If it's spring on FOX, that can only mean one thing: '24' is back. Since it's sweeps month, that means that we '24' fans get two straight hours on one night. It's almost too much to handle. Last night's double episode featured everyone's favorite CTU agent, Jack Bauer, kicking ass and taking names (I know, you're shocked). Of course, the multiple subplots featured lots of politcal wheeling and dealing as well.
I remember reading a while back that when the producers behind '24' knew that certain episodes would be shown as two-hour episodes, they tried to make some kind of story out of it, so it seemed kind of self-contained. I don't know if this particular two hours (between 1 P.M and 3 P.M.) did that completely, but the first hour seemed pretty much dedicated to seeing Jack save snarky CTU engineer Morris O'Brian from the clutches of this year's head bad guy, Abu Fayed.
Although Jack, of course, did save Morris, it wasn't before the CTU worker got the crap beaten out of him. From getting water torture to a drill in his shoulder, Morris got one heck of a beating, and then was forced to arm one of the four suitcase bombs that Fayed was hoping to detonate across the country. Luckily, Jack saved that, as well, by disarming that bomb just in time. I was glad that Morris' on-again, off-again lover Chloe yelled at him to stop feeling sorry for himself for having helped the terrorists, and got him to do his job. The martyr act (though well-deserved) only works for a certain amount of time.
We also learned, in the second hour, that Jack's evil father, Philip, can guilt-trip like no one else, making his only son believe that it was really his fault that Graem, Jack's brother, died. Of course, we know that Philip is the real culprit there. Seems, though, that by kidnapping Graem's son, Josh, and forcing Graem's wife, Marilyn, to lead Jack astray, things will be unraveling very soon for Philp, and Jack will find out what's really going on. Frankly, I'm glad. I mean, I was surprised when we found out that Jack's dad was bad, but keeping it from him for too long would be just a little implausible (even though lots of things on this show are implausible).
What's probably going to help the unraveling is the fact that Jack now knows that Marilyn led him astray, to a fake house where he thought that a Russian arms dealer, Grudenko, was staying. Grudenko obviously has ties to Philip and the terrorists, but we only saw him for a few seconds last night. Jack didn't get anywhere, as the fake house was a literal ticking time bomb. Maybe next week, he'll face off with this Russian baddie.
Also, I just wanted to say I'm so glad that we got rid of Darren McCarthy and his whiny girlfriend last night. Both got killed, and the show's better without them. When I first saw McCarthy, I was sad, because British comedian Eddie Izzard was originally going to play the role, but soon quit. Now, I'm glad he's gone, because the character was one-note (yes, he wanted his money, we get it!), as was the woman he dragged along. Yikes.
Finally, in Washington, all we saw in the two hours is that President Palmer wants Assad (from the first few hours of this season) to go on national television and call for peace, and that his advisors hate the plan. In fact, they hate it so much that they're going to try and remove the president very soon, so the veep can take charge. It took the weaselly Reed a bit of time to sway the equally weaselly Tom, but now, all the big players are on board, and we should see some major fireworks soon. Wouldn't it be nice, though, if next season, the president was good and his advisors didn't want to overthrow him?
[[ next thanks the spoiler-heavy going to find out what role is. know about much but read in various like tv that ex-president logan is coming wait for that. see all you jack fans next monday ]]
