Figuring how quickly corpses pile up on 24, Ponyboy may not stay gold for long.

Nonetheless, erstwhile Outsiders star C. Thomas Howell is the latest guest star to punch the clock for Fox's terrorist-busting series.

The network on Monday announced the addition of Howell to the show's ever-revolving ensemble. He'll play a therapist named Barry Landes, who enters the fray at the request of Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert) after she learns that her father, show protagonist Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), was not killed, as she has been led to believe, but is alive and leading the hunt for nerve-gas-equipped baddies. Howell's character "attempts to simmer down a boiling situation," per the Fox press release. The story line begins to unfold this month.

Like the pre-24 Sutherland, Howell's career seemed resigned to straight-to-video purgatory since his 1980s heyday that included Red Dawn, The Hitcher and Soul Man. But he had a starring role in last year's Poseidon Adventure TV movie and a featured role on ER. Howell has five films and a TV movie in various stages of production, per IMDb.com.

The Brat Pack-era survivor joins show newcomers like Jean Smart, Sean Astin, Connie Britton and Ray Wise (Good Night, and Good Luck, Twin Peaks), who Fox said on Monday was coming on board to play President Logan (Gregory Itzin)'s veep, Hal Gardner.

Fox also announced that William Devane will also reappear this spring as Secretary of Defense James Heller.

This season, Day Five for clock watchers, is already shaping up to be Jack's Worst Day Ever. Forced out of exile after being implicated in the assassination of former President David Palmer, Bauer has been held hostage by bomb-wielding terrorists, forced to break in to a presidential compound to clear his name, learned that deadly nerve gas is ready to be unleashed somewhere in the U.S., and make amends with ex-girlfriend Audrey Raines (Kim Raver).

The show will continue uninterrupted until its final hour this May. Along the way, Fox is preparing a special two-hour block for Mar. 6. The episode, chronicling 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., will reunite Jack with the defected federal agents who first recruited him more than a decade ago, played by the previously announced Peter Weller and JoBeth Williams.

C THOMAS HOWELL Hollywood Collectors and Celebrity Show at Burbank Airport Hilton Burbank, California - 01.0.05

KIM RAVER, KIEFER SUTHERLAND, ELISHA CUTHBERT, at the 24 Season 5 Premiere