Season 9, Live Another Day: 6pm-7pm, The Mountain Top

Jack should know what it feels like. But for Mummy this hour had to wind up in a pretty strange place. Do you have a feel for a common refrain in this blog (other blogs, too?) about Jack? He always gets what he wants. Just this episode, he got Chief of Staff Mark to be nice to him, or at least to cooperate (yes, it helped that PH told CoSM to cooperate), he got a helo, he got the secret service detail details, he got Kate to bully the doctor into juicing up comatose Wifey even if it kills her, he got Wifey to give up the goods to Kate even if it kills her. Somehow, getting what he wants over and over again doesn’t make him any happier. Is that what getting what you want feels like?

OK, he had to do something he didn’t want to: take PH to Wembley. PH did decide to meet Mummy’s demand/bargain/extortion. (What’s wrong with extortion? Two legal activities exchanged for each other? Mummy won’t blow up London—people do that every day! In exchange for PH going to Wembley—people do that every day! In this exchange, has Mummy done anything illegal till she blows something up? I wonder if the Social Contract falls in this bucket: I’ll follow the rules if you’ll follow the rules.) And lucky for PH, the only human in the world capable of getting him there (i.e., sneaking him out past the secret service without anyone else—except CoSM—knowing) just happened to have come out of deep cover that day. And be PH’s bud. Like I said last week—you can’t have a story without coincidence.

Jack didn’t want to do that, thought it was a bad idea. Till PH told Jack that Jack would do the same thing in PH’s shoes. That’s always the winner argument, the argument that ends the argument. Except I’m left thinking, “Huh?” PH made the obvious argument, including that he’s gonna die (or forget everything—what’s the difference?) in a year anyway. Jack makes the obvious argument (mine!), “You can’t trust her.” PH says he does, then throws in that if she welches, her credibility for seeking justice is shot if she still holds London hostage, still fires off missiles.

Some arguments are just too stupid to argue with. PH’s mind is made up, and rather than argue with a looney who’s losing his mind and won’t see reason, Jack decides that’s more unnecessary suspense and drama than this show needs. Just get on with it; 24 is on the clock.

CoSM gets Jack what he needs, including a diversionary staff meeting. PH and Audrey have a moment whose import Audrey doesn’t recognize that she fizzles by say, “Dad, I have to get back to work,” (let that be a lesson to you about putting work before family), Jack gets PH out of the building (albeit with one moment of gratuitous suspense as a secret service agent stumbles on them, Jack conks him on the head, PH says, “Aw, Jack, you didn’t hafta do that,”—look, we all know what’s gonna happen here, why do we need that one head conk? I agree, PH, but blame the writers, not Jack!). CoSM and Audrey have their moment later when Audrey finds out what’s up and CoSM knew, was in on it, and didn’t tell her. She’s furious, he’s “if that’s how you want it, so be it.” Till he nearly cries about how much he loved PH. He didn’t even have to use the, “Stick with me or PH’s death will be in vain” argument. Still too much easy resolution of issues in this season—I’m not used to 24, let alone TV, minimizing opportunities for drama!

With that out of the way, night falls like it does in the tropics (between 630 and 635 pm), and Jack gets some more of what he wants. Kate gets Wifey to give up Mummy’s secret hideaway, where she won’t be anymore, but also the disks MEH hid that “prove” Wifey’s innocence. (Those two really were lovey-dovey.) OK, here’s a real opportunity for suspense—will they find the disks in time? Ooooh, why did MEH hide them so well? Do we really believe they would have found them under the floorboards if they didn’t know to look? And once they get them, can Chloe figure out something from them in time to save PH from Wembley?

I think we all know the answer to that—this is 24, and it’s bound and determined to go where no show has gone before—what President has given up her/his life in response to terrorist demands? Let’s take pop culture to the next intellectual level and explore just what that means.

So, Jack gets PH to Wembley, all lit up with nobody home—is it always lit? PH walks to mid field, looks up, Mummy takes the helm from Sonny, and lets ‘er rip. Big crater right in the middle of the English pitch. Prescient of the English performance in the 2014 World Cup? Anybody remember PH’s last words? (I paid attention for them, wound up thinking they were pretty lame, and forgot them!)

And now Mummy finally gets to see what it feels like to get your heart’s desire.

While we get to think back on when we’ve finally gotten what we’ve wanted for-ever. I’ve followed, studied, cheered my favorite sports teams, mostly from afar these days. I watch scores, read up on game results, follow games on the internet. And once in a great long while I get the thrill of a championship (my teams rarely reach the pinnacle, then again, many teams never reach the pinnacle, and few do often). I find I’m left thinking, the same thing I do when my teams don’t win the championship, “There’s always next year.” It becomes a disappointment to finally get there. That’s over (even if “they can never take that away from me.” Of course they can—remember Floyd Landis? Joe Paterno?). In the past, and now, it’s time to start climbing the next hill. Like the physical pinnacle I scaled with a guide, who when we got there, hurried us off. More than the mountaintop experience, the journey itself is the reward. Win or lose.

What does Mummy think about the journey that got her here? Did she have a plan to “win the peace” after winning the war? Or is she left thinking, “Now what?”

But that’s for next week because this week’s hour is done.

And we’re left with the image of Mummy simply pulling the trigger from afar, watching her TV feed from the drone for the result. Showing us that even TV-life is more and more virtual. Was it ever real?

Or was it a trick (no wonder PH kept it secret) and PH survives? That sure blows a hole in this whole blog entry. That’s too big for me to consider now!

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Season 9, Live Another Day: 1pm-2pm: Trust My Beating Heart

Pausing finally to think about it at the end of the day today (5/14/14), I could have thought I was in an episode myself today—out-of-control fire by the airport at my doorstep:

I survived, no doubt having learned a few tricks of the trade from Jack. He provides more than just good entertainment.

One, perhaps arbitrary and inaccurate, measure of good entertainment for me: heart rate. I find myself getting excited and my heart racing in anticipation watching 24. Hence, the “inaccurate,” because the metric occurs before the event, meaning I’m relying on the known-fallacious reasoning of induction (ironic characters interspersed in that post? Ask the experts and the crowd if that’s irony?). On the other hand, once I’m caught up in the episode and my heart rate increases, there’s a more accurate metric. This episode got my heart rate up. 

I often wonder why when that happens—I know it’s a TV show, I know the people aren’t real, why do I care enough to drive physiological change about something that doesn’t matter? Expand that thought—sports events involving teams I choose to care about get my heart rate up. Why do I identify with a team? I recognize the act as a choice, a rational choice, and I recognize that my caring carries not one whit of influence, and the result might as well be fiction to me for how far I am away from affecting it or it playing a role in my life and how distant the participants are from my life. Yet I’m moved.

Here, look at Floyd Landis’s Tour de France “victory.” His defining stage win, after “cracking” on the Alps’ previous stage and losing the yellow jersey, he plans and executes a miraculous victory of epic proportions in the next stage. Am I inspired by that? Yes, it still gives me chills. I still feel the power of his passion, his desire, his will, his figurative and literal ascent from the depths of despair and loss to crowning achievement. Was he on testosterone? Drug tests say so. Do I care? Not especially—it’s still inspiring. Do I care? Well, yes, he “cheated.” 

But I can’t relate to any of it directly—is Floyd a real person? I don’t know, never met him or anyone claiming to. Is the Tour real? Ditto. What does testosterone do for athletes? I don’t know. Doping and PEDs (like most of life) is a simple subject only if you don’t think about it. How do you determine what’s unfair doping, what’s not? In the end, I, the layman, rely on the “arbiters of the sport.” And here again, I don’t know them, so I have to trust their judgment. Are they even real? Do I hear the call of solipsism? For sure. And for me, this path is gnarly.

And most of Jack’s predicaments seem gnarly, too. Maybe that’s what gets my heart rate up. And here again trust plays a role—trust of the writers. I trust that they’ve made a rational world otherwise I don’t suspend disbelief and get wrapped up in the happenings. So, although I complain at times about continuity or things that don’t make sense (the tiny mental lapses that the characters say show Pres. Heller’s loosing it), I let that stuff go. At least on the emotional, heart rate level.

Sorry, though, 2 days from show, I don’t remember what got my heart rate up.

But I do remember seeing some of the things that keep me liking 24. Intrigue. Surprisingly little of it within the US intelligence this season, so far. That’s a bit disappointing, but perhaps that’s just falsely sensed security. All we got on that front in this episode is BG telling DQ that he thinks she’s really sharp. Then asking how come she didn’t know hubby was a spy. She says she wonders, too. Wow, that’s all it takes to make up? Not even a kiss?

And I do wonder about her makeup. She’s looking as rough-skinned in close-ups this episode as last, even though I see lipstick and eyeliner. I don’t know what that incongruity is all about—CIA field agent in make-up? Lead actor with splotchy skin but otherwise made up? OK, it’s not possible to completely suspend my disbelief. I’d get you a shot or two of her, but all I find online looks airbrushed up. So, you’ll have to watch for yourself. At least till I have the time to find some good representative images.

No, the intrigue is in the terrorists. Yup, Mummy is Mummy, and daughter escapes Jack with the device back to Mummy. Mummy asks daughter if she’s sure she wasn’t followed. Daughter says, “Yup,” and somehow I feel that’s not good enough, but Mummy lets her slide. Mummy reunites daughter with middle eastern hubby  who seems none too pleased to see wifey, even with wifey saying, “I love you” in his language. Mummy gives MEH a private talking to, telling him that wifey had to be close with other men for the sake of the mission, as ordered by her. MEH doesn’t look any more pleased, and behind closed doors he pours himself a strong one and confides with passionate wifey that he’s having uncomfortable thoughts about all the people, innocents, who’ll die because of their plans. Wifey says it’s no big deal once you kill your first man.

And now I wonder—was the knife in the ear she gave the device maker in the last episode her first? The one that when Jack saw the dead guy he said, “professional”?

But that terrorist intrigue strikes me as new—I don’t remember it much from other seasons. Albeit this seems formulaic to me—MEH with a conscience can’t last long there, especially with Mummy watching the whole thing on CCTV.

The other intrigue? Pres. Heller’s chief of staff forges his name on the order to extraordinarily render Jack (if caught). The disappointment here is that the White House staff doesn’t look big enough to sustain much intrigue.

The really good part of this episode: Pres. Heller going before British Parliament. He gets behind lectern, says, “Ladies and gentlemen,” and both a “gentleman” and a “lady” immediately interrupt him with rude questions that he doesn’t answer. At least they took turns. Chief of Staff and Prime Minister exchange glances.  And that’s the end of that scene. So, now I’m looking forward to Heller giving them, er, what for in the next episode—especially because next week’s scenes didn’t show me that scene!

 We had some close-ups of Chloe this week, showing vulnerability, reminding me/us she used to have a kid. She sees a kid who reminds her she used to have a kid, who died. She gets teary-eyed (tough to tell with all that goth makeup), misses wifey’s escape from subway, giving Jack the slip. Jack’s upset Chloe lost concentration, she explains why and starts crying, Jack immediately turns to much mush, tries to comfort her, succeeds, they’re all happy again (well, happy in 24 means unemotional), and head back to team-Assange (Chloe’s cohorts) for support in Jack’s backup plan.

Jack wants to break into some security compound—I can’t remember if it’s Brit or US, but I think US. With demonstrators outside. Assange-leader sabotages Jack’s hastily made-up credentials. Hey, here my heart rate speeds up…. But Chloe and Jack figure it out at about the same time as guard checking it does. Jack creates a diversion by shooting some demonstrators and yelling, “They’re shooting at us!”; then he sneaks into the compound—see? Jack always gets what he wants. No need for my heart to have raced when his cover is about to blow as fast as it was ginned up.

So, he’s in. And those who don’t like spoilers, don’t watch scenes from next week’s show, should stop reading now. Because the scenes tell me that getting out will be harder than getting in. Wow, will my heart stop beating, oops, stop beating so fast, before I find out in the next episode?

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