24's all in the family

Holy crap, Dr. Romano is Jack's BROTHER??

What is up with the familial reveals lately? First the Masked Woman on Ugly Betty is actually Daniel's brother, and now this? It's such a soap opera thing to do, but if there are two shows that can pull it off, these are the ones (Ugly Betty because of its campiness factor in general and because 24 requires a good dose of suspend-your-disbelief in general). I do like that they're bringing in Jack's family for this season though. We haven't seen much of that all since first season really, and this just is a seriously delicious twist. I guess I should stop calling Graham Rocket Romano now though. (I didn't even watch ER that regularly!)

Otherwise, I thought that this episode was good setup for what's to come. There are, after all, 19 more episodes to go, so they need to pace things out. Having the engineer die with the bomb definitely gives everyone some more time. Some other notes:

• Rena Sofer has become quite the TV power wife lately. She's on against herself on Heroes.
  
• Are they hinting that Graham's son is really Jack's? He seems quite a bit younger than Kim, which would just be...confusing.
  
• Glad to see that at least Chloe knew about Jack's father and brother. She's so Jack's best friend right now. I totally loved her for asking why all her friends have to die (I think to think she was thinking about Edgar, sniff).
  
• The President's sister is irritating the hell out of me. I was so rooting for all those FBI agents to keep giving her the verbal smackdown.
  
• The helicopter thing was kind of ridiculous but I guess it was just supposed to "wake up" Jack and make him realize that he's still very much needed.
  
• I'm still really having trouble buying Wayne Palmer as President. His being David's brother was probably a big factor in his election, but I feel like that also gave him a lot to live up to. I dp really hope he steps it up though because after last season, I think we need to see a strong president.

Oh, and speaking of Ugly Betty, Christopher Gorham is going to be in all the remaining episodes of this season and will be a regular next season! YAY HENRY!