# 24: Season 4: Episode 17 (11:00pm - 12:00am) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 11, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-17-11-00pm-12-00am/298859 "2005-04-11T22:26:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Winston\_Bongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@Winston\_Bongo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Bongo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-17-11-00pm-12-00am/298859/81 "2005-04-13T18:29:23Z")
> [@Lyllyan](#): > > My 12 year old son, who loves this show, is beginning to have trouble suspending his disbelief. > > His idea for the season finale is Jack waking up in a mental hospital - as the nurse comes in to give him his meds. Yep - it was all a drug induced dream. I like that idea. Then Season 5 could cover what happens \*that \* day, as Jack wigs out completely and takes the whole hospital hostage. They could switch back and forth between the world as Jack sees it, where he’s torturing evil terrorists with bizarre medical instruments, to the world as it really is, where he’s torturing innocent orderlies with bizarre medical instruments. Of course, CTU would be assigned to take him out, giving Jack plenty of opportunities to slaughter CTU “red-shirts” by the dozens. It’d be a Bauer Bloodbath! Oh, and Tony could show up in a surprise appearance as a patient in the alcohol rehab ward. Preferably still wearing his bandage from Season 3. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-17-11-00pm-12-00am/298859/82 "2005-04-13T19:09:31Z")
I don’t know what you people are bitching about. Part of the fun of 24 is the fact that it is so outrageous. Yeah…none of this shit could happen. That’s why it’s a TV show not the news. Audrey: “I can’t just block it out. That’s your gift.” Jack Bauer: "…huh?..what?..oh yeah…your right…I should go kill some more terrorists. ---
**Author:** ![annieclaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5a626/32.png) [@annieclaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/annieclaus)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-17-11-00pm-12-00am/298859/83 "2005-04-13T19:29:02Z")
I, for one, would like to know where SecDef William Devane was during the last episode. He left CTU a couple of hours ago, right? His absence makes him look even more suspicious IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![c\_goat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@c\_goat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/c_goat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-17-11-00pm-12-00am/298859/84 "2005-04-13T19:48:22Z")
Apparently he’s been in contact with Audrey. At one point she mentioned having just talked to him. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-17-11-00pm-12-00am/298859/85 "2005-04-13T20:15:24Z")
My guess is that Devane is wandering around, muttering, “Now what did I do with my son…?” ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-17-11-00pm-12-00am/298859/86 "2005-04-14T05:28:46Z")
> [@](#): > > I, for one, would like to know where SecDef William Devane was during the last episode. He left CTU a couple of hours ago, right? His absence makes him look even more suspicious IMHO. The president told him to meet with some generals to draw up a plan for implementing martial law. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-17-11-00pm-12-00am/298859/87 "2005-04-14T08:20:42Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > Did anyone else notice that the briefcase looked nothing like a football? Oh, the shame! The football/playbook thing is so frivolous-sounding that I find it distracting. I keep expecting dialogue like “The offending team has committed an intentional grounding! They’ve got the football and the playbook, and they’re in position to go for a long bomb! Send in a redshirt suicide squad first, and then send in that free agent for some unsportsmanlike conduct!” ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-17-11-00pm-12-00am/298859/88 "2005-04-14T10:32:06Z")
According to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_football) , the “football” jargon is accurate: > [@](#): > > The “Nuclear Football” is a black leather briefcase always near the President of the United States that contains a secure SATCOM radio and handset, the daily nuclear launch codes known as the “Gold Codes” and the President’s Decision Book - the nuclear playbook that the President would rely on if he would ever have to decide to use nuclear weapons. ---
**Author:** ![c\_goat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@c\_goat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/c_goat)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-17-11-00pm-12-00am/298859/89 "2005-04-14T15:38:12Z")
**DAILY** nuclear launch codes? So they just have to wait an hour and the codes Marwan has will not work any more… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-17-11-00pm-12-00am/298859/90 "2005-04-14T15:56:53Z")
Note that Wikipedia only says that the playbook contains daily launch codes. It doesn’t say that it only contains one day’s worth of codes. A subtle but important distinction. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-17-11-00pm-12-00am/298859/91 "2005-04-14T16:05:20Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Although they didn’t have the combination to open it. 🙂 Marwan must have realized that one way or another, CTU was going to inadvertently give them the codes. Because they’ve been doing crap like that _all season_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-season-4-episode-17-11-00pm-12-00am/298859.md?page=4)