FAQ Bauer (aka Thread Rules) 1) What can be discussed in plain text, unboxed?
A: Any events in episodes, once aired on the east coast – as well as any speculation based on these already-aired events.
2) What should I confine to spoiler boxes?
A: Any discussion of upcoming shows that contains information from sources outside the aired material, or any speculation based on such things. This includes the “Next week on 24” previews, which some people choose not to watch.
3) What, no third question?
A: THIS SPACE FOR RENT
Okay, so the bio-weapon plot is over. I’m still confused about who was doing what and why.
Tony, I guess, holds a grudge against the gummint over what happened to Michelle, which has clearly messed him up.
Hodges was trying to drum up business for his Hertz Rent-an-Army franchise.
But what’s up with Tony’s new squeeze and her team of rich guys with voice-scrambling phones? Was I not paying attention? What motivation do these folks have for attacking their own country?
I think they represent the military-mercenary-industrial complex. They were working with Hodges, with the same basic aims, but more subtly and long-term-y.
I’m still quite enjoying this season, and think that going all the way back to Kim-being-held-hostage is hilarious, although I hope it takes some severe twist into a different direction than it did last time.
For maybe the fourth time in this season, the writers have set up a tense situation that could be milked for suspense and then resolved it within the first half hour, thereby requiring them to come up with a new, less compelling, and increasingly unlikely threat. We’ve gone from “Oh noes. thousands will die!” to “Kim is in a cougar trap again? Whatever.”
Janis and Chloe cat fight -- highly annoying. Particularly Janis. Trained professionals trying to save thousands of lives and she's whining because she feels unappreciated? (She was able to restore the contents of the netbook by looking at the PROM? Say what? Even by the standards of 24 technobabble, this was pretty lame.)
First scene of the episode… bad guys are loading and testing the canister in an airtight test chamber. Which they just happened to have handy on short notice. Then the guy in the moon suit tests the system by dispersing some of the toxin? Umm…where does the toxin go after the chamber is opened? Maybe being heartless terrorists, they just vent it outside into the neighborhood?
The Kim hostage situation – I’m still trying to figure out the Evil Conspiracy’s prescient chain of reasoning on this one. "Hey, Kim Bauer is in town. You know, the daughter of that guy who has foiled us like 15 times today. Just in case he makes it 16 times AND takes one of us prisoner AND is in a position to release this prisoner AND is still alive after being subjected to our nerve agent, maybe we should devote three trained operatives to take her hostage if necessary. This is, by the way, contingent on her flight having been delayed by two hours. "
The hostage situation only makes sense because no one in the 24-verse seems able to make do the calculus “If I do A, I save one life and thousands die. Maybe I shouldn’t do A.”
True, except that no one has been faced with such a choice. The dude that was being framed did not know about the terrorist attack that was going to kill thousands.
Jack only has to free Tony. Thousands of lives are not on the line for him, so he might as well try to save one.