Over the past few weeks, I have written extensively on the many reasons why I feel this season is 24’s absolute best. One or two good episodes and it’s easy to dismiss it as hyperbole. You sit and await the inevitable moment when the house of cards you were just admiring catches a gust and topples swiftly. Here we are, just beyond the halfway point, and the quality seem to only increase with each passing hour.

I ladle credit everywhere – from inspired casting (Sean Astin, Jean Smart, freakin’ Robocop (Peter Weller)) to tight plotting to solid performances on behalf of series mainstays Keifer Sutherland, Carlos Bernard, Gregory Itzin (oh, that President Jellyfish)  who continue to infuse their characters with real gravitas.

But I am remiss in not mentioning the showrunners. Every show has a select couple of individuals whose responsibility is to handhold every element. Often they write, sometimes direct, and you can be damn sure they have their hands in every inch of the cookie jar making sure that everything in there tastes great. This year, 24 added Buffy vet David Fury as right-hand man to X-Files ex-producer Howard Gordon. Two key production staff members from two of my all time favorite television shows. It’s chocolate and peanut butter all over again.

All you need to know about the two is Gordon was Chris Carter’s lieutenant for the first six seasons of The X-Files – that series’ golden age – and was responsible for some classic Mulder and Scully action including the ep that turned me onto that show in the first place – ‘Duane Barry.’ Gordon later went on to co-produce Angel – where he encountered fellow Whedonverse scribe Fury.

Fury worked through the entire Whedon canon – starting with Buffy, moving on to Angel and a brief stint on Firefly. Fury then helped shape the first season of Lost, contributing the script to my hands-down favorite episode of all time, the Locke-centric Walkabout.

With these two guys running the show at CTU, I think it’s no accident that this season features – as I predicted – Jack Bauer’s greatest day ever.

On to this week’s episode.

- Last week, we ended with CTU in crisis mode, as one of the terrorists used Lynn McGill’s key card to gain access and unleash one of the canisters. This week we learn they have lost at least 40% of their operating staff. In a quick scene, showing the officious looking Homeland Security reps en route to the site, the director of that agency coolly announces “CTU is no longer a viable operating entity.” Her subordinate than asks if he has the power to displace current CTU employees in favor of his own staff. With Homeland Security taking over the operation, Mook feels this may be paving the way for a rogue cadre of our heroes  (Jack, Chloe, Curtis and Audrey) to take on Bierko and Henderson on their own.

- If Edgar’s death made me misty-eyed last week, this week’s troika of Lynn, a red shirt and a series regular to be named later – down right stunned. Lynn and the red shirt were no real surprise. Lynn needed to either face his comeuppance or seek redemption for his boneheaded act of losing the key card and not reporting it missing. Due to his error, 40% are dead and the rest on their way out. So Lynn pulls a Spock and heads out into the contaminated air to fire up the exhaust system – thus sacrificing the one for the good of the many.

- All right, technically he sacrificed the two, as the poor token red shirt security guard that was in his cell with him was told he would be contaminated once Lynn breached the air lock in his cell. Damn those writers. That call to his little moppet saying Daddy wouldn’t be coming home (all right, she was off screen, but ya’ just know she was an adorable little moppet) – that just nailed me. Things hit ya’ differently when you’re a Dad.

- Regarding the red shirt security guard, I’m no Trekkie but I do know that ‘red shirt’ is the nickname for all the token ensigns that used to accompany Kirk down to the alien planet of the week. That crewman was easily identified by his crimson jersey and was always the first guy gunned down by a Klingon or troubled by a Tribble. Anyway – all of the security guards on 24 actually wear red button-down shirts, so when I spied one in McGill’s cell, I just knew he wasn’t long for this Earth. Of course, he took a white collar down with him, so there’s some karmic retribution at work there.

- Leading to the 3rd death. Just when I thought we were out of the woods (CTU was vented, Kim was on her way home with Pony Boy, Bierko was seen making plans to unleash all canisters on some secret site housing 200,000 potential victims) – we’re walloped with one final shocker as Tony Almeida takes a lethal injection from the reanimated Henderson (Weller.) There was a false sense of security at play. Last week’s teaser ran a montage of series’ regulars and said one of these people will make the ultimate sacrifice. When McGill bought it – I checked that plot line off – and moved on. But no! We end the episode with Tony being cradled in Jack’s arms as he slipped from this Earth. Damn! Gordon and Fury are taking no prisoners. Almeida has been with the series since Season 1 and has grown to be Bauer’s equal. It’s sad to see him, and his trusty Cubs mug, go. (You know, the one he drinks his morning booze from – see Season 4.) The good news – with Palmer, Edgar, Michelle and Tony murdered – there has got to be some serious Bauer retribution coming. We’re talking real wrath of God type stuff. Fire and brimstone, dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria.

- Quick hit on Henderson. I like how they’re setting him up to be the anti-Bauer. We know the back story – he taught Jack everything he knows, he was Jack’s mentor, and then Jack brought his whole world crashing down. His resurrection from that torture-induced coma was a vintage Jack move, and in this instance, he used that to get the upper hand on Tony. A nice Yin/Yang thing developing here.

- So that’s where Desmond ran off too. Blink and you missed him – but in that brief segue way to that Russian chick’s apartment (the one who received a call from Bierko) – she returned to the bed where Lost’s hatch denizen Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) awaited. IMDB lists him guest-starring for a few more episodes so his role is going somewhere.

Next week, Desmond tells Jack “There’s no time, brother.”