For all concerned, I think it’s safe to say that we’ve arrived at Panic Station.

The British Prime Minister (my wife still laughs whenever Stephen Fry is on screen, for the sheer absurdity of it all) has to be freaking the hell out right now, because he stands to lose far more than Big Dick Heller does. He stuck his neck out for Big Dick – let’s pause for a moment and examine that sentence, ‘stuck his neck out for Big Dick,’ shall we? – by defending the Americans’ drone program, and that decision might cost thousands of Londoners their lives. We have a small quibble with Mommie Dearest’s video, though. She made a point about how her group spared the innocent, then threatened to bomb London if Heller didn’t surrender to her, meaning that she had contradicted herself, on tape, within seconds. Terrorists: if you can’t trust them to be true to their word, who can you trust?

Then again, if there is one thing that Mommie Dearest delivers as promised, it’s pain, and she threw the hammer down tonight by putting down Naveed personally once she discovered that he planted a clue for CTU to find them. (You would think that the mass suicide option I presented last week would be a more glorified death for someone in a terrorist cell, but it turns out that he was just a sentimental fool – emphasis on ‘fool’ – who happened to fall in love with a terrorist.) I still expect Simone to exact her revenge on Mommie Dearest before the credits roll, but all things in due time.

Now, for the bit where CTU raided the estate…how do I put this nicely…are you fucking kidding me?

”All right, so you’re telling me that this is where our intel tells us that I get ambushed?” “Yes, sir, I am.” “Awesome, let’s suit up.”

This was a massive compound, and the CIA had little cover in their approach, so if there had been anyone, anyone, on the premises, they would have spotted the Feds from a mile away, and started shooting. That is Red Flag #1. Red Flag #2 came when the Feds swept the entire first floor, and found no resistance whatsoever, yet they still continued to infiltrate the building. Granted, we know what is about to happen and they don’t, so it’s easy to armchair quarterback this sort of thing, but are you really telling us that no one, not even chest-puffing Director Navarro (seriously, what was with that whole ‘You have a problem with that?’ moment with Agent Ritter? Is he really that insecure?), thought that this smelled all sorts of wrong? I get why they went this way – they needed to justify Kate, as well as shift the focus from Navarro and Ritter to Jack and Kate, which they alluded to in the scenes for next week’s episode – but it’s just feels lazy. I’m all for setting a trap for the Feds; just make it more clever than convenient.

There is division within Open Cell. The Crow helps Chloe identify the hidden code on Lieutenant Patsy’s key, but he wants nothing more to do with helping the CIA, and that makes sense, but before he leaves, he says to Chloe, ”I love you.” So, um, how much does he really love Chloe? Is this, “I will go down in flames, and you’re all coming with me” love, or something milder? If IMDb is any indication, all of the major characters will be on the show for all 12 episodes, but The Crow is only on for 11, so take that for what it’s worth.

This brings us to the song of the week. Unfortunately, Muse decided to do something crazy and actually have fun with a music video instead of feeding into the paranoia that must consume Matt Bellamy on a daily basis. So yeah, the video doesn’t match the lyrical content, and while that doesn’t suit our purposes, it’s a good thing for Muse’s sake, because they could use some levity.