Scarred and tired, Jack Bauer has been infected by a supervirus and must take on a derelict PMC, hellbent on world domination.

Sound familiar? If you’ve played Metal Gear Solid 4, you’ve officially been there and done that. I’ve long talked off-the-blog about 24’s continual ripping off of Metal Gear Solid. People have finally started listening to me after I noted continuously that Tony Almeda (aka Raiden) would rise from the dead.

Spoiler alert. (Cease reading if you don’t want to know what happens next on 24… or if you haven’t played all the Metal Gear games.)

President David Palmer (shot in the head) will be back too. The clock didn’t stop counting (which happens whenever a key protagonist dies), but people didn’t listen to me about that happening when Almeda was “killed.” He’ll make an appearance later this season. It’s not clear just yet if Palmer (who had an almost brotherly bond formed with Bauer prior to the series beginning) will take on the Solidus role of mixed-up-bad-guy-that-used-to-be-president.

Oh, and you can start playing the Father & Son theme from the end of MGS4. Intel confirms Jack’s father will be back for some healing aww-he’s-not-so-bad moment (don’t count on that for this season, but it’s in the cards). For those of you not familiar with the 20-year-running Metal Gear saga, Solid Snake battled, and killed his genetic father, Big Boss, twice… only to find him rise from the dead for the series finale.

My point to all of this is not to ruin 24 for you. It’s a great show. And don’t worry, Jack Bauer wasn’t made in a test tube. Though John Voight is probably going to wind up being a dead ringer for Ocelot (don’t say I didn’t warn you). I just think it’s worthy of pointing out where they get their material from. And, that crosses into the tech sector… which is my domain.

On one final note, kudos to Apple for putting down the money for a formal endorsement. After years of Macs being featured, Apple paid the token gesture amount to have Mac OS X featured. The 24 team is a huge fan of all-things-Apple, and Apple got a free ride for years with countless product placements.