Review - 24 Season 8 Episode 6 Day 8: 9:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

We're six episodes in and it's safe to say the Renee story far outclasses the other storylines. There's no competition, and I doubt the rest of the stories can make up for the slow start. Not only is there more time dedicated to Renee's story, there is also a difference in quality. I don't see the big picture for the other stories, but there is a distinct direction of Renee's story.

Vladimir is as crazy as he is on file and starts latching onto Renee, who is clearly reluctant to do anything with him, but this is her job and she'll get it done. Without fulfilling her obligations to crack the case, she has nothing to live for. He wants sex, and she goes along with whatever he wants. She ditches the communication device which is good news for Jack who would go ballistic if he heard everything that went on. Jack, pretending to be a German arms dealer, meets up with Vladimir's goons and takes them out with the help of Cole before they can take him out. Renee manages to cajole Vlad into keeping the deal alive.

Hassan is looking more and more than any old tin-pot dictator. He's still cracking down back home despite President Taylor's warning, and he's even taking it to the next level, arresting one of his own inner circle members whose cousin was arrested. Hassan may be justified in taking extra precautions because there was just an assassination attempt, but he's using tactics any authoritarian ruler would do. He's makes a bigger deal out of something so he can justify the most stringent of actions. The good thing is one the guys around him makes a call to Hassan's daughter. Could there be a coup coming?

The story with Dana/Jenny is still moving at a snail's pace. Her plan to get Kevin the money is to provide him easy access to steal it. You'd think she'd be to come up with an electronic method, but no, she decides to give him schematics and a key card to a place where money from a drug bust is locked up. The lecherous scoundrel Arlo is finally doing something other than making passes at Dana. He decides to be nosy and pokes around the surveillance footage and finds Dana talking with Kevin. Chloe had about one line the entire episode and it was a good one. She tells off Arlo in Chloe fashion with her passive-aggressive attitude and scowl.

I'm not sure what the hell is going on with Sergei and his sons. He has the nuclear material so he is significant to the season, but the story is going in circles for the sole purpose to show he is ruthless. Josef's brother, Oleg,  seems to be doing well when his father's men come in the clinic and grab him, killing everyone else there in the process. Back at their HQ, Sergei kills Oleg. He's dangerous, he's unhinged, and he'll kill anyone. We get it.

This season with exception of Jack and Renee has been bland, and that's part of the problem with reviewing individual episodes of a heavily serialized show. There is usually some form of payoff for everything that happens further down the road, but we can't see it yet. Everything is building to something. In the grand scheme of things, stories that don't seem good in the beginning can become better in the end by default of the story playing itself out or because it is enforced by intersection with another story.

Score: 8.6/10