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Posted: Feb 14th 2003, 11:23 am
by Nostradamus
Random observations on the latest episode:

Putting Jack in the position of terrorizing the bad guy's innocent children was a great switcheroo from his own family being on the receiving end last season. I did however think it was a bit of a plot cop-out to make the suicide bomber a family man; if I was an evil mastermind, I'd want henchmen like those Drazen boys from S1, whose family had already been killed by their enemy, making them very well-motivated.

Lynne is starting to catch on to the hidden agenda, but I don't give her good odds in a match of wits against Sherry. It may be nothing, but why didn't Mike Novick tell the pres about Lynne's contact info immediately? Was he really waiting for proof, or was he blinding Palmer to his wife's deceit?

That hunter should have shot Kim while she was trapped; now he will have to listen to her whine for the rest of the night. Why couldn't the cat have messily devoured her as Nature intended? :P

On a morbid technical note, isn't electrocution a bad idea for extracting information? Sure, it hurts like hell, but it can also scramble the victim's brain, in which case all you'd get out of him is gibberish. Ali's goon had a better idea with simple cutting: lots of agony, without the brain damage.

PREVIEW SPOILER THEORY

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Given that it's already been done in a mainstream movie (Sum Of All Fears) and 24's harsh realism, do you think the writers will let the bomb go off? Maybe there will be a compromise, with the bomb detonating over a thinly populated area rather than the city. Or perhaps the mechanism is damaged in a shootout, preventing a full fission reaction but releasing some radiation? There would still be plenty of plot left, with Jack and David scrambling to unmask the terrorists' true backers and prevent an internal coup.

Posted: Feb 15th 2003, 9:49 pm
by NIGHTJESSI
I'm thinking Mike didn't tell the president about Lynn's discovery on Sherry either because he really does believe the president already has too much to deal with or because Mike is in on the plan to take the president down. Lynn said it herself, Mike has known Sherry for a long time.

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SPOILERS FOR NEXT EPISODE

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As for the bomb going off, I'm thinking this one won't detonate. Even though the preview showed the hunter saying the bomb went off, I got the feeling that he wasn't as he appeared to be and was trying to trick Kim into trusting him. He could have just been scrambling the radio to make it look like L.A. was in chaos. Then Kim would have no choice but to stay with him.

Posted: Feb 16th 2003, 3:14 pm
by dTheater
Where'd Nina go? There've been 3 new episodes over the last 2 months, so either I forget what happened or she just unexplicably disappeared.

I was thoroughly confused by what happened after they took Said Ali away. The TV screens showed test patterns, then when Kate looked at them, Ali's family was being led away, including the child that was supposedly killed, but the screen was jumpy and static-filled and unclear.

I think we'll see that the radio broadcast of the bomb going off will just be a mix-up. All we saw was a 2-second clip of Kim saying "It went off?" I'm sure it won't play out like the preview made it seem. However, if the bomb does go off, here's hoping Kim's within the blast radius.

Posted: Feb 16th 2003, 5:19 pm
by Natasha (candygirl)
dTheater wrote:I was thoroughly confused by what happened after they took Said Ali away. The TV screens showed test patterns, then when Kate looked at them, Ali's family was being led away, including the child that was supposedly killed, but the screen was jumpy and static-filled and unclear.
They took down the satellite feed because they didn't need it anymore. When Kate started freaking out and telling Jack he's just as bad as they are, he told them to put the link back up. She then saw that Jack had NOT disobeyed the President's orders - he had told them to make it look like they shot the kid so that Syed Ali would confess.

Posted: Feb 16th 2003, 5:25 pm
by Natasha (candygirl)
dTheater wrote:Where'd Nina go? There've been 3 new episodes over the last 2 months, so either I forget what happened or she just unexplicably disappeared.
The last that I recall, Nina took Jack hostage and wanted to trade info on the bomb for a pardon (for killing Jack). After Palmer agreed (and shed many guilty tears over the necessary collateral damage), the sharpshooters took Nina out and she was taken into custody in LA so that she can "share the fate of everyone she's endangered."

I don't remember seeing Nina since then, but I could be wrong - I'm old and my memory is going :wink:

Posted: Feb 16th 2003, 10:39 pm
by dTheater
But we never found out what Jack whispered into Nina's ear? I must know. They cannot leave me hanging like this.

Oh, and thanks for clearing up the bit about Ali's family, but I still find it implausible that they could fake that the way they did.

And did anyone else notice that Palmer is employing the same method of torture on Roger Stanton as the terrorists did in the opening of the first episode? A commentary on the hypocrisies of American gub'ment?

Posted: Feb 17th 2003, 12:02 am
by Natasha (candygirl)
I thought that the opening scene of this season showed a guy being tortured who then confessed to a woman speaking Korean (they were supposed to be in Seoul so I'm assuming she was speaking Korean although I admit I don't speak it so I could be wrong) who then reported the bomb information to the American officials down the hall. Wouldn't that mean that all the Koreans in lab coats were working with/for the Americans if they (the Americans) were sitting in another room waiting for the info?

Posted: Feb 17th 2003, 12:28 am
by Nostradamus
Oh, and thanks for clearing up the bit about Ali's family, but I still find it implausible that they could fake that the way they did.
I concur. A hardened, clever terrorist like Ali should have known better than to trust anything shown to him by his captors. With modern effects technology, even a full-view execution wouldn't be impossible to fake. Besides, those looked like local bandits holding Ali's family, and they might very well decide to kill them anyway (once the Americans stopped watching) to spite their enemies and eliminate evidence.
And did anyone else notice that Palmer is employing the same method of torture on Roger Stanton as the terrorists did in the opening of the first episode? A commentary on the hypocrisies of American gub'ment?
Those were not terrorists doing the torturing in the first episode, those were America's South Korean allies. In this way, the American intelligence officers waiting down the hall maintained plausible deniability regarding human rights violations, since they (the Americans) technically didn't torture anyone.

Edited to add: After reading Candygirl's post I'm not so sure that the interrogators in Korea were ever firmly identified, so it's possible that they weren't affiliated with the local government.

Posted: Feb 17th 2003, 2:56 pm
by dTheater
That seemed so long, I barely remember anything about the opening sequence except the method of torture they were using. I also remember the next scene featured Palmer's son, and that's the last we saw of him.

With all these 3-week layoffs, I'll definitely need to do a 24-hour marathon when the DVD comes out.

Posted: Feb 19th 2003, 3:24 am
by Natasha (candygirl)
Tonight's episode...

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Do not scroll down unless you already watched!!

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I was doing the happy dance when Roger ratted on Lady Mac! Hee hee!! That made the rest of episode worthwhile :p

Posted: Mar 3rd 2003, 3:55 am
by NIGHTJESSI
I was so happy to hear the news last week that 24 was renewed for a third season. I can't wait to see what kind of promotional tie-in is done to bridge S2 and S3 since the bridge between S1 and S2 is a fiction work that I have yet to add to my book collection. Anyone picked this up yet and read it? It looks quite interesting.

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SPOILERS

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It figures that Sherry would have an explanation for her dealings with Roger Stanton. I still don't trust her, but I don't put it past the writers to twist the storyline by actually making Sherry be on the side trying to help Palmer. After all, most would assume that she would be doing whatever she could to take him down.

Posted: Mar 3rd 2003, 4:36 am
by Natasha (candygirl)
I did see the 24: The House Special Subcommittee's Findings at CTU book at Target last week, but my boyfriend just flipped through it quickly so I can't give a solid yea or nay yet. It did look pretty good though!

Posted: Mar 5th 2003, 3:13 am
by Nostradamus
Did I hear that right, another 3 week wait?! Grrr... :?

LATEST EPISODE SPOILER TALK

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It was a bold move to let the bomb go off after only a little more than half of the season has passed. Not that there isn't still plenty of plot to run with: the conspiricy to take control of the presidency, civil unrest in LA, and now the pressure of an impending war.

The terrorist's attempt to incite war brings to mind the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor, an event which pushed the US closer to war with Spain more than 100 years ago.

Almost forgot that Kim is still wanted for murder, while her squeeze is in the hospital and the real killer is at large.

I thought the final sequence of the main characters watching the bomb was nicely done. Jack's flare-lit landing in the desert in particular recalled S1's pilot episode, with the airliner exploding as the saboteur escaped.

Posted: Mar 29th 2003, 6:38 am
by Nostradamus
24 now has its own official fan club and merchandise:

http://www.24fanclub.com/

Ever notice that icon of a keyboard marked "coming soon" on parts of the Fox 24 website? One gets the impression that someone planned to add a cool feature there, but forgot to complete it...

:roll:

Posted: Mar 29th 2003, 6:57 am
by Nostradamus
The recent episodes have given more questions than answers...

Jack seems pretty spry for someone who was pulling debris out of his leg a few hours ago; how long before he shows his fatigue?

How much does Yusuf know? Can he be trusted?

Ali said he was in Berlin when the tape was made; is it more than coincidence that Nina was headed there before she was caught?

What does Snake Man (the special forces colonel?) want with Kate Warner? Will he use her to press her father for something?