I have a crazy thought about these last few hours of 24- not just the day, but the series as a whole.
Because we are nearing the end of 24 (save for some possible feature films sometime in the future), we the fans (at least those who would rather Google “Jack Bauer kills a guy with a screwdriver” than “President Wayne Palmer”) are getting what we want. At this point, the show is light on boring political scenes, idiot family members and an unnecessary focus on incompetent bureaucrats. Rather, we’re getting a lot of Jack going rogue, uncovering government conspiracies and killing bad guys.
This show can’t go out on a better note.
Tonight, Jack and Agent Freddy teamed up to rescue former Agent Dana from the clutches of the vile private security contractors. They succeeded, although Jack took out poor D.B. Sweeney (still not using his toe pick). Logan convinced President Taylor to put his lackey in charge of the Jack hunt, and then started coordinating with the Russians in an effort to take Jack out. Dana escaped from Jack and Agent Freddy, but Jack tracked her down. And then he killed her.
I have to admit, while I was sad to see it wasn’t Agent Freddy that got to kill Dana, I’m glad to see her go. While her death was satisfying from a story standpoint, it had echoes of Jack’s best kill ever. Jack secured the evidence linking the Russians to the conspiracy, yet Dana said she had more to offer. Jack told her she didn’t. Then promptly pulled the trigger. In a way, it’s an homage to this line of dialogue:
Jack Bauer: You don’t have any more useful information, do you, Nina?
Nina Myers: (weakly) I do.
Jack Bauer: No, you don’t. (shoots and kills Nina)
(Day 3: 2:00am-3:00am)
If they’re going to re-use plot elements, I’m glad they’re re-using the good ones, as opposed to Jack getting fooled by the old car in the tunnel trick.
I liked this episode and don’t have much else to say other than the two following random thoughts:
-So Logan’s bootlick is now in charge of CTU. For continuity’s sake, they probably should have brought back Miles Papazian, although there would be a few problems with brining him back. First of all, for destroying the evidence linking Logan to the Season Five conspiracy, he’s probably in the middle of a nice long jail sentence. Secondly, as a character, he was extremely annoying. And bringing him back would force the writers into having Jack kill him off. And there may not be enough time left in the day to justify that.
-Logan had quite a reaction to Mrs. Hassan’s speech (“What a magnificent woman”). He’s been single for a few years. She’s now single. She’s a bit more mentally stable than his previous wife, and she’s definitely more modest (you won’t see anyone accuse her of being the first lady of cleavage), but I think these two could definitely make it work.
What did you think?
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