Season 8, 2-3AM: Crankin' it up while cleaning it up?

LBD and Freddy cleaned up quickly and nicely after their cleaning up of their scene last week/hour in the swamp.  We didn't get to see how sensible her shoes and dress were after their muck-raking, but we did see them return to CTU, and leave it to the writers to make sure we notice the obvious--that's why every story needs a Director Dopey.  Then again, maybe that's why he's director (there has to be something he's good at).  They get out of the elevator into CTU and about the first thing he greets them with is, "I see you had time to change clothes."  I guess it does take some powers of observation and memory to notice that Freddy changed (I'm still not sure he did--black shirt to black shirt, maybe?) but not Dana (can't call her LBD anymore, now that she has her comfy clothes on). Now, before you or I or Dana or Freddy needs to try to explain away the change of clothes (I know what I was thinking those soon-to-be-weds snuck away to do), Dopey gives them the answer: "You know you have to stay in comm when you're following up on a lead."  That just shows one thing he's not real good at--interviewing a suspect.  You ask open ended questions, trying to get more info than you already have!

So, OK, they cleaned up and that plot is over right?  Well, maybe not.  Just ask Stephen Root (I think)!  By golly it's so good to see him playing a probation officer from Louisiana!  Oh that fits him so well.  It really is the casting that makes this show great.  Can you say Powers Boothe?  (Wow, can you imagine them getting Darren McGavin a part???  Oh, calloo callay, wouldn't that be a frabjous day!!!)  So, here's this LA hick tracking his parolee Kev to NYC 'cause he cares so much about Kev and wants to make sure he's still on the straight and narrow.  (Kev really plays the con well, doesn't he?)  At 230AM.  When his plane back to Baton Rouge is coming up later this morning.  And he doesn't think twice about calling while driving (law-abiding with a hands free) some number he tracked down from a hotel room where Kev made a few calls.  Let alone calling that number at 230 in the morning.  Didn't I say I wished this show would pay more attention to the actual time of day?  Am I supposed to think this is just his ploy to try to catch whoever's on the other end?  And Dana gets this call from someone she doesn't know and almost immediately gives out her name?  Then after he tells her how he got her number she claims it must have been a wrong number, which gives him the opportunity to catch her in a lie: "He called this number a few times."?  Maybe it has been a long day for her, and she's not right on her game.  No wonder Dopey now put Chloe (whom he threatened to fire about 6 hours ago) in charge of Dana.  But enough barrel-fish here.  I'm just happy to see Jimmy James back.  And I hope in this kinder, gentler, grandfatherly 24 he doesn't end up dead.  Unless he's really a baddie.

Like Tarin.  We'd all been thinking Islamic pres had lost it, suspecting everybody with or without crossed eyes ("just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean everyone's not out to get me and I'm going to alienate my daughter who loves one of my enemies").  Especially when he detained his most trusted head of security (Tarin) for questioning ("If I can't trust my own brother, who can I trust."--good point!).  We all cheered when Tarin escaped.  We all cheered when pres's daughter hooked up with Tarin, and we all started to think the two of them could get papa to getta clue.  But something wasn't right.  All Tarin wanted was to get political asylum in the US.  That's not how these sub-plots are supposed to play out.  That ends the plot too easily.  Didn't we just see how Dana and Freddy couldn't quite clean up all their loose ends?  So now we know, just because a suicide bomber gives Jack Tarin's name just before blowing up (good thing there was a oxygen chamber right there Jack could push him into--although didn't we learn already tonight that the oxygen in the chamber made the threat of explosion so high that they had to drill slowly--to give the bomber time to manually arm the bomb?).  How come Tarin was the only name bomber could come up with?

Tidy little cleanup of that plot there, blowing up the bomber.  Left Jack with no loose ends to tie up.  Didn't need no physical torture to get the name out of him.  No, this kinder, gentler, grandfatherly Jack used psychological torture and blackmail--if you blow yourself up, I'll take your mom to the dirty bomb blast site and make sure she gets radiation sickness!  I guess psychological torture is better than physical torture--physical torture leaves the victim physically and psychologically scarred, but psychological torture leaves only psychological scars.  That must be better, right?  'Cause everyone knows the physical scars are the worst.

But the kid doesn't have to deal with those scars because the terrorists blew him up remotely.  I sorta see why they couldn't do that earlier, but I also don't see why.  Just one more aspect I'm gonna suspend disbelief about.  That's what makes these shows stupid to think too much about, ironic as that is in this blog--you can never know all the rules of that universe.

And we're still not sure Tarin is a baddie (boy, I miss the ambiguity of Tony last year, and even Jack in some seasons).  Unless we saw the scenes for next week.  And he's really starting to look bad in those.  But we had another throw-away suspense moment--Tarin in the shower, hottie finally answering Mom's call, Mom convincing her Tarin's bad, Tarin coming out of the shower, hottie wanting to change but not in his presence, and him asking, "Why?"  Oh, no, he's caught her.  Oh no, what's she gonna say to remove his suspicion.  Oh no, why didn't we notice his suspicion ever before?  Phew, she says she wants to clean up (couldn't she just say she wanted to take a shower, just like he just did???), and he buys it.  Nazneen acts pretty good here, smiling and kissing just as she ever did when she faces Tarin, looking scared and uncertain as soon as she turns away.  Then she goes in the bathroom and LOCKS THE DOOR!  And we're all thinking how stupid that is.

Ah well, the scenes suggest she gets the 24 treatment next week--no one leaves unscathed.  With Tarin now exposed as a baddie, it looks like the season will now start crankin' again.  Now it's starting to feel like the real 24 with a nefarious deep conspiracy that you just can't believe how far it goes.  And threats and blackmail.

And plots that you just can't believe they went that far.  Like suicide bomber blowing up this week after fumble fingers Jack couldn't disarm the vest.  Nice little count-down on the vest.  I'm sure all suicide vests give a count-down.  But it gave Jack time to get the name with just enough time left (he knew because he could see the timer!) to push bomber back into the oxygen chamber and sorta close the door (we already learned this week that the chamber could contain the explosion).  Except the door didn't quite close, so the explosion blew Jack across the room--he sure pays the price, time and time again.  But at least they were wrong that all the O2 in chamber would amplify the blast.  But with the door blown out by the blown up bomber, the director was careful to film the now red inside of the door a couple times.  Not a pretty site.

But at least Jack got bomber's mom out in time so she didn't see it.  And I liked Mom accusing bomber of breaking his promise to her to see her at Aunt Shelly's in PA.  It didn't help convince bomber not to blow himself up, but it was a touch I liked.

No Renee this week/hour.  I guess now she's relegated to fondly, warmly greeting Jack back at his place at the end of the long day.  I sure miss her already, almost as much as Jack does, I bet.  But we saw Chloe mother-henning again, telling Dana she's glad to have her back, almost having people skills (there's an opportunity for suspension disbelief).  Four years of living in the real world (AKA not CTU) does wonders.  And we got Islamic pres's wife back in the picture, telling him how stupid he's been, then eating a little (OK a lot of) crow when it turns out he was right about Tarin.  Boy, she turned a dime there!  But their interaction was definitely worth the screen time this week. Sphere: Related Content