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.

Sphere: Related Content

Season 9, Live Another Day: 4pm-5pm: Drama, suspense, intrigue finally ratchet up

Most of CSCS’s team survives the trap. CSCS, too, even though he didn’t wear his helmet. But the Brit PM ain’t happy. Not even after Pres. Heller tells his general 2x to engage the RAF. (Ooops, another mental gaffe—it wasn’t for emphasis or to quell second thoughts from general—this time in front of someone who doesn’t know PH is gaffey.) Not even after PH tells PM Jack’s on the job. And we’re not tracking him. And I don’t want you to either. Yup, PM’s none too pleased. Especially with his chief of staff (need I say it, a woman) telling him PH is going loopy. How does she know what drugs PH is on?

Yup, Jack gets his way again, and takes over his show again. He wants Kate with him, and what’s CSCS gonna do when the Pres tells him to do anything Jack wants? So, CSCS yoyos Kate, yet again, back onto active duty, and she heads out with Jack.

Jack sweet talks her as only he can, telling her why he picked her, quizzing her about her traitor hubby, telling her that despite his plan he expects they’ll die, expecting that as soon as the contact sees Jack he’ll take Jack out. Except if Jack has unconscious CIA agent Kate in the trunk. Kate buys it, Jack sticks a needle in her neck, sticks her in the trunk, and the game’s afoot.

Really afoot. Because did you really expect PM to do what PH asked? Jack’s smart, and stuffs Kate in the trunk while under a long overpass, but Brit surveillance can see through roads and their IR technology sees Jack doing it (no way, by the way), so they naturally think Jack’s double-crossing PH. So they discreetly tail him to the meet. Probably for the better as Jack had just one backup, whereas the Brits have a whole brute squad.

Jack faces the classic “what’s the password” puzzle. And while Chloe’s fumbling to try to get it, Jack, having seen the movie, knows there is no password. And with half a thought, any viewer would, too. Is that the 1^st instance of contrived suspense this episode?

Jack’s parts go pretty much as you’d expect. Kate gets wakened and tortured over stuff she has no way of knowing. It makes one’s skin crawl when thinking of torture, which I prefer not to do every chance I have. But when she’s about to get drilled in the head—literally—after the Brit brute squad took out Jack’s man (I sure hope Jack’s man sees more action that that), the brute squad finally breaks in, all the baddies but contact get shot with Jack’s help, Kate turns the tables on the torturers—that was cool if tough to believe, Jack’s contact lives long enough for Jack to take him into “custody,” which means long enough for the brutes to take him off Jack’s hands so that contact can grab a grenade and blow some of them up. And by some of them, I mean all of them that are left—it looks like Jack and Kate are the only ones left standing. How convenient—and maybe Jack’s backup comes out clean, too!

In the meantime, chief of staff Mark’s forgery of PH’s signature is in the hands of the Russians, and they want Jack—or want PH to tell them why he’s changed his mind! Cool, drama is building again.

And Mummy, against Sonny’s better judgment, which earns him a stern slap, sends wifey, now widow, out after MEH’s sister. To do what has to be done, should it come to that. Here, I gotta pause to wonder what Mummy’s thinking. I’m locked into Mummy exerting psychological pressure on the kids during all their formative years. But here’s Mummy using her widowhood to drive her vengeance against PH. And here’s Mummy pulling the trigger with wifey looking on, making wifey a widow, too. And we know wifey loved MEH. Does Mummy really think wifey is that brainwashed? Hasn’t Mummy also taught wifey to hate those who make you a widow?

Pause aside, wifey finds sis. And sis’s very cute young daughter. Uh-oh, wifey immediately gets second thoughts. Wifey finds out that sis doesn’t know anything she shouldn’t, gets invited to dinner, calls Mummy who tells her to kill her anyway. Wifey has dinner with sis, pulls knife, but doesn’t have the heart to pull the trigger, figuratively. Wifey tells sis to pack and go.

Now, what would you do if someone told you that? Sheesh, what was wifey thinking? First thing you do is call the police. At least someone in this show has common sense. But as wifey tries to keep sis from calling, using non-lethal force, of course, the knife goes off, and sis dies as blood stains her blouse with nary a slice through it apparent. Daughter comes out just in time to see mommy dying and goes tearfully tearing out the door. Wifey gives chase through traffic, pays the price, and we didn’t even have the foreshadowing of that Lost episode. Though is it the ultimate price? Scenes say otherwise, as does other foreshadowing—Jack’s trick of his contact (and pushing the Enter key) might pay off!

Episode closes with Kate’s bud at CIA telling CSCS that he’s found some lost files about Kate’s hubby. Like a good manager in a time crunch, CSCS tells Kate’s bud to backburner them, spend all his time tracking down Mummy. I do wonder why Kate’s bud picked now to poke around in those old, dead files. Must be more suspense contrivancing.

Yup. CSCS calls a guy with a run-of-the-mill voice distorter, and we now finally see the intra-agency drama ramping up. Looks like there might be a good reason Kate didn’t know hubby’s a traitor. Maybe he wasn’t!

And here we are finally getting into the 24 intrigue we know and love—Mark, CSCS, wifey. So far, all we’re missing is Jack torturing anyone—has he gone soft? Sphere: Related Content