LOL…my husband said that in the first 10 minutes of the first show. How did Gaines know that Kim would sneak out to meet her friend? Pretty much the whole show revolved around her sneaking out right after midnight. What would have happened if she’d gone to bed and fallen asleep?
You do have to wonder about a criminal mastermind whose entire plot depends on a teenager sneaking out of the house past midnight on a schoolnight.
And there are any number of other early examples. I guess the main difference between them and what has happened the last few episodes is that in the beginning it took time to understand that these were just delaying tactics to heighten the suspense. There was no reason for the bad boys to take the girls to the store instead of the hideout right away and equally no reason for the fake father to do the same with Teri. But we couldn’t know that right away and by the time we found out lots of other interesting stuff had intervened.
But in recent episodes the stupid stuff was apparent immediately. I want to shout out “Plot Device” as soon as Teri does most anything these days.
Look, I know it’s just a show and that the entire situation is contrived. But you go into these things with some suspension of disbelief until you get hit in the face with dumbness once too often. All I can do is hope that they have a finish waiting that will make it all up to me.
Watching this week’s episode with my boyfriend, we both had exactly the same reaction to the just-in-time rescue of Terri Bauer, namely:
**TONY! **
We love him.
I just know a lot of people are going to hate it, but I thought the police bust of Dan’s brother was pretty damned cool.
I really, really don’t trust that bastard Mason. He’s probably a red herring, but…ugh.
And we all knew Ensign…I mean Dr. Phil was gonna bite it.
Sherry Palmer is looking more and more suspect. Hyperambitious, or guilty of something else?
I agree, Gundy.
Tony: Stand-up guy. I like him better all the time.
Mason: Slime ball. But I agree that he’s probably not a bad guy—that would be way too obvious.
Whatshisname: Feh. Good riddance. Why did they even bother bringing his character in if he was just going to get shot in 2 episodes? I guess they just needed someone extraneous to the plot so they could have someone to kill off this week.
Mrs. Palmer: Certainly a megabitch, and quite possibly Eeeevil.
I thought Palmer’s press conference was well done.
And on a side note: I hope we see more of Palmer’s daughter (don’t recall her name). She’s quite gorgeous, I think!
It’s Nicole. And I agree, she’s a babe.
At the voice-over at the beginning, when it said “Someone WILL die” my entire household was chanting “The wife. The wife. Kill the wife.”
At least the amnesia thing seems to be going. That was one of the dumber things I’ve seen on television in a while.
Indeeeeed!
And much as I like Tony, I just know they’re gonna make him bad soon. And to think I grew a jazzspot because of him. 
And why do I think Nicole lied about the rape? But then I’m the same person who thought Tony was lying about The Mandible being dead.
By now I don’t think there’s any way Tony’s in on it. Ditto Nina, what with all her concerned emoting, unless this show is the. most. contrived. ever.
But mark my words: Mason is bad. I guaran-damn-tee it.
Since I originally opened this thread by ragging on the show, let me be the first to say that this last episode was really good. A return to form, for sure. I liked the drug bust, I liked the way they resolved the assassin at the house (and finally they’re ditching that lame amnesia subplot), and the mystery of exactly what is out in the woods is pretty good so far.
So now we’ve got Terri back in the hands of CTU and a friendly, we got rid of two of the bad plots that were forming (the old friend and the amnesia), and Kim and Terri are back in situations were they can come under more danger much more plausibly (a mole in CTU is still there - he may try to get at them). Jack is about to be engaged again in some action - I’d say the producers managed to drag the show right back on track. Now it’s just a question of whether they can keep it there.
In the next show, my bet is that there will be mucho drama as Terri remembers Kim and thinks she’s dead, and Kim has to convince the police that she’s innocent and try to get word to Dad, but still not knowing who she can trust.
Things have to come to a head pretty soon though. What are there, five more episodes now? And we still haven’t been introduced to Lou Diamond Phillips and Dennis Hopper. I think the show’ll move pretty fast from here on in.
Next week on 24:
Jack:Who are you?
Lou Diamond Phillips: I’m a werewolf, Jack!
Jack: yeah? While I’m a vampire!
Billy the Kid: No, both of you are in my gang!
Dennis Hopper: Yeah, well i was in Space Truckers!!!
Jack: This IS the longest day of my life!!!
I think the mystery in Saugus is an underground super-secret government facility. Nuff said.