'Dancing With The Stars' Season 14 Dream Casting
What To Watch On TV This Week
24: 9:00pm -- 10:00pm
*Warning, spoilers for the latest 24 episode ahead*
(S06E16) Okay. This episode was a bit better than hour 15. Not substantially better, but somewhat better. Although I must say, about halfway through this episode, I was complaining bitterly that Jack Bauer seemed like, as some critics have complained, a guest star on his own show. He barely appeared in the first 30 minutes to do anything more than chat on his cell phone.
The episode's conclusion -- not including the bit with the renegade former Russian general Gredenko, who had given the suitcase nukes to the "bad" terrorist Abu Fayed -- did wake me from my bored stupor. Sick of seeing new story lines or potential conflicts abruptly introduced and then, just as abruptly resolved in a simplistic fashion, this unexpected turn at the end of the show was at least entertaining.
Let me make sure I've got this right: Wayne Palmer was roused from his medically-induced coma after an assassination attempt. He hobbled out of the presidential bunker's sick bay in a suit, with a nice injection of adrenaline to give him some kick. He argued with his power-mad vice president who wanted Palmer declared incompetent, beat back a potential Supreme Court challenge (thanks to the quick thinking of his chief of staff), and then went back into the situation room and ordered a nuclear strike on the Country Whose Name We Shall Not Mention? Wait a second, he ordered the nuclear strike to go forward, the one he called off an hour ago that had the vice president salivating with excitement? I must agree with Tom Lennox who said, "This makes no sense sir." Palmer, who was noticeably wincing with his eyelids at half-mast, said he didn't want to seem weak any more, so he decided to attack a nation that was not behind the terror attacks that had been plaguing the United States for weeks before this current day, nor was it behind the nuclear detonation in Valencia?
Maybe it was the two shots of adrenaline Palmer forced his doctor to give him. (He got a second booster of the stuff before going to the situation room.) As much as it pains me to suggest, maybe Vice President Noah Daniels was right, not about launching the attack, but about the fact that Palmer II's mental faculties might not be altogether there, given that, well, I hate to be the fly in the ointment but . . . he was just in a COMA an hour ago! Previews for next week (*flee this post quickly if you don't want to read about previews*) show Palmer collapsing. After all this, are they just going to kill him off any way?
And while I had a *yawn* deja vu feeling while watching yet another cabinet vote on the competency of yet another Palmer president, I found the twist with Vice President Daniels' aide, Lisa Miller, to be mildly intriguing. The mom from Invasion (who sometimes acts like she's still got an alien trapped inside her) was willing to lie to the Supreme Court in order to help Daniels force Palmer out of office. When the cabinet vote on whether to send Palmer back to the medical bay turned out to be a draw, Daniels challenged National Security Advisor Karen Hayes' vote, saying she was never officially re-instated after she resigned a few hours ago. That would've nullified her vote and Daniels would've won. Miller later told Daniels that she thought his case was weak and offered to lie by saying that Daniels had asked her to tell Hayes her re-instatement had not been approved, but Palmer woke up before she had the chance to pass along that message.
This story could have been expanded upon, yet the writers, as they've been doing throughout the season, jettisoned the tale, tidily tying up the loose ends with a bow within an hour. The bow tier, in this case, was Lennox, who likely violated many federal laws when he bugged a presidential room in the bunker and then confronted Daniels with a recording of his perjury discussion with Miller. After the discussion, Daniels withdrew his challenge of Hayes' vote.
Meanwhile, 24 special guest star Jack Bauer spent most of the episode with Gredenko. Gredenko's story ended with a whimper in the waters under the Santa Monica pier after he not only escaped from Jack (Gredenko cut off the arm which had been injected with a CTU tracker and could have spawned a Fugitive-like hunt for a one-armed man), but set up Fayed in a bar by telling the patrons that Fayed was the terrorist they were looking for on TV. Putting aside the question of why people would be hanging around a bar after a nuclear bomb went off in the Los Angeles metropolitan area . . . Fayed was quickly surrounded by angry mob. As Gredenko slipped away unnoticed, Fayed shot random people only to be knocked down and set upon by the crowd. My one cheer from this episode (the first one since the Logans) was the scene when Fayed told someone in the crowd that he hoped the friend he shot would die, prompting Jack to fiercely yell, "Shut up!" as he kicked Fayed in the face.
I can only hope *crossing fingers* that next week's show is as good as the previews make it seem. I could really use a good 24 episode, because right now, aside from a few moments here and there, these episodes are starting to lose my interest. I'm hoping for more Jack, more Jack-tion, fewer simplistic resolutions and fewer meaningless plot turns. Come on 24 writers. I know you can do it. Channel the magic of season five in the writers' room. Watch some of those episodes on DVD as they were 24 at its best.
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