24: Season 7: Episodes 11-12 (6:00pm - 8:00pm)

Cafe Society
21

The thing is, in the 24-verse, the question of “Do you torture?” is always presented in a context something like this:

[Jack Bauer]It’s 7:00 A.M. on September 11, 2001. You have reliable intelligence that a terrorist attack causing mass casualties will take place on American soil within the next two hours. And you have Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in custody. What do you do? Well–what do you do?!? WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME![/Jack Bauer]

But when the hell has anything like that ever happened in real life? Has a major terrorist attack ever been thwarted by minutes or even hours? Or taken place, even though the authorities were just minutes or hours behind the plotters?

Anyway…

As for the show–pretty good episode(s). But did anyone else find it kind of odd the way the fact that Juma was holding over fifty hostages was just brushed off? I mean, sure, he’s got 53 people whom he could kill one by one, right there in the heart of the U.S. federal government; but thank God he doesn’t have The President! Or any members of Her immediate family! So long as The President is safe, God still smiles upon America; His chosen Vicegerent on Earth still reigns!

Seriously, 24-writer-guys, the President of the United States is very important, but he (or she) is not a God-King. This is not the Inca Empire. The personal safety of the POTUS does not outweigh all other considerations–or at least I certainly hope it wouldn’t.

22

This season of 24 just gets more and more infuriating. Jack and crew go from strength to strength in terms of making the absolute worst decisions.

The confrontation between Chloe and Janis had some of the dumbest technobabble to ever appear on 24. As far as we can tell, the flash card had a list of names. Just a list. Which is what you’d expect. So figuring out that a name was deleted would be … difficult. And why would be Chloe be formatting anything?

And while we’re on the subject, what the hell is with the interface on Chloe’s laptop? She appears to be channeling the Matrix what with the scrolling binary. Don’t know how she gets any work done with all that crap on her screen.

23

Tsk … it’s the interface that goes “ping”. Very important. You see, CTU leased it back from the company they sold it to, and that way, it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account.

Anyways…

The torture thing has forced me to suspend the disbelief once too many times… and is it just me, but is it weird that Air America host and pretty extreme left winger Jeannean(sp?) Garafolo is part of this show…? Or does she just need the money?

24

A couple of Dubaku related WTFs from this episode.

a. The car accident that nailed Dubaku happened at something like 5:30 in 24 time. At 6:05, he’s stabilized in a hospital undergoing no further medical care. That alone is unlikely. But within 1/2 hour, the Bad Guys have infiltrated the (random) hospital in which Dubaku is being kept and come up with a cunning plan to silence him. * No one works that fast! * This wouldn’t be that annoying if the time frame were stretched out, but because they’re sticking to the 24 hour conceit, everything has to take place with impossible efficiency.

b. Dubaku’s son was waiting for him to join the raid. But that appeared to be the furthest thing from Dubaku’s mind just a couple of hours earlier. His semi-exact quote was “I’ve done what I can here, it’s time to leave.” And it’s * really * unlikely that he would have picked up the girlfriend for a fun evening of dating and White House invasion. It’s as if two completely different groups of writers handled the morning and evening plots and didn’t even chat with each other.

I was also amused by how easily and quickly the divers were able to drill through what appeared to be several inches of concrete. Despite coming from a poor, war torn, low tech African country, the Sengalans (sp?) are proving to be masters of organization, efficiency, planning and technology. Too bad they don’t use their talents for good instead of evil.

25

While the safety of the hostages would be of concern, it would be a distant secondary concern to the safety of the President, even in the real world. If they can get everyone out safely, great. If not, as long as they can get POTUS out, it would be considered a successful mission.

Remember the Secret Service would have tactical command in that situation and their sole chartered objective on POTUS detail is the safety and security of their charge. In the real world, there would certainly be some PR backlash if 50 citizens died in the effort to save the boss, but it would mostly be dog and pony show stuff.

Secret Service has one mission in that role, period. FBI and their Hostage Rescue Team would be under their command. If the 50 were used as human shields and cannon fodder to cover the rescue approach, that would be within operationally acceptable guidelines.

26

In the 24-verse, the rule seems to be that if a computer hard drive isn’t reformatted or reindexed at least once every hour, all information will be lost. Unfortunately the reformatting and reindexing tools have security holes and bugs that entail that loss of critical data is an almost dead-on certainity regardless of whether the reformat/reindex is performed or not.

27

Despite the fact that the 24 VP seems to already be picking out furniture for the Oval Office.
Oh, I think his lacky is a mole. Shifty looking little bastard.

28

Yeah, as always really subtle camera work on that guy. May as well had a “DA-DA-DUM!” riff playing when the panned to him.

-Joe

29

Did anyone else think Bill was a goner? That would have made for some awesome TV if they just shot him instead of taking him hostage.

There is no way anyone can come into the White House like that. Just no way. Once Regan was shot at he had about 10 guards with automatic weapons surround him. The President on 24 gets three guys with pistols.

I’m glad they acknowledged the tense political situation the VP is in.

Good to see 24 is getting its mojo back. I’m actually looking forward to the next episode.

The negotiating power of the terrorists will increase ten folds if they have the President than if they have any number of hostages.

Can you imagine what kind of political nightmare this country would be in if that happened? Secret Service men are trained to be human shields for a reason.
So who is going to die in the next episode? It seems like a major death is coming. I’m betting that the President’s daughter gets it.

30

Plus, as my wife pointed out, he has Blagojevich hair.
The design of the secure area was lacking in a number of totally implausible ways:
(1) no very very secure communication link to the outside world
(2) no physical lock/handle on the inside that can not possibly be defeated by electronic trickery.

The frustrating thing is, both of those features could have been there without really interfering with the episode… they could have tossed in a line of dialog about how the super-secure line had been compromised because it was an inside job, but they at least should have made mention of such a thing. And they didn’t need the electronic lock-breaking at all, given the first-daughter situation.
Still, I continue to enjoy this show immensely.

31

I was thinking that when Jack was telling the President that he couldn’t open the door and she insisted, that he would respond that he really meant he can’t because he, you know, shorted out the control panel.

Was anybody else thinking that that guy with the laptop was like the Sengalan Chloe? From what I could tell with his magic laptop he was able to turn off the underground proximity sensor (kudos to his wireless provider for offering subterranian service), interrupt SS communications, track the President, hack into the safe room (almost), patch into the feed from the “hidden” chandelier cam, and open a secure channel to the safe room.

32

What do you expect from a country that has all airplane controls behind one firewall little firewall that takes over a week to reinstall.

It took the guy literally 5 seconds to hack the Secret Service computers, access all the cameras and figure out where the president is.

The White House is apparently a floating island that takes five minutes to drill into.

What an action packed episode though. :slight_smile:

33

It’s got to be someone Jack cares about, so I’m betting Bill is a goner.

-Joe

34

Had it not been filmed pre-Blagojevich, it would have been a telling clew.

Mrs. Plant and I were sure Aaron was toast. Not too late yet for the poor guy.

35

Juma has become a most excellent villain. One of the best in recent memory.

I cut the Afri-Chloe stuff some slack because I chalk a lot of it up to having had someone on the inside feeding them stuff. The saferoom code countdown was silly, though. What’s the display there for anyway? In blazing red LEDs? So everyone within 50 feet can see what the secret code is? Ok, I’ll let it pass…

That’s one of the reasons I like this season. Things really haven’t been going very well for Jack and Bill and Chloe and skulking Tony. Each little victory has been followed by total disaster. Moreso than other seasons, it seems.

Oh, and WHO HAS THE FOOTBALL? :smiley:

36

Chloe.
You know, I never did like New Jersey…

37

Also, who the heck is that Jon Voight guy playing?

Ed

38

Chloe got arrested so nonchalantly too.

“Meh, took you incompetents long enough to come get me!”

39

You know, those FBI guys watching Debaku need a refresher course in witness protection. Something on ID inspection as well.

Agent Walker is skulking around in the dark talking on her cell phone, then isn’t seen in the bright lights trying to get to the boat. Then she jumps on the boat, losing her gun and ruining her phone. No, she should have called in “They’re on a boat! Get them!”

Then she’s running through the woods being chased by a terrorist, so when she sees the Ranger, she starts talking about having the guy call in, rather than first saying “I’m being chased by a terrorist, get me out of here!”

So she has the dramatic confrontation with Debaku Jr, with the requisite “I don’t believe you”, but that whole plot point is worthless because Moss and his men shoot Jr. So what was the point? Oh, to screw up the earlier storyline where Debaku was leaving the country with his honey. Right.

Then Chloe is deleting the name from the database, to buy Jack a few minutes to torture the guy. NO! Don’t delete his name, dumbass, just, like, prioritize the Secret Service and FBI names to the top of the list, then later point out the Senatorial Aide when you need it to prove he’s a bad guy.

Speaking of the Aide, WTF is his motivation? “I’m not a traitor, but I’m working for someone attacking the U.S., now invading the White House probably to assassinate the President.” Yeah.

At least the super bad guy (Jon Voight) is finally back in the picture. So what’s the motivation? Apparently some “shipment”. Drugs? Couldn’t be guns, that’s what they gave Juma. Slaves? Flying monkeys?

Part of the problem is to keep the story fast-paced, the audience on the edge of their seats the whole way, no time to breathe. Plus, I think there is an intent to try to outsmart the audience, keep them distracted and having so many false leads and personal side stories that intrude and everything else. Only problem is, now all we have to do is assume the dumbest or most cliche thing and that’s probably what will happen. Especially if it conflicts with something that already occurred.

40

Had to record last night – just watched tonight.

Some impressions:

  • Good episode(s). I started to get a feeling like we’ll be losing one of our more long time main characters, though. I think either Aaron or Bill won’t make it much longer. Surprised that Juma didn’t gun Bill down right when they caught him with the tracking bracelet. Thought he was a goner coming up on that scene.

  • Agent Rowrrr is not too good at following instructions.
    Moss: “Don’t take any chances.”
    Walker: “Okay, I won’t.”
    ::: Walker proceeds to leap onto a boat loaded with soldiers with machine guns, and loses her own handgun in the process :::

  • Some really good lines from Madame President. Especially her parting shot to Senator Mayer.
    Pres: “I want to speak to Ryan”
    Mayer: “Let me. I know the man.”
    Pres: “Apparently you don’t…”

  • Where did she find her choice for VP? Eunuchs ‘R’ Us?

  • John Voigt is back! Evil Insider Overlord. Wonder what kind of shipment he’s getting… Heroin…? Blood diamonds…? Women…? [Stewie Griffin]Men?[/SG]