Season 5; Hour Twenty-Two (4:00AM - 5:00AM)
Air Date: 15 May 2006
Reviewer: J
Sometimes a show like 24 is predictable. Sometimes that’s a good thing. Such was the case in Hour Twenty-Two, which I found riveting, just like many of the hours this season. Sure, there were plenty of suspension of disbelief moments and some genuine head-scratchers (why would Bierko waste his last nerve gas canister on a sub with maybe 20-30 men aboard?), but the roller coaster keeps going and the plot keeps thickening, just like my waistline.
We kick off Hour Twenty-Two with everyone thinking things are about to explode, what with the Attorney General calling in shortly for a 4 AM conference call and the President about to go down for treason. Of course, as you’ll recall last hour, Miles the Asshole Extraordinaire is angling to bail out the Prez, and he succeeded in pulling the wool over on Chloe and using a handy, digital tape-eraser device to wreck the evidence we just spent the past five or six episodes watching Jack chase after. And just like that, Evelyn died for nothing, her daughter may have died for nothing, the bank manager died for nothing, the bank manager’s wife has spent half a dozen hours tied to a chair, the Secretary of Defense did a vehicular swan dive for nothing, Audrey was sliced and diced for nothing, a planeload of people shit their pants for nothing and that plane is now located on the 118 freeway (and is unlikely to be removed in any way other than dismantling) for nothing. The list goes on. But you know what’s cool? 24 doesn’t care and is unapologetic and for as often as there are ludicrous things we’re asked to accept, this is true-to-life: sometimes shit happens and your best chance goes out the window.
It doesn’t take long until Chloe is asked to (finally) give a practice run of the audio recording. Predictably (and wonderfully), it doesn’t work. The “oh shit” look on Chloe’s face is absolutely priceless and it takes her longer than usual to realize who did the deed, probably because she can’t believe she’s been outfoxed on the technical front.
After Jack rabbit-punches another CTU guard in the solar plexus and does his best to crush Miles’ larynx, the truth comes out that Miles has been transferred to the White House. At 4 AM? Or is this like an Aaron Pierce kind of “transfer”? When he mouths off to Karen, she smacks him across the face like a disobedient child. Which he is. Fucknut.
Greg Itzin continues his stellar acting this hour, going from suicidal and defeated last hour to an unbelievably cocky bastard this hour. He even calls Hayes at CTU to inquire about the conference call he heard about and to also cancel Jack’s detention. He claims the “evidence” he had is now “inconclusive.” Even though there’s nothing she can do about it, I wish Hayes had said something like, “Oh, you mean the evidence that you felt was strong enough to blow him out of the sky about an hour ago?” But she doesn’t.
Just then, they learn that Bierko has escaped. Fortunately, one agent survived what looks like a war zone attack. How the hell did this happen, I want to know? Did they accidentally take the 118 and get pinned down? And when I say it’s fortunate one agent survived, that’s because if he didn’t we’d have no one to bring us and CTU up to speed so quickly on what the hell is going on. Surviving Agent even was able to overheard some chatter (evidently in English) and believes Bierko has yet another nerve gas canister somewhere. Uh-oh. I am sort of glad, though, that the writers remembered that the Counter Terrorist Unit needs to fight terrorism and really isn’t the entity that would be chasing recorded evidence that indicts the President. I’m not sure which department would, but it’d probably be the FBI or something. So, anyway, presto! We have some manufactured terrorism! Bierko is back… (you know the rest).
Soon thereafter we have one of the coolest scenes of the season, wherein Logan goes to see Pierce, who is tied up and has been roughed up. Logan looks like he barely has the stomach to face this but he musters up his nuts and sits across from Aaron. Logan asks if Aaron can keep this stuff quiet. Basically, he’s trying the same approach he used on his wife which, I think it’s safe to say, is unlikely to work on a man with the integrity of Aaron. Logan even promises him his choice of Secret Service details if he agrees to shut his pie-hole, remembering to add, “Except for the White House, of course.” To my chagrin, Pierce does not say, “Okay, I’ll take sniper detail,” just to see the blood drain out of Logan’s face.
Instead, Aaron tells Logan he’s a disgrace, clearly still not over the fact that he (Logan) was involved in Palmer’s death. And in perhaps the best line of the season, Aaron (who is one of the most respectful men we’ve ever seen), tosses in this barb, “Is there anything else….Charles?” I mean, if that wasn’t an “oooooooooooooooooooooo” moment, I don’t know what is. Outstanding scene by both men.
The fathead agent who Martha referred to as having no personality a little while ago is clearly in the murdering and pillaging camp with Logan as he tells Charles that Aaron is loyal to Palmer and must be done away with. Logan gives a tacit authorization without actually saying it and I know I was worried when Agent Fathead scurried back to Aaron’s holding stable. Does anyone actually ride horses around here or is this just for secret meetings and hiding places?
Back at CTU, the decision is quickly being made to cut a deal with Henderson to find Bierko. Ah, I see. So let’s take the one prisoner who we haven’t let escape (well, not since the previous evening, anyway) and set him free with immunity. That oughta work. Jack balks at this notion, too, since he wants to fry Henderson for having Palmer killed. However, he does realize they have little choice so he wants to present the deal. Of course he does. Because he’s not compromised or anything.
Henderson changes gears a bit, admitting that immunity isn’t what he had in mind since Logan will not hesitate to squash him like a bug now that the recording is gone. He offers to help but wants to disappear “like [Jack] did” with his wife. Well, Jack was pretending to work at an oil refinery about twelve seconds from CTU, so I don’t know if I’d do that, Henderson. But I catch your drift.
So thanks to Henderson’s known contacts, Chloe is able to start data mining (or something) and comes up with Victor Malina, a guy who apparently deals in information much like Collette Stenger did (is Collette still in holding somewhere with an unconscious marshal?), only Malina’s an even bigger computer nerd that Chloe. Evidently, he has a device that even Chloe doesn’t want to fuck with. I did love how everyone was all like, “Chloe’ll handle it,” and she’s all like, “Hey, just because I can literally make satellite images appear out of thin air and because I can identify whose car is whose from a satellite image doesn’t mean I can do everything.”
So, as you must have expected, Henderson and Jack are on the move to Malina’s place, with Henderson planning to go in to talk to him. Yeah, this should work out great.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (or retreat), Martha is out taking a stroll and spots Agent Fathead pulling a car into the stable. Knowing this is her favorite hiding spot and not wanting him to find her weed stash, Martha makes for the stables. She walks in on Agent Fathead and Pierce struggling. And I don’t blame Pierce for taking his chances on armed Agent Fathead – when you’re led to a trunk and told to get in and the trunk is lined with plastic…. well, that’s almost never good.
Agent Fathead isn’t sure what to do with Martha and you can see the wheels turning. Fathead isn’t a quick enough thinker to remember that everything she says can just be blamed on her wack-a-doo-ness and that she can be shipped off to Vermont at any time. Aaron knocks his gun loose and Fathead goes for the tire iron to clobber Aaron, but before he can, Martha plugs him with his own weapon. That’ll teach you to take off your vest before quittin’ time, Agent Fathead. As Martha flips out, Pierce calls out to her, “Martha.” Oh, all first-name basis-y are you now, Aaron?
In yet another building that is fortuitously less than seven minutes from CTU, Jack, Curtis and Henderson prepare for Henderson to go in to see Malina. You know, maybe if these terrorists just spread out a bit, it’d at least take CTU longer to throw a net over them. Like, maybe give L.A. a break, huh? I never thought I’d say that, but jeez. The Clippers are finally good and all these terrorists want to nuke the city.
Malina makes Henderson go through countless forms of security to get into his building and then pulls a gun on him just for good measure. Henderson immediately rats out Jack, Curtis and the “phalanx” of CTU agents outside (I loved how he said “phalanx” – Henderson is always so fed up with whomever he’s talking to, regardless of the situation; I wonder if he’s like that at Dunkin’ Donuts, too) and Malina begins to do something technical with his computer data. Jack hears this and is pissed that Henderson did exactly what he feared and sold them out. CTU crashes Malina’s surprisingly unsecured place. Malina hits Curtis with a bullet (he’s a big target, I guess that’s why he’s gotten shot no less than three times that we’ve seen between last year and this year) but doesn’t kill him. They secure the two and Henderson is all, “Way to go, Jack, I had him right where I wanted him!” Nice cover, Henderson, but Jack’s no buying. But then Henderson makes a valid point that he did it to get Malina to quickly put his info onto a flash drive so it’d be easy to rummage through. Jack doesn’t exactly concede this point but it’s hard not to at least consider it. As it stands, Chloe can at least work on Malina’s stuff, but it’s not going to be as easy as it could have been. Heh, interesting dynamic. How many times today has Henderson out-thought Jack? I count several big ones. I really like this character interaction where Henderson is always a step ahead of Jack, often beating him at his own game. It’s clearly frustrating Jack and Jack is a bit skittish and less confident than usual that he can keep someone under his thumb.
Back at the stables, there’s no clear indication that Martha and Aaron have spent any of the last eighteen minutes making out. But they haven’t gone anywhere, so maybe old Aaron got a hummer or something. Regardless, he tells Martha he’ll take care of Agent Fathead but that she has to go back in and spill her guts to Mike Novick. I’m not sure how Aaron knows he can trust Mike, except I guess that he knows how loyal Mike was to Palmer. That has to be it. But I’d definitely be a bit wary of the Chief of Staff of the guy who is behind all this.
Lo and behold, it only took Chloe about seven or eight minutes to discover that Bierko’s target is probably a Russian sub, docked at… you guessed it, Los Angeles harbor. Jack asks Henderson what it would be armed with, because I guess Henderson knows this kind of shit. This exchange looks so natural, these two look like they play Trivial Pursuit on the weekends when they’re not chasing each other around.
Bierko is indeed at the submarine and he uses his last canister of lung-destroying, brain-melting, skin-eating, seal-burning fart gases to fuck up… Americans? Russians? I can’t follow this. The man Jack was talking to on the phone was an American Navy officer. I guess maybe he was there for some legit reason because, come to think of it, we’d probably be a little antsy if armed Russian submarines were creeping up to our coastlines without an American chaperone. (“Hey, mind if I park here? I am really lost…”)
Bierko and his men then descend into the sub they just gassed. Um, okay. Would it not have been easier to save the gas and just go in and kill the men with their guns? I guess the gas approach is a lot less risky to them insofar as making the kills successfully. But then if you’re going to go into that confined space, I sure hope he has a Russian version of Chloe to reverse the airflow and clear out the gas.
What he does do with his masked men, according to the Fox Web site, is take control of the sub’s weapons system.
Ruh-ro, Shaggy.
Reviewer: J
Sometimes a show like 24 is predictable. Sometimes that’s a good thing. Such was the case in Hour Twenty-Two, which I found riveting, just like many of the hours this season. Sure, there were plenty of suspension of disbelief moments and some genuine head-scratchers (why would Bierko waste his last nerve gas canister on a sub with maybe 20-30 men aboard?), but the roller coaster keeps going and the plot keeps thickening, just like my waistline.
We kick off Hour Twenty-Two with everyone thinking things are about to explode, what with the Attorney General calling in shortly for a 4 AM conference call and the President about to go down for treason. Of course, as you’ll recall last hour, Miles the Asshole Extraordinaire is angling to bail out the Prez, and he succeeded in pulling the wool over on Chloe and using a handy, digital tape-eraser device to wreck the evidence we just spent the past five or six episodes watching Jack chase after. And just like that, Evelyn died for nothing, her daughter may have died for nothing, the bank manager died for nothing, the bank manager’s wife has spent half a dozen hours tied to a chair, the Secretary of Defense did a vehicular swan dive for nothing, Audrey was sliced and diced for nothing, a planeload of people shit their pants for nothing and that plane is now located on the 118 freeway (and is unlikely to be removed in any way other than dismantling) for nothing. The list goes on. But you know what’s cool? 24 doesn’t care and is unapologetic and for as often as there are ludicrous things we’re asked to accept, this is true-to-life: sometimes shit happens and your best chance goes out the window.
It doesn’t take long until Chloe is asked to (finally) give a practice run of the audio recording. Predictably (and wonderfully), it doesn’t work. The “oh shit” look on Chloe’s face is absolutely priceless and it takes her longer than usual to realize who did the deed, probably because she can’t believe she’s been outfoxed on the technical front.
After Jack rabbit-punches another CTU guard in the solar plexus and does his best to crush Miles’ larynx, the truth comes out that Miles has been transferred to the White House. At 4 AM? Or is this like an Aaron Pierce kind of “transfer”? When he mouths off to Karen, she smacks him across the face like a disobedient child. Which he is. Fucknut.
Greg Itzin continues his stellar acting this hour, going from suicidal and defeated last hour to an unbelievably cocky bastard this hour. He even calls Hayes at CTU to inquire about the conference call he heard about and to also cancel Jack’s detention. He claims the “evidence” he had is now “inconclusive.” Even though there’s nothing she can do about it, I wish Hayes had said something like, “Oh, you mean the evidence that you felt was strong enough to blow him out of the sky about an hour ago?” But she doesn’t.
Just then, they learn that Bierko has escaped. Fortunately, one agent survived what looks like a war zone attack. How the hell did this happen, I want to know? Did they accidentally take the 118 and get pinned down? And when I say it’s fortunate one agent survived, that’s because if he didn’t we’d have no one to bring us and CTU up to speed so quickly on what the hell is going on. Surviving Agent even was able to overheard some chatter (evidently in English) and believes Bierko has yet another nerve gas canister somewhere. Uh-oh. I am sort of glad, though, that the writers remembered that the Counter Terrorist Unit needs to fight terrorism and really isn’t the entity that would be chasing recorded evidence that indicts the President. I’m not sure which department would, but it’d probably be the FBI or something. So, anyway, presto! We have some manufactured terrorism! Bierko is back… (you know the rest).
Soon thereafter we have one of the coolest scenes of the season, wherein Logan goes to see Pierce, who is tied up and has been roughed up. Logan looks like he barely has the stomach to face this but he musters up his nuts and sits across from Aaron. Logan asks if Aaron can keep this stuff quiet. Basically, he’s trying the same approach he used on his wife which, I think it’s safe to say, is unlikely to work on a man with the integrity of Aaron. Logan even promises him his choice of Secret Service details if he agrees to shut his pie-hole, remembering to add, “Except for the White House, of course.” To my chagrin, Pierce does not say, “Okay, I’ll take sniper detail,” just to see the blood drain out of Logan’s face.
Instead, Aaron tells Logan he’s a disgrace, clearly still not over the fact that he (Logan) was involved in Palmer’s death. And in perhaps the best line of the season, Aaron (who is one of the most respectful men we’ve ever seen), tosses in this barb, “Is there anything else….Charles?” I mean, if that wasn’t an “oooooooooooooooooooooo” moment, I don’t know what is. Outstanding scene by both men.
The fathead agent who Martha referred to as having no personality a little while ago is clearly in the murdering and pillaging camp with Logan as he tells Charles that Aaron is loyal to Palmer and must be done away with. Logan gives a tacit authorization without actually saying it and I know I was worried when Agent Fathead scurried back to Aaron’s holding stable. Does anyone actually ride horses around here or is this just for secret meetings and hiding places?
Back at CTU, the decision is quickly being made to cut a deal with Henderson to find Bierko. Ah, I see. So let’s take the one prisoner who we haven’t let escape (well, not since the previous evening, anyway) and set him free with immunity. That oughta work. Jack balks at this notion, too, since he wants to fry Henderson for having Palmer killed. However, he does realize they have little choice so he wants to present the deal. Of course he does. Because he’s not compromised or anything.
Henderson changes gears a bit, admitting that immunity isn’t what he had in mind since Logan will not hesitate to squash him like a bug now that the recording is gone. He offers to help but wants to disappear “like [Jack] did” with his wife. Well, Jack was pretending to work at an oil refinery about twelve seconds from CTU, so I don’t know if I’d do that, Henderson. But I catch your drift.
So thanks to Henderson’s known contacts, Chloe is able to start data mining (or something) and comes up with Victor Malina, a guy who apparently deals in information much like Collette Stenger did (is Collette still in holding somewhere with an unconscious marshal?), only Malina’s an even bigger computer nerd that Chloe. Evidently, he has a device that even Chloe doesn’t want to fuck with. I did love how everyone was all like, “Chloe’ll handle it,” and she’s all like, “Hey, just because I can literally make satellite images appear out of thin air and because I can identify whose car is whose from a satellite image doesn’t mean I can do everything.”
So, as you must have expected, Henderson and Jack are on the move to Malina’s place, with Henderson planning to go in to talk to him. Yeah, this should work out great.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (or retreat), Martha is out taking a stroll and spots Agent Fathead pulling a car into the stable. Knowing this is her favorite hiding spot and not wanting him to find her weed stash, Martha makes for the stables. She walks in on Agent Fathead and Pierce struggling. And I don’t blame Pierce for taking his chances on armed Agent Fathead – when you’re led to a trunk and told to get in and the trunk is lined with plastic…. well, that’s almost never good.
Agent Fathead isn’t sure what to do with Martha and you can see the wheels turning. Fathead isn’t a quick enough thinker to remember that everything she says can just be blamed on her wack-a-doo-ness and that she can be shipped off to Vermont at any time. Aaron knocks his gun loose and Fathead goes for the tire iron to clobber Aaron, but before he can, Martha plugs him with his own weapon. That’ll teach you to take off your vest before quittin’ time, Agent Fathead. As Martha flips out, Pierce calls out to her, “Martha.” Oh, all first-name basis-y are you now, Aaron?
In yet another building that is fortuitously less than seven minutes from CTU, Jack, Curtis and Henderson prepare for Henderson to go in to see Malina. You know, maybe if these terrorists just spread out a bit, it’d at least take CTU longer to throw a net over them. Like, maybe give L.A. a break, huh? I never thought I’d say that, but jeez. The Clippers are finally good and all these terrorists want to nuke the city.
Malina makes Henderson go through countless forms of security to get into his building and then pulls a gun on him just for good measure. Henderson immediately rats out Jack, Curtis and the “phalanx” of CTU agents outside (I loved how he said “phalanx” – Henderson is always so fed up with whomever he’s talking to, regardless of the situation; I wonder if he’s like that at Dunkin’ Donuts, too) and Malina begins to do something technical with his computer data. Jack hears this and is pissed that Henderson did exactly what he feared and sold them out. CTU crashes Malina’s surprisingly unsecured place. Malina hits Curtis with a bullet (he’s a big target, I guess that’s why he’s gotten shot no less than three times that we’ve seen between last year and this year) but doesn’t kill him. They secure the two and Henderson is all, “Way to go, Jack, I had him right where I wanted him!” Nice cover, Henderson, but Jack’s no buying. But then Henderson makes a valid point that he did it to get Malina to quickly put his info onto a flash drive so it’d be easy to rummage through. Jack doesn’t exactly concede this point but it’s hard not to at least consider it. As it stands, Chloe can at least work on Malina’s stuff, but it’s not going to be as easy as it could have been. Heh, interesting dynamic. How many times today has Henderson out-thought Jack? I count several big ones. I really like this character interaction where Henderson is always a step ahead of Jack, often beating him at his own game. It’s clearly frustrating Jack and Jack is a bit skittish and less confident than usual that he can keep someone under his thumb.
Back at the stables, there’s no clear indication that Martha and Aaron have spent any of the last eighteen minutes making out. But they haven’t gone anywhere, so maybe old Aaron got a hummer or something. Regardless, he tells Martha he’ll take care of Agent Fathead but that she has to go back in and spill her guts to Mike Novick. I’m not sure how Aaron knows he can trust Mike, except I guess that he knows how loyal Mike was to Palmer. That has to be it. But I’d definitely be a bit wary of the Chief of Staff of the guy who is behind all this.
Lo and behold, it only took Chloe about seven or eight minutes to discover that Bierko’s target is probably a Russian sub, docked at… you guessed it, Los Angeles harbor. Jack asks Henderson what it would be armed with, because I guess Henderson knows this kind of shit. This exchange looks so natural, these two look like they play Trivial Pursuit on the weekends when they’re not chasing each other around.
Bierko is indeed at the submarine and he uses his last canister of lung-destroying, brain-melting, skin-eating, seal-burning fart gases to fuck up… Americans? Russians? I can’t follow this. The man Jack was talking to on the phone was an American Navy officer. I guess maybe he was there for some legit reason because, come to think of it, we’d probably be a little antsy if armed Russian submarines were creeping up to our coastlines without an American chaperone. (“Hey, mind if I park here? I am really lost…”)
Bierko and his men then descend into the sub they just gassed. Um, okay. Would it not have been easier to save the gas and just go in and kill the men with their guns? I guess the gas approach is a lot less risky to them insofar as making the kills successfully. But then if you’re going to go into that confined space, I sure hope he has a Russian version of Chloe to reverse the airflow and clear out the gas.
What he does do with his masked men, according to the Fox Web site, is take control of the sub’s weapons system.
Ruh-ro, Shaggy.
Labels: Season Five
posted by J Money at 9:16:00 AM
3 Comments:
my ideas :
extremely weak acting by kiefer in the CTU scene. he seemes almost nice.
nice near-sex-scene between Mrs.Pillz and Aaron.
I thought Bird-Neck will shoot Aaron when he said "charles".
best scene : The Prez' jump when mike told him about the escape of bierko. great acting by birdneck!!!!
weak idea with the sub. so it's again "Miss-ay-uls over L.A. in the last hour".
yeah, I agree. Logan looked psycho when Aaron told him to **** off!!
Why have they brought another threat into this??? for two hours?!!!! fools.
No . . . it was a superb hour. Nothing could have beaten Aaron's scene with Logan. Absolutely right on that, J.
I enjoyed the scene where Jack is obviously crossed with Hayes & Co for coming up with the deal, mentioning how this man has killed Palmer, nearly Heller . . . but what about Tony & Michelle? Whatever happened to the pain of their loss? It was nicely done, but the mere mention of two names in three seconds could have just done ALL the more for me.
I think Henderson WAS really trying to doublecross Jack. That's just what I think.
As for Bierko, I was glad that they USED the last canister as a means to an end, and not and 'end' in itself. Seriously, the abduction of a sub sounds alot more cool than another 'Gas the population of LA' Scheme.
IMO, Logan was terrified to hear that Bierko escaped. Think about it: The plan was to use those Separatists to take the gas to Russia where it would blow, making a smoking gun to get oil. But now that Bierko knows of this Double Cross, he has every intention to hurt Logan and the States and Logan knows this. So that scene with Logan was, IMO, 'NOT ACTING.'
It was a great episode. Just wish we had some conifrmation on Wayne. Of course, the writers are probably saving him for the scene where he finally gets on the plane to Washington DC with his brother's body that's supposed to leave at 7:00 AM (i.e. the end of the last hour). Hope they remember that . . .
Oh yeah, AARON ROCKS!!!
And I hope Logan & Henderson die.
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