The torture conversation continued this week, as people from the DOJ came in to talk to Agent Walker about her coercive treatment of the man in the hospital bed. Wow, they want to investigate one hour after the incident happened, and in the middle of a major crisis. Easy, boys. Here, boss man Agent Moss gave the standard "torture doesn't work" argument. I am highly skeptical of a blanket statement that it never works. Torture, and what constitutes it, is largely an ethical argument, but whether it works or not is an empirical question that we can explore. It may not be the best form of interrogation, and it's surely not called for in very many cases, but I could easily find examples of it working in the past.
MacKenzie argues that the scene in which the PM and his wife were gassed out of the safe room constitutes the first big stupid woman moment of this season. Knowing that maltreatment at the hands of the bad guys was waiting for them on the other side of the door, which would lead to them giving up the names of rebel associates, Mr. PM said they should stay put and die. But Mrs. PM defied him and crawled over and opened the door before she choked to death on the poison gas. I'm not so sure I'd classify this event that way, though. In her state of panic and distress, she wasn't able to thoughtfully consider her options. Plus, there's a chance the FBI could rescue them; they were on the way to the house (slowly). I won't go so far as to label her as one of 24's dumb women at this time.
We have another inappropriate romance candidate, as Shawn at the FBI, who pretended to be a senior agent to get his wife's plane to the front of the landing queue, appears to be having a fling with colleague Erica. Interoffice love is typical on the show, but the cheating angle adds a new twist. Janeane Garofalo, we learn, is on to Moss' infatuation with Walker, and Shawn is rightly worried that she'll figure him out, too. These FBI staffers are still in that murky area in which we are unsure of their loyalties.
Remember in past seasons when CTU could track moving vehicles via satellite, and could even rewind the satellite footage to see what happened previously? Why can't our fictional FBI do that to find the giant, yellow, completely inconspicuous truck that departed the State Department house with Jack, the PM, and Agent Walker on board?
At the end of the hour, Jack had to pretend to kill Agent Walker. He didn't just shoot over her shoulder, oh no. He nicked her neck in the process, to produce blood to make it look real. Only Jack can use a gun so precisely. While we were led to believe she remains alive, I am informed by Blogs 4 Bauer that this scene was accompanied by a silent clock, which is rare, and generally accompanies poignant scenes of death. Could she be dead so early in the season? With Bill, Tony, and Chloe around, she may be expendable. Personally, I think we'll still be seeing her.
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