24: The Man in the Iron Mask

Last week, I lightly chided “24” for hedging its bets.

The writers seemed to want us to believe that Jack was TOTALLY out of control, yet they still mostly had enough of his wits about him to execute complicated plans and outsmart every single person around him. (Not too hard to do since everyone else on this show besides Chloe is an idiot.)

This week, I have to give the show for taking a side — they decided to have Jack go ABSOLUTELY bananas and I loved it!

In fact, why don’t we stop messing around and talk about the scene we all want to discuss? How amazing/ridiculous was it seeing Jack donning his own version of an “Iron Man” costume (complete with an incredibly intimidating mask) and unleashing hell in a New York City tunnel on his way to kidnapping Charles Logan.

Now Logan was really the key. Seeing Kiefer Sutherland’s (stunt double’s) rampage would’ve been incredible enough on its own, but the thing that really pushed this sequence to “all-time great” heights was the cowardly Charles Logan whimpering and squealing in the backseat of his Secret Service car. (Particularly satisfying, since Logan had been at his slimy/cocky peak after getting a shout-out from the White House Press Secretary for his role in the peace agreement AND once again playing President Taylor like an increasingly useless fiddle by convincing her to basically wipe her ass with the Constitution.)

I could honestly write my entire recap about this scene. (Don’t tempt me!) If you recall, Jack had retrieved Russian assassin Pavel’s SIM card from the dead man’s stomach and dialed President Logan’s number. With Ricker’s reluctant help, Jack got the location of Logan’s Secret Service detail. Logan, meanwhile, had just finished assuring Russian baddie Novakovich that everything would be fine, despite the fact that Jack had jus filleted his man Pavel. This all led to the assault in the tunnel.

You know what I liked best about Logan’s panicked, “That’s gotta be Jack Bauer…he’s coming after me…closer the door…kill him!” hysterics? (I mean, besides the fact that it was hilarious.) My favorite thing is that it was absolutely realistic. Now, “realistic” is not a word that is tossed around to describe “24” very often, and it certainly doesn’t describe this particular sequence. However, Logan’s terror at this Jason Vorhees/Terminator-like entity coming at him felt absolutely real.

It was so good that it couldn’t help overshadowing their actual face off a few minutes later in which the spooked Logan was all too willing to spill the beans about Novakovich’s and the Russian’s involvement and the fact that he was only part of the cover-up (not the actual plot). In an apparent show of mercy, Jack merely incapacitated Logan and went on his way to find the Russians.

What followed was a “shoot first, ask questions never” rampage that resulted in Novakovich being impaled with a poker (I think having this done off-screen was smart and chilling given the insanity we’d just witnessed.) However, Novakovich wasn’t the only guy who got stabbed. Random Russian Security Guard #3 snuck up on Jack and stabbed him in the stomach.

That left Jack a bleeding, wounded animal as he prepares to take on Yuri (the man behind Novakovich), who is appropriately wary of wounded animals. Turns out Jack had planted a microphone on Logan during their confrontation and he heard Logan’s conversation with Yuri. (Even when he’s in killing machine mode, Jack is still the smartest guy in the room.)

The question now becomes whether Jack will be able to exact his revenge on Yuri before he bleeds out, ala a wounded Maximus killing Commodus at the end of “Gladiator.” (I’m betting yes.)

Then again, there’s always option C: maybe Chloe and Cole will reach Jack and somehow bring him in peacefully. (Nah!)

True confessions time: Was I the only one who thought, “Tony!” when Chloe was talking about there being only one agent who could help Jack at this point. I realize Tony Almeida wouldn’t make sense (unless he happened to be hanging out in Central Park), but my mind still went there. When it was revealed that Chloe was actually talking about Cole, I heard the “Price Is Right” sad tuba music in my head.

So what’d you think of this episode? Why does Ricker bother to act all reluctant if he’s going to help Jack anyway? Could President Taylor get any dumber? Couldn’t Meredith have stashed that incriminating video file in a better place? (At least now the Hassans will know what's really going on.) Finally, what are your predictions for the finale?