If this was the result of the production hiatus and massive reworking of the final episodes of the season then I would hate to see what was discarded. Let’s just get it out there right now: this episode sucked and if it’s indicative of the direction the homestretch of Season 7 is heading then all of the goodwill and kickassitude that we’ve enjoyed thus far is in critical danger of being utterly Borked.
Spoilers await.
First off, Jack hasn’t shot or “excessively interrogated” anyone for like five weeks now. This is not acceptable. What he has done is lie in a gurney. Even when he’s sent to interrogate Jonas, it’s a tepid affair, essentially a trade of useless intel for witness protection.
I’ll tell you who’s not happy with the arrangement: the first daughter, who can’t stop the tears from coming no matter how hard she tries. She makes her feelings known by shouting a lot and storming out of the briefing room and asking Aaron in a round-about way to cap Jonas’s ass and eventually calls her friend/political consultant/assassin to presumably convince him to do the deed. I don’t care. This was painful stuff.
Also painful: Janis, who set her whine meter to Impudent Toddler levels until she was thankfully verbally smacked down by an increasingly deranged Jack.
The big news–besides the total lack of action or interesting things happening this episode–is that we get a peek at the Big Bad Conspiracy and, yes, it is just as boring as I had feared. Our arch-villains are 13 white folks who run military consulting firms and want to murder hundreds of thousands of innocents in an effort to take over the country and save it or something. It’s basically the plotline to whatever hack techno-thriller you read last week and it’s just as moronic here.
And to add to the misery we’ve got a pair of Muslim immigrants that Evil Tony and his syndicate are going to pin the man-made disaster on. They’re afraid to venture out into the streets following the terrorist attacks for fear of the hate crimes. On the other hand they eat breakfast at 3:45 in the morning.
I loathed this episode aggressively. The villainous plot is hugely stupid and shockingly unoriginal, the Tony betrayal still doesn’t make any sense, Jack’s illness holds zero tension and Olivia Taylor and Janis are locked in a death struggle to take the top spot on The Most Irritating Female Character of 24 Since Sandra Palmer list.
Memorable Bauer Maneuver
Not much to choose from, alas, but his meltdown during the CTU server reconstitution was pretty sweet.
Scene Most Reminiscent of That Time Rick Moranis Was Being Interviews by Harold Ramis in Ghostbusters and He Was Wearing That Huge Sensor Helmet and There Was That Infrared Dog On the Screen
Jonas’s interrogation.
Tony Grimace of the Week
“A phonebook?! You better hope there isn’t a plastic shower curtain within reach.”
28. April 2009 at 6:42 am
The writers could’ve stopped this 1st Daughter $#@! three episodes ago. Ethan resigned cause he found out Jack murdered the Senator & didn’t want Pres. Taylor to take the fall. Well, now that everybody knows Jack is not that bad of a guy, Pres. Taylor should’ve immediately called Ethan on her Fave 5 plan & get his butt back into the White House ASAP.
This “let’s kill 10,000-100,000+ American civilians & then blame it on a Muslim or Muslim terrorist cell, so we can get more funding plan” is exactly the plot to “The Long Kiss Goodnight”. Its 1 thing to ripoff classic Die Hard movies, its another to ripoff a mediocre Geena Davis flick.
As we learned from that “vicious” interrogation, Jonas has nothing on this Big Bad Conspiracy Group. (Not a single name, phone #, or MySpace account). Everybody in this group could plausibly deny everything Hodges says. AND HE STILL GETS GOVERNMENT PROTECTION!
Jack’s Palmer Rant against Janis almost saved this episode for me.
28. April 2009 at 7:48 am
Yeah, the whole plot is pretty silly but this is 24. As much as I dig the show, they haven’t had an original plotline in years. I didn’t hate the episode as much as Dave. I’m okay with bad Tony at the moment and am happy Chloe is back (despite my being the only person in the world who doesn’t like her all that much). If we didn’t know Kiefer has already signed on for future seasons of the show, the will-he-die storyline might have some weight. Who knows, though? Maybe he’ll die and future seasons will be prequels. That could be cool. What’s not cool, of course, is Olivia “Subplot” Taylor. The worst part about that whole story arc is that poor Aaron Pierce is being dragged down with her.
I did like finding out there’s a supervillain version of WebEx. I suspected as much, though I figured I’d see it on The Venture Bros. first.