24: Rocket Romano Versus Chopper, Round Two

Seriously; the falling helicopter has to be an ER shout-out, doesn't it?

Early season thoughts: it's starting to look like "What did the government give the Chinese to get Jack Back?" is going to be this year's Chekovian Gun. But how do you pay that one off? Pretty much every vililan 24 has ends up dead or pardoned-and-exiled, so there's not many people that the US could be trading. I don't think they'd be able to convince us that Nina Myers miraculously survived Season 3 and has been in a secret prison since then (although if she did, the 'don't tell anyone who even knows Jack' part is easy to credit.) in a handful of snippets and side references during a fairly busy main plot, so who?

Motif-watch. (I think we'll have to go with the pedestrian 'Death' as Season 5's motif, by the way). So far, we may be working on "the dangers of making deals with terrorists" or "profoundly stupid decisions that, through dumb luck, turn out to be correct", both of which are a little complex. Surely they'll refine down a bit later.