It always starts off as just another day on 24, doesn’t it? Jack Bauer babysitting his granddaughter, watching cartoons, deciding to move back to Los Angeles, then BAM! All hell breaks loose.

This time around there’s President Taylor trying to negotiate with President Omar Hassan about a dismantling of nuclear weapons, with Hassan’s brother, Farhad, trying to talk him out of it. Oh, and did I mention that there’s supposed to be an assassination attempt on President Hassan? Enter Jack Bauer.

Bauer gets intel from an old informant about the possible hit on Hassan and calls it into CTU, who tell Jack to bring the guy over for coffee (not really, but you get the idea). Unfortunately for them, CTU aren’t the only ones who want him.

So does the assassin. As President Taylor wrestles with the decision to tell Hassan about the threat on his life before their big press conference, CTU agent, Cole Ortiz, heads out in a chopper to grab Jack and his informant. By this time, though, dude’s in rough shape from a previous gun shot wound. He collapses, Jack tries to save him, and a passerby calls 911 on them. Thanks, average joe!

While the men in blue try and figure out what’s going on, two shooters blow ‘em away and a 16 Blocks scenario ensues, with Jack throwing one of them down a staircase and sticking an axe in the other one. All seems well until the head assassin blows the chopper to bits with a missile, killing Jack’s informant, but not before he tells Bauer that the assassin has someone on the inside that is linked to President Hassan.

Whew! All that in an hour? I need a smoke.

Bauer is ordered back to CTU by Director Brian Hastings. Hastings, is of course under a lot of pressure to find the insider, but is pursuing a lead that turns out to be a reporter that Hassan is having an affair with. Oh what a tangled web we weave. Luckily the SS (that’s Secret Service to you, bub) apprehend her.

Back at CTU, Jack is debriefed by good ol’ Chloe O’Brien, who thinks they got the wrong girl in reporter Merideth Reed, and you know that once Chloe has her mind set on something, she just won’t let it go.

It seems Hassan’s affair with the woman isn’t that much of a secret. His wife goes of on him, and he spills everything to his brother about how they met. For the record, I didn’t trust Farhad as far as I could throw him, and I was right, when he phoned the assassin and told him to get ready for the hit. Melzer FTW!

While Hastings may not believe Chloe, Jack sure as hell does, but he refuses to help her even after all they’ve been through, in favor of going with his daughter back to L.A.. In perhaps the biggest twist of the episode, because we all know how whiny she can be, Kim convinces him to stay and help. Oh snap! Bauer goes in to full-on bad ass mode and gets down to business.

Chloe and Jack track down the assassin that framed Merideth Reed and blew up the chopper, and Bauer is on the hunt. Speaking of that disintegrated chopper, it seems someone in CTU may have tampered with the anti-missile defense system that a nearby drone was carrying to stop it. Natch.

Of course we learn that said assassin is on the U.N. security detail, while Jack is in the bowels of CTU grabbing some guns. He’s found, detained, and set free when he blackmails Hastings. Bauer FTW!

This was a great start to the eighth season of 24. Totally over-the-top and action packed, as we’ve come to expect. Look for the second half of the season premiere tonight on FOX.

Jack’s back and it’s going to be one hell of a day.