Wow, 24 was actually rivetting last night. I initially thought the decision to kill Hector was telegraphed from the beginning of the prior episode (not to mention it being a played-out cliche), but last night had all the earmarks of a season finale with its air of resolution. Of course, we've got a whole lot of Jack's ill-timed double-takes left to go. And even though an idiot would've known that something was going to go wrong with CTU's stakeout, letting myself think for a while that the Good Guys were going to steal the virus, and then 24, being the convention-defying, cliche-less and revolutionary series that it is (oops, forgot to mention that was me daydreaming/continually buying into the show's cutting-edgeness), they would do something relatively unprecedented and radically change the direction of the overarching plot arc (like last year when they were going to kill Jack -- twice!).

Anyway, happy that both Salazars are dead (what ridiculously drawn characters!) and that Nina is still alive (but thankfully out of sight -- awful hair BEGONE!).

Sherri, though, I've never been a fan of, even in the love-to-hate-her vein, probably because I find her shrill and too single-mindedly set on whatever it is she's after to be a compellingly evil character. For example, compared to Lady Kaede from Ran, scheming and manipulating while still having a genuinely empathetic motivation, the ex-Lady MacPalmer is simply flat and one-dimensional, and attempts to humanize her are so rushed and underdeveloped that they ring false.