Sometimes the fact that everything takes place in a single day really strains our acceptance. The chip has to get CTU. Jack draws the men away from the clinic while the other two try to deliver the chip. But everyone gets waylaid. The Vice President is forming a coup along with the Chief of Staff. He has called a cabinet meeting while Palmer is about to make a speech. They are going to do the 25th Amendment thing and have him removed from office as incompetent. This is a real stretch. To set this up would take some time, not a couple hours. Throw out the reality and things continue to boil. The torture of Jack continues and we are set up for a incredible last few hours.
3 Reviews
Hello, Tobin
MaxBorg891 July 2008
Day 2, hour 19: things get really ugly for Jack and President Palmer, as the imminent war with the Middle East seems increasingly less likely to avoid and the real interests behind the conflict are revealed.
Palmer-wise, the situation escalates when the President has to deal with impatient Joint Chiefs and Jim Prescott reveals his plan to Chief of Staff Mike Novick (Jude Ciccolella): to take over the Presidency through the 25th Emendment. Meanwhile, Jack has managed to retrieve a chip from Wallace's corpse and instructs Kate and Yusuf to take it back to CTU as it can prove the Cyprus recording was manufactured by the men behind the nuclear bomb. However, Kate and Yusuf are attacked by angry citizens who mistake the Arabic agent for a terrorist, while Jack himself is abducted and tortured by a group of men working for the cynical businessman Peter Kingsley (Tobin Bell).
This is one of the most violent episodes of the series, in fact it received some criticism when it originally aired, thanks to the torture scene. It is also brilliant in establishing the motive the villains have for unleashing the conflict with the Middle East: they don't care how many people will die in the process, as long as their oil stocks benefit from the war. Such a revelation is very relevant in that it reflects our time perfectly: it's all about business.
Plus, there's Tobin Bell, aka Jigsaw, Agent Dreyer from Alias and other notorious bad guys, most of them of the small-screen type (see Seinfeld too, for example). Introduced quite late in the game, as befits a criminal mastermind, he uses his one-minute appearance to instill an immediate sense of menace that doesn't lift after-wards. Now, who said the villains on 24 are rubbish?
Palmer-wise, the situation escalates when the President has to deal with impatient Joint Chiefs and Jim Prescott reveals his plan to Chief of Staff Mike Novick (Jude Ciccolella): to take over the Presidency through the 25th Emendment. Meanwhile, Jack has managed to retrieve a chip from Wallace's corpse and instructs Kate and Yusuf to take it back to CTU as it can prove the Cyprus recording was manufactured by the men behind the nuclear bomb. However, Kate and Yusuf are attacked by angry citizens who mistake the Arabic agent for a terrorist, while Jack himself is abducted and tortured by a group of men working for the cynical businessman Peter Kingsley (Tobin Bell).
This is one of the most violent episodes of the series, in fact it received some criticism when it originally aired, thanks to the torture scene. It is also brilliant in establishing the motive the villains have for unleashing the conflict with the Middle East: they don't care how many people will die in the process, as long as their oil stocks benefit from the war. Such a revelation is very relevant in that it reflects our time perfectly: it's all about business.
Plus, there's Tobin Bell, aka Jigsaw, Agent Dreyer from Alias and other notorious bad guys, most of them of the small-screen type (see Seinfeld too, for example). Introduced quite late in the game, as befits a criminal mastermind, he uses his one-minute appearance to instill an immediate sense of menace that doesn't lift after-wards. Now, who said the villains on 24 are rubbish?
No shortage of nerve on this writing staff
Mr-Fusion21 April 2017
Warning: Spoilers
This one's always been one of my favorites because,m well, it gets ugly. The writers had really been leaning into the use of torture this season, so (in hind sight) it actually makes sense that Jack would eventually find himself under the hot lights. And they absolutely go for broke here with the horror movie stylings. It's a uniformly anxious episode; Palmer's put in an impossible situation, the Cyprus audio is an omnipresent source of tension, and the misfortunes that befall certain characters tend toward the gruesome. What makes this a favorite is the all-too-sudden cliffhanger. It's just cold.
*SPOILERS*
Maybe it's because this seems like the chewy center of a sadistic season. So much has happened, and it comes so soon after George is killed off, the bomb's been (dramatically) taken care of, there's that whole mess with Nina, and Yusuf is mortally beaten by rednecks while Jack's being tortured to death. The punishment knows no end. And then, to stop short while your hero is lying there dead on the table just takes the wind out of you. I still remember that feeling when this first aired. It was nuts.
10/10
*SPOILERS*
Maybe it's because this seems like the chewy center of a sadistic season. So much has happened, and it comes so soon after George is killed off, the bomb's been (dramatically) taken care of, there's that whole mess with Nina, and Yusuf is mortally beaten by rednecks while Jack's being tortured to death. The punishment knows no end. And then, to stop short while your hero is lying there dead on the table just takes the wind out of you. I still remember that feeling when this first aired. It was nuts.
10/10
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