Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Wow. That's All I Can Say.
Last night was the 2-hour season finale of 24. All I can say is "wow." It was amazing, proving to be a terrific ending to the show's best season ever. If you haven't seen the show yet, you might want to avoid reading this because I'm going to be giving away a lot of what happened. Conversely, if you don't care for 24, you might want to stop reading because you'll just be bored silly. Unless you like ridiculous scenarios that could never happen in real life. Because this episode was chock-full of them.
Okay, the show starts out with a bunch of terrorists who've hijacked a submarine and are going to use its missiles to blow up some cities on the west coast. I know, it happens every day. Well, Jack manages to thwart them. Again. But what I liked about it was that Jack basically kills indiscriminately now. He's no longer a member of CTU, even though he's running the operation. At one point, he has the head terrorist's head in a leg scissors. When he finds out that the missile attack has been thwarted, he just snaps the guy's neck. No prison for that jerk. I like that kind of decisiveness. Two minutes later, Jack kills his former boss, who was a traitor to the country. Yay!
So the threats over and there's still 90 minutes left in the show? What's Jack going to do now? Oh yeah. Kill the President. Or at least get him to confess for his role in today's events. Now, this is where things get kinda fishy. Even for 24. (I'll leave out a lot of boring details to move this along. Keep in mind, these details were not boring in the least while watching the show.) The plan basically involves Jack hijacking the President's helicopter. Somehow Jack manages to get himself onto the Presidential compound. Then he gets himself the right credentials. (Knowing the Chief of Staff helps.) Then he gets in the helicopter and tasers the Secret Service guards. He gets the pilot to land the plane and then tasers him. Somehow, I think there would be better security in place. The President shouldn't be THAT easy to kidnap. Though sometimes I wish our current President were. Great, now I'm going to be on the FBI's watch list. At least it'll increase the number of people who read my blog!
So Jack is trying to get the President to confess, threatening to shoot him. The President doesn't confess and Jack can't bring himself to shoot him. Uh-oh. Now the FBI is closing in. Crap! They've caught Jack. Now what? There's still like 40 minutes left to go!
Well, it turns out that Jack bugged the President. Later, his wife got him to confess, not knowing he was bugged. They get that info to the Attorney General and the President is taken into custody right after giving a speech commemorating David Palmer, the former President. (By the way, if you're keeping score at home, there have been 3 Presidents on this show. The first one, David Palmer, was assassinated at the beginning of the season (as an ex-President). Last season, the 2nd President's plane was shot down, causing the VP to come into power. Apparently, the 2nd President died because the VP became the President this season (with his own VP). Now, the 3rd President is going to resign from office. Yeah that sounds like a typical 5-year period in American politics.)
Anyway, so the President gets busted and people start saying their good-byes. But there's still too much time left. Jack finally gets reunited with his love-interest, Audrey. Then he gets a phone call from his daughter, Kim. He goes inside to take it. Great, more Kim. Can't someone please kill her already. But wait! It's not Kim. Instead, it's a setup. Jack gets attacked by men in masks. And somehow, he gets captured! (Note, Jack never gets captured. Something fishy's going on.) Cut to commercial.
When we come back, Jack is all beaten up in a room. Then the attackers take off their masks. Their Chinese. WAIT A MINUTE! The whole reason Jack was in hiding at the beginning of the season is because the Chinese wanted him dead. He had to fake his death to get away from them. And the evil Chinese leader is in the room. Jack says he knows how this works. He'll be taken to China, turned into a slave/prisoner. He'll never see his family again. His life is over. So he asks them to kill him. Evil Chinese Man says, "Jack, you're too valuable to kill." Then he walks away. And as they zoom out, you see that he's on a cargo ship heading to Shanghai. (There's actually a history of people getting "Shanghaied" in the 1800's and early 1900's. They'd get kidnapped from cities in American and put aboard ships headed for China, never to be heard from again.)
And that's how the season ended. Simply amazing. The worst part? No new episodes until January 2007! That's 8 months! I can not wait that long. I mean, how's the next season going to go? They've all taken place in Los Angeles. Is he going to return to LA somehow? Or will next season take place in China? Is China going to force him to do something, like kill the President? Will there be an attempt to rescue Jack? Damn it! I want to know! I seriously can't believe I have to wait 8 months to find out. God, I'm going to be miserable until then. But I really must say that this has been the single best season of 24 ever. And the plot for next season seems interesting so far. And I don't even have a clue what it'll be. God I love this show.
Okay, the show starts out with a bunch of terrorists who've hijacked a submarine and are going to use its missiles to blow up some cities on the west coast. I know, it happens every day. Well, Jack manages to thwart them. Again. But what I liked about it was that Jack basically kills indiscriminately now. He's no longer a member of CTU, even though he's running the operation. At one point, he has the head terrorist's head in a leg scissors. When he finds out that the missile attack has been thwarted, he just snaps the guy's neck. No prison for that jerk. I like that kind of decisiveness. Two minutes later, Jack kills his former boss, who was a traitor to the country. Yay!
So the threats over and there's still 90 minutes left in the show? What's Jack going to do now? Oh yeah. Kill the President. Or at least get him to confess for his role in today's events. Now, this is where things get kinda fishy. Even for 24. (I'll leave out a lot of boring details to move this along. Keep in mind, these details were not boring in the least while watching the show.) The plan basically involves Jack hijacking the President's helicopter. Somehow Jack manages to get himself onto the Presidential compound. Then he gets himself the right credentials. (Knowing the Chief of Staff helps.) Then he gets in the helicopter and tasers the Secret Service guards. He gets the pilot to land the plane and then tasers him. Somehow, I think there would be better security in place. The President shouldn't be THAT easy to kidnap. Though sometimes I wish our current President were. Great, now I'm going to be on the FBI's watch list. At least it'll increase the number of people who read my blog!
So Jack is trying to get the President to confess, threatening to shoot him. The President doesn't confess and Jack can't bring himself to shoot him. Uh-oh. Now the FBI is closing in. Crap! They've caught Jack. Now what? There's still like 40 minutes left to go!
Well, it turns out that Jack bugged the President. Later, his wife got him to confess, not knowing he was bugged. They get that info to the Attorney General and the President is taken into custody right after giving a speech commemorating David Palmer, the former President. (By the way, if you're keeping score at home, there have been 3 Presidents on this show. The first one, David Palmer, was assassinated at the beginning of the season (as an ex-President). Last season, the 2nd President's plane was shot down, causing the VP to come into power. Apparently, the 2nd President died because the VP became the President this season (with his own VP). Now, the 3rd President is going to resign from office. Yeah that sounds like a typical 5-year period in American politics.)
Anyway, so the President gets busted and people start saying their good-byes. But there's still too much time left. Jack finally gets reunited with his love-interest, Audrey. Then he gets a phone call from his daughter, Kim. He goes inside to take it. Great, more Kim. Can't someone please kill her already. But wait! It's not Kim. Instead, it's a setup. Jack gets attacked by men in masks. And somehow, he gets captured! (Note, Jack never gets captured. Something fishy's going on.) Cut to commercial.
When we come back, Jack is all beaten up in a room. Then the attackers take off their masks. Their Chinese. WAIT A MINUTE! The whole reason Jack was in hiding at the beginning of the season is because the Chinese wanted him dead. He had to fake his death to get away from them. And the evil Chinese leader is in the room. Jack says he knows how this works. He'll be taken to China, turned into a slave/prisoner. He'll never see his family again. His life is over. So he asks them to kill him. Evil Chinese Man says, "Jack, you're too valuable to kill." Then he walks away. And as they zoom out, you see that he's on a cargo ship heading to Shanghai. (There's actually a history of people getting "Shanghaied" in the 1800's and early 1900's. They'd get kidnapped from cities in American and put aboard ships headed for China, never to be heard from again.)
And that's how the season ended. Simply amazing. The worst part? No new episodes until January 2007! That's 8 months! I can not wait that long. I mean, how's the next season going to go? They've all taken place in Los Angeles. Is he going to return to LA somehow? Or will next season take place in China? Is China going to force him to do something, like kill the President? Will there be an attempt to rescue Jack? Damn it! I want to know! I seriously can't believe I have to wait 8 months to find out. God, I'm going to be miserable until then. But I really must say that this has been the single best season of 24 ever. And the plot for next season seems interesting so far. And I don't even have a clue what it'll be. God I love this show.
