Throughout his career as a government agent, Jack Bauer has a history of being one step ahead of everyone else. Bad guys, good guys, idiot family members, Jack is portrayed as the sharpest knife in the drawer that is the 24-verse. As a viewer, it’s fun- cheering for the guy who is always right and always gets things done.
But tonight, I have to admit my faith in Jack was broken. True, Jack’s pursuit of Ike and the information to take down the conspiracy achieved their goals, but he made two missteps along the way that resulted in me shouting at the TV, questioning whether Jack was out of his mind.
First, after pulling Ike’s seemingly lifeless body out of a flaming car, Jack left Ike there to lay on the sidewalk while he helped Special Agent Renee attempt to save Martika.
Not that I have anything against saving the life of someone who helped you nail the bad guy, but I’ve watched way too much TV to expect Ike to still be laying there when Jack is done trying to save Martika.
Secondly, shortly after procuring a chip from Ike’s body, Jack proceeds to hand said MacGuffin over to a random police officer who just so happened to be standing by a helicopter. Now, that chip contained the names and information on all of the government agents involved in the conspiracy, right? Then why would Jack hand that over to some random police officer?
Luckily, neither of these missteps came back to bite Jack in the ass. Hopefully, Jack’s brain was catching up on its sleep this episode and his body was on autopilot. Jack will be back to normal next week (I hope).
Despite Jack’s questionable decisions, the whole pursuit of Ike and retrieval of the microchip is over. But the name of the game is 24, not 9, and there’s more to talk about.