24: Car Jacked

I didn’t even realize that Jack (pictured, right) hadn’t been kicking THAT much ass until last night’s episode.

In the latest hour of “24,” he unleashed the “Bauer yell” a few times (“GET AN AMBULANCE!!!”), had some great one-liners (his entire conversation with Moss at the Capitol pool) and took out anonymous henchmen and rouge secret service agents with equal efficiency and badassery (which may or may not be a word).

Just when Matobo was rescued and we thought Bauer (and the audience) would be able to take an episode to somewhat relax, Jack and his mini-me Renee had to run around D.C. to rescue First Gentleman Henry Taylor, who’d been brought to Dubaku’s underground convenience store lair by Evil Secret Service Agent Vossler.

Dubaku told Henry that we were about to find out whether his wife loved him enough to call off the attack invasion of Sangala. Henry should just be glad that Matobo didn’t ask the general viewing audience whether WE cared enough for him to spare his life, because I have a feeling the response would’ve been a half-hearted shrug. It’s not really Colm Feore’s fault — it’s just that it’s been damn near impossible to get behind Henry’s storyline since A.) There was never any doubt that his son was murdered and B.) We didn’t even SEE his son get murdered. (And if you didn’t watch “Redemption”, you never saw his son at all.)

So far, Henry is the new Kim Bauer — the character who only exists to get in peril. If he lives, I hope he stays away from cougar traps.

The phone call from Dubaku to President Taylor informing her about her husband’s kidnapping kickstarted the first awesome scene of the night. Jack, Renee and Bill had brought Matobo to the White House (did ANYONE else get worried when Matobo was taken away by that anonymous Secret Service Agent?) and had some ‘splaining to do.

Jack and Bill explain about the corruption in the White House and in the FBI and the president was sort of buying it. (She fully bought it once the carnage at Samantha Roth’s apartment was discovered.) Then the call came from Dubaku and Cherry Jones showed what a good actress she is by making me believe that ANYONE could care about Henry Taylor. They were going to kill Henry by the end of the hour unless she surrendered Matobo and backed out of Sangala. The president made the tough (and correct) decision to not be a hypocrite and showed she was willing to sacrifice someone close to her.

Of course, there was option C standing right in front of her. Jack asked her to pretend to comply with Dubaku’s demands while he tried to find Henry and save his life. When Taylor seemed skeptical and asked about his loyalties, Jack shot back with “With all due respect, Madame President — ask around.” (Translation: “Clearly you’ve never seen this show before.”)

Before they could head out, Renee insisted on contacting Moss for help. She insisted he could be trusted because they knew each other pretty well. Moss has been dropping hints all this time, but now Renee too? We get it — these two probably hooked up some time ago. Unless their connection is something more un-obvious, stop bringing it up!

Moss met with them and informed them that Evil Secret Service Agent Brian had been in touch with Evil Secret Service Agent #2 Vossler. Jack enlisted Moss’ help to find Vossler, while instructing Renee to go to Vossler’s home and use his wife and kid as leverage.

Renee was hesitant, but Jack pointed out that she’d already tortured a sniper (I guess she adheres to the “no women, no children” credo). The increasingly-impatient Jack then went on a mini-rant about how the silly FBI agents don’t realize the terrorist are NOT playing by their rules. He eventually guilted Renee into helping him, but Moss wasn’t letting up. He told Jack that he’s lost everything and he won’t let him do the same to Renee, and that the rules were what made them better. Jack responded with an ice cold “Not today.”

Don’t get me wrong, I think Kiefer Sutherland (and Jeffrey “We bring suspects in, not murder them!” Nordling) gave a great performance during this scene. If this were a slower-paced show, you might even say his impatience was a way of speaking for the fans. I just hope there aren’t TOO many scenes like this one last night, that make Jack too much of a cartoon action hero from an 80’s movie and turn this show into “Walker Texas Ranger” minus the slow motion. (I feel that if the show didn’t have to adhere to the real-time format, we would’ve gotten some slow motion action by now.)

Either way, Bauer went down a one-way street and intercepted Vossler, subdued him and called Renee who was threatening his family. Eventually, he gave Jack the location where Henry was being held, but used poor judgment when he decided to try to fight Jack hand-to-hand after Jack was momentarily distracted. This earned him a knife to the stomach.

At the other end of the phone line, Renee had a mini-meltdown after realizing she’d almost resorted to harming a child. I get that the show is trying to show the toll Jack’s actions can take on a human being (except for Jack). However, in my opinion, Renee didn’t come off looking compassionate — she came off kind of weak. In this particular instance, couldn’t she just have pretended that she was going to hurt the baby instead of looking like she actually felt she had to do it? I don’t know if that says more about the “get it down” attitude the show has established and encouraged or if Annie Wersching just didn’t sell the character’s conflict.

In the end, Jack and Renee reached the convenience store, knocked out the counter guy (“I’m not even supposed to be here today!”) and engaged in a firefight with Dubaku’s men after figuring out the president was wasting his time with that Matobo double and decided to waste them with a rocket. (Wasn’t Dubaku a little hasty here? I mean, they never even got a look at the Matobo double — what if he’d really been in there?)

Jack and Renee dispatched most of Dubaku’s henchmen. Unfortunately, the one guy they missed got off a shot and hit Henry in the stomach before Jack killed him. Fortunately for us, Jack killed him in an awesome way (sliding into a wall) resulting in the show’s coolest moment since he drove the car off that parking garage.

So now First Gentleman Taylor’s life hangs in the balance. The only thing I care about less (especially since it’s pretty obvious he’s going to live) is the subplot with Dubaku, his girlfriend Marika and Marika’s nosy sister Rosa. Last week, I said this subplot was “outta-left field”, but this thing is SO far out there that it’s WAY past left field. It’s more like “outta-the nosebleed seats overlooking left field.”

Right now, it just looks like an overly contrived way to create conflict for Dubaku (and to get him out of his lair before Jack got there). Here’s hoping this either gets better or that Dubaku takes Rosa out quickly. (And, yes, I just openly rooted for a terrorist to take out a defenseless woman in a wheelchair.)

So what’d you think of this episode? Could it be more obvious that Homeland Tim is the mole at the White House (Ethan knew about the Matobo plan this week and it wasn’t affected) and that Erika is the mole at the FBI? Finally, your thoughts on Renee — rightly conflicted and compelling character or unconvincing junior badass?