Watching 24

8:00a.m.—9:00a.m.
(S06 E03)

This episode was a little lower key, meaning that it was more of a lead-up to the grand fourth episode that we’ll get to in a minute.

In my first two reviews I never mentioned Ahmed and the nice American family that we kept getting short glimpses of. Ahmed (played by that Kumar kid Kal Penn) is pretending to be a normal everyday citizen that is being racially profiled. In the first episode we saw his Dad being carted away by the FBI, but later found out that it was actually Ahmed who is involved with the terrorists. Ahmed is having problems with the neighborhood hillbillie who ironically is right about Ahmed being a terrorist.

Episode 3 Stan (the hillbillie) breaks into Ahmed’s house while Ahmed is trying to retrieve a package to take to Fayed. Ahmed shoots him and then takes poor Scott hostage. All Scott wanted to do was to be friends with Ahmed, laugh, skip, play, and trade necklaces. But, now Ahmed has a gun in his face and forces him over to his house. Ahmed also had a nasty cut on his leg after Stan beat the crap out of him. So, he makes Scott’s Dad do his dirty work.

Jack and Assad make a great team don’t they? Assad doesn’t seem like the man he’s being portrayed as. Alexander Siddig does such a good job; you wouldn’t know that he’s actually been a ruthless terrorist.

The whole staging of the traffic wreck was brilliant. Did you see how Jack drove that Jeep? He still knows how to do what he does. Instinctively this job and him are connected. He can try to fool us all he wants but he is Jack Bauer and this is exactly what he’s meant to do. He hasn’t forgotten, but he may just not want to do it anymore. His morale is down and it shows.

This was the first episode where we really heard anything substantial from Curtis. We can all tell that Curtis isn’t happy at all with the arrangement with Assad. The man is a known terrorist; he’s killed hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent people over the past 20 years. I can understand Curtis’s feelings.

Fayed also demanded the release of over 100 prisoners from a military detention base within the hour or the bombings won’t stop. This is where Wayne really is starting to choke. He gives into Fayed’s demands without any thought. Even Lennox didn’t want to do it and I hate that guy.

Jack and Assad successfully follow one of Fayed’s men to a storage garage. But, fail to apprehend him because he blows himself up. Check out the picture of the guy afterward, he’s one crispy critter.

Scott’s Dad now has the component he needs to take to Fayed. He had to kill a man to get it. I just didn’t understand why he could take on a grown man with a gun. But, he didn’t have the guts to take on an injured, teenage Ahmed.

Jack finds a damaged computer, but in perfect 24 fashion they are able to recover just the bit of information they need. Within seconds they find out that Fayed has a nuclear device and that one of the men being freed from the prison knows how to program the nuke. What they had no idea about was that the man would be helped in escaping before the prisoners even got on the plane.

9:00a.m.—10:00a.m.
(S06 E04)

This was the big one. The most intense episode of 24 since Jack had to shoot Ryan Chapelle in season 3.

President Wayne finally does something right and names Jack the lead of the investigation, officially. We all know that Jack was leading this thing from the start anyway. Wayne is scared. He doesn’t hide it as good as David did.

Chloe finally put Milo and Morris in their place, and hopefully this is the end to their petty bickering.

Scott’s Dad is the classic 24 moron. Doing whatever a terrorist asks him to do without doing what he should obviously do, call the police. I just don’t understand what this guy is thinking. Ok, there’s a terrorist holding your family hostage that’s true. But, doesn’t he understand that whatever he’s delivering is going to help the terrorists? And that they will kill his family anyway? The only smart one in the family is the Mother who was released, and to the surprise of me and I’m sure many other people she actually called the police.

Sandra Palmer is becoming tiresome. It’s like she expects preferential treatment from Wayne even though she’s annoying him. I hate to admit it, but I love when Lennox took her call and totally blew her off.

Jack and Curtis, along with a CTU strike team save Scott and his Mom from Ahmed. Kudos to Scott for remembering the address where Ahmed told his Father to go. But, now we have some serious tension. Curtis hates Assad for some reason, we don’t know quite yet. After finding out Assad truly is genuine in helping them find Fayed, President Wayne offers Assad a pardon.

I personally have to side with Lennox and Hayes on this one. I don’t think I’d be able to cut a deal with a man that’s killed so many innocent people over the years.

Scott’s Dad delivered the detonator part, and was surprised that they didn’t let him go. What was he thinking?

The last five minutes of this episode were the most intense moments of 24 ever. Jack found out from Chloe that Curtis was ambushed by Assad’s men while Curtis was in Special Forces and Assad’s men beheaded Curtis’s crew. By then it was too late, Curtis already had Assad by the neck and a gun to his head. Jack had no choice but to kill Curtis. It was awful watching Curtis die. His last thing he saw was Jack, his friend, standing in front of him holding the gun that killed him.

The scene that followed was reminiscent of season 1 where Jack thought Kim was dead and he started crying. Even a man as hardened as Jack, a person that has seen and been through the unimaginable still has feelings.

Then the unthinkable…As CTU forces stormed the warehouse where the suitcase nuke was, the recently released prisoner detonated it. A huge mushroom cloud filled the L.A. sky. It was majestic yet sickening at the same time. I for one was astonished. I couldn’t believe it.

I think this is what sets 24 apart from anything else. The unflinching ability they have of letting bad things actually happen. Any other show, the entire season would be devoted to stopping a nuke like this. 24 set one off within the first four hours of the season. Then we find out that there could be four more nukes still out there.

This can only get worse.