Did you catch the celebrity look-alikes? The air marshal who got a taste of Jack's elbow fu looked like David Blaine. Next Monday, Blaine will be sleeping with the fishes on ABC, but first he has to escape from a baggage compartment on FOX. Unless, of course, he becomes one of the forgotten characters, in which case there's no telling where we'll see him next. This is starting to sound like quantum mechanics — he doesn't exist unless someone's looking at him — so I'll move on.
I halfway expected the pilot to turn to the copilot and say, "Have you ever been inside a Turkish prison?" And so it all comes full circle: The pilot looked a like Peter Graves. I made the comment a few rants back that this show can be seen as an early-21st century terrorist analog of the commie hysteria science fiction films of the 50s. Roger Corman made many of those films. And who starred in Corman's 1956 It Conquered The World? Peter Graves.
It's nice to see Mike Novick again, but it's been so long that it seemed like the writers weren't quite sure what to do with him. I guess it's a sign of his standing in the Logan administration that he's been reduced to being Martha's supplier. (And those antipsychotics work especially well when they're washed down with wine.)
One kinda neat thing the writers did happened during one of Mike's talks with Logan. When Logan was going on about how everything Jack had done that day only seemed right, but that now the real Jack was coming out, that he'd really been lying all day long. All Logan was doing was talking about himself, but changing his name to Jack Bauer. That's a neat trick for a dirty politician: just talk about yourself, but do so as if it's about your worst enemy. That way, you don't have to worry about making stuff up and keeping it all straight.
Wonder of wonders, it seems no one got killed in that hour! We may need to lube the death-o-meter in order to keep up with all the carnage that'll have to happen to make up for it.
Last night's hero was Chloe. The way she handled that toner salesman from Wichita was a thing of beauty. It's nice to see the writers are realizing she doesn't have to handle every schlub with deadly sarcasm. A vapid "Wow, free bandwith?" and a taser work just as well. It makes me wonder if she'll zap Miles when she gets back to Gestapo HQ.
Article comments
1 - Victor Lana
Yes, I too was really bothered by the no Audrey-Curtis-Bierko thing. Curtis appeared last episode after going into the void for three weeks or so. Maybe they went to get Audrey's coat cleaned.
This happens in the world of 24 where people like Behrooz (Season 4) disappear and are never seen again (and their disappearance is never explained).
Hope that's not what happens with Pierce.
2 - Sherrie
When you remember that this is hour-by-hour in a 24 hour period, being out of the picture for 3 episodes is 3 hours is not that long when other things are going on.
3 - Jeff
Certainly, a few hours is not a long time. In the context of this show, though, it's odd the way some have disappeared.
Wayne, for instance, went to Bill's house with Chloe, and then hasn't been seen since. Not even sipping a cup of coffee while watching Chloe work.
Curtis, despite being one of the most senior CTU agents, has been little more than a taxi lately, and hasn't been seen around CTU despite bringing people back there.
And so forth.
4 - Mark Sahm
Jeff: That was no elbow fu Jack used. He stole that move from Ah-Nuld's "Commando" playbook. Jack just forget to break the marshal's neck and tell the stewartess that his friend is "dead tired".
5 - Paul
Did we see Wayne at Bill's house? All I remember is Bill saying that he'd take Wayne to "someplace safe," and that's the last we saw of Wayne. Maybe he's in Bill's treehouse out back.
Sherrie, I think the only characters your argument works for is Shari, since she's a minor character, and possibly Wayne--although it'd make good sense to at least show the audience where he is. The other characters, though, are more central to the story and are involved in threads that make their absence for an hour or two problemmatic.
Thanks for the clarification, Mark. I haven't seen Commando. For those keeping score, Jack used Schwarzen fu.
6 - Mary K. Williams
Thanks for the laughs Jeff and Paul. Yup, I must say I caught the Ahnold reference myself. Not to mention they used the same technique in the movie Red Eye.
Maybe Theo will come back. A girl can hope anyway.
7 - Jeff
Theo? Was that the German guy? Speaking of which, is his spy girlfriend still locked up in CTU?
Heck, for that matter, was she killed in the gas attack? (Yet another character we can add to the forgotten character list.)
8 - Brad
Wasn't Audrey shot like 4 times in the back by Henderson??? How can she be up and walking around with only the severed artery in her arm???
9 - Joanie
Congrats! This article has been placed on Advance.net
And BRAVO! on the Men at Work reference. I laughed aloud!
10 - Mary K. Williams
oh all those missing characters. OK this is what we're going to do between the three of us. Before the season finale, we're going to come up with a post about where those characters have gone to. Call it the 'Behrooz Factor' or something. I had forgotten all about Collette. So, we'll guess and conjecture and whatever, about whatever became of:
Aaron, Bierko, Diane and Derek, Heller (Dad) and so on.
11 - Jeff
Thanks, Joanie. Do the kids know Men At Work these days?
Good idea, Mary. We'll have to start putting them on milk cartons.
12 - Mary K. Williams
Yes Joanie, that was funny! (Men at work)
OK Milk cartons and also don't forget about plastering their faces all over Wal-Mart