Season 8, 10-11PM: Fish in a barrel for someone else

I'm not gonna do it.  Not even be disingenuous about not doing it.  Maybe doing it is standard for watching and following this show.  Maybe you can't avoid it.  But I'm gonna leave that to others.  Not gonna comment on the standard 24 story elements that seem missing.  Not gonna comment on the plot turns that seem to come in slow motion because you know they're coming.  Not gonna bemoan the sub plots that aren't doing anything.  Not gonna comment on the details that strain any half-brain's willing suspension of disbelief.  Come on, if you're gonna follow a story that happens in real time, you gotta forgive a lot.  Now, I wonder, what's that leave me to think about across an hour of 24 time?

Daredevil.

Frank Miller's first run on Daredevil.  20+ years ago.  Back when you could actually watch Miller develop into a comic book story telling master.  One of the best series of comic book story arcs ever.  Creating characters that still influence the Daredevil comic, still influence the Marvel Universe, and still resonate and tear your heart out when you read the stories.  Miller's first run on Daredevil made me realize for the first time the power of the sub-plot and minor recurring characters.  Watching how the same minor characters pop up for a frame or two now and again and contribute to moving the story or adding depth to the story, and 8 or 10 issues later finally they flower into a critical part of the story, adding a complexity, adding a fullness, that rounds out the story, makes it more satisfying, more complete.  Go get the Electra Saga to start to see what I mean, though that's not all of Miller's first riff on Daredevil.

And I only just this last month learned of how Falstaff and Pistol served that role in the plays culminating in Henry V.  I shoulda been reading those Cliffs Notes long ago.  Or maybe taken a Shakespeare course.  If you haven't seen Henry V, read the Cliffs Notes then watch Branagh's version, especially his St. Crispen's Day speech.  Wow.  But let's get back to the modern art form.

24 takes the sub-plot to another level.  All of its sub-plots serve a larger purpose in the intrigue.  So we complain about this sub-plot or that one.  And the writers are laughing at us.  And that's another reason I'm not shooting the fish anymore.  The writers know more than I do!!!  (Read Miller's Electra: Assassin--that last, 8th issue is worth all the frustration you build up in the first 7).

These 24 sub-plots are never throw-aways, never there simply to add a human side or a bit of levity.  How this season all fits together?  I have no clue.  I've agreed to ride this roller coaster, and not till it's over, not till I have the full picture (if I do even then!) is my opinion of the stories and story worth a hill of beans.  So, what about the characters?  They're fair game even now.

Renee is still way up there.  OK, so she finally cracked this episode.  It was foolish to hope she wouldn't.  Logistically, she couldn't continue to outshine Jack.  And Jack had been cooped up in the car for too long.  He had to be feeling perquacky, a bit third-wheelish, what with all the Vlad-Renee tete-a-tetes.  What better way to fix this problem than for Vlad to run out of his usefulness, at least in Renee's eyes, Renee to push him too far, Vlad to push back, Renee to snap, Vlad to smack, and Renee to brutally stab and kill Vlad and in the heat of the moment turn and stab Jack in the belly?  Leave it to 24--when it has a breakout moment, it pushes the limits. For a moment there I thought Jack was a goner, and Renee would be carrying the show the rest of the way!  Now that would be a plot twist to write home about.  But as I'm writing this blog, not my mom, you can tell that isn't what happened.  Or they could have, in classic comic book and 24 form, raised Jack from the dead.  But I'm not writing my old pastor or comic book store guy, so that can't be what happened.

No, Jack pulled the knife from his belly and threw it into the neck of the Russian coming (too late, so why'd he bother?) to save his boss, Vlad.  Pretty standard fare.  And after Jack grabbed a gun and shot (through the wall--he never uses the easy solution) the rest of the Russians as they ran around we seemed to be heading to a boring mop up operation of sifting through cell phone calls, without needing even Chloe to help.

Fortunately, more even Russians show up (it's a pretty big realm, by the way), and Jack sees his chance to get in with them by getting captured (I guess it didn't take much creativity to come up with that idea).  Never being one to ask for help (looking surprisingly chipper after getting beat up a few hours ago and just pulling the knife out), he all but tells Renee he loves her, then hides her in a closet telling her to shoot if anybody opens the door (was she really that out of it to need that piece of advice?  maybe we viewers were, or maybe the writers just thought, "why waste an opportunity to add some gratuitous suspense," kinda like a throw-away line.).  So he gets captured and whisked away differently from what he expected, and CTU loses him.  On the good side, Renee is back among the living, looking like she's ready to keep fighting the fight, and I'm happy thinking she's gonna stay a big part of this season, even as Jack now goes undercover (and boy, from the scene for next week, it doesn't look pretty).  Right now, I'm in it for you, Renee.

And those other plots are finally moving along.  Islamic pres is looking more and more unstable, arresting and torturing anybody who crosses his eyes.  I shouldn't be guessing here, but is his daughter next?  Will that be the nudge that pushes him away from the brink (now that he's already jumped off with both feet?).

OK, that plot really hasn't moved very far, but LBD finally started getting to the good stuff--she gave her ex the keys to a great score, he followed her directions pretty good, though he started looking a lot less capable than he has all season, making stupid, nervous mistakes.  Then his henchman started playing stupid games (again, writers using a throw-away suspense moment with a water pistol--what was that doing in an evidence locker?  Oops, and I wasn't gonna shoot fish anymore!!!), and finally they overstayed their welcome and had to "beat" a hasty and messy escape.  In her last scene, LBD got that look in her eyes that we--OK, maybe only I--have been waiting for.  Finally seeing that her ex really isn't bright enough to pull one over on her, finally getting fed up with his manipulations, finally seeing his incompetence next to her competence, finally showing resolve to take charge of her life, finally showing some range in her acting!  And next week's scenes give me hope that "the truth shall set you free!"  Would that more blackmail victims knew that.  (By the way, just why is blackmail illegal?) Sphere: Related Content