The first season of 24 ended in the darkest of fashions, revealing Jack Bauer's trusted colleague, and ex-girlfriend, Nina Myers (Sarah Clarke), was actually a traitor. On top of that, she murdered Jack's wife while trying to escape. Which is why her return on the show is guaranteed to spawn great moments.
As shown in the previous episode's cliffhanger, it was Nina who gave Joseph Wald the schematics of CTU so that the building could be blown up. Back at what remains of the facility, Jack and Mason call Division to get her transferred from her prison cell for further questioning, while Tony heads off to the Warner mansion to investigate the family's alleged ties with Second Wave, the terrorist group behind the nuclear threat. The bomb is also at the center of the conversation President Palmer has with the ambassador of a country that might have financed the attack.
Despite a fine group of guest stars in Day 1 (Dennis Hopper most of all), 24 distanced itself from most other shows (sitcoms especially), which center an entire episode around the cameoing celebrity (ER, for example, became unusually guest-centric after the original cast members left, and has remained like that since), allowing instead that the supporting actors blend flawlessly with the rest of the series. However, this episode is entirely dominated by two guests: Harris Yulin and Sarah Clarke. The former, a bona fide character actor, best remembered for a sleazy minor part in De Palma's Scarface, plays NSA big shot Roger Stanton with the right mix of authority and mystery, though it sort of gives away that the guy can't be trusted that much; the latter, in spite of a limited presence (the actual interrogation doesn't take place until the sixth hour), is quietly menacing and disturbingly charming - a femme fatale for the 21st century.
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