Bauer by Hour: Wayne's World

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Express' Matt Swenson, an admitted "24" addict, is dying to know when Jack Bauer will be the focus of another episode this season. The following takes place between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.

WHERE'S MIKE MYERS when you need him? When last we saw President Wayne Palmer he was alive and well after coming out of a coma — schwing — and had his eyes on taking back power. Of course, no one wields power quite as excellently as Powers Boothe (it's in the name), so the evil V.P. wouldn't be giving up without a fight over the 25th Amendment.

And while it took Al Gore and George W. Bush more than a month to settle their presidential dispute in front of the Supreme Court, Palmer and his No. 2 get an audience in less than an hour. Sure, why not? Legal questions over running the free world take no time. Alas, the case never really makes it that far because no one outsmarts our man Vigo (Peter MacNicol). Having learned from the all-powerful evildoer in "Ghostbusters 2," Vigo doesn't trust anyone anymore.

This means bugging the Veep's room in the White House bunker — remember there was a nuclear threat on the U.S. half a season ago. Lo and behold — sorry, no Chad Lowe sightings this week — Powers is caught conspiring with his aide (dare we say lover during party time?) to commit perjury. Boothe bows out under Vigoesque pressure, but maybe all this was for naught. Remember the nuke strike the Veep planned that had to be stopped? Now President Palmer is gung ho for it to show he has the power. Exsqueeze me? Now to the minutes.

» GOLDEN HEART: Agent Silver Spoons — little Ricky Schroder — turns over a new leaf, hiding evidence of a screw-up by Milo, his arch-nemesis from the Denver incident, that allowed the bad guys to break into CTU's computers last week. Why? Because Milo can help stop the baddies. Or so Ricky thinks.

» GODSPELL: No minute was more priceless than Ricky's heart to heart with Nadia over religion. Turns out Ricky has read the Quran, The Bible and "anything else I can get my hands on." Sadly, he hasn't found his answers yet, unlike Nadia, who is Muslim, as "24" has mentioned once or twice this year.

» WHO'S BAD AGAIN? A Russian general and a Middle Eastern man named Fayad have planned the nuke attacks this season. Except now the Russian is spoiler alert dead (explained below) and Fayad is in Jack Bauer's custody by episode's end. end spoiler

» WHAT'S JACK'S ROLE? Not much this week. He does strike a deal to lead the Russian to Fayad, but Jack doesn't even shoot anyone this week. Jack does get shot in the preview for next week's episode, though.

» MISSING IN ACTION: Kim Bauer, Audrey Raines, Audrey Raines' father James Heller and sexy assassin Mandy.

» NOT QUITE MISSING: Chloe doesn't even get a line in this week's episode. Maybe she does something exciting later this season, but otherwise this has been a dud year for her.

» WHY THIS SHOW IS "24" AND YOUR SHOW ISN'T MOMENT: After cutting a deal with Jack, the evil Russian goes back on his word. Who could see that coming? He even has Fayad cut off his arm because a tracking device had been implanted there. Sadly, the Russian forgets that you can die from losing too much blood, even if you stumble near a nice-looking beach at night. Oops.

Photo courtesy of Fox