24

That's right: the trial of David Palmer. This hour somewhat breaks the mold by largely switching the main focus from Jack to Palmer; after a short opening scene with Jack, we are treated to a very long Palmer sequence that takes us all the way to the first commercial break. And the rest of the Palmer scenes are nothing to change the channel on either. A couple of characters from earlier in the season return to testify against Palmer as the Cabinet decides whether Palmer should stay in office. And it's not boring.

In fact, Palmer's got the only cool, or at least productive, parts of the hour. Jack's activities here, in a "normal" episode, would probably take him twenty minutes tops, but with the writers devoting themselves to Palmer, all the other plotlines slow down.

Tony and Chappelle argue about something or other at CTU, and their storyline kinda connects to the Palmer thing for a few minutes, though that's dropped when the all-important microchip is found to be essentially useless.

The drama gets even better when Palmer accuses Novick of conspiring to bring him down, and it peaks when the majority of the Cabinet votes Palmer out of office. I seriously didn't see that coming the first time I watched this, and I was actually frustrated to no end, but I guess that just proves that this episode is great TV.



Hourly Highlight:

Palmer being voted out.

Can be this episode get any better?



Jack is finally with the chip, but of course, the chip is damaged, and when you thing this is all over, then they come with a new idea.



This trial of David Palmer stole all the Other Scenes. Jack, michelle, Tony, Kim and Kate.



The Final Scene is a mix of surprise with expected.



This is a great pay off, thanks to Palmer administration plot, roger, the reporter, and even Mike, and any other details, play their vital role here. The dialogues were excellent.



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »

So this is it - all the plots those politicians have to plot, are plotted and they are out to open with their try to overtake Palmer. And when last episode had most of the excitement on Palmer staff storyline, then this time all the excitement are on that storyline. All the slow motion and little plots trough the rest of the season really works and proves themselves into this. I do like that but I still feel they could have had some more excitement on Palmer storyline before.



And to make it even more exciting, the last seconds add another point of view to that storyline. What she is doing there?



Cannot wait to see next one

This episode is all about the trial of David Palmer, and oh my, I was so frustrated by it. The whole thing was very well written though and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Its a very important episode of season 2.



I really hated Stanton !! I was shocked at how the old git managed to get away with what he'd done, poor David. It seems that Chappelle is in league with the Vice President too, so that made me want to slap him. But to be honest I've wanted to slap Chappelle every time he's on the screen.



Mike was soo conformtable during the trial, it was so obvious. I dont dislike Mike at all, I actually feel sorry for him. He's not a bad person, he was just doing what he thought was right, but Palmer is never going to let him get away with his betrayal. I love how Palmer owned Mike though, that moment totally kicked ass. xD



Jack isn't really involved in this episode, I didn't miss him though considering the Palmer trial was so great. The ending was class, Sherry !! Could she really be behind the whole thing?



Quote of the hour! David Palmer: "I'm the President, Mike. You don't call me by my first name."

With only a couple of hours left in the show, I felt that Palmer would win out over Prescot and that the main focus would shift over to Jack. The fact that Palmer has been removed from office came as a huge shock and I thought that the White House drama really took it up a notch with this episode, providing very pulse pounding drama without the action that Jack bauer provides. The intensity that surrounded the character of Jack Bauer has dimmed this episode, with him uploading the data to CTU only to find out that it was a fake. With Jack needing to get a new led to investigate, the White House drama shined in this episode making it one of the better episodes of season 2. I think that the last three episodes have been amazing and have really stepped up Season 2, which started off a little repeatitive and boring with Kims storyline. I think the show works much better without her in the main story, though I liked the conversation she had with her father in this episode. Overall, very solid episode...

Vice President Prescott places David Palmer under arrest as they temporarily remove him from office using the constitution. Jack and Kate makes it back to CTU with the chip, but they find out that it doesn't contain the evidence they wanted to avert war. The tension is rising at this point as Jack raises against time to find someone in Los Angeles who can help him with the recording. The pacing in this episode is smartly done, watching it is so much fun, it's full of surprises. Watching the story unfold is so engaging, I just can't get enough of it.

After many crappy episodes in a row, 24 finally fought back with this great episode. Probably one of the more intriguing episodes in the show's history with a lot of meat to talk about after the show aired.



Pros

-I just can't get over how clever this episode was. Absolutely genius.

-The shit really hit the fan early on with Mike telling Palmer to join him in the conference room. Great, great scene loaded with tension.

-Oh snap moment #1: "Well as it happens, I'm the only one that counts." in reference to some of the BS arguments by Prescott.

-Oh snap moment #2: Palmer challenging Prescott to resign if he were to fail to remove Palmer from office.

-Oh snap moment #3: "I'm the President, Mike. You don't call me by my first name." to Mike. This was Palmer's best own ever.

-It was good to see Wieland and Stanton back, that was very cool.

-I loved Palmer's eye roll at the lies Stanton was spewing.

-Awesome vote at the end. The outcome still surprised me even though I'm sure it shouldn't have. My anger at Prescott was overwhelming at that point, especially at the sickening oath taking followed up with the shot of the airplanes back on course for the Middle East.

-And a great ending twist with Sherry showing up at Hewitt's apartment.



Cons

-I think this episode had the least air time for Jack than any other episode ever. That's automatically a negative.

-Cheesy moment where Palmer started talking about how his voice wasn't shaking and he wasn't babbling in order to defend himself.

-Idiotic plot hole where we never found out who only sent part of the tape of Stanton's torture.

-Incredibly lame start to the incredibly lame Jack/Kate relationship. Thank God for Tony calling Jack sparing us from the Jack/Kate kiss.

Emotion wise, this episode doesn't hold a candle to George taking the plane down. But in everything else, this is the best one this season.



Palmer: Funny that I just happen to start out all my reviews with Palmer because this is the first time I can remember that I cared more about David Palmer than I did Jack Bauer. The noose gets pretty tight in this episode. The sudden linking of the fate of the President to the actions of Jack Bauer is incredibly handled. My only disappointment here is Mike Novack. And it's not really that much... I just feel it could've been deeper. I know that Mike isn't going to be around much longer, like I said before, Palmer doesn't take crap. He has always been the greatest supporter of the President. I understand why he turned and I know it was exactly gradual, but he pulls a Tony in the way he turns. It was best put in David Palmer's line: "I am the President of the United States...You do not call me by my first name." All of this is brillant. Much of the credit should be given to Dennis Haysbert. In the last scene when he gets voted out of office and is forced to go with the Secret Service agent, he never says a word. He just looks at the moniters, and while it never really shows what he's looking at, it is as if he is staring down each and ever cabinet member that voted no. For so much to be spoken and not one word said: Amazing. Another thing that makes all the Palmer hearing scenes SO effective is control, and the fact Palmer has none. In the first season, he controlled what happened to his family and Keith and Nicole. A second aspect is magnitude. When Jack's family was taken hostage, it felt pretty desperate there for a while, but we knew that a good shoot-out and many dead bodies later, Jack would prevail. Here, what is happening is the first time I can remember in the series that none of our beloved characters had any control whatsoever. Jack wasn't going to shoot 12 people and then torture someone, Palmer wasn't going to give a speech and forced someone to resign. This is the first time that we truely felt *nothing at all* would make this situation better.



CTU: Chapelle. What an idiot. So transparent too. We all know he's hiding something and either working with Kingsley or Prescott. Nothing else happened except plot progression...but come on Chapelle, try to hide it better. However, I did love the whole sense of urgency and the more and more restricted time constrant we feel bearing down on us...more on that later.



Kim: Like 30 seconds of Kim. I still feel a showdown between her and Gary coming though....she is on her way over to his place.



Jack: Poor guy, his job is never done. I'm glad he was able to take out this rediculous rednecks though, that was the biggest plot engine I have ever seen (in things involving Jack anyway). Going on...Everything Jack does is under pressure, but never have we felt such a noose as we have here. We all knew the bomb wasn't going to actually go off, but like I said before, we can't help but feel utterly helpless about Palmer's situation. So it's as if this is the first time we feel Jack's actions may NOT end in everything turning out well. With the pressure on from Chapelle, Palmer, Prescott, the cabinet, the military, everyone else pretty much, the sense of urgency and desperation here is unprecidented in 24. This is truely wonderful story telling. The bomb was good; anything that can get us to this level of storytelling has got to be ok, now we are all about the fate of the characters. Yea, a war's still looming, but it is a canvas for the writers to paint the fate of Palmer and Jack and all the other characters we love onto, not the center piece. And this is how it should be.



In conclusion: I just think that Pal...*Holy Crap It's Sherry Palmer!!!*