24: Season 5 — 9:00 AM-10:00 AM and 10:00 AM-11:00 AM — Live-Blogging
Hey there 24 fans! RFTR here, with your live-blogging action for the second-half of the Season 5 premiere. I'm fresh off the visit from my girlfriend. I watched the first two hours on DVR this afternoon. And now, I'm sitting here, prepped in front of a 50-inch (not sure if that's accurate, but it's huge), flat-panel, HD television. I'll be posting every time I find something interesting, so keep refreshing for more commentary. Also, feel free to use the comments section as an open-forum for your own comments, as we offered for last night's episodes.

We'll be starting in just about 21 minutes.

[8:51 - Clarification: the times I'm posting are my clock, local time on the East Coast. By doing this, I've noticed that the 24 clock does not actually run at real time. It was 8:01 local time when they started at 9:00 AM 24 time. Now it's 8:51, and they're calling it 9:56. Oops.]

8:04 - 1st death—hostage trying to dial his cell phone.

8:06 - How did the terrorist guy know what number to call to reach that cop's cell phone? Wouldn't he have just called 911?

8:08 - Jack puts Buchanan in his place for the first time. "Understand this... I don't work for you." Classic Jack.

8:10 - Logan is an idiot. But then, we all knew that. Can anyone tell me why he's acting so folksy and strange? Also, should we be embarrassed that the Russian President knew as soon as our own about a terrorist attack in the United States?

Oh, and I love Chloe.

8:13 - "We have to get these lunatics off the air." What does he possibly think they can do to make that happen? I guarantee you that he'll reject the only possible method—turning Jack lose on the terminal.

Oh, good. And now he's throwing a hissy fit. And his wife is the one that has "episodes"? "I don't care how you do it, I don't care what it takes, fix it!"? Sounds like good leadership, and calm, level-headed, sane behavior. Quite the contrast with his wife, right?

8:16 - How convenient is that bag of tricks that Jack packed? I can't wait to see how much cool stuff he pulls out of it.

8:21 - 2nd death—random hostage by the bad guys.

8:25 - I have a feeling that Jack is going to "jeopardize the mission," from the perspective of everyone at CTU—but end up saving the day just the same. Anyone with me?

Second commercial break. The Man is right—body count's about to jump.

8:31 - Why does Chloe always get herself into these situations helping Jack?

Oh, right. Jack's the man.

8:35 - So, why is Mrs. Logan medicated? She's seeming remarkably sane right now—maybe we need a Hoover situation where the First Lady becomes the de facto president? Come on, that was a good move with the communications weenie.

8:40 - He may be a snot-nosed punk, but the kid is holding up pretty well. I have to give him credit for that.

But seriously, can't someone hold up a tissue for him or something? That's gross.

8:41 - Death 3, terrorist that Jack detonated. Nice. [The Man seems to think there was an incidental death from the detonation, another terrorist—that would make death 4].

8:43 - Bill Buchanan's face looked just like mine would be when the receptionist announced that President Logan was on the line. "Oh crap, what now?"

And now Logan's face betrayed his weasel ways pretty well at the mention of the name Jack Bauer. What a bitch. As one of my fellow viewers just commented "They really make him out to be a total f*cking asshole, don't they?"

8:49 - Anyone else think that Curtis is about to take a bullet? He's been Jack's sidekick for far too long...

8:55 - Don't abort! Noooooo! Here comes the edge-of-your-seat cliffhanger. Jerks.

8:58 - My fellow viewer thinks we're about to see the end of Jack Bauer. Any takers? All I can say is that on Inside the Actor's Studio, Kiefer said that 24 will not finish its run with a living Jack Bauer, and that he will die when you least suspect it.

9:01 - "Your President is a weak man—he'll back down once more blood is spilled." Bad news—this terrorist leader is observant.

9:04 - Sure enough, Logan is heading in that direction.

9:07 - So District is sending Hobbits to CTU now? Oh, and I failed to mark the shooting of that last hostage. My bad, we're up to 5.

9:10 - I sure hope that "Flank 2 position" was code for "don't trust anything I say because I've been taken hostage."

9:15 - I'm not sure I like Samwise in this role. "Fighting me isn't going to increase our chances of saving those people's lives." Yeah, well, neither is your interfering with one of the very few CTU heads who has shown even the remotest competence. Somebody put a cap in that Hobbit's ass.

9:22 - Logan even has a wimpy wave as he takes the stage. This guy has got to go.

9:23 - From AllState, sponsored by President Palmer, we now have Jack Bauer sponsoring a joint-commercial for Intel and Macintosh. I'm going to have to watch now to see what brand of computer CTU is using this season.

9:30 - So District sends a guy down who can't manage an office worth a damn. It's good to see that Fox has our great government red-tape down to a T.

9:37 - Oops. Samwise picked up on the code! Way to go, hobbittsess. Saving the precious! (By which I mean Jack).

9:41 - Full breach, and I've lost count of how many terrorist just bit the dust. The Man? I'm looking at you for a total count. If you can't pull it, I'll go to the DVR recording this weekend and get a full count.

The rescue operation that YOU authorized, Logan? Yeah, well, good think you have Jack Bauer and Curtis Manning to take care of all the dirty work for you.

9:44 - Can anyone tell me why Jack didn't go after that mole/hostage as soon as the breach was done? Is he slipping?

9:49 - "Do not ruin this moment for me." What a sleazeball! Unbelievable. Only 24 could stroke our patriotic instincts so well and still have us all wishing for a presidential assassination.

9:53 - Now we're in trouble. Bauer handed over his bag of tricks, and the sleeper just handed over the keycard.

9:55 - Any guesses as to what's in the cannisters?

10:00 - Looks like nerve gas, if you can go by what Mike said...

Thus ends another 2 hours in the life of Jack Bauer.

The Man (the official death counter of Blogs4Bauer) puts the final death count at 14. I would just like to go on record and point out that I predicted this one, despite my wildly inaccurate predictions in the past.