(S06E22) *Warning, spoilers ahead from latest episode.*
If you're a fan of gunfire, dim lighting and foot chases through tunnels and dank warehouses, the latest installment of 24 was right up your alley. Sure, there were still campy moments. Like Jack Bauer's sister-in-law Marilyn sobbing and losing her composure, and Jack's "nephew" Josh being squinty and whiny. Again.
However the name of the game in hour 22 was action, shoehorned into nearly every tick of the 24 clock. And if there's one thing for which I was grateful, it was that there were no scenes with Chloe and Morris "Drill-Bit" O'Brian saying insipid things to one another.
On the CTU front: Did anyone think that the mercenaries enlisted by Cheng Zhi to break into CTU and kidnap Josh Bauer were really going to get away with it? If you did, well then . . . to complete the cliche . . . you don't know Jack. As the head tattooed/tank-topped mercenary was leading CTU employees to a holding room (why weren't the CTUers all shot?), Jack head-butted one of the captors, while Nadia Yassir and Morris took on two security guards. Jack brutally took out the chief mercenary via choking and neck breaking. (It was nearly impossible to quantify the number of people Jack killed in this hour without slowing down the video of the show to a snail's pace, although I can say he's really into asphyxiation this season). The unbelievable coincidence moment came when Mike "The Brawler" Doyle burst into CTU and shot the guy who was grappling with Nadia.
Meanwhile, Josh was led through a labyrinth of tunnels to Cheng, who telephoned Papa Bauer to let him know he had his grandson. Bauer said he'd give Cheng the Russian circuit board once Josh was brought to him. This led to an awkward, almost comedic conversation between Papa Bauer and Josh, only I likely wasn't supposed to find it amusing. A sample:
Papa Bauer: Hello Joshua. Look, I'm sorry, I know you've been through a lot.
Josh: "I'm sorry?" A few hours ago you pointed a gun at my head and said you'd kill me.
Papa: I never would have hurt you.
Josh: I heard you say it.
Papa then told Josh he's taking him away from "this ungrateful country" to China, where in a mere 10 years, the Asian nation would "surpass this country in every possible way." (Cheng told Josh, "Your grandfather is a visionary.") Soon after that phone call, Jack saved Josh following another fierce fire-fight, which included a slick Jack-sliding-across-the-floor-and-nailing-a-Cheng-guard move.
In the White House: The Lisa Miller plan didn't quite work out as White House chief of staff Tom Lennox would have liked. (Well, I don't exactly think Lennox minded the Cinemax-at-night performance between Miller and her traitorous boyfriend Mark Bishop, conveniently caught on hidden camera.) Bishop knew something was awry and confronted Miller who, basically, lost it, hitting him with a wine bottle, a lamp and her fists, only to have him choke her nearly to death. And, to top it all off, the fake intel that the White House wanted Bishop to pass along to the Russians to avert war -- they forced Bishop to send the Russians fake memos and e-mails falsely indicating the Americans had destroyed the Russian defense technology that Cheng had -- didn't fool the Russians.
The tricky Russian president had Bishop under surveillance and already knew about the raid. This made for a difficult conversation between Acting President Noah Daniels when he boldly lied to Russian President Yuri Suvarov and Suvarov called him on it, giving Daniels two hours to get the circuit board. Or else there'll be war. (That's an awesomely convenient time-line given that there are exactly two hours left in the season.)
This led to the truly surprising turn at the conclusion of the episode where Papa Bauer called the White House and spoke to Daniels directly. The homegrown terrorist said if Daniels sent Josh to him, he'd hand over the circuit board and the United States could avoid war. (What's so important about this boy? Is he unwittingly carrying some kind of microchip? Is he a highly trained intelligence agent who's under a hypnotic spell? It can't be that Papa Bauer is sentimental.)
The last scene had Doyle once again pitted against Jack -- this back-and-forth between the two is getting tiresome (now they're working together, oh wait, they're not) -- as Doyle put Josh in a chopper and CTU agents held Jack down. You could read the lips of squinty Josh as he yelled, "Uncle Jack!" through the helicopter window.
Overall, it was a decent episode, certainly jam-packed with action that moved the plot ahead to the two-hour season finale next week. Some of my complaints include the fact that crises seemed to be wrapped up too 
quickly, like the CTU hostage situation and securing Josh. I also despised the tired, "Hey there are some guys here from Division who are going to grill you on the four hours of your flawed CTU supervision, so drop all your work tracking down terrorists and kiss their butts." I was pleasantly surprised by the Russian twist, as well as having Papa Bauer call the White House. I'm giving it a 5, not a killer episode, but not a lame one like some of the mid-season installments.
The Upfronts: FOX
Carter Bays of How I Met Your Mother: The TV Squad Interview
The Upfronts: CBS
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-15-2007 @ 1:00AM
DLM said...
I'm a 24 fan no matter what! Really glad to see Jack being Jack and the writers did not make him a guest star like in some of the episodes this season. I don't care much for the Doyle loyalty (or lack thereof) either. Nadia turned pretty tough. She tends to whimp out around the 'executive' type males, though. This season may not have been the most explosive in 24 history, but I have still enjoyed it.
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 1:00AM
Kyle Beabo said...
So let me get this straight, because the TV Russians lost their own technology and then we briefly came in contact with it we are being blamed for it, and they are willing to attack the US because they fear being attacked by China using the technology loophole that we know about too?
I'm confused.
http://kylebeabo.blogspot.com/
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 1:49AM
Connie said...
"This doesn't make any sense." -- Noah Daniels
Truer words were never spoken.
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 1:55AM
Mandee said...
Yeah (1), that pesky Doyle guy keeps sticking his nose in the Bauer family's private matters. The nerve. Jack is just going to have to kill him, the sooner the better.
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 2:04AM
BigTed said...
Are we supposed to be unhappy that the group from Division came to clean house, just because they insulted poor pretty Nadia? Given that CTU just let a bunch of mercenaries take over the whole place with barely a fight -- a group that for all they knew was really there to steal the few bits of classified information they hadn't already lost -- and that both Russian and Chinese operatives seem to be running around on U.S. soil doing whatever the heck they want (not to mention the whole nuke thing from way back earlier in the day), I'd think it was about time that somebody with a few brains took over national security.
Of course, nobody really looked at the Division guys' credentials very closely, did they? Hope they don't turn out to be a bunch of spies from, say, Cuba. But I wouldn't be all that surprised, either.
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 2:11AM
Montebello Mike said...
I'm liking the Noah Daniels stuff, the actor is great. As to the rest, nah.
Did we really have to give Jack yet another reason to go rogue? That is getting totally repetitive.
And the Russian threat, as noted by Kyle (2) is way confusing. And stupid.
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 2:17AM
Rick said...
Big Ted: why are you still going on about the nuclear attack? That was, like, so 20 hours ago.
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 2:24AM
BigTed said...
It did seem weird that the Russian president sounded so hostile, especially over information that he got by spying on a top-level U.S. government official. This is still the same day in which the U.S. was nuked (by rogue Russians) and the president was nearly assassinated (and replaced by a gung-ho military vice president). Instead of making military threats, he should be worried that Daniels is actually itching to go to war.
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 2:25AM
BigTed said...
Rick: Ha, that's true. But it seems like only 10 or 15 hours ago.
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 2:30AM
jordancda said...
"...Jack saved Josh following another fierce fire-fight, which included a slick Jack-sliding-across-the-floor-and-nailing-a-Cheng-guard move."
I call that a Bauer Slide.
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 2:56AM
Margaret said...
I'm not the originator of this theory, but I believe it - Josh is really Papa Bauer's kid, not Jack's or Graeme's. Did you catch the panic in Marilyn's voice when she asked Jack about what Papa Bauer said to the kid?
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 7:24AM
DudeBoyz said...
Not a good season. What a disaster. CTU is a joke. Folks can just walk in and take over, poison folks, kill folks, etc. Nutty.
The Executive Branch stuff is also a joke. I hope we never, ever have to see such a disfunctional White House setup.
We need a strong president who doesn't have any weaknesses to be exploited and we need a vice president who isn't trying to stage a coup.
We need Jack to be like he was in the early seasons - when he shot that child molester and took his head to the guys in a bowling bag so he could get back in their good graces.
Now THAT was the Jack Bauer we all know and love...
Two seasons in a row now he let people go that he should have killed, and it has come back to bite him both times. He NEVER would have done that in earlier years.
Come on Jack, get tough again.
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 8:01AM
Karen said...
Ewwwwwwwwww #11. That totally grossed me out.
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 8:16AM
Georgia said...
LOL - I, too, thought ewwwwwwwwwwwww when I read #11.
Loved the "Bauer slide" - that was cool.
I had to laugh when the clean up guy from Division said "Super." He's supposed to be the mighty god of division and he uses words like, "Super." Geezzzzzzzzz.
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 8:48AM
Michael said...
Yeah, the Bauer slide was super sweet. It makes you wonder how many coats of wax they had to put down on the floor to get the stunt right.
As for Margaret's comment about Josh really being Papa Bauer's kid, that theory was basically shot down when Papa Bauer told Josh he was trying to make right the sins of Josh's father. If he's as big a megalomaniac as he seems, he wouldn't be condemning his own actions that way but instead those of either Jack or Graeme.
This last few weeks and next week's finale are shaping up to redeem the weak middle of this season. We've also gotten some new characters to root for (or against) instead of just Jack and Chloe. That brings to mind that Chloe has really softened up the second half of this season and she seems just a shadow of her former self. What gives? Anyone else catch a fleeting glimpse of her lying unconscious on the floor in the teaser for next week? And what about Audrey? For as HUGE a reveal as it was that she was dead and then that she really WASN'T dead, they sure did hustle her out of the storyline quickly. What's the deal with that? If I have anything specifically to complain about this season, it has to be the shoddy script writing. In addition to all the plot rehashing they did they introduced some potentially interesting stuff (the Logans, Audrey, etc) and then dropped it just about as fast - usually within the hour - and never got back to it at all. Weak writing guys!
http://www.myspace.com/scoobarama
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 8:58AM
TuckerKatt said...
So the microchip-circuit-board-whatever-thingy would allow the Chinese to access Russia's military secrets. They have plenty of lead time, why don't they just change their access codes now?
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 9:01AM
surprised said...
Geez, enough with the utterly stupid nicknames already...you have totally played out 'Drill Bill' and 'the Brawler'.
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 9:04AM
surprised said...
Make that "Drill Bit", not Bill.
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 9:10AM
Hugeliver said...
Please GOD let it be over soon!!!!!! Soooooo much recycling.
I don't know who the writers are this time around, but they should ALL be fired. It's the same crap every episode this season.
I LOVED this show, but now it's just a tired ghost of itself.
The Bauer Slide was AWESOME though. Also, hanging off the rope shooting the getaway driver was pretty damn cool. Now, WHY didn't we have that kind of Jacktion all season?? WHY did we have to wade through rivers of syrupy side stories??
Reply
5-15-2007 @ 9:43AM
sgsaur said...
Did anyone else catch the Tom Lennox line "Finally..." when the "Cinemax-at-night performance between Miller and her traitorous boyfriend Mark Bishop" was over? That line and the look on his face made me laugh out loud.
The Papa Bauer being Josh's dad thing has been out there for a while. The theory goes that he raped Marilyn 15 years ago, but Graeme (is that the correct spelling?) never knew. If that theory is correct, it would make sense that he wants Josh - He wants to raise him to be the son he wanted instead of the son's he got (one who's loyal to the country instead of the family and one who was loyal to the family but a weakling in his dad's eye's.)
BTW, GO MORRIS! He actually took one of Chinese agents out while Jack & Nadia took the rest. Maybe he's looking for redemption for his previous misdeeds.
It was good to see Jack in action again. He's been spending too much time at CTU and not enough time running around and kicking butt this season - thus the ratings drop and the viewer complaints.
Reply