After last week’s flimsy episode (and far too much time since any major ‘bombs’ had dropped on this series), I was feeling a bit wary that this season that began so strong was quickly sliding into disarray. What a difference an hour makes.

Hour 6 deftly erases the missteps of Hour 5 and nicely injects this season with some close-to-home tension, ratcheting up the suspense as well as providing some good fan-pleasing ties to seasons past. In retrospect, I may have been too quick to turn tail on my boy Bauer. Good ol’ Jack would never let us down.

1. Now there’s the scheming Blue Tooth Bauer we love to hate! With Graem’s turncoat deception of both Dad and Jack at the end of Hour 5, we pick up with his henchmen leading the two relatives to their cement burial plot. Fortunately Jack gets the upper hand and subdues his captor while his Dad shoots the man dead (from now on I’ll refer to Cromwell as Farmer Hoggett in homage to his role in Babe). I didn’t pick up on it at the time but FH tips his cards a bit early by executing the man. Although he tells Jack that the guy was going to kill them and therefore had to be taken care of, he was really just erasing his footsteps.

2. All this leads Jack right back to Blue Tooth’s evil suburban lair (read – home office) where he busts through the front door surrounded by CTU agents and for the second time in two weeks, converts the office into a torture chamber. I like the symbolism here. Work IS hell!!!

3. The torture and interrogation scenes were equal parts brutal and riveting. Well acted on all counts. With his histrionics and rage, I don’t know what’s going to come Kiefer’s way first – an Emmy or an embolism. I thought it was a nice touch with Jack conflicted in his torture, ordering additional CC’s while cradling his sobbing brother’s head.

4. Of course, this all led to Blue Tooth’s revelation that he ordered the Season 5 hit on President Palmer, Michelle Dessler and Tony Almeida, in a bid to lure Jack from hiding and pin the blame squarely on him. I think his actions are equal part nefarious ambition and extreme sibling rivalry. Why go through all that trouble just to lure one guy out of hiding? Well, if your company is arming terrorists (in a bid to track the arms and ultimately destroy their network), the last person you want out there is uber-patriot Jack Bauer, who as Graem so succinctly put it last week, “Has a habit of digging up things that should stay buried.” Getting rid of the big bro whom he could never quite measure up to (pun firmly intended) is just the cherry on top.

5. Last season’s plot dovetails nicely with this season’s and definitely answers what Farmer Bauer’s corporation does. They effectively work below the radar to broker arms deals with shady types and effectively destroy those organizations in a bid to keep the USA safe from evil. That’s Homeland Security 101. That was the endgame last year with the Russian separatists and remains the MO behind this year’s nuke dealings. Of course, you’d think the organization would have learned from the Bierko fiasco but nope, there they go handing nukes to Fayad once again. I guess you just go with what you know even if what you know isn’t much.

6. When Jack’s Dad asked for a few moments alone, I thought he was going to kill himself, especially in light of that heart-to-heart with Jack where he confessed that Jack deserved a better family. Then when he asked for a few moments alone with Graem, I thought he was going to kill Blue Tooth, but again, out of some strange way of making amends to Jack for what the family has done to him. Therefore, I never saw the twist that not only is Farmer Bauer in league with Blue Tooth but he’s apparently more evil than our Evil Opie could ever aspire to be. Who am I kidding? He’s more like a Creepy Clint than a Rampaging Ron.

7. I am on a role with my predictions. The evidence is mounting.

8. Let the record show that I called out Morris last week. The moment Dennis McCarthy began scrambling for an engineer who could arm the nukes for Fayad (but might need to be coerced to do it) I thought of Morris. Throughout the entire episode, as Morris was working on descrambling the image of the suspected engineer, I kept pestering my wife with the same refrain “Look at that picture. It’s clearly Morris.” Hey, much in the same way people can stare at a spackled poster and see a sailboat, I gaze at that pixilated monitor and spy Morris. When the suspicious fax came in alerting CTU to Morris’ brother’s plight, I knew he was a goner. Chloe telegraphed the whole thing when she asked why people around her keep dying and Morris replied – “You know I am always here for you.” Translation – Not for long.

9. I also pegged the VP as evil. You simply don’t cast Powers Booth to play Al Gore.

10. While I’m on a role with my predictions, last week I suggested that the mid-season twist would involve Assad and his arrival in Washington, where in a major twist, he would kill President Palmer. The teaser for next week’s two-hour episode shows Assad meeting face-to-face with Palmer. I’m 2 for 2 so far. Let’s go for the trifecta. Palmer’s days are numbered.