(9:00 A.M. - 10:00 A.M.)
Review/Commentary
Reviewer: J
Yes, I saw Sherry in the previews for this week's epihour, but a part of me held onto the hope that she'd pop up in a review I didn't have to write. But then I saw "Penny Johnson Jerald" in the freakin' credits. Hooray. I tend to feel that I should address all aspects of a show, and all storylines, no matter how contrived, stupid, pointless or completely out of this world unrealistic (even out of 24's world). Sherry's involvement at this point is all of the above. But I guess I'll discuss it here and get it out of the way. It's claptrap, plain and simple. It's a storyline I don't care about unless Keeler is Saunders' boss. Yeah, yeah, yadda, yadda, so Keeler might try to blackmail the Prez. Big deal. Wayne will find something on Keeler and that will be that. Or Palmer will come clean and the nation will forgive him. If it were me, I might just make Keeler disappear. You want to play games with me, white boy? Let me introduce you to some boys from my old 'hood. Can you imagine how fast Keeler would back down? Okay, anyway, the only marginally interesting aspect of this plotline was when Keeler made the rather astute point that this is a lot of harangue to go through just for Sherry to get a spot on his, ahem, staff, if you know what I mean. Sherry's comment in return was "Oh, I think we both know it'll be a little more than that." Wait, what? Do these two have a history? Does Sherry want to be his knob-polisher? I mean, maybe she always wanted to do the nasty in the Lincoln bedroom and knows how close she was to getting her wish with David. Or does she mean she wants to be in his cabinet? His VP? Who the hell knows. And who cares? Moving on….
So Tony is s-c-r-e-w-e-d. Is this reminiscent of Season One or what? Only Jack was the one making up stories and covering his tracks to do illegal things at the orders of a man on a headset. And it was okay then, because it was Jack. But now Jack's all high-and-mighty and questioning Tony. This is just more evidence of the bullshit that is Jack's inability to ever follow an order while expecting every order or question of his to be addressed without hesitation.
And while we're talking about giving orders, I know Tony ordered everyone away from the back of the building, but come on. Agent Baker would order everyone away?? He wouldn't leave one cop or one sniper there? Not likely. I have to think they have some protocols that state that no one is able to give such an order. Also, they glossed over the fact that Jack has tactical command. Tony wasn't even on site, so why would Baker listen to him? Why wouldn't he say "Hey Jack, Tony's ordering us around front, what's your story?" Of course he would. Because he's Baker and we know he's an excellent agent. You know how we know that? Because he's a periphery character and yet he's still alive. AND he's a minority. Everyone knows expendable minority characters are just there to die in Hollywood, so the fact that Baker's still alive means he's brilliant. (Think about it: the black agent Marie shot last season, Yusuf from last season, the Asian agent who was snooping around Amador's secret strip club location, the black agent who was with Michelle when she got her news about the virus infection last hour, the list goes on and on.)
So anyway, Tony is doing an impressive job of juggling everything. He gives the President the news and keeps the Chihuahua-like Chloe and Adam busy and not asking too many questions. I especially liked Tony having some balls against Saunders and basically threatening to cut Jane's throat if anything happens to Michelle. Go Tony! He even turned on his evil, low threatening voice. I think it got to Saunders somewhat, too, because he clammed up and simply agreed to let Michelle talk to Tony. The only gripe I have here is that Tony doesn't keep this tough guy approach up - later on, when Saunders calls in to threaten Tony with a knife to Michelle's face, Tony backs down and obeys. When Saunders said he'd send Michelle back unrecognizable, I would have said "Well, let me go cut off one of Jane's ears." The rules shouldn't have changed. It should have been an equal swap - unharmed hottie for unharmed hottie.
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