(S06E06)*Warning: Spoilers ahead*

At times, I felt as though I'd accidentally clicked over to an old episode of The Sopranos, what with all the references to stick by "the family" and the importance of family loyalty . . . all references made mere minutes after one family member had tried to suffocate another, after members of the same family drew weapons on one another and one member demanded the execution of both his brother and father.

There was even some good, old fashioned, familial taunting. Insults were hurled like calling one brother "simple minded" and later harassing him for his failure to adequately protect his wife from a terrorist.

The Bauer boys drama, coupled with the late-in-the-episode appearance of their father, Phillip Bauer, provided the most compelling story line of the sixth hour of the new day of 24, an hour in which Tom Lennox proved himself to be a treacherous political shark who has a creepy little minnow swimming in his wake (that would be Chad Lowe playing Lennox's henchman) who somehow got Karen Hayes to resign.

But first, back to the Bauers . . . when we last saw them at the end of the last hour Jack was suffocating Graem with a plastic bag. It bugged me to no end that while viewers were not clued in as to why Jack punched his brother in the head without apparent provocation (the punch preceded the baggie incident), Jack later trusted Graem and his father to walk around freely. At the beginning of the episode, the brothers went to the office of Darren McCarthy, the man Abu Fayed had been calling in an attempt to line up an engineer to reconfigure the triggers on the remaining suitcase nukes McCarthy apparently helped Fayed procure. While finding nothing but "shredded" computer files of contracts between Phillip and Graem Bauer's company and McCarthy, Jack heard a noise in another location outside the office. After securing Graem's handcuffs to a bookcase, Jack went to check out the noise in darkened supply room, only to be ambushed by security men working for Phillip.

"I'm surprised to see you Jack," his father's first words rang out from the shadows. "We all feared the worst." After uttering such heartfelt sentiment, Philip called off his guards and Jack demanded his weapon back. Then, in a move I still don't get, Jack inexplicably tossed Phillip's men the keys to go and unlock Graem's handcuffs. Why would he do that, given that he'd just tried to suffocate Graem and all throughout the car ride Graem threatened Jack that he'd better not go against the family? As soon as Jack said he was going to report to CTU that Phillip and Graem's company, which was supposed to "decommission" the suitcase nukes, "slipped up" by hiring McCarthy, who was now working with a terrorist, Graem ordered the security personnel to point their weapons at Jack and his father Phillip. As the father and son were being led away to a van in cuffs, the man formerly known as the Bluetooth dude uttered, "Call me when it's over." By "it," one can only assume he's referring to their execution. Isn't Jack supposed to be smarter than this?

Meanwhile, in Washington, the political maneuverings got very interesting as did the ideological jousting between Chief of Staff Lennox and presidential advisor Hayes. After a very entertaining exchange that touched on issues involving the lack of accuracy of muskets, the Constitution and the phrases "bleeding heart liberal" followed by "dangerous agenda," Lennox dispatched his minion to produce evidence he could use to blackmail Hayes out of her White House job. Now maybe it's just me, but the threat Lennox made -- to expose allegations that Hayes covered up a mistake made by her husband, CTU Chief Bill Buchanan who let Fayed and other suspected terrorists free 14 months ago -- didn't seem substantial enough for Hayes to call it quits. There's got to be more to the story than that. Her quick request to be transferred to CTU-LA (President Palmer II said she'd get a military transport to the west coast) seemed too convenient.

One of the policies about which Lennox and Hayes locked horns before she quit was racial profiling. Without apparently securing presidential approval, Lennox had ordered Homeland Security to immediately start requiring that all federal employees of a Middle Eastern descent -- including Nadia Yassir in CTU-LA -- go through numerous safety checks and administrative hurdles in order to continue doing their work. This meant that work in CTU was delayed because Nadia had to go through an enormous amount of bureaucratic tape. So Milo, being the helpful chap that he is, felt outraged on her behalf and signed her onto a CTU computer under his name so she could work faster. A mistake? Is she another Nina-Myers-in-waiting? Or is she a red herring?

Then there was poor Walid Al-Rezani, the boyfriend of President Palmer II's sister Sandra, who was beaten in a federal detention facility by fellow detainees after they discovered that he'd been helping authorities obtain information from suspected terrorists. This ought to set off Sandra Palmer. But good. I expect long monologues from her in the next hour about how Lennox is an out of control maniac who wants to stick a dagger through the beating heart of American civil liberties. I'll bet she'll be in rare form.

So, what did you think of the Bauer family reunion? Of Hayes' resignation? Other aspects of the sixth hour?