24 - Season 3, Episode 21, 9:00AM - 10:00AM (SPOILERS)

Cafe Society
41

Well, his wife was the exception, although I was thinking about his rescue of wife and daughter from Ira Gaines, then rescue of daughter again from Drazen, and keeping Kate safe throughout all that stuff in season 2. As for “about to give up Kate” – I disagree. Yes, he knew the bad guy’s intention to “dispose” of her – but Jack wasn’t about to just let her go and do things HIS way. He was playing along, but there was an exchange between Jack and short-lived Middle-East sidekick guy (as Kate was being put in the trunk) along the lines of… “Got the tracker on her?” “Yep”. Jack was going to track, follow, and try to keep her off that plane. (He never had to follow through, obviously, due to the attack that changed all plans…)

Perhaps I should re-phrase a little, though. If anybody has a chance at getting the baddie AND saving the hostage, it’s Jack.

42

dalovin is right – the plan (of Sherry’s) is to have Keeler blackmail him into dropping out, without the real story of the murder ever coming out, so Sherry wouldn’t get implicated because David would be trying to save her own ass. That’s the “plan”.

Doesn’t mean that it’s a good plan. Sherry is likely underestimating David.

All David has to do really is tell the truth and she goes to prison. And it goes much worse for her. She actually committed the deed. He just lied to the police chief to cover her ass for the time being, but he can come up with all kinds of excuses – I didn’t have time to get embroiled in an investigation, I was busy trying to control the virus terror threat… I didn’t say I was with her ALL evening…

Doesn’t mean the excuses would get him out of it scot free. It might hurt his chances at re-election. But he survives it much better than Sherry. So it was a dumb plan by Sherry, since David holds the trump card.

43

Heh, last night I larfed at “Chloe, I need those cron tables right away.” It’s like the writers just opened *nix for Dummies at random and said “Ooh, that sounds impressive!” Never mind that yer crontab is bound to be the very definition of quotidian. Head of CTU is in a burning rush to know what processes are routine enough to be left to an automation daemon? Hee hee.

44

Yes, the lobotomy required to make that plot make any sense whatsoever.

It’s stupid from step 1 and gets worse every time we come back to it… it doesn’t even compute in “tv world” it’s just a bad bad plot. (Isn’t that guy a republican? Why did he have the union endorsements in the first place? Why is he worried about losing them? How will Palmer’s resignation “throw the party in to chaos”? Why on earth does anyone think any of this will work at all? Plus, why would she want the position in the white house staff, anyway? She’s got lifetime protection and speaking engagements already. AAAAA)

45

I think you’re vastly overstating the nonsensicalness of this plot.

(a) is he a republican? I’m not certain… the show certain tends to ignore political parties. We have no reason to think that political parties in 24-land are the same as they are in our universe.

(b) He had union endorsements for unstated but plausible reasons. He’s worried about losing them because he DID lose them, due to his attack on Palmer about the debate cancellation. What of that doesn’t make sense?

(c) Of COURSE Palmer’s dropping out of the race would throw the party into chaos. Suppose Bush got on TV tomorrow night and said “for personal reasons, I will not run for reelection this year”. Do you think the Republicans would have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning?

(d) She wants a position in the White House Staff, along with access to the prez, because what she really wants isn’t money or speaking engagements, it’s POWER

46

Now let’s not forget that Palmer and Jack are supposed to be the good guys while Keebler (who previously tried to blindside Palmer in the debate), Sherry and Saunders are the bad guys. In TV land, the good guys always win and the bad guys wind up losing. This ain’t the real world… :smiley:

47

In 24-land the good guys are bad men with decent intentions who will win, but there will always be a terrible price exacted for their for victory . . .

48

What I haven’t gotten past is how this senator and presidential candidate is dumb enough to overlook that fact that by hearing Sherry’s story and taking the blackmail to the president, he is basically swapping spots with David not in terms of the presidency but in terms of who’s subject to Sherry’s blackmail. Keeler’s thinking, “I can be president,” and completely overlooking the fact that now he’s an accessory to murder (concealing evidence and all) and a blackmailer and the threat Sherry held over Palmer is now held over Keeler. How can he conceive of that as a good idea?

Maybe we can swap Sherry for Michelle, and manipulate Sherry into the crossfire while Jack takes down Saunders. That’d make me smile. :stuck_out_tongue:

49

At this point, couldn’t the Senator call the cops and tell them that Sherry just confessed to murder. With his and the widow’s testimony, Sherry should be up the river. Then it would come out that Palmer was in on the coverup and the ensuing scandal would keep him from getting re-elected anyway.

Or, it’s only been a couple of hours since Prez said that Sherry was with him. Can’t he call the cops himself if threatened and tell them “Oh, I thought you meant part of the night, not ALL night. Yeah she left for a while and I can’t vouch for her.”

50

Actually, they ignored any mention of political parties for the first couple seasons – but I do recall a mention early this season that Palmer was specifically a Democratic party president.

amarinth voiced one of the first things that popped in my mind as well, on the “losing the endorsements” bit. It went by fast, but my first thought was “aren’t those unions?” and then the second was “What are unions doing endorsing the Republican candidate. They are traditionally not only in bed with the Democrats, but usually on top buggering them up the…” er… anyways, the point is, I agree on this one with amarinth on the plausibility bit. :wink:

Unless this is the primary – but I don’t think that’s the case (due to the “party into chaos” bit).

I agree with you on points (c) and (d), though. What Sherry is after is power – what she lost in season 1. She loves playing politics – that’s all there is to it. And Palmer resigning would definitely throw the party into chaos – how do you find a viable replacement candidate that close to an election?

And Riqay – excellent point. And Max Carnage – excellent solution. You both just proved to me that Keeler is a total dumbass, too. :wink:

51

One more thing I wanted to mention: I laughed pretty damn hard when Chase found out about Jack taking over CTU. Jack’s like “Listen up, everybody! Tony stepped down and I’m in command!” While he is speaking they show Chase’s face and you can tell he’s just thinking to himself “Goddamit. No one ever tells me anything.” I’m lovin’ it. Jack has tried to save the world, shot Chapelle, let Kim go field-op, and fired Tony without so much of a heads up to Chase. Partner my ass, he treats him like a bitch. That look on his face was priceless. Almost as much fun as “Chloe, I’m really getting tired of your personality.”

DaLovin’ Dj

52

This was a terrible episode. The whole plot depends on having a husband/wife team at CTU which is an absolute impossibility. Especially having a husband sending his wife into the field and having to make life or death decisions. And how the hell does Jack just get to “take over” CTU? Tony steps down, and only tells Adam. Jack pulls a Haig by claiming “I’m in charge”, and everyone jumps into line? He deposes Tony from authority and then just lets him wander around CTU?
Absurd. Jack knows that Tony screwed up and let Saunders excape, but he has no problem with Tony now setting up security for Saunder’s daughter.

You know it’s getting bad when Kim is about the smartest person at the office…

53

It’s important to remember that everyone has been up for a very long time. Decision making ability is greatly reduced without proper sleep. Unreasonable decisions and mistakes are to be expected. You’ve gotta figure Jack has been up since at least 6:00a.m yesterday. Nearly 28 hours now. Tony as well.

Anyway, I didn’t think that Jack had taken Tony out of play all together. Just out of command. Tony could still have been a useful guy to have around. Jack couldn’t bring himself to believe that Tony had intentionally fucked up. A guy who has been shot in the neck, had surgery, and been up for 28 hours is a likely candidate for making a mistake. Jack thought Tony was fucking up, but he didn’t suspect he had crossed over. Of course Jack has a general mistrust of eveyone (as illustrated by the line to Kim - ‘You’re the only one I can trust’), but above and beyond that global mistrust, I think he was really blindsided by Tony crossing over. He was, after all, the only man Jack trusted to provide support for their undercover work during the Salazar mission.

As far as them being husband and wife, they fell in love at work and already had their assignments. Is this sort of thing not allowed in government organizations? Will you get fired for marrying a co-worker at the FBI/CIA/Homeland Security/Army-Navy-AF-Marines/etc? Will they transfer one of you? And Chapelle ordered Michelle into the field against Tony’s will. Also, the reason that Jack can just take over CTU is because there is no one to stop him. How would you like to be the man to tell Jack on this particular day that “No. I’m not following your orders.” Perhaps Hammond or someone else at District will intervene, but for now Jack is the boss because no one in that office is gonna say shit to him except “Yes, sir”. Hell, I imagine rumors are starting to circulate about Jack killing Chapelle. They know what he’s capable of. . .

I keep remembering more parts of this episode that I liked. Tony cracked me up with his treatment of Jane. “I’ll protect you. You’re safe. That mean old Jack can’t get his hands on you now. I’m your guardian. Your white knight. As long as I’m here, no one will hurt you. Do you want some tea? Maybe with some lemon?” :ring: “Hold on. Hello? Yeah, I’ve got the bitch and I’l slit her pretty little throat ear to ear if you touch my old lady.” Ha! It didn’t seem like he had moved out of earshot, but I’ll chalk it up to an odd perspective from that angle. It was just so damn funny. Then when he’s like “I’m moving you.” and she’s like “Where?”. “District. Let’s go.” “What’s that?” The look on Tony’s face was similar to mine when I’m trying to explain this show to someone who has never seen it. It usually goes something like this:

DALO:
Man, 24 was great last night.

FRIEND:
What was so great about it?

DALO:
Well, this guy Jack Bauer who is the head of CTU had to . . .

FRIEND:
c-t-u? Cal Tech?

DALO:
No, Counter Terrorism Unit. Anyway, he got a call from this terrorist saying he had to kill this guy Chapelle from District . . .

FRIEND:
District?

DALO:
Ugh. Never mind. The point is a government agent had to ice his boss.

FRIEND:
Boss?

DALO:
Man, get a job. I’m out of here.
I feel like sometimes the writers throuw in a line that is meant to echo the sentiments of the fans. These lines are less the character, and more the voice of the masses. They have a spot on the Fox website where you can tell them what you think of this season so far. I know that they monitor some message boards and tend to know how the fans are feeling. Lines like the infamous “Chloe I’m getting tired of your personality.” are a nod to us fans. In the same vein, they knew that we hated Chapelle and that influenced the manner in which they decided to take him out. I dig this technique. X-Files did it once, by giving Scully a partner who had read every one of the X-Files. She represented the (some may say rabid) fans who knew every little detail. They made her look pretty pathetic. Less of a nod to the fans, and more of a fuck you, but it worked. Kind of like William Shatner telling fans to get a life on SNL.

DaLovin’ Dj

54

Thing I found most interesting was how the bad guy Presidential candidate would stand in front of his campaign sign and all you could see was “John Ke-”.

But then when the season started nobody thought the guy running against the President in real life would have that close of a name, I’m sure.

55

Yeah, I particularly enjoyed that part, too. I was half expecting Jane to pipe up, “I’m right here. I can still hear you!”

56

I hear you, Norder- although that moment for me was when I started wondering if Kerry and Keeler’s campaign logos weren’t more than a little similar, but upon close inspection they don’t look that much alike… funny coincidence, though!