John, to say that anything involved with 24 was “stupid” is to ignore the reality of the show.  The whole thing is stupid when you look at it as a whole.  Just think about the 24 hrs of season 4.

Train crash to steal Nuclear Override suitcase, Heller is kidnapped, Hackers discover internet traffic with nuclear plants, kidnapping to hide internet attack on nuclear power plants, Jack tracks computer programmer who was captured by terrorists, Jack takes hostages in gas station, Jack finds Heller and rescues him minutes before air strike, Jack goes to hotel to id American audrey saw while a hostage, Tony comes out of nowhere to kill people trying to kill Jack and Audrey, confrontation at hospital with Berhooz and his dad, Curtis and Jack try to get override device from military company, Edgar stops nuclear meltdown, Jack goes after Marwan, Defense company initiates EMP that knocks out downtown LA, Jack fights Mercanaries, Jack turns himself over to terrorists to get close to Marwan for a Berhooz trade, Marwan gets someone to steal a stealth fighter, Jack unsucessfully tries to talk pilot out of shooting down air force one, Jack tracks nuclear football to power plant, gets in gun fight with Marwan again and he escapes, Jack tracks him to a nightclub and is ready to trap terrorist but is arrested by Secret Service for insubordination by dummy Logan, Jack raids Chinese embassy to get nuclear missle expert guy, Jack and Tony try to capture woman who knows where Marwan is, Jack finds Marwan and kills him minutes before nuclear missle hits LA.     

The racial profiling thing has been a running theme on 24.  They’ve used it on several occasions before, I remember two distinct scenes from season 4: 1) Jack, after taking hostages at a gas station to buy Chloe time to get satelites up and running, hijacks the terrorists’ car then dumps him on the side of the road, the terrorist steals another car but is involved in some traffic incident with racial overtones. The cops calmed the racial aspect then on orders from Jack the let the guy go (even though he was driving a stolen car).  Terrorist drives into gas station to kill himself.   2) Jack teams up with the arab-born gun store owners when fighting off the corporate mercanaries

Negotiating with terrorists was made popular by Logan in Season 5 so the plot precedent was set.  Although Palmer II is clearly weak minded so far.

I agree with the problem of Jack superpowers.  Apparently, if a 50+ year old man gets a shave, a haircut and some new clothes, 20+ months of torture and malnutrition are erased.  As for the Nerve bundle and spear to the back.  When they broke into the house with the U-Haul truck, Jack bandaged his shoulder and changed his shirt.  If you read your CTU field manual, fresh linens have immense restorative powers.  

The elaborate plot to free the “one” guy who knows how to reprogram the trigger for the suitcase bomb does seem ridiculous (if you assume that the other “visitors” are all suitcase bombs that have to be programmed).  The nuclear explosion may have been the “statement” explosion that the terrorists needed, hence the need to get the guy out of prison.  If the other “visitors” are suitcase bombs that do not need to be reprogrammed then the plot was crazy.  If they still need to be reprogrammed, then we have the plot device from Season 5 – namely find some military contractor willing to sell secrets for lots of CASH (ala the guy who knew how to reprogram the Centox nerve gas and had the underage girl). 

The shooting of Curtis was overkill.  If Jack is so tuned in to the fact that there is a history between Curtis and Assad, then why the heck did he ever let him out of his sight.  Â