(S06E07) *Warning: Spoilers ahead*
I'm starting to miss the "good" and the "bad" terrorist story lines. This whole Bauer family drama -- with its cryptic references and long, anguished looks accompanied by soft music meant to indicate deep feelings of one kind or another -- are getting tiresome.
The last few episodes of 24, starting with the appearance of Jack Bauer's brother Graem, have been filled with unexplained familial angst, clipped utterances and baffling actions. There are times when I do enjoy the suspense of trying to figure out people's motives, playing the parlor game of discerning who's bad and who's good, but there's such a thing as too much melodramatic build up with insufficient action, particularly for an action-heavy show.
That being said, hour seven did have: One escape scene in the first 10 minutes (Jack and his father easily outwitted Graem's nitwit henchmen and tracked Graem back to his house), a torture scene at Graem's (Jack tortured his brother again, only without a baggie) and a murder (Phillip killed Graem). Yes, there was action during this hour, but not the type to which I've become accustomed while watching 24. Or maybe I was spoiled by the first four hours of this season . . .
The main thrust of the new episode: Jack's got a really crappy family. What bothered me more than Jack's evil relatives is the fact that he must be a lousy judge of character. Or blind. Or both. People who are really close to Jack -- dating all the way back to season one when his former mistress was a clandestine terrorist who murdered Jack's wife -- seem to always be up to no good. And Jack has no idea that these people are bad news.
During a key scene of hour seven, Jack's brother Graem, under the influence of several cc's of a medicine that was clearly painful and sweat inducing, admitted that he ordered President Palmer I's assassination, intentionally framed Jack and ordered the killings of Tony Almeida and Michelle Dessler last season in order to lure Jack out of hiding. "Today wasn't the first time I tried to have you killed," Graem shouted. Jack had been using torture to get Graem to cough up information on the location of an engineer the "bad" terrorist, Abu Fayed, and his cohort Darren McCarthy were seeking to reconfigure the triggers on those four suitcase nukes Fayed has in his possession. (Graem claimed he had no info on McCarthy. Lord knows if he was lying about that.) But Jack wasn't expecting this kind of confession.
And Jack's father Phillip, we learned by the end of the episode, was the brains behind Graem's actions, even while he pretended to feel sorry for Jack by telling him, "You deserved a better family Jack, not this, not us." While Jack was choppered back to CTU where his sister-in-law and "nephew" had been taken, Phillip asked the CTU team if he could have a minute alone with his son Graem. Inexplicably, they agreed. And they even let Phillip close the door. Phillip was ticked at Graem's gum-flapping. "You told him about Palmer," Phillip said. Even as Graem expressed his love for his dad and promised to never betray him, Phillip obviously believed Graem was a risk to whatever operation he is running. So he overdosed his son with the medication Jack used to torture Graem minutes earlier. (Meanwhile, the folks at Bluetooth cried as they lost a valued customer.)
Could Jack really be this clueless and have no inkling that his dad is a bad guy? Or maybe the explanation lies in that Jack sustained one too many hits to the head while in China.
And what is up with the Palmer brothers and their staffing choices? Is every president in the Palmer family destined to have a duplicitous chief of staff and a conniving vice president who thinks a Palmer brother is too weak in response to terror attacks? Isn't this season two, along with President Palmer I's slow response to the nuclear detonation in the desert, all over again?
Clearly the current chief of staff, Tom Lennox is similar to the season two Mike Novick (remember him locking the press secretary up in a room?), only with hair and without glasses. This hour showed Lennox and Vice President Noah Daniels being more than peeved that Lennox's proposed revocation of several civil liberties was rejected, again, by President Palmer II. As the president convened a cabinet meeting and Daniels listened in via speakerphone from Air Force II, both Daniels and Lennox looked appalled when Palmer said he wouldn't be governed by "the politics of fear."
In other developments: Morris O'Brian was kidnapped by McCarthy because Morris is believed to be able to reconfigure the nuclear triggers for Fayed. Marilyn Bauer and her brother-in-law Jack exchanged more intense looks. And Jack's "nephew" Josh was whiny.
And poor Walid Al-Rezani was hospitalized after taking a savage beating from detainees in a federal lock-up facility after they discovered he was spying on them for the FBI. I was shocked -- SHOCKED! -- that his girlfriend, Sandra Palmer, was reasonable and rational in light of his injuries. When her presidential sibling called to express his sadness at Walid's beating, Sandra kept her cool and actually made some sense.
Next week's previews for two hours of Jack-tion were filled with images of things exploding and people fleeing. Hopefully there will be a bit less melodrama.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-06-2007 @ 12:55AM
Chris said...
Still don't know why they changed the spelling of Graham (season five) to Graem (season six)....
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2-06-2007 @ 12:36AM
LC said...
I will cut Jack a little slack on being deceived by his father. Family is a weak spot and you have a natural tendency to believe them or want to.
Even though it did him in, Graem telling Jack that he was responsible for Palmer's assassination, definitely threw him off his game and led him to believe that he told him all he knew, though I don't know why he told his father he would be out in a few years for the sacrifice. You admit to killing a former president and you are put away for life.
When they were first trying to decipher the photo I said to my wife that it was going to be Miles. I was just wondering how the heck McCarthy was going to get to him until I found out about his brother.
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2-06-2007 @ 12:56AM
Chris said...
Also, Fox.com/24 has done an excellent job on episode and character summaries for the past six seasons. A link would be much easier than typing up a summary.
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2-06-2007 @ 1:25AM
TVblogger said...
"What bothered me more than Jack's evil relatives is the fact that he must be a lousy judge of character. Or blind. Or both. People who are really close to Jack -- dating all the way back to season one when his former mistress was a clandestine terrorist who murdered Jack's wife"
As much as we'd all like to believe Jack is still human.
Instead of this being a hindrance to the show, I think it's quite a well thought out character flaw that Jack has.
He has a job that requires his every waking moment. A job that has truly made him lose everything. So, when he finds someone, anyone...all he wants to do is trust that person no matter what.
He's not a mindless killing machine. He's got feelings. Even though Jack is tough on the exterior, on the interior he really is desperate for someone to love him...even if it means that's Nina or Graem. He just hasn't lost hope that somewhere out there, there's person he can trust, and he's really seeking for that.
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2-06-2007 @ 1:40AM
BigTed said...
Even if Jack didn't want to believe his father was a baddie, it didn't make sense that he would simply take their word that Graem had taken over completely and Dad no longer had any control whatsoever over his own company. At the very least, Jack should have demanded some evidence that this was the case.
That story line, and the part about Morris sticking around just long enough to get the program going but leaving right before it showed that he was the one being targeted, were just plain lazy plotting. There seems to be more of that than usual this year, and we can only hope that there's enough over-the-top craziness to come that we don't mind so much.
Speaking of which, how about Pres. Palmer's line in the scenes from next week: "If one more nuclear bomb goes off, it's going to mean war!" Um, one more?
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2-06-2007 @ 2:30AM
K said...
Meredith -
Girl, you're way over-thinking it.
Sooner or later, if you keep de-constructing the way you do about 'why this' and 'why that' - you won't be enjoying the show any more. And, you're already showing signs of impatience and lack of interest. Not good.
You're going to end up like all those ADD stricken teeny-boppers out there who'd rather watch someone's edited compilations of the best bits of the show on YouTube.
In fact, those ADD victims are so bad, a lot of them are happy just watching the trailers at the movie theatre instead of the whole movie.
Put the crappy Starbucks coffee down, relax, and just let the story unfold on its own. Be patient. You're being way too cranky. Enough with the speed-freakish analysis, there have been plenty of moments in the show's history where drawn out explanations of relationships have happened.
Relax.
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2-06-2007 @ 2:59AM
Nick James said...
VIGO!
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2-06-2007 @ 6:20PM
edmund said...
Why is Morris' last name O'Brian? Did he take Chloe's name after they married? Are they long lost siblings? Were they married before Season 3?
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2-07-2007 @ 4:15PM
Hugeliver said...
Meredith, you summed it up for me!! Sure, family is a weak spot, but come on people! Jack is better than THIS.
All of this melodrama is just too much. I don't know what target the writers are trying to hit, but they're missing LARGE!
I'm still even having trouble with Jack not bleeding through that sweater after all the punishment Fayed dealt him. Everything just seems a little too far fetched in the world of Action Jacktion.
Yes, I know it's TV, but this is a character we've known and loved for a long time. There's just something missing.
And Morris!!! It's called REVERSE! Look into it!
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2-06-2007 @ 9:00AM
Pranav said...
Did anyone notice how Jack said "nucular" when he is interrogating his brother in the latter's house?
I don't remember the time, but he was pretty agitated (big surprise) talking about the missing nukes and I think he was pacing near a window.
Subtle? I think not.
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2-06-2007 @ 9:15AM
Gordy said...
#8, how misogynistic of you. Maybe Chloe didn't drop his name after the break-up? Isn't that the path of least resistance?
Anyway, I'll say again how sick I am of the Bauer Bunch. I knew the brother's story would wrap up soon (24's 4 week rule, and all), but now we have 2 more weeks, at least, of 'ol dad.
Surely CTU will know pretty quickly that dad killed Graem [wasn't it 'Grim' last night?]. I mean, he didn't even wipe off the syringe...and he didn't wear gloves. Then there's the whole 'last person to see you alive' thing that works so well.
SPOILER ALERT [Do I have to do that, since it's already above? And why the hell does it have to be above? You'd think people would know from the episode title that this is a recap/review.]
Thanks again 24 promo team. We now know that Jack will find a nuke, right after Miles has armed it. Since the nuke is armed, I guess the big bad got away...again. Since Miles is valuable, I assume he's with him. I guess there's no need to watch next week's episode anymore.
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2-06-2007 @ 2:26PM
Randy said...
The shows writers have said in interviews that there would be a King Lear feeling to day 6, and to give the show credit it is handeling the story very well so far. I mean my heart actually skipped a beat when the nuke went off. I admit I knew the father had to be involved when He and Jack escaped so easily, but lets face it, the real time aspect not only heightens the drama, but ties the writers hands about certain things as well. In my opionion the show should heat up dramatically when Rick Schroeder is introduced as Jacks new running buddy ( He was incredible on NYPD Blue). And i do think there is much more to the Bill Buchannan and Karen Hayes storyline then meets the eye. Long Live 24
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2-06-2007 @ 7:27PM
CTGoonie said...
It's Morris, not Miles. Miles is the other CTU person from season 1.
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2-06-2007 @ 12:20PM
Jimmy said...
Maybe it's the fact that Season Five was a highpoint for this series, but I am just bored so far with Day 6. The plot twists are not all that twisty; I mean, who didn't see the end-of-episode reveal coming from a million miles away?! And you're right, this whole season is like a rehash of Day 2 all over again. How long will it be before the "duplicitous chief of staff and [the] conniving vice president" plot to overthrow yet another American president? Even the sister is playing the role Palmer II played in Day 2. Maybe I'm just getting a little tired of the show; I don't know. All I do know is this has been a boring Day so far (the nuclear bomb not withstanding).
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2-06-2007 @ 12:22PM
Adam said...
Kinda disapointing that they followd upa great plot twist (the engineer being morris) with such a riduculously obvious one. You knew that the Dad was both evil and going to tkil Graham as soon as he said "I need a minute." Plus James Cromwell is secertly evil in every thing he's been in. They might as well have cast Tim Curry.
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2-06-2007 @ 12:25PM
D said...
Thank you K! Just enjoy or not the fricken story. Give it time to unfold. Like it or don't. I think more of the ridiculous comments come from trying to rewrite every episode. 24 is still great drama. More drama than who is sleeping with whom from week to week. I think it's great writing to show Jack as human and not some killing machine. He quit CTU after Day 1 when his wife was killed. Every season since then has shown his character as a dedicated agent but also one with "human" feeling. This is not robocop, even he had feeling for crying out loud. Let the story unfold.
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2-06-2007 @ 1:19PM
Seth Brundle said...
This season started out great and then they nailed us with this beyond-suspension-of-disbelief storyline.
Dont the writers realize how much work we put into believing most of what happens to Jack, but it works because they're careful?
But this nonsense where his father is the Emperor and his brother is Darth Vader is simply thoughtless.
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2-06-2007 @ 2:38PM
Diego said...
24 works better when there is some human drama going on. i loved season 4 because there was so much action goin on all the time, but season 5 was better because of the cat and mouse game with the prez. i think this Bauer family hours are setting up for big raids agaisnt Fayed and i hope jack can kill his father. He always wants someone to love him or care for him. it's just bad luck that he is double crossed so often.
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2-06-2007 @ 1:18PM
Kira said...
I just sit back and enjoy this show, not try to second guess or figure everything out. This is probably why I was both surprised by the Morris reveal as well as Jack's dad. I figured he'd turn out to be bad later in the show, just didn't see it coming last night.
I like the family drama... it adds a bit of depth to the show. I for one love all the action, but I do like it to be broken up a little bit with character development... otherwise it is just a Steven Segal movie.
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2-06-2007 @ 1:27PM
Porchland said...
#9. Jack has said "nuc-u-lar" on a previous episode this season, too. I think it's an intentional spoof of Bush. (Sutherland is an ardent Democrat.)
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