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?
Of course we are to suspend belief. But my job is to be the annoying guy who tries to find 10 things to complain about each week. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.
Anyway:
1) It may be true you'd want different frequencies. But in this scenario, that would mean each of them has a different-looking detonator, since we were able to identify the frequency by what it looked like. Maybe that is the more obvious oddity, being able to pick up the frequency for remote detonation based only on a partial look at the part.
2) They even tell us to turn off cell phones in blasting areas, so I have to concede that cell phone frequencies could be in the range necessary. Also, cell phones naturally transmit over a wide range of frequencies, something over 1500 I believe, and choose them based on communication with the towers so they have the ability to do so, so again I was probably too harsh. Also, I realise that Jack is not coordinated with Ops, and Ops probably isn't using cell phones.
4-6) You are right, I'm assuming they are at the airport. If not, it is a simpler problem, how did YellowTieGuy get past what should have been a perimeter.
5) If they didn't smuggle in the cannisters, then this makes more sense, someone ELSE had the cannisters, the bad guys broke in somewhere to steal them, but needed the keycard. I see that now; I assumed that the airport use meant something came in on an airplane, but it wouldn't have had to.
7) You are right about the jamming timeline. They could have stopped jamming as soon as they had Jack. My bad.
10) I hadn't thought about the idea that the code could have changed monthly. Curtis was sent on ops last season, thus my assumption.
Boy, if I can't come up with 10 good things in a 2-hour set, how am I going to do my job when there's only an hour of material? I might have to cut down to a top-5 list.
Thanks for the clarifications and objections. I think I understand the plot a little better now.