Though he may be on the verge of going ballistic sitting in his quaint suburban home all day, we know that he is under orders to run for the open seat in Congress. Abu Nazir, for whatever reason, needs him to become an elected official. Whether Nazir is more of a jazz musician, going with the flow, adapting his sinister plans as he goes or an almost comically evil overlord that can anticipate everyone’s moves remains to be seen, but I sincerely hope for the former. Otherwise, this incredibly meticulous drama, becomes an overwrought puzzle intent on tricking the audience instead of shattering our expectations of TV in its portrayal of our complex, moral world.

Now, back to the delicate character moments. Mike has no clue, or at least no reason to believe, that Brody is using him for treasonous purposes, but he could certainly have practical suspicion about why his best friend would forgive him for dancing the horizontal polka with his wife while he was still alive. It’s the bro code. Even when you THINK it’s cool to sleep with your boy’s ex…DON’T DO IT. Despite this eternal man law, Brody appears to legitimately forgive him. Whether it was with the goal in mind or not, Mike, and I, bought it. He fumbles over his words, he curses, he looks away in shame. Dare I say, it was an Emmy worthy performance. No really, if Damian Lewis is not at least nominated I will streak across the stage—no, wait I will regret that. Let’s just say I will be irrationally angry,

The second “moment” I am speaking of is when Carrie interrogates the Saudi diplomat. Internet research has yielded no spell check for his name, but I believe it’s Al-Zarhani. At any rate, Carrie’s relentlessness knows no bounds. Saul gave her explicit orders to eviscerate the motherf****r, but jeez. Their gameplan going in was to entrap him at the bank where he is in debt to the tune of $750,000, and expose him for being a closeted homosexual. This revelation would be more than shameful for a Saudi man, and they’re banking that his three wives (now that’s an alibi) don’t know his dirty secret either. Much to their surprise, the diplomat is not easily blackmailed into giving them the intel they wanted on Tom Walker, Brody’s former POW-mate that they suspect has been ordered by Nazir to carry out a sniper assassination of the president. The diplomat claims they could tell the whole world and he would not care. His exact words were “I suck cock. Yummy, yummy, yummy.”

Okay, then! As a result, he begins to walk out the door since the CIA seems to have lost their leverage when Carrie brings in the big guns thanks to her night-before-interrogation study party with Virgil (for those who have been with the show since the beginning, it’s good to have our cheeky surveillance man back, isn’t it?). She asks him hypothetically who his favorite daughter is. Expectedly, our prepared student already knows. And when she threatens to deport her back to Saudi Arabia where she will, “get fat and wear a burqa,” he starts singing like a canary. Yeah, it’s a +1 for “the good guys,” but furthermore, it illustrates Carrie’s ruthless way of handling people. She will keep knocking furiously until someone answers (like Walter White of “Breaking Bad,” She is “the one who knocks!”). And her methodology is not entirely unethical, certainly not to the torturous degree of Jack Bauer on “24,” where everything was SO DAMN IMPORTANT! Carrie unfortunately carries this stubbornness into her personal life with less success.

This is where the last character moment comes into play. Carrie had gotten a call while cramming with Virgil about the diplomat’s daughters from Brody. He claims he has something personal to meet with her about. She suggests “their bar” and he says your house is fine. And like any woman, or person really, she’s ecstatic her crush wants to come over. Butterflies in your stomach when the cute guy calls is universal. She plays it cool though, and when Virgil asks, she dismisses it with vulgarity. The next night, however, she goes in for the kill, as if Brody were just another diplomat she has to make squeal. She applies the lipstick, she slips on the slinky black number and pours the wine. But Brody just wanted to make sure she would keep her mouth shut about that weekend in the cabin. Pow, gut check. That weekend that meant so much to her, the first seamless human interaction she’s had in a while, the romance that felt so real, despite her secondary terrorist-squashing motives, is simply a blemish on his record that he doesn’t want to resurface. This time, no matter her preparations, no matter how bad she wanted it, she didn’t get him. Carrie, and by association Claire Danes, have been revelations to the TV canon because not only is she an active pursuant, someone who shakes the foundation of any structure she walks into, she is also a victim like all of us, a victim of a world that doesn’t play fair, and neither does she.

The following sequence where Carrie cries in her kitchen because of her failure then segues into the failures of Saul. We don’t get any dialogue. Just a man buying a Fiji water from the vending machine who is camping in his office tonight. The implication is home is meaningless now that it’s devoid of his beloved, Mira. He brought some peanut butter and crackers with him but he forgot the knife. So he uses a ruler from his desk. This attention to detail, the care with which this show treats its characters is admirable, and that ruler to me was as significant as any line of dialogue or any tragic, action-packed climax.

Speak of the devil, here we are folks. SPOILER ALERT! PROCEED WITH CAUTION! BEWARE OF DOG! ENTER IF YOU DARE!

Okay, now that the chosen few are left, did you see that coming? Did you see Carrie failing twice in a matter of twenty-four hours? How heartbroken were you when you saw the innocents with legs blown off and faces obliterated, and Carrie leveled by yet another surprise. Tom Walker saw them coming. Despite the diplomat being under CIA surveillance, despite him going about signaling a meeting just as he usually did, a Tom lookalike brought a suitcase bomb in Farrugut Park and blew up the lunch crowd. Damn. Saul tells us, and a bedridden Carrie, that the suicide bomber was a homeless man Walker met at a shelter, Samuel Everett, whom Walker paid off to bring the suitcase. He also confirms the suspicions that have been brewing in-show, and among us fans, that there is a mole in the U.S government. Though I wouldn’t put it past the former “24″ writers to do employ the mole plot, I’m not so sure. After he mentions this the Vice President comes on the tube. I could see that, if that cut was deliberate or even suggestive. I could also see the diplomat lying to the CIA and the picture in the window means some variation of…”They got me, help me take my own life to prevent further damage.” At that point all he had admitted was what they already knew; that he was taking money from them to pay off his exorbitant debt in exchange for intel and Tom Walker is working with Nazir. The fact, that anything can happen still is a credit to the “Homeland” staff for crafting such a multi-layered and intricate universe that even the real-world cynics and internet trolls can’t predict what happens next.

I cared very little about the episode title’s plot thread. It could be that I was more appreciative of the intimate scenes between Mike, Brody and Jess (in all possible pairings) that I wasn’t phased that he is now running for Congress. There was no real stakes. In order to keep the momentum she has to give the a-okay. And also I have no idea yet what the incorporation of his position as elected official will mean for Nazir’s scheme. I am certain, however, that I can’t wait to find out. I was enthralled by mostly every scene, hanging on every word, and I continue to be amazed by the focus on minutia in plot, character development, appeal to audience pathos (I wept ever so slightly seeing Carrie scarred and in shock amidst the explosion’s aftermath), and narrative tension. I’m officially declaring my intention to give this episode…an A-.

Spoiler Alert: Watch the 24 series finale before reading this review.

To kick off the series finale of 24 Kiefer Sutherland gave a little speech, thanking the viewers. It was cute. But it was missing something, an appropriate warning.

Warning: if you suffer from panic attacks, heart arrhythmia, are prone to excitability, or just don’t understand why someone would need to knock out every person he encounters then you might want to get out of line, er I mean try a different channel.

Jack Bauer’s hour by hour quest for justice hasn’t had many calm moments. This is a guy who never once takes a bathroom break or stops to eat and is on the go 24 hours a day. He is just too busy for calm. So when Kiefer Sutherland gave his well-wishes at the beginning of the finale, I couldn’t help but hear "enjoy the ride." And just as I had hoped at the end of the two hours my heart was pounding, my hands were clutching the pillow, and I wanted it to start all over again.

Jack Bauer spent most of the finale continuing his search for justice.

"I would have accepted justice by law but that was taken away from me by people like you so you are right I am judge and jury." Bauer explained to Jason Pillar why he needed to kill everyone involved in Renee Walker’s death before he knocked Pillar out.

While Bauer was busy plotting his form of justice, Chloe and Cole were trying to find ways to expose President Taylor’s cover-up of the Russian involvement in President Hassan’s death. Bauer had the only piece of evidence that had not been confiscated or arrested by President Taylor and her new sidekick Charles Logan. So most of Chloe and Cole’s task was to find Bauer

President Taylor proved very quickly into the finale that her role as the weak easily convinced president was soon to be over. She blackmailed Dalia Hassan into staying at the peace table, by threatening war. It seemed President Taylor herself was shocked at this evil power play, because after this occurred she began to show signs of questioning how far she had gone to cover-up the Russian involvement to preserve the peace treaty. These signs were mostly in the form of sad confused looks by President Taylor when Dalia Hassan gave her the cold shoulder.

Jack Bauer was going to be the final push to overturn Charles Logan’s power over President Taylor and end the cover-up nonsense. But for most of the last two hours Bauer was too busy setting up a sniper station to kill the Russian president to bother with President Taylor. Bauer’s resolve to bring justice seemed to be completely steadfast. He even went so far as to knock Chloe out when she tried to talk him down from killing more people.

In the end Chloe did convince Bauer, but it was of course too late for her to call Cole and tell him to call off the team he sent to kill Bauer. It would have been far too easy if she just had to sneak his information back to CTU. To save his life, Chloe had to shoot Jack and of course in an incredible twist of fate Pillar woke up in time to demand a debriefing from Chloe. Pillar then arrest her and Cole so the information Jack had didn’t leak and ruin the cover-up.

"Lasting peace can not be simply political." President Taylor received the confiscated memory card from Jack’s recorder and listened to his message to his daughter. With only 15 minutes left to go, President Taylor realizes she has gone too far, and decides to make it right. Jack is kidnapped by Charles Logan’s men while Logan kills Pillar and shoots himself.

Only 24 can have 5 minutes left to go and still have viewers on the edge of their seats wondering how it will end. Bauer makes a witty remark to the man holding a gun to his head "Am I supposed to say thank you?" Chloe and President Taylor find a way to get save Bauer’s life and then reality hits.

"Whatever happened here didn’t happen." Chloe said it best after she says goodbye to Bauer. Despite the very good reasons for Bauer’s style of justice, it just isn’t legal to run around killing people. In the end Bauer is left running for his life and the seconds tick down. Nothing is really resolved, but somehow it is the way it was meant to be. When you spend your days kicking ass like Bauer, it would take years to tie up every end and resolve every conflict. And that would just be too tedious to be bothered with. It’s much nicer to think Bauer is still out there fighting injustice and waiting for his return.

FOX announced its lineup for early 2010, which includes the return of “Dollhouse” on January 8 and two “Simpsons” special episodes:

January 8: “Dollhouse” at 9 p.m.
January 10: “The Simpsons” 450th Milestone Episode at 8p.m. and “The Simpsons” 20th Anniversary Special: in 3D! on Ice! at 8:30 p.m.
January 12: “American Idol” Part 1, two-hour premiere at 8 p.m.
January 13: “American Idol” Part 2 at 8p; “Our Little Genius” at 9 p.m.
January 17: “Human Target”: (series preview) at 8 p.m.; “24″ Part 1, two-hour premiere at 9-11 p.m.
January 18: “24″ Part 2, two-hour premiere at 8 p.m.
January 20: “Human Target”, series premiere at 9 p.m.
January 22: “Dollhouse” (series finale) at 9 p.m.
January 29: “Kitchen Nightmares” at 9 p.m.
February 4: “Fringe” (winter finale) at 9 p.m.
February 11: “Past Life,” two-hour premiere at 8 p.m.
March 14: “Sons of Tucson” at 8:30 p.m.

In other news, the series finale of “Monk” is this Friday at 9 p.m.

It’s 4:30 p.m when Rocco DeLuca strolls into the Paradise Lounge and claims that he has just woken up. He adjusts the fedora resting precariously on his head and takes a seat across the table in the empty booth. The Boston stop is one of the many headlining shows, with folk rockers HoneyHoney as tour support, DeLuca is playing to promote his new album “Mercy” which hit stores March 10.

“(The tour has been) great. Some really great people have been coming out. It’s been exciting to share the new record with people” DeLuca said.

The new record was recorded in California with five-time-Grammy-winning producer Daniel Lanois, who met DeLuca at a folk show he played in L.A.

“He’s a beautiful musician and an exceptional, innovative mind. We decided we were having fun and naturally it became the record ‘Mercy.’ It was pretty organic” said DeLuca of how his relationship with Lanois developed, “We did the record in 18 nights. (The songs) are performance pieces, basically a collection of songs I had written on the road. They are kind of like these mini-vignettes.”

“Mercy” is DeLuca’s follow up to 2006′s “I Trust You to Kill Me,” which sold over 100,000 copies. The debut album was also turned into a behind-the-scenes documentary with the same title. The documentary shows DeLuca’s travels around the world to promote the record with the help of label owners and promoters Jude Cole and Keifer Southerland (“24″). DeLuca spent a total of three years promoting the first album, using his drive to record a second album to get him through all those months on the road.

“I kept myself sane because I imagined the opportunity to make this record, ‘Mercy.’ The thought of getting another chance to make a record the way that I wanted to make it gave me some hope” DeLuca said.

Rolling Stone and Filter magazine have both hailed DeLuca for his unique songwriting ability and instrument style. DeLuca, in a soft spoken voice, explains that he does not really have a process for writing songs “" they just happen naturally.

“I’ll record conversations that I have that I feel might be meaningful. The melodies are (my) dreams. I’ll wake up humming something or something will stick. It’ll be a reoccurring thing and I’ll think, “ËœOkay this needs to be workshedded and wittled down’” DeLuca said.

Despite having been on the road for so long promoting “I Trust You to Kill Me,” DeLuca is excited to be back on tour with the new record.

“I was just excited about the opportunity to share the record with people. Maybe make some contribution that I thought was valid. That was the intention behind this record” he said. “It’s all kind of brand new but I’m hoping its something that we can share with a lot of people.”

DeLuca claims, adjusting the fedora on his head once more, the ultimate goal is not about glory and praise but just to make his music go as far as it possibly can. “I’m going for, for this form to reach its (peak, to try) and push it to its ultimate potential. That’s it.”

Blast absolutely loved the return of Jack Bauer Sunday night. If you missed it, here’s your chance to watch it free on Blast, courtesy of Fancast!

In “24: Redemption” Jack is in Africa, running away from a federal subpoena that will in all likelihood take him to jail. With a new president about to be sworn in, a coup threatens to unravel a Democratic government in Africa with America (sound familiar?) sitting still in the background.

It sets up the new season perfectly and gives us a longed-for 24 fix.