Oedipus, Go Home

ST Karnick notes one of the things that makes “24” and its characters more compelling than so many other TV shows, even in its 8th season : the shows characters may have suffered onscreen or recent offscreen traumas they have to grapple with, but few of them, at least on the good-guys side of the ledger, are driven by some canned backstory about their relationship with their parents (Kim Bauer is obviously an exception, but we’ve been given ample evidence of the sources of strains between Kim and Jack, including Kim’s tendency to get kidnapped by Jack’s enemies and her boyfriends’ tendency to lose limbs).