(S06E13) *Warning, spoilers ahead from the new episode*

What do you get when you mix together the following ingredients:

A blended shirt that doesn't wrinkle, a mysterious Denver connection, raspberries and kiwi from Mel's, a bungalow, a mental institution, Russian carnage, getting "stirred up" and Ricky Schroder?

A heck of a good 24 episode . . . though I must admit to laughing at scenes where the show's creators likely weren't going for guffaws. But when you bring back three old characters and put them in an awkward (Man was it awkward!) love triangle and sprinkle in some potential world destruction via nuclear bombs, you gotta chuckle, at least a little bit.

Now that the spoiler-phobes have left this blog post, I can freely talk about the fruit . . . I don't think I'll be able to slice kiwi or look at raspberries in the same way again. Not after former First Lady Martha Logan (Now institutionalized! And sleeping with Aaron Pierce!) made fruit salad out of her ex-husband, the redemption-seeking criminal former President Charles Logan. I know, I know, I wasn't supposed to laugh and clap when Martha -- driven to a frenzy by Charles' patronizing attitude and talking in that smug, low tone of his -- plunged a knife into his right shoulder, possibly killing him. But I was greatly amused by everything Martha did and said.

Charles had initially come to Martha's bungalow to persuade her to call her friend, the Russian president's wife, in an attempt to secure permission for CTU agents to invade the Russian consulate, which Jack Bauer illegally breached, and take into custody a Russian official who knew the location of the three loose suitcase nukes. (Martha got a stinkin' bungalow and Charles got a palatial estate? No wonder she stuck him with a knife.) Martha became friendly with Anya Suvarov last season, after she saved the Russian first couple from a Charles Logan-approved assassination attempt. Remember how Martha hopped into their limo after her hubby had given Russian separatists the limo's route so they could kill President Yuri Suvarov and his wife?

The hope was that Martha could work her Marthonian magic with the Suvarovs so the United States wouldn't be forced to invade Russian soil and potentially start a war in order to force the rogue Russian consul to tell them where the nukes were located. Despite throwing a nutty and stabbing Charles, Martha was successful with her phone call and got President Suvarov to authorize CTU's invasion of the consulate and the detention of the Russian consul. Phew! No war with Russia. No slow boat to another foreign jail for Jack for trampling on international sovereignty laws.

Speaking of Jack . . . he was trapped inside the consulate, having kicked off this siege last week. Jack had already learned where the "bad" terrorist was meeting with the former Russian general to load the nukes onto unmanned drones. He obtained the info after some fancy work with a cigar cutter and a Russian finger last week. However Jack, who was uncharacteristically grimacing quite a bit after being tossed down a flight of stairs by a Russian security dude, spent nearly the entire hour hiding in the consulate basement trying to find a working telephone or a satellite phone so he could tell CTU where the nukes were. For fans of Jack-tion, this episode was likely a disappointment since his scenes were few and far between. I, however, liked the episode because I'm a big fan of both Jean Smart and Gregory Itzin. I'm crossing my fingers for Charles to live to see another day.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Vice President Noah Daniels, who assumed power while President Wayne Palmer remained unconscious after a failed assassination attempt via a bomb, was busy framing a Country Whose Name We Shall Not Mention for not only the assassination plot, but for all the terrorist activity that had happened in the weeks preceding Jack's current terrible day. Daniels bullied the chief of staff, Tom Lennox -- nicely recovered from having been duct-taped to a boiler room pipe and batted about the head with a flashlight -- into lying to the ambassador from a Country Whose Name We Shall Not Mention, by saying there was a witness who saw the "good" terrorist from the Country Whose Name We Shall Not Mention holding a bomb detonator before the blast. Daniels also lied by saying that he had forensic evidence linking the "good" terrorist to the bomb. If the ambassador from the Country Whose Name We Shall Not Mention doesn't help the United States find the loose suitcase nukes, Daniels threatened, "I'm going to unleash the full power of our military on your country." Only he never said what country that was exactly. Unless I've just missed the reference over all these episodes.

Geez. Daniels is spoilin' for a fight. Just like in season two, when the shadowy American cabal of businessmen conspired to frame Islamic nations for that season's nuclear attack. Just so they could start a war. Coincidence?

And I must mention the appearance of Ricky Schroder as CTU's new head of field ops, who beat up on poor, freshly tortured, falling-off-the-wagon Morris "Drill Bit" O'Brian. I want to know what's up with him. And Milo. And Denver.