24: Live Another Day: Day 9: 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
June 24, 2014 8:16 PM - Season 1, Episode 9 - Subscribe

Jack and Chloe launch a plan to eliminate the terrorist threat and keep London safe from any more attacks, but to do so first he and Kate need to track down some crucial leads with little time to spare.
posted by Nelson (14 comments total)
 
OMG this show is so fucking awful. Deep hurting. I am so grateful there are only 3 episodes left. Also I can’t wait to watch the next episode.

Just so much badness. Psych! The president’s not dead! Yay, we get to have our heroic sacrificial cake and continue to eat its noble character, too! But the Unreliable Narrator trope really only works when the viewer can actually piece it together after the fact. Basically the whole ruse that saves Heller takes place off-screen; setting up the video double, hustling Heller off the pitch just in time, all not shown. Lame.

And then the B plot, some boring thing about the boring CIA guy being a boring double agent and trying to boringly escape with the boring MacGuffin. Ugh. Apparently that’s our pleasure for the final 3 episodes, watching Boring Guy run around trying to boringly escape.

One loose end I hope they settle up; why Bauer is hanging out with Serbian Nazis like Belcheck. I find it particularly creepy they let him out this episode with honor, almost like the show-runners are apologizing for cleansing nationalist bastards. But maybe he's got a heart of gold?

The saving grace in this show is not-Julian-Assange played by Michael Wincott. His character is deliciously amoral, right down to stopping off at the Quickie Mart so Chl͝o̷ë͟ can buy some Tampax while he takes the evil conspiratorial phone call. His character is certainly a lot more fun than Margot Stark and her boring vendetta. (I did thoroughly enjoy her murder, though, and am optimistic there is a Game of Thrones crossover yet to come.)

Stephen Fry is sadly wasted in this show, fretting about in some office meaninglessly. What a shame. This show is a bit of a Fry epiphany for me. Metafilter brought him to my attention because of his poetry book, and then I love him because he’s a big ol’ homo, not to mention a Linux nerd. And now I’m watching Jeeves & Wooster and wishing fervently he’d have just a little room in 24 to act in this otherwise penny dreadful show.

Does anyone share my pain?
posted by Nelson at 8:30 PM on June 24, 2014 [1 favorite]


Stephen Fry is both alive and got paid. For that I am happy this got made.

ANOTHER CTU guy goes rogue? Who'da thunk? How often does this happen... every one of these seasons? And oh, that magic MacGuffin? It's actually an even better magic MacGuffin! It slices! It dices! It makes thousands and thousands of julienne fries!
posted by Catblack at 9:45 PM on June 24, 2014 [1 favorite]


Given the vast number of moles in the history of this show, I thought it was rather indiscreet of Jack to give his "the President's still alive" message to 20+ people at the PM's office and at CTU the CIA. He was just plain lucky here that the Mole of the Day wasn't motivated by Heller's death.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 4:15 AM on June 25, 2014


In fairness to Jack, Margot knew Heller was still alive so moles weren't a concern.
posted by roolya_boolya at 10:06 AM on June 25, 2014


Maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought it was before Jack knew that Margot knew that Heller was alive?
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:52 AM on June 25, 2014


OK, what was the point of President Heller leaving behind a note telling his MENTALLY FRAGILE daughter that he was basically going to his death? I mean, seriously... what was the point of that? So she wouldn't reveal to Terrorist Mommie Dearest that it was a ruse? Didn't her husband even give instructions to the guard outside the President's room (where the note was waiting) that nobody was to enter, meaning they weren't even expecting her to get the note within the time frame the President would be unavailable?

Consider the alternative: He doesn't leave a note. Audrey doesn't know where her father, probably the most closely guarded individual on the planet, happens to be for an hour. Considering he's busy running a superpower during a terrorist crisis, he might be busy on affairs of state. Is this really a crazy, crazy idea?

Why leave that note, other than to try to fake out the audience?

Oh, the list of WTF moments on this show is far too long.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 11:59 AM on June 25, 2014


Far be it from me to defend the narrative coherence of 12: Live Another Season, but I think Heller didn't know himself it was a ruse until the minute he's about to die. We can't be sure, since they didn't show it. But Heller gives a whole Noble Heroic Sacrificial Speech about how he was prepared to die towards the beginning of the episode. Basically it's the cheapest trick in drama; live out the whole tragedy and then reset like nothing happened at all. It was all just a dream.
posted by Nelson at 12:20 PM on June 25, 2014


Maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought it was before Jack knew that Margot knew that Heller was alive?

Nah, Chloe had told Jack about the last drone before he called Audrey and co. to report that Heller was still alive. Bauer has many flaws but you can't accuse the man of lacking in paranoia.

Throwing Margot out the window was stonecold though and built on his harsh treatment of Simone earlier in the season. These last years have put him in a dark(er) place. Between that, the revelation that Chloe and not-Assange are a couple (eeew) and Kate looking like a kickass Bauer substitute/sidekick for future seasons I'm not hopeful that both Jack and Chloe will make it out of this season alive and happy.

Although with the disappointing fakeout of Heller's death maybe they will...
posted by roolya_boolya at 5:04 PM on June 25, 2014


Well, actually, I'm pretty sure neither of them will make it out happy.
posted by roolya_boolya at 5:06 PM on June 25, 2014 [1 favorite]


Throwing Margot out the window was stonecold though

It was straight up murder. Presented largely without comment, and seeing as how he was alone at the moment he murdered her, I suspect he won't face any consequences. I found that upsetting, the way it mirrors and mythologizes "rough justice" by special forces. I assume it was meant to recall the way the Seals killed Osama bin Laden. But at least that was a live fire combat situation. While Margot was hardly a guest at a wedding, she was completely passive and under control. It's a good thing Captain Cordero failed to murder Jack back in episode 4.
posted by Nelson at 6:42 PM on June 25, 2014


I could be totally wrong about this but I feel like the scene of Jack's, as you say, straight up murder of Margot coupled with the follow-up to Jack torturing Simone in ep. 7 are supposed to be telling us something about where Jack has gone as a character.

In previous seasons it seemed that Jack's actions were morally justified in his own mind at least. But in that scene with Kate in ep 7 he was admitting that he tortured Simone essentially because he felt like it and he knew that wasn't a good thing.

To me at least it reads like a commentary on the effect of being a torturer on his psyche and I'm interested to see if the show will take if further.
posted by roolya_boolya at 2:55 AM on June 26, 2014


The resignation letter that Heller wrote before leaving, how easy would it be to retract? Or are we to assume it sat on his desk unread while everyone watched the bombing on tv?
posted by TWinbrook8 at 6:00 AM on June 26, 2014


It will probably be a whole lot easier to ignore than the letter Mark forged signing Jack over to the Russians will be.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 12:29 PM on June 26, 2014


The resignation letter that Heller wrote before leaving, how easy would it be to retract? Or are we to assume it sat on his desk unread while everyone watched the bombing on tv?
posted by TWinbrook8 at 1:00 PM on June 26 [+] [!]


I think we last saw it with Audrey who was reading it at Hellers desk so probably not a problem to burn it before anyone else sees it.
posted by Reggie Knoble at 6:55 AM on June 27, 2014


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