2x12 Day 2: 7:00 P.M.-8:00 P.M.

When you read about people talking about 24, it's sometimes made to look as if there was no nuance to 24 depicting terrorists and terrorism plotlines, as if it was all patriot propaganda. But no, in the first season it eastern europeans who were the bad guys, and it was more about a revenge plot than a terrorism plot. In this second season you have a mix of middle eastern terrorism (no doubt influenced by 9/11, which happened a year before this season aired) and people working within the government against their own people, so domestic terrorism. It's not all painted black and white either, as we see with that British guy with brown skin color being suspected as a terrorist but he's not, and he talks about racial profiling, and another example is we see with the imam in the episode trying to help CTU and talking about how some may have terrorist thoughts but don't act on them. The show DOES show the nuance in this tense situation.

I love the moral complexity in the episode, which is what i remembered the show doing, and it's sure living up to the memory. I love Palmer authorizing the torture of the head CIA guy, and i love Jack threatening the terrorist's family. Mike made an excellent example with the weapons factory near a hospital. And all the rationale is absolutely right in my eyes, a few innocent lives to save millions. But i do admit that it can be a slippery slope, and you have to be careful. But in real life, no one and no western government would ever go this far, and millions would die. They wouldn't even go so far as to even do threatening actions, that's how morally compromised governments are in the modern day. In real life, the terrorist would sit in a room and be talked with in a calm manner, and soon after the nuclear bomb would kill millions of people. Then people will blame the government for failing to protect them and vote them out. Ironic, really, the government doesn't want to ever go that far because most people or a portion of people would disagree with their action to protect them, yet they'd still get voted out if they fail to protect them. Voted out even by most of the same people. It's a ridiculous irony, yet it's real life. For the record, i think most people would agree with the actions taken in this episode, but real life governments would be too afraid of the backlash from a minority of the population, whether it's small or large, and they'd be scared of the backlash from the justice system (as flawed as it is), and they'd be scared of their own compromised nature, as they might realize they don't have the courage to do what is necessary to protect the people and the country they govern.

Loved Sherri actually (probably, maybe?) working for David all along.

Loved Jack disobeying the president and ordering the death of the kid, but It's an absolute cop out with the kid still being alive and it was just a trick. If they actually went through with the moral complexity then i'd give the episode an 8.