Read this post or Jack Bauer will shoot you in the knee
-
- January
- 10
SPOILER ALERT! If you don’t want to know too much about the first episode of Season 6, don’t read the comments in reply to this posting!
I have a confession to make.
I never saw Season 1 of 24.
Premiering just after Sept. 11, 24 was a little too, well, 24-ish, to spark my interest. Plus, we had given up cable for a while, and were mostly borrowing movies from the library and reading. I know that Season 1’s been out on DVD for quite some time, and my husband even rented it and watched it. I saw the final episode of the season.
But so much happens in each season that you kind of need the months in between to recuperate. Season 2, which I previously said was my favorite, sucked me in immediately. The first episode I saw, I think, was Hour 3. A bomb goes off in CTU’s LA headquarters and the stakes only get higher from there. A nuclear bomb blast on American soil happens only halfway through the season? Unbelievable. We needed the hijinks of hapless Kim Bauer as a sort of comic relief.
And now we’re about to embark upon Season 6. The America that Jack, Teri and Kim Bauer lived in lo those many years ago no longer exists. A flesh-eating virus has been loosed on an LA hotel. Nerve gas has been set off in an LA mall. A former president has been assassinated. A sitting president is arrested by U.S. Marshals while giving a eulogy for the assassinated president.
The first season’s plot, of an attempt to assassinate the man who would become the first African-American president in U.S. history, seems so, well, trivial in comparison.
This season opens with the latest in a series of suicide bombings and a secret trade to bring back Jack Bauer from the Chinese. Because, as we all know, only one man can save the U.S.
Again.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 at 11:08 am by Amy Vernon.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Category: 24
Print
| 
Email
I never saw season one either. The Netflix DVD is sitting on my desk. I’ll do a four-episode marathon tonight, and starting next week I’ll have two seasons going at once!
Shouldn’t you be cooking?
Did you guys see the prequel of Season 6 that was included in the DVD boxset of Season 5? If not I so want to spoil the first scene right now. I need one of those no-freakin-way moments with other fans.
Share! Share! I added a spoiler alert to the top of this posting.
So here it is super condensed: Day 5 ends with Jack on a boat to China. Day 6 begins seven months later with a bearded Jack being electrocuted by his Chinese captives. The guy in charge (the one who was leading the investigation of the killing of the Chinese consul during Day 4) is in the room. He asks Jack to identify which of two men are working with the Americans  Hong or Lee. Jack refuses to answer. (No surprise there). They drag a barely alive Jack to his cell, dank and dark.
Then, a shot is fired and guard is down. Two men rush into Jack’s cell. Jack scurries to a corner, scared (oh the acting skills of Kiefer). They identify themselves as Americans who are assigned to rescue him.
They take Jack and he’s holding on to one of their arms, noticeably weak, and they escape. Outside the compound they reveal a hidden Toyota (total product placement) and here begins the obligatory chase scene. Jeeps with guards are trying to gun them down, but of course, they escape.
Now they’re at a clearing and out pops Hong. Jack’s rescuers say something to the effect of “Don’t worry, Jack, he’s with us.� They ask Jack if he recognizes Hong. After a momentary hesitation, Jack nods.
Out pops the Consul-Investigator-Guy who shoots Hong and thanks Jack for revealing the traitor. He orders Jack back to his cell and says he’ll wire the “rescuers� their money.
POOR JACK! They fooled the JB =(
I rehashed this whole scene to a friend who replied with “Jack Bauer’s calender goes from March 31st to April 2nd… no one fools Jack Bauer.”
So how the heck are they gonna get him back to the U.S. in an hour? Everything on 24 happens “within the hour.”
Jack’s release is negotiated in advance of the day beginning for a specific, plot-related reason. The beginning of the day is timed for his arrival back from China and exchange.
Ya know, that occurred to me this morning as I was driving into work. (I have a long drive!) I realized Christina said “prequel,” so I guess that’s more to explain some of his demeanor when he’s brought back, all broken. They broke Jack Bauer!?!?
Not for long, I’m sure.
Thanks for your post, Margaret!