SEASON 6 PREDICTIONS, PART 1

Four hours down, twenty to go. Tonight, 24 begins its long, arduaous slog toward May’s final hours of Day 6. After a four-episode blast last weekend (where we covered a sixth of the season in just two nights), "10:00-11:00" carries the extra burden of not only keeping up the pace of viewer expectations, but also advancing the storyline in a quarter of the time of the “premiere.”

Last week’s nuclear explosion and Jack’s emotional implosion left a lot of questions to be answered tonight and this season. Here now are some predictions on how the rest of Season 6 may play out …*

• There is at least one more suitcase nuke in L.A. The other three will hopefully be located in New York, Washington, and Chicago. If there isn’t another nuke in L.A., I don’t know how else the writers would drive the CTU storyline other than to simply pursue and capture Fayed. This raises the disappointing possibility that all four of the remaining nukes are located in L.A. – which would just be lame.
• Jack really is done with CTU – for now. Having just shot Curtis to death and witnessed a nuclear explosion in Valencia (which hopefully killed Kim), Jack has no reason to return to CTU, other than to help track down and prevent the detonation of yet another nuke in L.A. But I have a good feeling that after he saves L.A. (yet again), he’ll be done with CTU for good. This would allow Jack to do what he really wants now: track down and bring to justice Graham (Paul McCrane) and various other bad guys who gave him up to the Chinese. This would also give the writers a way to weave both President Logan, Martha, and Aaron back into the storyline.
• Assad will turn on everyone and re-assume control of his terrorist cell. After being harassed and unfairly interrogated by CTU (after getting his presidential pardon no less), he will patiently assist CTU in taking out Fayed and then re-establish his control over the terrorists. Helping Jack and CTU now is only a ploy in a brilliant power play to take back control of a group Fayed wrestled away from him. Plus, makes for a great, unpredictable twist.
• National Security Advisor Karen Hayes will be put in danger. If we’ve learned anything from 24, it’s that spouses and children of primary characters are almost always the villains’ main targets on this show. Teri and Kim, Kate, Audrey, Michelle, and Tony were all placed in harm’s way at some point, so it figures that Karen will eventually be on the hit list of presidential aide Tom Lennox. They’ve already butted heads over the detention camps, and if Karen has seen Season 2, she’ll know that you never threaten a backstabbing presidential aide on this show. Just ask David Palmer’s chief aide Lynne Kresge. Oh wait, you can’t. Because she was pushed down a flight of stairs and paralyzed. Watch your back, Karen. Lennox is obviously no good.
• Walid al-Rezani will serve as the writers’ token Good Muslim Character. He will no doubt uncover some sinister plot inside the detention camp, which will relate to the other nuke inside L.A. I doubt he’ll turn out to be a villain. The show needs one Muslim good guy. But if he does, Fox better go ahead and hire an entire law firm to handle just this one show. That would be a terrible, albeit hilarious, slap in the face to the Muslim community already bitching about the show’s current storyline and characters.

There you have it. Feel free to share any predictions of your own. Not really going out on a limb with these too much, but I’d love to hear your guesses as to where this season is headed.

* Keep in mind that these are simply predictions and include NO SPOILERS. Any resemblance these predictions may have to future twists and storylines is completely coincidental and may be attributed to my mind-blowing 24 knowledge, developed over five seasons of obsessively watching the show. (I’ve actually watched each season at least three times.)