Few cliffhangers have been as shocking as the final moment of 24's second season, when President Palmer was poisoned and possibly dying, and in case anyone had missed that the scene is shown again right at the beginning of this episode, before the caption "Three years later" informs us that a new, gripping day is about to start.
What has happened in three years? Well, for starters, Palmer is alive, though still recovering from the chemical attack, and is currently back in L.A. for a debate with Senator John Keeler, his rival in the upcoming election. Also worth noticing, he has appointed his brother Wayne (DB Woodside) as his new aide. Things have changed a little at CTU as well: Tony Almeida is now officially the director of the agency, and married to Michelle Dessler (Reiko Aylesworth), whom he began dating during the events of Day 2. In addition, KIm Bauer works for them now, a fact that irritates several of her colleagues (Zachary Quinto's Adam Kaufman first and foremost) since the only reason she got the job is her father.
And what about Jack? He has a new partner, Chase Edmunds (James Badge Dale), who's secretly dating Kim, and has recently broken up with Kate Warner (Sarah Wynter) because of what his job does to him. More specifically, he spent a year working undercover to get Mexican drug lord Ramon Salazar (Joaquim De Almeida) behind bars. He succeeded, but now everything he fought for appears to be in jeopardy, as a dead body has been dumped in front of a hospital and tests have revealed it was infected with a deadly virus that, if released, will kill millions of innocent people. And who would be behind this threat? Well, none other than Ramon's brother Hector, obviously.
Following the assassination attempt of Season 1 and the nuclear menace of Season 2, the series gets even more ambitious by throwing a biological attack into the mix, with the addition of a truly worthy villain, played with the right degree of sleaziness by De Almeida. Other new characters, like Chase, Adam or Wayne are equally interesting and well portrayed (Quinto's work is worth contrasting to his performance in Heroes), and the old ones have lost none of the charm that won viewers over in the first place.
Then again, in the end this remains Kiefer Sutherland's show, and the episode's ending indicates his character will probably suffer more than usual in this season.