24, the Fifth Day, at the 10th Hour

As usual I’ve been closely following the only TV show I watch, Fox’s 24. This is the fifth season for the show and this time they have the Russians (probably the Chechen rebels) to be the villains. I guess it really gets old to have the Middle East people to be the bad guys. Nothing against the vodka-loving people, but I think this is a nice change.

From the finale of last season, we knew that Jack Bauer faked his own death with the help of Chloe, Tony, and Michelle, in order to avoid being captured by the government which had sold him out under the pressure of the Chinese. At the end we saw him crossed the border into Mexico and disappeared. When this season started Jack is already back in the US and is actually living pretty close to the LA area under a fake identity. (It seems that he’s not afraid of the possibility of running into people he knows. You know, CTU isn’t *that* far away…) Things get started with the assassination of former president David Palmer. Then Tony and Michelle were also attacked where Michelle died and Tony seriously injured. Chloe almost kicked the bucket herself but she was tipped at the last minute about Tony and Michelle and she was sharp enough to realize she would be next. She called Jack for help and barely escaped. They realized those who were attacked are the only people who knew Jack is alive. Somehow someone found out about it and used it to set him up. Obviously the bad guys are not exactly going after Jack, they are just using him as part of their plans. After an attack at the airport they found out the terrorists got their hands on some military grade sentox nerve gas. The terrorists wanted to ship the sentox gas back to Russia and to deploy them right in the middle of Moscow. Jack and the CTU managed to foil the plan to ship the sentox back to Russia. The terrorists then threatened President Logan to give them information on the visiting Russian President Yuri Suvarov so they can ambush him. If President Logan chose not to comply the terrorists will release the nerve gas into the cities. That wimp of a president Logan decided to sell out Suvarov and let the terrorists take him out. The First Lady Martha was vehemently against it and decided to force her husband’s hand by riding with Suvarov to the aiport. If Logan let the terrorists to ambush Suvarov, his wife would get killed as well. And this is where we are at the beginning of the 10th hour, at 4pm.

Basically this is what happened in this hour:

• Jack went to the company that manufactures the nerve gas to meet with a senior executive there, Christopher Henderson. Henderson was the man who recruited Jack when he worked at the CTU. Henderson was fired (or let go, they didn’t specify) from the CTU after Jack was asked to investigate him for some unspecified matter.
• President Logan found out his wife Martha is with Suvarov. He was terrified and didn’t know what to do.
• Lynn McGill, who was sent by the President to oversea the CTU and was having trouble handling the pressure, finally snapped when he found out Chloe, Edgar, and Audrey were working to tip the Secret Service about the assassination on Suvarov. Lynn refused to tip the Secret Service about the attempt because he thought there wasn’t enough evidence. He ordered to have Edgar and Chloe arrested and Audrey thrown out of CTU. At the end it was Curtis who evoked the so-called “section 112 provision” and had Lynn arrested based on the ground that he is unable to perform at the job. Bill Buchanan, who was relieved of his duty by Lynn, was reinstated as director of CTU.
• CTU was able to tip the Secret Service about the assasination attempt at the last second. Their motorcade was attacked but Suvarov and Martha managed to survive.
• Jack met with Henderson and Henderson agreed to help him find information on the nerve gas. Henderson brought Jack to another facility to retrieve information but it turned out to be a trap. Henderson locked Jack inside a room with a bomb. Jack barely survived the explosion by hiding in an area under the floor.

Here are some of my thoughts:

• It seems that Jack finally met his nemesis. We rarely see Jack to fall for traps but he did it twice in this episode. Henderson really has his numbers. Let’s see how Jack will get back at him next week.
• The part where Jack ripped open the floor and hided under it to avoid the explosion is ludicrous. Just what kind of floor the facility has that a man can rip it open easily? And what’s up with the space under it? That room looks like a server room, with such a thin layer it seems questionable how it can withstand the weight on top. This is not very well thought-out and too convenient.
• When Jack said “How can I be so stupid” I was thinking about the exact same thing.
• The detonator Henderson used to detonate the bomb, can that thing looks any more cheesy? It’s as if they wanted to make it look high-tech but the end result is the complete opposite.
• When I saw the rocket launcher and flame thrower I thought I was looking at someone playing a first-person shooter.
• The First Lady is just one brave woman.

Next week there will be a 2-hour special. Yay! From the preview Jack’s dingbat daughter Kim will finally make her appearance and she will find out about his dad being alive. I’m not sure if I’m mistaken, but I think I saw CTU being attacked. Gosh, I can’t wait until next week!

~ by haydeé on February 28, 2006.