Monday, May 24, 2010

Season 8, 2pm-4pm:Viewer discretion is advised

I have wanted to know from before I know when, just who is advising my discretion?  Is FOX purposefully obfuscating?  Why would they put this show on in prime time if they didn't think it was suitable for someone who just might tune in too late to hear the warning?  Maybe they're trying to warn us without taking credit for warning us.  Maybe they don't want to warn us, but they think somebody thinks we should be warned.  Maybe we won't believe the warning if we knew who that somebody was.  Maybe they think if we think they're warning us we wouldn't think they were cool anymore, and everybody knows TV ratings run on cool.  Why don't they just stop with the passive voice (try using E-Prime) and put credit out in the open? 

And what are they (whoever they are) warning us about?  What do they think is so dangerous that we might blanche at the sight?  What do they think we can handle?

Well, what has 24 been about since day 1?  Listen to Jack (I could mean either Bauer or Nicholson here): honor, loyalty, truth, defending.  24 is a morality play, perhaps not surprisingly twisted by the centuries since their heyday.  For example, our only beacon of justice, President Taylor, fell far short of that this year.  And, OK, Jack really doesn't really represent humanity as a whole.  He is more trying to pull humanity from the brink.  So, yeah, I just talked myself out of that dead end of an analogy.

But whether or not 24 is a morality play, it shows us again and again what happens when you live "bad" and what happens when ou do "right."  Be nice, tell the truth, don't hurt people (unless you have a good reason, like they're bad), be true to your friends.  That's the moral of the story.  Look at the bad people--Logan killed his toady, even after toady was so competent, so loyal.  Logan then shot himself and will wind up either dead or severly brain damaged--a fine finish to a fine foil.  Most/all other baddies, even though they fully believed their cause was just have wound up dead because Jack thought his side was just.  President Taylor finally told the truth and took the path to face justice, though I don't see what good that will do.  All Jack was trying to do for the last half of this season was tell the truth. And look where that's gotten him: hounded, captured, shot by his best friend (more on that later), finally set free by the truth (the least Taylor could do once she saw the light), but now facing a life on the run, probably with his daughter used as bait to try to flush him out. 

Wow, and here I was trying to make a case for the mysterious "they" of the conspiracy that warns us about the show being afraid of the truth.  But as I look back on the run of 24 that I've seen over the years, all I see are conflict and dead and tortured souls and bodies and all sides of the conflicts using the same methods, spouting the same reasons, winding up in pretty much the same boat--dead if they're lucky.  Yeah, we should use discretion watching this show--there are no good guys, everybody's a bad guy, and nobody escapes unscathed.  Life is pain, highness.  I sure wish I hadn't watched this show and found out the truth!  Oh, wait, it looks like the truth is what "they" were trying to hide all along!

Why would they want to hide it?  Because I'm not gonna go out and buy all those fancy cars they're advertising if I realize life is pain.  So, now I finally figured out who is warning me--the car companies!  But why, then would they sponsor a show they've warned me not to watch??

Whew, good thing I'm gonna consciously step back from the brink there and not think too much.

That doesn't mean nothing else occurred to me over the course of the last couple hours.  I thought about my hope--that Jack and Taylor were stinging someone.  I knew that idea had too many holes to fly, but that would have been a great way to end the series.  So many twists over the years, so many big conspiracies.  Pulling one last big one over on us and exposing the biggest conspiracy ever--now that would have been a fitting end. 

But that's not where we went.  All we got was Taylor finally realizing Logan was Wormtongue (I always wondered why Theoden would have a guy by the name Wormtongue as a counsellor), then coming clean, and ready to face the music, no matter the consequences.  Not so heroic as Theoden.  And we get Jack MIA for most of the last hour, leaving everyone else to pick up the pieces. 

But he does show up on the crooshal missing circuit that Logan says isn't worth watching when he hands it to Taylor (after finally getting it from Jack)--man, oh man, how stupid can Logan be??? (I know the answer--he's given Jack the only leads he's gotten for the last few hours, all the while thinking he's so clever.)   Taylor watches it, and even though her phone rang in the middle of her watching it and my reception of FOX went on the Fritz there for about 10s, it convinced her to come clean. 

And he closes off the series saved by Chloe, watched from above--is she a guardian angel?  No, just Arlo's drone.  He thanks her, she cries, but Tony doesn't show up.

That's not the only time she cried.  The other time tonight got me all jumpity-jumping as this show does once in a while.  Chloe went Jack hunting, and Freddy gave her a gun as she headed out, and I'm thinking yeah, right, what good is Chloe with a gun gonna be against Jack.  Ye gods, how stupid is that--oh, wait, there has to be a reason she has that gun.  Yeah, we all knew Jack was gonna take it from her, and the writers keep hitting us over the head with the now standing orders to shoot to kill Jack on sight, so it had to come to this.  With agents closing in, Jack tells Chloe to shoot him.  She says she can't and starts crying, he keeps trying the yell louder and she'll do it trick, and it keeps not working, so he finally puts his gun to his head, and she finally shoots.  Turns out it was through and through the shoulder, which is the clue toady needs to figure that Jack gave Chloe the crooshall missing cirkit (isn't it obvious).  Toady gets his cheap thrill patting her down (she gets the thrill, too, otherwise she wouldn't have mentioned it), but still misses the cirkit in the obvious spot (not her mouth, that she keeps screwing up even more so than normal, but in her own phone!).  Later Freddy asks how she could be sure she wouldn't kill Jack, and she says she wasn't, which is what I figured, too, so how toady could jump from through and through to that's what Chloe planned is beyond me.

And now I'm wondering where I'll leave all of this.  I'll start the end by musing on the rumors of a 24 movie and ask one question: How are they gonna fit 24 hours of real time in a 2 hour movie?   On to: being tired of how many times someone invoked what a dead person would have wanted to try to convince someone else to agree with a course of action--completely self-serving in the worst possible way (claiming it's what someone who can't object wants!).  And some things I have learned from TV: From NYPD Blue I learned never to trust the police in an interrogation and always to lawyer up.  What I take away the most from 24--after seeing so many versions of threats and blackmail, I'll always call their bluff. 

I hope you've enjoyed listening.  If I ever think too much again, I'll try to let you know!
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Friday, May 21, 2010

Season 8, 1pm-2pm: Creeps

A bit busy this week, so my apologies upfront if this post doesn't do justice, er I mean vengeance, to the penultimate 24 episode.  But I want to get something out before the series finale.  Hmmm, it seems with all the hype this show generates for itself (e.g., the 2 night, 4 hour season premier), it could have hyped the series conclusion better.  Should I be happy for small blessings?

 

Lots of creeps in this series, but finally I got the creeps this week.  I kinda wanted to take a shower after one scene this week.  Jack ambushing Logan's motorcade.  To do it, Jack used a bunch of stuff he got from Sidewinder including an ersatz Darth Vader mask.  Now for me, Vader never seemed such a scary villain.  Yeah, he has the telekinetic strangle-hold going for him, and he doesn't deal with slip ups graciously, but somehow he didn't scare me all that much.  He didn't ooze maleficence.  Jason wears a mask, and he's scary.  And there's Hannibal, too.  Roll all those 3 together, and that's what I felt about Jack as he dons his personal protective gear, shoots out taxicabs in front of Logan's car in the tunnel, and starts picking off secret service agents on his way to Logan.  He was like a tank, unstoppable.  But with Sidewinder's warning that Jack's about to cross a line he can't turn back from, I saw this scene and stopped enjoying this show.  Jack felt like pure self-righteous vengeance, in human behind his gear.  He ceased having any semblance of heroic stature for me during that scene.

 

Jack continues and surprisingly gets Logan, Logan is the whimpering, whining sap we know and hate when Jack threatens to kill him, eventually giving up the Russian behind the assassinations (ah, but Logan doesn't give up the top dog, still the crafty one [ah, but Jack figured he wouldn't so he leaves Logan alive, plants a bug on him, and Logan dutifully calls the top dog to give an update]).  Jack heads off to knock off the next dog on his list, and he blows away almost all the Russian's security on the way to skewering the Russian (thankfully, we don't see much of this).  

 

Along the way we learn that Jack's not all bad.  Chloe finds out he's shot only to wound, not kill, the Secret Service guarding Logan.  Not such a bad guy after all, even though he gave some savage kicks to the heads of downed agents, and he flat out did kill the Russian security.  Did those guys know the risk when they took the job? Probably, but I still gotta feel they got the raw end of the bargain thanks to Jack.

 

And that's bothered me on and off this season.  All that Jack's doing in the name of saving the peace deal, and now uncovering the truth.  Seasons of yore I was troubled, but not this much, about Jack's end justifying his means.  Then it was a pretty clear calculus of immanent death to many or Jack's killing, maiming, stealing from, trampling the rights of a few folks.  Not quite Star Trek utilitarianism, but a somewhat colorable argument.  

 

But this year it's still just this nebulous peace deal.  Sorry, I harped on it a bunch a while ago, and now what Taylor will throw away for the deal, what Jack will do to get the truth out that will kill the deal (if you believe what everybody's saying) is just too much for me.

 

As for Taylor following the advice of Logan.  Remember back in the first hour or so when I mentioned the trick the writers use of having a character comment about a plot event that just can't be believed as a means to make it believable?  They do it again here when Logan tells Taylor she's the president who preferred justice over saving her daughter.  This same Taylor who now is covering up the Russian involvement in the assassinations.  And Logan uses that to convince her that she has to keep covering up.

 

Where does that leave me?  Finally figuring the only way I come out of this season not needing a shower is if Jack and Taylor are in cahoots setting up an elaborate sting.  Could that be the final twist we won't believe?

 

At least when Jack stole the SUV someone was unloading cases of bananas from, the owner didn't come running out yelling for him to stop.  24 still has a way with eschewing cliches!  

 

Oh, and sorry to say, but that one more agent Chloe went to find wasn't Tony.  It was Freddy in the holding cell.  I guess I can't wait to see what happens when he meets up with Sidewinder.  I have the impression Freddy will be out of his depth, even though he's been talked up as the most competent CTU field op. 

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Monday, May 17, 2010

"There's one left"

I got pretty excited tonight when Chloe told Arlo, "There's one left."  Logan-plant took all the field ops to look for Jack (after Jack kidnapped Logan).  Chloe turned Freddy's observation into a lead to Sidewinder, but then she needed someone to go after him.  Arlo told Chloe all the agents are out looking for Jack, but Chloe had an idea.  Here I was hoping we see Tony, finally, after the commercial break.

I don't have time to see (with y'all) where all this leads tonight.  But stay tuned, I'll aim to remember whatever I thought was important while watching tonight later this week. Sphere: Related Content

Known associates

With Logan back and Chloe tracking down Jack's known associates in the area, how long do you think it'll be before we see another beloved figure back?
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Sunday, May 16, 2010

Season 8, 12 noon-1pm: Entropy

Catchin' up here after driving cross country.  You'll have a day or so before I get to this week's hour, but maybe I can get some thoughts out on last week's hour tonight.  I watched it on a laptop in 2 sessions today--1/2 before a swim, 1/2 after.  Let's see how good my continuity is.  I was a little continuity-shocked as the first 30 min ended with Russian assassin setting up to shoot a meet Jack set up, that the Logan-plant at CTU thought he was clever enough to figure out.  Seems everybody underestimates Jack.  When I came back to watch the 2nd 30 min, it starts with President Taylor meeting with new Islamic President (wife of recently assassinated president) trying to iron out the peace details.  The juxtaposition of those two made me do a "bugita-bugita-wha???"  But I got over it.

Here's what I'm seeing here--how hard it is to hold secrets in the 24-verse (I wonder how hard it is in the multiverse).  For example, Chloe's trying to track down Jack gone rogue.  Logan-plant, virtually running CTU right under Chloe's nose, captures Freddy after Freddy helped Jack.  Logan-plant interrogates Freddy and doesn't believe Freddy when Freddy says he doesn't know where Jack is, so it's detention for Freddy.  Chloe sneaks in to see him for 90s (I'm still amazed at how much writers can do with so little time--stay tuned for more from this time slot), and Freddy reiterates that he knows nothing , but as the 90s are nearing the end (we see Arlo's timer in split screen), Freddy says somebody local is helping Jack.  That's it, and Chloe is off to the races.  First, she could have already thought that one up and followed that idea, but second, that's all she gets and she's gonna find Jack???

The only way to keep a secret is to never tell it!  Jack, a couple weeks ago, convinced Freddy to help him--remember, Jack used the old give-him-the-gun-and-he'll-trust you trick?  Jack said he couldn't do it alone, and he was right--he needed Freddy to go to the safety deposit box with Dana, but he didn't know it when he started on that sleigh ride.  So, sharing that one little bit, and now we can just bet Chloe's gonna find him.

Now, I know next to nothing about entropy and information theory, but it looks like entropy there differs from the entropy I'm thinking about with respect to secrets, although I just bet someone could or even has applied the same mathematical formalism.  What I'm thinking as a low entropy state is a secret known by one person.  In the 24-verse, entropy increases like lightning.  OK, it took forever for Dana to show us her true colors let alone for Logan to raise his head.  But so much of plot development in this show revolves around uncovering secrets (where's this person? what do they know? what's the next target? who's behind the conspiracy?).  And that's CTU's job and what Jack's the best in the world at doing, so we shouldn't be surprised at how quickly they find the answers to these questions.

Oh, and speaking of questions, that's just what Chloe uses to convince Arlo (nice to see him getting more important and unfortunately, less sleazy, now that Dana's dead) that the Logan-plant is involved in a coverup.  She tells Arlo that Logan-plant isn't even asking the right questions!  How's that for minimal information leading down the path to higher entropy (more widely known secrets)?

Chloe uses that observation to bring Arlo on board with her, but her wiles--OK, she really doesn't have any wiles, so it's her powers of persuasion, which we already know are pretty bad--are almost not good enough to work on Freddy in detention.  Freddy finds that everyone (OK, just Chloe and Logan-plant) wants him on their side (you figure out how the grammar is supposed to work in that construction!).  And he comes to realize, like we did years, days, hours ago, that there are no good guys in the 24-verse.  Finally, Chloe says basically, "you can sit here feeling sorry for yourself; I'm gonna go help Jack," and that does it for Freddy--he looses the tidbit I mentioned above.  At least she didn't tell Freddy, "You did the right thing."

All the while Jack is connecting up with Sidewinder.  Nice to see Madsen back, but I already figured he wouldn't be one and done.  He actually tells Jack, "No," when Jack asks for help.  Then he qualifies it with, "Until you tell me what's really going on."  And here I'm thinking, "Jack's motivation here is really pretty stupid," and I'm thinking Jack's about to realize that he's gone over the top and will return to being a retired grandfather.

No such luck.  Jack sits down, sighs, and says the Russians are gonna pay for taking Renee from him.  First, that seems a bit personal for Jack, the good soldier, but OK, he's had a bunch of bad days.  Though he should know from lots and lots of experience that successful vengeance doesn't keep you warm at night.  Second, a few weeks ago he said he wanted justice.  Now, it's looking like pure vengeance.  And it makes me think on the difference between justice and vengeance.  I'm thinking vengeance is personal, justice is societal.  Justice depends on the culpability and actions of the perpetrator.  Society defines what the punishment is depending on those qualities (making me wonder whether victim statements have any purpose in a trial--at least any purpose in promoting justice). Purposes for punishment include incapacitation (to prevent repetition), rehabilitation, retribution (I'm fuzzy on what this one's about), deterrence, and these measure the proportionality between the deed and the punishment.  Vengeance is driven by the victims, not society, and the victim's loss and emotion measure the level of payment.  I'll leave it to you to figure out which would be better, more fair, or whatever metric you want to use to compare justice and vengeance.  I'm still working on it.

Jack sets up his own ambush with a call to the reporter who flung with the assassinated Islamic president.  Jack and Sidewinder ambush the ambush and play "capture the assassin" (they win).  Jack heads off into torture-land for the first real time this season, but assassin isn't talking.  I'm not going into detail on what we saw (no water-boarding because Jack really is a good guy), but I'm glad I was on a computer screen and I could escape from the maximized view.  After trying more than a couple different means to cause pain, Jack concludes, "This isn't working."  Wow.  Now there's a revelation about torture.  I'll also mention that there was a good bit of vengeance-seeking in the torture scene, too.  (Maybe that's another reason torture of terrorists has so much popular support.)  Confirming that Jack's after vengeance against anyone he thinks is culpable, Jack had started the torture before even exploring the electronic options at hand--assassin's cell phone!  In this high-tech show, electronics are the first place he always looks!  But once he figured the torture path wasn't getting anywhere, he found the cell phone, then figured out assassin swallowed the sim-chip.  No need to go into detail, but ipecac (I'm not gonna link to Family Guy here--you can find that link on your own) didn't play a role in Jack retrieving it.  And what did he find on that phone?  Logan's phone number.  Convenient that just this episode Logan asked for how to contact the assassin.

Jack didn't look happy at finding such a big name "connected" (but even a tenuous connection like this in the 24-verse leads to higher entropy).  Seems like he should have felt pretty good.

Logan is doing a good job continuing to look slimy as his plans fall apart.  His plant is still very toady and loyal talking with him, even when he's about to take the fall for everything falling apart.  And I'm left wondering when will the writers throw us the true curveball of the mole being a nice guy, not an overbearing meany?  Wait, is anybody nice in the 24-verse? Sphere: Related Content

Friday, May 7, 2010

Travelin' man

Don't worry if you don't hear much/anything from me this week.  I'm on the road again.  I don't know if I'll catch up on the episode I'll miss this week, probably not before the next one comes around.  Wow, I wonder what will happen to my internal continuity.  And darn, I'll miss Jack dealing vengeance--or will it be justice--to the Russian assassin.  Wow, that's some suspense there. Sphere: Related Content

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Season 8, 11-12 noon: When it rains, it pours

Yup, it just keeps getting better and better.  Jack is getting into a tougher and tougher pickle, we keep losing one key character in every episode (but I'm thinking hoping for Logan to finally eat it is a fool's errand), irony pokes up its sardonic head, NYC weather serves up a metaphor, moral dilemmas resolutely resist resolution, women rule CTU and 2 countries.

I'm thinking Mark Twain's comment about the weather applies anywhere, just ask the internet.  Watching 24, I'm sure that's the case in NYC.  I'm pretty sure we saw the sunset yesterday.  I don't remember the sun today, seemed like it was a bit overcast, though the helicopter scene last hour and in tonight's Previously scenes showed some blue sky.

But after blowing up Chloe's ambush and escaping with Freddy, Jack and Freddy head to the raindropped CTU SUV.  Hmmm, not 15 min ago it was pretty sunny. 

Why did we go to the trouble of rain?  Only guess I have is that contemporaneously we were seeing Dana undergoing water boarding.  Rain there didn't seem to serve another purpose--later Jack is driving through town on dry pavement, running around on dry pavement. Writers were going for art there, I guess.

Poor Dana.  Yeah, I got some of my wish.  She came into her own a bit.  Holding out gamely under water boarding, sticking to her story that she was bluffing about having evidence.  Though I don't know what her angle is there.  Holding out as long as she can hoping for rescue?  Once they believe that she doesn't know anything, she's no use to them.  Seems like a dead end no matter how you look at it.  When we find out her backup plan was a safety deposit box, I'm still at a loss as to how she could make that work--if she's the only one who can get to it, then just what leverage is it?  But all my knowledge of these things comes from TV shows, so what do I know.

Jack and Freddy spring her.  Jack kills a lot of private security baddies, including torturer.  Torturer has Dana at gunpoint, hiding behind her, Jack has him in his sights--stand-off right?  Torturer tells Jack the shot's too tough, Jack won't take it, and thinks he's OK.  We all know Jack's hit tougher shots, and Jack's not in the mood for subtlety. Another baddie bites the dust.  Freddy can only gape.  And us, too--Dana alive is the only reason Jack is there: off her, and Jack goes away, right?  And the evidence vanishes with her, no?  Well, this is 24, and national security is involved, and we know all those secrets eventually come out, right? 

But why is Freddy stunned, too?  Jack's only option was to try the shot because the foolishly deployed back up "units" (meaning gunsels--wow, that scene and how it's acted in The Maltese Falcon take on a whole new meaning when you look up the word!) had to have figured out the diversion on the roof and headed back down by now.  I'm thinking Freddy being stunned is to clue us in to Jack losing it.  Chloe harped on it last hour and this hour, and Freddy is thinking it, and even Dana is trying to play that card.  But we all know Jack better than that, right?  We're not gonna believe Jack's lost it, right?  We've seen him play us in seasons of yore, never better than in his prison escape.

Well, we find out that Dana really does have the evidence, and boy, can she act, too.  But we had to know that already with that huge range she's shown us.  Just this episode she looks lost, forlorn, hopeless then cursingly defiant during torture, then pleading, conniving, manipulating, clever with Freddy trying to get him to turn on Jack.  Then heartfelt, caring when she bares her heart to Freddy.  Then cold, resourceful when she turns the tables on him and then blows away the bank VP.  Then hysterical as she places a false 911 call.  Which is the real Dana?  We're probably to think that she really cared about Freddy and wanted to turn her life around because she doesn't kill him when he's unconscious, rather she caresses his face (Lord John Whorfin knows when you show true character). 

Dana also tries her best with Jack, and maybe this is where we're to find out Jack's one deck shy a full load.  She doesn't believe Jack's as good as his word even though we all do.  So he puts the gun to her chest and counts down from 3 (torturer gave her all of a 10 count).  Freddy tries to intervene at 2, but Dana caves at 1. Jack later tells Freddy he had to make her believe he'd have shot her.  Freddy tells Dana that later, and Dana says, "You believed that??!?"  I guess she should know how gullible Freddy is.

And after escaping the bank, and "letting" Jack see her escape (while the police are trying to nab him) she has alas, one last scene.  Jack shoots a cop in the foot after saying, "Sorry" in order to escape (lotta good that sorry's gonna do--is it for our benefit or is it character development, Jack feeling tortured?).  Dana didn't skedaddle fast enough, though, and the cops didn't slow Jack down enough, so he catches up with her, even after she ruthlessly guns down someone getting into a cab and pats a guy on the shoulder (so many subtleties in this show--like why did Jack swap guns in the shoot out when both still had bullets?  This show gives you more for fodder than Lost!).  She runs into a building under construction, and Jack follows.  She discards her shoes, even though we haven't yet heard her clicking heels.  Barefeet have jumped up a few times this season.  She gets to the high ground (though running upstairs seems to take away escape routes), Jack flips his jacket her way, and she plugs it with her remaining bullets.  Jack seems to have at least one left when he finally catches up with her.  She gives up her evidence, and asks Jack what she can do.  "Nothing."  And he finally plugs her in the chest.  Then again after she's fallen on the ground.

Was she right when she said he wanted vengeance, not justice?  Was she right when she said he was going to take the evidence and kill all whom it implicated?  And seeings how it's just an audio, don't we already know what kind of luck Jack has when he tries to use audio evidence against a president?

Scenes from next week suggest Jack takes up torture again, this time on the guy who murdered Renee.  Seemingly confirming Dana's points.  The writers gotta be hating themselves for writing Dana so well.  Oh, we all couldn't stand her for the 1st 1/2 of the season, but when her depth started coming out, whoa, I for one am sorry she had to go.  But at least this is the last season for everybody.  And Dana was entirely self driven.  No higher purpose, not even money.  Just doing whatever she could to save her skin.  Though she had the flash of hope that true love can provide

Even with all that, we still had the new Islamic president saying in her speech how much integrity Taylor has, Logan continuing to pull strings, Taylor continuing to trust Logan ("one last time"), Logan continuing to try to keep up appearances (continuing to talk for the benefit of his aide after Taylor hung up on him), and a new plant arriving at CTU.  Chloe doesn't like it, but he came under Taylor's order.  She also feels betrayed by Jack ("He threatened me!").  I'm tempted to guess where this is headed, but I know better than that.  OK, I'm guessing terrible endings for most involved--but where does that leave us for the movie?  Wow, can you have a series ending cliff-hanger to set up a movie?

Oh, and Freddy told Chloe that she did the right thing.  I guess we're not tired of that yet. Sphere: Related Content

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Season 8, 10-11AM: I'm hungry

The elephant in the room when you watch 24 is when do they go the bathroom (well, this is TV after all, and only Archie Bunker goes to the terlet--unless there's a chance for suspense in the airport restroom), when do they sleep, when do they eat???  Jack's been up for over 24 hours already I'm guessing (everybody else pretty much, too, unless they're dead), and OK he took 5 minutes off to have sex, but the only other bodily function he's taken care of is breathing.  Come on, get real here!

Look, I've climbed Tahquitz, this climb many times--I'll take you up it if you want.  I know if I don't at least snack once on the way up, I get loopy, and you don't want to get loopy a couple hundred feet above the pine trees.  Can Jack really afford to let that happen to him when he's packin' serious heat, has serious heat aimed at him, is disobeying the President (treason?), has the fate of the US, let alone world peace in the balance?  So, when he calls Sidewinder (and many more colorful characters) (that's why I love this show--all the great actors it pulls outta nowhere!) and demands repayment for a favor consisting of all sorts of weapons and spy gear, then stops by to pick up the gear (declaring the debt still due), why doesn't he ask for even a granola bar?  Or at least a Tigers Milk?

But Jack's too focused to realize he's running on empty.  He stuffs all his stuff into a pig bigger than anything I'd ever want to jug up a big wall (OK, that's a pretty geeky link) and heads off into an ambush Chloe has set up for him.  Doesn't he know her better than that?

Of course he does.  Doesn't Chloe know him better than that?  Of course not.  And Jack turns the tables on Freddy without killing any of the good guys.  He sets it up like he's been captured for Chloe's benefit, convinces Freddy to help him (when Jack's first lame attempt doesn't work--"What if you're wrong, Jack?"  "I'm not"-- Jack slides the gun to Freddy and tells him to decide, a ploy that worked very well, on both Freddy and me--it makes sorta sense because if Jack needs Freddy's help to succeed, if Freddy decides taking Jack in is the best path, Jack might just as well give up anyway), and they head off together because Jack can't do it alone--there's another whopper I have to believe or else I'll give up on this show.

But now's not the time to give up on it.  Now, they're getting to the really good stuff.  Like Dana getting a chance to come into her own.  The baddies have her, and though the President told them to use gentle persuasion first and resort to the rough stuff only if the easy stuff fails, they're opting for the tough stuff from the start--waterboarding.  This show is so cutting edge.  Showing that only the baddies, even when under the auspices of the goodies who have sorta turned bad, use waterboarding.  No more torture for Jack.

Seems, though, that Dana should be prepped for this.  OK, she looks all scared (great make-up job, too), and at 1st says she doesn't know anything.  They proceed nonetheless.  So here's where she should start using her back-up stories (what, she doesn't have any?  What kinda spy is that without contingency plans out the ying yang?).  Here she should show them just how unreliable torture is.  Start telling them any story you can think of!  They go check it out, when it's wrong, what are they gonna do, torture you some more?  OK, so tell them something else.  If they don't believe you, they're admitting their methods don't work, but they've so bought into them, that they have to believe.

OK, that's as much as I want to get into the head of a torturer.  Thank you very much, 24.  But at least it's taught me to always have at least one back-up plan/dummy plant.

I bet if Jack had her, he'd be doing something not nice to her.  Last they were together he bashed her head against a table.  She's a softy because that's all it took for her to try to deal.  Jack's a softy, too, because he took her deal rather than try to beat the info out of her.  And he fell for that one twice!  She knows she has Jack wrapped around her finger.  That's why as the baddies are taking her away from CTU, she's pleading with Chloe to let Jack have her.  What other season has anyone preferred Jack's torture over anyone else's?  Jack's rep is so blown since he's a grandpa.

This is still great 24 for other reasons.  First, actually last, at the end of the episode, Ethan tells Charles that if Charles steers Taylor wrong, Ethan will make Charles pay.  Charles says, "Is that a threat?"  Ethan says it's a warning.  And that just makes me wonder all over again, what is the difference between a threat, a warning, and a promise?  Just why do you ask someone, "Is that a threat?"  Is it because you want to know?  Or are you making threat back?  And I mean in the real world here, not the land of 24.  Because in TV-land, the reason you have that stupid back and forth is to add drama or suspense.  But in the real world?  I just don't get the distinction.  Do you?

And we have more fun, too.  Last week we learned that Taylor would hide the truth about a terrorist attack for her peace deal, even if under no reasonable construction that idea makes sense.  This week we learn that we were right, it was a stupid idea.  President Taylor learns it, too, but rather than listening to her closest adviser and friend, she goes with that weasel, whom she knows is a weasel, Charles and tries to hide the truth some more (hence the baddies absconding with Dana, well sort of absconding because they took her with Chloe's blessing and though they didn't know it, Chloe knows where they went).  Charles is so good at looking stupid, but we're coming to believe he had this scenario all figured out.

Taylor is just running faster and faster down the slope to self-destruction.  Ethan sees it happening, tries to talk her out of it, she tells him she's made up her mind, and he resigns.  Some friend he is.  More like a rat fleeing a sinking ship.  A real friend, even after having a heart attack, would find some way, some less direct way, to help her do the right thing.  But please, let's have not one more person tell her, "You're doing the right thing."  I think she as well as we have already figured out that anybody saying that is simply happy she's doing what they want her to do, which is not always the right thing!  (Like the salesperson saying, "She'll love that sweater," even though the salesperson doesn't even know her!)

And to show us that she's fully bought into the peace deal, in her UN speech she says the peace deal is more important than anything else.  Which we kinda knew already because after last episode when she hides the terrorist plot for the sake of the deal, this episode she authorizes torture for peace.  Looks like Jack's taught everybody his brand of justification--I'm right so any way I can get my way is right, just so long as I get my way.  Hence his trying to convince Freddy to follow him simply because he says he's not wrong.  Duh!  Why does he have to even say it?!!!  (Must be for the benefit of new viewers.)

Five hours left.  Looks like Dana escapes next week.  I sure hope she lasts another couple weeks.  We've invested a lot in her.  Watched her simper for weeks.  Let's see her really start showing more than just sparks of competence.  She has so much more potential here.  And Taylor.  Charles telling Ethan at the end of the episode that Taylor's smarter than the both of them.  Ooooch he's smarmy.  But I'm hoping he's also right.  Taylor's not been herself this season.  I'm hoping here that she's got more upstairs than she's showing.  She bought into Charles's story waaaay too fast.  With so many twists and turns in this show, I just can't believe she's not brighter than that.  She always has been.  Drat.  I thought I'd checked my disbelief at the door! Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Return of a favorite

I forgot about the return of an old favorite to the show this week!  So much thinking about the big issues of justice/vengeance/loyalty/peace this week as the show neared greatness--I like it when we get grist for the old mill--that I forgot about a nifty little Aaron spotting.  TV's pretty much a wasteland on Monday nights (Charlie Sheen, Antiques Roadshow, Dancing with the Stars--but I'm so glad I saw that awful Kate Goselin go down, even with all the news about her on the show, beaten by that pulchritudinous--see, reading comics is good for your vocabulary--Pamela Anderson, whom the judges noted brings such good acting to her performances--and Trauma--and to think, I used to like Emergency!, what did I ever see in these kinds of shows).  Wait, did I mention Trauma?  Yes, in the last commercial break I was so desperate I flipped to NBC.  And what did I see?  Aaron's back!!!  See for yourself:
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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Season 8, 9-10AM: Nearly great

Blogging brings an extra depth to this show.  It encourages me to think about it more, rather than treating it as a snotty tissue. 

But tonight's episode did all the encouraging I need.  Sure, I'm disappointed with the peace ploy being the driving drama.  Ooooh, if we don't do this or that we won't have peace.  Ooooh, I'm so scared.  Oooh, I'm so ready to sacrifice anything to get peace.  Oooh threaten me that if I don't do what you want my action will torpedo the peace deal.  Somehow I'm seeing all these scenes tonight and wondering how these actors can deliver these lines with a straight face.  OK, I know some folks wonder that about most of the lines on 24, but now that I've drunk the Koolaid, now that I consciously check my disbelief at the door once I settle in on Monday nights, it takes a lot to pull me out of that dull fog of mindless entertainment bliss.

But President Taylor in person trying to convince Jack that peace is worth his sacrifice?  Well, that pushed me over the edge, albeit a dime's edge.  And I bemoan the days/seasons where the choice was Jack's way or the imminent death of countless innocents.  This time around, do I want to continue peace negotiations including the delegation that's been working the whole day to derail them?  Instead of getting the proof of their shenanigans?  That's too easy--if Charles Logan can simply threaten to tell the president about the Russians' complicity and they'll cave, how much more convincing would Taylor be when she had hard evidence?  Ah, but my kind of thinking doesn't work in the 24 world.  I still don't know why, but it doesn't.

OK, other than that digression, this was a great episode.  We get Logan v. Jack again, w/ Logan looking all weaselly, gloating, impotent, crafty, cornered, vindictive, driven, self-righteous, smarmy, oh so much going on there all at the same time, especially when he sees that Jack stands in the way of his reclaiming some stature.  His toady tells him he has to call Taylor to stop Jack.  Here, I hoped Logan would be wilier than his assistant, but he simply does what his assistant tells him to do.

We get Chloe running CTU and still doing a bang up job of it, and I mean that in a good way.  She meets Taylor and is dutifully respectful, though Taylor, after her initial "Ms. O'Brien," gets to a first name basis awful fast.  She has plenty of the facial contortions that assure us that she is a troubled soul in a troubled environment dealing with troubling problems.   She tells Jack she's sorry about Renee.  (Jack gets that a lot--orderly at the hospital, Chloe on the phone, Chloe at CTU, Freddy at CTU, Taylor at CTU, and I'm already tired of scripts that think saying, "I'm sorry for your loss," sets everything right enough that the plot the writers think is more important can get rolling again.  Watch any cop show, look for the cop interview with anyone who's faced a loss--"I'm sorry for your loss"--adding a "so" in there if they "really" mean it--and we're done that part, on to how to get the info we want.) When Jack finally goes rogue (again) and steals a chopper, Chloe gets up there fast, tells the guards not to shoot (what good would shooting have done?), then radios Jack to tell him to come back or she'll call the Air Force to bring him down (I can't wait to see how you force down a chopper; only way I see to keep anyone on-board alive is to wait for it to run low of fuel).  That's perfect, perfectly by the book, and she doesn't miss a beat doing it, like she's been born to command. I wish she were put in tougher situations, or situations where the right choice would make a difference. Here, she's gotta know Jack has figured out an out, and if she were really good, she'd be on top of that, too.  I seem to remember her out-thinking Jack in an earlier season, but I don't recall the details.  But, boy there's another chance for greatness--Jack v. Chloe.  Wow.

Instead, we have the battle of ideas and ideals. The opportunity for that analysis attracted me to this show years ago. Then it was what ideal do you sacrifice to prevent a greater harm.  This year, in the softer 24 (less torture, wow, no guns fired this episode), we get what do you sacrifice to achieve the greater good.  Taylor is willing to sacrifice knowledge--knowing the Russians are scheming with terrorists to scuttle the peace conference (now I'm wondering if we get to find out why, especially with so many on the show asking that question but not getting an answer).  Jack doesn't like it when someone else plays "the ends justify the means" when it's his principles on the line.

And boy, that opens up a bunch of other conflicts.  Where to start?  How 'bout with Jack now faced with disobeying the president?!  OK, him taking Logan down was OK because Logan planned a terrorist attack.  But Taylor--she has no hidden agenda.  She straight up wants peace in the middle east, and she's decided taking down the Russians isn't worth sacrificing the peace.  Rather, it's the other way.  And Jack doesn't buy into it. This same Jack who wouldn't give up Islamic Pres in exchange for saving 10s of thousands of innocent New Yorkers because he followed Taylor's order.

And there's wondering if the ends justifies the means for Taylor--is negotiating with the Russians when you know they don't want the negotiations to succeed worth sacrificing uncovering the dirt on them?  Seems like either way, the Russians aren't really in this for the long haul.  But on a more abstract level, is peace worth knowingly letting someone get away with murder?

Then there's Taylor telling Jack that she won't sacrifice the peace for his vengeance.  Jack retorts that he wants justice, not vengeance.  Now, setting aside both that he knows the difference and he's right that he wants justice, not vengeance, do you know the difference between justice and vengeance?  How often do we hear, "I want Justice!" and the line really mean "vengeance"?  And with how that justice-y stuff has worked out for folks on 24 (Logan is a great example), how many think that Jack even stands a chance of seeing justice done?  And does Jack really think it'll happen?

To show the show hasn't gone completely soft, we had Jack interrogate Dana.  He slapped her around a good bit before she asked for immunity again for tons of info.  I'm not sure why Jack had to even hit her, maybe indeed to show the show's not soft on traitors.  And to show that Freddy knows Jack and that Chloe can make the wrong call sometimes ("Stop him" when Jack's hitting Dana, with Freddy saying, "No, wait, Jack hasn't lost it."  Does that show Freddy knows Jack?  Or that he wants "Dana" to pay for tricking him so thoroughly?)

Missing Renee already.  Seeing her freckles with her laid out on the gurney of the ER.  Ugh, I'll miss those.  Also made me wonder how the make-up/special effects crew do such a lifelike job of making a dead body. Our only hope left is that Jack tracks down Tony after the Air Force forces him down.  Sorry, thin on the links this week.  I guess the show had too much food for thought. Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The best they can do?

Kiefer calls this season the culmination.  We've been told it's the last TV season (rumors of a movie).  So we're up to the last 6 hours, which in seasons of yore has meant the last mystery, the last conspiracy resolved.  So this one should be the biggest and the best.  We've already had a covert private security firm trying to take over the country (last season) and a conniving weasely, seemingly weak president turning out to be the ultimate traitor (Logan).  This season, being the last, should top all of those. 

And we're left with a Russian conspiracy because these Russians don't want peace?  Jack thumbs his nose when Dana says she's in it for the money.  And these Russians are better?  These Russians are worthy of ending Jack's TV career?  I don't think so!

And I'm not sure it makes sense, but I guess those crafty Russians are counting on the season being so interesting that I've forgotten how it started out.  OK, so now perhaps we know they were behind the first attempt on Islamic pres's life--attack of the manhole cover.  1st, did they really think it would fail?  If not, why else would their contingency (I'm guessing a bit here, but the Russian mob brokering the deal is a bit ironic/coincidental--you decide) have been to sell the opposition U235?  And they wanted their man in the resistance to get the U235 so he could threaten the US in order to get the Islamic pres that should have already been assassinated?  Doesn't seem that they need U235 to make that work.  And were they really ready and willing to watch a chunk of NYC go up to achieve their ends?  Man, is this ever an exercise in spaghetti logic.

So, I'm just gonna pretend I didn't pay attention to the first 2/3 of the season.  Which is exactly what I figure you have to do to truly enjoy this show.  Even though the series seems like it has continuity, it's really just a series of hour long, mostly self-contained stories.

What really ticks me off is how the show wrote off Renee.  OK, all the loves of Jack's life have to die.  But for a character as great and competent as Renee to be offed by a sniper?  Jack won't go that way.  Jack won't go unless it's in a blaze of glory or making the ultimate sacrifice for a greater good (the needs of the many).  Or not caving to terrorist demands.  Nope, Renee doesn't deserve what she got--sniper shot after sex, while Jack is getting her a glass of water.  Then Jack gets to be heroic, carrying her out while under fire from the sniper (tough shot, so I'm not surprised sniper missed him while he was moving fast).  So unfair.  But it is Jack's show, after all. Sphere: Related Content

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Ad volume

From Our Eyebeams Twisted by Sam Hurt (fourth volume of collected daily Eyebeam comics, 1985).  [I changed the format of the blog because the image didn't fit on the page in the old format, and I ran out of wakefulness before I figured out how to get it to work in the old format.  I might play some more on the format someday.]

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Season 8, 8-9AM: Full Circle

I remember the good old days of watching 24.  As we headed to a commercial break, the pulses of the timer would start up as the split screen started, and I'd flip over to the last channel I'd watched, either catching up on Heroes or hoping to be mildly amused or at least mindlessly entertained by Charlie Sheen, but I'd hurry back to Fox and like Garrison Keillor's July 4th hamburger I'd be too cautious and arrive too early (Garrison was too cautious making the burger always overdone) still in commercial-land with loud volume, so I'd bump the volume down, then as the pulses started again and the split screen of contemporaneous scenes started up making me wonder where the episode would start up, and picking which story line I wanted to see the most, I'd amp the volume back up pulse by pulse.  Somehow that ritual got me more in tune with the show.

But ever since CALM apparently quieted the ads, I've been relieved and yet missing something.  This week I started thinking something was amiss, and on 24 tonight I became convinced the ad volume was louder than the show again.  A little research has suggested to me 2 things: 1 that CALM passed only the House and 2 that even if it becomes a law, the ad volume reduction is only voluntary for the first year.  Yeah, I'm as sure the networks are gonna lower the ad volume as I am that sitting politicians will ever put real limits on campaign spending or that the Russians on 24 really do want world peace.

Yup, tonight we find out that those nasty Russian politicians were really behind the fuel rods all along.  Pretty convenient that Russian mobsters started out with the rods.  Even more convenient that Renee worked with the Russians 6 years ago, well, not really convenient for Renee.

But where's tonight's episode start?  With Jack acting all cute telling President Taylor she can't give up on the peace conference.  Yup, it is cute watching Jack try international politics.  At least President Taylor respects him enough not to flat out tell him he's an idiot.  Jack then grows up enough to take Renee back to his apartment and do what normal adolescents do when he's alone with her--scrounge around to see if he has any coffee left in his bachelor pad, then jump her bones.  She's not complaining, but it all seemed a bit icky to me.  On the other hand, I guess that's what adolescent making out scenes are actually like.  Chalk one up for the writers there.

Like most adolescents in similar circumstances, Jack and Renee are oblivious to the real world.  Well, Jack didn't have much reason to think about the real world--he's happy that the head terrorist was caught, that Jack was a good enough shot to shoot to only wound (through and through to the abdomen, another lodged in the shoulder muscle) so he'll be interrogated at CTU soon enough, so Jack can once again and finally call it a day and a career and go back to being grandpa, er adolescent with Renee. 

But Renee has been sharper this season.  First she should know that any woman Jack loves, let alone makes love to, will suffer a cruel fate, and she should have known what it meant that she nearly recognized an EMT leaving the scene (this the EMT who made sure terrorist doesn't live to talk).

OK, it's been a long day for Renee, so she's not right on her game, I guess.  Jack gets up to get something to drink, chivalrously offering to get Renee something, too, Chloe calls (Renee answers) to say terrorist is suspiciously dead, Renee finally gets 6 (not quite 7 this time) from 2 and 2, wraps herself in a sheet, heads out to see Jack, then Russian EMT ("I never forget a face," who recognized her as they passed in the stairwell) opens fire from across the street (why would Jack rent an apartment subject to such a site line?).  Renee gets the brunt of the attack, but Jack's luck holds as he's not scratched, merely left holding the bag, er, lady--he carries Renee to the hospital (with the help of a cabbie who drives like Jack).  Anybody surprised it wasn't in time to save her, right at the top of the hour?  Keifer and the makeup folks do a great job here--I've never seen him look older as he enters the ER where Renee just died. 

She's been the best part of the show this season.  I guess offing Islamic pres didn't go far enough into "they can't do that" land.  But death of great characters is so common-place on this show that we're all "ho-hum" with it.  But we all knew that this is Jack's show after all.  Renee couldn't stay around and continue to divert attention from Jack.  Our only hope is that Tony comes back.

Except we also get king weasel.  Yeah, I've been looking for a weasel all season--from Arlo using the drones to watch sunbathers to Taylor's assistant turning on her.  But I've known these were all small potatoes.  As promised by the scenes for the last couple weeks, we get exPres Logan.  And he convinces Taylor that he's her best shot at getting the Russians back on board the peace train (whoo-whooo!).  She wants to know more, but all he says is that he won't break any laws and he won't besmirch her presidency.  Raise your hand if you buy that.  Ah, I see President Taylor's hand in the air.  And what does he want in return?  Nothing, can you believe it?  No, wait, it's true.  Their conversation included no bargaining or even a hint of bargaining.  If Logan knows all that he knows and doesn't want anything from Taylor, why does he need to even talk with her?  Why can't he just go and do the dirty work?  Taylor's not asking the right questions, though, and she ultimately sends him off to do what he does best.

Taylor's mealy-mouthed but sharp and on the ball assistant Weiss (named Rob, not Janet) wants to clean house at CTU.  Taylor tells him to do whatever he wants.  I'm thinking putting Dyson (not that Dyson, but also see this) in charge.  He's not as creative/out of the box/punny as I--he's thinking Chloe.  And boy, does she get a bad case of the face contortions when she gets the news!  Weiss says he's read the notes of the last day and seen that Chloe was the sharpest tack in the toolshed.  I say, he must have no clue about her people skills, although perhaps her management style will actually work perfectly--in The Office!  But it seems to make a 24-logic kinda sense.  Though I'll miss that old lug, the hulking Director Dopey, his authoritative delivery (even when wrong), and his hunched shoulders.  He started to make the right calls, especially telling Chloe (after she said it wasn't fair that he was out on his ear) that the buck stops with him, and he should take the fall for the mistakes, starting with hiring Dana.  Won't that make Chloe feel the pressure of her first command!  He also said he should take the praise when CTU does right, but that's not what most coaches say--credit the team when things go well, blame yourself when they don't.

We get to see a bunch of Chloe at the helm, her normal irascible self but also making all the right calls even when Freddy is all, "Whaaaa???" 

In keeping with the empower women theme, as Taylor is about to disband the peace conference because Islamic pres is dead, the guy Islamic pres jailed a few hours ago is back in the delegation, promoting the brilliant idea (brilliant because guess who thought of it weeks ago) that wifey should take over the reins.  She's dutifully all, "no way, Jose" at first, but 30s and a short speech from Taylor, and she's fully on board.  Daughter later goes ballistic, not wanting, I guess, to lose another presidential parent, not remembering, I guess, how much she idolized Dad and his causes, the mantel of which Mom is picking up.

As for next week's scenes, women-power remains ascendant, as Dana apparently has another card or 2 to play.  Now, I'm actually looking forward to seeing more of her (not necessarily in that way!), though she's no Nina.  I wonder if Mrs. Logan is next to come back. Sphere: Related Content

Monday, April 12, 2010

I should have inserted this last night when I pulled it up, sorry it's a day late, but here's what Google Earth says is at 158th and Broadway:

I almost feel as if I could be an analyst for CTU!  Can't you just see Tarin's black SUV down there making the U-turn? 

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Sunday, April 11, 2010

Season 8, 6-7AM: hulu reprise

Finally caught the missing episode fragment, and while I was at it I watched a most of last week's episode(s).  I tried Fox's viewer a bit this season, but it just seemed flaky and slow.  I've found hulu more reliable, less time spent bufferin' (so much sufferin').

I'd missed one of the presidential bashings--Jack getting conked by rebar from the Islamic president.  That hadda hurt!  And wasn't it coincidental (not ironic, aw heck, just check the wiki) that it happened right when Renee was warning Jack that pres was listening to Jiminy.  The good news--Jack's OK.  The gooder news--Islamic pres gave himself up to save New York.  Gooderer news--the terrorists kept their word and gave up the bomb in time for Jack to save the city.  The goodererer news--once Jack found the dirty bomb he put a cold compress on that nasty bump (for about 3 seconds--musta learned that trick from soccer players). 

Now, that switch of bomb for pres was pretty nifty--ear-piece cell phones have done wonders for TV drama.  They're so ubiquitous that you just wonder how we had the patience for any plot to develop without them.  The switch of pres for keys to the bomb van seemed pretty slick--I always wonder about the logistics of a swap between sides that don't trust each other.  This one was nice because terrorist (Tarin) talked army man through the swap real time.  But it was a case of getting so caught up in the drama that you don't realize the substance just isn't there (hairography).  Tarin had everything in his control.  He didn't have to drop the keys to the van to get army man out of the SUV, leaving pres behind.  No matter--NYC is safe.  Though I wonder if any of you locals can let me know if there really is a parking garage between 158th and 159th on the west side of Broadway (I don't see it on Google Earth!).


I guess Tarin is (er, was) still conflicted.  As the bomb's ticking down below 30s, he's outside seeing the humanity--all the New Yorkers walking the street, and praise be to the writers, these all look like ordinary people, no one pulling any heartstrings--and he looks worried.  That was a nice touch--not over the top.  So, I guess it's OK to believe Tarin dropped the keys. 

And we'd also seen the Jiminy effect plain, ordinary New Yorkers have on people as pres was deciding to exchange himself for the bomb--he got a look at ordinary folks going about their business, which helped him convince himself he was doing the right thing.  Even if he sees how he's breaking the hearts of the wife he newly reconciled with and his daughter.  Even if it means throwing away the peace he'd worked so hard for, the peace that President Taylor is willing to give up a chunk of NYC for.  New Yorkers must be the finest slice of humanity there is.


Interesting choice that, in the abstract, at least.  Is a chunk of the upper west side worth bringing peace to a noted hot spot?  Would a US president really make that trade?  How does one do the calculus?  Tens of thousands die in NYC, but hundreds to thousands of service women and men don't die in a hot war?  President Taylor got some internal dissension from her decision.  I think you know where I stand on that--I'm not trusting terrorists to keep their word.  On the other hand, how sure is this peace?  Islamic pres brings the peace, but how long does he stay in power? 



Taylor had the internal dissension, but not from Jack!  Oh, his life is so simple--trust and respect the president blindly and be skeptical of everyone else (except Renee and Chloe and a select few others).  And simply do not question the president but do what she says.  Now I'm a little curious to go back and see how Jack dealt with President Logan.  I kinda remember him being respectful and obedient, at least up till the last episode, or was it when Logan tried to kill Jack?  Sweet thing here is that Renee has that same obedient streak, even after she's been rogue and on her own for so long.

I was wondering why Islamic pres had to die.  Why not save him at the parking garage?  Then we'd have a whole nother episode for some other kind of fun.  Maybe Jack escaping from some hopeless situation.  We haven't seen that much this season.  But then seeing Jack hide the baddie's gun on the fire hose cabinet was cool if inexplicable.  And Renee putting 2 and 2 together to get seven--blond wig means Islamic mom is a terrorist!  I guess that's worth offing the Islamic pres.  And now that all those New Yorkers are saved, the writers had to throw all those "they can't do that!" folks a bone.  But we're left with, "where's the drama to take us through the last 8 hours?"

Maybe we get the chance to look back and see that Taylor's dissenters made the right call.


Kinda interesting that Jack said the wishes of Islamic pres were irrelevant--Jack had orders from his president to protect Islamic pres, even if pres wants to trade himself to the terrorists.

And my final thought on this episode--with Jack so quick jumping to the right conclusion, as Tarin is racing to the roof of the parking structure, why isn't Jack realizing (about the time Freddy is wondering what in the world Tarin could be doing going that way) that Tarin is buying time because Islamic pres isn't in the car?  OK, one more thought--why does Tarin drive off the building instead of head on into Jack?  And one more (earning my nom de plume): I really wonder how Dana became the mole and what's in it for her.  Just money?  How does she get paid?  Wouldn't she have taken some in advance?  Why would she risk getting caught when it was falling down around her ears and not get out when the getting was good (trying to get out only once the getting got bad)? Sphere: Related Content

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Evil computers

Saw this looking at links last night, and it's just too good not to include.



Added a couple links at the top of last night's post, and made a couple minor other changes to the post.

And here's an unrelated comment/observation that occurred to me last night: this show continues to be ground-breaking. In any other action show, see if you can count more than one scene that includes only women in all the roles--powerful on down. Now watch this show. We have President Taylor, Islamic pres's wife and daughter, security, Renee, Dana the mole, Chloe, and even terrorist with the blond wig. Although most baddies are men, still. And this groundbreaking has occurred since season one with Nina, then when Michelle ran CTU. (and I'm not even mentioning President Palmer) Sphere: Related Content

Season 8, 6-8AM: I FORGOT!!!!

There I am, bracket busted to pieces like Jack's shooting this season, blithely watching Duke and Butler in a classic final, down to the last 30s, feeling happy that I'd get to watch this fine game, then catch 24 at 9, when I flip to Fox during a time out.

What!!!  That's Jack!  And Chloe.  And a robot trying to defuse a dirty bomb.  But it's only 830!  What's going on?!?!?!?!

Oh, I'm such an idiot.  I'd been looking forward to this 2 hour, get-24-fully-on-track this season all week, but March Madness musta hit me big time.  And here I missed sunrise!!

So, OK, Duke is up by 1, Butler has the ball, they've been turning the momentum their way for the last 3 minutes, and I just don't know who's gonna win, and I can catch 24 on-line later.....

But who cares?!?!?!  I'm watching Jack.

Then the phone rings.  OK, if I'm taking Jack over the last 10s of one of the best college basketball games ever, and the game's still on the line, you know it better be an important phone call.

And I'm back, to catch the last 4 minutes of the 1st hour.  I'll leave the phone call to your imagination.

Now I'm thinking the bad thing about 2 hours back-to-back is I miss out on one chance to see of scenes of next week's show.  On the other hand, I used to think the "Previously on 24" scenes at the start of the second show in a back-to-back were pretty stupid.  Not anymore--boy, did they come in handy this time 'round.  I felt all caught up, and I got to see something you don't see everyday--a president conking Jack on the head (also finding the bomb and Ethan being alive and President Taylor playing whack a mole, er, slap a weasel--more on the mole in a moment).  Probably a bad omen for the Islamic Pres, though--you can't bop Jack and get off scott free.  But as it took less than a minute to get caught up, it made me stop to think just how little substance these shows have.  Those writers have such a cake job--find hackneyed excuses to add suspense to pad the hour, then punch the clock and go home.  If you manage to advance a plot, so much the better, but don't go too far--you still have 8 hours left to fill this season.

Speaking of cliches, lucky you--you might get two posts from me this week, if I catch the hour I missed.

After coming up to speed with the Previously scenes, I'm ready to rock and roll.  We get a few gratuitous suspense moments, just to wear out that circuit, then Jack, Chloe ("if it was a snake it woulda bit me"), and Renee team up to track down the mole.  With the best agents in the world on the case (Freddy can be excused because he has other thoughts in mind for her), Dana doesn't stand a chance, especially when it's late in the season.  She's a sharp tool in the shed, though, now that she's shed her flaky persona, and she makes a good run for it, but once she's surrounded in the parking garage, she doesn't stand much of a chance, even after blowing through 2 clips, and seemingly having more ready to pop in (maybe I'm tiring of this "realism": if they have limitless numbers of clips, how's that different from never running out of bullets?), especially when she doesn't have a mole of her own helping her out (like she did for Tarin, which only led to the best car crash of the season--Tarin zooming is big SUV at Jack, then off the roof of the garage, nearly earning a perfect 10 from the judges for the twisting flip--Chloe says no one could survive that fall, and except for her forgetting what Jack did last season--"this is gonna hurt!"--she's right).  Especially when Freddy, betrayed Freddy, heads to the garage.  Freddy shoots out her tires as she's speeding at him, she crashes and survives--nice plot device those air bags--Freddy confronts her, but CTU takes her into custody when she says, "I'll talk, but only to Jack."

Never woulda heard that from a terrorist in seasons of yore!  Then, Jack was always one little excuse away from causing a lot of pain on anyone he suspected of being bad.  This season, grandpa doesn't doesn't even explain, "she won't talk, torture won't work on her" anymore.  He goes right to bargaining.  Don't we all fondly remember Michelle (wasn't it her?) getting drugged up in a CTU holding room?  Why not try the same on Dana this season?

No, we're better than the terrorists finally.  So much so that we don't even have to say we won't stoop to their methods.  Hmm, maybe Renee of a season ago got through to Jack in the same way he got through to her.  He tries to call Dana's bluff ("once the terrorists kill Islamic Pres, you have no leverage"), but Dana sees that as a bluff, and calls right back.  Jack caves and calls (President Taylor), bargaining immunity for info. And all those other immunity deals Taylor did when Jack asked have worked out so well that she buys off on this one right away (though she did try to weasel out of it on a technicality).

But don't think we miss out on torture and drugs.  Kidnapped Islamic Pres gets drugged to make his resistance lower.  He's still too tough for the kidnappers trying to coerce him into apologizing for his "crimes."  Kidnapper threatens to cut off body parts, but 24 doesn't do that anymore (not since one weak CTU agent lost a finger a couple seasons ago), preferring cleaner torture--electricity and more drugs.  As he's about to get shot up again, kidnapper changes his mind, figures he'll never cave, and decides to rant and rave on a "live" internet feed before slitting his throat.

So, now we got the live feed and Jack headed to the scene with a team.  He gives them a little pep talk, tells Renee he wants her with him rather than running ops (she's all, "Whaaa?" he's all, "it's against my instinct, but I need all the experienced agents with me."  I'm all, "Whaaaaa?  doesn't CTU have any good agents anymore besides Freddy?  And does this mean Renee's going down, too?  Say it ain't so!"  Oh, and nice touch by Wersching--she's headed to her assignment after Jack finishes his pep talk, then he calls to her, and she looks surprised--it's that attention to detail that makes this show so realistic).  They sneak in to the apartment building, Jack kills someone for not looking all that bright--fortunately Jack found a gun on him after the fact, that he quickly unloads and stashes on top of a fire hose cabinet--no kiddie's gonna look up there!  They find the right apartment, it has a quiet 6 year old in it (hmm, 2 strangers with guns come in saying they won't hurt me??  Yeah, I'm keeping my mouth shut.) and her mom.  Jack heads back, into the closet, Renee watches mom.  Good thing Renee has a roving eye and spots the platinum blond wig.  She's as quick as Jack at making the right inference (hidden blond wig + Arabic woman = danger!), and she blows away mom just as mom reaches into the sofa cushions and finds a gun.  Yeah, all terrorists hide guns in the sofas cushions for when company shows up unexpected.  Or was it, "I'm always losing things out of my pockets into the sofa.").

Jack finds Narnia, or is it a time hole (around 37s and 60s), and quickly shoots everybody, with terrorist still on line reciting the crimes of Islamic pres before killing him.  Only Islamic pres is dead (Jack didn't do it).  It's the Richard Pryor on Saturday Night Live trick, and Jack and all of CTU fell for it.

And that leaves us with Dana's immunity worthless (immunity expressly conditioned on recovering a live pres), the peace deal dead, and the only bare glimmer of suspense being something about the Russians--not the mob Russians we started with, but the political ones.  Although, is there really much difference?  That peace deal has always been more than it's cracked up to be, at least for me.  Is that what this season, now this series, has been building up to?  Peace in the Middle East?  (How West Wing again, like Ethan's heart.  Has this show really veered sharply left?)  And the best they can do to heighten it is to threaten me with ex-pres Logan showing up?  Is 24 going all On the Beach? Sphere: Related Content

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Season 8, 5-6AM: Rollercoaster



Now we're starting to learn what they're talking about! What's the scariest part of a roller coaster? It's that slow, clickety, clackety trip up the first great big hill, thinking what it's gonna feel like as you crest the top and the bottom falls out.  Hmmm, that seems a lot like what torture must feel like, too (though we have far less torture this season--Jack hasn't threatened a single eyeball).  24 this season has milked all it could outta that hill.  OK, it could have milked more.  We're down to the last 10 hours of 24 ever--at least on TV--but this last season could have climbed that hill for all of them.   But now, just as the suspense over whether this is the last season (apparently, but I don't trust anything about this show!) ends, it's cooking more and more.

Last week we brought Renee back, CTU went down, Chloe threatened a federal officer to bring it back up, Jack lost his deadeye and turned into an armadillo, and a mole in CTU was revealed to us.  This week, the terrorist makes his threat, the internal intrigue within the White House jumps through the roof (about where we've come to expect it on 24), Jack gets his deadeye back, Renee disagrees with Jack ("I'm coming with you this time, and there's no arguing!") to which he acquiesces, and the US president shows she's learned something from dealing with terrorists (or listening to my council) all these years.

Let's start with President Taylor.  She's assembled her advisers in a hastily convened situation room (I kinda wonder how they all got there so fast, but I'm gonna pretend I have a pretty little head), the terrorist calls, and she puts it on speaker (I'm not sure she'd take that live like that, but I'll apply my PLH), he says, "Good morning.  [I could see Pres Taylor fighting to remain presidential and not snap, "What's so good about it?"]  I don't want to kill innocents [huh?], but turn over Islamic Pres or I blow this Popsicle stand," (meaning literally and Manhattan), and Pres Taylor shows she doesn't have a PLH by saying, "No way, Jose" (I wonder why she thought his name was Jose).  "Jose" hangs up, and a couple advisers try to talk Taylor into giving up Islamic Pres.  I'm jumping up and down (as much as cat on my lap lets me) yelling, "NO!" Ethan shows he's still as sharp as ever by backing Taylor on this one.  And Taylor preaches to the converted and non-converted--"If we give in to him, how do we know we can trust him?  And we'll just be setting a precedent of caving.  And Americans always pull together when the chips are down."  Well, 2 out of 3 sound and applicable reasons ain't bad, though she forgot about: how do we know he won't simply continue to ask for things?

Ah, but there you see the seeds of suspense.  General Balls First takes Weasel adviser aside and hatches the quintessential cockamamie scheme--let's get my special ops guys to kidnap Islamic Pres and hand him over to terrorist, making it look like the terrorists did it--then we can cave, save Manhattan, and not look like we caved.  My guys will have the element of surprise, and we outnumber them.  All Weasel has to do is get the evac route of Islamic Pres from Ethan's computer.  Weasel is wary, and tells General that Bauer is with the evac team.  General is nonplussed, er unfazed, even after Weasel tells him not to underestimate Jack.  Too bad for the special ops guys Weasel didn't tell General that Renee was along, too.

Surprisingly, Ethan comes into his office just as Weasel is getting the info from Ethan's computer.  Weasel and General come up with a shaky, if plausible explanation, but Ethan's had to deal with Olivia 4 years ago--he doesn't buy it, and he's subtle enough to play pocket pool and accidentally speed dial Jack using the cell phone in his pocket (yeah, I always have Jack on my speed dial when it's been 4 years since he's been active--oops, my PLH went on the fritz).  Surprisingly many seconds after Jack says, "Hello," Weasel and General figure out what just happened, and Ethan has a Leo-like heart attack--wow, without coincidences, you can't tell a story.

Ultimately, that's enough for Jack.  100 yards from the ambush, Jack's worries about the phone call from Ethan turn him and the evac team around.  Special ops think about it for a moment, then open fire (I could almost hear them say, "Aw heck, let's just shoot it out with Jack.  He's been missing a lot lately.").  Too bad for them the lead on the Secret Service detail is a woman.  She tells Jack to get Islamic Pres and family to safety, and I almost hear Jack say, "It's been an honor working with you."  Jack and family head back, while Secret Service shoots it out, pea shooters against Howitzers (well, it feels like that to me--mostly hand guns against machine guns).  Secret Service admirably acquits itself, Kayla shows why she's along (to trip and turn an ankle--way, way unnecessary gratuitous suspense), and Jack, Renee and family almost make it to safety before having to make a stand.  Jack tosses Pres a gun (after first denying the request), then tells Renee to start firing in 5s.  He tosses a smoke grenade (why'd he wait till now to use it?  With all that other stuff around, can't he McGyver anything better?), she fires, Special Ops heads into the smoke, Jack takes out 2 armored soldiers with 2 pistol shots.  He's got his mojo back!

We have some more coordination between smoke and Jack and Renee, and about the time I've lost count of Jack's shooting prowess and remaining Special Ops and his remaining bullets, one of 'em gets Jack in his sites--only to be taken down!  Not by Renee, but by Pres!!!  And Pres is a crack pot, er, shot--he shoots to wound, which is convenient because this one was the leader of the team, and he's all too willing to spill all the beans to Jack.  I guess Special Ops are no longer trained on withstanding interrogation.  Writers try to build suspense that Jack will see the logic in turning Pres over to terrorist, but nah, which Jack confirms by saying he takes orders from only the President (who'd called him earlier to order him to lead the evac--one sign the season is winding down: President Taylor starts making the right calls).

Back at CTU, Dana is feeding the terrorists all sorts of intell, Chloe starts to think it's odd that the satellite feed went down just as Freddy was about to corner the terrorists (doesn't she know a story is built of coincidences?), and Director Dopey gives a pep talk including saying it's against federal law for any of them to warn loved ones about to get blown up (I guess they wised up after CTU weasel last season/yesterday broke all sorts of protocols to warn his wife, while he was sleeping with the enemy).  OK, don't tell the feds, but I'm warning you and my wife--anyone in the Upper West Side better start thinking about evacuating--as easy as that's gonna be with rush hour starting and all the points of entry to Manhattan closed.  Wouldn't that have given my PLH a hint already?  A hint of panic, perhaps.  But good thing the bomb made it across the river--Brooklyn is OK.



I've been think about the shark for a while.  Thinking of that almost since the nuclear bomb went off about 6 seasons ago.  Wondering how could the show not have reached its peak right then?  But we've had Jack going undercover with a Mexican drug lord, kicking heroin, rescuing a hijacked shopping mall with a gun to his head, being shipped to China, foiling a twisted US President, Tony coming back to life, and planes falling out of the sky over DC.  Oh, me of little faith.  This show keeps on surprising.  So, what about this season's thrill ride?  We've had precious little actual mayhem.  And that's one thing I look forward to with this show--it breaks boundaries, it does what other shows don't, it shows people dieing who shouldn't, it shows terrorist threats that actualize.  What's gonna happen this, last, culmination season?  Well, the clock says about 10 min till the dirty little bomb contaminates 40 square blocks of NYC--is that really gonna happen?  It could on this show.

What's left after that resolves--for the season, that is?  Dana already told terrorist not to blow it up because then he loses leverage.  That's the problem with these threats, you know--if you don't carry through you've lost leverage, but if you shoot your wad, you've also lost leverage.  More good reasons never to cave when under threat.  And my favorite part--the scenes of next week, though I liked that one week when they told me just when to look for certain key events--tease me with a shot of ex-Pres Logan (there's still hope for Tony, especially with this being the last season, and wouldn't it be great if Michelle is really alive, too?) and with Dana confronting Jack.  Wow, a 2 hour night next week! Sphere: Related Content

Monday, March 22, 2010

Season 8, 4-5AM: Women Rule!

Oh boy, I haven't cheered often at 24 this season.  But when Cloe called Renee to get her to track down Jack, I heaved a heavy, "YEAH!" almost dislodging the fat, round cat from my lap (no small cat, that one!).  OK, it was only 20 seconds of Renee, but seeing her possibly back in action got my hopes up.

Why is Chloe calling for backup for Jack?  Why can't Director Dopey do it?  Why's Jack need back-up anyway (he is, after all, very capable of taking care of himself, as Dopey mentioned).  Wow, you sure ask a lot of questions for someone who missed the best episode of the bunch this season!

Chloe called Renee because she's worried about Jack--strange, that, as she should know better than anyone else alive (or dead) that Jack can take care of himself.  But maybe she thinks he's lost his edge now that he's a grandpa.  CTU is down hard because of the EMP, and Dopey doesn't have agents to spare, especially because where he presumes Jack is is 3 square miles!  Too big to cover without CTU having its eyes and ears back.  Ah, here we learn another difference between traffic cameras and drones--with CTU down, the drones might crash into populated areas when they run outta gas--no such worries with traffic cams.

And, alas, Chloe calling Renee means that Tony probably really is permanently dead, otherwise Chloe would have surprised us even more by calling him.

Jack needs help because he called NSA to shut down all bridges and tunnels once CTU went down (here I am worried about all those commuters at 415am, but no one mentioned them--or the panic that shutting down the city like this would cause--isn't that always the reason for not doing things like this?  The writers must have tired of the trick we discovered earlier this season of having characters notice the absurdities of the plot and thereby defuse our disbelief), then went to the only place left for them to cross the U235 into the city--the East River!  Duh!  When he gets there, with Freddy and two red-shirts (I'm still hoping they make it!), both he and Freddy find their phones don't work when they call for back-up.  Are you surprised to learn that from this observation it takes Jack all of 15s to figure out they've found the terrorists?  He slams it into reverse, taking immense fire, and slams it between to shipping crates.  Good thing those CTU SUVs are fully armored.  So now we have a fire fight between 4 cornered CTU agents and uncounted terrorists.  With Jack one of the agents, this fight should be over in about 20 s, right?  Oh, here's where those clever writers surprise us again--Jack misses every time he shoots!  I've never seen him miss so many times.  Just to show you how much he misses, he runs out of ammo, announces it to the world, then reloads to miss some more!  The only reason he has to reload is for the writers to show us that this show is not so unrealistic.  The reload was otherwise insignificant to the plot.

Jack gets a chance to do more than miss, though, when he spots a land-line across the road.  If only there weren't so many baddie snipers (they're not shooting any better than Jack, by the way).  This gives Jack the chance to go all McGyver again, and to show off his classical learning.  I'm not sure where he found the armored plates (removed from the SUV?  Without a blowtorch?), but he fashioned them into something of a phalanx (sans spears) so the 4 of them could move (slowly so as to not break the formation) to the land-line (fully confident the baddies won't figure that out and cut the line, if they haven't already).  Naturally the most experienced of the red-shirts gets scared and impatient and breaks ranks and gets shot.  The rest make it, but the shot agent writhes in pain, taking occasional fire (somebody's seen Full Metal Jacket), drawing the heartstrings of the younger red-shirt who disobeys Jack to retrieve him.  Almost back to shelter with impatient agent, young red-shirt takes fire, and Jack and Freddy drag them to cover.  Youngster asks if oldster is OK.  Freddy shakes his head no, but Jack (no fan of Immanuel Kant) lies to youngster as he tries to tend to his wounds (looks more like he's choking him, but we know he's not as he keeps imploring him to live even though we're all better off with him dead, what with the baddies repositioning, and Freddy having lost one or 2 of them).  Youngster finally dies, too.  Oh, well, so much for hoping to be surprised.  This show is so predictable....

Jack decides he has to draw the fire to give Freddy a chance to reach the land-line (not much hope for Freddy either, though, as the land-line is a call box with no cover, but nobody notices this inconvenient truth). Jack maybe gets one baddie, one baddie has a bead on Jack and somehow misses.  Jack keeps missing all the baddies he shoots at, finally takes a few rounds to the vest and goes down.  Freddy gets to the phone and dials the operator.  Baddies take a bead through the 'scope on Jack's head, about to go all melon in The Day of the Jackal (at about 1:23) on him, and then you see why I've given all this detail of the plot--I'm cheering like I did when the Millennium Falcon pulled Luke's fat out of the fire in Star Wars!

Renee!!!!  Now we have real talent at work.  Not only does she find Jack in that 3 square miles of waterfront (probably not all that hard with all that automatic weapons fire), she sees there's only a couple snipers (all on the ground now, after some were a couple stories up earlier), and she takes them both (where are the others?  Jack couldn't take these 2 out himself?  Well, not when he's shooting like this.  Musta been a long day already) out with a couple shots just as they're about to finish off Jack.  Freddy yells, "Clear!" (I thought that a bit premature, but we had only 4 minutes left, by the clock).  Then she runs to Jack, tells him he's OK (just a few to the vest), he wakes up and believes her, and everything is right with the world.

Except CTU is down hard--or is it?  Jack sent NSA over to help (before his cell line was jammed), and wouldn't you know it, an egotistical engineer (anybody know any of that type?) shows up to save the day.  Chloe has her own ideas about how to get CTU operational, but engineer doesn't believe her idea will work and insults her even more than not believing her does--he actually has the nerve to insult her!  She gets to screw up her face a lot this episode.  Renee tells her to do whatever she has to, she then takes a gun to the engineer telling him--"you're probably a good guy when you're outside of work, and I see you wear a wedding ring, but leave now and let me have my way with the computers or I'll shoot you."  Wow, Chloe using her people skills--musta learned those from Jack.  He leaves, Chloe nearly saves the day in time, but Dopey breaks down the door with engineer in tow.  And here we learn the season must be winding down (only about 12 hours to go, I think)--Dopey does something right!  He gives Chloe her requested 10 more minutes!  Chloe doesn't electrocute herself or burn down CTU as engineer predicted (with that prediction, why wasn't there fire suppression folks nearby?), but she gets CTU back up and limping.

That leaves one woman of note unaccounted for--Dana.  She thinks the EMP has her outta the woods with parole officer Root, but even with this national security crisis, he won't go away.  Even with the EMP erasing all the systems and the backups (what the heck are the backups doing onsite????), he won't go away.  Even with him knowing how slimy Kev is, he won't go away.  He just asks for a meet with Dopey, and Dopey agrees (in 15 min)!!!  Dana is all flustered as always. She tells Dopey that Chloe's plan to get CTU back up won't work (he ignores her advice).  She finally tracks down parole officer Root (I've been wondering where this plot line is headed, kinda wondering what parole officer is doing still there) while he's waiting for Dopey.  And parole officer finally makes a fatal mistake--he tells Dana he knows she's lying, and unless she comes clean he's gonna make sure she takes the full fall.  Never threaten someone when you don't know all the facts (like how desperate Dana is).  Dana strangles him right there and hides the body behind a panel in the room.

Now, we're all thinking how can she possibly think she'll get away with this???  Won't it start stinking?  Won't there be just too much physical evidence for her to escape?  What'll happen in a couple minutes when Dopey (who's starting to make the right calls finally) comes looking for him?  And here's where 24 finally pulls the trump card we've been waiting for.  Dana makes a call, and says CTU is back up, and she's taking care of things.  What's so weird is that she no longer sounds unsure.  Yep, the moment we've been waiting for is good acting!  And on top of that, all the writers are laughing about all the complaints about Dana--she was just talking to the terrorists, not Freddy!  (Makes you think back to all the Kev parts of the plot, why she had to look so sad when psycho stabbed him, why she looked so unsure while tracking down Kev, but I'm not going there).  How quickly we forget there's always a mole in CTU!

And the highlight of next week's scenes?  We see terrorist say, "give me your answer in 1 hour."  That means most anything that happens will be meaningless because it won't be resolved till the following episode!  So, I already know I don't really have to pay attention next week! Sphere: Related Content