Yoga Pose of the Week: Cobra Pose

To commemorate the journey through the improbable tunnel between the UN and New Jersey, cobra pose. This beautifully executed version of "low cobra" also shows the lead in through "knees/chest/chin." Notice how the front and back of the yoga student's neck are equally long, and and how the tops of her armbones are moving towards the back plane of her body. That's alignment.

(And that's some of the alignment that is missing from the President's Cabinet! I hope that Ethan will turn out to be faking his heart issues, and come back kicking -- or maybe Evil -- next episode.)

Signing off.

Recap

Dammit=0
Perimeter =0 (maybe that's part of the problem!)
Women Inexplicably Neither Stupid Nor Evil =1
Candidate for one those cable shows about hoarders =1, who the heck left all of that clutter in the tunnel between the UN and New Jersey
Geographical Anomalies = multiple, we were trying not to count, as we want to let this go
Improbable convos between heads of state and low level functionaries and/or terrorists = 0
Tender moments =0
Heads of state who can handle a weapon=1

Where's Cole? "M" misses Owen already, poor Bambi. (See my cousin Vinnie, I missed it, but apparently there's a Bambi quote.) We still miss Eggar.

The Bridezilla/Cole/MethHead Kevin story line was both annoying and a good sleight of hand.

Sigh. We're sad about the show ending. We're relieved about the season ending. Interested in the evil ex-president's return (foreshadowed in the previews). And we're wondering about spinoff possibilities.

Kim Bauer gets her own show: mom juggles family life, incomprehensible stupidity, and saving the world. Renee gets her own show, like Dr. Phil spun off from Oprah -- would be bad guys come on the show to repent, and reveal their childhood wounds. ("Whut were you thinking!")

The possibilities are endless.

Until next week!

Tarin, You're The Weakest LInk

And I don't think you can do this.

("M" wonders whether he is going to make a call to Faline. Who probably has reception down there in the tunnel.)

Flat Org Chart

The servicemember on the op had been read into the whole story. He even knew that he was on a rogue operation, against the President.

Wow.

And Jack, way to go -- he only takes orders from Madame President!

Flash bang!

Jack must have his man purse.

What's All of the Crap In the Tunnel

"M" points out that Agent O'Connor is neither stupid nor evil. (We also think that she's not long for the world.)

(She also spotted one of the bad guy American commandos in a Warrior yoga pose.)

Hair Gel!

The President's pompadour might have just deflected a bullet.

Nope

I don't believe that American servicemembers would behave like this.

"M" on the phone

Wonders if Ethan is faking it. We both hope so!

"M" can't blog, she's holding a baby (who we hope won't be scarred by the 24 experience) but she's on the phone.

Hastings

While he's a tool, he seems to have regained his composure. I'm a little behind on what is going on. Bridezilla is evil and Owen (Bambi) has fufilled my prediction. He was too "cuuute" to have made it this far!

Oh, No

I hope they don't kill Ethan. (Even if he is Evil.)

Dude, You Can't Kill Peace

Yawn.

The president's aide, Mr. Weiss, guy is doing a pretty good Rahm Emanuel imitation.

Haha!

Maybe I'll try to get Barack Obama on the phone. I have a few questions about the whole health care thing.

There's a Tunnel From The UN To NJ

That probably explains a lot.

Off To Jersey!?

I was typing -- did the subtitle say that the President and her staff were in NJ? Now Jack is on his way to NJ?

As If

Please, nobody has ever been able to guarantee the safety of Manhattan! Hastings, it's not about you.

Ethan!

Wouldn't it rock if Ethan finally did turn out to be evil?

I Must Release My Sense of Geographic Reality

Although that could have been 7th and Waverly.

Whew

Jack only took a bullet in his body armor. He's okay, again.

Previously, On 24

Sob. As hard as we've been on the writers this season, we wanted them to improve! We didn't want everyone on 24 to be fired! Just selective people who weren't up to snuff.

(And here's a great memo, supposedly from David Mamet, on how to make great TV. Sadly, the excellent show whose writers he was memo-ing (supposedly) also bit the dust. 24 writers, read it, learn it, live it.)

That said, in our requiem for this season of 24, last week's show was one of the best. Let's see what I can get down before it's time to view it this week, old school and "live".

Jack goes off in search of the rods, with some of his sidekicks in tow. Because CTU has been taken out, nobody knows where he is. Chloe puts in a call to Renee, at Jack's apartment. Renee pulls it together and takes off after Jack.

In the meantime, things are chaotic at CTU. Some guys from the NSA come in to get them up and running. (Uh, because CTU has no disaster recovery plan of their own?) The NSA guys are real idiots who reject Chloe's expertise. She has to pull gun on them and risk her own life to get things back up and running.

There's a firefight with the bad guys. The head bad guy takes off, after seemingly making a phone call to his girlfriend. Owen, the poorly trained 19 year old CTU agent also known as Bambi, gets killed, as does the guy he was trying to save. (It should be noted that these guys are dead because they didn't listen to Jack, in a chilling, yet improbable scene where they try to use the sides of an armored SUV that they managed to deconstruct as cover while they cross an open courtyard. And Jack is also shot, which opens things up for a tender moment later on between him and Renee.)

Cole and Jack are on their own, until Renee comes in, guns blazing and apparently meds on board. @$$ is kicked, and yet no fix on the rods. There are also signs that Tarin regrets his action. The women of 24 have urged Faline to hang tough.

(Could they be in Staten Island or the Bronx, two boroughs that we haven't visited yet?)

Faline goes back, improbably to the UN where POTIR and his disapproving yet newly supportive wife are being held. (No sign of the Infidel Girlfriend.) We all know that Tarin is a bad guy, and it seems that Faline is convinced, too. POTIR shows signs of being willing to back away from the peace process, but his wife urges him to do the right thing. Yawn.

Also at CTU, it turns out that the Colombo-like parole agent is still around. We thought he had left, but maybe he got turned back at one of the blocked bridge and tunnel crossings.

He has another little convo with Bridezilla. He knows that she has something to hide. She strangles him, stuffs him behind some wall panels, and phones her boyfriend...the head terrorist.

While not as satisfying as bringing back Nina, definitely bodes well for vindication of this wonderful actress, who we'll hopefully get to see in a non-lobotomized emanation.

Dammit, I'm out of time! Sob, just like 24.