Sigh, Time for the Scorecard

Dammit=3
Improbable Presidential Policy/Strategy gabfests =1
Federal Agents Acting Like Bad Guys =1
Federal Agents Proven to be Actual Bad Guys =1
Hair Gel Moments = 1
Dead Black Men =1
Resurrections =0
Women Proven Stupid =0
Women Proven Evil =0
Women Proven to Have a Spine =1 (Madame President)

Next week does Chloe go into the FBI situation room? Will she and Janeane/Janis have the chance to go mano a mano in RL?

Is something going to make us want to start to care?
M says: Sorry but I don't think so. I'm going to bed at 17 minute into my Tivo recording...

Bill's Hair

His hair seems shorter.

(Maybe Tony picked up some hair gel for him and brought it by? Tony can't be gone.)

And boom. Who was in the back seat? (Is this a return to the theme of the expendable Black man?)

Now, Jack and Renee don't seem to be wearing any body armor. That also seems improbable.

And Another Dammit!

This one from Larry. "What are you doing with that guy, Renee?"

Oh, the manipulative and interfering older sister is toast. The kind of toast Dubaku is going to have to pop into the toaster himself!

First Dammit!

Jack seems to have gotten some caffeine in him.

And he can use a car like a scalpel, too. (It looks like Agent Hair Gel is ok!)

I was just wondering why Jack hadn't cuffed Agent Hair Gel. Looks like that was a tactical error.

And second Dammit, too! It looks like Jack got a better car...but were those people looting his car before he carjacked that Bentley (or whatever it was)?

Improbable Convo with Madame President

Bill and (Possibly)Evil Ethan coming up with foreign policy and military strategy...

Check!

Dubaku

He's the ideal boyfriend! Even though he has to work late, but he's still there for his squeeze to give her advice on her relationship with her sister.

Another Confession!

Oh, yeah. Sean confesses to boinking the insecure blonde...to Janeane/Janis. In his cube?

Vossler must be Agent Hair Gel. And Renee is not proving to be a natural at going rogue.

"Renee will not end up like you, Jack." (Another sign that she must be stupid.)

"Jack, the rules are what make us better." And a classic Jack Bauer line: "Not today."

"I can't trust anyone"

Not even a rogue agent like you!

Hack (that was a typo, I decided not to fix it) says, "Madam President, you can trust me."

UGH. I can't handle much more. I'm laffing so hard, I'm practically crying.

I'm signing off. I can't do this tonight. Good night 24blog readers, Enjoy. Or maybe I should refer to as the 23 hour and 43 minutes.

Eeew

Cut off his finger!

And if (Possibly) Evil Ethan is evil, it's all over for the First Man?

President Cherry, grows a pair!

(And "everyone" thinks that Renee is dead? How about everyone that saw her sitting in White House reception?)

(Marzipan Halloween candy severed fingers? Who knew!)

Bad Guy Confession

In the tradition of 24, Dubaku confesses to the murder of the President's son.

The President announces her military strategy because the American public has a need to know?

Renee, she's coming in with Jack and Bill, so she's no longer presumed dead.

And another one on one (for all intents and purposes) with the President. Where is her protective detail? Bauer and Buchanan are allowed to be alone with the President?

"M" Comment: Catching on TIVO. Madam Prez says and "Bauer...." I'm having a really hard time with all of the storylines and caring much like "A" is. I only have about 10 minutes to watch before I have to go train so that my company's network can't be taken over like the government's did

OK, Obama Must Have Had a Date

I'll bet Michele wanted to watch 24 with him...he bolted right out of that news conference on time.

Previously on 24: 2pm - 3pm

Ok, here's the deal. I have a conference call, a gathering at a neighborhood arts organization,and a girl's gotta eat: so I must limit myself to 15 minutes to write this recap.

That may be more time than the writers have spent on either plot or character this season.

Jack and Tony have followed PM and Mrs. PM to Dubaku's headquarters. (I forgot, as Craig points out, that Chloe had lo-jacked the PM via a dental implant. "M" and I should consider that for our parents.) Jack and Tony start crawling around in the duct-work of the building.

Chloe has spent too much time creating dental implants, when she should have been stalking the aisles of Radio Shack for components for a CIP device clone. So the bad guys can toy with us by using the prototype to hack into the system that controls release of a deadly toxic gas at a chemical plant in one of what we New Yorkers like to call the Vowel States.

(And possibly access to my tax return.)

Janeane/Janis has become aware of this threat via her ability to notice a disturbance in the force, and the writers introduce and kill off the only character worthy of the appellation we've seen all season. On the way to his inevitable death, the heroic head of a chemical plant engages in some blatantly sexist, yet jaunty, banter with Janeane/Janis while she improbably tries to talk him through manually overriding the terrorist's nefarious actions.

Is it possible that the producers/directors of 24 have recycled the Evil Veep's acting coach? Has anyone else noticed that Janeane Garofalo's face has lost all mobility? (And we know that Powers Booth and Janeane both have faces that work, by virtue of their work on other shows. Booth was amazing on Deadwood, which I watched on Netflix last summer. And Janeane? 6 simple words: The Truth About Cats and Dogs.)

Or is a virus that limits facial mobility the actual threat Jack will face down in this rest of his really bad day?

The terrorists find out that Jack, Tony and Bill are in the building, unplug the device, and get the hell out of dodge, after rigging the poor guy who made the CIP device to blow, yet improbably leaving the PM and Mrs. PM behind. (Or did they take the wife with them?)

Boom.

(Possibly) Evil Ethan is all cheesed off because he can't find the First Man. He complains to the president that her husband is unreachable, off chasing his conspiracy theory. Yeah, now would be a good time to distract the president with her family problems.

(America in the 24-verse has gotta be laffing their backsides off every time someone calls the President's husband The First Gentlemen. Writers, please, stop with the chamomile tea and reiki treatments: get yourselves a flipping steak and some good Scotch and get this season back on track, stat!)

After some really inexplicably terrible dialogue, which reveals exactly nothing about why everyone but Jack has gone rogue (except that Tony and Bill may have hooked up -- not that there is anything wrong with that, but it certainly explains Karen's absence), Motobo calls the White House and makes an appointment to come on in.

The agent who was backing up the dead Agent Gedge, you know, the one who could use a dose of hair gel (now known as Agent Hair Gel), gets instructions from Dubaku, who has taken the bus back to his apartment (WTH?) to bring the First Man to him alive.

A chick from Dubaku's apartment complex drops by to hit on him. Hey, were there any smoldery glances? I'll have to type less this week and keep my eyes on the screen.

Tony takes off, electing to remain rogue (and possibly to take some time for facial hair management). Jack and company get on the bus for the White House, but as I did type too much last week, I don't know if they are taking the whole circus (i.e. Renee, who is surely useful presumed dead, Chloe, etc.) or if it is just Jack and the PM going in.

We have zero tie-ins to prior seasons, other than the Tony coming back to life thing. And Jack's face also seems mobility challenged. I think he's just tired.

If the writers could only get a little more tanked up on caffeine, I know that things could be better...

Any comments from the blogosphere?

Bloop, bloop...

(Photo is Frozen Face On The Esplanade, by flickr's kenudigit, used under Creative Commons License.)

Dictionary.com's word of the day: Toady

Toady (pronouced TOH-dee) is a noun and a verb.
1. a fawning flatterer; humble dependent
verb:1. to attempt to gain favor by fawning or being servile
http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/02/09.html