24 Recap: The Beginning of the End

This is it. The end. I know I said I was happy about 24 ending, but the proximity to the finale left me feeling nostalgic. So I ditched the note-taking for a week, sat back and watched the episode last night like I had from the start: with wide-eyed wonder. How would they end a show that had revolutionized television? How would they take us towards a finale none of us really wanted to reach? How would said finale “tee us up for the movie” as Kiefer Sutherland promised? And how much longer do we have to deal with Denny? I need answers to my questions, DAMMIT, and I’m going to interrogate this episode like Jack—with the aid of nothing else but my own two hands. Here we go…

In the Line of Fire

Jack McCoy Shephard Bauer (maybe I do need notes) has wore a lot of different hats over the years. He’s been an agent, head of CTU, head of field Ops, a paper pusher for the Department of Defense, undercover, terrorist bait, a trading chip, on the run, in hiding, etc etc. The hat he was given last night was as a bodyguard. Of course, with a nuclear threat against the city of Manhattan, the best use of Jack Bauer’s time is to escort a dignitary. It’s not like he could be chasing down terrorists (oh wait, he could be? My bad). I’m sure you’re right, Madam President, we should definitely dedicate America’s most valuable natural resource to the same role that Kevin Costner played in Bodyguard or Clint Eastwood played in In The Line of Fire.

Oh right—this just in—where Jack goes, so does the firefight. He realized something was up and started to retreat but it was too late. Jack’s convoy was attacked (by Americans, no less…more on that ridiculousness later) and like everyone who partners Jack on a mission, they are being knocked down like bowling pins. A heroic Secret Service female agent tells Jack to stay with President Hassan while she adds to Ari’s body count. Good plan, lady. Why don’t you both go with Hassan? Wouldn’t that make more sense? Isn’t the point of the Secret Service to stay with whomever they’re protecting and make sure they’re safe? Is she promoting FOX’s new show, Human Target? Regardless, she’s a dead woman.

Jack, Freckles (so happy to have her back) and company are fleeing when Hassan tells Jack to go back for his men*. Jack knows better—those people only signed one episode contracts. They continue to run through this tunnel which all of a sudden has gotten a lot larger than when they were going the other way and realize they are trapped. Jack gives Hassan a gun and Freckles instructions to fire willy nilly into the crowd once Jack sets off a smoke bomb. What did that do? The last time I saw someone brandish a gun that recklessly, Plaxico was in The Latin Quarter. Oh wait…it doesn’t matter. Jack and Freckles unlocked the code for unlimited ammo! Gotta love 24, the video game.

*Side Note: OK, 24, so the Secret Service is being picked off by one-by-one but they don’t think of calling for backup? This show can get so frustrating sometimes. How fast do you think backup could get there if they needed it? If all they had to do was drive a car out of this tunnel and to the holding area for all the people evacuated from the United Nations, couldn’t they just quickly send some people back? No, let’s go at this alone. That sounds like a much better strategy.

Jack starts picking off the tactical ops team one by one and gets to a higher position to speed up the killing process. Awesome. Except one of the guys shooting at Jack, flanks his position and attacks him from the side sending him sprawling to the ground. Looking at sure death for the second time in two episodes, a bang is heard and Jack is saved. But while last week it was from Freckles, this week, Hassan does the trick. One more person to add to your Holiday card list, Jack*.

*Side Note: Jack’s holiday card list is pretty small. Kim and her family. Chloe. Freckles. Maybe Wayne Palmer. I would hope he sends one to Aaron Pierce. But who else is this man close with? I doubt he sends Tony greetings in jail. I don’t think he’s sending love notes to Audrey. Does he send one to Marilyn Bauer and his son (yes, I said it, the kid has to be his son—did we just drop that plot)? Probably not. Bill Buchanan’s widow, Karen Hayes? Probably not. It’s a tough list for Jack at this point.

Flashback to Season 6

Anything that reminds you of Season 6 is a bad thing. And this ridiculous plot trying to give over President Hassan certainly fit the bill. Let’s back up. The writers of 24 decided President Taylor needed to try to win another Emmy this season so they had her assemble her Cabinet in The Situation Room (dammit, where is Wolf Blitzer?). After meeting and discussing possible outcomes and the fact that she doesn’t want to think about retaliation—even though she threatened just as much to Hassan a few episodes back—they receive a phone call from the man holding the weapon and, of course, they take it on speakerphone. The ransom demand: Hassan or the bomb goes off.

They debate back-and-forth over whether they should consider turning over Hassan. Rob Weiss (who is slowly turning into one of the more annoying characters of the season) and one other adviser, General David Bruckner (who plays, very aptly for this role, General Tommy Franks in W) says that they should. Ethan and the President are adamant that they can’t. President Taylor gives a speech to the audience to submit to the Emmy nomination committee to rally everyone under the fact they need to find these terrorists before the end of the hour. But as the meeting is breaking up, the Bruckner and Weiss hatch a plot to kidnap Hassan themselves. How are they going to do it? Well Bruckner has a tactical team just waiting for deployment*. And so they hatch a plan to steal Hassan’s route from Ethan, kidnap him and turn him over to the terrorists. Because of course the terrorists are ethical guys and when they say they won’t attack New York if the US hands over Hassan, they really, really mean it. Pinky swear. Cross their heart and hope to die by nuclear explosion.

*Side Note: 24 writers, really dropping the ball are you? You’ve had an elite tactical unit at your fingertips but you’ve refused to use them? Bruckner shouldn’t even be tried in a court of law for this—he should be taken out back and shot. How about sending them after the terrorists in the taxi earlier in the episode? How about sending them as backup for Jack on one of his missions? How about sending him after Tarin when no other tactical team was close enough. Ugh.

Well the stealing of Ethan’s information doesn’t go exactly according to plan. I mean, well, it all goes to shit when Ethan walks in and catches wind of what they were doing. Busted! But they’re not going to let Ethan just walk out and tattle to the President. They keep him locked up in the room. And suddenly he has a heart attack (I admit, I thought he was faking it). Rob Weiss gets him his meds but he needs medical attention. But Bruckner advises against giving it to him. Wait until after this blows over, he says. Meanwhile, Ethan is slowly dying. And Rob Weiss is left babysitting him. If this was LOST, we would hear a woosh woosh woosh and flashback to Season 6 and the awful “trapped in the closet” plotline. But since this is not LOST, let’s just leave it at this. As painful as this plot is. Let's just let Ethan die. That is the heart of the matter after all. Or maybe this plotline is so ridiculous that we should just ignore it until Bruckner and Weiss go to jail.

"Mole...... Mole...... MOLEY, MOLEY, MOLEY, MOLEY, MOLEY!!!"

Denny sucks. Big time. She’s not even good at being a mole. She's worse than Fred Savage in Austin Powers in Goldmember (where the quote above comes from). She almost gets her terrorist buddies caught until she wises up and diverts the satellite and sends them the police roadblock locations. I can’t wait to hear her reasoning for doing this. Was it for money? Hatred for America? Love of Samir, the head terrorist? She’s got to have some reason. And it better be excellent. Because her moley-ness is taking away from Chloe time. Even Bubba’s not happy about it (or maybe it was something about the satellite going down and losing the taxi…I can’t remember). At least FP jr and Jack seem to at least be curious that the satellite went down at the exact time they were about to catch the terrorists. It’s about time people started to get some suspicions around here.

The last plot is the terrorist plot. Tarin is filling in for a dead driver. Uh oh. He’s to drive the van with the bomb to the Upper West Side (though Sarah pointed out that a restaurant in the scene said “Noltia” which is far from the UWS), park it in a garage and set it off there. Samir also tells Tarin that he needs to stay with the bomb and make sure it goes off. His family will be remembered and all that jazz. Tarin starts the 15-minute countdown but he doesn’t look like he’s going to stick around to see the bomb go off. I guess we’ll find out next episode (a two-hour bash that looks quite good). Bring it on.

Season grade so far: B+/B. It was an OK episode but it wasn't great. Next week's two-hour "event" looks awesome though. Logan back. Jack and Denny. But if the previews are the best part of the show, it gets knocked down a bit. Even the firefight scene wasn't all that captivating. But two-hour events are usually really good on 24 so I'm excited for that. But if this whole rescue of Hassan is for naught because he turns himself over, I'm going to be quite upset.

Best line of the week: "I only take orders from the President" - Jack. Yeah, Jack? Since when have you taken orders from anyone? There have now been quite a few Presidents on this show (when you factor in the people who took power for a little while) and you've listened to none of them. You take orders from no one. You are you're own authority. Let's just admit that and go on with the day.

Best moment of the week: Hassan shooting Jack's potential killer. Yeah, it was obvious it was coming when Jack gave him a gun, but it was still pretty cool. Twice in two weeks we've seen Jack staring down the barrel of a gun and twice he's had someone bail him out. Holiday card, Jack. Holiday card.

Ari's body count: 71. From Ari on the count: "Dude. So high. 9 men on the security detail, plus the 2 agents at the vehicle. So 11 right there. Plus the good-but-doing-bad guys. I counted 1 of them killed up front, and then Jack took out 3 with Renee, and then he took out another 3 and Hassan got 1. So 8 of them axed. I think 19 is accurate for the week." Got all that? Good.

Comments? Thoughts? Liked it? Disliked it? Ready for next week's two-hour "event"? Sorry for the late recap but post your comments below!

Pictures from Fox.com