Spoilers for this episode below:

Things that happened

We learned how to spell Graem Bauer’s name. And it is just like that. Graem. That’s pretty bad. Also bad: Graem himself. We learn this after he and Jack take a forty minute drive to the office of the guy who sold the nuclear weapons to Fayed — a British guy named Darren McCarthy. Jack snoops around on Darren’s computer for a bit until he is ambushed by two guys who turn out to be working for… Jack’s dad. Phillip Bauer. Except — oh no! They’re not actually working for Phil! They’re working for Graem! And Graem is so damn evil. The episode ends with Jack and his Pa being corralled into a van, presumably to be taken to their death, as Graem cackles away.

Meanwhile, during the forty minutes when Graem and Jack are driving in their car, there’s a bunch of stupid stuff going on in the underground White House bunker. Tom, this season’s overzealous and insanely ambitious presidential staffer, succeeds in forcing Karen Hayes to resign, after threatening to screw with her husband’s career. The President goes hmm and huh and please don’t but finally okay, but mostly he just sits around and does nothing all episode. It all ends with Karen getting on a flight back to L.A., which means she should return in like ten episodes or so. Maybe she’ll get to shoot someone.

In other news, the series continues its shocking expose on Muslims: are they good? Or are they evil? Perhaps, like most things, the truth lies somewhere in between.

Things that were good

• Paul McCrane is great as Graem. Like awesomely great. The way his body language and vocal tone changed when he revealed himself to Jack and Phil was great acting. He is such a little shit.
• Milo being back. I know Eric Balfour has appeared on pretty much every TV series ever but I never tire of him. Whether he’s a drug-addled skeezebag or some sort of computer wizard, I think he deserves many different awards.

Things that were not so good

• 40 minutes of driving! I guess it helps with realism as far as the real-time format goes but, man, just make their destination somewhere that’s not forty minutes away.
• Are they really going to make the first Muslim to ever work at CTU into an evil terrorist mole? Because they sure are telegraphing that reveal. I did appreciate Milo’s “She can’t be a terrorist! She’s a registered Republican!” logic, though. It’s kinda like saying “He can’t be a murderer! He owns a Mazda!
• Lots of other things. This was not a great episode. The White House plot is still plodding and uninspired. Salid in the internment camp seems to have amounted to pretty much nothing. Nothing was resolved with Darren and his quest for a nuclear scientist. And doesn’t anyone remember that a nuclear bomb exploded two hours ago? People are way too calm! If that happened near me I would totally lose my shit and start smashing windows and, if it was near Halloween, pumpkins.

Worth watching if…

…you already watched it. Or if you don’t have internet access and thus can’t read recaps like this one! Seriously, these in-between episodes are all about killing time. Thankfully, February Sweeps will be in full swing next week, so we should presumably get some explosions, gunshots and maybe even some “TELL ME WHERE THE BOMB IS!”

In Five Words

Yes, Forty Minutes of Driving

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