Season 9, Live Another Day: 5pm-6pm: I don’t believe it

Is the willing suspension of disbelief needed to enjoy a story? Is it conscious? I’ve boiled it into a corollary that helps me keep reading: Stories require coincidence. However it works for you, it sure is flexible, letting whoppers through while tripping over the trifling.

You all probably tripped over the drone of death watching Jack drive under the overpass, then firing its last rocket as soon as his car came out the other side, even after a 30s wait.

But just cut it out. Just enjoy the ride. Or figure Sonny is nervous w/ Mummy back seat flying, with him down to his last missile to blow up Wifey/sissy/daughter—if Mummy so easily turns on daughter, aiming to blow ‘er up, Sonny better not mess up. You’d take the shot, too, in the heat of the moment, trained for flight only by watching MEH fly-by-wire, running a high-speed chase after Jack Bauer. See, there’s a logical explanation for everything.

Or, hey, have a little self-reflection here. I just can’t suspend my belief that these other parts of the latest past hour of Jack’s latest bad day don’t have you giving up on your willing suspension of disbelief and the story:

•  Jack walks away clean with explicit acceptance from MI5 amid the destruction of last hour’s operation that resulted in dead MI5 agents
• Jack frees his crony from MI5 on only his say-so and a single flick of a knife through the tie-wrap restraint
• Kate looks chipper after her torture (where’s the slash to the leg? How come Jack didn’t stitch hers like Mummy stitched Wifey’s?)
• PM gives PH total support because PH asked for it after events proved he was right to trust Jack all along (even if he tried to kill Jack before trusting him)
• PM cows after confronting PH’s loony-ness when PH says simply—“I’d quit if I thought my condition put anyone in danger”
• Chloe has a video feed right above the scene of Wifey v. Bus, and she recognizes Wifey trussed up on a gurney with a neck brace and fat lip
• Wifey wins (or at least draws) v. bus!
• Doctor brings Wifey to for Jack to question her just ‘cause Jack asked in his own nice way
• Nearly catatonic daughter of dead sis-in-law opens up to cold Kate’s cold bedside manner, remembering details that even my recap doesn’t!
• Wifey walks out of hospital arm-in-arm with Jack just as DOD blows it up
• DOD runs out of missiles (and maybe Jack knows?)
• Follow-up on the trigger for this bulletized list: The blown up SUV (direct hit!) has enough integrity to allow Mummy and Sonny to see that it was empty
• Virtually invisible drone can’t image vehicles and people under an overpass—why doesn’t it have the sensitive IR imagers that MI5 has?!?!
• Professional killer ambushes completely unsuspecting and green computer geek in the field for the 1^st time but manages to shoot only his arm
• PH tells Audrey and Mark that he’s gonna resign tomorrow (OK, when the crisis is over, but he knows it’s only 12 hr this season)
• And the biggie, as if the one that started this sleigh ride and the rest of these aren’t big enough: PH has an intimate 1-on-1 Skype call w/ Mummy, dropping enough hints to figure out (or stay tuned for scenes from the next 24) that he’s gonna trade his freedom to her for the safety of London.

Whew. OK, OK, I’ll believe!

What else? Jack finally tortures someone. Remember Wifey’s missing finger? Jack finds it (not the missing part) when she’s strapped on gurney after doc woke her. She quickly stops talking to Jack, and Jack isn’t nice to the finger, figuring Mummy did it, pulling my finger multiple ways (it hurts, what’s next from Mummy if she can do this?). He stops, Kate saw, he APOLOGIZES (what’s come over this show?) saying he shouldn’t have done it, but he hates these people—so hate is now an excuse? (Thanks for highlighting that, too.)

Thanks again for indicating where I’ve seen Mummy:  I’ve not watched much Game of Thrones, having read the books and not wanting to relive all my favorite characters’ deaths. But at least Catelyn died so she could wind up here, but she might have to do double-duty if this season of 24 doesn’t finish up soon!…. Probably good for me that 24 comes out before the book, but then again, I don’t know that I really have any favorite characters that I don’t want to see die, except for Tony (though it was a comic book death) and Michelle    and Rene (thanks).

And then there’s 24 being 24, doing the unthinkable. Blowing up an atomic bomb! That never happens in stories, but right there in Season 1 (I think it was). OK, this show will take you to the edge, drop you off it, show you what happens next. Poison gas taking out CTU? No problem. This season—PH surrendering to terrorist demands. OK, we’re not there yet, but I have one overarching tenet on this topic: never trust someone you can’t trust, like someone holding anyone (let alone thousands of people) hostage/captive. PH and Mummy’s tête-à-tête tried to address this with PH asking if he can trust her, and Mummy replying that she’s the one who should have trust issues with him! Yeah, now, if I’m PH, I’m really thinking this swap of me for London is gonna work right.

We start to find out next episode. I’ll do what I can to keep you updated, but I’ll be traveling a bit.

One other loose end, very 24-ish in its full circle-ness? Julian Jr. (Chloe’s “Anonymous” bud, leader of team-Assange) is CSCS’s contact, who convinces him to send assassin after analyst who’s starting to unravel the mystery of Kate’s husband.

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