Watching 24

Last week’s episode was definitely leading up to this episode. We found out a lot of stuff this time around.

President Wayne seems to not be as dumb as the Character Countdown makes him out to be. He knows that Tom Lennox had something to do with Karen’s resignation. That restored some of my faith in him. After he shot down Tom’s proposal a second time, I’m really starting to regain some respect for him, but he’s got a hill to climb still.

We were also introduced the Vice President this episode, played by Powers Boothe. I’m scared of him. Just looking at him, remembering him from Deadwood and Sin City, this guy always plays characters that are very dark, and very dangerous and this Vice President seems like he’s going to be carrying on the Powers Boothe namesake.

At CTU things are just starting to get interesting. It seems for the time being that Milo and Morris of stopped their bickering, which is a welcome change. But, now we find out that Morris is the engineer for the nuke. He’s not a mole, but he’s a person that can program the nuke if they are able to coerce him. This is going to be Fayed’s first big mistake I think. Morris may be a little arrogant, but a traitor he is not. There’s no way any amount of torture could make Morris program a nuke, I’m 100% sure of that.

The most revealing part of the episode was Jack torturing Graem. Wasn’t that weird? At one moment Jack’s about to rip Graem’s head off and then the next moment Jack’s holding him close like a loving brother would telling him to “breathe.� I thought that was a wonderful scene of showing that Jack, even though he knows his brother is bad, still actually has a soft side. Jack is losing his torture technique.

Finding out that Jack’s Dad is the real bad guy was actually surprising for me. When he went into see Graem in the last five minutes of the episode, I knew that something crazy was going to happen. Even then I didn’t expect him to kill his son, and I didn’t expect them to both be in on everything that was going on.

Jack did find out that Graem was behind the killings of President Palmer, Tony, and Michelle, for which I am glad. I’m glad we can put those storylines to rest now. Everyone knows who did it, it’s nice to be able to move on.

But, now Morris is kidnapped, Powers Boothe is creepy beyond all reason, and Jack’s Dad is the overlord in disguise. Couldn’t you just picture him saying, at the end “That’ll do Graem, that’ll do.�

24, Jack Bauer, Kiefer Sutherland, Powers Booth, FOX, James Cromwell

11:00a.m.–12:00p.m.

This was another slower than normal episode, but still a good one. The problem I had was there was Jack at the beginning and the end, but nowhere in the middle.

The big stories in this episode were Tom Lennox threatening Karen to resign, and Walid in the detention camp.

Poor Walid, it seems he was sacrificed for nothing. Is that all that Walid’s story was meant to tell us? That sometimes some people just get caught up in the wrong situations because of other people’s choices. I think so. I think that Walid’s story is all but over with. Although, Sandra Palmer will have something to go to the President with now, and as much as I can’t stand her she’s got a point.

Oh also congratulations to the FBI and whoever else is running that detention camp, for running the worst camp EVER! First, you would think that there would be guards on the inside of the gates. Second, really how did someone sneak a phone in? Remember when Walid came in? They specifically said the phrase “cavity search.� That seems like a pretty thorough search to me.

The other story involved Tom Lennox and his plan to move forward with his detention camp plans. He dug up some dirt on Karen Hayes, and forced her to resign. Poor Karen, although she should’ve told the President up front why she was handing in her resignation. As a result of Tom’s racial profiling, Nadia has lost all of her security clearance. I’m not quite sure why she couldn’t tell anyone, or was afraid to tell anyone about it. I didn’t understand that at all.

It seems the British guy that Fayed’s been talking to is actually the McCarthy that Jack is looking for. After torturing Graem (man I hate that guy) he found out about the business dealings that his Father Phillip (James Cromwell) had with McCarthy. But, when Jack shows up at McCarthy’s office, all he finds is his Dad who’s also looking for McCarthy.

Graem finally shows his true colors when he takes his Dad and Jack hostage with his henchmen. Boy was that a mistake! It’s like James Bond, if you don’t kill him when you can you won’t and he’ll get you back for sure. I’m happy that Jack finally knows that his brother is nothing but a bad guy and needs to be dealt with accordingly. It’s only a matter of time before Jack finds out that Graem was behind the David Palmer hit, and oh BOY is the torture-extravaganza going to be released!

Jack hasn’t killed someone in quite a while, but I’m feeling like next episode is going to be Jack’s coming out party.

24, Keifer Sutherland, James Cromwell, Jack Bauer, FOX, Season 6, Episode 6

10:00a.m.–11:00a.m.

No less than 12,000 people were killed by the bomb instantly, wow!

You knew that was going to set Jack off. After saving a guy from a downed helicopter, on top of the roof of a house (just another minute in the life of Jack Bauer), Jack told Bill that he was back in. No one detonates a nuclear weapon on his soil and gets away with it.

We also were introduced to a few more characters, and an old one that we knew before. Graham, the Bluetooth man is back, and wait for it the twist is that he’s Jack’s brother and it seems that Graham’s hatred for Jack may boil down to a past relationship Jack seems to have had with Graham’s wife (Jack really gets around).

Jack’s Dad Phillip is connected with the terrorists somehow, and Jack needs Graham to help him figure out why. I wonder how deep this really goes.

President Wayne just doesn’t have that commanding presence that David had. When he was in that meeting with the Joint Chiefs it was like a little boy amongst men. He just doesn’t have it, and is falling faster and faster in my books. He showed us the EXACT reason why America doesn’t deal with terrorists, by letting the prisoners go, and having it blow up, quite literally, in his face.

It seems that a lot of information is going to come from Walid, the IAA President that is in the detention camp. I like him more and more, while I like Sandra Palmer less and less; also, kudos to that FBI agent that continues to put Sandra in her place.

Speaking of detention camps, the possibility that Tom Lennox has been pushing this whole time, seems to be creeping its way ever closer to becoming reality. Hopefully it never happens, for the sole fact that we’ll see a lot more uproar over 24 being racist.

It’s tough to tell how things are going to play out between Jack and Graham. I sure hope that Jack finds out that Graham was behind the attacks of last season. Somehow, while Graham is a mastermind of terrorist attacks, I don’t believe he can withstand the “persuasiveness� of Jack. That plastic bag at the end was a nice touch. That just looked eerie.

With four more nukes out there, and Fayed looking for a new technician, anything can happen. At least that buys Jack more time to find out what’s going on. Even with all the revelations in this episode, it still reminded me of the third episode, like it’s all leading up to something very big in the next couple episodes.

Stay tuned for the Character Countdown for episode 5. Those of you that don’t know what it is here’s an example.

24, Kiefer Sutherland, Jack Bauer, Season 6

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.
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Since this was a 2 hour premiere I think I’ll still split up the reviews according to the actual episode. So, I’ll just put up both my reviews for both episodes, today and tomorrow. Then we’ll start having one review a week.

Also, after each episode I will also be posting the 24 Character Countdown, where I will award and deduct points based on character performances throughout the show.

6:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m.
(S06 E01)

Well, where do I start, it was an intense first hour to say the least. America is suffering from suicide bomb attacks, Peter MacNicols wants to intern all the people who pray towards Mecca, President Wayne Palmer seems a bit spineless, and Jack has grown a sweet Charles Manson-esque beard while on his vacation (imprisonment) in China.

We’re informed that Pres. Palmer has brokered a deal with the Chinese to get Jack back. The specifics of how they got Jack back were left out although the term “high price� was used a great deal. I think it was better that way, we know it took a lot to get Jack back, and we weren’t bothered with the details.

Well, the inter-office politics, backstabbing, and whining are back in full swing as Milo and Morris duke it out. Morris has that wonderful, and by wonderful I mean absolutely annoying, stinging British sarcasm a la Simon Cowell. Already after the first episode I’m a bit tired of hearing those two bicker like little school girls.

Chloe managed to pull off her first scowl of the season in about 3 seconds after she was shown on screen. Her and Morris also managed to almost completely botch the ongoing operation of getting Assad by using Morris’s personal satellite (I wish I had something like that).

I loved the first episode though. I thought it was well done, and everything we expect from 24. Seeing Jack again was like a breath of fresh air, even though he seems like he’s gone through quite a lot with all the scars on his back. Jack’s been brought back to the U.S. for one purpose, to die. A man inside Assad’s crew has offered to give up Assad in exchange that he gets to kill Bauer. Jack knows what is expected of him and he gives a stirring speech to Bill about how he can “die for something,� instead of “dying for nothing.�

Then the tables turned are once Fayed (the man who wants to kill Jack because Jack killed his brother) confesses to Jack that he is actually the one that’s behind the bombings, that Assad has come to the U.S. to stop him, and that CTU is actually going to end up killing the wrong man.

That’s the wrong thing to tell Jack right? Yup. Because when everyone leaves the room Jack makes his move, initiating his first kill of the season by biting a man’s neck (yes exactly like a vampire) and ripping out a huge chunk of flesh (it seems that Kiefer hasn’t forgotten his Lost Boy roots). Now Jack has escaped. Terrorists beware, Jack DOES bite!

Episode 2 after the jump…
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