Monday, March 26, 2007

24 Season 6: Episode 15 Recap
(Hour 8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.)

WARNING: The following post may, and probably will, contain spoilers.

If 24 didn't jump the shark in season two with the mountain lion, then I think the whole show just tied a rock to it's feet and then tried to jump a guppy. Seriously, this is the same show that won Emmys last season? Well, maybe they have a case, they just had a dude act autistic!!! Genius.

Definitely Wapner
In easily the absolute most cockamamie idea I've ever seen in a television show, this week we were introduced to Mike Hauser and his brother Rain Man (Brady Hauser). Mark was on CTU's watch list, and on a whim, Chloe remembered to check the list. Sure enough, he JUST made a call five minutes earlier to Gredenko. I'm not sure how they figured out that he was talking to Gredenko seeing that the call was scrambled. Maybe they have Gredenko's phone number on file. Sorry, I digress. Yes, Mark Hauser apparently had about 17 jobs in the past 7 years and doesn't live at the address that's on his driver's license – luckily, CTU's files were super up to date.

Jack and his team head to updated address and then Chloe sends Jack the picture of Mark Hauser super quick via Sprint's Picture Mail. They break in and Mark is shot and needs to go to the hospital, but Jack says no, and issues orders for Mark to be stabilized. Then Jack again shows how versatile of a human he is and becomes a counselor to Rain Man. Jack learns that Rain Man was getting files for Mark by getting through the IPC firewall to set up a proxy server port.

Mark is really hurt and HAS to go to the hospital. But before he does, he calls Gredenko and sets it up for him to meet Rain Man to get his information. I'm pretty sure the call wasn't scrambled, since Mark didn't enable the scrambler (see episode 10). Gredenko doesn't think it's weird that he's just going to meet an autistic kid in the middle of a neighborhood park, so why should we?

Here's the wrinkle in the plan, Rain Man needs Gredenko to get out of his car – I suppose CTU couldn't just surround the car. So Jack gives the unusually mild-tempered Rain Man an earpiece. Gredenko shows up and gets out of the car as planned. Then, after using Mark's magical jump drive that just automatically uploads whatever is on it to the computer that it's stuck inside of, CTU kills all of Gredenko's men and tranquilizes him. It wasn't a strong one, though, as he is awake and fully conscious within three minutes. Then he pulls a switcharoo on Fayed and says he'll sell him out.

</end stupidest story line ever>

Bunker Trouble
Evil Veep still wants to shoot a nuke at "Fayed's Country," but everyone thinks he's crazy... I mean, doesn't he know that he'll start World War 3!?! Anyway, Sister Palmer is staring at her comatose brother, when Karen comes up and risks National Security by telling her about Evil Veep's plans. Problem is, Brother Palmer needs to wake up and stop him. Luckily, Sister Palmer is willing to risk Brother Palmer's life and agrees to wake him up.

Meanwhile, we get some great dialogue... "The Victory will reach launch postion in ... 40 minutes," says the General dude. To which Evil Veep responds, "so in less than an hour we'll have made our point to the enemy." That's the writers reminding us that everything in 24 happens on one-hour time frames. Good thing, I had forgotten. Oh yeah, they're going to fire off a B-611 Short Range Tactical Warhead, if anyone is checking.

Evil Veep gives the order to launch the nukes. Fish argues that it's not a good idea. And just when you think that the missiles will be launched, Brother Palmer calls the submarine on his cell phone and stops the order – he's got them on speed dial. Who knew that would happen!?!

Nada Mas Para Nadia
Ooooo! Big break for Nadia! While Agent Smarty Pants (Kyle Johnson?) was stripping data from Missile Commander's hard drive, he found a remote access module – it's how Missile Commander was able to breach CTU's satellite grid. He got in through one of the radical web sites Nadia had been monitoring and the access module proves it...somehow. Just when you think Agent Smarty Pants is going to turn Silver Spoon in, he again brings up the fabled "Denver" incident... but they just keep refering to it as "Denver," you know, to peak your interest. When actually no one cares.

Then we learn that Agent Smarty Pants is wearing a turtle neck on a hot summer day in LA. Then he tells Milo that Silver Spoon is withholding evidence that proves Nadia's innocense. Milo, who doesn't need a sling anymore, attacks Silver Spoon. But Morris comes to his rescue saying Silver Spoon gave him the remote access module that breached Nadia's computer. Silver Spoon didn't report it because he got it from an un-reliable source (Agent Smarty Pants is unreliable?). Well, anyway, Morris ran a "verification scan" and it's definitely real and Nadia is definitely innocent. It then only took Bill four minutes to review the evidence that proves Nadia is innocent. And then he has the nerve to ask her to stay? Oh yeah, they're short-handed. And she agrees!

As a welcome back, the sling-less Milo gets all aggressive and forces his tongue down Nadia's throat. It was such a good kiss that Nadia was shell-shocked. And Chloe was sad.


Hopefully next week we'll learn why Gredenko is the only one who can give Fayed the targets he wants. But if you want a spoiler, it's because he is the only one with an atlas.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Gredenko probably is the only one who has an atlas.
he says to Fayed (first ridiculous thing in the episode, and that was only the first 5 minutes!) that he is "the only one who can give Fayed the targets." Why? Did Fayed forget what he wanted to attack? How incredibly 24. Oh, I mean how incredibly stupid.

Seth Gunderson said...

Yeah, I had that written down, too. Just couldn't work it in. Just how exactly can Gredenko get the targets? If I were someone in possession of two nukes, I'd drive to the most populated area I could find and set them off. Why are they just sitting around waiting?

I still can't get over that a NUCLEAR BOMB was detonated on US soil and no one is freaking out. Last season there was a syntox threat and the city was under Martial Law.

Anonymous said...

Dude, I love 24. But something just flew over a certain marine animal's head.

I guess it had to happen sometime.

Chris Fullam said...

Did anyone see South Park this week? They did an awesome 24 parody. It was hilarious.

http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/south_park/index.jhtml

If you missed it, make sure you TiVo "The Snuke"

Chris Fullam said...

also - the south park episode is on YouTube as well. Just search for "The Snuke"

Chris Fullam said...

and one more thing - I think the writers of Talk Soup (E!) read this blog, because they made the exact same reference to the Mountain Lion this week. That can't be a coincidence.

Seth Gunderson said...

That's interesting. If so, welcome to the blog E!