Still pretty much the most entertaining show on TV. Maybe a little over-the-top this week, but still kept my wife and I interested from start to finish (except the Kim arc – please just leave her out for one episode!).
My wild and crazy thought du jour – Kate is in on Coral Snake guy’s plans, which is why she keeps willingly participating in this whole deal and how she keeps having the skills to contribute to the team.
featherlou thinks the sniper(s) are part of the conspiracy against the president that we heard so much about early in the season.
Okay, umm…exactly HOW was Cobra Guy planning to retrieve that microchip? And how would he get it to Jack AFTER his plane took off?? By dropping it from the sky?
And what were the bombers doing flying over GREENLAND?!? Especially when right after that they showed a map of them over the mid-Atlantic with an arrow straight back to mainland N.A., nowhere near the Arctic Circle?? (And was it just me, or did I see that arrow originating in Toronto?)
But the biggest laugh of the night went to the ad for “Mr. Personality”. Oh. My. God.
I dunno…this week was kind of a sad episode for me, because I realized I no longer really care about this story. It’s gotten just too unbelievable. The “must bomb within hours” line just makes no sense whatsoever.
And as others have said, the civil unrest thing is not very believable either. Particularly since I’ve spent a lot of time in Marietta, GA. My dad’s family is from there, and I spent many a summer there as a youth. It’s a small, sleepy, friendly little town, and certainly not a hotbed of racial tension, or an area with a lot of Middle Eastern immigrants, as far as I recall. In fact, I don’t know if I ever saw a non-white face there…
That’s not really relevant, though. It doesn’t matter what name they chose to give the town. The whole plot line just doesn’t ring true.
But then again, if they’re going to be so sensitive as to avoid mentioning any actual ME countries, it seems that they should show the same sensitivity about naming actual southern towns. But whatever.
I’ll still watch it. It’s a pretty entertaining show. Better than most stuff on TV, for sure. And I still LOVE Jack Bauer, the character. But for me, it’s lost that special something that made the first season one of the Best Shows Ever.
One other thing: Kim finally makes an actual intelligent decision! Coming clean to the cop was perhaps the only actually smart thing she’s done so far. I know I’ve defended her before, but the basis of my defense was that her actions were understandable and in character, if not actually sensible. This time, she did the smart thing.
I just wanted to brag that I totally nailed my predictions for this episode, unlike previous ones where I’ve been way off. As soon as Kim called Scruffy, I could tell he had some sort of serious injury that would be “dramatically” revealed after he hung up. And, as soon as Coral Snake guy said “it’s inside…,” I just intuited that he was trying to say “inside me.” Didn’t figure on Jack finding it so soon though.
I also immediately called the “it’s inside… inside… gasp” line ending with “me”. Although I’ve still been wondering…
Even without the concrete physical proof of the original recordings, the fact that Jack had been contacted by the 7th soldier (for whom CTU already pulled up a profile earlier while investigating that angle) claiming to have planted the fake recording – wouldn’t that constitute enough circumstantial evidence or reasonable doubt that the Prez would say, “Hmmmm… maybe we are acting too prematurely. Let’s call off the immediate attack and do a little more investigating.” Wouldn’t the info that Jack could currently report be enough to justify waiting a day or two? I just have a hard time buying that part…
Jack just rocks! Best exchange…
Clinic chick: “Sir I will call the police!”
Jack (pointing gun): “Lady, I am the police, now open the door!!”
I have no sympathy for Scruffy the Boyfriend. Sure, he had a nice spin-kick earlier, but now he’s blaming Kim for his partly amputated leg (which was an easy guess, even before they showed it). Hello? Whose brilliant idea was it to start the fire in the police car? It’s your own fault, Scruffy. Deal with it.
Did the cop say that Gary the Wife Killer was still on the loose? If so, then I’m sure Kim’s Excellent Adventure will end up face to face with him before the day is done. But not before she’s kidnapped by the circus people.
Michelle, quit looking at Tony with that stupid pining look. He’s let the whole “I’m in charge” thing turn him into an asshole, and you’re right – Jack needs to continue what he’s doing.
Does Carrie actually do any work at CTU? Besides looking over Michelle’s shoulder, that is?
Do my eyes deceive me, or was that one of the Drazens interrogating Jack?
Plus, thoughts on Nina;
[SPOILER]
I think we’ve seen the last of Nina for this season. I’d wager they’re holding on to her for season 3 - “Nina escapes/is broken out of jail and only Jack Bauer can bring her to justice/kill her/save her and run away with her”.
I’m still enjoying the show, but the writing is getting a little weak as we go along here.
The looting and crazed crowds is unrealistic. A bomb goes off in the desert with no casualties, and suddenly there are riots in the streets? Nah.
Why do you need to launch an attack on another country in six hours? That makes NO sense. Even if you wanted to, the military would need more time than that to prepare. The buildup to the Iraq war took more than six months. Yeah, I know they said they had ‘prepared for this in advance’, but that doesn’t wash either. They prepared the military to invade another country, and the President didn’t know about it?
A president would not start a world war based on a tape recording. Not without consulting Congress, the State Department, allies, etc.
So Jack calls and says the tape is a fake. Palmer wants proof. Palmer already knows there is a conspiracy inside his government. Jack goes out to get proof, and a military squad in humvees tries to kill him. Duh. There’s your proof. No microchip required.
An elite military squad armed with automatic weapons ambushes Jack, and thousands of rounds of ammo are fired. The highly trained guys with the long guns up on the rooftops can’t hit anything, and Jack and his buddies shoot them like rabbits with their handguns. Ugh. I know this is standard TV fare, but I kind of expect better from 24.
What the heck does the 7th soldier die from? The bullet is lodged in his neck, but the bleeding has stopped. The bullet isn’t near his spinal cord or anything. But somehow, the Foreign agent knows he’s about to die, and the 7th soldier guy knows he’s going to die, because he can ‘feel it’. Then he dies. Huh?
Tony’s character is completely unbelievable right now. This is the guy that defied CTU and risked his career for Jack when all that was at stake was Jack’s family. Total standup guy. Now suddenly he’s a power-hungry jerk? I don’t buy it. And for that matter, why in hell didn’t Jack trust him in the first place? If anyone has earned Jack’s trust, it’s Tony. But as soon as the going gets tough, Jack punches him out and runs. Sorry, don’t buy it.
Kim… Well, we’ve come to expect bad plotlines around Kim, so I’ll just let this one be.
Anyway, it’s still a great show, but I hope the writing hangs in there. On the other hand, wasn’t this about the time last year that we had the ‘amnesia’ bit? That was terrible. But the writers pulled it back from the brink and had a great finish. I hope they manage that this time around.
Clueless Kim…calls up Shaggy all bright and cheerful, and acts shocked when he tells her to take a hike. I thought he was paralyzed, though. And the bandage on his leg? When was the car crash, five or six hours ago? Surely the entire thigh would be wrapped in bandages, not just slapping a Band-Aid on the end and calling it good.
Anyone a little irked at the implication that racist rioting would happen in a Southern city? Why not Phoenix or even Seattle, somewhere closer to the bomb blast where people may still be awake to see the news? And why hasn’t the Prez gone on air to calm the country? (How long before Pres Bush made a statement after Sept 11?)
I also called the “inside me” as where the chip was. And next week it’s Back to the torture chamber, but we get to see Jack’s tushie!
Does anybody else think Scruffy is just trying to spare Kim’s feelings? He could have been pure mad at her and told her about the stump, instead he says, “Go away. You’re too much of a case.”
And where did the actor who plays Palmer come from? This guy is amazing. He should be huge.
Soulpatch Tony dissapoints me so. (I know the soulpatch is gone, but that’s how I’ll always think of him) Believing the word of a person who you’ve known for hours over the word of a woman you’ve worked with for years, and presumably have feelings for? Why does Michelle like him anyhow? She needs to get out more. As has been said, his character has really changed.
I think I can stop hating Kim for a while. Next ep she’ll probably head to the hosptial and have a chat with whiny amputee boyfriend. That’s a whole lot more believable than her getting mixed up in something weird yet again. And yes, it did look like an oversized band-aid on his leg… not at all the swaddling of gauze material we’d really see.
The other thing with the riots in Marietta… its 4:30am there! The bomb went off at something like 1am local time - how in the world did all those people know about it? I mean, you can stretch and assume maybe one or two milita fellas was up watching Fox News and heard about it and called their buddies, but crowds like that? I dunno about any of you, but if an angry mob was roaming the streets of my town I’d be in the basement with the news on and a baseball bat in my hand.
I can’t wait to see how Abusive Dad figures into all of this, as well as Marie & Kate’s dad. Hanging plot threads to be woven in soon…
The impression I get from him is not so much “power-hungry”, but rather a guy who is not handling the pressure of being the top dog at the moment. He’s suddenly in charge, and it seems that he’s worried about screwing up so has gone to “by the book” mode – which of course is not like Jack at all.
Although, at this point he ought to be realizing that Jack is on to something real, not just a witch hunt. Tony is pissing me off right now because he continues to refuse to accept that. I hope that pretty soon he starts getting some agents out there for the express purpose of “help Jack”, rather than “find Jack and stop him because I’m mad that he punched me out”.
Oh, and on Nina… I’ve also been thinking that Nina will be saved for season 3 as well (as somebody mentioned earlier). I don’t think she’ll be dying this hour. Just a hunch.
I presume you mean more specifically the initial ambush, and not the gun battle where Jack and Co. escape the area? In the latter, they do have the positions of the shooters from the satellite recon, which increases their odds. The good guys also do have some automatic weapons on their side – at least, foreign-guy sidekick had one.
But I have to agree on the initial ambush. Jack and 7th Soldier are both supposed to be quite good, but still, this was an ambush. There would be no reason for the first shot to not hit anything. I mean – look at the ambush on Syed Ali! Nobody has ducked for cover on the first shot. They were aiming for 7th soldier, so hitting him somewhere (even if non-fatal) would have been more believable, even if Jack escaped injury after hearing the first shot.
Just a quick comment on this: Michelle only pulled the data for 100 or so different satellite coordinates, but was only looking at one of them (the one she wanted). They could only tell what data she pulled, not which one she was currently looking at.
I thought this show was much better than the last two. I’m surprised they had the 7th soldier die instead of having to make Jack save Kate from getting on the plane. I’m also very surprised they didn’t leave us hanging, wondering where the source recordings were. On that recording though, could anyone tell what kind of memory chip it was? I imagine high quality source recordings that can be used to fool the experts take up a lot of space. I wonder if it all could actually fit on such a memory chip.
I feel bad for scruffy, he can’t do spin kicks anymore. Though it is his own fault, or at least equally his fault. I don’t think he blames Kim, he’s just doesn’t want her to see him like that and pity him or blame herself too much. Why weren’t they wearing seat belts? The NHTSA should make him their new poster boy.
I agree, the firefight was a bit unbelieveable. 11 well armed commandos versus Jack, #7, and Yusef (who seems too highly trained, but it would still be too obvious if he was evil). But then again, like #7 said, Jack really is a bad-ass. His tactics are superior to a bunch of lowly commandos. I’m glad Kate shot the guy and didn’t get captured or held at gunpoint like I expected.
And hooray for Kim, doing the sensible thing finally. If she did that from the beginning she’d be at her aunt’s house and scruffy would have both legs. I totally expect she’ll see evil dad again, they made a point to say he was still on the loose. Maybe he’ll grab her by the shirt as she tries to get away and it’ll rip off.
The Kim plot, the silly rioting over a bomb in the desert, the silly ‘bomb now’ concept, the whole of the government telling the Pres he shouldn’t even have the option of calling it off, snake guy dying just before the critical word is spoken…
It’s just starting to seem like fan fiction. If Kim suddenly falls for and makes love to some doughy loser who lives with his mom we’ll know for sure.
I gotta say this show is getting worse week by week. I won’t repeat the obvious flaws others have pointed out, but how about Kate? Did they stitch her eyebrows together to make that puzzled look permanent on her face? To put it blluntly, she needs to expand her emotional range. Oh, and she just “happens” to speak Arabic, and just “happens” to know how to handle a gun. Why doesn’t she just jump Jack’s bones and get it over with? Aren’t we all supposed to see her as Jack’s new love interest?
Yeah, the “it’s inside” was pretty easy to figure out. But where did he get the stitches from? They look like something Kim might have put together. Nasty!
Sam: The whole 6 hrs to war is a ridiculous artifact of the 24 hr premise. They need to give it up if they want to make it more believable. And what the hell is “Middle East Air Space”? Take a hint from Dynasty and make up names for counties if you don’t want to use real ones.
