24

With two down and three to go, you think things might be a little more dramatic and exciting than this. Okay, everyone's recovering from the insanity of "1pm - 2pm," and I guess it seemed only right to follow it up with a downtime full of quiet conversations and villainously sneaky maneuvers.
Nothing momentous happens in Wayne's house. Lennox and Pollock scheme some, and Wayne gets flak from VP Noah Daniels for consorting with Assad. Over at CTU, a depressed Morris needs a little cheering up from Chloe, or at least her version of "cheering up."
The second Bigbad of the day shows up to steal Fayed's screentime and keep the story moving. Once CTU finds out about Dmitri Gredenko via some kind of plot device, Jack goes to question him and brings his sister-in-law Marilyn along to point out the house. Might as well make these characters useful.
Yes, the Bauer Family is back in the limelight, sans Graem. As Jack enters remorse mode over his brother's death, Phillip broods evilly, later using Josh to blackmail Marilyn and continue concealing his involvement in the terror plot. What do we get in the end? An exploding house, a two-bit vehicle chase, and an exploding van. I wish I could be more thrilled and less unthrilled. They sure cut their work out for themselves with that mushroom cloud.

Hourly Highlight:
Jack literally jumping through the window of opportunity.

I most say most part of this episode was just a big talk, talk and talk - nothing much going on. Just so many people with their emotions and problems but they did not managed to get the feeling trough - so it looked quite lame.



But the ending was getting better from the moment Marilyn said she might know where the Russian general is. So from that on it was a hunt - but not the way they wanted as Jack's father get into the play - took Marilyn's son and lead them to trap.. Great ending for.. Exciting to see the next one.

After watching this episode i have to say how much i enjoyed it. I cannot see why people constantly complain about this season, as this episode was really great. Basically what happened was Marilyn gives Jack a lead that will help him find Gredenko, but they hit a wall as Phillip takes steps to cover his tracks. Overall i thought this was a very good episode, and so far it looks to be a promising season. I can see why people are saying there are similarities with other seasons but isn't there always. Almost half way though season 6... Will Jack be able to stop his father...

This episode was great...it had both adventure and unpredictability... Jack return to CTU where he is placed in a tough situation due to his involvement in his brother's killing...Phillip does everything to cover his tracks...Marilyn seems to remember a possible encounter between Gredenko and her late husband...On their way there, Phillip does the biggest mistake he could make, in the sense that he threatens Marilyn with killing Josh , if he doesn't say what he wants her to...In my opinion this is a grave mistake, cause it's only a matter of time before Marilyn will gave in...Also, in this episode we are made aware of the plan of Gredenko...to get his revenge on the Americans by using the Arabs...Another important part, was the plot to kill Wayne...Although Lennox seems to be on the plotter's party, i think that this is only an appearance on his behalf.

It's been a few weeks since I last saw an episode... I have to say it took me a while to get back into the story of this season. I've been watching the first part of season five with some friends, so the two seasons are a bit mixed up in my mind. I can't remember if Gredenko was part of season five or is new for this season... That's part of the thing with 24, names are repeated so often each season that you feel like they've always been part of the show.



My favorite scene of the episode was when Jack returned to CTU and talked to Chloe, asking if she was alright. I loved seeing him be sweet to her and show that he cares for her. I don't see the two as couple material in any way, but I think that's what I like about them. They're male and female and they make a great team, but we don't have to have the romance storyline. He's earned her trust and she's earned his, and now that Tony's gone she's the one person he can rely on. The show needs someone like Chloe to always be there for Jack, and it's great to see that he appreciates her. The one thing I miss though is Chloe's social awkwardness. She seems to be much more well adjusted in this season, and while that might simply be character development it means her role as comic relief is gone. And Chloe was the perfect comic relief for this show, since her awkwardness was funny without being in the way. This season she doesn't seem to have that anymore. Her "I'm glad he didn't kill you" comment to Jack could have been very Chloe-awkward but it wasn't, and her first scene with Morris wasn't awkward either. And why is Chloe wearing a skirt? It doesn't seem like her to me. Although she was kind of back to her old ways when she told Morris he was pissing her off. That's the Chloe we know and love!



Daddy Bauer is one mean potato, isn't he? He was really milking the conversation in the morgue for all it was worth, trying to make Jack feel as guilty as possible. I wonder what Jack ever did to piss him off like that. I'm a bit surprised that he showed his true colors to Marilyn so quickly. I hope he doesn't hurt Josh. Frankly it's getting a bit annoying that every season has a teenager that Jack must save.



The first ten, fifteen minutes were quite uneventful. No one seemed to be too busy with work, they were just kind of walking around. Personally I don't mind that, though. It kind of gives the show a stronger touch of reality. Nobody can work super hard for 24 hours straight, there will be slower moments. And it was effectful that they placed several scenes dealing with character emotions right after each other, instead of breaking them up with more action-esque sequences.



People at CTU insist on having personal or incriminating phone calls in the hallway. It really makes no sense to me.



Something else that doesn't make sense to me... When Daddy Bauer gave Graem the last injection with the pentatol he just sort of left it lying there. Wouldn't Burke realise that the needle just appeared out of nowhere? Wouldn't he keep track of how many injections he had used? And above all, wouldn't he have removed the pentatol from the scene when he was done using it? I mean, who leaves stuff like that lying around?



What exactly is the vice president hoping to achieve? He makes it sound as if they must apprehend all arabs in order to stop the three remaining nukes. How are they supposed to do that in time? It's got to take days, if not weeks. I'm glad this season takes a stand against persecution. I just hope that Assad won't turn out to be working for the terrorists after all. It would make the whole point they're trying to make this season seem pointless, and it's not.



Tom Lennox is a very interesting character. I've probably said it before, but I'll say it again. He fits the characteristics of a villain on a show, since he's activly working against the protagonists. But he doesn't come across as a villain. Through great writing, and some amazing acting by Peter MacNichol, he comes across as a good guy who's just on the wrong trail. He seems to have good intentions and like he truly wants what's best, only he's got the wrong ideas about it. Even now, when he's drawn into this conspiracy against Palmer, he comes across as someone who's a good guy inside.



It was great seeing Milo out in the field. His driving stunts were quite impressive. I sure hope they don't kill him off though. Not only is he a great character, but it's so nice to have a character from the first season back on the show. With Palmer and Tony gone, the show could really use a character from the old days.

I'm writing this review with a huge disappointment towards one of my Top5 shows.



The truth is this 6th season has been such a drop in quality that 24 used to deliver. The 5th season was just amazing and it would be very hard to top that, but it's hard to believe that the same writers that wrote what they did once are now writing this very weak episodes that we've been seeing lately.



Along with Prison Break, 24 is decreasing in quality this year, which is shame as they were both really good shows.



This episodes was especially bad and the plot is so full of holes it hurts to keep watching. From the quick surrender of Morris towards killin millions of people, to the quick programming of the bombs that needed such an expert. The exagerated escape of Fayed and his amazing appearance in a far away helicopter. The stupid involvement of Jack's family in this whole situation. Jack's father is just such a stupid character that I belive some of the writers hold very big grudges against their parents or something. David Palmer's brother as president? How ridiculous is that... I mean that just doesn't happen and now at minimum cost they seem to be able to take every president of his job... Please let this season improve and maybe finish the show this year if this is the kind of quality they will be delivering from here on. 24 is not what it used to be so it should be finished before it starts reflecting on the show's reputation.



And don't be hating just because I didn't gave this episode more than a 7. You people seem to forget there are 10 rating numbers and not just 9 and 10.

24

apparently this was part of 2hr episode in the US so had to wait a week In the UK. A suppose a few things are starting to fall into place. The myserious gredenko makes an appearance, and turns out to be fyhad’s cohort, or so it seems. Never trust a Russian bearing arms, and in this case nucular ones at that. As jack finally makes it back to ctu, he tries to find out if is from his still mourning father (yeh what ever) if he new gredenko. When jack see’s his father in the room alone before they meet, and once in side the emotional side of jack again comes to the fore again as he takes the blame for killing his brother. Jacks father stalls him by saying he will make a few calls to greams colluages to see if know anything, only to set up the removal of gredenko as he can implictate him in the arms going missing. On meeting greams wife jacks that she may know something when he mentions gredenko, so he asks bill if he can follw it up. Meanwhile chloe in her own subtle way is doing her best to get morris back to work so that he can forget what he has done. She even tries her version of lets do it for the gipper speech. And blow me down it works. While this is going on marilyn gets a call while with jack, as they go hunting for gredenko’s house , and well who should it but the snake in the grass jacks father who shows that he is a real s.o.b by threatening josses life after he tells her what he has done by killing gream he tells her to lead jack on wild goose chase to a different house, where he again tries to kill jack, (and I thought my lot could be trouble at times), but here now its milo to the rescue as he escapes with marilyn. I have to say that keifer Sutherlands acting in this episode was brilliant. So lets here for roll on next week. Not going to bother with assad palmer etc, its all going to kick off soon enough with them.

Throughout this episode we see Jack engulfed in a level of guilt about his brothers death. He truly believes it was his fault. We also discover how implicit Jack's Father is in the day's attacks. Every episode has extraordinary acting from Kiefer Sutherland but I think it shone quite brightly in this episode. We see CTU getting closer to finding Gradenko only to have him whisked away from in front of them by Jack's Father Philip. If Jack knew the truth he would kick his dad's ass and never trust anyone ever again. Not that he did anyway. Now We can see why. Another Major plot development which has been vaguely teetered around for a while now is the fact that several member's of Palmer's Cabinet believe he is not fit to be president. In this episode it is revealed that they plan to take immediate action against the president. Which means either they are going to perform a Mutiny of some sort or try to Assassinate the president! This would explain the level of secrecy regarding their meetings.



The episode got very exciting when they reached the house where they were lead to believe Gradenko was only to walk into a trap. Jack nearly lost his life and they lost several agents. If Marylin wanted to play it properly she would have told Jack about His dad and Go from there. Apparently she didn't know that thousands of peoples lives may have been sacrificed because of her decision.

I think Jack should have been more perceptive as well. He is a master in reading people. And her phone conversation was obviously not ordinary. But this might be deliberate to truly reveal how much China affected Jack.

24 Episodes 6.08 and 6.09 "Day Six 1:00PM -3:00PM"

Airdate: Monday, February 12th 8:00PM-10:00PM



Twice the dose of Bauer power hour this week. Though it didn't match the amazingness of last year's mid-season double episode feature which culminated into the CTU nerve gas catastrophe (proving nine episodes in so far that anything Season 6 can do Season 5 can do better), I still thought it was a major intensity booster that this season desperately needed. Typical bad ass Jack the whole way through, and absolutely ZERO Sandra Palmer, but for me the best parts of the two hour event were bringing the new CTU characters into the mix.



I had said in an earlier review that problems that existed in the past couple seasons were not taking the necessary time to further develop new characters. Well, that issue was definitely addressed in these two hours. It was shining moments for Morris O'Brian and Milo Pressman, characters that prior to now were viewed as nothing more than Chloe's puppets in the CTU computer geek squad. 1:00PM-3:00PM certainly proved otherwise, and most importantly, gave us more of a reason to actually CARE about them.



Before Morris even reached Fayed's torture fest, he got to play a rousing round of Jack Bauer helicopter chase as his kidnapped car ride included cutting across multiple lanes of incoming traffic before switching cars to get the Bauer chopper off their trail. This led to a vintage 24 moment of "YES! The random blond chick we thought served no purpose just freakin' shot McCarthy and now Morris is saved!"... to ten seconds later... "NO! She's a not so random blond **** trying to get the $7 million for herself not realizing that the only way terrorists know how to give you money is to put a bullet in your head."



This led them to Fayed's safehouse, where an eager Abu was ready to dish out his second torturing in seven hours, this time in an attempt to program the nuclear trigger allowing the bombs to be operational. Morris tried his best to not give in, but for every witty O'Brian comment was an even worse cover your eyes torture moment that eventually got him to cave. I was a little bit annoyed with Jack's "You actually gave him something that worked?" remark. Morris isn't a field agent with the training to withstand excruciating pain. I don't think many people would have accepted more torture after getting power drilled in the back; especially knowing CTU was on sight and would be raiding the apartment soon anyway. Even if Morris COULD withstand more pain, he had no way of knowing Fayed was going to pull a Marwan and escape through a secret passageway.



So of course Morris is experiencing major guilt over what happened and is going to feel ultimately responsible if another nuke goes off, and it's not until Chloe slaps him back to work by saying "I know you've had a really rough day today, but you're really starting to piss me off!" And then she actually slaps him back to work. I thought it was a really successful plot line. They could've just had Fayed find some random engineer to reprogram the nukes, but this gave a nice new element to the Chloe/Morris relationship and more depth to Morris' character in general. I was happy with this. Long live Morris O'Brian!



Another character who stepped up at the end was Milo, who up until now played virtually no role in the season's overall story and was just such a boring character. He was more interesting in Season One when he was just sitting there eating his peanuts hour after hour. But then we were presented with his CTU tactical van driving skills with a minor in blowing it up with hand grenades to get away from the bad guys working for Jack's evil Daddy. Such an awesome scene. And again most importantly, like Morris, it gave us more of a reason to CARE about his character. It may sound strange, but on a show like 24, the best way to develop characters and make people give a crap about them is to put their lives in danger. If Morris and Milo were just in CTU all season arguing back and forth about which satellite simulation to run and who's a better match for Chloe I'd probably be looking forward to Sandra Palmer's next scene. Ok, that's a lie, but still, very happy with the direction they took Morris and Milo this week.



Onto the White House story. Well, I was right last week when I speculated that they were going to try and remove Palmer from office so the VP can put Operation Racism into action. But I take back what I said about the writers going about it the same way they did in Season Two. I didn't expect them to go the try to kill the president route, not to mention the VP isn't aware of the conspiracy that's about to be put into action, so I'm happy at least on the fact this is a far different approach. Though it would be nice if for once a president on 24 didn't have a Vice President that disagreed with a major policy decision and tried to do something behind their back, or in this case just unknowingly having people do something behind their back. And just to make a prediction now, though it seems almost impossible to ever like Tom, I think he is going to eventually have second thoughts once he gets in too deep and will try to stop it. Or maybe at least slip Palmer a little memo when he gets him his coffee that says "watch out, some evil people that are even more racist than me are going to try and kill you, in fact your coffee might very well be poisoned right now so don't drink it."



It was great to have Assad back. The thought of having a terrorist leader chatting it up with the president inside the White House is kind of weird, but I also like the way this storyline is heading. I think Assad's character is great and his story has really delved into the world of terrorism more than ever before on 24. I'd also like to know how the heck he got from LA to DC in less than three hours, but if we were really to have a whole season go by without any real time errors, it'd be, well, Season One. On the plus side, assuming Karen took the same speed of light type of aircraft as Assad, she should be arriving at CTU next episode.



Nothing makes me enjoy 24 more than that amazing feeling when Jack is just being Jack. From landing the helicopter on top of an 18 wheeler, to leading the awesome shootout in the raid on Fayed's location, to finding the armed nuke and adding another nickel to CTU's charity fund raiser of "Donate Nickel Every Time We Hear 'CTU. This is Bauer. We've got a problem.'" Classic Jack the whole first hour.



The second hour we got to see Jack's CTU return, which has seemingly become a tradition over the past three seasons. Season 4's return saw faces of "we haven't seen you since Driscoll fired you", Season 5's return saw faces of "we haven't seen you since you died", and Season 6's return saw faces of "we haven't seen you since you were kidnapped by the Chinese" and maybe some faces of "I had strep on Day Four and the flu on Day Five so actually I haven't seen you since the days when our country was safe and only being threatened with super viruses."



"I'm really glad Fayed didn't kill you this morning," Chloe says in her reunion with Jack as some of her first words to him in almost two years. Jack's reunion with the good 'ol Situation Room however isn't as heartfelt and/or amusing as he learns from Bill that he basically killed his brother during the interrogation. Little does Jack know that the report he's requested Bill leave as is that holds Jack responsible for killing Graem is the least of his family problems. Because once it's learned that the Arabs are actually just the ex-Russian General Gredenko's scapegoat for destroying the U.S., Jack's father's involvement may very well be the key to bringing it all to an end. After Marilyn tells Jack about once following Graem to a house full of Russians, the Bauer family saga goes into high gear. In a nutshell, Evil Daddy Bauer calls Sister-in-Law Bauer and tells her that he'll kill Nephew Bauer just like he killed Brother Bauer if she doesn't lead Jack Bauer to a different house that has a bomb in it instead of Gredenko.



All in all, some quality 24. The suspense and excitement that I thought was somewhat lacking the past few episodes were back at typical 24 pace, and things are looking up heading into Hour Ten. The treasonous conspiracy inside the White House to take out Palmer is just starting to get underway, CTU is starting to be CLOSE to as fun as it used to be, Sandra Palmer is still hopefully nowhere to be seen, and I can't even imagine what Jack's gonna do when he finds out about his father. Can't wait for next week!



Overall Episode(s) Rating: 8.8

This episode rocked and that the shows are keeping on

Getting better as it shows you what kind of jerk

That Phillips is and how he doesn't seem to care about

Human life at all as he wants those nukes released at any and all costs as he's bound and determined. Meanwhile, Jack says that he had no other choice but to shoot his scum of a brother. Not just that is "his job" but also that justice be done.

Marilyn remembers something about Grame's business meeting that might help CTU find Gredenko, but Philip gets in the way by assembling a team that will hunt down Gredenko before CTU can get hold of him. Lennox gets to learn more from Reed, the plan to get President Palmer out of office goes underway as the conspirators position themselves for a possible takeover of the Palmer administration. So much more stuff happens in this episode, the tension rises as Philip Bauer works against Jack in an attempt to cover his tracks and perhaps save the Bauer business. This episode is certainly well made, I love it.

I don't know about you, but this season only makes sense to me if I pretend the bomb never went off! It was great to start with, but it promised too much and it's delivering too little.

I mean... I can only speculate... but if a nuclear bomb really went off in California wouldn't there be panic, traffic jams, riots, oh yeah and the phones are working perfectly !!?? Except for the fact that the president keeps repeating (the same line over and over again) that 12.000 people died... I would never have known from their attitude. So, despite the fact that everything has been predictable (Morris being the engineer to arm the nukes- what a shocker !! Jack's dad being "evil" - surprise surprise etc.), I keep watching because I have never missed a single episode since day 1 and I hope that, as it has been done before, everything will suddenly change and the 24 I know and love comes back!

Watching this episode I felt that I already knew what was happening before it did. Hints were given about certain characters intentions and sure enough if you could pick it, it all fell together quite predictably. The episode was still a very good one and does develop the story and character's further, none more so that jack's father Phillip. Phillip's true intentions are soon realized in this episode well before they happen because in the previous episode you come to realize that he's behind the company selling the nukes. Personally for me not the better of the 24 episodes but as with every episode a must watch!

With Phillip Bauer killing his son and attempting to kill his grandson and other son, it shows that he is so corrupt. This episode may introduce that there might be a conspiracy just like the one in Season 5 and the plot against Wayne Palmer who seems to be more hardcore with the one in Season 2 against his brother David. The next episodes will be certainly very interesting and I hope that in the end of the day Jack will not be separate of his family again. Also I think the truth about Josh may be revealed very soon.

This episode was part 2 of a 2 part event. I have to say i liked the first hour better, but this episode was also great. 24 always keeps you wanting to know what will happen next and this episode was no exception. We find out that Reed plans to kill Palmer and Lennox agrees to the plan, they believe that Wayne Palmer isn't doing whats right for the country.I think that Marilin should have told Jack that his father was the one who killed Graem and to not go in the building but all she did was try to utter some words and almost got Jack killed.Later.

Plot: Tom contemplates his resignation after the President rejects his ideas, but finds a new path to pure evil. Morris is brutally tortured into giving Fayid the capability to arm all the nukes. Jack’s father takes desperate moves to cover his tracks. Jack saves Morris and disarms a nuke in his spare time.



We are treated to two, back to back, hours tonight. I have no idea why there are two episodes on tonight and I don’t really care. Perhaps the producers want to recover some street cred after last weeks somewhat disappoint fair. Of course, weak for 24 is like really, umm, freaking awesome for a normal show. Sorry, analogies have never been my forte. Tom needs to get his come upens! After the President refuses to go along with his wanton and completely ineffective racist plans, he decides to resign. Unfortunately, his clingy advisor has other plans in mind. Why is Tom the only advisor with his own lackey? This guy must find it hard to breath with his head shoved so far up Tom’s ass. The political tool, (I won’t dignify him with a name), reveals that he is involved in the conspiracy to kill Palmer. In order to keep Tom from resigning, he must subtly reveal the intricacies of the plan. He might as well have drawn a picture of himself shooting Palmer in the head, for all the subtly he managed to command! At first Tom is horrified but than he realizes what he is truly capable of; the total subjugation of the Muslim race!!! MUAHAHA



McCarthy’s blond bimbo decides to stand up for herself. She is a self respecting woman, that doesn’t need to just get by on her looks and sleep her way into money. Instead, she shoots McCarthy and decides to take Morris in for the full cash reward. It is the American way. Why do thieves always work with other criminals? It makes absolutely no sense. Everyone ties up loose ends and the hot blond chick, politely asking for her seven million dollars is a freaking lose end if I ever saw one! Naturally Fayid shoots her and then begins his torture of Morris.



Being British, Morris immediately capitulates. Rupert Murdock must have some deal with the FCC because that torture scene was pretty gruesome even for Fox. Sexually explicit content and fowl language I have come to expect, but drilling through someone’s bone is a tad much for the eight o’clock time slot.



Jack tracks Fayid down and attacks his hideout but loses him in the obligatory shoot out. Morris admits that he broke, but his blubbering depression will have to wait. Right now, Jack has only minutes to diffuse a nuke. Luckily, Chloe is ready to talk Jack threw it and he makes short work of the bomb with his trusty Phillips screw driver. You should see what the guy can do with a spork!



After disarming the nuke, Jack follows up on a lead from his brother’s wife. Marylyn followed Graham once to a meeting with a bunch of Russians and Jack thinks it could be the ones that sold the nukes in the first place. Jack’s father needs to cover up his tracks so he orders Marylyn to send Jack into a trap under the threat of killing his grandson. Didn’t this guy build this company all for his family’s future? Not much point if he kills them all, is there?



Parting Thought: Jack’s real son is bullet proof. Awaken his rage, Gramps! www.lifereviewed.com

To summarise, Jack's dad is a bad man, whilst his dead brother's wife is obviously still attracted to him (is any woman in his universe not? I mean come on!). Morris gets over feeling sorry for himself. Jack is miraculously unharmed by an explosion that kills the rest of his unit. Milo finds himself having to weild a gun, use grenades and keep an annoying woman alive. The annoying sub-plot to overthrow Plamer happens in the background. If only the actors looked the part, this could actually be more fun to watch (Palmer is clearly not fit to be President, as he does not implicitly trust Jack).



What exactly did the Chinese do to Jack? Would be hugely cool if he could start having flashbacks of his time at their hands. More character building would be interesting.



Also, are there any ethnic groups not behind terrorist attacks yet? Possibly the Canadians, Native Americans and Inuits could be in an obvious, but little known secret alliance known as:the real "Masters of Mischief". Perhaps for the next season?

As the episode begins, Fayed has escaped another CTU dragnet with the three remaining suitcase nukes and the device required to activate them for detonation. As expected, Fayed is working with others to maximize the extent of the damage caused by the remaining devices. This ally is revealed as Grenenko, the man who was working with Graem and Phillip to get the nukes on United States soil in the first place. Whatever sloppiness might have plagued the previous few episodes, the beginning of this installment provides some potential for something more cohesive.



That said, it seems hard to believe that Phillip Bauer wouldn’t be under some measure of surveillance, given the connections between the Bauer company and the terrorist activity. While Phillip does a rather thorough job of manipulating Jack, there’s little reason why the rest of CTU would adopt a hands-off policy. And one would think that CTU would know to intercept calls from cell phones out of their own building by now!



In a surprising move, the writers finally bring back Jack’s lack of confidence in his abilities. Instead of questioning the circumstances of Graem’s death, he considers the possibility of his own complicity and offers himself up to the consequences. Contrast this to Jack during the third season, when he was clearly in the wrong with his heroin addiction and felt that those consequences were an unnecessary impediment to his operational duty. While the previous episodes themselves don’t quite bear out Jack’s reaction in this installment, it’s nice to see that the writers didn’t drop that layer of the arc completely.



While Wayne tries to work with Assad on a compromise statement, he faces growing opposition from his own vice president and other members of the government. It’s nice that the writers addressed the question of why Wayne would choose someone with such a divergent point of view, but it still doesn’t make sense that Wayne would fail to vet his allies. Wouldn’t he have learned from the experiences and death of his brother?



As mentioned in the review for the previous episode, the actions of those supporting strict national security measures undermine the virtues of that side of the argument. From the perspective of the plot, however, this is actually a fairly logical move. This provides a ready connection between Phillip Bauer’s allies in industry and government and those seeking to take control. More stringent national security and a climate of fear play into the hands of Phillip’s commercial enterprise.



This would represent an interesting evolution of the plot arc from the fifth season. Coming in the wake of President Logan’s debacle, how would the controlling interests respond? Perhaps they would try to find another candidate who might be persuaded to implement their agenda, someone with popular support but a lack of experience. This would explain why the terrorist attacks began precisely at the beginning of Wayne’s term in office, and why plans were already in place to eliminate him if he failed to give in to the demand for strict national security. And it would be sensible that Phillip’s company, if implicated in the events of the fifth season, would also be responsible for those contingencies as well.



This also explains why the writers would introduce Graem’s wife as someone Jack has loved and the possibility that Josh is Jack’s son. These characters would be easy pawns for Phillip to use against Jack, should Jack get too close to the truth. That plot progression begins in this episode, and without much subtlety. For all the plot possibilities introduced by the various threads currently in play, it seems a bit too obvious for Phillip to reveal his true colors to Marilyn in such a heavy-handed fashion. How did Phillip remain in the clear for so long, if his methods were so obvious?



As noted previously, the overwhelming thrust of this season appears to be an exploration of why Jack is who he is. It’s not just about the process of restoring his confidence in himself after his time in China; it’s also about revealing the origins of his sense of duty in the first place. One would assume that the intention is to put Jack in a position to face the same emotional challenges in the present that influenced him in the past. Hence the clumsy dialogue about how Jack’s issues with his father and his company led him to the military and intelligence work, and how Marilyn was also a part of that.



If that is the intention of the writers, then they should be given credit. This is the culmination of plot threads that began, essentially, in the fourth season. Perhaps this is the influence of writers such as David Fury and Manny Coto, who are known for their ability to identify long-term plot potentials. The trick would be avoiding the temptation to attribute everything in the past decade of Jack’s life to Phillip’s manipulations. A more reasonable approach would be to suggest, in a relatively broad sense, that Jack’s rise and success within the intelligence community eventually placed him at odds with his father’s interests in a more direct fashion, thus precipitating the past few seasons worth of intrigue (at least the elements that now appear to be connected by a common source).



It’s an impressive concept, and one that the producers and writers should be congratulated for, if that was their endgame. Yet certain concerns remain. If that was the guiding plan for the past couple of seasons, then one cannot help but note that the execution of that broad design was less than perfect. In fact, one must inevitably remember that the writers are often making things up as they go along. So perhaps this is an example of a writing staff managing to overcome the limitations of their own flawed process. Whatever the case, the success of these concepts will depend greatly on how the endgame, pre-planned or cobbled together, is ultimately achieved.

Jack and his brother's widow go a-hunting, only to be subverted by Papa Bauer. Morris is sad. Assad and the President hang out in the Prez's love bunker. Walid is still gone, Josh is still annoying.



For me, this episode is kind of in-between the greatness of last week and the kind-of-goodness of the week before that.



I am definitely enjoying the "Evil Bauer Family" storyline a lot more with Graem gone, although I honestly cannot say it's my favorite storyline ever. It is slowly regaining my interest, however. We'll see how it unfolds.



One thing I'm curious about - why, exactly, are Graem and Phillip involved in the schemes? It's pretty obvious at this point that they're hip-deep in everything that's going on, but until we get something out of Papa Bauer I'm pretty confused. Pretty much every episode they've appeared in this season, Graem and Phillip have been talking about "protecting the company, keep the company safe, blah blah blah." That's a fine motivation I suppose, but I'm not really seeing what all of this nuclear holocaust/Cold War stuff has to do with that.



Anyway. I'm really dreading the inevitable scene where Jack and Marilyn (Graem's widow) have "the talk." I am most definitely afraid that the two are going to end up reconciling (romantically) by the end of the day - "Hey, you know, I'm totally messed up because of all my time in a Chinese prison camp, and your husband totally just died a few minutes after I tortured him. Wanna make out?" No thanks.



I became a bit more interested in the whole Lennox angle in this episode, but not by much. I just couldn't get past Lennox, being the kind of guy he is, essentially taking orders from a man who was for all intents and purpouses his secretary just a couple hours ago. But Lennox seems to be just swallowing it all down with a smile. In the past couple episodes I've definitely bought Wayne as President a bit more. He definitely would never, ever, ever be president in the real world, but then again, in the real world Jack and Morris wouldn't be able to get back to CTU by 2:03 even though they were still halfway across town at 1:58. Suspension of disbelief is key, I guess.



We're definitely in an upswing here. Hopefully we can get back to the kind of episodes we started the season out with before too long.

After his absence in the first hour we alot of Phillip Bauer in this one. As he erases Graem's phone and lurks around CTU "monitoring" things such as Jack's conversation with Marilyn. The autopsy report leads Jack to feel guilty and that he is to blame for Graem's death. Bill offers to change it for him but Jack declines accepting responsibility for what happend with his estranged brother. Morris returns to CTU in obvious pain and is very distraught over what he has allowed Fayed to have the ability to do. Some great scenes with him and Chloe as she tries to convince him to stop feeling for himself and to return to work. Marilyn tells Jack she may know of a house that could lead them to Gredenko. Phillip is on to this and makes sure Marilyn leads Jack and Milo and CTU to the wrong house or else he will harm Josh. It also now appears the Vice President has nothing to do with this mutiny on the President and that Tom just may become apart of it after all. Also for anyone who said that they found it boring they were back to muslim terrorists this year instead of the russians from last year well you got your wish. As it appears Gredenko is very much behind alot of the days activities and is assuring the Fayed and company take the fall. A very exciting and dramatic ending with the explosion at the false address. All in all a great 2 hours of 24 that has me really excited for the rest of the season.

That Bauer family sure is a dysfunctional one. Papa Bauer blames Jack for the death of Graem (which Papa Bauer caused, by the way) then kidnaps his grandson to keep Graem's wife from leading Jack to the Russian general who could implicate Papa Bauer in the conspiracy here on day six. Meanwhile, Graem's wife reveals she's been trying to leave him for years and asks Jack, "So did you join the army because you were distraut over me?" and is shot down hard by Jack. I had to wonder if she hadn't been holding out some secret hope that Jack still loved her all these years and here Jack just takes the golf cleats to her heart on that one. That was pretty brutal, you have to admit (but it's close to Valentine's Day so I guess that's as close as we'll get to a sweet, romantic moment for the show...well, unless Audrey shows up at some point). Man, Jack sure knows how to pile on himself. Bill Buchanan gives him an a way out of blame for the death of his brother and Jack chooses to not take it. Instead, he'll take a heaping plate of guilt with a side of self-doubt and blame, thank you. All this and he almost gets blown up (by a bomb his dad planted, no less!) and he has to disarm a suitcase nuke.



Which the use of said nuke brings up some questions. Fayed apparently worked pretty hard to get these nukes and they're part of some greater overall plan. So if that's true, he seems pretty careless about them. I can see that he needs to escape with the device Morris created in order to arm the others, but does it make a lot of sense to leave the nuke around for Jack to disarm it? Because we all knew Jack would disarm it--he is, after all, Jack Bauer.



Speaking of that, why did they make such pains to get Morris and declare him to be one of the only people who could program the device to arm the nukes only for Fayed to say, "I'll just find another programmer if you die"? Did Fayed somehow think if he kills Morris and Chloe finds out that she will hunt him down like an animal? Because I think that would have happened. We did see Chloe with a machine gun a few years ago. The torture of Morris was pretty brutal. I won't look at a cordless drill in quite the same way again for a while. The part of the first hour of the two-hour event had me on the edge of my seat. And I wondered why Morris didn't somehow write some code in to make it appear like he'd succeeded instead of giving Fayed the device he needs to arm the nukes. Seems to me this was just a way to get Fayed out on the loose with a necessary component to arming the other three devices and possibly setting them off at "high profile" targets. What those high profile targets are, I'm not quite sure.



And is all of this some plot to push an agenda by this conspiracy of people that we've seen lurking in the shadows? And is Tom now part of it or will his loyalty to Palmer help expose what's going on? One of the interesting scenes is how we found out that Wayne was approached by Tom to run for president and that Tom ran the whole campaign. Does this mean Tom felt he couldn't win but Wayne could and wanted to install Wayne as a puppet, to follow his agenda? And what exactly is the agenda? I get the feeling that Tom is misguided a bit, but deep down he's not necessarily evil. But that may or may not be changing, depending of if he jumps in with the plot to remove Wayne by whatever means necessary.



And did Wayne learn nothing from his brother about these things?



So, we've got a far-reaching conspiracy, a terrorist who can set off some nukes and the a rogue Russian general who wants to attack America but set up the Arabs for it. And yet, as I watch I feel as though we're not going anywhere fast this year. We're spinning the wheels and the storylines seem to be treading the same ground we've seen in previous years. There were isolated parts of this story that had me interested--Morris's capture and the scenes of his torture, the double cross of McCarthy--but overall, I can't say there was a lot here that was really that thrilling or worthy of a two-hour event. Honestly, the second hour was a bit too slow moving and I wonder if the producers knew this and paired it with the more intense first hour to keep us from feeling like a week had been wasted in the unfolding drama of day six.



And I've got to say it--the logic of driving around on the off-chance we happen to find the place that the Russian general might be....that just really strained credibility.



I keep saying that something needs to happen to jump start this day. We've been in a holding pattern since the nuke went off. I'm not sure how you top that, but there has to be something to get this story rolling. There are some good elements in play here, but they need to start coming together soon or we risk a long, extended journey to Mexico like we got in season three...

The audience knew what was coming in this episode: Abu Fayed was not working alone and that Gredenko may be the one behind this episode. What we did learn, or think we know, is that Phillip Bauer does not want the bombs to go off, but he does have his own agenda in mind. I was not a fan of Phillip when he was introduced, and I know that he has no heart because he has killed one of his sons, attempted to kill the other, tried to abduct his daughter-in-law and is holding his grandson hostage. What a nice father, eh?



I believe that this episode should have been much better if there had been more deception. Perhaps if it had not been revealed that Phillip was behind the persuasion or and that Josh had just been abducted. The Twenty Four writers are awesome, but I think that the audience learned too much during this episode.

More insanity from Jacks nut bag father holding his grandson hostage to force the boys mother to misdirect Jacks search for the house of the mad Russian General bent on revenge for the US winning the cold war using arab terrorists and figuring the Ayrabs would get all the blame. I wonder if this will be same thing as the CBS series Jericho has planned as the people behind the bombings in that series.



The behind the scenes political intrigue was rather boring and I was just waiting for that part to be over - that sub plot may get interesting as time goes on, but for now its rather dull.



The action packed ending saved it from being a dud; house blew up, grenades, gun fire and plenty of explosions.

I thought that the first episode was really good, but the second episode was primarily a filler episode right up until those last action packed 5 minutes of Jack Bauer aweseomness. The first 50 minutes of the episode were very slow and I thought that there could have been a lot more interesting stories told during that time. I thought that the Tom Lennox plot to get rid of Wayne Palmer went on the down low when it should have been thrust into high gear. It seems we will have to wait another 1-2 episodes before that storyline fully comes together. As stated, the action scene at the end was a great way to end the episode, I just thought the first part was slow enough to label this episode as one of the filler episodes of the season. Every season has a couple and this was one of them. Hopefully we will have a better week next week

So I wrote that last week's hour was continuing the streak of lackluster hours of the show following the nuke going off. I really hoped that tonight's double hour block would bring the show back on track, and I am happy to report that it has indeed. The first hour was highlighted by an intense sequence of Jack disarming a nuke with the help of Chloe over the radio. Fayed slipped away with the ability to program the remaining nukes, similar to Marwan's ability to avoid capture in Season Four, but who's counting?



The first hour also started a storyline carrying throughout hour #2: Lennox and Reed conspiring to assassinate Wayne Palmer. While they never actually said the words "kill the President" - and it's entirely plausible that they are staging a politcal coup - I think their point was made pretty clear. I am VERY intrigued to see where this storyline is going ultimately.



Phillip Bauer also reveals his more sinister side by forcing Marilyn to mislead Jack and company in tracking down Gradenko. It was pretty much a gimme that the house he was having everyone invade was booby-trapped, but it's great to see Milo actually being involved in the plot for a change.



I do have to bring up the one really stupid plot point in this two-hour block. Assad landed in DC near the beginning of the hour to meet with the President. He left Los Angeles a little after 11:00 AM. Are we to believe he flew clear across country in a little more than two hours? Did he fly supersonic speed? Is this a joke?



Anyways, all things considered 24 is back on track and this season is shifting into high gear, and I couldn't be happier.