*Spoilers ahead.*

So it came as a surprise that Jack Bauer's father Phillip on 24 has a soft spot. Over the past few hours, Phillip has mercilessly killed his son Graem, blamed Jack for the death, kidnapped his grandson and planted explosives to kill Jack. But in the latest episode, he spared Jack's life.

A blogger from Blogs4Bauer must've already sensed the softer side of Phillip when he monkeyed around with the lyrics to Harry Chapin's song "Cat's in the Cradle," and made them applicable to Papa Bauer and his hero son Jack.

The first lines: "My child arrived just the other day, Jack came to the world in the usual way. But there were planes to bomb, and nukes astray. He shot smack while I was away."

(S06E10) *Warning, spoilers ahead*

A President's Day gift awaited viewers at the end of the tenth hour of 24.

In fact the extremely brief scene involving a famously evil 24 president -- who is now sporting a beard that rivals Jack Bauer's when he was released from Chinese custody some 10 hours ago -- was my favorite part of the latest episode of 24.

That, and the scene where the chief of staff was lying on the dingy floor of another, non-descript boiler room with duct tape over his mouth. Those two scenes made up for the others, like Milo bein' a hero, Morris spitting out the drink and inappropriate flirting in a stairwell.

Will 24's Morris O'Brian be tortured by the "bad" terrorist before or after he reconfigures the triggers on the four suitcase nuclear bombs? Will Jack Bauer figure out that his dad Phillip is a bad dude?

While we wait for the fresh two-hour installment of 24 next week, here are few items to mull over from hour seven (*spoilers ahead*) :

Quote of note: "I'm not stupid Graem, I know something's wrong," Marilyn Graem told her soon-to-be-dead husband who responded by telling her to go make some coffee.