Season Finale
(7:00 A.M. - 8:00 A.M.)
Review/Commentary
Page 2
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Anyway, Jack crackles the henchman's neck and fight's nearly flawlessly despite his heart stutter-stopping. And of course, we had to have the face-off with Kingsley. I'm kind of wondering why the henchman's gun was empty though. If you're walking into a situation like that and you're strapped on the ankle, wouldn't you make sure there's a clip in it? Or are we to think it was jammed? It wasn't, since it did click each time Jack pulled the trigger, which also means the safety wasn't on. Ah, oh well. We'll never know. But it means Kingsley had hired some dumb henchmen. Lucky for Jack, the sniper rifle he took off of Sniper Henchman was loaded.
Let's give Mike Novick, the sniveling weasel of this season, some due credit. He's basically the reason at this point that the war was averted. He listened to Palmer's lawyer when given evidence to tie Kingsley to the bomb and the fake recording. And then, despite Chappelle's protests, Novick ordered him to support Jack however possible, even calling him "Ryan." I guess Novick knows him well enough to call him this, possibly as a result of everything that happened in Season One or possibly from the time they spent debriefing at division HQ in L.A. Either way, it works and Chappelle springs into action, once again following orders like a good boy. As to Novick, he's the only one who Palmer fires and Novick clearly is about to cry as he realizes what he has done to his closest friend. It's obviously a tough decision, but Palmer is absolutely correct - his chief of staff needs to stand by him to the very end. If he cannot trust him, then he simply cannot hold that post. End of story. As usual, Palmer realizes the correct course of action and carries it out.
As to the refusal to accept the resignations of Prescott and the others, how poignant. Palmer is truly a man's man and understand that they were honestly doing what they felt was the best thing for the country. They were not involved in a negative way in any sort of plot and Prescott aborted the mission responsibly. He, too, is a man of his word and tendered his resignation immediately. It certainly increased my respect for Prescott. Can you imagine being in his position? In a few minutes, he's going to learn that the President is "down" and that he, once again, is the acting President. Of course, one could argue that since we didn't see Palmer sworn back in that Prescott technically still holds the office, although I suppose we're to presume that by "annulling" their "earlier action" that this includes Prescott being the President for a few hours.
Kudos also to Prescott and Novick bringing Palmer into the room to listen in on the sting operation with Kingsley. They could easily have avoided this, but they decided to be honest with him, as they clearly still respect the man greatly.
Random Comment #2 - Another impressive performance by Dennis Haysbert as David Palmer. His disbelief when finding out that Sherry was involved, along with his face when he heard the shooting begin right after Kingsley ordered Sherry to be killed. He clearly will detest her even more after all of this is settled down (assuming he's alive), but he obviously doesn't want her dead.
Split-screen comment - As you probably know from reading my write-ups, I love the split-screen technology. How cool was it seeing everybody listening in on the Kingsley sting? We had CTU, the White House sit room, Palmer and Novick at division HQ, and Jack with his earpiece. I just think this is excellent directing and production and it's something you won't find anywhere else. I'm sure it will begin showing up, but it's so clearly a 24 staple.
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