‘24’: Buyer’s remorse
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It’s a good thing this is the last season of “24,” because if it wasn’t Jack Bauer would have had to start next season either on the run in a foreign country or in jail. Bauer’s body count is pretty high in this episode, and he shoots the innocent along with the guilty without thinking twice.
On a more personal note, I must admit that watching tonight’s episode with its violence and New York backdrop (even if most of the show is shot elsewhere) was a little jarring given the recent event in Times Square.
Monday’s show opens with Bauer and Cole racing off to rescue Dana Walsh from the private security firm hired by former President Charles Logan to torture her, get vital information from her and then dispose of her.
In the process of freeing Walsh, who was being given the old waterboard treatment, Bauer takes out several members of the private security firm who, regardless of their actions, were working for the government.
Frustrated that Bauer has escaped and worried about what that could mean for the Middle East peace treaty should the information get out that Russians were behind the murder of Kamistan President Omar Hassan, Logan takes matters into his own hands. He puts his top aide, Jason Pillar, in at CTU to oversee the manhunt for Bauer. Chloe is none too pleased to have her authority usurped and although she wanted Bauer captured too, when Pillar says, “what Bauer is doing will destroy the peace process” you can almost hear the light bulb go off in Chloe’s head as she realize’s Jack was right all along. President Taylor is betraying the truth for her peace pact.
Bauer and Cole and Dana, having escaped the Lower East Side, head to midtown and a bank where Dana says she has evidence to prove the Russians’ involvement in Hassan’s murder. Bauer sends Cole into the bank with Dana to get it from her safe deposit box. We get some lovely moments with the reunited couple as they head to the basement of the bank to look in her box. Dana tries to convince Cole that she still loves him and that Bauer is out of control. Cole is not buying it. Bauer in the meantime roams the bank looking like a robber casing the joint.
Cole opens Dana’s box and finds her big surprise -- a gun with a silencer. Ah, but Dana has another trick in her box and detonates an explosive that knocks Cole out of the picture. She then kills the bank dork who let her in to the private room, calls 911 to rat out Bauer, who the whole city is looking for, and slips out of the bank.
Cops close in on Bauer who sure looked like he was mouthing a four letter word as they told him to freeze. He sees Dana leaving as a cop tries to cuff him. Of course Bauer disarms and wounds one of the cops and then shoots the other in the foot so they can’t follow him. At least he says sorry before shooting the second cop.
Bauer then corners Dana in a construction site and after getting the evidence from her, executes her in cold blood. I’m not a script writer, but I thought the scene was weak. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for all season and what do we get? Dana pleads, “Tell me what I can do” and Jack responds, “nothing” before pumping two bullets into her. Me, I would have had Jack say, “pray for me” or simply “pray” before finishing her off. But then, maybe that’s why I’m writing these reviews and someone else is writing those episodes.
-- Joe Flint
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