Soccer Dad

152

This is the first season of 24 that I've been watching in its original broadcast. I watched the first 6 seasons on DVD. So finally I can comment on the current state of the show. Spoilers alert.

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Pfunn isolates the elements of 24 that remain (more or less) the same:

You see, there are three elements to a "24″ season that are cycled from episode to episode: the Dangerous Thing, the Vital Person and the Complication. They figure into a typical "24″ scenario like so: Jack is tasked to find the Dangerous Thing, without which we can't solve the crisis. Dangerous Things in previous seasons have included vials of deadly toxin, the President's "football" containing all the nuclear-launch codes, nuclear bombs and flash drives or PDAs or iPods containing Important Information. Once he locates the Dangerous Thing, however, he is told that he must now find the Vital Person, the only one who can operate or decode or turn off or read the Dangerous Thing and without whom we can't solve the crisis. Throughout all this, there is the Complication, some annoying circumstance that is making it difficult for Jack and Co. to solve the crisis (e.g., Jack's a drug addict, Jack's wife has amnesia, Jack's brother is an evil megalomaniac, Jack's father is an evil megalomaniac, Jack's daughter is about to be eaten by a cougar, Jack is dead, etc.). Once Jack overcomes the Complication and locates the Vital Person, turns out there's a new Dangerous Thing to find, with another Vital Person involved, and so on and so on and so on through the 24 episodes.

This might be why Fresh Loaf opines that the show is a bit too predictable:

But now, where "24's" next move used to be utterly unimagineable, it all just feels too contrived, too predictable. Hotwire a car and drive it off the second story of a parking deck crawling with FBI agents? Sigh. Fake kill a woman who was the only one to trust you but now thinks you've betrayed her so that the bad guys think you're one of them? Seen it. Infiltrate a terrorist network with a rogue band of former CTU cohorts because the government can't be trusted? Yawn.

(Personally, I figured that the First Dude would somehow survive. And as far as fake killing a woman, I was thinking of an alternate reunion between Jack and Renee.
Renee (accusingly): You darn near killed me.
Jack: I did it before to another girlfriend. She understood.
Renee: Oh. How romantic. Did it turn out well?
Jack: Well, er no, she betrayed me, killed my wife and finally I had to kill her for real two seasons later. By the way, did I mention that you're starting to look a lot like her?)

Pfunn thinks that Tony will be redeemed at the end, but fears at a very high price:

It's always good to see Tony, although we have this overwhelming feeling that he's going to die again, probably as this season's Sacrificial Lamb (Teri Bauer, Edgar Stiles, Michelle Dessler, Chase Edmund's hand, etc.). You see, Tony's already in Brooding Overdrive, worried about all these "bad things" he's been doing, and now upset that he's been forced to kill his evil mercenary buddy Emerson. Whatcha wanna bet, at the climax of the season, Tony's going to want to find redemption, or join Michelle in the Great Beyond or some such, so he'll knock Jack out, taking his place in the deadly room filled with poison or radiation or killer spores or whatever in order to hit the switch or turn the dial or push the button at just the right time, and Jack will wake up at the last minute and run to the door, pounding his hand on the thick safety glass and screaming, "TONY, NO!" and Tony, sweating or coughing or molting or whatever, but finally at peace, will turn to look at Jack and say, "I've gotta do this, Jack." We hope that doesn't happen, but signs already are pointing in that direction.

Not so Right Wing Nuthouse, who noticed something I did too.

You could see it in his face while Emerson, his "brother" was lying severerly wounded. (Is he Dead? The fact that they carried his body to the back of the hangar before the traitors came to pick up Maboto would seem to indicate that he is, in fact, dead. Or Jack would be the perfect customer in the Monty Pythons "Dead Parrot" sketch.)

Even before then, while Tony was describing how he felt after Emerson revived him you could see he still believes he's been screwed by the government. And this begs the question; what happens when the CIP Module is safely in the hands of the good guys? Tony's rationale for being on the government's side evaporates which I believe will cause him to flip and rejoin his comrades in the conspiracy.

This sets up some pretty high drama with Jack probably being the one who is forced to kill Tony (permanently) in the end. Judging by how fast this plot is moving, that might not happen for a few years.

I thought the same thing when I saw Tony's face.

And I wouldn't question RWNH who figured that Samantha was doomed. (She's a brunette.)

But here's my problem with the idea that Tony will turn evil in the end. He has shown loyalty to Emerson but Emerson revealed to Tony that he was incapacitated on purpose by Chris Henderson so he could be recruited by the bad guys. Tony was deemed a good recruit because he felt betrayed by the government who, in the hands of traitors, killed his wife. But wait, Henderson was in the employ of President Logan who was controlled by Graeme Bauer and his cabal. So Henderson and Emerson were among the conspirators responsible for Michelle's death. Given that revelation, why would Tony feel any loyalty to Emerson? Or as The Jack Sack puts it:

And it was revealed that Emerson was an associate of Christopher Henderson. Why, upon learning this, didn't Tony immediately kill Emerson right then and there is a mystery to me (Henderson helped kill Tony's lovely Michelle). Bah! It's all good, Emerson found a way to end up dead anyway... or did he?

I think that the issue of Tony's resurrection was better left to the imagination. Not just because of this, but because if I remember the scene correctly, there was no implication that Henderson was deliberate with the stab. He was reacting to Tony. He attacked Tony in the heat of the moment. Look Jack's come back from the dead twice. Renee managed it after just 5 hours of screen time. In the 24 world, resurrection happens. We don't need an explanation for it.

DeadOn liked the episode. Geeky Talk liked it too, and agrees that the best line of the episode was Chloe's, "I'm a stay at home mom." I love Melanism's synopsis.

One undiscussed aspect of the episode is Sean's fate. The two planes that collided were circling DC. Well Sean, despite fooling around on the side, is a solicitous husband who got his wife's plane to the head of the landing queue. There will be an investigation as to why that plane landed early and the action will be traced to Sean. That will make him a prime suspect as the FBI mole. But of course, his mischief will make him suspect, but it's a diversion. The mole is someone else.

Given his (over)emoting over the abduction of Renee, I have to agree with Just One Minute that Larry Moss looks like the perfect mole.

Given the speed with which the Sangala subplot is coming to a head, I guess we're going back to having two separate threats, one for each half of the day like we had in the first three seasons.

The first four episodes this season didn't have me at the edge of my seat. These last two, though, have been real cliffhangers, implausibilities and all. It may not be as good as the first three seasons or season 5, but it's certainly better than season 6 so far, even without wiping out a whole town. (yet)

jack bauer