i just watched episode 23. wow.
24: Day 3: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
i guess David's gonna have to look for a new wife. he's got a clean slate now. not so much for Wayne, though.
i loved the subway scene, waiting for the man to come off the train. brilliant staging.
now on to the very last hour...
24: Day 3: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
... this was it??
really? wow. i'm stunned. okay. first off, that was one weak-ass fight to end the season with. Chase and Cassar (ha, get it?) looked like they were kids reenacting every lame fight scene where the two guys push each other into stuff, look like they're crashing into glass, and then crawl all over each other on the floor to get to the gun (this time, the bomb. very weak. as soon as Chase had cuffed himself to the bomb, though, my immediate thought was that he'd have to get hacked. but. because of the very effective ensuing wire-cutting scene, i forgot all about it and was floored when Chase saw Jack looking at the axe on the wall. i actually shed tears through that scene!!! the second half of 24: Day 3 actually made me care, goddammit!!! lol.
then Jack takes the bomb and throws it in a very fragile-looking fridge and it makes a small "poof" sound and everything's over.
i liked how Palmer chose to step down when his term comes to end. it's him. the old Palmer came back in the end.
Kim looked good in that last scene with Jack. actually seeming to care.
i was wondering what the kicker might be. i didn't want it to end so poorly (the fight). it was not an explosive ending. but. Jack sitting in his truck suddenly bursting from all the pressure of the day did it for me. i cried once again. but this time Kiefer did it. acting did it. i liked how it's not over for Jack just because 24 hours have passed. he still has some Saunder's couriers(cariers?) to interrogate. but we all know Saunders was pretty much it. so there you have it. a clean slate. a first in the 24 seasons. that's the best i could ask for when starting season four. and we got it early. it feels nice.
i cannot for the life of me think of what a CTU agent like Jack Bauer could encounter next time that doesn't involve a bomb threat or Kim getting kidnapped, or how they could make these elements exciting again (somehow i don't think that's gonna happen), but this clean slate feels really good. i think the writers know it and i think the producers know it.
update: hmm. here's a thought -- Jack looked really tired in that last scene. anyone else thinking he might be contemplating quitting the job? be it just as a thought or that he might leave field ops after this? he looked really fed up (from the day or from the job as a whole, who knows?) and Chase's decision to quit the field might've helped open up a possibility for him too. a sane way out before he eats it for good. we might have a surprise come next january. i'm just thinking out loud here.
btw, if Jack stays on as a field agent, i'd love for next season to be about a field op. take us out of CTU for once. give us a day in the field somewhere. god knows i loved the part in mexico this season.
one more thing i totally forgot about: i really liked how they got Tony cornered and facing 20 years in jail. every fucking actor in that show got at least one really good acting scene to end the season. Tony looked fucked and he knew it. he just accepted it. hopefully they keep Michelle on. she showed us she can be the greatest field agent (i'm really pushing that field op season thing :)
well, the more i think back and read on last night's episode, the more i think they did it right. i mean, why end it with everything blowing up? i mean.. we can't have every season finale end on the same note -- will he die?? she got killed?? etc. i bemoaned the fact that they have to get out of the mold they got themselves into after three seasons. they seemed to get caught in that mold this season and were thus having to write by the seat of their pants. resulting in really spotty writing. so ending it with a sputter, although not truly exciting (i still say the ending would've been a lot more exciting and satisfying if the Chase fight hadn't been so amateurish), might've been the right way. Jack showed us some emotion. a lot of it. he broke down. and killing off Sherrie and Julia was just the writers taking out characters they didn't need with one swift move of the pen. and it shows me that they know what they need to do.
i believe again.
see you all back in january 2005.
Posted by Anonymous | 8:51 PM
