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

Friday, March 19, 2010

Season 8, 3-4AM: Back in the Saddle

For those old fogeys:



Or maybe those older fogeys:



24 might have finally found his legs again. We got a kidnapping, a ransom, a feint (how come the terrorists are smarter than all of CTU, including Jack this time? More on that later, I hope), a head of state and a daughter, a bank vault, an internet feed, aerial drone coverage of the baddies that's almost good enough (I love the drones idea this season, but it looks like the writers aren't using it much different from how they've used traffic light cameras in LA--giving just enough info to tease us, but not enough to help Jack get to the baddies in time. This newfangled technology doesn't look like it's much of an improvement over the older stuff--kinda like the address book on a cell phone compared to pencil and paper--but maybe if you combine the drones and the traffic cameras you could get the best of both!), Energizer bunny subplots (Dana and Freddy), and CTU compromised by the baddies. Now we're cooking!

Except the only "ends justifying the means" that Jack gets to do is (arguably) stomp over a corner of the 4th Amendment--which gives him his only chance to do more with his gun that brandish it, even if it's when only his friends are around--he blows away a defenseless plate glass door to a bank so he can get in and look around. And he is such a bad influence--he gets Freddy to help him, without all that hand-wringing Renee did last season (4 years ago show time--a lot can change in 4 years). Too bad Janice isn't around anymore to give him a chance to patronizingly justify his actions. Too bad Jack doesn't get to interact directly with baddies anymore. I guess they've wised up to what happens when he gets near them.

Jack spends most of this hour driving a big gas-guzzling SUV while talking on the hands-free (he's become sensitized to his over-use of torture and cell phones while driving this season but not his contributing to global warming, yet).  Oh yeah, and being right most of the time (but either too late or "Casandrized")--telling New York's finest to set up a perimeter rather than trying to catch Tarin themselves (ooops, they try, Tarin escapes, and otherwise innocent cops are red-shirted), realizing Tarin was playing them because he wouldn't be using THAT staircase (oops, Jack wasn't sharp enough to realize Tarin had help coming--if only the cops had set up that perimeter), telling the Islamic president the pres to sacrifice his daughter because he is responsible for the threat to Jack's country (yeah, self-righteously arguing with a henpecked Islamic president who's daughter is held by terrorists is gonna work), realizing (only after Chloe's facial recognition picked up Tarin after Kayla said he was dead) that the terrorists let Kayla escape so she could get a bomb into CTU that would disable the city's nuclear defenses (oops, too late, it goes off, after Jack asked Cloe to stay in there to help him--she did some good facial shrivels after that request.  I guess it's only fair after he wouldn't help her out in the first hour that she should risk her life for him.  Good thing the bomb was only an EMP, which wiped out CTU's technical capability but not its personnel).  Was it a nice touch that as the EMP ticked to under 10 a no-name CTU guard says, "I can drive it out in time," but doesn't make it?  Nice in that finally a timer goes off doing damage rather than counting down to 1 before everyone is saved.  24 getting back to its roots again in that--no way they'll (the writers) will go there--but they do!

But here's a theme that though it wouldn't have helped this storyline, I was thinking about.  Pres is supposed to give up a file in 15 min for the safety of his daughter.  One thing I'm wondering is why give him 15 min?  If you think he has it, why give him that much time to produce it?  It only serves to provide an opportunity for drama!  Oh, wait, I get it--the writers needed to inject some suspense and drama into this episode!  And to tell us how much time is gonna pass while they do it.  (But on to the theme I had in mind.)  OK, Pres OKs it.  Jack's smart enough to say CTU will prepare a dummy file.  Pres says terrorists will figure that out pretty fast.  Jack says it'll at least buy some time.  But from past seasons we already know Jack is smart enough to have a back-up idea, isn't he (didn't we learn that's SOP for CTU)?  Prepare 2 dummy files, so that when the baddies think they've seen through your 1st ruse, they'll be less suspicious when you send the second one!  But that leads me to wonder when Jack will need 3 or 4 or more dummy files.  More turtles all the way down?

But that wouldn't have helped, as we learn at the end that the whole idea was to get the EMP bomb into CTU.  Now, how many of you out there thought CTU would direct Kayla right to them?  Another barrel-fish, sorry.  And now I'm wondering, how are the baddies gonna confirm that CTU is down before they try to get the dirty bomb into Manhattan?  And if the bomb is already in Brooklyn, why do they have to get it into Manhattan?  Didn't we already learn from TV that Brooklyn might make a worthy target?



Ah, but here's where that EMP has helped out.  Parole officer Root is hounding Dana for video of Kev's robbery of the evidence locker.  OK, there's the why is this Louisiana nobody allowed to roam CTU during a national emergency, but let's chalk that up to his downhominess and dissembling nature, though he does get under Dana's skin, like any good detective closing in.  But now that the EMP took out CTU, Dana doesn't have to--can't possibly--come clean and give him the video.  Looks like Dana and Freddy will get to ride off happily into the honeymoon sunset.  Those terrorists finally help out the good guys.

Sorry, it took me all week to get to this this time 'round.  Thank goodness for the internet.  But watching episodes on the computer prevents me from seeing my favorite part of each week--scenes from next week!  Now, I can hardly wait till Monday so I can see what I would have seen already at the end of this week! Sphere: Related Content

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Antici...

..pation.



I just love scenes from next week's show.  The season is starting to get good (finally, well, not finally, it was good when Renee was front and center, but it's lost its way again, like happens in the middles of most seasons of 24), and the scenes from next week look fabulous, and they even presented them in a new format--showing specific times and what to look for!  At 3:18 am look for this....  At 3:42 watch as this happens...  And at 3:53 am you gotta see what happens at CTU (with image of Director Dopey running around calling for Security--hmmm, isn't the whole place security?  Isn't it secure?  Probably not if Kev can find it and now parole officer is on his way there.  Sure seems like CTU would be harder to find than that!  But I remember the season that the whole place--in LA--was gassed with nerve gas.  I still think of the poor sap who came in to CTU to get it to run right, wound up being blackmailed into being a security leak, then had to hold his breath while trying to save the day--it worked, but he didn't anymore.)

Oh, I'm so waiting for next week!!  Then I won't have any reason to bite my tongue as I'm trying not to complain about how bad this season's plots are, how many holes they have in them, how inconsistent they are, how Jack has no real action, how the suspense is all mediocre at best.  Then this show will finally be cranking again!!!  Oh boy, I can hardly wait....  Except I won't get to catch it till Thursday at the earliest.  That'll only heighten both my and your suspense!! Sphere: Related Content

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

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Season 8, 1-2AM: Owen????

What with agent Freddy (Cole) chasing down and cleaning up after LBD ("Dana") last week/hour and this, Director Dopey had to send Owen out to do Cole's field work (with LBD AWOL and a virtual basketcase, good thing Chloe stopped being a goof-off and got her mojo back once Dopey threatened to fire her sorry you know what), if you remember last week (more than a week ago, sorry, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, and some already forgotten composer from 2009 took my attention away from the tube to Avery Fisher Hall on Monday night--Fox let's you view episodes later on-line, but Lincoln Center doesn't).  If you remember, too, Dopey expressed complete confidence in Owen after which Chloe rolled her eyes, Jack saw that and later "bargained" with Dopey using Owen's competence to lead a field op.

I give Owen mixed reviews after tonight.  On the good side, he didn't end up "red-shirted" as so often happens to bit players on 24 and bit-ensigns on Star Trek.  He successfully negotiated the terrorist to "put up" not "blow up."  He was good at dropping to the floor when he needed to.  It's not easy to execute the obvious when being threatened with explosion.  On the other hand, he had serious flop sweat from the moment Jack first started talking to him.  And it didn't get any better as the crisis progressed.  Even when Jack kept telling him over the comm-link, "you can do this, we have you covered every inch of the way."  He musta seen other seasons of 24, seen what happens to someone who hears Jack say those words.

But mother hen Chloe had him covered.  She remotely disarmed the suicide bomber's bomb.  What will technology think of next.  I don't think Chloe knew how to do that last season, and she's been on sabbatical for the 4 years since, admittedly behind the curve at the start of this season.  Good thing she's a quick learner (Jack knew the latest, too, even after being a grandpa for the last 4 years).

Now, terrorist bomber, I just don't understand.  He calls Mom in NYC at 130am to tell her to get the ... outta Dodge, but she won't go, he says go to Aunt Shelly's, she agrees after he says he'll see her in a couple days and explain.  But now he's about to break his promise to his mom by blowing himself up!  If he's gonna call Mom to warn her while he's guarding nuclear material, is he really gonna break his promise to his mom?  Luckily, Chloe saves him so he can jump from the second story out of the hospital, hurt something not bad enough to keep him from running and lock himself in a pressure chamber so Jack can find him but not get to him.  At least he has his cell phone so head terrorist can walk him through manually detonating his vest.  Wow, the dramatic possibilities here have my mouth watering for next week's episode!

Best line tonight?  Jack yelling at the medic to keep the bad guy alive (for "interrogation," but I'm guessing this kinder, gentler, grandfatherly Jack won't be using torture), medic yelling back, "Let me do my job!"  Taking lessons from Chloe?  Or just the writers getting upset with Jack always yelling at people and getting his way; their little effort to stand up to the big bully.

Second best line?  Former Islamic security chief now in custody (by Islamic pres's order) to pres's daughter, his lover, "my accomplice has placed a gun for me to find;" she: "you won't hurt anyone, will you?" he: "the gun is so I won't have to."  Taking lessons from the NRA (we're safest if everyone has a gun)?  But here's the best part--it works!!!!  He finds the gun, threatens to use it, the guards (who have guns, too) back down, let him escape and handcuff themselves!  This show just keeps throwing me curveballs!!!

And some other nice lines--all the junior league field ops calling Jack, "Mr. Bauer."  Jack's almost shaking his head thinking, "Where's Tony when I need him?"

Did we have a Walker siting this week?  Yes, indeed.  Jack must have threatened or at least yelled at the writers after she was turning into the headliner for the 1st 1/3 of the season.  For 2 weeks she's been on for no more than 5 min total.  This week, Jack invites her to his apartment!  Things are getting serious.  He really meant it when he said "I want to be there for you, with you." (whatever that means, but Renee must get it because she "would like that.")  Of course he said he'd have a CTU agent take her to his apartment.  He's no longer taking chances in life or in love.

We also had some more stilted president (Taylor) to president (Islamic pres) private face-to-face posturing.  It makes me wonder just what the interactions between heads of state are like.  Taylor to pres: "if the bomb goes off, I'll have to retaliate.  So give me the files of all your covert agents in my country."  All he can do is say, "OK"????  Imagine if the shoe were on the other foot!  Would an American president hand over the covert ops so easily?  There was a nice touch, though as Islamic pres mentioned his problems with his daughter to President Taylor.  She's gotta have a sympathetic ear to that situation.  Except Kayla loves her daddy and hasn't shown a conniving, law-breaking bone in her body!  How come the president who has a fabulous, trustworthy daughter doesn't trust her, but the president who doesn't does?  Dramatic tension?  Dramatic irony?  Dramatic coincidence?


And what about that little hottie of a daughter?  She really gets it on for her beau when they finally reunite behind closed doors.  I guess Daddy didn't check her out on imdb.  Mommy knew about her and security chief so she must be internet savvy.

I'll mention that LBD and agent Freddy spent the hour cleaning up the guys Freddy killed last week--dragging them into the marsh (LBD's little black dress has to be even more clingy after that exercise, so avert your eyes--and those shoes just didn't look very practical for that job.  I can't imagine what they'll have to do to "get cleaned up before heading back to CTU.").  LBD had a tough moment as she saw Kev's face sinking into the waters.  (What good's a body bag that doesn't cover the face?) And OK, she had to ask, but really then, as they just completed "disposing" of the bodies--"what about us, Cole?"?  Cole doesn't know, and neither do I.  Just what's to become of this subplot?  It feels like it has so much more potential.  I'll be very disappointed if they just clean up nicely and head back to work at CTU.  I sure want to see Freddy try this acting stuff out some more. Sphere: Related Content