This has been a season of ethical and moral questioning. We have covered a lot of politically correct ground and, I think, are all have learned important lessons along the way. Do I think 24 has made me a better person? Of course. Was it hard to keep a straight face while writing those sentences? Without a doubt.
Tony and his henchmen/woman are still trying to frame Jibraan for a terrorist attack. Jonas Hodges is dead. Olivia Taylor may be responsible. Jack still has the boogey-woogey flu. And Kim Bauer is still hanging around.
Tony and his group have some secret room where they are retro-fitting the device. The secret (yet really un-intriguing) super group is still on board with the plot. They are going to mess up Washington Square center with some bio-warfare.
Kim Bauer still hanging around.
Olivia Taylor is probably my second least favorite character in the history of 24 with only ex-President Logan behind her. She is on the run because of her supposed connection with Jonas Hodges’ death. The First Daughter has made just about every wrong decision starting with leaving the hotel lobby with Agent Pierce early in the season and ending with her transferring the blood money to the Hodges’ killer.
Kim Bauer still hanging around.
The FBI gets a location on Tony. Jack rams Tony’s van and for the first time in the history of 24 the strike team isn’t 20 minutes out. They apprehend him leading to an emotional scene with Jack wondering why Tony betrayed him. They are men who have lost a great deal and have dealt with that in decidedly different ways. Both want to inflict pain in the name of justice but their ideals are divergent to the nth degree. Jack contacts Jibraan and together they disable the bomb in the nick of time.
Oh, and have I mentioned Kim Bauer is still hanging around? Her flight is delayed and she's feeling a bit paranoid because she’s spotted a tail. (The tail is there from Jack). Kim makes nice with a kindly young couple. While off getting coffee the husband makes a stop off at the restroom to strangle and kill the FBI agent attached to Kim. Now we know how the super group is going to leverage Tony’s freedom. (By forcing us through two hours of Kim-related plot lines)
One of the most hilarious/disturbing trends in the history of 24 has been the producers’ obvious hesitance in making people of Arab descent the terrorists, but yet still going back to the idea in weird and odd ways. For instance, this season they focused on a group of African military commandos at the beginning, moved into a group of Blackwater-esque ex US para-military guys and then into a super secret group of politically powered rabble-rousers. And while they avoided making the actual terrorists Arabian, they didn’t avoid at least making the implication. By making Jibraan a framed man instead of the actual terrorist they almost seemed to apologize for all the racial profiling that has carried the series. The apology falls massively flat though, because even when Jibraan saves the day, the last image the public (from the train station sees) is an Arab man running through the train station with the bomb. Sigh. We still have so far to go.
Next week’s two hour finale wraps up, what has largely been, an entertaining season. The race to save Kim Bauer is on, and then it is off to New York for another day.
