24 Episode 20–1:00a.m.-2:00a.m.
Understatement of the decade:
“You’re cursed Jack. Everything you touch winds up dead.� –Secretary Heller
Well, besides Jack trying to talk to Audrey, this episode didn’t have any Jack in it at all. I can’t believe with now just 3 episodes left that they are still going with these essentially Jack-less episodes. In my opinion we need the last 3 episodes to be so chalk full of Jack Bauer that we hardly ever see anyone else.
We spent a whole lot of time in Washington watching the less than attractive Lisa, get her freak on with that dude from Stargate. What disturbs me about this is that this is a plot device taken straight out of the very first season. Remember David Palmer’s aide was having that torrid love affair with one of the Drezen? It’s getting a bit scary how many times they’re using plots over and over.
I did like Doyle in this one though. He played a great part, but he should’ve had enough guts to get Jack a gun and go with him to the room. Two of them would’ve been a lot better than Jack just running into a room with no escape.
Nadia has hopefully learned her lesson. There’s nothing I can’t stand more than when we have to waste our time in 24 listen to bureaucratic nonsense “Chain of Command� ect. Whenever that happens, I’m just hoping that we can get back to the real stories and characters we care about.
I know there were a lot of things I didn’t like about this episode. It was rather slow. I did however like that VP Powers Boothe didn’t hold back in telling Tom that he’d also been sleeping with Lisa. That was a nice change from the norm of people trying to hide whatever they can.
I just have a few questions after this episode.
1) Why in the world did CTU have 2 helicopters on the ground ready to take Audrey and Jack back to CTU? Why weren’t those choppers scouring the land for Cheng?
2) Why do we care about Chloe and Morris’ personal lives? Too much time has been wasted on this subplot.
3) Where in the world did Secretary Heller come from? Didn’t he drive his care off a huge cliff in season 4? Or was it 5? Anyway, I can’t remember, but did we ever see him after he plunged off that cliff? I’ll tell you what if that guy’s still alive, then Tony definitely can still be alive.
4) Will the next 3 episodes be off the hook? I sure hope so. It’s May sweeps time and these 24 writers better get it in gear to set off these last 3 episodes. Tonight’s episode just won’t cut it for a season finale. Here’s hoping we get some better episodes coming up.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
First of all, you’re right on the money about Doyle. Yeah, it’s great that he enabled Jack to do what Jack needed to do, but instead of letting Jack “overpower him”, he could’ve grown a pair and taken Jack down to medical himself.
And yes, Lisa is boring but it is a little easier to take the surly VP now that the two of them aren’t playing footsie.
It was nice to see Nadia getting all snippy with Karen about Bill. Someone should give him a “Get Outta Jail” card.
1) Excellent point about the 2 choppers. Did we really need to rush everybody back to CTU so we could meet Dr. Kildare and let Cheng and his hummer buddies run wild?
2) Morris and Chloe? Well, I guess it’s good to see someone besides Jack have their love life ripped to shreds in an hour.
3) Somewhere in Season 5, I think it was right before Weisel Miles (Karen’s assistant) erased the tape incriminating Logan, Jack and Audrey were in medical celebrating the arrival of the tape and I think Curtis came in and informed them or maybe just Audrey that they had found her father and he was alive and enjoying a coctail in ICU somewhere. But wasn’t Audrey’s dad Mr. Happy? You’d think the guy’d be grateful Jack got his lil’ girl back but nooooooooooooooooooo. He’s got to be all pissy with SuperJack. Maybe Jack shoulda put the sleeper hold on him, too.
4)I’d expect someone important to buy it in these last episodes just to juice it up a bit.
April 30th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
maybe audreys dad is behind some of todays events..
April 30th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Audrey’s dad behind today’s events? What about Jack’s dad?
Jack to Audrey: My dad can kick your dad’s butt! He can also smuggle nuclear weapons into the country!
April 30th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
How convenient that the Chinese now need someone familiar with the nukes to help them. A perfect chance to bring Phillip back in and tie the season together.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Dude, I swear, if you do not give Doyle 100 points for the shit he pulled tonite, you are nuts. I will stop reading your little blog, though it has become rather frequented. I have been one of the founding members, thought not through comments, and I will drop you like a fly if you do not give him the props he deserves for that stunt he pulled. Dude, doyle is completely reseemed. You sorta suck, as do all of us, for doubting him. I think he proved himself the man tonite. Do him justince bro…
April 30th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
There are 4 hours left, not 3. (24-20=4). Two 1 hour episodes and a 2-hour finale.
http://www.epguides.com/24/
April 30th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
In season 5, they mention that Heller survived the crash. Tony is dead.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
24 lost its heart when tony died. They’ve been sucking for oxygen ever since. Yes, Doyle is cool, yes, to have Heller back was nice, yes, to show that Daniels was not an adulterer makes him a hell of a lot better in my book, but the show misses Tony because he could do the romance while jack handled the action.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
If it wasn’t for Jack, Secretary Heller would have been executed on live TV a couple of seasons back. Also, Jack has saved the US from various nuclear bombs in the previous twenty hours.
Get a grip Heller!
April 30th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Props goes to Lisa’s boyfriend, Russian Spy….
all it take for him to finish his business with Lisa was……
well, one commercial break.
May 1st, 2007 at 1:07 am
True, but Russian Spy Guy still hasn’t beaten Logan’s record from last season. At the close of one episode, he’s bedding Crazy Martha; at the beginning of the next ep, he’s getting dressed. Must have taken him all of 30 seconds.
May 1st, 2007 at 5:07 am
It doesn’t matter if the plot-line has dragged through most of the season, I’m suddenly on the edge of my seat every time Jack punches somebody in the face.
May 1st, 2007 at 6:24 am
This episode further put together the plot for the big finale. Or at least I hope so. In the previews for the next episode jack gets a gun and runs point so I’m ready for some of that. And then there’s:
Things I want to happen before the end of the season:
-Jack come face to face with Cheng and evens the score in a very overpowering and dramatic execution of his once captive.
-Jack lays the smack down on Secretary Heller making him eat his words/jack’s fist.
-Audrey comes out of the catatonic state and gets back with Jack.
-Nadia steps down or is removed and Bill returns/we get a new father figure CTU director.
-and finally we find out what happened to Logan.
May 1st, 2007 at 7:28 am
We care what happens with Chloe and Morris because in the next two episodes, I have my money on one or both of them dying. The Chinese need Morris to program the device once again. This means that they will kidnap him, or Chloe, and give him that ultimadum that if he doesnt program a new device, he, or she, will die. He wont do it this time and one of them will die. I think its going to be just Morris, but I think that since they seem to be getting rid of all of the veteran CTU people, like Bill, that Chloe needs to go.
I would like to see Jack punch some more people and Audrey come out of it. I think that Jack’s brother’s ex-wife is a better match for Jack though.
Bill should definately be reinstated.
I dont really care all that much about what happened to Logan though. I sorta even forgot that he was in this season. I think they are saving him for next season when he is miraculously alive.
May 1st, 2007 at 7:29 am
“Not Getting Any” Award goes to Milo for his attitude toward Nadia.
May 1st, 2007 at 7:59 am
Jack,
I hope it’s not Morris they need to program the thing. That would be too repetitive. I’m betting it’s Jack’s Dad.
May 1st, 2007 at 8:11 am
I guess Heller’s reaction is to be expected. Remember last season how his initial reaction to Jack about the tape and Logan got him embarrased by Logan and running his car off a cliff somewhere. This guy needs an intervention. He’s right that Jack is cursed, but mostly because the idiots around him don’t just listen to him to begin with. I guess if they did that it would be called “3″ instead of “24″ since they could wrap it up that quickly if they’d only llisten to Jack and just let him run point on the world.
May 1st, 2007 at 8:16 am
I still think Tony’s gonna show up somewhere. I still believe he’s alive somewhere, and the only thing that will make me change that belief is if somewhere in the episodes immediately following him being stabbed they actually say he’s dead. I think that as long as there are the fans like me out there that call for his return, he will never truly be ‘dead’.
May 1st, 2007 at 8:24 am
“You’re cursed Jack. Everything you touch winds up dead.� –Secretary Heller.
Jack’s alternate response: Hey, I remember you. I pulled your ass out of the fire a few years back. Now say hello to my little friend.
May 1st, 2007 at 8:29 am
Maybe they need to kidnap Chloe to fix their circuit board or whatever. That would be ironic. No smart remarks to Morris about that.
May 1st, 2007 at 8:51 am
it’s fairly apparent Chloe is the one they need.
also.. what happened to Phillip Bauer, he may come back for some plot twists perhaps.
all in all, this season has been pretty lacking compared to season 5. i heard a rumor season 7 might take it to New York? They really need a refresh.
May 1st, 2007 at 8:51 am
I think I figured out the ending.
Jack will be sent to prison by military court for a crime he didn’t commit. He will promptly feast on someone’s neck and escape from a maximum security stockade to the LA underground.
When he escapes he will be invited into a car, which is where the rumoured line: “Get in, Jack. There’s a lot I have to tell you.” comes into play. It is either Bill or Tony. He get’s in and finds Bill, as a leader, Tony as the wisecracking handyman, Chloe as the technical one and uhh.. Curtis. If Tony and Heller can come back to life so can Curtis, and because 24 seriously lacks black guys, he will have to do.
From here they will go rogue, and solve mysteries and problems all over the world.
It’s all building up to it, I know it! Bill leaving CTU, Chloe gone missing, Tony rumoured to be back in. It just HAS to be.
If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the 24-Team.
(disclaimer: Views represented in above comment do not represent the views of my brain.)
May 1st, 2007 at 8:54 am
On a serious note: This episode was more like watching Desperate Housewives than watching 24.
They really need to do something good in the next four episodes.
May 1st, 2007 at 8:57 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANoPqOawPBk
Preview for the next episode… I wonder who the person in the hood is? and who will be there for Jack? Damned lack of HD preview.
May 1st, 2007 at 9:39 am
Ok, here’s my take. Last week’s trailer (the one for ep. 20) showed Jack looking around a corner and seeing a dude in a mask with a gun inside CTU. Now I watched back episode 20 and tried to find that guy, but I couldn’t.
Skip ahead to the trailer for ep. 21, which shows the Chinese preparing for some huge assault. I’m prepared to bet a whole lot of money that CTU is going down.
Unfortunately for the Chinese, Jack is still at CTU; he’ll clobber them
Back to last night’s episode. I love how they worked things out with the VP, and I’m finding myself liking him a lot more - and Tom Lennox is awesome, I hope whatever he’s got planned for Lisa is off the hook. The CTU soap opera stuff is leading up to NEXT WEEK, when the Chinese bust in and someone gets offed (again my speculation).
Heller needs to get a grip.
Audrey needs to…. I don’t even know what she needs to do.
I like Nadia; she handled the hour’s business pretty well and she’s getting better at her new job really quickly - but I did miss Bill, and I hope he shows up again soon.
MORE SPECULATION: How awesome would it be if Bill returned with a pair of UZIs, guns blazing, to rescue CTU from the Chinese?
And Meez, that was Marilyn Bauer telling Jack she’d be there for him.
May 1st, 2007 at 9:44 am
Oh and Meez, I loved the 24-Team thing. That would be the most hilarious spinoff ever.
“and uhhh… Curtis.”
May 1st, 2007 at 11:57 am
Yeah, I’ll never forgive Jack for killing Curtis.
May 1st, 2007 at 12:20 pm
what a snooze-fest. This isn’t 24!
May 1st, 2007 at 4:47 pm
If Jack and Marilyn get together I will never forgive the writers. “Audrey, I know I said I love you with my whole heart but your daddy said I can’t be with you so I’m shacking up with my sister-in-law instead”. Ick.
And I still can’t understand why the Chinese would kidnap Audrey and be holding her all that time when they had Jack too. They couldn’t have known that the U.S. would make a deal to take Jack and they could use her later, could they? It doesn’t make sense.
May 1st, 2007 at 5:54 pm
I think the Chinese would have reason for taking Audrey because they had Jack for nearly 2 years and couldn’t break him. They knew he wouldn’t break. And he was too valuable to kill. So they were probably just keeping him until America could make an acceptable deal, but holding Audrey as a bit of insurance.
Does the underground 24-Team have a dog? I could totally see them driving around in a Mystery Machine.
And I had always suspected (but only just confirmed, thanks to IMDB), that Cheng was Consul Han from Rush Hour. Hopefully he doesn’t have Jackie Chan in his band of Chinese terrorists, because I don’t know if Jack could handle him this season. Any other season it’d be no problem, but this season…. i don’t know.
May 2nd, 2007 at 5:48 am
Since Cheng is seen in the trailer for the next episode planning some bombing and the narrator talks about “a new shocker”, I guess Chloe’s disappearance and Bill getting fired is quite convenient: my bet is that the chinese are going to bomb CTU and kill half of the staff, including Nadia, Milo and maybe Morris.
Now, THAT would be great.
May 2nd, 2007 at 3:37 pm
This is the first ever comment for me on “Watching 24″ I love this site! I look forward to the character countdowns and reviews every week. ;o)
Anyway, I think Tom should get some points for the great acting he did when VP Booth told him about his relationship with Lisa. The look of shock he had for the entire segment just made me laugh. It was so good!!!