24

Logic/Details - » This episode objective was to make a closure about Salazar Storyline. So, the writers job was to create a minimum of 20 scenes and tie this all. They did a good job this time, better than the last episode. But like the last episode, the time and scenes management seems a little filler.



Progress -» Salazar is dead. There are some action, but besides that, the situation still in the same point.



Emotions/Stimulation/Highlights -» The highlight in this episode is the action and some tension provided by Jack Scenes. Amador is the Main Bad guy now.



Ending - » Nothing special or particularly new, since there are 12 episodes left, so the virus plot will play all the season after all, contrary to the past seasons.



Overall - » Better than the previous episode, but continues to manages one situation throught the entire episode.

Here it is at last: the end of the Mexico arc, and the last of the three big twists that piss everyone off.

Except for Palmer, all the storylines converge on the virus, giving us a little time away from that baby, though it's still present in the episode, so thumbs down there!

With Hector dead, Ramon goes it alone to get the virus from Amador. Jack and Nina go with him, of course, as well as Chase and the Delta team. But in the end, the operation is all for naught, since it turns out Michael Amador deceived everybody for monetary gain and is taking that vial for himself.

The hour concludes with Amador getting away with the virus, Ramon dead, and Jack and Chase searching for Nina in the woods. It's a good setup for the ensuing episodes, and it gives us a reason to keep watching.

But the episode's biggest advantage is that it has what many people were probably wanting to see throughout the Mexico arc: action. Lots of it. A shootout here, an explosion there, another explosion there, a stabbing here, etc. You won't be disappointed.

Nobody (as in, the fans) seems to appreciate having been played by the writers for the first twelve hours of S3, but you know what? I do! That's right, I enjoy the fact that the first half was essentially pointless, because huge twists such as this, as completely ludicrous as they are, are what make "24" what it is. Quit your whining and embrace it! Cherish it! Nurture it! Have sex with it! ……………



Hourly Highlight:

Amador's escape from the Delta team.

This is really a episode where all the sides are together and after the virus in one little place and it looks so explosive. Nina tries to prove Jack still works to CTU. Jack wishes everything would work out and Tony has so many things what have to go right. Chade is there and giving updates and thing around Chloe get really weird as things are not like they seems.



And then this happen. The virus is on their sight and everything goes wrong. It was so easy to see when he switched the viruses, delta team is almost late as Salazar wants to take out Jack. When backup arrives, hell broke lose. It is very chaotic and exciting.. and the end.. and they are back where they began..

This episode had lots and lots of action. I believe that the switch of the virus was the best thing that could have happened to the season. It would have been very boring for Jack to obtain the virus and thats that. Now that Amador has escaped with the virus, the chances of it being released are very high... very interesting. And now the Salazar's are out of the picture, this season should return back on top! I knew the Salazar's werent the main villians and I don't think Amador is the main villian either, he's probably working for someone else.



The Palmer storyline is great now. But my god, CTU is a big fat whimper, it really is. Kim accusing Chloe was so annoying. She told Chloe that she should have reported the abuse, and then said that kidnapping was wrong? I can't believe how much shes contradicting herself after what she did in season 2. It's completely LAUGHABLE. I can hardly see Chloe being some psycho woman either, I'm glad that Tony owned her. Sort it out, writers. Stop putting all the attention on Kim and Chloe, its boring. Sort out what is going on with Tony and Michelle because they've had hardly any screen time lately, and where has Gael disappeared to?



Quote of the hour! Tony Almeida: "You're going to look after this baby, I don't want Chloe distracted."

The first parts of this episode dragged on a lot, with everyone getting ready for the events in Mexico with Amador and the virus. The action the unfolded after everything feel apart at the switch off was pretty intesne. At first I didnt know what was going to happen - with Amador virtually pinned down that would be the end of the threat that everyone was working so well together on. In the end though, the Salazar situation has been eliminated and now everyones attention is going to shift to retriving the virus from Micheal, which should make for some interesting new drama. I really like his character and he should be an interesting villian then in years past. I just wonder if he really is the top or if we will be introduced to a new boss this time around. Sherry Palmer going to the trailer to try and get information from Mr. Kelly was also pretty filler. Her going the Milikin residance herself should be very interesting in the next couple of episodes...

Jack, Ramon and Chase gets close to the virus but it turns out that they've been trick. Kim gets curious about Chloe's baby. Amador is cornered by CTU, but he manages to escape. It's another fast paced episode, there are twist and turns that surprises us in good ways. It's nice to have Nina become useful for a bit, it shows how two faced she really is, it works well on screen. Chase Edmunds is great in this episode, a few hours ago he was nuisance, but he becomes a very important operative in this, it's a nice change for the character.

Thank God this was the last true Mexico episode. As are all ends to subplots on 24, this climactic episode was pretty good I thought. Yes, it still had some stiff dialogue and some more strange and out-of-character things, but hey, Jack finally got a big action scene.



Pros

-I'll admit that I was intrigued when Adam said that Chloe didn't really have a child.

-I liked Kevin Kelly's trailer. Nice job by Joseph Hodges and his team.

-Jack and Nina chatting about the exchange was great.

-There was a slightly better pacing to this episode. You felt that something big was finally going to happen.

-Sherry's "stalkers" turning out to be random old people made me laugh.

-Nina's little microwave virus identifier also made me laugh.

-Chloe = magnificent.

-Amador slipping the virus into his pocket ever so subtly was a brilliant touch. I wish the show would do more things like that where you have to rewatch to see it.

-GREAT action scene at the end. It was so refreshing to finally have a big and sustained one after so many weeks without one. Jack gutting those henchmen followed up with the knife throw was awesome, as was the helicopter blowing all of the stuff up. Good score too.

-Good little scene between Sherry and Julia at the end of the episode.

-Ramon getting blown up made me laugh. Good riddance to that bastard.

-Amador tricking the SEALs was badass. One of the most badass scenes for a 24 villain ever.



Cons

-Bleh exposition by Tony at the beginning.

-AGAIN the episode started pretty slowly. Granted, it wasn't as bad as the other Mexico episodes, but it was still annoyingly slow.

-Kim lecturing Chloe about kidnapping a child for its own protection was so incredibly laughable. I know the writers probably tried to forget most of Kim's storyline from Season 2, but am I the only one that remembers Kim doing the exact same thing?? D'oh!

-Palmer even entertaining the thought to pardon Kelly's son was way out of character for him.

-No explanation about what happened to Kevin Kelly? Laaaaaaame.

-Exposition by Wayne was also dumb. Writers of 24, just let us figure it out. If someone is so dumb that they can't remember what the hell's going on, let that be their problem, don't punish those of us that keep up with the show.

-At the SEALs standoff at the end, why did they take an hour to apprehend Amador? Just go after him, geez.

24: Day 3: 12:00 A.M.-1:00 A.M.

Did we need this much action?



During this episode, Sherry goes to talk to a man named Mr. Kelly who knows about Chipran falls. I'm sorry if I misspelled Chipran falls. Anyway, was it me or did Mr. Kelly seem too much like a slob. He reminded me of the alien from the original "Men in Black" movie. Sherry should know not to get into a place like that without some kind of "back-up". Anyway, the scene where the car comes toward Sherry was too obvious. If you're running someone down, you're not going to go 20 miles an hour.



The lighting in this episode was very different from what we had during the rest of the season. In the promo for this week's episode, Jack and Nina were in full color. In the actual episode they were light-blue. I liked this type of lighting. It gave an even bigger night feel to the episode.



Oh my god! It's not Chloe's baby! Could it be Michelle's Baby? Could it be Mandy's baby? Could it be [insert dumb soap opera speculation here]? The baby at CTU is just too out of place. Can you imagine a baby inside a real CIA building? This show has pushed the boundaries of believability so many times, yet they always end up pulling them off. I can accept Jack coming back from the dead but, a baby at CTU? No way!



Right now, I do not believe Michael Amador is the new villain. I think he is working for someone else. If I'm wrong, the writers have made a big mistake. I mean, he's a great actor, but I don't think he would be a good choice as a ruthless villain like Syed Ali and Victor Drazen were like in the first and second seasons. I guess he could be a good ruthless villain, but I think they could do better than him. I mean, I like Max better than Amador and Max was only in about 3-4 episodes of Season 2



The action in this episode was definitely "up to snuff". What do people really remember episodes for? The answer: action. People will remember this episode years from now because stuff blew up. They won't remember this episode in 5 years because of its great acting or its great lighting. They will simply remember this episode because a helicopter flew over a warehouse and dropped bombs. Thankfully, I've watched every episode about five thousand times on DVD, so I remember every millisecond of detail. You can assume about me either: I'm really cool or that I should get myself a life. You can make that decision for yourself.



The scene where the bomb vial went off looked absolutely fake. I know, I know , 24 doesn't have a huge budget , but I'm supposed to nitpick at 24, It's my "job". Do bombs really make that noise before they go off? I would think they would just go off. Of course, I've never been blown up, so I wouldn't know. The face Ramon makes when he hears the noise is absolutely hilarious. It was like that E.R. episode where that guy died and he yelled really loud without moving. (I didn't actually see it but, I read about it)





Weekly Continuity Error

I would think Adam would hear the baby's awful scream at the end of last week's episode. I've seen screen caps of C.T.U.'s exterior, and it is not very big. Of course, CTU could have been made bigger since the bomb went off but, let's just assume it's the same. I haven't seen anything saying I'm wrong.



Highlights



*The Salazar Slaughter Marathon comes to an end!



*Stuff blew up



*Chloe's baby (just kidding)



Overall Grade: B+