Lost: Season 5, Episode 16: "The Incident: Parts 1 and 2"

Lost:
Season 5, Episode 16/17: “The Incident Parts 1 and 2”:
Grade: 8.9

Where do I even begin? I have no idea. I have no idea what is going on anymore. I had prepared myself for two things. One was for Juliet’s death. We still do not for sure whether or not she is dead because well, if they have reversed everything and since she was technically alive before she set off the H bomb will she still be alive when we see how things are reversed now that they have changed time in 1977 and thus the present? Or is Miles right and did the H Bomb going off simply create the Incident rather than destroy it? He cannot be right otherwise everyone is dead. So basically these people are on a time loop? Ugh I have no idea. All I know is that I think Juliet is dead and I guess Locke is dead even though OtherLocke is walking around now. And what about Sayid who we last say bleeding to death? Ok let us just get right into it. I am going to be all over the place here.

First of all what did I think? Well overall I thought the 2 hour finale was fantastic for many reasons but in the long run I was hoping for more answers. I knew that the finale would be a cliffhanger. I figured that the bomb would go off but that we would not see the effects of it. But I was hoping I would get a few more answers to things that will tide me over until February. Instead I have a few reveals that lead to infinite amounts of questions. I am hoping Lost can pull this story off in its last season and does not leave me utterly disappointed with its answers the way Battlestar Galactica did. I mean that show always did an amazing job with its characters and it delivered on those moments in the final eps but the answers I received felt rushed and confusing. Even though Battlestar is still one of the most criminally underwatched and underrated shows to ever come around, its flaws are something that I hope Lost can o in a different direction with. So anyways overall there were many things going on here to make for some incredible TV and a lot of that has to do with Jacob.

So we finally meet Jacob. And guess what? He’s not one of the characters we already know. It’s some guy that has been around for a long time. Some being. Oh God I cannot even begin to go into it. But nevertheless I thought Mark Pellegrino nailed it. Second cast member from Mullholland Drive! He was so awesome in this role. My favorite moments of the episode were the ones in which Jacob visits each of the characters at different points, key moments in their lives. And he touches every single one of them. He visits young Kate as she steals for the first time and tells her not to steal. He gives young Sawyer a new pen to write his note to “Mr. Sawyer” at his parents funeral, he touches Locke right after he is thrown out the window by his father. I would argue he brings him back to life actually. He visits Jin and Sun on their wedding day, he asks Sayid how to get somewhere on a map which causes Nadia to get hit by the car, he visits Jack on the day of the “angel hair pasta” incident in surgery that Jack speaks of in the very first episode of the show and finally he visits Hurley most recently after he gets out of jail and tells him to go back to the island and gives him Charlie’s guitar case which probably has something else in it besides Charlie’s guitar. Oh and he visits Ilana which I will get to when I talk about her later. He does not visit Juliet or Miles I would guess because they were not on the original 815 flight. He visits all of them. Why? To get them on the island? To set them on specific paths? And is he good or bad? He seems good. He was wearing white in the very first scene, a scene which I will talk about in a second and a scene which I believe will be easily the most dissected during the 8 months we have to mull over Season 5 of Lost.

The first scene took place I believe when the Black Rock first crashed onto the island. The Black Rock has to be ridiculously important to the end of the series. I think that the castaways were originally on the Black Rock. I think they are in a time loop and Jacob and the man in black somehow are watching and waiting for something to eventually happen with this group of people as they witness this cycle over and over again as these same people make it back time and time again over hundreds of years for some grand purpose while they slowly make progress towards the ultimate goal. Do not ask me how any of this makes sense. I have no idea But this is my grand theory of Lost and I am sticking to it. I believe the H Bomb going off propels the castaways to their final loop where, because OtherLocke fucked things up, everything will come to a head in the next cycle which I believe will constitute Season 6. I think the season will begin with the castaways still on the island but returning in 2007 on the island with everyone else somehow. I literally have no idea how any of this can make any sense but I really do believe that the show will eventually get to a grand plan that is something along these lines.
So that first scene. People are assuming the man in black was Esau, Jacob’s brother in the book of Genesis. Jacob is wearing white. “Esau” is wearing black. They discuss extremely ambiguous stuff that I will not get into because all of the other reviews certainly are. But the man says “Do you know how badly I want to kill you?” and Jacob says “Yes”. He talks about finding a loophole someday and being able to do this. This for me confirms that the man in black or “Esau” is actually OtherLocke. Why? Well, because he has Ben kill Jacob, that’s why, and it harkens back directly to that first scene. Somehow he is not allowed to kill Jacob and Ben and his situation provided the loophole he wanted. Jacob seemed to allow himself to die though. And furthermore, he egged Ben on to do it. We had that brilliant character moment with Ben when he asks “What about me?” to Jacob and Jacob says “What about you?” not in a mean way but with an honesty that felt sincere but for Ben that was enough to kill him. Jacob then says “they’re coming” most likely referring to Jack and company. This did not make OtherLocke happy as he pushed dead Jacob into the fire. So enough about Jacob; let us get into other stuff.

We learn from Ilana, Bram and crew that Locke is in fact still dead. They bring his body in a crate and show Richard the dead body as OtherLocke and Ben are in the statue. So this means Locke is dead. And this means that he won’t come back? Is that the end of his character? Because if so, I cannot even begin to describe how totally depressing and tragic that is. I seriously cannot handle the idea that it is not him. He thinks he has some grand purpose and he goes off the island, tries to get everyone back, fails, tries to kill himself but before he can Ben persuades him not to and then he kills Locke anyways? That is his end? Christ that sucks. And that new bad ass Locke that we were all loving? Not even Locke. This will seriously take me months to accept. Then we get the stuff with Ilana. Jacob visited her to ask for help. She clearly had known him before and she was wrapped up in bandages. Hmmm. She asks Richard “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” and he replies in Latin “He who will save us all”. She mentions candidates and such, whatever that means. Because of Ilana, Richard and company now know about the OtherLocke deception so hopefully that will come to a head as soon as things get organized next season.

I’ve pretty much gone through the 2007 stuff so let us get into 1977. So we got to see Rose and Bernard and VINCENT!!!!!!! I’m mostly excited about the Vincent part. Because Vincent rules. Basically they have been chilling for three years. Wow. What a twist. Notice the sarcasm there. Rose and Bernard are a little too okay with dying for my taste. It was cool to see them together with everyone again for a little while. Kate, Sawyer and Juliet go off the sub and find Rose and Bernard and eventually find Jack, Sayid, Hurley, Jin and Miles who all met up after a gunfight in which Sayid was shot. I will just point out here that Sayid’s part in the rest of the finale is to just bleed slowly to death. And furthermore as we shall see, everyone finds time to drudge up their love drama as Sayid bleeds to death and they do not even seem to mind. In fact when Sawyer asks for 5 minutes to talk to Jack , Jack does not even tell them that Sayid was shot. Everyone just leaves him in the van!

So now we have a section of the finale which focuses on everyone sorting out their issues and eventually deciding to go along with Jack’s plan. Here is where we get the Jack-Sawyer scene. It’s a great scene. It’s been a long time since Jack and Sawyer sat and had a talk. So this was a delight. Jack tells Sawyer that he wants to change everything because he wants to forget about Kate. Sawyer tells Jack to tell her how he feels but he says it is too late. Here is where we get the first of two characters who literally are willing to set off an H Bomb and will probably die as long as they can forget about a certain someone. Who are these people and why are they so insane? And I will never understand why Kate is worth all of this heartache. She sucks hardcore in this finale. Honestly, you can still see in her face just how undecided she still is about everything.
Then Jack and Sawyer get into a massive fight; easily the biggest they have ever had, with a possibility of being the most brutal beatdown in the shows history. They punch and kick for a while but eventually Sawyer gets the better of Jack and just beats the piss out of him. What an awesome scene this was. Truly one of the best scenes of the season. So emotionally charged and exciting at the same time. Then Juliet breaks up the fight. She thinks Jack is right. She has changed her mind. Why? Because she thinks that because of the way Sawyer looked at Kate that she realizes that even though Sawyer would never leave her, it’s more because he made a choice and he is sticking to it, not because it’s what his heart wants. I thought her flashback (the only non Jacob one in the bunch which tells me she is most likely dead) was a bit forced. We understood what was going on and I do not think we needed that scene from Juliet’s childhood to tell us about what she was going through. He denies this and she says if she never has to meet him than she never has to lose him. Jesus. And she would be the second person who literally is willing to blow up an H Bomb if it means that she never met another character in this case Sawyer. Some people are confused as to why she did this but it makes sense to me. I think Juliet just wanted to be in control this time around with what happened even though Sawyer would not have left her. It is just so totally depressing and she deserved so much more. If this was not enough, they had to give her one of the most depressing and painful death scenes I’ve seen on television. They all arrive at the station where Douchebag Radzinsky is still drilling. A gunfight ensues.

Jack gets to drop the bomb into the site. This particular moment before Jack drops the bomb in has got to be the best single moment of the finale. We see everyone’s faces as they look at each other knowing that these are either their last moments or that these are their last moments knowing each other. It is incredibly powerful and emotional. But it does not go off and instead the incident begins and everything metal begins to get pulled. Fuckhead Phil gets struck with a rebar in the chest. Yay! And Douchebag Radzinsky decides to get into a Jeep. Wow. You are an idiot. In the midst of everything, a chain wraps around Juliet’s midsection and drags her into the pit. Sawyer and Kate try to hold on. It is the most heartbreaking scene. Sawyer says “Don’t you dare let go!” Sawyer at this point is freaking out because he sees where this is going. In the meantime the chains are tightening around Juliet more and must be ludicrously painful for her. Elizabeth Mitchell is along with Claire Danes one of the top criers in the biz because her sobs during this scene were gut wrenching. This was not acting crying; this was real sobbing. This goes on for a while and she goes down and Sawyer emits the most emotion I have ever seen from him on the show. Along with “The Brig” which was more anger, this is his most emotive moment. He starts sobbing and I am sobbing and everyone is sobbing and it’s horrifying. It turns out that Juliet is still alive somehow and then has another gut wrenching scene in which she uses her last moments to beat the bomb into detonation as she sobs and screams in the last minute of the finale. She succeeds and the last thing we see is her face as it fades away because of the white light seemingly coming from the bomb as the Lost logo comes onto the screen in black against the new white background. This show will be the death of me. Incredible last 10 minutes. Incredible. Until February 2010 everyone!

The Office: Season 5, Episode 23: "Broke"

The Office:
Season 5, Episode 23: “Broke”
Grade: 8.3

This episode marks the end of the Michael Scott Paper Company. I was very very sad to see it go because I truly love what the new dynamic brought to the show. We got to see many moments of Michael being smart and actually being in possession of business skills. We got Pam being really likable and being a saleswoman. We saw Jim and Charles. It was just fantastic. All of that came to an end this episode.

Great episode. Poor Pam, Michael and Ryan were delivering paper at 5 in the morning with milk and sugar being what Michael drinks in the morning. We again got to see Michael in the dominant position as he successfully hid the fact that the company was broke and he negotiated a successful deal with Wallace. It was great to see the look on his face when he gets the offer. I absolutely love when Michael is in control and confidant. They are my favorite moments with him and this episode shows him keeping it together. We learned that Ryan never went to Thailand. Pam was promoted to sales at Dunder Mifflin which makes me so happy because I just did not want to see her at that desk anymore and even though things are pretty much the same now at Dunder Mifflin it will be nice to see a little bit of a change with Dwight, Jim and Pam sitting at the desks together. Charles made himself look like an asshole as he realized that Dwight is a moron and since he chose him as his assistant, he looks like an idiot in seeing any sort of potential in Dwight.

- Michael: And you have to give Ryan a job here.

David Wallace: No, Ryan lost this company millions of dollars.

Michael: I don't care if Ryan murdered his whole family; he is like a son to me

- Michael: Did I ever tell you about the day Steve Martin died?

Pam: But Steve Martin's not dead.

Michael: No, he isn't, but I always imagined that it would be the worst day of my life, but today actually is.

- Michael: Well, well, well... how the turntables.
- Michael Scott: Our company is worth nothing. That's the difference between you and I. Business isn't about money to me, David. If tomorrow my company goes under I will just start another paper company. And then another and another and another. I have no shortage of company names.

- Michael Scott: Hellooo! Time to make the donuts! Oh Halpert! Wow! Boner patrol. Arrest that man! Your donuts make me go nuts!

- Andy: Hey Boss, uh, I just wanted to point out that I have been here, less time, than these guys.
Charles Miner: Why are you telling me this.
Andy: I just think the bar should be lower for a newbie.
Charles Miner: Is this something you really want to have said?
Andy: I don't want to have said that. But I think it's important that you know it.

Lost: Season 5, Episode 15: "Follow the Leader"

Lost:

Season 5, Episode 15: "Follow the Leader"

Grade: 8.3

It is sort of hard to write this review after having seen the finale last night. I would have liked to have written this before I had seen it but such was not the way of things. I won’t really talk specifically about the finale yet but I’m not going to theorize about things that might or might not happen in the finale when we already know what happened in the finale. My plan is to set up where each of the characters are going into the finale and through that talk about the plot.
1977: Jack: Jack going into the finale has found a purpose again. A purpose unlike any he has had before. The problem with Jack is that no matter what the consequences may be, he has always been someone who when he has a goal in mind he is going to get it done. He has not even stopped to think or care about what might happen if things do not work the way he plans. I find it so fascinating how Jack’s perception of things now follows Locke’s perception. Jack has changed a lot since Season 1 but he still carries that same determination. Jack gets knocked out in the most painful way ever and is brought to the Others’ camp with Kate. They get Richard and Eloise to go along with their plan to get Jughead and have it replace the Incident and hopefully wipe out everything that has happened to them this entire time. Jack makes it clear to Kate that he is OK with not having ever met her because in fact, it make things easier for Jack. He insinuates that it was not worth it. Ohh harsh. But deservedly so since Kate totally sucks. So Jack is left at the end of the penultimate episode underground with Jughead ready to transfer it out of there and across the island.
Kate: In the last three episodes of the show Kate has really just proven to me how much I cannot stand her. I cannot believe the amount of drama that rises up over this woman. She literally ruins everything totally destroying the men she comes across because she cannot commit to anything or make a decision. Ever after all of this it is still completely unclear who she wants to be with although at this point I think it’s Sawyer since she seems to have exhausted her relationship with Jack. But still, she is so devastated and angry when she realizes that Jack is willing to give up ever having known her in order to erase things. Really though Kate? After the shit she has put these guys through no wonder he wants to forget her. Hell I want to forget her at this point. However despite all of this at this point of the season I was totally on her side in terms of her leaving the Jughead mission. I thought it was crazy too.
Oh fuck this. This character thing is getting confusing. I’ll just do it through the story.
1977: We had to see Daniel’s death again. That was fun except that it was not. Even though Eloise sucks because well, she does, I definitely liked how willing she was to believe what Jack and Kate told her and to go along with his plan. Teamwork is always nice on this show between unexpected characters. Widmore as a younger man sucks. Yet present day Widmore is awesome. It seems that Eloise at this point is already pregnant I assume with Daniel. I hope at some point we get to learn more about their relationship. Sayid pops up and shoots someone when Kate almost gets shot for trying to leave. So Sayid has been gone for basically ever. Since he shot Ben, he’s been AWOL. Well here he is, all proud that he shot Ben and convinced that it does not change anything. The exchange in which he found out that Ben is not dead was classic. I’ll talk a bit more about Sayid in relation to the finale when I get to it. I wonder what else there is for the character to do. Basically Sayid agrees with Jack’s plan because he really does not care whether he lives or dies and if there is a chance to change things, then he will take it. Nice to see Jack and Sayid working together. They all swim to the underground tunnels except for Kate who goes back because she does not agree with what they are doing. Their story ends with them reaching the bomb.
On the Sawyer/Juliet front they are pretty much interrogated by Douchebag Radzinsky and Fuckhead Phil for the episode. Sawyer gets the crap beat out of him while Fuckhead Phil actually has the nerve to hit Juliet thus becoming Fuckhead Phil. Even though Horace does not nearly enough to stop them from getting beaten at least he does into approve of it. Something I find really amusing is how everyone listens to Douchebag Radzinsky and nobody will just hit him on the head with something. This continues into the finale and it’s just so weird how he’s in charge. You can really see during these scenes how loyal Sawyer and Juliet are to each other. You can just see a bond during these scenes that is so adorable and touching. Chang tells Douchebag Radzinsky to stop drilling but apparently because this idiot is now in charge nobody stops drilling. Sawyer and Juliet make a deal with Chang to tell them what they want to know but in exchange they get to go on the submarine. The moment between them on the submarine was so adorable. And then everything was ruined by the arrival of Kate on the sub. And Juliet and Sawyer’s faces as she sat next to them were basically the same exact reaction that I had on my face.
Jin, Miles and Hurley pretty much just hang out and watch things as they happen. Pierre comes over and tests Hurley about 1977 to figure out whether or not they really are from the future which was hilarious. “Who is the President of the United States?” “…alright dude, we’re from the future.” Pierre also figures out that Miles really is his son which was also really great. Miles also gets to see Pierre yell at his mother to leave and he realizes that I was the only way Pierre could get Miles and his mother to leave the island.
2007:
Richard tells Sun when she asks him about the picture of the castaways in the 70’s that he watched them all die. Looking at what happens in the finale I am so totally confused as to what this means. We got to revisit the moment when Locke is given the compass by Richard from Richard and now resurrected Locke or based on the finale we’ll just call him “Locke”. So I guess the fact that Locke is “Locke” explains how he would know where Jacob lives and the fact that that moment with Richard and Locke during the time jump was coming at that exact moment. Then Locke pulls a WTF and makes a speech to the Others in which he asks them to go with him to Jacob to see him. So Locke is leading a pilgrimage. What I love about these scenes is basically the way that Richard and Ben react to everything “Locke” does in this episode. We never see them in this totally submissive position. Ben’s “Why do think you think I’ve tried to kill him?” line is the best of the episode. We then learn that “Locke’s” mission is not to figure out how to get to the 1977 people but to kill Jacob. WTF?! Well it makes more sense now after seeing the finale since I have my own theories about “Locke” and what he is. The moment is still a great one though. And thus we set ourselves up for the finale. Overall not a very character focused episode at all but one that successfully sets up the finale and the events that will unfold there.

24: Season 7, Episode 22: "5:00am-6:00am"

24:
Season 7, Episode 22: “5:00am-6:00am”
Grade: 6.9

I am not sure why, after so many great episodes of 24 this season I have no idea why they decided that the last 6 episodes to drop the ball. This episode was not bad. There were good things about it definitely. I guess I am just disappointed that the season went in this direction. I was really hoping and not only hoping but had faith that this season of 24 would manage to bring Kim in and not have her be in danger. I was hoping that they would rely on Kim for something else than to be in peril. But once she was in the airport, I knew that she was in for it. As soon as we had the first shot of the woman that we are supposed to think is a nice woman that will help Kim out, I knew they were bad. There are some things and some situations where 24 cannot fool me anymore, but it’s cute to see them try. There are some things with the Kim thing this time that I appreciated. One was that Kim was not actively kidnapped like she always is; in fact at this point she has no idea what is going on. This was a clear decision made by the writers so that even though they have the same situation going on that we’ve seen before; it’s being done in a different way. So this I appreciated. Something else I have realized about it is that it is the most dramatic thing they can do. It has been a while since we’ve seen Kim and thus it has been a while since Jack has had to face this situation. When you add Tony into the mix of things and the fact that Jack is dying and Renee, you pretty much get the most dramatic situation that Jack can have going for him. So I am excited to see how this I resolved and I am also excited that if they had to bring the Kim thing in, that they have done it in a way that is slightly different. I just hate that the show became so clearly predictable this late in the game.

However I really cannot stand seeing Jack having to play the bad guy. Not in the sense that I think its bad TV but its just hard to watch. Again though, we’ve seen this situation so many times and while it is exciting, I was hoping that this season could continue its’ really impressive exciting streak by bringing something new to the table. Since Kim has to stay alive for Jack to give him the bone marrow so he can survive and since we know Jack survives, we know that both of them live. And since someone big has to die because this is the finale it has to be Tony. So Jack and Kim and Renee (she’s due back next season) will survive and Tony will not. It is not hard to figure out what will happen in these last 2 hours and that is very unfortunate.

In other news, what for me is extremely exciting is that Ethan is back!!!! Here is hoping that Ethan comes back for next season because there is no way Olivia is obviously going to keep this job. I have always liked the Olivia story because even though she is aggravating, I have always been interested in the story. Again though, it’s another story that we pretty much know how it is going to end. I may not know the specific outcome of it but obviously Olivia will no longer have her position at the end of the season and she will be found out. However it will be interesting to see how this effects the Taylor administration. YAY ETHAN!!!

This episode among the goods was a great scene between Jack and Tony in which Jack beat the hell out of Tony all in a minute. Then we see him asking why he betrayed him. Neither has anything left to lose. He looks at Tony like a sad puppy. Then we go to Renee as she gets a position on Jibraan. Then she goes to get Jack and we see that he has been standing there looking at Tony all sad and disappointed and betrayed for the past minute and a half. Oh boy was it sad.

On the other hand we saw Jibraan and Hamid reunite which was nice. I really was hoping they would end up happy. No Taylor which was weird. She has been pretty absent lately. So that is pretty much it. Everything is set up for the next two final hours of 24 Season 7. I’m not too thrilled with the familiar situations we are in going into the finale but I am hoping it will be exciting nonetheless. Even though I’m pretty sure about what is going to happen, it will still be really heartbreaking and dramatic for sure if Tony is in fact dying next week.

Extras: Season 2, Episode 3: "Daniel Radcliffe"

Extras:

Season 2, Episode 3: "Daniel Radcliffe"

Grade: 8.7

Ricky Gervais and Stephan Merchant take this episode as an example of how the media get so massively twist a story and how the public can depend on the media to tell them what to think of a celebrity. Andy is not completely let off the hook though. Since the character is pretty much an asshole, his behavior at the restaurant in the first place was horrid. Yes, he felt badly and yes he did not know that the boy had Down syndrome but he still was an asshole to that mother by telling her to take herself and her kid out of the restaurant. The way we see Andy’s efforts to achieve good PR fail, majorly due to Darren’s horrible attempts to alleviate the situation.
Everything about this episode is spot on. This season of Extras so far is so much better than the first season. We get to see the opening credits to When the Whistle Blows. We get to see how quickly the press can turn on you and how Andy handles situations like this one which is not very well. Andy gets into a fight with Warwick Davis. Most hilariously though, is Daniel Radcliffe in this episode who frankly makes the episode for me as great as the rest of it is. What a sport. He is portrayed as a mama’s boy who likes to think of himself as someone who is very experienced with sex and women. In fact, he has no experience and we see his hilariously pathetic attempts to get with Maggie. The moments with the opened up condom that he carries around ready to use is to die for. Basically everything in this episode was pitch perfect delivering along with the David Bowie episode, the best episode of the series thus far.

South Park: Season 1, Episode 1: "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe"

South Park:
Season 1, Episode 1
Grade: 6.3

It’s so weird how primitive the animation looks at the earliest point of the series. Its pretty close to the way things look now but not quite. The animation almost looks 30 years old in a way that makes the early animation a lot cooler than the way it looks now which is great but not as cool as this early animation. This first episode is really focused on creating the world and the pace and dynamic of the show for us. The type of humor the show wants to convey is put on priority here as its just trying to give us a sense of what the tone of the overall show is. It’s weird how different this first episode is from the others I’ve seen and I wonder how long this feel that the show has is conveyed. The voices are a bit different as well. Kyle’s voice is higher and Cartman’s voice is much harsher. I do enjoy that there is a portion of the shows episodes that seem to concentrate in humor derived purely from the characters and the world of South Park. This episode features aliens at South Park and Cartman getting an anal probe as the episode title says. He continually denies it because of the embarrassment it brings. Favorite moments include Ike because he is so cute, the music that pays when Chef drive up to the kids, Mr. Hat telling Kyle to go to hell, the cows wanting to board the train. Anything involving Wendy Testaburger in the early seasons when Mary Kay Bergman did the voices of the girls and women on the show before tragically killed herself. Stan’s smile when he sees Wendy, the milk is yummy poster, “I love to singa about the…”, Kenny’s death and subsequent decomposition by rats, “Yeah, I want cheesy poofs!”, Cartman and the kitty, the bird landing in Stan’s puke, “Don’t be difficult Eric!”, the cows in general, “Hey look a French fry!”. Overall this was quite a good episode but it’s almost more fascinating as the first episode of South Park than it is just as an episode on its own.

24: The Past Three Episodes: 2:00-3:00am, 3:00-4:00am, 4:00-5:00am

24:
Season 7, Episode 19: "2:00am-3:00am"
Grade: 7.8

The episode after Tony reveals that he is in fact still bad is a solid one which is more than I can say for the two episodes following this one. Something that I admire about this season is how fast everything has moved. Things that would take 5 hours in another season of the show take 1 or 2 episodes at the most. So I was afraid that Tony would have to play it cool under Jack’s nose for multiple episodes which was something that I was dreading. Luckily this was all solved at the end of the episode when Jack figured out that Tony was bad. Wow Tony has really turned into quite the douche. I really just do not care much about him anymore. I’m still attached to the character only in that I’ve known him for so long but I really just do not care about him anymore. It’s what he does to Jack that I really care about. So it was pretty difficult to watch where Jack and Tony’s friendship has gone when Tony refused to give Jack his medication during his seizure. I wonder what others think about the question if Tony is willing to kill Jack if it came down to it. I think he actually would be able to do it. I hate to admit it but I think he would be able to. It was a very exciting episode during the parts with Jack and Tony because Tony was just trying to get Jack to leave because of his condition while Jack knew something was up and could not quite figure it out for a little while. However by the end of the episode he realized that he had mistrusted Tony all along. Jack was about to shoot Tony because he had said that if he found out that Tony was fucking with him, he was going to kill him on the spot. His seizure prevented him from doing that. I think Jack is extremely willing and ready to do whatever it takes to make sure that Tony stays dead this time around as much as it pains him to.
Renee learned about Moss’ death : ( and we see that Renee deals with death by bottling up her emotions (seriously, Jill Bauer coming through). I felt really bad for Renee because she cared for Moss so much and they really had their relationship put through the ringer during the season. Crazy stuff happens with a blonde woman who shows up as Hodges look alike lawyer who she killed and presents him with a suicide pill because his death will save his family. I do not get how any of this connects because I’ve just lost track of things. Hodges swallows the pill but he survives. So much for the “suicide pill”. Kim leaves and we find out that Jack is now Grandpa Jack because Kim herself has a daughter name Teri. Oh my god how depressing is that? Overall it does keep the momentum of the last episode and is good but the next two episodes just kind of meander a bit for me.

Season 7, Episode 20: "2:00-3:00am"
Grade: 6.3
Here is where we start our two episode slump. Its not an actively bad episode and I understand that set up needs to be provided on this show but honestly it just felt like we were dragging ass here. There was no urgency to anything and there should be urgency at this point in the season since there has been for the rest of the season. Tony kills the guy with the canister because he wants to double cross Tony which was a stupid thing to do. Jack questions Hodges but gets nothing because Hodges truly knows nothing about the people he was working for. This was probably the best scene of the episode as Hodges tried to compare himself to Jack. We finally see Chloe again who hugs Jack which is adorable because they are BFF’s at this point even though being friends with Jack is not what its like being friends with other people. The CTU servers are put back online which is awesome because its just like old times. Then we are introduced to the illegal Muslim that is going to be framed for the attacks that Tony and his group are going to be doing on the country. I know his role is just another one of those “how are we supposed to give a crap about you when we will only see you for a few episodes kind of person” but honestly I feel for this guy and his brother. What a sucky deal. Olivia has no capability of being mature and understanding her mother’s decision to give Hodges a Witness Protection Program deal even though he was responsible for the death of their brother/son. So she calls someone to help her take care of Hodges even though she made it pretty clear to Aaron moments earlier that this was something she wanted so it won’t look good if he turns up dead an hour later but apparently she does not care. Olivia can be a moron sometimes. Oh and Jack flipped out on Janice because she was being annoying and because of the mood changes that the virus has inflicted upon Jack. It was awesome. The throwback to Palmer’s name was enough to almost make me cry. Again, the episode was not bad but parts of it seriously dragged and that is the last thing you want to happen on an episode of 24.

Season 7, Episode 21: "4:00-5:00am"

Grade: 5.9

And we enter the second hour in which we get…a lot of set up. The moment with Chloe and Jack when she figures out that something is wrong with him and finds out that he is dying was the best moment of the episode. It was weird how slow this episode was. Again with the no urgency. It did not even feel much like 24 to be honest. The parts that I liked were the fact that Olivia called off the assassination but a bit too late apparently or maybe not because we have no idea what happened as Jonas Hodges blew up. Thank God. Seriously, what a whiny annoying schmuck he was. After he was taken into custody he just became pathetic. I actually feel bad for Olivia. That’s right. Because no matter who killed him, she is totally taking the fall for it and that sucks for her but it’s what happens when you almost set up an assassination.
Tony and others are taking on the subway system. I still feel bad for Jabraan and his brother although it should hopefully be fairly obvious to the brother that Jabraan was forced to tell that lie. It’s a pretty shitty plan Tony I have to be honest with you.
Jack and Jabraan’s imam stuff was kind of annoying. First of all it pissed me off that way Jack handled the entire situation. He was a total asshole about the whole thing. Second of all brining him along makes no sense. It’s just so another person could point out how fucked up and lost and sad Jack Bauer is. Just one more person to pity him. We get it. It just felt forced to me.
Even though this episode was another one of mostly set up for these final hours, things pretty much look as if they are set in motion. They know Jabraan is being set up already and all of the final pieces are being set in motion. Next week looks like it is going to be very intense with lots of stuff happening. So let us hope that all of this set up was worth it as we head into the final 3 hours.