It's not a ridiculous contrast; it's more a man hiding a secret and being a little smarter about how he projects himself than we thought.

Often, Kiefer's portrayal is riveting. He's really able to make these occasionally ridiculous situations feel extremely real, and more importantly, extremely personal.

What could be a better adversary for Jack than the most powerful man in the world?

This year is sort of about rebirth as well as the nature of vengeance and justice.

The reason the audience doesn't see the twists coming is, we don't either.

We can't tell you how. We can't tell you for how long. We can't tell you how it ends.

We know in general we'll avert a terrorist threat, and we try to get the first four to six episodes down. But even as we're writing those, they change. And I think one of the reasons the show has the quality it does is we're so critical, and revise ourselves. We then revise it again.

I think we're looking at an inevitable face-off between Jack and the president, good versus evil. 24 's never seen a showdown like this one.

Last year, we didn't know that Jack wouldn't wind up dead. We know in general we'll avert a terrorist threat or conclude the conventional story, but we begin the year sort of pretending we have the first four to six. But even as we're writing those, they change.

Making things feel real is one of our primary concerns in the way we write it. And it's one of the gifts that the actors who do the show really have to make ridiculous situations feel real.