Great show. Here's my top 10 odd things for tonight:
1) How could they know that every terrorist had a different detonator with a different frequency? If they were all supposed to blow up, it would make more sense for all of them to be rigged together.
2) How could they reprogram a cell phone to send a different frequency? And if they did, how did it still work to talk to them?
3) And how was he talking to CTU while his cell phone was rebooting?
4) The WMD looked like it was in some concrete bunker which had been broken into, a large hole in more than a foot of concrete. How could that take place at an airport and nobody know?
5) The whole special keycode to open that thing seemed contrived -- what were they trying to prevent?
6) The misdirection seems a bit contrived as well. In any REAL hostage situation, the airport would be locked down for HOURS, nobody in or out, and all the hostages would have been taken under custody just to make sure none of the bad guys had stripped down to regular clothes. You would have to plan for that -- so why would your plan require that the place blow up, but your guy gets out with the key card, and then meets with other people to remove WMD from the airport through what should be a sealed perimeter?
7) How did they jam JUST jack's cell phone, but not any of the communication of the rest of the CTU team, and not their own cell phones? And if they had that ability, why didn't they just do that right off as a precaution?
8) I don't care how important Walt is, I just can't believe that FLOTUS doesn't have secret service protecting her. SS would assume that ANYBODY could be bribed to attack, and wouldn't trust anybody except maybe the president.
9) Of course that should mean she shouldn't have been able to get out of the room either, except I guess that girl was the SS agent in charge of watching her? In which case she never would have let her go alone, so I'm confused on that one.
10) Jack left CTU 18 months ago. How could an entire SWAT team have forgotten the "old" duress code in only 18 months? It was clear Jack was trying to say SOMETHING. Nobody even questioned it. Curtis didn't even tell his team to watch not to shoot at that position like Jack said.
Other stuff:
1) Jack saw the yellow-tie guy. It was out of character for Jack to let the guy get away while he messed around with the reunion stuff. Not a plot error, just that Jack doesn't make too many mistakes, and that was a big one.
I wish they'd do the entire season in 2-hour steps. But then it would end too soon.
LOL - you make many good points of the numerous 24 plot holes. The show is dramatic, tense and highly addictive. But the only way to really enjoy it is to suspend disbelief at all the presposterous goings-on. Admittedly it's hard to do with so many gaping holes of implausibility.
1) Jack saw the yellow-tie guy. It was out of character for Jack to let the guy get away while he messed around with the reunion stuff. Not a plot error, just that Jack doesn't make too many mistakes, and that was a big one.
The yellow tie guy will be found later. I think it will lead Jack to the other bad guys.
2) A ''cell phone'' is nothing OTHER than a transmission/reception device. Whether or not it can be remotely reprogrammed depends entirely on its innards. In any case, opsec for this type of op would literally demand that all comms not be able to be compromised at once.
3) Agreed, bad technique as done. However, perhaps it's possible to multichannel through his earpiece (check the scene, he did have it in throughout).
4) The 'cannisters' properties are, as yet, undetermined.
5) Your question is not clear. What were **who** trying to prevent?
6) Who said -- or implied, ever -- that WMD were present at the airport? They may turn out to be, but that fact was not evinced tonight. Was the hole in the concrete necessarily anywhere AROUND the airport? You say 'yes'; I say 'On what evidence?' We do not know when Yellow Tie Guy left or how far he may have gone from the airport...yet.
7) They most certainly DID jam their own cells in order to shut down further cell comms and to hook a desk set into the PA system. No loss for them; they had to (so they thought...major mistake of course) get Bauer to come out.
8) The screenwriting about FLOTUS is very weak, quite right and a good point you made. Can't win on all fronts all the time.
9) Ditto 8). One would presume a FLOTUS who was thought to be psychotic or paranoiac would be under continuous observation at all times.
10) Codes change weekly or monthly, simple ordinary security; the less credible part of this was that the tango didn't rake his weapon across Bauer's lips immediately after disconnect, for trying to reveal ANY facts about his situation. In any case, where is it known to the viewer that Curtis was either involved in or heading up the assault or other critic team 18 months ago?
Net bottom line? 24 is a very entertaining fantasy based **somewhat** on reality. The magic words are: 'suspension of disbelief'.
Fair enough?
My question is where was the FLOTUS' assistant who seemed to always be with her when Walt drugged her?
If Jack was perfect and caught everyone like the YTG all the time there would be no show next week. LOL