24 Season 8 – 4:00-5:00pm After the EMP strike on CTU last week, it’s no surprise that the major crux of this episode featured the team trying to make the best of a bad situation, and after Jack’s plea to his NSA buddy for help, even the usually dull offices of CTU got a bit of excitement, thanks mainly to Chloe and her rather unique way of getting people to cooperate, but also, shock horror, thanks to Dana, whose plot takes a rather dark (and plain silly) turn, indeed. With the NSA showing up like a bunch of bullish, top secret nerds, ready to kick ass and chew bubble gum (only they were all out of gum), it’s not long before geeks clash, and some rudimentary techno babble is strewn around the place, with subnets and trunk lines being mentioned as if to get some technical kudos from the masses. The NSA bods demonstrate a ‘my way or highway’ solution, much to the annoyance of Chloe, who thinks she has a better way of doing things, so she decides to make her point, with a gun. Of course, the episode wasn’t all computers and tech support, and we also witnessed what could possibly be the longest, and most drawn out gun fight ever, as Jack and Ortiz find the terrorists and enter a stalemate against some enemy snipers for the majority of the episode, but not before the nukes are placed on a boat and start across the river. With comms down, Jack spies a hard phone line away from their position and quickly, in an anti-terrorist Blue Peter special, gets his team to fashion some A-Team-style shields out of their banged up SUV. Unfortunately, yet another highly trained officer who supposedly knows how to follow orders doesn’t listen to Jack and promptly breaks formation to end up on the wrong end of a bullet, and Agent Owen, always destined to be a 24 red shirt, bites the dust whilst trying to save his reckless buddy. Jack is promptly hit, and taken down, and just as a sniper is about to score a headshot, Renee shows up, after being called in by Chloe earlier, and kills Jack’s would-be assassin. She then proceeds, with a measly pistol, to do what Jack, Ortiz and two other SWAT guys and automatic weapons couldn’t do, and kills off the snipers. You go, girl! Of course, Jack’s not seriously injured, and his bulletproof vest stopped the deadly rounds, and thanks to their efforts, and Chloe’s help, CTU are back on track, with info on the location of the nukes. Phew! This brings us to Dana. Yep, it’s no secret that her story isn’t winning over fans, and up until now it’s been a little bit ropey, to say the least, but the arrival of Bill Prady injected some life into it, if only a little. As I suspected last week, Dana does, indeed, reveal, truthfully or not, that the video feed Prady was after was wiped during the EMP blast, and with that, the story was seemingly over. That is, until Hastings gets a message that Prady is waiting to see him, much to the dismay of Dana. Now, I saw the next bit coming, and as Dana made her way to the holding room where Prady was located, I knew that his days were numbered. However, I thought this would also be a very good move, injecting some much needed drama and urgency into her story, not to mention some interesting personality and character, which Katee Sackhoff has been unable to convey due to the poor writing so far. What’s worse, the twist just wasn’t needed, or even hinted at in an acceptable way. The main plot was going along well enough, with Tarin’s involvement and the movement of the nukes, and Dana’s story, if it was left at the murder of Prady, could have flowered. As it stands, I’m now quite happy to think that President Taylor is, in fact, the ruler of a satanic cult ready and coiled to take control of the government, Hastings is actually Tony Almeida in good make-up and prosthetics and under deep cover, and the nukes are really alien bodies that need to be picked up from Madison Square Garden by the mothership (Will Smith is apparently on standby). Still, things may straighten out, and we’ll have to see where Dana’s involvement leads. That is, if Jack doesn’t turn out to be a robot, from the future… Read our review of episode 12 here.
title: “24 Season 8 Episode 13 Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-07-02” author: “Joyce Rosenblatt”
24 Season 8 – 4:00-5:00pm After the EMP strike on CTU last week, it’s no surprise that the major crux of this episode featured the team trying to make the best of a bad situation, and after Jack’s plea to his NSA buddy for help, even the usually dull offices of CTU got a bit of excitement, thanks mainly to Chloe and her rather unique way of getting people to cooperate, but also, shock horror, thanks to Dana, whose plot takes a rather dark (and plain silly) turn, indeed. With the NSA showing up like a bunch of bullish, top secret nerds, ready to kick ass and chew bubble gum (only they were all out of gum), it’s not long before geeks clash, and some rudimentary techno babble is strewn around the place, with subnets and trunk lines being mentioned as if to get some technical kudos from the masses. The NSA bods demonstrate a ‘my way or highway’ solution, much to the annoyance of Chloe, who thinks she has a better way of doing things, so she decides to make her point, with a gun. Of course, the episode wasn’t all computers and tech support, and we also witnessed what could possibly be the longest, and most drawn out gun fight ever, as Jack and Ortiz find the terrorists and enter a stalemate against some enemy snipers for the majority of the episode, but not before the nukes are placed on a boat and start across the river. With comms down, Jack spies a hard phone line away from their position and quickly, in an anti-terrorist Blue Peter special, gets his team to fashion some A-Team-style shields out of their banged up SUV. Unfortunately, yet another highly trained officer who supposedly knows how to follow orders doesn’t listen to Jack and promptly breaks formation to end up on the wrong end of a bullet, and Agent Owen, always destined to be a 24 red shirt, bites the dust whilst trying to save his reckless buddy. Jack is promptly hit, and taken down, and just as a sniper is about to score a headshot, Renee shows up, after being called in by Chloe earlier, and kills Jack’s would-be assassin. She then proceeds, with a measly pistol, to do what Jack, Ortiz and two other SWAT guys and automatic weapons couldn’t do, and kills off the snipers. You go, girl! Of course, Jack’s not seriously injured, and his bulletproof vest stopped the deadly rounds, and thanks to their efforts, and Chloe’s help, CTU are back on track, with info on the location of the nukes. Phew! This brings us to Dana. Yep, it’s no secret that her story isn’t winning over fans, and up until now it’s been a little bit ropey, to say the least, but the arrival of Bill Prady injected some life into it, if only a little. As I suspected last week, Dana does, indeed, reveal, truthfully or not, that the video feed Prady was after was wiped during the EMP blast, and with that, the story was seemingly over. That is, until Hastings gets a message that Prady is waiting to see him, much to the dismay of Dana. Now, I saw the next bit coming, and as Dana made her way to the holding room where Prady was located, I knew that his days were numbered. However, I thought this would also be a very good move, injecting some much needed drama and urgency into her story, not to mention some interesting personality and character, which Katee Sackhoff has been unable to convey due to the poor writing so far. What’s worse, the twist just wasn’t needed, or even hinted at in an acceptable way. The main plot was going along well enough, with Tarin’s involvement and the movement of the nukes, and Dana’s story, if it was left at the murder of Prady, could have flowered. As it stands, I’m now quite happy to think that President Taylor is, in fact, the ruler of a satanic cult ready and coiled to take control of the government, Hastings is actually Tony Almeida in good make-up and prosthetics and under deep cover, and the nukes are really alien bodies that need to be picked up from Madison Square Garden by the mothership (Will Smith is apparently on standby). Still, things may straighten out, and we’ll have to see where Dana’s involvement leads. That is, if Jack doesn’t turn out to be a robot, from the future… Read our review of episode 12 here.
