Uh oh. I think we have a problem here.

Last week, Jack Bauer asked his former flame Audrey to ring up his daughter Kim (Elisa Cuthbert) and have her brought to CTU Headquarters for an overdue reunion. Bear in mind – up until 8 hours ago – the world thought Jack was dead. That includes Kim. So Daddy Dearest has chosen the latest terrorist threat as the perfect backdrop for this surprise revelation. Whew… and I thought they had it tough over on Wife Swap.

Now, I have no problem with Jack’s timing. This is the world of 24 – and the clock doesn’t keep ticking without a little melodrama poured in the pot. The issue I have is with the reappearance of Kim – the one television character who has given the over-used phrase ‘jump the shark’ a run for its money. That’s right, Season 5 of 24 is in danger of being ‘Caught in the Cougar Trap’.

It all goes back to Season 2.

In the first season, Kim was kidnapped as part of the conspiratorial scheme aimed at pulling Jack into the action and propelling key plot elements in motion. That made sense, even if the shear number of terrible events that befell her character did not.

In the second season, this broad managed to get into all sorts of inane trouble once an hour, just to give Bauer something else to worry about and Elisha some work. In that one season, Kim discovered that the man who employed her as a nanny had been abusing her charge (his daughter). An hour later, the same guy then killed his wife, sending Kim on the run with the child. The husband proceeded to stalk them through the streets of L.A., eventually tracking Kim down and attempting to kill her. When that attempt failed, he framed Kim for the murder of his wife. Kim was arrested when police found the wife’s body in the trunk of the car she stole while fleeing this psychopath. In transit to the police station, the police car she’s in suffers a catastrophic car accident that liberates her boyfriend from his leg and kills the arresting officer leaving Kim to escape on foot through the Californian wilderness. During her trek, she stumbles and finds her leg caught in a hunter’s snare. While trapped, she comes face to face with a hungry cougar but is rescued by a kindly survivalist (Kevin Dillon) who takes her to his shelter for some grub - only to reveal his secret underground bomb shelter, which he subsequently traps her in. At one point, he lowers a basket containing some lotion and a tiny dog - while he parties it up above ground - dancing around his lair with his penis tucked and… wait, I’m getting my psychos mixed up. The point is - her Season 2 plot was freakin’ ridiculous and the writers needed to just kill her off or send her to boarding school or marry her to a sham millionaire or something. Jack Bauer is an anti-terrorist agent battling vicious baddies - I can accept the strange things that occur in his story. Kim was a nanny - a regular Jane – just like you and me. (errr… you and Mookie).

Take any given 12 hours of my life and here are the shocking things that occur:

Woke up. Ate Breakfast. Watched Matt Lauer. Drove to work. Read E-mail. Downloaded nudes of Mork and Mindy. Ate lunch. Scratched myself. Promised HR I wouldn’t download nudes of Mork and Mindy again. Got caught in a hunter’s snare. Downloaded nudes of the Good Times cast. Promised HR I wouldn’t scratch myself again. Drove home. Promised my wife I wouldn’t scratch myself again. Scratched myself again!!!

Now’s there’s a subplot.

Enough with my rant. I’ll be watching this new development very closely. In the meantime, some highlights from last night’s episode.

1. Any time the camera shifts to Chloe, Edgar or President Logan – I feel a grin. Last night, President Logan had my grin spread Joker-style. He defers. He deflects. He denies. Ladies and gentleman – our new Teflon Don. Anytime Logan is confronted with an issue – Logan shifts the decision, the blame, the responsibility elsewhere. Last night – when confronted with the decision to allow terrorists to unleash one canister of nerve gas (Semtex) in a crowded shopping mall – in a bid to maintain Bauer’s undercover status and allow him to continue with the terrorists to their base of operations – Logan calls the matter a ‘field issue’ and demands CTU make the decision. Bill Buchanon then helpfully reminds Logan that this is a legal matter that requires a Presidential order. Logan finally relents and sanctions the death of innocent Americans.

2. Fortunately we have Bauer, who is not just a bad-ass mofo but also our moral center (granted a moral minority that will also torture his girl friend’s ex-husband with exposed wires from a hotel lamp when the slightest suspicion darkens his brow.) Anyway – Bauer was able to cap one terrorist – order an evacuation of the mall – and save a little girl’s life by doffing his gas mask and getting her to safety. He lost the trail of the other terrorist but saved Logan’s ass once again. Speaking of which - if this guy acts any less Presidential - we’re bound to see him in real-life office in ‘08.

3. Onto my theory concerning the true puppet-masters behind this whole situation. During the Walt Cummings’ machinations – we were privy to a number of conversations Cummings had with a shadowy agent operating in a dark room littered with computer monitors. To date, we have not received one clue as to the identity of this Mister X. I believe the smart money is on – the Vice President. Thus far, we haven’t had a glimpse of the second-in-command. What a great twist it would be to have an episode end with Logan (who is currently in Cali) returning to the White House and coming face to face with the thus far unseen VP – who we the viewer suddenly intuit – is that creepy guy in the computer closet. Mark my words. The VP is evil. At the very least – don’t go hunting with him.

4. On to Mook’s new theory. Mook believes that the mugging of Lynn McGill (Sean Astin) by his sister and her druggie co-conspirator is all a ruse to get access to McGill’s CTU key card. During the mugging, we see the assailant rifle through McGill’s wallet – pocket a wad of cash and his key card. It all looks like a legitimate act of desperation among two dope fiends. Mook believes it’s actually a set-up to get access to that card – thereby allowing the terrorists to sneak a canister of Semtex into CTU. Hey, if every Tom, Dick and Osama can just waltz right into CTU, why not a guy with a canister of Semtex. I think there may be some merit to this. Alas, poor Edgar, we knew you well.

That’s all for this week. Next week, Bauer says ‘DAMMIT!’