08.04 | Episode twenty three, 6AM - 7AM
Everything's coming together nicely now. It's like the last week of the Tour de France, the last ten games of the Premier league, or that last hour before leaving work on a Friday afternoon. Time's passing quickly, but it's also going far too slowly.
First things first. Tony Almeida straight-out lies to his superior over at Division about the whereabouts of Ryan Chapelle. We all know Tony drugged the guy - so can Tony be trusted? If he gets back in charge of CTU, his bosses might as well just ignore everything he says. It's all lies. "Are you helping Jack Bauer?" "No" "Well, that means you are, then". Even Michelle shouldn't trust him. "Wanna go out for dinner and a movie" "Yeah, I'll met you at the cinema at seven" "Well, I'll see you at the restaurant at six, instead, you lying toerag". Still, I think we can trust him not to turn out to be 'the mole'. Not that there'll be one. After all, this time last season the CTU turncoat had been revealed. It was Nina Myers, and how shocked were we?
Ooh, I practically had a heart attack when that was revealed. This year, it was left to Jack to have the heart attack - and I must say, Nina turning into a baddie was a far better plot line. With Nina, you could trace it all through to the early episodes. You could probably do the same this series. If you go back to the first episode, back at 8AM, you can probably see Jack wiping the last of huge fry-up breakfast out of his beard. I reckon it was the bacon that done it.
That's not the worst thing. I still can't believe that CTU, the leading terrorism crime-fighting centre in Los Angeles, only has two interrogation rooms. And knowing that, why didn't Tony and Michelle drug Chappelle in a store room somewhere? Maybe George Mason took the keys with him when he left.
Alex Hewitt dies. Which, considering all of Jack's other witnesses and interviewees have died, was surprising. You'd have thought he could keep one of them alive. Let me guess, he'll manage to protect Mrs Palmer all through the next hour. Despite however many people - President Palmer, Lynne Kresge, Mike Novick, Peter Kingsley, 'Max', Alex Hewitt - want her dead, I'm sure she'll make it to the end.
I'm not so sure about Jack, though. The last shot of '6AM - 7AM' leaves Jack and Sherry Palmer crashing their SUV down into the same LA storm drain as used in the chase scene in Terminator II. See how Sherry's bad driving saw them career through a shopping trolley? I reckon that their van is written off, and she'll have to race against time to push Jack to the hospital in it. Let's hope that it doesn't have a wobblely wheel - it'll take her the best part of an hour, and she'll never get her pound coin back.
For those of you poo-pooing the whole episode for being based around Alex Hewitt's amazing computer programme that records voices and makes them say things they never said - see Vocaloid. It's similar software that does all that high-tech shit you thought wasn't possible - and it'll let you do it on your home PC. Which begs the question - why did Hewitt bother to programme his own custom version? And why the fuck didn't Jack and Michelle just look up the manual on the internet, or something?
Predictions for next week?
So? Join me for one last dance next Sunday night, then?President Palmer will get reinstated, otherwise the past six hours of screen time will have been for nothing. I'm sure his new lawyer friend will have a lot to do with it. Jack will shoot lots of people. He'll get his hands on Peter Kingsley, thus making President Palmer totally indebited to him for a second time. Kate Warner and Kim Bauer will end up at CTU, successfully navigating Kim's first car journey without being kidnapped, shot at, mugged or held ransome for by those annoying people who hang around at traffic lights and junctions offering to wipe the windscreen or trying to sell you flowers. Sherry Palmer gets what she deserves. Face it, the recorded conversation that Jack overheard on Alex Hewitt's computer dumps her right in the thick of it. Sherry's a clever woman - does she doublecross Jack just to keep her name out of trouble? Finally, someone will let Tony and Michelle out of the holding room before they have enough time to get down and dirty. Hopefully he won't grew his beard back before the next series, too. And Carrie will disappear forever, because she's shit.
