24 Recap: Day 6, 10:00 – 11:00pm

Title: “Day 6, 10:00 – 11:00pm”
Original Airdate: 4/9/07
GMMR Recapper: LaLa

WOW. Talk about a complete 180 from last week’s craptacular episode! Good grief, so many things that I had no hope of ever happening actually happened in this hour that I’m not even sure where to begin. Ok, I’ll start: How about Jack and CTU actually stopping the terrorists attacks and getting all the nukes WELL BEFORE the magic 24 hour marker of the show?! Seriously, that has never ever happened before in the history of 24 – Jack and Co. have always stopped the main terrorist and/or the major weapon-of-the-season in the final 24th hour. And of course, stretching that final defeat out to the 24th hour has always been very frustrating for the viewer to watch, because we know annoying mistakes that let the bad guys get away only keep happening so that the writers can stretch it out; if they defeated the bad guy too soon, there’d be no show left, right? Well thank goodness 24 finally had the guts to prove that wrong! Hallelujah, quality 24 is back!!

First, let’s start from the beginning. So, it turned out that 24 totally fooled me last week, and that Wayne’s supposed nuclear strike against the conveniently-not-named Middle Eastern country was all a big fake-out with an unarmed nuke in order to get the Ambassador from said country to stop lying and give up ALL of the information they had. And, lo and behold, the Ambassador bought the bluff and suddenly gave Wayne information about a certain General Habib in their government who they have long “suspected”/known was giving orders to Fayed. And so, it turns out that Demon Daniels was actually right in suspecting that this unnamed country’s government was more in league with the terrorists than they were admitting. And obviously, a big point needed to be made in order to get them to co-operate. But of course, as suddenly-awesome-again Wayne put it, “Unlike Daniels, I wasn’t willing to take innocent lives in order to make my point.” Well said, sir.

And speaking of Wayne, boy, he just kept getting more awesome as the show went on. Despite his obviously very bad – and getting worse all the time – health, he still continued acting tough. His gravelly insistence that the Ambassador put “extra strong” pressure on Habib – like, threatening the lives of Habib’s family members, pressure – in order to get him to co-operate was very Jack Bauer and David Palmer-esque. And, lo and behold, putting that extra pressure on Habib also made a difference (of course, it ended up getting those undercover CTU agents killed, but at least it led to the final showdown). But anyway, Wayne’s awesome strength prompted formerly-weasel Tom to admit how wrong he had been about Wayne’s competence, and basically that he was a giant idiot for doubting Wayne. Sweet! Yet another story point I never thought I’d see happen. You go Wayne: you’re my new hero. Here’s hoping you don’t collapse and die by the end of the episode.

As for Jack… well, he’s been largely absent from recent episodes, but oh my my, is Jack EVER back now! I think Doyle summed it all up best when, after seeing how Jack had single handedly taken down all the terrorists and had killed Fayed by metal chain-link hanging, he simply said, “Damn, Jack!” Seriously, man, seriously. I mean, first Jack hangs onto the bottom of a sanitation truck that Fayed hijacked during his escape, and then Jack takes down all the terrorists by himself! Man, if anyone ever doubted that Jack Bauer was a super-hero, then doubt no further!! And for even more proof, witness Exhibit B: that nasty, bloody, man-to-man fight between Jack and Fayed – which, again, Jack was able to do after hanging onto a truck for miles. Wow. Just… wow. And then after that, CTU was actually able to recover the remaining nukes!! Certainly, that was one of the most satisfying moments on 24 ever – made so much sweeter by the fact that you weren’t expecting it, because the season still has several hours to go.

And speaking of… Audrey is alive!! And she’s being held by Chang, the evil Chinese Ambassador!! Yes, since another dreadful twist inevitably had to come after so much happiness and success, I’m glad that it was about something that had nothing to do with Fayed and the nukes. And yes, as most of us suspected, Audrey is in fact still alive (especially since Kim Raver’s new show got cancelled), and now the Chinese are back in the game. And frankly, I’m glad, because I think that Jack has unfinished business with them. I mean, we can’t just let them get away with kidnapping and torturing Jack for two years, can we? Well, the answer to that is thankfully, “No”. And to that I say, bring it on! Woot!

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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