24 Review/Recap

Day Five: 2 - 3 a.m.
If you watched the previews for next week's episode, please do not post anything about it in the comments. I tend to avoid the previews because FOX will sometimes give away some of the surprises of the final five minutes of the episode and I'd rather go in with no expectations and unaware of the twists and turns to come. I appreciate it.

I said all that because I'm going to offer some speculation here.

In the closing moments of last night's episode as Dr Romano told Logan he'd have to shoot down the plane, I began to wonder something. Are the producers trying to find a way to redeem Logan in some small way? Sure he's willing to commit treason and work with murders for the good of our country and lower oil prices, but will he be order the shooting down of an airplane simply to cover his own tracks? Will he allow innocent people to die in order to save his own skin? And I do wonder if he might not desparately want the approval of Martha so much and want to win it back so badly that he'd not allow this to happen in some sort of weird effort to win back points with her? Despite his conversation with her in this episode about how she was one step from going over the line the past few years, I really feel the truth about how Logan feels was shown last week when Martha stated she hated him. I think on some deep level, he wants her love, her respect and her admiration. And that motivation might, just might keep him from ordering the plane be shot down or finding some way to get around killing more innocent people to further whatever agenda it is that the Legion of Doom has.

Of course, the plane can't be shot down becuase it's got the Jack Bauer cloak of invulnerability on it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Jack Bauer: is there anything he can't do?

Last week, he sneaks onto a plane. This week he hijacks it and convinces the pilot to let him in the cockpit. And he gets them to turn the plane back to L.A., thus insuring he won't be too far from the plot. At this point, I really expect the plane to somehow land at the Presidential retreat so Jack Bauer can go, well, all Jack Bauer on Logan in the final few hours.

I will say one thing: the thing Jack Bauer can't do is share information. He gets the recording back and just puts it in his pocket. Wouldn't it make sense to send a copy of Chloe or call Karen Hayes with the proof and play it for her via his cell-phone? Of course, if more than one person had heard it and had a copy as proof, that would ruin some of the suspense and need for Logan to shoot down the plane.

In these types of shows, it's always interesting to be an outside viewer and be more omniscient than some of the major players in this game. I refer specifically to scenes with Mike Novak where you almost want to scream at him, "Figure it out, man!" But to see him try to piece things together based on the extremely limited information he is being given is interesting. And it brings up a question--where'd the vice president go? And will he (the v.p.) be involved in the events of the final few hours of the day?

And one more thing I learned: do not hit on Chloe in a bar if she's typing away on her laptop.

Seriously--how funny was it to see her tazer the annoying drunk guy who was hitting on her. Priceless.