Looks like America has survived Day 5 of 24 . Thank goodness for Jack Bauer. Also, thank goodness for the Blogcritics 24 crew, and Blogs4Bauer.

As we contemplate the big season finale though, I'm looking back to one particularly amusing bit of series history: the HOT LESBIAN TERRORISTS from the first season. As Evelyn Quince would say during the presentation of his Tales of Ribaldry, "Dangerous sex! Dangerous sex! Oh, why isn't there a single word for 'dangerous sex?'"

The very first show, hour one of day one, famously involved blowing up a commercial jet full of passengers mid-air. I've got an extensive photo layout on that notorious 24 airplane sequence.

The actual blowing up of the plane was done by an evil chick named Mandy (Mia Kirshner), who has shown up briefly but repeatedly since then. Now, Mandy is undeniably hot, but that point was largely lost. This was just weeks after 9/11, and people were more gasping over the raw emotions being accidentally stoked by something that was written and filmed months before. Folks were certainly in no mood to see anything the least bit sexy anywhere in the situation.

So then, the public was definitely not ready for the story of Mandy and her lesbian terrorist lover Bridget (Kim Murphy). Watching this again years later, their story strikes me as ultra-high camp. I might usually mean such a thing as criticism, but not here.

Their story makes perfectly good sense dramatically. They are an organic part of the larger story, and their behavior makes good sense in the context of the show. It's perfectly legitimate, well thought out and acted out.

But their story strikes me as just gut-bustingly funny — and I don't think that's accidental from the creators. It's presented as what you might consider absolutely and inappropriately yet undeniably sexy. Classically, Quentin Tarantino got some of his best humor with the overt taunting by the inappropriately irresistible Japanese schoolgirl assassin Gogo Yubari in Kill Bill. I don't know if it's a funny explanation, but it's about how easy it is to crank the mammalian biology of even smart sophisticated Tarantino fans. Yeah, you got us.

And naturally, I've got pictures of the lesbian terrorists. How could one resist? I am but a man.

Again, this sequence was effective dramatically. This was in significant part because it was short, resolved tragically in the second episode. It was kind of a doomed romance. Mandy personally blows up a jet full of passengers, and then a couple of hours later has to co-operate with the unfortunately necessary murder of her greedy lover.

And the moral of all this is: Life is short. Enjoy those fleeting golden moments.

PS: They did manage to give the girls one nice little make-out scene with beautiful tearful soap opera drama. Precious moments.