Body Count: The Bear was surprised to discover that is has been nearly two months since we last summarized the official Bauer body count. Quite a lot has happened in the intervening hours. since the 5pm-6pm hour of 24.
Let's review. Previous official body count was 12. Unofficially the number could be as high as 47. Since then, lots of mayhem has ensued, though we must applaude Jack's restraint between the hours of 5pm and 1am in which he killed absolutely ZERO people.
That respite comes to a close in Hour 18 when Jack teams up with the seventh Coral Snake, and they shoot their way out of a blind ally somewhere on the seedy side of L.A. We don't know who these shadow guns are, but before the dust settles Jack nails seven of them. Official count: 19.
Then in Hour 19 Jack knocks off one more Man In Black before they take him with a taser. Official count: 20.
Within the hour, Jack has been tortured to the edge of death -- flatlined even -- but is somehow revived. Whereupon he toasts three of the thugs who were holding him captive. Official count: 23.
And as tonight's episode comes to a close, Bauer adds one more to the count when he sweeps in to rescue Kate from the jerks who beat good-guy Yusef to death. Official count: 24. All in a day's work.
Unofficially... Count the misguided muslim in Hour 11 who immolates himself to throw Jack off the trail of Sayed Ali. Jack delivers the bomb to Death Valley, and George Mason takes the final stretch. But Mason was going to die anyway, so we shouldn't add him to the body count. But what about the estimated "few" campers and hermits that were probably out there at ground zero. (For the sake of counting, let's call it 8 - imagine a family of five in a broken down RV, plus a pair of jailbirds in flight from the law, plus a genuine mystic, vaporized in prayer.) Unofficial body count stands at 56.
10:03:19 PM 
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