The OFFICIAL weekly "24" Season 5 Live thread!

FOX 24 ^ | 1-15-06 | Jack Bauer

[DJ MacWoW]

I cut them some slack and just enjoy the show. It must be so difficult to write. I just suspend belief and go with the flow. :)

[CharlesWayneCT]

OK, Here's my list of complaints about tonight's two shows. These were particularly full of unbelievable and weird things, so there may be more than 10. Some have been pointed out all ready by others, but I steal them shamelessly without attribution.

1. In a previous episode I noted that Lynn managed to get back into the building without his key card. The only way he could do that is if the guards knew him and let him in, or if they had him on file with his picture. But then they would have cleared his key code in any REAL world. NOW, here comes the terrorist using his keycode and they don't seem to notice it's not Lynn but let him in anyway.
2. CTU once again demonstrates is inter-spacial-dimensional qualities. The terrorist is at Lynn's sister's place, and makes it to CTU in under 8 minutes, even though he has to program the key card. I can't make it from my house to work in 8 minutes and I live 3 miles away. Sure they could have been nearby, but it's awfully convenient.
3. Why not use baggies? The things don't blow up, they just emit a gas. Why not just carry around a dozen hefty trash bags and bag the stupid things? It should at least work for a minute while you get your anti-nerve gas vacuum. Heck, I wonder if you couldn't just jamb the thing into a concrete space where it wouldn't be able to open -- I can't imagine they spent a lot of money on an extra-heavy-duty motor for the opening mechanism. Clamp if shut, duct-tape the seams.
4. We've now had 3 attacks, all at the central ventilation, and they still haven't started there when looking. And why not carry the little containment box into the place? I suppose it should be too big and unwieldy to carry, but it didn't look like it was.
5. Earlier, the Flotus assistant tried to stop that dead chief of staff from coming into the room because flotus said keep everybody out, but when he insisted she HAD to let him in. But she was able to order the president to stay out. Something just isn't right about that.
6. Why don't they have enough gas masks for all the CTU people? They have them for all the guys running around to the scenes, surely within 4 hours they could have picked up a couple hundred masks for the workers at CTU?
7. Why 10 minutes after an evacuation starts does the hospital still have workers just standing around in the aisles getting in the way, none of them looking like they are in much of a hurry? I understand that evacuating patients is hard, so why aren't all the workers in rooms getting patients out?
8. The case the terrorist carried into CTU wasn't large enough to hold the cannister, nor did it look heavy enough either when compared to Curtis picking up and running with cannister. Further, when we see the cannister/bag later at CTU, the bag is bigger.
9. So CTU doesn't have any gas masks -- OK, maybe they don't expect a gas attack. But wait, they have SEALING ROOMS, with fancy rubber seals mysteriously snaking down between the edges of the glass conference room doors? Why would those three areas be the only place they can seal? Wouldn't ANY seal protocol have started with the VENTILATION SYSTEM? Doesn't anybody know how to shut off the ventilation system? See, I can believe they wouldn't, but I can't believe they would build a hi-tech sealant system and NOT do the air ducts.
10. And the final nail in the coffin -- The gas released 50 seconds EARLY. The 15 minute countdown started at about 6:43:20, and the gas started at 6:57:30. It shouldn't have started until 6:58:20. Then Edgar could have made it.

Wouldn't Edgar have been safer if he stayed in the room with the dead girl? After all, there was a huge fan sucking all the gas away from that room.......

[CharlesWayneCT]

I vaguely remember that holding and ICU were other sealed areas. So I think Tony and Lynn are OK.

[Kate of Spice Island]

Hehehe...

[ChandyB71]

Did someone say they wanted pics of Kim?

[CharlesWayneCT]

This one deserves its own post.

The guy who ran the hospital knew what every orderly looked like, so he was able to recognize an orderly that didn't belong from the surveillance cameras and they caught the terrorist.

But at CTU the guards who are paid to provide security couldn't even tell that a terrorist wasn't really Lynn.

Of course, since CTU changes leadership about 5 times a day maybe they can be forgiven for not knowing, or not caring.

[CharlesWayneCT]

I often follow the thread while watching a tape of the show. I just make sure to read along with the time lines, and not get ahead.

The show can be a lot more fun if you see something, and then read someone's comments. Not as much fun as being able to comment yourself, but there are a lot of people on this thread who I wish I could sit with while watching this show.

[CharlesWayneCT]

He shouldn't be too hard on himself. If the guy didn't have a keycard he would have just pretended to be there to service the air conditioning.

[ChandyB71]

Can you add me to the ping list?

Also, I must say they portrayed what a Democratic VP and President would have been like, in last nights episode.

They acted like "chicken little" with their whole "the sky is falling, let's get the Marshall Law going and by-pass congress, AND call it something other than Marshall Law so we can get away with it. Wide spread panic without thinking things through....typical dems...not allowing the right people handle it the right way and jumping ship to save their skins. Logan is a wuss and his VP is a dolt.

[CharlesWayneCT]

I don't see how. The original plan was to take the gas to Moscow, not to attack in the United States.

[GOP and the City]

Question: How did the Head Hobbit get back into CTU after his card had been stolen? Wouldn't basic security protocol at that point have noted the missing card and shut it down?

We are talking about CTU. In other states the same agency is called FEMA.

[ken5050]

FYI..here's a link to an article in today's NY POST TV section..it interviews Louis Lombardi (Edgar) and has some insights as to how he found out he was gonna get whacked, and his "relationship" with Chloe..

BTW..looking at JoBeth Williams last night..she looks NOW like Sharon Gless before the latter gained about 100 lbs..

[HairOfTheDog]

The guy who ran the hospital knew what every orderly looked like, so he was able to recognize an orderly that didn't belong from the surveillance cameras and they caught the terrorist.

It's a minor detail, but I'm not sure he said he didn't recognize the orderly... I think what he said was that an orderly had no business being where he was.

[HairOfTheDog]

We've now had 3 attacks, all at the central ventilation, and they still haven't started there when looking. And why not carry the little containment box into the place? I suppose it should be too big and unwieldy to carry, but it didn't look like it was.

Remember they were reluctant to move it at all for fear it was booby trapped... they picked it up and ran out only as a last-chance measure... still, I said the same thing... bring the safe box in with you rather than risk running and tripping with the dang thing. But running with it is better TV :~D

[HairOfTheDog]

Earlier, the Flotus assistant tried to stop that dead chief of staff from coming into the room because flotus said keep everybody out, but when he insisted she HAD to let him in. But she was able to order the president to stay out. Something just isn't right about that.

Oh come on... she's learned more about orders, for one... and for another, this president has no spine... "Oh - she said no? aw shucks, OK"

[pbear8]

Yes, I can imagine it!!! I did it!! Here I was online, not reading the 24 thread and I see the spoiler. What an idiot. It would have been much better without knowing about Edgar.

Edgar was the only unattractive individual allowed on network TV. RIP

[HairOfTheDog]

And the final nail in the coffin -- The gas released 50 seconds EARLY.

Nail in the coffin? These were great shows... They aren't real, they may play with reality or reason a little, but jeepers... who wants to watch a great show and make it's coffin? I like to discuss the details too, but I don't share your attitude.

[HairOfTheDog]

BTW - as someone on the West coast who has to fight repeated urges to click the live thread after the show starts in the east, it was SERIOUSLY uncool to post that thread.

If I had seen it, I'd be more than a little pissed off!

[CharlesWayneCT]

"Nail in the coffin" -- obviously failed attempt at humor in that so many people died because the bomb went off too soon.


I just find the timing things particularly funny because the show makes such a big deal about showing us the clock so often. So it was obvious when they showed us their clock and the bomb clock, and then later the showed us their clock when the bomb went off, and it was early.

To their credit, they never showed us the timer in Jack's hand, so we couldn't see what the timing was.

I had a little problem with the 2nd hour because it has to be believable to be really intriguing. If you can sit there watching and immediately think about what they should do next, and you would save them but they don't, I feel that this means the crisis is contrived and therefore less enjoyable.

Anybody can write a story where bad things just keep popping up, but to be truly entertaining it's best of the bad things, when they pop up, make you say "wow, I didn't expect that but it makes sense", rather than "I saw that coming, and there's no way that could happen in the real world."

[GOP and the City]