So, just when we thought they didn’t come any more evil than Papa Bauer (where the heck has he been the last few hours, anyhow?), along comes Vice President Cy Tolliver to prove that Papa Bauer’s a rank amateur. Unless, of course, we later find out that Papa Bauer’s behind the veep, which is entirely possible.

But, as usual, I get ahead of myself.

Let’s start with Nadia and the leak du season. Who out there believes she’s the mole? Show of hands? Bueller? Bueller? As good as CTU is at hunting down terrorists and getting to the bottom of incredibly complicated plots, CTU totally sucks at detecting moles. Not only do they continually have them, but they also generally choose the wrong person first.

I began to doubt my suspicions of Milo partway through the episode, but his strange interaction with Nadia in the interrogation room brought him back as my primary mole suspect. He’s setting himself up to be an unlikely suspect, but we all know those are the most likely kinds.

I’m guessing Chloe gets it figured out in a couple of hours.

Speaking of Chloe, our lass gets the line of the night honors with “Checking your breath” after Morris wonders aloud why she laid such a passionate kiss on him in the middle of the room. (First runner up: Doyle saying “Whatever you say” to Jack as they’re heading in to the building where the drone’s pilot is. It’s about time someone realized that doing whatever Jack says is the only way to win the day!)

I felt really badly for her, though, when Jack demands to know why she didn’t say anything about Audrey. Chloe was really upset (I hope she wasn’t on the phone with anyone important!) and you could tell she was berating herself for not filling Jack in. She is truly Jack’s best friend in the world (and he hers), and I know she feels as if she had betrayed him.

SPOILER ALERT ON THE AUDREY STORYLINE:

But for those of you concerned about Audrey’s death (though, c’mon, Marie Warner is totally Jack’s soul mate rather than Audrey!), we haven’t learned the true story about her fate. I don’t want to spoil things too much for anyone, but let’s just say she’s not dead and leave it at that. We find out the truth in a few more weeks.

SPOILER OVER, YOU MAY RESUME READING

Back to mole central. Doyle was totally enjoying “interrogating” Nadia. Wonder what happened in Denver.

This was the difference between Jack and Doyle, though. Jack does what he needs to do to get the information, even if it means grabbing his one true love by the neck and holding her against a wall (he’s done it more than once). But the action always emotionally pains him. You can see the tortured look in his eyes as he keeps Audrey or Marilyn or whomever in a stranglehold.

Doyle, not so much. I see this as a future bone of contention between him and Jack. So far, they’re enjoying their killing sprees. Doyle gets Jack and understands that Jack is always right and does what he needs to do to achieve the goal. (You have to admit, you giggled a little when Jack shoots that guy outside the pilot’s building without even attempting to determine if the guy is bad or good or if they have the right location – though with Chloe providing the intel, it would be rather surprising if it were the wrong building.)

But Jack has limits. He says Please and Thank You and I’m Sorry. Doyle does not. Jack’s going to have to whip out his copy of Emily Post and give Doyle a lesson or two.

Speaking of manners, I was glad when Jack turned away from Marilyn’s overture (how totally out of nowhere was that? we haven’t seen her for hours). Marilyn’s definitely bad news. Exactly why I couldn’t tell you, but she is. And you know she wasn’t totally upset to be the one to break the news of Audrey’s death to Jack.

I saved the best for last, and that’s the White Bunker.

<>The Veep is so totally the evilest man ever on 24. OK, maybe not the evilest, but he’s up there. He basically just wants an excuse to nuke some Muslims. No matter that the drone was stopped in time and didn’t deliver its payload, destroying San Francisco. “A dirty bomb, then,” Daniels decides.

Karen Hayes and Tom Lennox being on the same side is totally bizarre. It only took someone as utterly, ruthlessly evil as Daniels to bring them together. “I won’t let you blackmail me again,” Karen tells Tom when she arrives. Oy vey. Where was that courage the first time around, Karen?

But at least she has the guts to stand up to Daniels. Tom is completely unsure what to do and who to believe in anymore. My heart bleeds for him (not!). He needs to Do What’s Right, and he knows it. At least I don’t just totally despise him the way I did for the first few hours.

<>Anyhow, the best part about Sandra Palmer being on tonight’s episode was that she didn’t actually open her mouth. Where’s Walid, by the way?

I think that’s it. I’m in sunny SoCal right now and still a little discombobulated from the time change, so I’ll jump back into the post if I missed anything.

Any comments, questions, complaints, theories, guesses, predictions?