Look, just because I don’t use smilies all the time, doesn’t mean I’m pissed off. I’m certainly frustrated at the circular reasoning that the fact that your past history prevents you from seein g things objectively.
In retrospect, I guess I’m not surprised that someone who feels Michelle’s tone was unacceptable would find my tone unacceptable.
Chill out, man. Don’t have a meltdown over a 24 thread.
Hmmm…not sure if I’m remembering right, but they used a relatively benign, non-invasive technique on Heller’s son. In addition to the taser, I think they brought out needle-boy for Sarah.
Yep. I like the show, though. I think it’s good writing when they make it nuanced enough that we can even have an argument like this. They give all the characters good motivations for their actions.
Again, sorry if I offended you. I think you’re having the meltdown.
Thread seems fairly evenly split regarding Michelle’s tone*. There’s certainly no consensus opinion. You’re one of the most vocal against Michelle, and archmichael and myself are vocal that Michelle did not mishandle Sarah.
No, I didn’t do a statistical analysis of posters for and against Michelle
They closed with sensory deprivation (with Heller’s approval), although I don’t know how effective sensory deprivation over a 3-4 hour period would really be. Don’t know how “benign” I would consider any torture method, and sensory deprivation is a torture method. They didn’t bring out tasers and needles against Heller Jr. because he is Heller Jr.
That wasn’t the point of contention. He said I was the “only one”, which is false. Now, I’d like to drop it before any more people start to wig out here.
The operative word was “relatively”. Not benign, only more benign than the alternatives. Like driving 100 mph is safer than driving 150 mph, but it’s still not “safe”.
I was only repeating the way they described it on the show. I’m not sure what your point is.
A point that seems to be missed here is that Sarah was tortured.
I’m surprised that she even attempted to work after that. This is only a few hours later- she’s probably still in pain, or drugged heavily to mask the pain. She would have to be an extraordinary individual to get back up after torture and keep on running, and who else is as badass as Jack?
Hell, if the torture was effective enough, she could have been driven to attempt to kill Driscoll for revenge. On that basis alone, she should not have been allowed to work.
But, as thay say, it’s a TV show- and both characters, Sarah and Michelle, showed inconsistent behavior in their confrontation. The scene was written to show how much of a hardass Michelle can be, so that she isn’t just attacking Tony. It also leaves doubts in the viewer’s mind- is either of them a plant, because they’re acting strangely?
If only we could have found a tubby nerd to upload some differential Bayesian algorithms into the Overide to stabilize the bandwidth matrix, we could have avoided this trainwreck and kept it from falling into the terrorists’ hands in the first place.
Or something.
It’s 24, man. When it comes down to it, everyone’s a badass.
Even Audrey’s milquetoast accountant husband was able to wield a rifle against a commando assault twenty minutes after having his hands pulverized in a desk drawer.
LOL
You’ve missed the point completely. If he had made a mistake rewriting the header in the kernel there was a chance the trainwreck could have been accelerated, resulting in a back and forth of “No, you’re having meltdown” until someone eventually calls the other a poopyhead
No, it isn’t. People fully acknowledge that she was tortured.
It still doesn’t justify holding the entire darned country over a barrel so that you can get a pay increase. And that’s precisely what she did – demanding that Michelle immediately agree to honor her prior agreement with Driscoll.
That’s not inherently wrong during a time of normalcy. It is absolutely the wrong thing to do during a national crisis, though. It amounts to placing your own desires over the needs of the nation.
I’m going to have to quit subscribing to this thead if you guys are going to turn it into a Gread Debate.
Sarah’s a bitch. Michelle is a bitch. Any questions?
Larry Mudd - it would be very helpful if you would stop fanning the flames. Thank you.
Ok, people acknowledge it. I just offered an explanation of what the writers were trying to make Sarah do. I agree that it wasn’t the way to do it, I’m just trying to figure out how it works in to the rest of the scheme.
Sorry to interrrupt the flaming. Carry on.
I find it kinda ironic that Sarah’s bitchiness after the torture, was the same bitchiness that got her tortured.
I would have bet money that Maryanne was going to frame nosy Edgar. But of course, who does she run into over and over again? Sarah.
“What are you doing at this station!”
“Why did you lie about being at that station!”
“What are you doing in this bathroom, they’re waiting for the reports!”
I can just see the Maryanne changing her mind at the last minute to frame Sarah.
Lord know that if it had been Edgar, neither Sarah or Curtis would have been smart enough to figure it out.
I believe at this point it is pro forma for me to enquire: Dude, WTF?
If only her actions were so innocuous. She didn’t merely ask for her agreement to be honored. She also refused to go back to work during a national crisis, even after Michelle told her to.
In other words, she was refusing to do her job unless Michelle Dessler dropped everything and immediately honored this hitherto unknown agreement. Lives were at stake–potentially millions of them–but Sarah felt that her pay increase was more important.
Michelle did absolutely the right thing by having her escorted out. The only thing she did wrong was in failing to detain Sarah after she uttered her implied threat.
The Michelle & Sarah thing had bad stuff on both sides.
Michelle: Yeah, I thought her tone was definitely blowing Sarah off.
Sarah: My gosh girl, some perspective. Get tough and badass after the national crisis is over. You are entitled to get tough and badass, but later. Later.
I think the whole thing could have played out a little more realistically had Sarah only asked about the arrest being expunged from her record (the pay raise thing could have waited), and left it at that. (Or better, just brought it all up later.) Michelle could have sounded more sincere in her response. Something like what others have suggested—“whatever Driscoll promised you I’ll make sure you get” or something like that.
blowero, dude, let me also chime in with a WTF? You need to chill out and get some perspective.
Bosses sometimes are unhelpful. Bosses sometimes are rude. Any employee who ever says she isn’t going to do her job until she gets what she demands right then and there is going to have her dainty little behind in a sling, period. Add in the fact that the boss in question wasn’t even there for a full hour, that there’s a national crisis going on, and that refusing to do work or doing work poorly could lead to millions of deaths, and it’s a freaking TV show where people die left and right, Sarah was lucky to get walked out. If she’d tried to pull a stunt like that to most of the characters on that show she’d be in a bodybag now.
Come on, seriously now, standing up for yourself is one thing, throwing a hissy fit in a crisis situation as your first impression to the new boss is quite another.
Could Michelle have acted more caring? Well, yeah, but then she had no need to be polite to someone rudely interrupting her then and there for a trivial personal matter. And if she had caved into the demands she’d have lost all authority to command anyone else there to do anything. Bosses can’t be jerked around like that, especially not ones in important jobs like that.
If they had time to argue, I’m sure it would have been humorous:
Sarah: “I need a pay raise right now or I’m not working! I was wrongly tortured for this job.”
Michelle: “And? I was exposed to a deadly virus that I only survived thanks to a freak immunity, was captured by the enemy, tortured, escaped, told to go back in even though I could be killed at any time. Why? To save lives. You got tortured, but something like, what, 30 CTU agents in this office are dead today serving their country. You just don’t get that, which means you’re a lliability. I can’t let someone who clearly has no desire to be working right now endanger anyone’s lives. You’re going to be escorted out right now, and you will go quietly thankfully and quietly, or I can guarantee you will never, ever have a government job of any sort.”
Of course there is one part I don’t get. Why when Curtis says they are understaffed does someone like Tony or Michelle not say, “Gee, if only Chloe still worked here…” and someone like Edgar or Curtis not say, “Oh yeah, she was here earlier, helped save the life of the Secretary of Defense and his daughter too, for which she was fired out of pettiness.” to which Michelle could say, “If we can bring in a former traitor like Tony and a powderkeg like Jack we ought to be able to bring back the alpha geekette. Yay grrrl power.”
Regarding Sarah and Michelle: What has Sarah’s deal to do with Michelle at all? Driscoll went home after a personal tragedy. Driscoll hasn’t been fired. Driscoll hasn’t resigned. Driscoll is still the head of CTU.
Asking Michelle about the issue is like asking a substitute teacher about the midterm.
Totally agree. This has been bothering me for weeks now. They need Chloe back, and frankly, so do I!