Awesome. This was the best season so far (but the best episode was in Season 1 and involved Jack holding his dead pregnant wife who had earlier been raped and kidnapped). Kieffer killed that ending. I’m glad they did it that way. At first, I too was a little let down that there was no big twist along the lines of Teri or Mandy/Palmer. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that would have been the worst thing to do. People are already complaining that the show has become too predictable. M. Night Shamalayan is dealing with the problem that everyone expects a big surprise ending in his movies. The problem is that a surprise you are expecting is kind of hard hard to keep, well, surprising. As proved this year, 24 doesn’t handle cliffhanger resolutions very well. A cliffhanger is rough to resolve in this format. They can’t really do one day after another (48) - it would be too far-fetched (even for this show) IMO. No, a quiet ending was perfect.
It really has been a rough day. Traditionally, you expect that you will feel good when the hero’s win in the end. In this show all you can do is feel like you’ve finally seen something brutal come to an end. There is no triumph here. Millions of people were saved, and that is the win, but it feels so bittersweet at those prices. Jack really shoud have mentioned a pardon for Tony. I was surprised about that one. It would have been easy to throw in there. Otherwise, I liked that phone call alot. Jack’s line - “There were alot of sacrifices made today.” got us trying to list off all of the sacrifces. Remember - badguy deaths/injuries don’t count. Here is the list I can do off the top of my head:
Sacrifices:
Chapelle - his life
Claudia - her life
Chase - His hand
Gael - His life
Gael’s Wife - Her freedom
Tony - His freedom and a good chunk of his neck
Michelle - her Husband
The Hotel (Special shout out to the manager -well done) - Hundreds of lives
LA Infection - Thousands of lives
The Delta team - their lives
The guard at the prison (bullet to the head, self inflicted in a game of russian roulette)
Nina’s guard’s and doctor - their lives
The cops at the subway - their lives
Carjack victim - his life
Asian cop at Amadour’s club
Jack - His soul
Now, about Chase. I swear this kid cracks me up. When he went into the lab he heard the fish tank bubbling and then turned and stared at the thing like a deer caught in the headlights. Hand outstretched, he was like “Oooohhh! Fishies!!! Ahhhhhh . . .” It was the same with Nina in Mexico. She put a flashlight on the ground and he just walked straight toward it like a moth to the flame. Come on Chase, pay attention! But, I’ve got to hand it to the kid, he’s a cut above the rest. He handled everything really well. He’s learned to keep an arm’s length from his job. He broke protocol today, but managed not to get the axe at CTU. He’s keeping Kim, so he can finger her and she can give him hand-jobs - high five! And a desk-job at CTU isn’t so bad - a position like like that makes sure that one never has idle hands. And even though Jack will lose his right-hand man, I’m sure that with a little rest, they’ll both be able to get a grip on their lives.
And there was definitely a shot of the fridge earlier. I thought to myself at the time “He really shouldn’t be in the Teacher’s Lounge”. How about the look on his face when he almost shot a bunch of kids! Ha! Do your homework boys and girls, or Hacksaw will shoot you where you sit!
The first thing I said when Chase got the axe was “So much for not getting detached . . .” Nice little bit of foreshadowing on the writer part there . . .
Well, if you put a deadly virus in our refrigerator at work, you’re only going to make things worse. “Mr. President, a super, hybrid form of deadly virus and moldy cottage cheese is on the phone for you. It wants out of the fridge.”
Aw, come on! To be fair, she didn’t directly endanger Chase except inasmuch as she is the Black Curse of Death in general (but perky. Very perky.), and she didn’t even know about the other guy (that’s always freaked me out!) Chase is (relatively) lucky; at least there’s a chance his hand can be re-attached. BTW, how do–able is that these days? This is the second one of the shows I watch in which that’s been the solution - “Angel” with Spike’s (undead yet!) hands was the first.
For the record, the ep where Nina showed back up and they said that she had been given “International Exiled Immunity” was the one where my girlfriend said “That’s it. I’m done!” Actually, it’s become our code word for unlikely plot devices. We just turn to each other and say, “Oh, International Exiled Immunity.” We use it a lot during “Alias”. Frankly, I’m glad to not to have had to listen to her grunt in disgust through all the Palmer shenanigans…
That’s not really the question. The question is how do–able will it be in 2006. They jumped the show ahead in time, so you can imagine some medical advances. It seems like I read news every day about medical advance in spinal cord injury/regeneration research. Already this type of procedure is within reach (are hand puns tired yet?). They can even do transplants as well. I would imagine by 2006 an operation like that would have a pretty good chance.
There is talk that next season could involve Jack going to Europe or some other globe trotting. How can he get there (and back) without spending most of the day on planes? Answer: The time jump thing again. If they were to jump ahead another 3 years it would be 2009, and one could imagine a mature scramjet technology (perhaps a military classified plane) that could get him where he needed to go in an hour or so (maybe less). Hell, you could actually give Jack a nap for an episode!
I agree that the spin was stupid, but correct thematically, in the sense that he was grasping at straws, desperate to “spin” it somehow, despite the fact that in reality they were all going to be in deep doo-doo.
BTW, this season was exponentiolly worse in it’s “stretching” the decive of 24 hours. I mean think about Jack’s “day” (what I can remember):
Plan prison escape and riot, head to Mexico, get involved in botched virus transfer, come back from Mexico, track down bad guy, chase bad guy, get bad guy, chase new bad guy…etc.
Chase went to MExico ad got tortured, yet seemed to be ok…at least unitl he lost his hand.
Tony got shot in the neck but was up and running around a couple of hours later.
Not to mention al the usual magical abilites of people to get from A to B in no time, to set up complicated data transfers (how quickly did they get the subway photo booth setup ad how fast were they getting pictures to CTU).
Still, I love the show and eagerly await next season.
In our world. 24-land is/may be different. According to his license, Kyle Singer was born on November 19, 1987. Since he is referred to as 19 years old, this would place the action around 2006-2007.
Jack: Chase, I am your father-in-law.
Chase: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Clearly not.
I got sucked into this show about five episodes back and now I’m hooked. One question (sorry if this has been done to death): What’s Chloe’s deal? She’s good at her job, but totally incompetent with people. I want to like her, but then she opens her mouth.
You anwered your own question. They never provide a reason for her being like this. My guess is she was repeatedly dropped on her head as a baby. Can’t say I blame her mother . . .
Anyone think Palmer may be pushed over the edge into being next season’s baddy? I wouldn’t bet on it, of course, but still… it would continue the character’s arc pretty consistently…
As for Chase, I really hope that CTU has a decent severance package…
[/obligatory]
Good closer. I’ve been on & off with the series (mostly for logistical reasons) but I’m glad I came in this year when I did. Here’s waiting for January…