(12:00 P.M. - 1:00 P.M.)
Review/Commentary
Anyway, I thought Jack was again a less than pivotal character in this week’s hour. Which is fine – it gives other characters a chance to shine and for us to get to know more about other storylines. I was thinking, you know you’ve arrived when your character is billed in the “Previously on 24” clips. George Mason now gets billed there and he was never billed last season. If you notice, Tony still has never been billed in the opening credits, either last season or this season. Interesting. I have to say I like how they do it – much like the rest of the show, it’s like nothing else on television. What’s cool is the way it brings you up to speed on who’s who so when you hear a name thrown around you’re not confused.
As for hour five itself, like I said I enjoyed it, as usual. And as usual, I’ll have a few things to say that I just can’t keep to myself that I found to be a little bit outside the parameters of the suspension of disbelief realm.
For one thing, Rayburn was removed at about 11:55 AM, and the head of the NSA Roger Stanton is rolling right at the start of the 12-1 hour? And he implied that he was there because of Eric’s behavior. Hmmmm, now that’s some quick response time. However, I don’t like to bash the time issues because they normally do a good job with it and sometimes it would be just silly to drag things out when the story could be moving forward. But I did notice in this episode a few times where when we went to or came back from commercials the clock was off a bit. It helps when your digital cable box is right below the TV with the actual time showing on it. But again, just a meaningless gripe and totally unimportant.
Anyway, Stanton is hard to figure in my opinion. Is he dirty? Well, he certainly could be given the way the show is written. But I mean, the President could be dirty for that matter. I thought Stanton was acted kind of boring and stodgy and really didn’t make me feel one way or another about him. Maybe that’s the point, but I doubt it. Blah, is all I can say. Of course, he’s the director of the NSA and Palmer professes to “still trust” Kresge, yet when both Kresge and Stanton advise him against something, he does it anyway. How many times has he done the opposite of what he’s been advised to do? Um, every time, by my count. I have to think sooner or later that would come back to hurt him. Advisors are advisors for a reason. The President seems a little wild at the moment, but it’s television and that probably won’t be addressed.
Back at CTU, Mason is still insisting they get Paula awake and they do, miraculously. But in the process they essentially kill her. Getting someone’s blood pressure up high enough for them to wake back up while all the while they have severe, massive internal bleeding is not such a good idea. Predictably, it killed her. Unlike a lot of dramatic Hollywood deaths, I don’t think this one is fake. I think that doing what they did would truly kill her quickly. But hey, what do I know? All I’m saying is that her death wasn’t a typical fake Hollywood death. It does suck that she’s dead, though. I thought she was going to be a significant character for a while this season. I did like how Mason was actually a little bit kind to her. I realize it may not have been completely genuine, but it seemed it. He called her “honey,” while stroking her head and once they got the info they needed he actually told her how what she had done would save a lot of people’s lives. Mason knew what that would mean to her. A very cool touch, I thought. You could see the painful smile on her face when he told her that. I liked that very much.
Speaking of our boy Mason, he’s already deteriorating. Before long, it’s going to be a little questionable why he’s still working. I mean, it is a crisis situation, but doesn’t he have anything to get in order? I keep wondering if he has a family? Wife? Kids? Isn’t there anyone he wants to tell? I suppose the easy answer is no, because he hasn’t come to grips with it yet. And how could you? KNOWING you’re going to die within a day or so. Wow, that sucks. I knew someone was going to figure it out soon. Jack’s such a smartypants. What’s a little wrong is that he (again) blackmails Mason into letting him work an assignment the way he wants to. Telling George he’ll inform division of his imminent death is kind of callous and, in truth, division SHOULD know. George should be out of there.
When Mason went in to speak with Nina, I couldn’t help but think about how the two of them are married now (in real life). I was waiting for him to tell her how much he hates her or something. I did like George’s line “You’re not buying a used car here, Nina” when she insisted on the Presidential pardon.
Speaking of Nina, they did answer my question from last week on when she would have been setting up this hit on CTU. They simply assumed it was before she was taken into custody, which means she was setting things up from long long ago. And that this nuke hit was being planned a long time ago too. Cool stuff, and it expands the possibilities of who is implicated. And like I said last week, it utilizes her comment last season about who she “really works for.” Cool, cool, cool.
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