Moose watches 24

Season 5: 1pm - 2pm

Well that came crashing down fast. I hate it when some random nobody just pulls a gun out of nowhere and shoots an important character.

The terrorists called some Russian engineer to get help reprogramming the canisters of gas so they could control the release mechanisms. CTU traced this call and found the Russian engineer and Jack went in with a team and got him.

They also found a 15 year old girl in this guy's apartment. He bought her from sex traffickers apparently. He agreed to help CTU but only if he got immunity, transport to another country, and if he could keep the girl. Jack reluctantly agreed, planning to rescue the girl later on, but just as they were getting ready to move out the girl pulled a gun and shot the Russian guy. The terrorists are going to call back in a few minutes with a meeting place but the guy is dead now.

Now, where the hell did she get a gun from? She hadn't been anywhere else, and there's no indication she stole it from one of the agents. Is it her gun? Are there guns just lying around the bedroom? Why the hell hasn't she shot him already if that's the case?

Bullshit. It's just like when Gael's wife shot Saunders at the end of season 3.

Season 5: 2pm - 3pm

Because the head terrorist sent someone else to the meeting, Jack was able to pose as the Russian guy. He gave them a chip with a tracking device so CTU could follow them back to the gas. But they had one canister with them, to make sure that the chip worked and they could activate it. So they went to a mall to release the gas.

CTU, and the president, decided that it was best the let to the terrorists kill 1000 people so that Jack could remain undercover and find the other canisters. But of course Jack didn't let that happen. A small amount of gas got released and Jack shot one of the terrorists, but the other one escaped. When he got back to where the other terrorists were supposed to be though, they'd all gone and he killed himself.

So all that for nothing. But they'll catch them in the end obviously. I have to wonder what the bigger scheme is though. The whole season can't just be about getting the gas back. It'll get pretty damn boring if it is. There's one guy who was involved who hasn't been seen for a while now, so maybe he'll pop up again with some other grand plan.

Season 5: 3pm - 4pm

You know, there should be a special badge for the director of CTU to wear that says "You do not work for Jack Bauer. You work for me." Then whenever someone disobeys an order or breaks protocol to help Jack out, which is every 30 minutes, they could just point at the badge instead of having to yell it every time.

One of Walt Cummings's contacts contacted Jack and wanted Jack and only Jack to come meet him. But Lynn (I going to spell it like that), someone from Division or District (I can never remember) who's now in charge of CTU, had ordered Jack back to CTU because he disobeyed orders and didn't let the nerve gas attack on the mall go ahead.

So obviously Jack knocked out Curtis and went to meet the contact while Audrey and Chloe covered for him at CTU. Which is where the badge would have come in handy. Some terrorists also knew about the contact and went to kill him, but Jack managed to get some kind of chip off the guy before he died.

We also met the proper leader of the terrorists in this episode. He was pissed off about the mall because the gas was meant to be used against Russia. So he called the president and demanded to be told the route of the motorcade that the Russian president would be using, so they could attack it. Otherwise they would use the gas against America instead, since there would be no other choice. And the president actually gave them the info.

That's the President of America, helping terrorists assassinate the President of Russia.

Season 5: 4pm - 5pm

Lynn was being a total asshole so Curtis relieved him of his command based on the grounds that he was mentally unstable. So Bill's in charge again and everyone can get back to working for Jack.

CTU found out about a possible attack on the Russian President's car at the last moment, but Lyn didn't think it was worth taking seriously. Of course he was wrong, and Secret Service got informed about 5 seconds before the attack happened. A few Secret Service agents got killed but everyone else survived.

Jack went to follow a lead. That little chip he got had info on who made the nerve gas. A person working at the company who made it turned out to be someone from Jack's past. It was the man who recruited him to CTU, and later lost job after Jack investigated him for selling top secret intelligence. He claims he was framed and that he also thought all the gas was destroyed. But obviously he's lying because he tried to blow Jack up. Which obviously didn't work.

Still not sure where this going, beyond the whole gas threat. There has to be something else to it. I'm not sure there is though because everyone involved would have believed the gas was going back to Russia. That was everyone's plan. So apart from the terrorists in actual physical possession of the gas, there shouldn't be anyone who knows what's going on.

Season 5: 5pm - 6pm

CTU found something on one of the dead terrorists from the motorcade attack that indicated the location of their next target. It was a hospital. They found the canister but couldn't disarm it in time. However they did get it into a containment chamber, so when the gas was released no harm was done.

Don't know if I mentioned it but a few episodes back Lynn got a call from his sister, a junkie, who wanted some money. He agreed to meet her outside of CTU, where her boyfriend mugged Lynn. They stole his wallet, which had his CTU keycard in it. He needs it back because it lets him get in and out of the building, although he managed to get back in just without it. But the terrorists somehow found out about the keycard and stole it from Lynn's sister, and killed her and her boyfriend. And of course Lynn never mentioned this to anyone ("Oh hey, I was just mugged right outside CTU and my vvery important access card was stolen. Can someone look into that?" How hard would that be?) because he's an idiot.

Jack went to Henderson's house (the guy who tried to bomb him) to access his computer. There was a secret password protected file that Chloe couldn't crack in time, and Henderson's wife didn't know the password. Henderson wouldn't give it up either so Jack shot his wife and threatened to paralyse her life, but he still wouldn't give up the password. What a bastard.

So this Henderson is possibly in contact with the terrorists. Or not. This is seems a bit aimless at the moment. There's no end goal in sight. The terrorists are just going to keep trying to release gas and CTU is going to keep on trying to stop it until all the canisters are used up by the look of things. I've already seen that twice now though. There needs to be a new development soon.

Season 5: 6pm - 7pm

Well this will do for a new development for now. CTU just got gassed. One of the terrorists used Lynn's card to get in and plant one of the canisters in the ventilation system. CTU found out about the intruder but didn't find out about the gas until it was too late. Only a few rooms could be sealed so only a few people survived. Jack, Audrey, Bill, Chloe, Kim, etc.

Oh yeah, Kim's there. A while ago Jack asked Audrey to bring her in so he could explain stuff to her. Perfect timing eh?

So... I don't think anything can be done about this. Even if people show up with masks and stuff, they can't just open the door and give them to everyone, because the gas will get in before they get the masks on. I guess everyone is just stuck inside CTU until it's safe to come out.

A few things have been bugging me.

1) Still no idea how that security footage of Jack at the scene of Palmer's assassination was manufactured. Nothing ever came of that. I don't even recall anyone ever mentioning it to Jack.
2) Who exactly framed Jack? Walt Cummings set up Palmer's assassination, but then someone also set up Michelle, Tony, and Chloe's assassination to set Jack up. Was that Cummings too? How did he know Jack was alive, and how did he know that the others knew Jack was alive?
3) How did the terrorists find out about the keycard so damn quickly? It was only stolen a few hours ago.

Season 5: 7pm - 8pm

A bottle episode in 24. I never thought that would happen.

Well, crisis over. Chloe managed to use the AC system to flush the gas out of the building. Flush it to where, I don't know. Just outside into city I suppose, but apparently it's fine. Henderson meanwhile was tortured so much he went into a coma. Well, that's what the guy said anyway. 5 seconds later he came out of the coma and killed Tony and legged it.

Everyone's dying.

Kim's leaving as soon as she can. Good to know her showing up was totally worth it and that she totally made a difference before scampering away again. Can't really blame her though. She might as well attempt suicide every time Jack contacts her. It'll save her the trouble of seeing him and immediately getting into some bizarre life threatening situation.

You didn't even talk about poor Edgar.

I didn't care about Edgar.

Season 5: 8pm - 9pm

They managed to get one of the secret files from Henderson's computer (who somehow escaped CTU) and it had info on some woman. She gets info for whoever wants it, and she got some info for the terrorists with the gas. Schematics to some building, presumably the next target.

Jack caught the woman and while she didn't know exactly what the info was, she offered to tell them the source of her information for full immunity. Since full immunity seems incredibly easy to give out, a few seconds later she was talking. Apparently the schematics were sold to her by someone in the Department of Defense. Audrey.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat? That can't be right. Even if it is, why would she do that? This is really weird.

A_Nonny_Moose wrote:

I didn't care about Edgar.

Asshole.

Season 5: 9pm - 10pm

Well Audrey was innocent. Henderson sold the information to that woman and told her to say she got it from Audrey if she ever got caught. She also knew the target was a natural gas distribution center, but didn't know which one. I have no idea how all this happened though. The terrorists weren't even planning to attack America until a few hours ago and suddenly they have this connection that can get them schematics for industrial facilities. And when the hell did Henderson have the time to give her the information, let alone tell her about Audrey?

After figuring out which gas center it was CTU went in but they couldn't stop the terrorists in time and they released the gas into the pipelines. So Jack blew up the pipelines to incinerate the nerve gas, and destroy the whole factory in the process.

A fun episode, lots of ups and downs. Looks like Jack caught the head terrorist too, although I don't know if he'll be alive next episode. I guess searching for Henderson is going to be the end goal this season then. He'll probably have some master plan to do with the gas that no one else knew about.

Season 5: 10pm - 11pm

Well things suddenly shifted rather fast. Wayne Palmer showed up because he discovered that David Palmer and Evelyn (the First Lady's PA) had been contacting each other. Turns out Evelyn had found out who was really behind the attack and had talked to Palmer about it because... I dunno, she knew him or something. There's plenty of other people she could have told.

Anyway, her daughter was kidnapped so she wouldn't tell anyone else about it, but promised to tell Wayne if he could save her daughter. So of course he called Jack and Jack saved the girl. But Henderson got away. So now we find out who the real mastermind is behind this ridiculous plot! It's...

The President!

...

What? No really, what? How the fuck does that work? So he knew everything all along, and Henderson was working for him? So did the President have Palmer assassinated? Because Cummings seemed to think that was his idea, because he knew Palmer had found out about the attacks. I assume it was Henderson who came up with the idea for framing Jack, because he did say he never believed Jack was dead, but who did he report that to? The President or Cummings?

And what about the original plan to gas the terrorists once the gas reached Russia? Who's idea was that? And when it went wrong, why the hell did Henderson sell info to that woman? Why did he try to make it harder for CTU to stop the terrorists. Did the President want terrorists to release nerve gas into domestic gas lines so that hundreds of thousands of people would die?

This makes no fucking sense. Although I will say this;

Quote :

The piss-weak president from the latter part of season 4 is still in charge. His wife has some kind of disorder or something, but the day before he was killed Palmer called her and said he needed to talk with her. She told her husband, the president, but he doesn't want to do anything about it. He thinks she's imagining it.

So clearly he's the bad guy. He knew Palmer was writing his memoirs, he was worried Palmer would talk about what happened during season 4, so he had Palmer killed. He also somehow knows Jack Bauer's alive and tried to set him up.

Called it (pretty much)!

Season 5: 11pm - 12am

Evelyn recorded call that happened earlier that morning between Henderson and the President talking about why Henderson had Palmer killed. Which makes no damn sense because this call must have happened after Palmer died, and yet Palmer apparently only knew about the attack because Evelyn told him, but all she knew came from the tape which she couldn't have told Palmer about because she got it after he died.

Plus the recording was in a safety deposit box in a bank vault, which is impossible because the recording was made after Palmer died, and Evelyn hasn't left the President's retreat all day. She didn't have time to put it in a bank. How on Earth did they find out she had it anyway?

Anyway Jack got the tape and he's going to give it to the Secretary of Defense and everyone's trying to stop him etc. This season is dying fast. It had a really strong start but it's petty bad now.

Season 5: 12am - 1am

After that messy reveal things have settled into a steady flow. Jack got the recording to Secretary Heller, but Heller didn't want to go public because it would ruin the integrity of the government or something. Instead he decided to blackmail the president into resigning. So he went to see the president and left the recording with his men, and locked Jack and Audrey up. Which is weird because I specifically remember him saying to Audrey "You're coming with me".

Henderson's men found out where Jack was and Henderson used Audrey to get the recording back from Jack. Audrey's currently bleeding to death.

Once again someone didn't do what Jack said and everything get's fucked up. I seriously don't know why anyone ever disagrees with him.

I've finished the season now so let's just rush through this, then I can be ready to start season 6.

Season 5: 1am - 2am

Jack caught up with Henderson but he had already passed the recording to someone else. Some foreign politician by the look of it, since whoever has he recording is getting on a plane filled with diplomats. So Jack had to sneak on board.

Secretary Heller killed himself because Henderson's men were after him, and Henderson was threatening to kill Heller unless Jack let him go.

There's 5 episodes left to get this recording and out the President. Seems like a pretty fucking weak climax. The actual physical threat of the gas was mopped up a while ago, now it's just about exposing this coverup. Except if they don't, nothing really changes. The stakes are really low, especially now that everyone apart from Jack is out of harm's way. I guess there's a risk of Chloe getting arrested, but that's hardly thrilling.

Season 5: 2am - 3am

Jack's mental. He got locked in the baggage hold while looking for the tape and the captain started to depressurize it so Jack would lose consciousness. So Jack's answer to this is to cut open a little panel in the ceiling that happens to reveal some chords that control the plane's steering. He just tugs wildy on them, sending the flopping all over the place, until they let him out.

Anyway he got the tape in the end. The co-pilot had it. Now the president knows that Jack has the evidence, his only option is to shoot down the plane. Which is insane. Although I'm not sure why that's his only option. He was planning to let the plane land and have Secret Service arrest Jack, and that still seems like it would work whether Jack has the tape or not.

I don't know what kind of finale this story can have. Jack simply giving a recording to someone isn't that exciting. Although I suppose there's the issue of whether Jack will go back to being dead.

Season 5: 3am - 4am

Of for fuck's sake. Everything was totally in hand and then Karren (the woman running CTU now) went and told the most obviously untrustworthy person around all about Jack and the recording, and of course he betrayed them and decided to help cover it up. Right when the president was about the kill himself too.

This season is getting worse and worse. On top of that it looks like the russian terrorist from earlier might be plotting some kinf of escape. Dragging him back into it seems desperate.

Season 5: 4am - 5am

Well hey, the recording was destroyed. So... that's that. Which means the last 5 or so episodes have been completely fucking pointless. The search for the tape went absolutely nowhere and now we're back with the first main villain again. What a load of shit. This is worse than season 2.

Also, Bierko (the terrorist) escaped. He used a spare gas canister he had (it's always wise to have a spare) to take over a submarine to gain control of it's weapons. At least the gas isn't the main threat this time. I hope I never see another gas attack for the rest of 24.

Oh and Audrey's father somehow survived driving off a cliff into the ocean. Which just feels like a copout.

Season 5: 5am - 6am

The threat on the submarine lasted all of half an episode. Jack got in and killed everyone and stopped the missiles launching in like 15 minutes. Now we're back on the Logan thing. Jack's going to somehow confront Logan personally and get a confession out of him.

Ugh... this season has fallen apart. Admittedly, Jack interrogating Logan is a better idea for a finale than I was expecting, but there's been so much bullshit leading up to it. Palmer's involvement still baffles me, there was so much time wasted on the recording, Bierko was brought back in for like, half of two episodes just to kill some time... It's a mess.

Plus, if Jack can get away with this, then I can't see how anyone will ever be able to question his actions or decisions ever again.

Season 5: 6am - 7am

That was interesting and surprisingly okay. An entirely dramatic 24 finale. Jack's scene with Logan was pretty good, although he didn't get a confession out of him. He did however plant a little transmitter on him to record everything he said. Logan's wife then got into an argument with him where they talked about the whole thing.

So in the end, they used a recording of the President implicating himself in the attacks to take him down. Just like they planned to do with the previous recording, which only got destroyed about 3 hours earlier. So not only was the race to get the original recording rendered totally pointless when it was destroyed, but destroying it was also totally pointless because they just made a new one.

Jack got kidnapped by the Chinese at the end and put on a cargo ship to Shanghai. Which is a pretty enormous cliffhanger.

Overall, this was a bad season. The first 6 episodes would make a great little miniseries on their own, but after that it steadily got worse. It was still alright until about half way through, when the numerous nerve gas attacks got boring. The twist with Logan came a bit too late for me, because I was already bored with the gas plot, and ultimately there was very little story progression after that point. We found out that Logan was behind it all in episode 16 I think, and you could stick episode 24 right after that without losing anything of importance.

Season 6: 6am - 7am

Well that's a new one. The terrorist bombings have been happening for a few months by the time the season starts. CTU thinks this guy Assad is behind them, so they're going to kill him. One of Assad's men did a deal with CTU. He'll give them Assad for 25 million dollars, and Jack Bauer.

So President Palmer (Wayne Palmer is President now, which seems weird) pulled whatever strings he pulled and got Jack out of the Chinese prison he'd been in for 2 years just so they could hand him over to this terrorist. The terrorist wants to kill Jack because Jack killed his brother while torturing him.

But while torturing Jack, the guy makes the classic villain mistake, and explains his secret plan to Jack. Turns out Assad isn't in charge at all, he is. He got a phone call just before he was going to cut Jack's finger off, and left Jack alone with just one guard. Which of course was no problem for Jack.

He pulled the heart rate monitor off of him, so the machine flatlined. When the guard bent over Jack to check on it, Jack bit the guy's neck and killed him. So silly, but enjoyable. The season is off to a good start.

Also Milo is back (don't think he's been in it since season 1), and Chloe's a brunette now. There's also this new woman called Nadia who is incredibly attractive. Bill and Karren got married too. Much to my surprise, I also spotted Steve Merchant working in CTU. That was strange.

Season 6: 7am - 8am

Even though Jack Bauer (that's JACK BAUER) told CTU and the President that Fayed was behind the attacks and not Assad, they still decided to attack Assad's location. Jack had overheard this location when Fayed told it to CTU, so he got there first and got Assad out, since Assad wants to stop the attacks and become a mainstream political organisation.

Assad helped Jack track a suicide bomber onto a train and Jack kicked him out the window just before the bomb went off. There was also a pretty cool moment where Jack was torturing a guy but stopped because he was sure the guy wouldn't talk. Then Assad jammed a knife into his knee and by golly he talked.

"I don't know how to do this anymore." was Jack's response. Which makes sense given that he's been in a Chinese prison for 2 years and probably tortured for most of that. I'm glad it's shown to have had some kind of impact on him.

Season 6: 8am - 9am

Jack convinced Assad to get CTU involved so they could track someone through satellite, but as soon as Curtis arrived he arrested Assad (he is a known major terrorist after all, even if he's trying to go mainstream). They still followed the guy, but he blew himself up along with the package he was supposed to get. They managed to salvage a file from the computer though, indicating that the terrorists have a nuclear weapon.

Is every other season of 24 Nuclear Season or something? Season 2, 4, and now 6 have all had nuclear threats. I understand that there's only so many weapons of mass destruction, and they've already used pretty much all of them, but come on. How about a season 1 type plot where it's about an assassination or something?

No, every other season of 24 is about muslim terrorists.