How was the decision made to finally call Jack on his torture practices?

Jon Cassar: Well, you know, it's interesting, because obviously we've always been in the news for that. It amazes me, quite honestly, because the amount of torture hasn't changed on the show -- it was a storytelling device we've had right from the beginning. The spotlight gets put on us, of course, when in reality it starts to happen. That's when everybody kind of points at us and we're the bad guys.

But, I mean, it was very gutsy of the writers to not ignore it this year, and to actually go head-on and sort of deal with it, and deal with the storyline that has a president dealing with it, and you know, having to make decisions that are tough. I think it's going to be really interesting, and it's going to get conversations going.

Does Jack really care that he's under investigation? Or is he too cool for Senate hearings?

JC: He does care! He cares a lot! And that's actually part of it. And the fact that he has a female partner that's an FBI partner, not a CTU partner -- she's by the book. So you get to see more of what Jack does through her than you ever got to see before. That really is an interesting part of this year.

Can you give us any details about how you're raising Tony from the dead?

JC: Well. All I can tell you is that if you're gonna sort of say, "Oh, come on, how can Tony come back from the dead?!" I think when you see the explanation -- and it's not a one line explanation of what happened or anything -- it really takes place over about three or four episodes, and you start to see what happened and the story gets unraveled as to how Tony is still alive. It's pretty good, once it gets unraveled.

And he looks like he's maybe a bad guy now? Can you say who he's working for?

JC: Possibly a bad guy, possibly a good guy -- who knows in 24?! The good guys are bad guys and the bad guys are good guys. You never know! That's always part of the 24 mystique.

And with Lipstick Jungle kind of up in the air, has there been any discussion of bringing Kim Raver back?

JC: Is Kim Raver coming back? Boy, I would hope so, because she's one of my favorite people in the world. I'd love to see her back, but Season 8 is just a glint in some writer's mind right now, you know? We haven't really talked about Season 8 much. We're just about to shoot the final two episodes of Season 7 on Monday, so we'll figure all that out later.

Peep the 24 Season 7 trailer below, and comment away, Bauer addicts!