Jack Bauer vs. Mad Cow

I don’t know why.  And I can’t say when.  But all I know is that somehow, in the past few hours of 24, the horrible experience that was last season has been erased from my memory and any residual bitterness has been patched over and replaced with hope that Jack survives against [My Name is] Jonas Hodges and his airborne version of Mad Cow Disease.

So Jack is infected, but not contagious.  At least he has Special Agent Larry Fine off his case and is back in the FBI’s good graces.

Only thing, things aren’t going so good for Larry.  Sure, he’s in the middle of a face turn (by acting less like a moron this hour than the rest of the day), but he’s about to lose his girl.  When Larry was filling in Renee as to Jack’s condition, she gave off a signal that her heart no longer belonged to Larry:

That’s right- the single tear–a simple sign that Renee’s life is about to take a turn to the Jack side.  Now that Larry’s out in the field (with his “best men,” all of whom combined on their best day are no match for Jack Bauer) and Renee’s back at the agency headquarters with Jack, sometime between now and the end of the day, Renee and Jack are going to have to team up (hopefully without the help of The Bowler) to save Larry and Renee will totally succumb to Jack.

And then she’ll probably die in the opening hours of day eight, because those things just happen.

So right now, Jack has been infected with an airborne version of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, of which the human version is known as Mad Cow Disease.  Figures while the rest of us slobs would contract something like that through eating steak, Jack just has to one up us all and contract it through fighting terrorists.

Speaking of which; my admiration for Hodges continues to grow.  First (in a bit that I saw coming), he convinced his main underling to put on a show and pretend to help Tony while feeding the government false information the whole time.  While I hope that Hodges gets his in the end, it’s interesting to see the justification he’s using to put up a fight against the federal government–“you’ve had your search, now get off our private property.”  That really does put the FBI and the White House in an unenviable position, which (it looks like) only Jack will be able to get them out of.

Going back to my initial statement- that this season makes up for the last season- that’s one thing that’s a complete about-face from last season.  The scenes involving the president interacting with the cabinet are so much more interesting.  They did a good job tonight of explaining why the President couldn’t just send in Delta Force to deal with Starkwood.  Had they needed to have this conversation last season, they would have had to invoke the 25th Amendment, get the President’s sister involved and have Powers Boothe sneer for 15 minutes before realizing they couldn’t do anything.

That’s not to say that people in the administration aren’t trying to undermine the President.  I still think Olivia is evil, and I’m not buying her little Stockholm Syndrome moment with Aaron.  She’s just as calculating as Sherry Palmer and is putting all of her pieces in place for something.  Even though that’s my least favorite storyline so far this year, overall, it’s not that bad.

One other thing about tonight– every now and then, 24 lets someone famous do a cameo.  A few seasons ago, they had John McCain walking through CTU.  Was it me, or was the strike team leader tonight played by Bruce Springsteen?

What do you think?

For more 24, check out blogs.4bauer.com.

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6 thoughts on “Jack Bauer vs. Mad Cow

  1. Not only will Jack save them in the 5a-6a episode, but when he and Renee bust into Starkwood, they’ll find the world’s largest syringe with ‘MAD COW VACCINE’ written on the side in big bold letters.

  2. Actually, Renee shed 2 tears….one in each eye. Go back and look at the tape, you’ll see.

  3. You’re right Bill. There was another tear, in the opposite side of her face before that. But at one point, there was a single tear.

  4. The only question now is how long until Kim Bauer gets abducted by Jonas Hodges while trying to come to Jack’s aid with the whole politicized stem cell plot.

    Nevertheless, this season makes me forget everything from last season except Jack killing Fayed, the vampire kill from the first few hours, and Kumar trying to pass himself off as a terrorist.

  5. Bumble- how many hours are left in the day? I’m guessing Kim will show up in Hodges’ clutches in two hours and be liberated in the last hour.

    And tell me, how in the world were you able to forget Jack teaming up with Rain Man? That still gives me nightmares.

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