24 Review/Recap

Day Five, 5 - 7 p.m.
Well, we're at the halfway mark of day five and I'll give 24 this--it's been one heck of a rollercoaster ride. So far we've had two regular characters shuffle off this mortal coil and at least three shifts of who the main bad guy could possibly be. Not bad for 24, where the plots to overthrow civilization as we know it seem to change almost hour by hour.

As I was watching this episode, I had to wonder some things. First of all, the terrorists only seem to have a limited quantity of the centox nerve gas. They started with 20 canisters and are now down to 17 becuase they seem willing to use the gas anytime, anywhere for just about anything. We used one at a mall to test the arming chip, we used one at the hospital as a distraction and then we used one in CTU headquarters. Logistically, I'm still coming up with why the hospital was a destraction ploy to cover that one authentic target is CTU HQ. I mean, if your goal is to kill off a bunch of CTU agents and throw that branch of the law enforcement into total chaos, why give the good guys a chance to be off-site? I'm referring, of course, to having Jack off-site since we all know that had a large number of CTU regular staffers died (such as Buchanan, Chloe, Edgar, Audrey) Jack would have been hella-pissed and gone nuts. At this point the terrorists could have just bent over and kissed their posteriors goodbye because Jack Buaer is coming and he's really upset.

In a way it's better for Logan since the more gas the terrorists use in random places, the less targets he has to come up with a way to logistically defend. Speaking of Logan, was there ever a politician who went with the breeze more than Logan? (Please, no political commentary...we're dealing with the fictional 24 universe here). This guy changes his mind more often than some people change pants. Well, I think we should take a hard stance with these terrorists, no let's give them the motorcade route, no let's declare marshal law. It seems as if Logan is the ultimate "whatever the current idea is, that's what I'm going with" guy. Seriously, telemarketers must have this guy on speed dial because all it takes is a pretty good sales pitch and this guy will buy whatever you're selling. It makes me wonder how he listened to David Palmer for two consecutive hours last year without deciding that David was full of it. Oh wait...

And to watch Logan try to backtrack to cover up what he's done. "Oh, Mr. Subarov, I think we should enforce our treaty." Never mind that I sold you out to the terrorists to protect the United States. "Oh honey, I didn't know what to do but I had to weigh your one life vs the thousands who could die if the nerve gas were deployed." Seems to me that there is a power struggle being set-up at the top. And give Mike Novak some credit, he is playing the game well. His realization that having Martha Logan on his side to convince Logan to back off the aggressive marshal law stance was a nice move. And having watched 24 for more than three episodes, I'm immediately suspicious of the new vice president who wants to circumvent the rules of declaring marshal law. Yeah, I have a sneaking suspicion that he's in on the plot and that may have been what David Palmer wanted to warn Martha about.

Meanwhile, Jack displays his prowess at really not getting through to people at all. He tries to get information out of Henderson using the patented Jack Bauer interrogation techniques that he learned from the guy. Which Jack has learned to think of the fly as he shoots the guy's wife in the leg to see if it will make him talk. Yeah, I can't say that one I didn't see coming a mile away.

I will also go out on a limb and predict that Tony will somehow beat up or inflict harm on Henderson. It seemed as if the story was trying very hard to put these two in a room together.

Meanwhile, I've just got to say it--how bad is security over at CTU? Also, how much trouble is Lynn in since his key card was used to infilitrate the building. Good thing L.A.P.D. happened to rush over to find his sister's body less than half an hour after her death and warn CTU or else we'd have a lot higher body count and not just poor Edgar and the new girl who Lynn fired last week. Of course, we're assuming Lynn made it out alive and wasn't a victim of the attack...

...like poor Edgar. Now, on several sites yesterday such as USA Today, I heard that there was a huge shocker to the episode last night. And so, I kept expecting to find out the identity of someone as a bad guy or Jack to dress up in drag and do the hula or Kim to actually add something to the plotline. I never really saw Edgar dying until about two minutes before it happened when Edgar found the canister and it started to release the gas. I figured he'd either die in the ventallation room with Carrie or he'd somehow die in the attack. That said, his death was pretty stunning and moving, watching as he succumbed to the gas and Chloe's reaction.

I'd be careful if I were Henderson now. Chloe is pisssed and we all saw what happened last year when Chloe got pissed.

We're halfway home and the day is still going strong. Let's see where the next 12 hours take us.