(10:00 P.M. - 11:00 P.M.)
Review/Commentary
However, before I go on… (this wouldn't be one of my reviews if I didn't bounce from thought to thought)… Am I the only one who keeps expecting to hear "on the day of the California Presidential primary" after "The following takes place between XX:XX and XX:XX"? It almost feels as thought something's missing, doesn't it? (If you didn't watch Season 1, you wouldn't know what I mean - haha, hey everyone, let's point at the people who don't get our inside jokes about Season 1! Oh, wait, maybe this crowd is in my head.) Anyway, it just feels like ol' Jack should be saying more at that point.
Anyway, back to the main storyline. The bomb is found and our friends at NEST (quiz! What's it stand for? No peeking at the last review!) aren't able to stop it. My first question is why the hell not? Isn't that part of what you're trained to do, boys? How many rogue nukes end up on American soil? Not too many. And now one does and you can't do a damn thing about it? If you're so helpless about it, how can you be so sure there's 55 minutes (how convenient, given the 60 minute show) remaining before detonation? And why the hell would Ali choose 11 PM to detonate? Did he want to get most people while they were turning in to bed or watching the 11 o'clock news? I would think rush hour (Terminator 2 springs to mind) would be the most deadly time. Ah, but what do I know? I'm not a terrorist. (I hope the government doesn't monitor my site - I should probably stop talking about terrorists and the most advantageous time to blow up Los Angeles.)
I'm glad Georgie Boy showed up again. As you may recall, in my previous review, I was lamenting how he walked out of CTU and possibly out of our lives. Of course, I had hoped all season that he would find some sort of honorable way to go out in style. I have to pat myself on the back here, because I feel that accurately predicting anything on 24 is a monumental achievement. Of course, for me, wearing matching socks in a monumental achievement. Am I digressing again?
So Mason steps up for the suicide mission but Jack is too brave to let him. Or perhaps he does indeed have his death wish, as Mason later intimates. Either way, kudos to the writers and director/producers of 24 - I really thought Jack was rejecting Mason's appeals to take the death mission. Mason, of course, is a government agent, lest we forget, and he knows a thing or two about being covert. Plus, he's evidently a regular pilot. How fortuitous!
I'll wrap up my thoughts on Mason in this episode - his last, presumably. George showed some real emotion and a truly human side in this season. With his son, with Michelle, even a little with Tony. And of course, at the end, he actually took Jack's hand as Jack thanked him for allowing him to go on with his life. Mason had prepared himself mentally for death all day long. I doubt there are many people who wouldn't want to go out in a heroic way if we absolutely KNEW we were dead within a number of hours anyway. So it's a good thing, not just for Jack, but for George to go out doing his job, taking responsibility, and serving his government to the end. Very nice. I'll miss him - I think we all will. He's just one of those characters who, whether you like him or not, you just can't wait to see what he'll say next. And you know that no scene with him will be boring George (and more to the point, Xander Berkeley) can get a point across with simply a look or a flip comment. Happy trails, George.
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