Loud Noises!

Tonight’s episode of 24 (Day 7, 3:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m.) didn’t have much in the way of fisticuffs (or as Jack Bauer practices it, killingpeoplewithyourlegsicuffs).

There were no gunfights.

And no big explosions.

But there were plenty of scenes of people yelling at each other.

There was really only one action scene in tonight’s episode- where Tony confronted and dispatched the lackey with the cannister.  Other than that, there was a lot of exposition and moving pieces into place, [hopefully] setting the scene for a strong finish to this season.

The real action of this episode came in three heightened verbal confrontations.

The first, between President Taylor and her daughter, proved why it’s not a good idea to have a family member serve as chief of staff to the President of the United States.  Not only do you need someone who’s capable of looking at the situation from a non-emotional standpoint, but also, especially in the 24-verse, family members can only serve to mess things up royally.

The second confrontation was between Jack Bauer and [My Name Is] Jonas Hodges, the Blofeldian villain of this season who’s way down the path to insanity.  Actually, the confrontation started with Jonas against the world, but he focused his anger on Jack once Jack joined him in the room.

Jonas started the conversation by sharing his feelings about the government’s persecution of Jack: that it was wrong.  The scary thing was that I felt (and I’m sure a great deal of the rest of the 24 audience also felt) he was right.  Whether Jonas was saying it because he believed it, or because he felt it would help get Jack on his side, the fact is he said something that Jack needed to hear.  From there, there was some explanation about this group of Others, and whether Jonas’ family could be protected.  I’m pretty sure Jack gave Jonas his word, which means that Hodges’ family is already en route to a secure location.

Finally, we saw a rather one-sided conversation between Jack and Special Agent The Bowler, in which Jack told her something that’s been needed to be said to her since hour one of this season, namely to shut up and do your job.  Unfortunately, Jack lost some of his credibility at the end of his rant, as he proved he’s joining Hodges on the convoy to crazy town by claiming David Palmer was the nation’s current president.

Jack probably should’ve stopped after “do your job.”

Two other things about tonight’s episode:

-We found out the ‘Others’ Hodges referred to was a secret group of people in suits at 3:30 a.m. connected via anonymous Web chat.  I was a bit disappointed, because during the random shots of the cabal members, I was hoping to see one of two people:

  1. A random punky teenage hacker who just happened to stumble into the chatroom.
  2. Charles Logan

-It’s good to have Chlöe back.  It was even better to see her get to the FBI in one piece, in less than five minutes.  Maybe it’s just because the ways of 24 are ingrained in my mind, but when she was on the phone with Jack, and he said he’d send a car for her, I expected Tony to be behind the wheel of said car and Jack’s mission for the rest of the season to be to put a bullet in Tony’s head, to find a vaccine, and to rescue Chlöe.

It’s good to know after seven seasons, this show isn’t entirely predictable.

For more Bauer talk, check out blogs.4bauer.com.

What did you think?

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2 thoughts on “Loud Noises!

  1. What kind of hotel was Tony staying in where he can shoot a gun and slam a guy into the walls without getting complaints from the front desk?

    I don’t like seeing Jack or Hodges reduced to insanity, but at the end of the day, at least one of them will recover.

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