Tuesday, April 03, 2007

24 Recap: 4/2/07

Pia has a shiny, happy new template over at Courting Destiny. It's resplendent. (Seriously, 'Tor, I'm a little jealous.)

Recapping this week's 24, aka Day Six: 9:00 PM - 10:00 PM...

Daniels wants to wield control from Palmer so that he can launch the nuclear strike on Fayed's Country, which I will refer to from hereon as Syraqistan. He challenges Palmer's ability to discharge the duties of the Presidency, so it is decided that the cabinet will hear testimony and then vote. Before the hearing, Palmer asks Doctor Welti for a shot of adrenalin. Talk about cliche. Oh! He means an actual shot, like with needles and stuff.

After a ten minute recess--yeah, that seems like enough time to decide the future leader of the nation--the cabinet votes. It's a tie. And as we all know from baseball, a tie always goes to the President. Except that Daniels claims Karen Hayes' vote is invalid, because she resigned earlier in the day. The Attorney General says the validity of Karen's vote should be decided by the Supreme Court. Palmer grimaces, which he pretty much does this entire episode. Could it possibly be from the explosion he survived about four hours ago, or the coma he was in twenty minutes ago?

Over at As The Counter Terrorist Unit Turns, Ricky calls Nadia into his office and tells her he thinks Milo entered a wrong security code, allowing CTU's system to be infiltrated by the drone pilot. He wants Nadia to check Milo's computer without him knowing. Which I'm thinking Milo is going to like so much less than her checking his breath. With Ricky pressuring her, Nadia does it and finds that Milo had entered a wrong code. She expects Ricky to have Milo fired. Instead, Ricky logs in and changes the data to cover for him. When Milo returns, he spends the rest of the episode casting deep, suspicious glares at Nadia.

In the field, Jack agrees to the immunity for Gredenko, telling Bill it won't be valid if the Presidency is being contested. Gredenko calls Fayed and they agree to meet at the Santa Monica Pier to exchange security codes and plot out more havoc-wreaking. All while enjoying a couple of blue coconut Hawaiian shaved ices, no doubt.

In the bunker, Team Palmer and Team Daniels are going over the arguments they'll present to the Supreme Court. Lisa doesn't think Daniels will win and volunteers to lie and swear that Daniels told her he planned to relieve Karen of her duties. Daniels holds her hand, which was a bit awkward and ambiguous. Later, Tom comes in and asks to meet with Daniels alone. Tom shows him a microtransmitter he had planted in the office, then plays back a tape of Lisa volunteering to lie under oath and the Vice President consenting to it. He then tells Daniels to call and drop his motion to remove the President, which he does.

Arriving at the pier, Gredenko is injected in the arm with some radioactive material which will "go straight into the bone" and allow CTU to track him. He then goes to meet Fayed. When he gets inside, he doesn't say a word as he pulls off the transmitter CTU has wired him with and unplugs it. Fayed, putting on his best et-tu-Gredenko face says, "You led them to me." Jack and the field team move in. When Jack gets into the room where Gredenko is supposed to be, he's not there. Oh, but his arm is! It's lying on the floor. He cut it off so CTU couldn't track him! That's going to cause serious problems the next time he tries to do the hokey pokey.

Fayed and Gredenko stroll into a local pub. All that terror-mongering makes a guy thirsty. Suddenly, Gredenko points at Fayed and says, "That's him. That's the terrorist. I've seen him on TV." Fayed shoots a couple of people before the locals are able to subdue him. Gredenko limps into the darkness before Jack arrives and secures Fayed. We next see Gredenko underneath the pier, where he appears to be getting weaker. He passes out at water's edge.

Back in the bunker, Palmer gets another shot of adrenalin. Karen tells Tom she wants to call a truce. Tom's phone rings and he is clearly disturbed and alarmed by the call. He tells Karen that Palmer has decided to go ahead with the nuclear strike anyway! Tom goes to the war room and tries talking sense into the President. But Palmer says he doesn't want to appear weak any longer and a nuclear missile is launched at Syraqistan from the USS Vickery...

The good:
Twists, twists, everywhere! Tom turning on Daniels. Ricky covering for Milo. Gredenko cutting off his arm, then giving up Fayed, then passing out and maybe dying himself.

Tom bugging the Vice President's office and thwarting his efforts to commit perjury.

More suspicion. What is Ricky up to? What is Tom up to?

The bad:
No Chloe? No CHLOE?! NO CHLOE!!!! What is up with that?

I didn't buy Palmer's sudden 180 on the nuclear strike, after he had fought so hard and risked his life to stop it.

Best scene:
Gredenko's severed arm lying in the floor. You simply cannot overstate the entertainment value of a detached limb.

Best quote:
Tom: "Well, sir, I'm on the side of the United States of America. And if you ever thought otherwise, you were very much mistaken."

Did you know...
Tiger's Blood is widely regarded as the current most popular flavor of shaved ice. It is a combination of red berry fruits and coconut flavoring.

Did you know, part deux...
Grimace first appeared as a McDonaldland character in 1971 as a four-armed milkshake stealing bandit. But was later recast as a lovable two-armed doofus. If you're having trouble keeping up, Palmer grimaced throughout this episode. And Gredenko has one arm.

Questions:
Why did Palmer do a complete reversal and launch the nuclear strike? Is his brain swelling? Or are they blaming it on the adrenaline? I know sometimes when I'm playing football on the Xbox, I'll get fired up and do something really crazy like go for it on 4th and 28 from my own 10.

Is Gredenko dead?

Why no Chloe???

What happened to Martha Logan, and more importantly, Aaron Pierce?

"You put your left arm in. You take your left arm out. You put your left arm in, and you shake it all about. You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around. That's what it's all about..."

13 comments:

  1. Let me just say that last night's episode may have been the best one I've seen since the beginning of the season. It was actually worth missing part of the Florida/Ohio State game.

    There's so much to say here, but I'm sure you're tired of my mile-long comments! Therefore I'll just hit the highest of the highs:

    Your recap was fantastic.
    I was watching the show wondering how you were going to address everything that went on without writing a post that was 20 pages long. I'm deeply impressed by your succinctness and the humor you were able to inject.

    That's going to cause serious problems the next time he tries to do the hokey pokey. This sent me over the edge. My sides still hurt from laughing. Picturing Gredenko doing the hokey pokey even as I'm typing this. Oh dear.

    And I'm adding to your question list:

    WHEN are we going to find something out about Audrey?? They can't get us all worked up about her, showing us pictures of her dead body and Jack getting all revenge-like about her and then ... nothing. Zip. Zilch. Goose Egg. Come on people! You can't just let us sit in wonderment over Martha and Audrey . . and now Chloe.

    I think the writers of 24 are sexually discriminating this week. All the women (save Nadia) were left out!

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  2. First, thank you 'tee.

    All I can comment on are the asides--funny as usual

    Whenever I see or hear the hokey pokey, I think of Bob Newhart teaching at his wife's gym

    He did the Hokey Pokey, Newhart style. It was the single funniest thing I have ever seen on TV

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  3. My goal is to keep my comment for the week brief. We’ll see how well I do…

    I just have to say, that arm incident was positively disgusting.

    And I’m overly suspicious of Ricky. I’m not buying that whole “I’m a good guy now thing.” No way, no how.

    However, if Nadia is dumb enough to fall for it, well, I’d be more than happy to console Milo. All in the name of keeping the country safe of course. O:)

    The scene between Lisa & Daniels made me want to puke: what was with that? And how come Tom decided to finally be a good guy – about five episodes too late???

    Finally, I really liked Palmer in this show until last night. What gives?? I’m suddenly liking his sister better than him and well, that’s painful for me to say.

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  4. Ugh, not so brief. *sigh* Sorry. Guess I'm just long-winded in all of my writing this week.

    AND I forgot to add...

    The hokey pokey? Seriously? And Grimace? Someone's been going to 'Donalds too much lately...

    ;)

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  5. Limbs strewn about? Eeek.

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  6. Avery: This week was definitely an upgrade over the previous couple.

    I keep waiting for something about Audrey. It's got to be coming any week now.

    Hmm, good point. Maybe they figured most men would be watching the game?

    Pia: I miss Newhart. He definitely had plenty of laugh out loud moments. And, I'm sure you'll be able to comment on the entire posts once you watch all the episodes you've DVR'd. Right?

    TC: And by disgusting, you mean cool? :)

    Yeah, and what about that religious stuff Ricky quoted? How random was that!

    Come on, give it up. Who's better than Grimace? :) Hamburglar is just sneaky. And just between you and me, I don't trust those fry guys either.

    Lass: Well, eeek wasn't exactly my reaction. More like an excited "Ooo ooo!" But, close enough :)

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  7. And by disgusting, you mean cool?

    Actually, by disgusting, I mean disgusting. As if his arm being there, after they cut.it.off wasn't bad enough, but to see him bleeding all over the place down by the water... ick!

    Disgusting.

    I'm not sure about the religion mumbo-jumbo Ricky was spouting was about. It's fishy I tell ya. Everything about him is fishy.

    Oh, I never said I didn't like Grimace... O:)

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  8. You mean just DVRing the episodes and having them sit in my TV's hard drive isn't enough?

    When you begin watching Boston Legal, I will...

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  9. ....Peeing...pants....hokey...pokey! ROFL!!!

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  10. You think the best scene was Gredenko's detached arm on the floor, yeah, I'm inclined to argee(you convinced me with your recap). Thanks for the recaps:) p.s Out of all the video games I have played, from the all the shooter type ones to the cheesy overly Japanese corny animal ones, (I just now realized) I have never actually played a single football game,yet.

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  11. TC: I was glad they let him pass out at the end. That was a little more realistic than letting him lop off his arm and just continue on indefinitely.

    Pia: I saw part of it last night :) One scene anyway, with James Spader questioning this chubby guy.

    By the way, I forgot to reply this to your comment below. Don't tell anyone, but I'm on the Committee to Reinstate And Permanently Planetize Pluto, or CRAPPP. (Yeah, I wasn't crazy about acronym either.)

    Carnealian: Why does laughing make girls pee?

    Girl FPS: Yeah, I couldn't think of what other scene was better. Tom playing the recorded conversation for Daniels was pretty good :)

    Actonbell: But Keanu Reeves IS kinda cute, huh?

    LOL Uh, I'm sorry, but I am unable to find physical beauty in a man :)

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  12. Oh- I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw the "Hokie Pokie" song at the end! :D
    Bone- really...don't you think that the time between one Monday to the next is just a tad too long?
    :)
    This is always fun :)

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  13. Mayden: Yes, at the end of the show every Monday night, I'm thinking next Monday will never get here :)

    Thanks for stopping by.

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