REALEST OF THE WEEK: JUSTICE SCALIA

Jack Bauer has been searching for a road dog for the past two seasons as a series of untimely (but extremely exciting) deaths/injuries has left Jack without a dependable ally in the field.

Mason bit the dust early on. Tony, Michelle, Curtis, and Doyle all met with serious misfortune also. The writers of 24 made a critical mistake in killing off all these characters for the sake of excitement. They forgot the fact that, even though it's great when Jack is a renegade, he still needs that one road dog to back him up and support him when things go down. The role usually falls on Chloe or Buchanan - and they usually rise to the challenge. But, they are missing that certain road dog quality - that loyal dependability that Jack really needs.

That's where Justice Scalia comes in.

Scalia is principled (you may not agree with those principles, but you have to admit that he sticks by them), hard-nosed, and believes that Jack should be able to torture people in emergency situations. If that's not a road dog, we don't know what is. Sure, Justice Scalia doesn't have weapons training or have the faintest clue about CTU protocols - but who cares? He'll have Jack's back and that's the important thing.

Maybe next year we'll get a Supreme Court storyline with Justice Scalia leaving the bench to help Jack interrogate a suspect or defuse a nuclear bomb. After this season's dismal run, that would definitely be an upgrade.