24, Season 7: 6-8 AM

And here we are, with the final installment of 24 for the season. Unlike previous seasons, this one didn't end neatly; it left some things hanging for next season. Will Renee torture Wilson? Will Jack be cured of his disease? Will we end up with yet another President? 24 goes through them like Nancy Pelosi goes through lies about the CIA.

-Here's a lesson for Tony:



I can't believe that happened to him. That's so cliche. Remember when The Incredibles mocked monologuing?

-Kim was pretty impressive tonight. When she went off chasing the long-haired bad guy, I thought that was dumb, but it worked well. She even got to whip out the computer skills. I thought it was great when she yelled "Dammit!" when her cell phone died. Like father, like daughter.

-In the aforementioned chase scene, I think we saw the first competent generic law enforcement officer of the season. Usually, bit-player LEOs are only there to get shot, but this one actually stopped the fleeing long-haired guy with a few well-placed bullets.

-I determined that Tony pulled a quintuple cross this season. Before this season, he was good, then dead, but then he went to alive and bad, good, then bad, then kinda good at the end.

-If I remembered the other seasons of 24 well enough, I'd try to rank this one overall. I don't, though, so I'll merely say that it probably belongs in the bottom half.

Thanks, all, for bearing with me through this season. Thanks also to M and A for being my 24 buddies. See you next season.

24, Season 7: 5-6 AM

As we all suspected would happen, Kim is now in danger. It often happens in the show that evil henchmen use the relatives of government agents as leverage. I recall a few seasons ago when Tony was running a perimeter, and the bad guys captured his woman, Michelle. He allowed the target to escape in order to save Michelle's eyeball from being removed.

Now, though, Jack is the one who will have to decide how to handle this situation. I would have assumed that he would refuse to give in, but the previews make it clear that he will capitulate. Jack's been more in touch with his feelings this season, though. In the early seasons, he might have acted differently.

Now that the canister has been neutralized, it seems all that's left in the remaining two hours is to fold up the evil conspiracy. I suspect another surprise bad guy (maybe a turncoat) will be revealed to be in the group of democratically elected, voice-obscured henchmen.

It will also be interesting to see how the Jack-Renee relationship ends up. All this and more next week for the two-hour finale.

24, Season 7: 4-5 AM

We're getting down to the end here, with three hours left. Which will happen first: the bioweapon will be released, the bioweapon will be obtained by the authorities, or Jack will die from his bio-illness?

-The bogeyman of racial profiling was raised in this episode, with Janice asserting her new role as the FBI's ACLU liaison and protesting the move. Jack responded that the search they were doing (for local Muslims) was based on a tip. This is similar to the Oneonta case decided by the 2nd Circuit Court in 2001; it basically said that profiling is allowable when based on a tip. In that case, an elderly woman said a black man was her attacker, so that's who the police looked for. Makes sense to me.

-I thought that our framed terrorist-to-be (FTTB - I don't recall his name) made a bad move when the cops knocked on the door. Tony told him to make them go away, and FTTB did so by saying the noise that was reported was just friends having an argument. I think he could have easily gotten away with pointing at Tony through the door and mouthing "In here." But he was meek, unlike his brother, who later had the werewithal in a moment of chaos to smash a mirror and use a shard of glass as a weapon. Maybe the brother spent some time in an Afghani training camp?

-On the way to the FTTB's apartment, the imam told Jack "it's never too late to turn to God." Is Jack going to become Muslim?!

-To Hodges: when you go into witness protection, you have to get rid of everything. You kept that picture of your family, and look what happened.

24, Season 7: 3-4 AM

This is a little late. Sorry.

-Sprint offers its customers a chance to view "extended sneak previews" of the upcoming 24 episode. I am a Sprint customer, although I have no fancy features that would allow me to see the previews. But even if I could, I wouldn't, because the regular previews we all see at the end of each episode already give away too much. And I'm not that impatient; I can wait a week.

-In the hotel room, we had a showdown between Tony and his fellow bad guy, the one who smuggled the canister out of the perimeter. The guy, who was previously a highly-trained killing machine, turned into an incompetent law enforcement officer during their fight. How did he get beat and killed by a guy he had a gun trained on, one who was weak because he recently shot himself in the gut?

-There's a mysterious group that is organizing this whole thing. They talk to each other via teleconference with their voices scrambled for anonymity. We are led to believe they are all executives of private defense contractors. They also use parliamentary procedure and have votes. It's good to see that they value democracy, even as they plot attacks on the US.

-It looks like we'll soon figure out the deal with Janice. She's been asserting herself lately, questioning behavior she sees as illegal, but she's stayed loyal. So far.

-The phrase "enemy combatant" was thrown out twice this week, referring to Hodges and Tony. In both cases, people were suggesting that the bad guys be designated as such. Is this merely an attempt to link the show to real events, or is it a preview of upcoming events? Will Jack get to go to Gitmo and do some waterboarding?

24, Season 7: 2-3 AM

Well, that was a pretty bleak episode, which I will now spoil.

At the end of the show, we thought that Angelina Jolie's dad, the evil CEO, was dying, which would be bad only because he might have some useful information about continuing threats. Jack was also in bad shape, because Tony stole his anti-seizure medication. In addition, Larry is dead and the bad guy got through the perimeter (not a big surprise, though, because 24 perimeters always fail).

The preview for next week, however, indicates that the CEO (Hodges) survived the suicide pill, and that Jack will stop seizing. He will also get a chance to interrogate Hodges. Fun! I probably shouldn't watch previews, though. They give away a lot. It's like when I first started watching this series, on DVD. I had to avoid reading the backs of the boxes, because they reveal too much.

We also learned this week that Jack is a grandpa. He suddenly seems much less formidable and lethal. Grandpas aren't tough. Of course, the seizures don't help the toughness either.

We also heard Agent Walker request that someone notify Moss' ex-wife about his death, but that she shouldn't be the one to do it. Apparently Walker is a homewrecker.

24, Season 7: 1-2 AM

As always, I'll give away plot developments in this post.

Wow, so that was quite the show, what with a certain character being killed by another certain character who has now gone from bad to good to bad this season. But is Tony working with the Starkwood people, or is something else going on? I guess Hodges said he was just a small part of the whole plot during his arrest. And he'll be on next week's show, so the Starkwood angle is probably not played out.

-In the previews last week for this episode, they really made it look like a missile was going to launch, based on the satellite video, but that image, we found out, was just the fuel exploding. I think that was a well-played use of the previews to sow seeds of confusion.

-Kim's return to the show was short-lived (and very soap-operaesque, with all the crying). I think Jack will end up getting the stem cell treatment, though. He'll probably make it through the season, then at the end he'll be shown going to the hospital. Plus, they can't bring her back only to use her for 5 minutes. I suspect she'll be involved in danger soon. Tony was especially interested to hear her name come up when it did. I sense a little foreshadowing there.

-Fox's environmental and global-warming PSAs are bad overall, but the one with Chloe was the worst one ever.

-For the 3rd time this season, I was wondering, after the missiles were destroyed, what they were going to do for the X hours left in the season. Everything looked all wrapped up. But the question was quickly answered this week.

24, Season 7: 12-1 AM

Hey, sports fans. It looks like the stage has been set for Jack's daughter, Kim, to return. Apparently, some kind of stem-cell treatment can be used to cure weaponized mad cow. But the stem cells must come from a relative. So they must be using adult, rather than embryonic, stem cells. Yay, no ethical dilemma! This all sounds like a stretch to me, but I'll be happy to see Kim back. Is she still with the agent who's arm Jack hacked off? Or is she living in the woods near LA with that creepy dude? We'll find out, although it will be a few hours, since Jack doesn't want to call her. Walker will change his mind.

-I do hope that Hodges, head of Starkwood, gets the Jack Bauer treatment at some point this season.

-It's not clear to me why the prez had to call off the air strike. Were the supposedly armed missiles far enough away from the bombing target to survive the air strike? Or was Hodges just bluffing?

-Next week we are told that we will have "the episode that will stop the clock." What does that mean?

24, Season 7: 11-12 PM

-Having previously been exposed to the biological weapon, Jack has to strip and get hosed down, surely causing the lady viewers to swoon, despite Jack's torture scars. I must ridicule Jack for his choice in underwear, though; the white boxers don't look good. Also, the director of this episode used the Austin Powers trick (link not really for the kids) to prevent us from seeing Jack naked.

-Apparently the bioweapon is mad cow disease. They must have vaporized some bad beef to weaponize it.

-And Jack is infected, but not contagious, so he can still interact with people. Next week, the symptoms will hit, according to the previews.

-Someone at the Cabinet meeting (the AG, I assume) said the army can't participate in a raid on Starkwood (the fake version of Blackwater that is one of this season's villains) because of Posse Comitatus, since the action would take place on US soil. However, I believe that is incorrect. 10 USC Chapter 18 Section 382:

The Secretary of Defense, upon the request of the Attorney General, may provide assistance in support of Department of Justice activities relating to the enforcement of section 175 or 2332c ^[1] of title 18 during an emergency situation involving a biological or chemical weapon of mass destruction. Department of Defense resources, including personnel of the Department of Defense, may be used to provide such assistance if— (1) the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General jointly determine that an emergency situation exists...

If "the action is considered necessary for the immediate protection of human life, and civilian law enforcement officials are not capable of taking the action," then the military can participate in arrest, search, and seizure. So send in the Seals.

-As the raid on Starkwood was about to commence, I thought, "There are still 8 hours of show left. What are they gonna do?" The crisis looked to be ending, just as previously happened at around 2 or 3 pm in 24 time. But after the (failed) raid, we can see that there is much more action left to take place.

24, Season 7: 10-11 PM

-In this episode, we meet a Port Authority cop who decided to help some bad guys "smuggle electronics" to help pay for the infertility treatments him and his wife used to conceive twins. Clearly, he's a sucker that will sadly soon be killed. As is typical, Jack involves him in his plan, making him act as if nothing is wrong by meeting with the henchmen, but the guy can't keep a straight face. They can tell he's nervous. A few minutes later, a bad guy takes the cop away to "pay him" - i.e. shoot him. Jack, however, instead of writing the cop off as expendable, goes over and saves his life, despite Tony's pleas that it will risk their primary mission, which is tracking the bioweapon. Jack is becoming more human every hour. But maybe it's like Dr. House when he's on methadone - his compassion clouds his judgement.

-Jack was able to commandeer another vehicle tonight - a semi. Of course he knows how to drive it.

-Ethan to Olivia: "Running the country is not like running a campaign." If this episode hadn't been written a long time ago, I'd think that was a subtle dig at Obama. In any event, it's advice he should consider.

-Isn't it obvious that to people in the White House that Olivia is the press leaker? I mean, who else could it be that knows all this information? Maybe they'll figure it out next week.

-I thought Ethan and the President might make out when he was resigning, but then I figured the producers would not subject the viewing audience to that spectacle.

24, Season 7: 9-10 PM

Jack is now in the familiar situation of trying to catch the bad guys while evading capture by the feds. He was also being pursued by the evil assassin, and they had a great fight, highlighted by Jack flipping over the trailer the bad guy was in with a bulldozer. That didn't give Jack much of an edge, but it was impressive.

The dad from That 70's Show has played the part of the annoying senator this season. Just as he was about to team up with Jack and be a pseudo-protagonist, he died.

Chloe's husband, also a computer whiz, was convinced by the feds to help find Jack in exchange for any obstruction charges against Chloe being dropped. However, he only got an oral agreement. I wouldn't accept that at all. And he said to Janice, "You're a witness!" I'm sure she wouldn't lie about that when the time comes. Got to get it in writing.

Jack has been in a game of Grand Theft Auto this season, with his frequent car theft. He has to have commandeered at least 5 vehicles already. Let's see if I can list them:

• Bulldozer.
• White van (which he started by sticking his knife in the ignition).
• Classic car with Macbook on seat.
  
• Cadillac, after killing the guy whose family was being held hostage by Walker.
• That car he drove off the second floor of the parking ramp early in the season.

Am I missing any?

24, Season 7: 6-8 PM

We had two hours of 24 last night, and things are getting tense. The evening culminated in a rather improbable surreptitious invasion of the White House by a suddenly competent African army. Although the President made it safely into the lockdown room, she ordered Jack Bauer to open the door when the bad guys captured and threatened her daughter. Jack should have given her that sleeperhold move to knock her out and keep her safe in the room, but he's always one to obey the President.

Towards the beginning of the show, the evil colonel, Dubaku, was in the hospital. I'm not sure what usefulness he retains for the government, but he was supposed to be under guard. But he was out what looked like the main hallway of the hospital, and his guards weren't too attentive, so he was killed by an "orderly" with some sort of lethal injection. I think the "orderly" is the same guy who was also working as a White House custodian later on. Wow, even bad guys need two jobs in this economy.

After Jack's torture session with the chief of staff of that Senator was interrupted, the President threatened him with a treason charge. Rather than simply defying her, the CoS should have said, "Do you have two witnesses? I don't think so." After all, that's what the Constitution requires for a treason conviction (barring a confession). Many people don't realize that.

As for the Vice President that we just met, is he merely weak, as evidenced by his failure to order a White House rescue mission, or is he a bad guy? I say weak.

24, Season 7: 5-6 PM

This week, 24 pulled the "oh, the threat is over, even though there are 14 hours left in the show" ploy. But after a few minutes, they revealed the next threat - another Sangalese terror attack, this time by the main general. How the heck to these African rebels keep getting past immigration?

-If I was a government employee involved in an evil conspiracy, I wouldn't talk about it while walking around the office with a co-conspirator. I wouldn't even talk about it in the women's bathroom.

-Did Marika really believe Dubaku when he said, "I'm not really bad! Those evil peace-haters in Sangala are framing me!"? Either way, she made up for her past stupidity by causing that car crash.

-I loved the look on Moss' face when Sean asked for a lawyer at his arrest. Too bad Sean has no useful information, because Moss looked quite ready to bend all those rules he loves and knock Sean around in the interrogation room.

-Does every family in 24 have estranged members? It seems that way. Even the President has an estranged daughter. Jack's daughter is on-again, off-again estranged. Right now, it looks like it's on again. I thought she'd be appearing this season.

-Buchanan asked the President to ask that Senator from the hearing to leave Jack alone. Personally, I want Jack to go back to the Senate and berate the Senator some more. I loved that part during the first hour.

-Two hour episode next week!

24, Season 7: 4-5 PM

Not a whole lot to say this week. Some groundwork was laid for future episodes, and a couple of old friends were brought back, but not a whole lot of action.

-How exactly did our newly-uncovered mole, Shawn, figure out what was going on with the track-down-Dubaku operation before he tried to ruin it? Did he say something about tapping in to Moss' phone line? Questionable. And why did he have to get his wife's plane on the ground so urgently back at the beginning of the season, if he was in on this all along? Couldn't he have kept his wife off flights that day, or said "Dubaku, make sure not to crash Flight 226 today?"

-Sending some civilian in on a dangerous trip, like they did tonight when they let Dubaku's girlfriend go meet with him, is common on 24. They already did it this season with the PM. They always hook up some tracking device. If I'm not mistaken, this type of stunt fails about half the time.

-I think Dubaku is screwed now. Almost all of his henchmen, who really ran the show, are dead, and everyone else in the conspiracy outranks him. Sure, he has leverage, but he'll screw up somehow. He is dumb and impetuous. He'll die within 2.5 hours.

-If someone says to you "Help me break the rules or I'll tell the boss about your affair," like Janice did to Shawn, can't you just say, "Well then I'll tell the boss you threatened to blackmail me?" That's what I'd do.

-Good to have Chloe back to bluntly telling people what she thinks of them again.

24, Season 7: 3-4 PM

In general, people seem to be not too happy with this season (e.g. the folks at The 24 Blog). This article states that 24 has "jumped the shark." I think that phrase has "jumped the shark." It's not really appropriate here, either, because JTS involves a one-time, stupid event. 24 detractors instead believe it has slowly declined over the past 3 or so seasons.

I will concede that one can only go so far with the 24 premise, and it may have played itself out. However, I am still enjoying it. I'm not one to critically compare this season to previous ones, or demand Shakespearean dialogue, or anything like that.

Anyway, on to my comments.

I find it funny how the show is slowly dribbling out little hints about the mutual past of Agents Moss and Walker. Last week Moss made some statement about having a long history with her or something, and this week she said she "knows Moss very well." I want to know what the deal is here.

I also found it funny when she called him and said, "Don't tell anyone I'm alive." He then proceeded to say "Renee" several times while standing in a somewhat busy hallway. Way to be discreet, there.

It just struck me today that the Sangala PM might be a bad guy. I'm not sure where this badness would manifest itself. Maybe he'll just become a dictator when he returns to power, making everything a waste of time. I'm just not sure of him.

Janice to Sean, to paraphrase: "Stop the affair or you'll get sent off to Juneau." What's wrong with Juneau?

Ooh, the bad guy has an 11-month old. I thought there might be some baby torture. That would have been a new 24 occurrence. But I doubt even this show would go there. Instead, Walker just pretended, with her back to the camera.

Because Obama's press conference lasted until about 9:01, my VCR stopped taping (if you have no idea what that means, go here) before the previews for the next episode, so I don't know what will happen next week. Maybe that's a good thing, though.

24, Season 7: 2-3 PM

This week was the big hack-in into the chemical plant in some Ohio town. The chemical at this plant, methyl isocyanate, was the culprit in the 1984 Bhopal, India disaster that killed 15,000 or so people. So it is nasty stuff. I liked how, when our famously detail-oriented President heard that this town was targeted, she knew off the top of her head that there were 30,000 people there. But then I realized that Ohio is a swing state, so it's quite possible that a presidential candidate would know such information. But the real Kidron is much smaller than that.

Last week, I wondered what would happen if the firewall hacking threat was eliminated so early in the show, and it in fact was, because the CIP chip was destroyed. But that storyline was played out. However, the idiot bad guy Dubaku has new leverage - the First Man is in his custody. If that's all he's got, though, the President has to do the right thing and sacrifice her hubby for the good of the country. But will she? People on 24 tend to choose love over rationality. But maybe the First Couple has a sham political marriage, so that won't be an issue.

At the end, after Dubaku escaped from his evil lair and rode the train around town for awhile, we found out that he has a bachelor pad in DC, and a girlfriend to go with it. How much time does this guy spend in the US? I thought he was an African rebel? And doesn't his girlfriend read the Economist? If she did, she'd know that Sangala is at a crossroads, and she'd probably see a photo of her bad-guy boyfriend in his camouflage guerilla duds. But apparently she's oblivious. She'll be dead within 3 hours.

24, Season 7: 1-2 PM

Ah, here we go once again with my random reactions. First, how did Bill and Chloe find the buried-alive Agent Walker? Is Jack still wearing that comm unit, allowing them to overhear him?

You know, this African bad guy, Dubaku, is a moron. "Kill our best operative, I want to keep the diamonds." "The President hasn't responded to my demands in the last 20 minutes, let's launch more attacks." And stupidest of all, he's physically in the US. Couldn't he run this whole thing from a satellite phone on his yacht or something? Good thing he has a lot of operatives who are smarter than him, yet evil and greedy.

Madam President: "I want to speak personally to all first responders." Sure, I'll set up a conference call. This continues the president as micro-manager theme we've seen this season.

When the bad guys start talking to the pilots over the radio, don't the pilots notice that the air traffic controllers all of a sudden have different voices? Unless the bad guys wait until the precise moment the pilots switch between zones or something, but I don't see that happening.

Chloe: "I'm a stay-at-home mom." So we know that her pregnancy went well, but we still haven't seen the kid. Is it at grandma's right now?

You know, the previews at the end of the show sure give away a lot (as do the backs of the DVD cases, for that matter). We know that Dubaku will be located next week. Does that mean the threat will be over, and the rest of the season will be devoted to uncovering the government conspiracy? It would be like last year, when the nukes were neutralized after 17 hours, leaving 7 hours to do other things. But there are still 18 hours left this season, so I suspect someone will get away with the hacking device, and the team will have to chase them around. Or maybe we'll get to go back to Africa and catch up with sniveling UN guy and weaselly diplomat with sideburns. Or maybe the President will coercively interrogate her Cabinet members, like President Palmer did back in the 1st season.

See you next week.

24, Season 7: 12-1 PM

Spoiiiiiiiiilers.

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.

24, Season 7: 10 AM - 12 PM

Beware of spoilers.

I think Janeane Garofalo has been appointed the official poster child for the weak, by-the-book tactics of our fictional FBI. This would be appropriate, given her way liberal outlook on life. First, after putting a couple of those vital-sign readers on Tony's chest in the interrogation room, she asked him, "Is this comfortable for you?". I'm sure terrorist suspects get asked that a lot. Later, in the hospital with another suspect, she complained that Agent Walker was "breaking like 50 laws" by being in the room. Rather than explore harsh interrogation in a nuanced manner, 24 so far is setting up a dichotomy between those who are protecting the country and those who are ninnies. But Agent Walker is coming over to Jack's side, with her pinch-the-breathing-tube bit. Looks like those 2.5 hours with Jack made an impression on her.

It is interesting to wonder why someone like Garofalo would come to this show, which is seen as a rather right-leaning operation. Could unemployment have been her reason?

I was reminded of another 24 truism today: never go to the server room alone. Bad stuff always happens down there. In fact, stay out of basements in general. However, Sean left Garofalo's character, Janis, unharmed. This time.

We had a good little cyber-duel between Janis and our old friend Chloe. Chloe was hacking into the FBI, Janis was trying to keep her out. Janis won round one, but Chloe came back strong in round two. It seemed to me that Janis was acting a lot like Chloe, but maybe all female IT people are socially awkward in 24 and/or in real life. Also, wasn't Chloe pregnant at the end of last season? Where are we on that?

Is that Keifer Sutherland doing the narration on the Bank of America ad? I think it is.

The show is hinting that the President's Chief of Staff, Ethan, is in on the evil conspiracy. This show seems to try to fake us out a lot, though, into thinking good guys are bad. I think that's what's going on here. He's not evil, just weak on foreign policy.

Finally, I get a bad feeling about this Tony-Bill-Chloe operation. It just seems kind of fishy. I also think it was dumb to try to turn Jack into a fake terrorist. He is too well-known to pull this off. Doesn't Dubaku know that Jack was one of the guys that killed his brother in Redemption? I guess we'll find out next week when they meet face-to-face, assuming Jack and Tony successfully capture the Sangalan PM. I think that's a pretty safe assumption.

If you are hungry for even more 24 commentary, check out The (Unofficial) 24 Blog.

24, Season 7: 8-10 AM

Warning: There are probably spoilers in here.

As was indicated in the previews, Jack Bauer begins the show testifying before Congress about "human rights abuses at CTU." He is in no way contrite. He treats the committee chairman with the same contempt I'm sure many real-life witnesses would like to do, and I wish some of them would. Jack says that in torturing some dude to prevent a bus with 45 passengers from being blown up, he completed his mission by adapting to an enemy that does not care about our laws. After telling the chairman not to give him that smug look, he was then pulled from the meeting by an FBI agent to help them with a situation.

The problem in question to start the season is cyber-related. Some people, including Tony Almeida, are able to obtain a device that can penetrate a government firewall that protects infrastructure such as energy, utilities, and transportation. Now, in real life, the federal government does not have control over all of this stuff, so it wouldn't be behind one firewall. But I'll let that slide. The terrorists are able to create a near-plane crash to demonstrate what they can do. They then turn their device over to a man we met in Redemption, a leader of the military coup in a fictional African country that the President prepares to send troops to as the episode unfolds.

Now that he's with the FBI, we start to have conflict between Jack's extra-legal methods and the Bureau's by-the-book procedures. But his new partner, Agent Walker, uses the fact that a certain suspect knows about Jack's methods to threaten him, while letting Jack know he won't be allowed to hurt anyone. With the suspect, Jack ultimately grabs a pen and goes for the perp's eyeball when he won't talk to them, and the bad guy immediately opens up. The conflict between Jack and the FBI clearly will continue. But as we can see, Jack has not changed his ways.

However, later on in the show, he opines to an FBI agent that his methods need to come out publicly. He states that people need to know about what he has done and the results he realized, in order to decide what is appropriate. This is the argument made by one of my professors, Jim Olson, in his book Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying. In this book, he describes actual operations and explores the moral questions that arise (e.g. should we get a hooker for one of our Russian spies?).

One recurring theme I mentioned in my preview post was inappropriate romance. Indeed, it seems like Agent Walker's boss displays extra-professional concern for her throughout the evening, although nothing overt occurs. We'd better watch those two.

A recurring theme I neglected to mention was the presence of moles inside the government. Sure enough, we met an FBI agent who was working with the terrorists, and helped one escape.

Interestingly, at this point we know who the main antagonists are, but we don't know what exactly the threat is; what they'll do with their new toy. But I'm sure we'll find out soon.

We may also find out why Tony did what he did, since he has been captured and may get some of the old Jack Bauer treatment. Did he want revenge for his wife's death? And will Jack be allowed to, and emotionally able to, inflict pain on his old friend?

Finally, I think we'll get to see tomorrow the much-hyped scene where Jack drives a car off an upper floor of a parking ramp while telling himself, "This is going to hurt." I bet it will.

New Feature: 24 Blogging

With less than two hours to go before the premiere of Season 7 of 24, I am going to debut a new feature here on the blog. I will provide a reaction to each episode the day after it airs; look for it every Tuesday (unless I quit doing it). As usual, the season begins with 2 episodes today and 2 more tomorrow. This week, I will respond with one post for each night of episodes. There will surely be spoilers all season, so be warned.

This will the the first season of 24 I have watched as it aired. I joined the craze late, and have watched all previous seasons on DVD. I will also have MacKenzie watching with me (awww!).

We know going into the new season that:

• The creator of 24, Joel Surnow, is no longer involved in the show.
  
• CTU, the agency Jack Bauer et. al worked for, has been disbanded.
• In the mini-episode that aired in November, Redemption, Jack agreed to answer a subpoena from Congress (to answer for his torturous deeds) in exchange for getting a bunch of African kids admitted to the US to keep them from being forced into war.
  
• We have a lady president now (just in time for Hillary's inauguration- oh, wait).
  
• Tony Almeida, former high-up in CTU who died in Season 5, is no longer dead, and he's a bad guy. People coming back to life, and good people turning bad, are recurring themes on 24.
  
• Jack will be working with the FBI as the season starts (part of the agency's hiring blitz?).
  

Along with the aforementioned themes, there are some other common 24 themes to look for as the new season begins:

• Dumb women. Not to be sexist or anything, but we frequently see women on the show doing dumb things, which often put them in danger.
• Inappropriate romances, especially of the supervisor/subordinate type. Recall in Season 3 that Tony gave in to terrorist demands after they captured his coworker/lover.
• Jack's emotional angst over the torture he has inflicted, the things he has seen, and the loved ones he has lost/been estranged from occasionally bubbles to the surface.

Also, it will be interesting to note the role of torture this season. As enhanced interrogation techniques have been demonized here in the real world, and 24 has been criticized for glorifying torture, we will see what role it has, and how Jack feels about it now. There is some conservative concern that the show will be soft this year. The proper portrayal of the UN official in Redemption as a spineless, morally-equivocating coward gives me hope that this will not be the case.

Should be a fun season.