"24": Olivia's big Oops

How weird was it that after watching '24' last night, I flipped over to my favorite crazy drama "CSI:Miami" and there was Olivia Taylor being all vulnerable as a single mom named Tonya trying to get her children back.

Somebody's agent is working hard for that 10 percent.

So last night we learned that Miss Machiavelli actually has a conscience. Fueled by the deal her mother the president made that got evil/misguided Jonas Hodges in witness protection instead of on death row, she set out to have him killed. Which, I think, gets to the issue of how we deal with terrorists -- because make no mistake Jonas is a terrorist. Our justice system allows for deal-making as one of the ways to get information and avoid torture, but is that satisfactory punishment for the crime?

Olivia thought Jonas losing the life he built and his family and his name wasn't enough to satisfy the debt she thought he owed for killing several people, especially her brother (not to mention getting her father stabbed). But she couldn't push the send button on the payment. Deal-making doesn't feel good, but the writers suggested revenge isn't the goal either.

But in '24' land, there's always a force of evil waiting to be unleashed, and even without payment, Olivia unleashed one. (Where did she get $250,000?)

A brief aside: Why is Renee telling all of Jack's business? Did she really need to tell that imam that Jack got exposed to toxins and could be dead in a day?

Olivia's mistake got me thinking about how awful it is to be a president on '24.' We got one good president who got murdered, his less competent brother who got blown up, another who ended up power crazy and then stabbed by his wife. (Again, when is Aaron going to tell us what happened to the Mrs!?) And now this president has a murdered son, an injured husband and a daughter who is in a lot of trouble.

In '24' land being the LOTFW is a bad idea.