Emotional time bomb

Last week I boasted to everyone I encountered—friends, family, yes, even total strangers on the street—that last Monday’s double episode of “24” was the best two hours of television I had watched in a long time.

If that’s the case, then tonight was perhaps one of the most depressing hours of TV I’ve watched in a while.

Let’s sum up: it begins as we’re still reeling from the death of loveable lug Edgar (along with about 40 percent of the rest of the CTU staff). Then they pile on with the further degradation of Jack Bauer’s relationship with his daughter Kim, the heroic death of disgraced CTU boss Lynn McGill and that tearjerker final phone call between the doomed security guard and his young daughter. Oh, but wait, we’re not done. If that isn’t enough the show ends with the death Tony “Soul Patch” Almeida.

Not the Soul Patch! Tony was the only other character besides Jack (and Kim) left from season one. You can’t kill the Soul Patch! C’mon! The headline to the LA Times article about the “24” killing spree says it best: “You are killing us!”

Is it any wonder the episode ended with Jack breaking down in tears? If this is the worst day of Jack’s life then this had to be the worst hour of that day. Let’s hope next week he starts working out his grief by doing what he does best—kicking terrorist ass and maybe torturing a few bad guys along the way.