Treason’s in Season Again on 24

Over the weekend, the FOX network announced this would be the last season of 24 on television.  I have to be honest- while I’m a huge fan of Jack Bauer and his continuing struggle against terrorists, evildoers and ne’er-do-wells, I’m relieved that the show’s end is in sight.

In it’s early seasons, 24 was a revolutionary show.  Everything came together in the show’s fifth season, which represented the peak of the story of Jack Bauer.  But after that, the show suffered a sharp decline.  Season Six was easily the show’s worst.  But in the past two seasons, the show has rebounded somewhat, becoming interesting (although no longer groundbreaking) once again.

I’m looking forward to the end of the series because Jack Bauer the character will (hopefully) get closure and peace.  I also think that ending the series will be a good thing because while the stories of Days Seven and Eight have been entertaining (or at least better than Day Six), many of the story devices seem (to a long time fan with a good memory) like we’ve seen them before.  Two weeks ago, I bemoaned the terrorist’s use of a tunnel to hide a getaway and an EMP device.  Well, story elements once again seem familiar as Jack has to put up with members of the president’s cabinet working against her and a (quasi) major character suffering a heart attack.

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Poor Richard’s Test of Faith

Every time I write an entry about the night’s episode of Lost, I like to try and work in the episode’s title cleverly in the headline.  But because tonight’s episode of Lost, Ab Aeterno is a Latin phrase meaning something along the lines of “from the beginning of time,” I’ve got little to work with.

Hence, the titular line of this entry is more a description of what happened tonight.  Although for Lost viewers, it was much more than a job interview.  Not only did we get the backstory four years in the making, Ab Aeterno was chock full of Island mythology, the struggle between good and evil and possibly foreshadowing where the overall story is going.

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The Hour of Chloe

Besides Jack, Chloe is the one constant in 24.  Since Day 3, her character has always been loyal (to Jack, at least), competent and involved in the action with very little personal drama or wasted subplots getting in the way.

However, during the last two days, Chloe was always treated as a sideshow- forced to withstand the mendacity of the intellectually challenged Agents Janis, Arlo and Dana.  But tonight, that all changed.  24 may be the story of the longest days in Jack Bauer’s life, but tonight’s episode was all Chloe.

It would be an understatement to say that Chloe has been underused this season.  Just like last season, Chloe has played the part of a fish out of water in the new CTU (although last year, it was the FBI). But in her actions tonight to get CTU back up and running after an EMP attack, Chloe’s story brought me back to simpler times when she stopped a terrorist’s runaway car with an automatic weapon.  Or that time she put down a lecherous barfly with a taser.

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Ensconsed

A few days ago, I was trying to make spaghetti, but couldn’t find a can opener to open a can of tomatoes for the sauce.  The can opener was either in one of the many boxes at the new place, or back at the apartment.  But with a pregnant wife getting hungrier by the second, I didn’t have time to mess around.  I improvised, nearly adding a jar of salsa, but instead opting to add a bunch of chopped up vegetables to the ground buffalo meat we had on hand.

Regardless of my being ill-equipped to prepare the dinner I had in mind, the food turned out good.

Yesterday, The Civee’s family came up and helped us get all but a few boxes of the rest of our stuff out of the apartment.  So we have even more boxes around here than before.  But even more importantly, the grill is out back.  And I celebrated the end of winter by grilling some steak for The Civee and myself.  Grilling over here is different.  I have to go up and down some steps to get from the kitchen to the grill.  I’m still not sure of where everything is.  But it’s a different kind of fun.  And of course, the food turned out good.

So it’s going to take us some time to get out of all these boxes and set up.  But at least we’re here before the baby.

Now I just have to find the can opener.

By the way, I noticed that last year, grilling season started on March 16.  I’m chalking up this year’s late start to the fact that I had been sleeping and cooking at a separate location from my grill.  I hope the grill will forgive me.  Maybe to make up for it, I’ll get the grill a nice new brush his year.

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On the Beat With Officers Ford and Straume

Perhaps the biggest surprise during the last season of Lost was the transformation of Island conman Sawyer into an authority figure.

It’s been quite a character journey for Sawyer, starting out as the guy who gave away snappy nicknames and pretended to hoard asthma medication to the guy who enforced the law for the DHARMA Initiative.  While still giving out snappy nicknames.

As the Oceanic Six returned to the 1977 version of the Island, Sawyer’s LaFleur’s carefully constructed lie of a life came crumbling down.  Sawyer had to cover for simple things like assimilating Jack, Hurley and Kate into the DI and much more complex ones, like figuring out how to save Sayid.  As events unfurled, Sawyer lost everything, including the love of his life, Juliet, who sacrificed herself to cap off Jack and Faraday’s plan to change the timeline.

Now, in Lost’s final season, Sawyer is back to being the resident Island conman.  With nothing but bad memories of his three years in the seventies, Sawyer wants off the island. Sawyer has no allegiance to anybody but himself and has made deals with both sides to get what he wants.

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Jack Bauer Vs. The Old Car In The Tunnel Trick

The Old Car in the Tunnel Trick – 2

Jack Bauer – 0

It’s not often that Jack Bauer has a losing record, but the guy who has beaten back terrorists, goons and other ne’er-do-wells time and time again can’t seem to figure out that when a bad guy drives down a tunnel, he isn’t coming out the other end.

It first happened way back on Day Four, where some professor who CTU was trying to track for some reason or another evaded the watchful eyes of CTU by ducking into a tunnel to pick up a bomb with which to blow himself up.  And we saw the trick used again tonight, where Tarin, holding the IRKian President’s daughter hostage drove into a tunnel to escape with his catch.

At least tonight, the situation resolved itself in a manner that isn’t as prominent as driving into a tunnel: the old let the hostage escape trick.

Although, to be honest, I saw that one coming too.

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This Battlestation is Operational

The Civee and I are in the middle of moving to the new house.  But fear not, the Internet has been installed and the computer is hooked up and working.

Unlike at the old place, we’re hooked straight in- no need for a wireless connection.  Also, unlike the old place, we chose not to get cable anymore.  It’ll be an adjustment, but I’m sure we’ll have other ways to amuse ourselves.

By the way, if you need a washing machine, let me know, I may be able to help.

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The Redemption of Doctor Linus

I suppose it’s only fitting that Benjamin Linus, the man that has pulled all the strings on the Island and manipulated everyone into doing his will is, in a sideways reality not quite in control of what’s going on around him.

He’s under the thumb of a corrupt and uncaring principal.  He eats TV dinners with his disabled father.  And he chooses to hang out with Dr. Arzt.  Hardly a man in control of his own destiny.

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Jack Bauer Vs. The Boy In The Iron Lung

The main arc in tonight’s episode of 24 took place in a hospital, where Jack Bauer tried to lure a teenage suicide bomber out of an iron lung.

For most of the episode, Jack tried sweet-talking the kid (who looks like a dullard but somehow, in a manner of minutes, managed to sketch out the bomb wiring on the inside wall of his chamber) out of the iron lung, before bringing in the big guns: the kid’s mother.

At last, I thought, something to break the monotony of this episode.  I thought Jack would pull a gun on the mother, aim it at her head and tell the kid he was going to watch his mother die.  But no.  Jack let the kid and his mother have a few moments to discuss things.  Sure, Jack even busted out the “I give you my word” card for (what felt like) the first time this season, but nothing happened.  I was convinced this episode was another waste of what could have been perfectly good TV, but then Jack ordered the mother pulled out of the room.  And then Jack really went to work…

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Keeping Things Interesting

With a little more than a month to go before the baby, The Civee and I decided we didn’t want life getting too boring.

So we bought a house.

It’s something we’ve wanted to do for a while.  We had been looking (not too seriously) for the past year and a half or so, but around January decided if we were going to make a move, it would be better to do so before the arrival.

For the past month, we’ve been embroiled in bidding and negotiating over the house,  and praying for the snow on the roof to melt so the inspector could make sure there weren’t any gigantic holes or leaks.  And it all came down to yesterday- the closing date.  I’ve heard the horror stories from others- the feeling that you’ll be paying forever for a house, having to sign your name hundreds of times and the general nervousness about the whole situation.

But it wasn’t that bad.  Sure, my hand still hurts from signing my name so many times.  And I don’t even remember half of the things I signed.  The worst part was trying to keep up with all the different conversations that were going on between the other people in the room as we were trying to sign the papers.  But I had The Civee with me.  And at the end, we got a set of keys to a house that we can call our home.

For the past ten years, I’ve lived in apartments where the walls had to stay white.  Before that, for most of my life, I’ve lived in homes attached to other structures.  Well, our house is free-standing.  And we can paint the walls whatever color we want.  It’s an older house, and I can’t stand in the basement, but I don’t care about any of that.

So for the next few weeks, we’re going to be painting and moving.  I should have time to write about 24 and Lost and whatever other nonsense I usually write about.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to get everything done before the arrival of  ….   I can’t say her name yet.  But you’ll find out soon enough.

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