24 Recap: Day 6, 5:00 – 6:00pm

Title: “Day 6, 5:00 – 6:00pm”
Original Airdate: 3/5/07
GMMR Recapper: LaLa

Ok, so raise your hand if you knew that the sympathetic Russian agent was going to get assassinated as soon as he tried to discreetly enter a private room to call Buchanon and inform him about Gredenko’s location? Yeah, I saw that coming from a mile away. Come on, 24, you can do better than that: the fact that you made it the very last scene of the episode, with the creepy silence and the tense background music (see, I told you guys about the music!) totally gave it away.

Oh well. Other than sometimes being too predictable, 24 still does things that make me very happy – like sort-of weasel Tom stepping up and naming Chad Lowe and his mysterious co-conspirator as the true masterminds of the Presidential assassination attempt. And 24 does also manage to surprise me, like the fact that they killed off Assad and pretty much put President Wayne out of commission for what looks to be pretty much the rest of the season. Shame, that. Wayne was finally becoming a strong President with real guts and conviction – the kind of man his brother was – so I’m sad that 24 took him out of the picture. Now we have sleazy Vice President Powers Boothe in charge, a man who was part of the conspiracy to assassinate President Wayne so he can implement that extremist prisoner camp plan. And of course, it looks like he’s going to get away with it too. And to that I say: Booooo!!Speaking of strong Presidents, though, go Bearded Logan! I was mightily impressed by the former Snake in Chief, who showed some serious power while “negotiating” with the traitor Russian guy in order to get him to give up Gredenko’s location. Loved his little speech to Jack afterwards, saying that he knew the Russian guy was lying because “I’ve done enough lying myself to know the signs.” Nice. Perhaps Bearded Logan really HAS changed – and perhaps it’s the beard that has somehow made him good – and if that is indeed the case, then please can we see more of him? Because let’s face it: good, bad, or simply wimpy, we love us some Logan! And speaking of Logan love, how excited was I when, in the preview for next week’s episode, we got a glimpse of Logan’s ex Martha with none other than Agent Pierce at her side! Yes! My little dream of Martha and Agent Pierce happy together has indeed come true! Oh joyness!

Gosh… I’m such a girl.

Ehem. Anyhoo, getting back to the more manly issues at hand: so it seems that, once again, Jack has seriously angered a gigantic, somewhat hostile foreign country. For the past few seasons it was China; I suppose then it was inevitable that it was Russia this time. Jack just seems to have serious problems with Asia. I’m betting next year he’ll do something to really piss off either India or Mongolia, just you wait. In the meantime, how funny was it when the Russian President was complaining that the U.S. needs to lodge their complaint through the “proper diplomatic channels”, and then we get a smash cut to Jack smashing his fist in the Russian traitor’s face? Oh, 24… what a twisted sense of humor you have.

Still, as much as I enjoy watching Jack beat up bad guys, the torture thing is definitely starting to get old – especially in light of the recent complaints in real life that the U.S. military has made about the fact that 24 seems to glorify torture as the only effective method of getting info from enemies. I know this is supposed to be fiction, but they do have a point: there certainly is a prodigious amount of torture on this show. Here’s hoping that we’ll see less of that in the coming weeks, because I really don’t think we need to see Jack cut off any more bad guy fingers with a cigar cutter. I’m just saying.

Final Random Observations: Loved that Jack once again enlisted Chloe to do some secret tech work for him – I really missed that dynamic between them. I was waiting for him to say, “Chloe, just do it” at some point, but I guess they’ve moved beyond that at this point in their relationship. I also loved that Karen, who was conveniently waiting in D.C. the entire time for her plane to take off, is finally back in the picture and has decided to rejoin the Presidential Staff. Also loved that Jack was able to easily bust out some convincing Russian to one of the guards at the Embassy – very nice! And of course, I also loved that actor Bob Gunton, who did such an awesome job as Prison Warden Norton in “The Shawshank Redemption”, has joined the show as a Presidential advisor of some sort. At least… I think he’s an advisor. Or am I being… obtuse?

LaLa is a writer who currently resides in LaLa Land, aka Los Angeles. LaLa also likes to sing. LaLa also knows some lawyers in a law office. LaLa is also prone to making bad jokes, like this one. And of course, LaLa also loves her some quality television shows with quality actors on them, like House… and The Office… and 24… and, well, pretty much any smartly written show that doesn’t include a fat guy with a hot skinny wife or the words “two and a half men” in the title.

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