Season 6; Hour Four (9:00AM - 10:00AM)

Air Date: 15 Jan 2007
Reviewer: J

We pick up right where we left off after a boatload of previouslies, just so we definitely know that we’re in some major shit right now.

It’s becoming apparent that this Numair guy has somehow slipped away during the very organized, chain-gang style march of the prisoners onto a rather nice-looking jet. I wonder if any of these guys know what the hell is going on or if they just are so numb to being marched around that they just go with it.

At CTU, we see Bill becoming a bit more unhinged than usual, shouting at the wind that they have to do better. In fact, I think he said, “We have to do better and we have to do it faster!” The CTU drones around him get over his outburst as fast as they can and try to get back to their Tetris-playing faster. I don’t know, it sure looks like everyone’s working as fast as they can to me.

Now that we’ve established that there’s a good chance Numair is wanted by Fayed for help programming a nuclear bomb, the White House has sprung into action. I especially like how Karen says that the Russian suitcase nukes were all destroyed…but there was a report of some going missing a while back. Wait, what?

Karen also shows us a graphic similar to what David Palmer was shown when he was at his Oregon retreat back in Season Two and a nuke was in the plotwheel then. It shows little figures meant to represent a certain number of American lives and those multiply when buttons are hit that tell the rodents in the computer to simulate nuclear fallout. Of course, Karen does give an estimation of hundreds of thousands of lives lost “if it’s detonated in a major city.” This key phrase may be important later. Like, say, if one was detonated in the suburbs.

Wayne decides that Jack is the best person to lead this search. I guess this is because of his loyalty to Jack and because he’s learned that Jack always seems to come through when it counts. But still, Jack’s been in China for twenty months. Have we all forgotten that? If I were Jack, I might also ask Wayne what the hell took so long for him to negotiate Jack out of China. I know Jack holds the Presidency in the highest respect, but still.

It’s right after this that we have more indication that Curtis is going off the grid. Jack tells him that Wayne wants him, Jack, to lead the search of Fayed. Which it appears Curtis has no problem with. What he does have a problem with is working with Assad. Jack asks him to behave and Curtis, uncharacteristically, mouths off to Jack, asking what the Chinese did to him. Jack gets in Curtis’s face – which, because of Jack’s diminutive size, is more like Jack getting in Curtis’s sternum – and asks if he’s got somethin’ to say. Curtis still looks pissed but agrees, sort of, to work with Jack. This is not good and I’ll believe you if you began to think something really bad was going to happen between these two. After all, I’m sure Curtis hasn’t forgotten the time when Jack put him in a sleeper hold and stole his SUV.

Jack has caught on to the signals from Curtis (which were, like, about as obvious as can be) and so he asks Chloe to run some background on Curtis and Assad to figure out what the H is going on in Curtis’s melon.

Over at Chez Wallace, Ahmed is still bleeding and holding two hostages. Ray calls him and demands he release his family. Ahmed calls Ray’s bluff saying that even Ray knows that that would leave him with no leverage. So, to play ball, Ahmed has Ray choose which one to have released. Ray, being a parent, says to release Scott, his son. Ahmed, being a smart terrorist-in-training, lets Jillian, Ray’s wife, go. Ray protests and Ahmed says Ray just revealed who he “values more.” If you’re thinking this is kind of a shitty thing to do to his wife, you’re wrong. I don’t have kids but even I know there’s an unspoken (or sometimes spoken) agreement when you have kids that you’d sacrifice anything for them, including each other. And I’ve got no problem with that. It’s part of being a parent. Or so I’m told.

It’s irrelevant but I liked Ahmed showing the caller ID to Jillian as she was leaving and saying, “Will you remember this number?” so that she can call her husband who, inexplicably, does not have a cell phone. She looks at the number, memorizes it, and leaves. I don’t know why I liked that except, I guess, that it’s another one of those little touches of reality that they toss in there. I know there’s a lot out there about how ludicrous this show can get sometimes but sometimes I think these little touches almost balance it. As I’ve said before, these are the little things that we would actually deal with ourselves if put into similar situations.

Anyway, Ray and Jill hem and haw about how to handle Scott. They agree not to call the police and then, promptly, Jill…calls the police. Should have taken her cell phone away, Ray.

At CTU, we learn that Chloe “dated Milo a few times.” Uh, what? Why would that have ever happened? Let’s just hope they didn’t screw.

Jack and Curtis end up getting Jillian Wallace on the line and she tells them about Ahmed and how he was talking to a guy named Fayed. Well, that’s a good thing that she called 911, I guess, then. Point taken, writers. Curtis bitches about taking Assad on a tactical mission but, really, what are their options? Maybe Curtis wants to leave Assad at a bus station or something? Or maybe he wants to just shoot him. Yeah, that actually might be it.

Meanwhile, Wayne’s administration is quickly deciding that Assad is suddenly an ally despite the many deaths his terrorism has caused over the past “two decades.” They even go so far as to put together a pardon for all past crimes in return for his cooperation. Well, I’m not sure you needed to overbet the pot like that, Wayne. I mean, he’s already in your custody and you could just say, “Hey, either help us or we’ll cut off your fingers one by one.” I mean, Jack could say that or something. Why are we giving Assad a free pass on everything he’s done in the past? I guess to sort of guarantee his cooperation and make him realize he has something to hold on to when he wrestles with thoughts as to whether peace is the right answer. But still, I’m sort of with Curtis on this one, whose eyes get kind of wide when he hears Assad asking for something “in writing.” Maybe he’s talking about a contract on a new house, Curtis.

Sandra Palmer appears this hour and tries to call Wayne again. Seriously, little girl, let your brother do his damn job, will you? You say you don’t want preferential treatment when you got arrested but now you want to whine to the President whenever you have a bug up your ass? You can’t have it both ways. And Tom Lennox agrees with me, intercepting her call and turning her away. She makes some threats about embarrassing the administration which, I’d have to say, would ring sort of hollow to me at this point. I mean, shit’s getting blown up all over the country and people are dying left and right. I don’t know how much further the administration’s pants can be pulled down.

Meanwhile, Walid – Sandra’s boy-toy – learns from a loose-lipped Islamic brother in the joint that the Americans “will all pay.” Walid’s all, ’scuse me? And the guy walks off and talks in Arabic, which Walid listens in on and even gets himself in a better position to hear. Yet it turns out he doesn’t understand Arabic. Well-played, detective. What good are you?

It turns out that Ray Wallace is a reliable delivery boy as he gives Fayed his box of White Castle burgers, AKA nuke detonator device. You know, do you think Marcus, the guy who unwillingly sold the component to Ray/Ahmed/Fayed, knew that it was going to be used to arm a nuclear bomb?

Anyway, Fayed calls Ahmed and tells him he got the package but that he shouldn’t have involved outsiders. Ahmed replies, “But Fayed, how else could we bring an innocent family with whom the audience could sympathize with into the fray?”

Actually, no, he doesn’t say that.

Fayed ends up telling Ahmed to plug Scott and Ahmed shows his hesitation, to which Fayed tells him that the boy has seen and heard too much. I guess Ahmed didn’t reveal that he’s already released Scott’s mom. And how could he have seen too much? Aren’t they planning to nuke LA? And if they are indeed planning to nuke LA, why did they blow up a bus and try to blow up the subway in the past couple of hours? Isn’t that kind of moot if a nuke is going to be detonated? Silly me, trying to find logic.

Jack, Curtis and their helmeted brethren descend upon the Wallace house just as Ahmed is about to execute Scott, Chappelle-style. I’m not sure about you, but I think I would have tried to fight for my life a little more than Scott did. I mean, if it’s “death” or “possible death,” I’ll take “possible death.”

Anyway, Ahmed is winged in the crossfire and Jack freaks that they need him alive to talk about where the package of burgers went. In an interesting twist, Jack is saved from having to rub kitchen salt into Ahmed’s gunshot wound because Scott remembers the address that Ahmed gave to Ray to deliver the…White Castle package. Silly Kumar.

At the Wallace household, we learn that Curtis indeed did not know what Assad and the President spoke about on the phone in the car. Assad is signing his full pardon in the dining room while Curtis flags down Jack and asks him what the hell is going on. Jack explains, as delicately as he can, that Assad has been pardoned and is officially an ally now. Curtis, unconvincingly, gives the answer that if that’s how it is, that’s how it is. This is remarkably similar to “It is what it is,” which is something I find myself using at work a lot, especially when a situation is kind of shitty. Of course, that’s where my approach and Curtis’ stop being similar.

While two-thirds of the Wallace family is freaking about whether Dad/Ray is going to be okay, Jack gets a call on the horn from Chloe, who has gotten around to backgrounding Curtis and Assad. Yeah, it turns out that Assad was responsible for an attack on Curtis’ platoon in Desert Storm and killed several of Curtis’ men in brutal fashion. Including beheadings. So I guess that explains why Curtis hates Assad. In fact, when thinking about this, it makes me wonder how Curtis didn’t go ballistic sooner. Regardless, I was waiting to hear a shot ring out in the background as Jack was learning this info about Curtis. There’s no shot at this point, but Jack clearly realizes there’s a huge problem when Curtis isn’t in the house anymore.

Jack races outside the Wallace home and it’s at about this time that Curtis has confronted Assad with the truth about who he is and how they’ve met before. For his part, Assad looks clueless, but that’s probably because he’s killed a lot of Americans and is somewhat numb to it. Plus, we all look alike anyway.

Then we have a scene that may very well end up in the annals of great 24 scenes and has a better-than-average chance of being the best scene of Season Six, despite being only in Hour Four.

Jack is forced to pull his gun on Curtis and tell him to lower his weapon, which he (Curtis) has trained on Assad. Curtis pulls his shit together long enough to realize that having his back to Jack is not the best approach. Remember, Curtis is a career soldier and anti-terrorist field agent. So he swings Assad around to shield himself while simultaneously putting his gun at the base of Assad’s skull, where one shot will surely end Assad fast.

Jack, of course, knows this too and again demands that Curtis lower his weapon. One thing I’d like to interject here is that I have found the use of U.S. flags interesting in the first few hours. In the safe house in Hour Two when they were getting info from the traitor in Assad’s organization, there was a U.S. flag behind Assad at one point. And in this scene in the Wallace’s driveway, as Jack is aiming at Curtis, you can see an American flag behind him. It’s subtle but very interesting. Anyway, where were we?

Ah, yes, Curtis is refusing to lower his weapon. To which Jack, almost pathetically, says, “Please.” What this means, of course, is “I really don’t want to kill you but I’m realizing I’m probably going to have to.”

Curtis clearly thinks about Jack’s demand and also, I think, realizes that he himself has lost it. Yet he has something within him that won’t allow himself to release Assad. He appears to think for a second and then confirms this by saying, “I can’t let this animal live.” As Curtis is screwing up the courage to blatantly execute someone in front of a dozen witnesses and basically end his career, a shot rings out and Curtis is hit in the neck and ends his career even faster. It, naturally, came from Jack who zinged a shot from a pistol right over Assad’s shoulder and into Curtis’ windpipe.

The look on Curtis’ face is some good acting by Roger Cross, who I really did like. His face is a mixture of shock and sadness as he realizes his time on this mortal coil is over and he sinks to the ground, vainly clutching his throat. Bye, Curtis, it’s been fun.

As I said, I liked Curtis a lot, not because he brought all that much to the show from a dynamic perspective but more because he was consistent and had been there for a while. You always knew what you could expect from Curtis – loyalty, efficiency and quiet tones. I remember Curtis as the guy who helped stand down McGill last season and who broke free of his captors in a bad-ass sort of way back in the early hours of Season Four. Curtis was a good guy and a resilient character who seemed to take a bullet every season but always was back for more. Well, not this time.

Jack, for his part, reacts like most of us would if put in an impossible situation such as that. He drops his gun and has himself a good freakout. He walks away and ends up stumbling and vomiting, coming to rest against a small tree on some neighbor’s grass. Mere seconds after having killed his colleague and friend, Jack’s phone rings. And Jack answers it, which I wouldn’t have. But then, I ignore calls when I’m not doing anything else so that’s not a fair comparison.

It turns out it’s Buchanan on the horn and he’s trying to get Jack to buck up. He says he was filled in on what happened and that Jack had no choice. While this is technically true, how could Buchanan possibly know this so fast? Was the agent who told Bill about it on the phone with him giving him real-time info on the standoff between Jack and Curtis? How would that have sounded?

“Okay, Jack just told him to drop it…Curtis says no…Jack says please… and Curtis looks like he means it but – WHOA! Holy shit, Bill, Jack just shot Curtis just below the pie-hole. Annnd, Curtis is dead. Am I in charge now?”

Anyway, Jack wants nothing to do with Bill’s consoling and says he can’t do this anymore, which is at least the third time since the season began that Jack’s made the unusual comment that he’s not fit for this anymore. It takes a lot for Jack to admit he’s not good at something and he’s trying hard to tell us all that he’s done with this shit. But Bill, too, won’t take that as an answer and says he’s done great work and that they’re gonna find the suitcase nuke because of him (oh boy, are they ever). Jack gives the wise-ass response, “Good, then you don’t need me anymore.” He ends up hanging up on poor Bill who just lost his two best field generals.

Wow, what a scene. I loved Curtis’ reaction to being shot and Jack’s reaction to having to do it. It simply makes Jack’s character that much darker and further illustrates how he’s not the man we met back in Season One and he’ll never be that man again.

But oh no, the hour isn’t over! We see that Numair has gotten the suitcase nuke ready to roll. Of course, I must point out here that the whole “suitcase nuke” thing is being taken a bit too literally. Real suitcase nukes aren’t like, the size of a Samsonite. They’re more like the size of a massive trunk, like the one John Candy carries with him in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. But fine, 24, we’ll go with it.

Anyway, the CTU Tac Team that was dispatched to the location that Scott happened to remember moves in and, in true CTU fashion, isn’t sneaky enough to not be noticed. A firefight ensues and Numair is given the command to detonate the bomb. And, with it, the northern suburbs of Los Angeles. For a second or two, it looks like Ray Wallace may turn himself into a hero by intervening but all he can do is scream as Numair flips the switch and everything goes white and silent, which is probably exactly how it would happen. I imagine when everything in a several-mile radius is melted it gets quiet pretty fast. The light blast is scary, too, and I love the way the scene cuts to Jack who is still crying on the ground. We see his face in the light and the brightness in his eyes. In reality, I think looking at a nuclear blast can blind you but maybe not with smaller suitcase nukes. The mushroom cloud is impressive, too.

Of course, the gravity of this almost knocks over everyone watching. The White House gang look like they’re going to vomit and Wayne’s the first one to react, telling Karen to let the first responders in LA know that they get whatever they need. Wayne is the quickest to absorb what’s happened presumably because he can now write about his nuclear blast on U.S. soil in his own memoir someday and it just might be a better seller than David’s. Hell, David’s went off over the desert and killed nobody except maybe some hippie campers.

The CTU bunch looks equally disturbed and Bill doesn’t look like he knows what order to give next. Milo chooses this time to come up and give information about an Arabic phrase that Walid kept hearing at the detention facility (which is apparently picking up at least some of the right people) and that Sandra passed along to the FBI. The phrase is something about “five visitors,” which of course clues Bill and the others in to the fact that Fayed has four more of these mothers out there and CTU is short a Director of Field Operations.

Ah, so these nuke suitcases are going to be sort of like the eighteen canisters of nerve gas from last year, eh? Sure hope it’s a different approach than that. And I also am a bit disappointed that Jack is shown in the preview for next week saying that he’s not quitting after the nuke went off. Sort of killed the idea that he might have been serious, at least temporarily, didn’t it?

Anyway, Hour Four was indeed amazing and as I said to D, every time they promise an hour that “changes everything,” they seem to deliver on it in some way. As I said, I think we all knew something bad was coming with Curtis… but I don’t think anyone expected the nuke to go off. Where do we go from here?