Friday, January 16, 2004
He was shot. In the neck.
Just so people don't start thinking I'm only Jack-oriented around here (well I am but honestly, I do love all the characters on the show. Really I do) I thought I'd talk about Tony today. I'm just looking at Almeida's profile on the Fox site and am impressed with the background he's been given. An ex-Marine, a double Bachelor's degree in Engineering and Computer Science with a Masters on top of that in CompSci. Not too shabby.
It's actually been interesting to watch him climb the ranks through the seasons. In S1 he was serving under Nina - I wonder if that would have been considered Michelle's position from S2. Interesting if that's the case, then Tony took over Nina's job and of course we know how he gets promoted to director in S2. I don't know, the hierarchy and job positions are so ambiguous on 24 it's hard for me to follow.
Anyway, Tony rarely gets to leave CTU which is a shame. I'd like to see some of that Marine training in action. So far all he's done outside of CTU is shoot one of the Drazens at the Bauer house, and then get shot himself in a mall. Well actually I guess we see his training in action all the time but normally just contained within CTU. In the first season, I don't think they quite knew what to do with Tony yet as he was a bit of a pain in the ass towards his superiors (he still is but in a good way.) But over the rest of the season, as 24 got into its groove he became stronger as it finally dawned on him that maybe Jack, Nina et al had justiable reasons for breaking protocol (Jack's family was kidnapped, Nina, as ranking officer, was trying to help.) Then in the second season, Carlos shaved the mini-beard and kicked it up a notch.
After getting burned by Nina the traitor, he has shied away from mixing business with pleasure, but he didn't count on the hotness that is Michelle Dessler (Reiko Aylesworth). I thought the chemistry between them was fantastic, especially when Tony was suspicious of Michelle helping Jack. Here they had this burgeoning romance, and she is already lying to him - but once again it was for the greater good: Jack has to get that damn chip and prevent a war. But when they both began working together with Jack on the chip issue, and Tony drugged Chapelle (yay!), well that rocked. And now look, they're married :)
I don't think their marriage will suffer much from Michelle's attempt to remove him from his post. It may be an obstacle for a little bit while they work on their trust issues. But I don't want to comment too much on whether Tony really is capable of doing his job until the season's over. Current speculation (not mine) is that he covered his tracks before going in to see Chapelle and that he may not truly be 'on top of things'. For me, the jury is still out on this issue. He didn't slip-up at all in the last hour, but he could just be on his guard. I do think the boy needs to stop for ten minutes and recoup a little. Let Michelle run things for a bit. He was shot in the neck after all.
Visit Carlos Bernard's official site.
It's actually been interesting to watch him climb the ranks through the seasons. In S1 he was serving under Nina - I wonder if that would have been considered Michelle's position from S2. Interesting if that's the case, then Tony took over Nina's job and of course we know how he gets promoted to director in S2. I don't know, the hierarchy and job positions are so ambiguous on 24 it's hard for me to follow.
Anyway, Tony rarely gets to leave CTU which is a shame. I'd like to see some of that Marine training in action. So far all he's done outside of CTU is shoot one of the Drazens at the Bauer house, and then get shot himself in a mall. Well actually I guess we see his training in action all the time but normally just contained within CTU. In the first season, I don't think they quite knew what to do with Tony yet as he was a bit of a pain in the ass towards his superiors (he still is but in a good way.) But over the rest of the season, as 24 got into its groove he became stronger as it finally dawned on him that maybe Jack, Nina et al had justiable reasons for breaking protocol (Jack's family was kidnapped, Nina, as ranking officer, was trying to help.) Then in the second season, Carlos shaved the mini-beard and kicked it up a notch.
After getting burned by Nina the traitor, he has shied away from mixing business with pleasure, but he didn't count on the hotness that is Michelle Dessler (Reiko Aylesworth). I thought the chemistry between them was fantastic, especially when Tony was suspicious of Michelle helping Jack. Here they had this burgeoning romance, and she is already lying to him - but once again it was for the greater good: Jack has to get that damn chip and prevent a war. But when they both began working together with Jack on the chip issue, and Tony drugged Chapelle (yay!), well that rocked. And now look, they're married :)
I don't think their marriage will suffer much from Michelle's attempt to remove him from his post. It may be an obstacle for a little bit while they work on their trust issues. But I don't want to comment too much on whether Tony really is capable of doing his job until the season's over. Current speculation (not mine) is that he covered his tracks before going in to see Chapelle and that he may not truly be 'on top of things'. For me, the jury is still out on this issue. He didn't slip-up at all in the last hour, but he could just be on his guard. I do think the boy needs to stop for ten minutes and recoup a little. Let Michelle run things for a bit. He was shot in the neck after all.
Visit Carlos Bernard's official site.
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Thursday, January 15, 2004
24inside
It looks like FOX is taking its cue from the BBC and doing something similar to the Beeb's 'Pure 24' show that aired over there during the past two seasons. 24inside is preparing a special webcast directly after the show on January 27th (10pm EST/9pm CST). According to that site, there will be special guest appearances from Penny Johnson Jerald (Sherry Palmer) and others to be announced. You will be able to call and email in questions and comments during the webcast. If you miss it, FOX will leave a taped version up on the web for a week following the webcast.
Pretty cool eh? :) Maybe it will prove popular enough to do every week. I know I'll be there.
Other notable cast appearances coming up that I just heard about: Kiefer will be on Ryan Seacrest's new show this Friday and Reiko Aylesworth will be on Sharon Osbourne on the 22nd of January.
Oh and congrats yet again to Kiefer for his SAG nomination for Best Actor! The SAG (Screen Actors Guild) awards will air on February 22nd. This is his second SAG nomination in a row for his role as Jack Bauer. Also, don't forget the Golden Globes air on the 25th of January. Kiefer is up for Best Actor again as is the show as a whole.
Pretty cool eh? :) Maybe it will prove popular enough to do every week. I know I'll be there.
Other notable cast appearances coming up that I just heard about: Kiefer will be on Ryan Seacrest's new show this Friday and Reiko Aylesworth will be on Sharon Osbourne on the 22nd of January.
Oh and congrats yet again to Kiefer for his SAG nomination for Best Actor! The SAG (Screen Actors Guild) awards will air on February 22nd. This is his second SAG nomination in a row for his role as Jack Bauer. Also, don't forget the Golden Globes air on the 25th of January. Kiefer is up for Best Actor again as is the show as a whole.
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Tuesday, January 13, 2004
10pm - 11pm
Ok. That's it. I am not watching FOX, staying up for 24 castmember talkshow interviews, or reading any forums that have to do with the damn show. The whole ending of this great episode was totally wrecked for me. First, it was by the end-of-the-episode previews for the next show when I saw Nina running her hands up Jack's thighs, then the forums that just stick spoiler info in thread titles, then from the clip The View chose to show when Sarah Clarke was on - they showed the bloody last scene of the episode! WTF?? And finally by mainstream media sources announcing in big giant letters that Sherry returns tonight. Thank you very much you feckin' eejits. I figured she'd be back at some point but I didn't know it would be tonight. So her return was diminished for me. As well as The Kiss surprise. The impact was lessened because I expected it. But enough whinging about spoilers. I will get to spend loads of time analysing what that particular kiss means to Jack. Amazing what the man will do for his country.
So... Sherry is back. Why is she not in jail? I hope that's explained in the next hour because she should be somebody's bitch in prison by now. Palmer's supporter Milliken is going to play dirty and put a stop to a Very Important healthcare bill Palmer want's to pass because he feels jilted by his far-too-young wife who had an affair with Wayne. He wanted David to fire Wayne and Wayne is actually keen to let him in order to preserve his presidency. But David knows that if he gives in, then his presidency will be a sham and he'd be at the mercy of anyone with a little dirt on him. He wants the comings and goings of his staff to be on his terms, not anyone else's. Yet for all of that, the president is willing to 'sink to Milliken's level' and play dirty too. He picks up the phone and dials a number (that he seemed to know by heart mind you). Aaaaaaand Sherry picks up. "I need your help." says David. Meanwhile Wayne goes to see Milliken's wife to see if she'll be willing to convince Milliken to stop his dastardly plan. But the wife has something she wants: Wayne. When he refuses, she also refuses to help him.
Heading back over to CTU, Michelle tries to apologise to Tony for doubting him. He tells her it was her responsibility to do that if she felt there was a problem. But then he turns around and bites her head off anyway. Tension tension between them. I wonder if they're newlyweds. Tony doesn't seem to have a problem forgiving Kim though which I found odd since it was her observations that caused Michelle to go to Chapelle. Tony gives Kim an update after he speaks to Jack (I'll get to that in a mo) and seems concerned about how she's doing through all of this... But he made it a point not to tell her that Nina 'is in play' (I'm sorry.. i couldn't resist that line, I just watched that ep in S2 this weekend.)
And Chloe's back. Yay! And she's with child! Well, not literally but apparently she's a single mum. That makes me (a single mum) love her even more. I bring my daughter to work all the time. Granted she's 12 and doesn't usually make cooing noises from under the desk, but then I don't have Chapelle for a boss. The look on his face when he saw Chloe's kidlet was priceless! Apparently, Chloe's sitter had some emergency and had to bring her baby to CTU, which Chloe was having an absolute cow about. I have never seen such a neurotic, anal-retentive character like hers before. It brings a bit of levity, in my opinion, to a season that's been filled with pain on so many different levels.
Moving on to Jack, Nina, Claudia and Chase... My goodness, poor Chase. He's learned from the best when it comes to torture. Something I always wondered... When Jack or any agent comes back to debrief and tell of his or her adventures, do they go into much detail as far as the things they've had to go through to get from point A to point B? I mean, did Jack simply say, "I was tortured for information on the chip and my heart stopped." Or does he tell them everything they did to him?
I digress. Chase is being tortured with what I think is a cattle prod. While that's happening, Jack, Ramon and Hector have returned to the farmhouse where Chase and Claudia are. Hector contacts Gael (ahh yes remember the Salazar's don't realise that Gael is a double, double agent and he is still 'in' with them) to try and find out whether Chase came to Mexico alone or with a team. Gael tells him he doesn't know because that's a field ops question and Gael is not in field ops. Hector seems to buy that. Gael also tells him that just to be safe, they should keep Chase alive and Hector agrees. Then Jack gets on the phone and gives Gael the satellite number Amador was using and has him trace it so he can get to Nina.
I love Whatever Technology (tm TWoP). And oh man, Hector goes into the barn where Chase is and shoots that boy through his hand. Ouch! But he didn't break, good man. I think his knowledge that help was not far away, and that Jack really hadn't betrayed him was what kept him strong. Otherwise I bet he would have broken quickly if not for that.
Sergio, Claudia's little brother who idolizes hector nearly blows her plan to escape by telling Hector that Claudia told him to be ready to go. But she covers nicely and Hector is appeased. Phew! Silly kid. Meanwhile, Jack hurriedly tells her he's got to go after the virus but that there are military teams nearby if she can manage to get herself, her father, brother, and Chase out of there. Man I'd be scared to death to attempt anything like an escape. I felt Claudia's desire to escape and keep her family safe is what helped her overcome her fear.
Ramon of course is still wary of trusting Jack to go after Nina alone, so he refuses to let Jack out of his sight when the call comes in from Gael about Amador's whereabouts. He and Jack leave alone to try and isolate Nina when she meets Amador to get the virus. Hector plops down in a chair in the farmhouse and rests which gives Claudia her one shot. She finds her father and tells him to disable all of the trucks and be ready to go. She then goes to the barn, knocks out a guard with his own gun (you GO girl!) and walks in telling the torturers that Hector thinks Chase will talk to her. This is after they poured gasoline on his bullethole. *shudder*. But Claudia slips him a knife and together they kill the man torturing him, take his cell phone and run for her father's truck. Her father was waiting in it with Sergio. Claudia and Chase are lying down in the bed of the truck under some cover, but still, some henchmen stop Claudia's father before he can drive off and they don't look like they're buying his story. So Chase pops up and shoots them, which alerts Hector and there's a fabulous shootout as they get the hell out of there.
Phew!
But they make it away safely. Except that when Chase tries to tell Claudia thank you for helping him escape, he sees she's been hit by a stray bullet. Claudia is dead. Argh!! The first major death of the season and it's a doozy in terms of what this will do to Jack. From what I could tell from previous episodes, Jack might have actually fallen in love with Claudia. Her death is going to be devastating to him I think.
But at this point in time he's got his hands full with Nina. He has managed to track her to an abandoned church where she has just met with Amador. Amador told her that he would contact her in the next half an hour with the location of the virus and Nina's a little pissy at having to jump through hoops to get at it. But then Amador and his goons leave and Nina's alone with her own goons whom Jack manages to take out - all but one anyway. He has Nina at gunpoint again, but not for long. The extra goon Jack didn't see pops up allowing Nina to knock Jack out with her briefcase. When he wakes up, he's cuffed to a chair and Nina's trying to suss him and his motives out.
The exchanges between them were pretty intense. Nina wants to know if Jack can forgive her for killing Teri. Jack says repeatedly he just wants to get his cash and disappear. He tells her that the Salazars will pay her 10 times her 2 million dollar fee for this deal, and that he's a fugitive now anyway for breaking Ramon out of prison. She was able to confirm this, but she needs further convincing. So she kneels before him, runs her hands up his thighs and asks him to convince her he's over Teri's death. The final scene the kiss heard round the 'net. I don't know whether to be turned on or disgusted by it. I know why Jack had to kiss her - the stakes are high, lives hanging in the balance etc. - But... it's Nina.. and I don't think I can forgive her for killing Teri. Oh how filled with revulsion Jack must have been...
What an episode. Now we have to wait two weeks for the next one. Thanks Bush. Can't tell us what you're up to on a fecking Wednesday? Geesh.
So... Sherry is back. Why is she not in jail? I hope that's explained in the next hour because she should be somebody's bitch in prison by now. Palmer's supporter Milliken is going to play dirty and put a stop to a Very Important healthcare bill Palmer want's to pass because he feels jilted by his far-too-young wife who had an affair with Wayne. He wanted David to fire Wayne and Wayne is actually keen to let him in order to preserve his presidency. But David knows that if he gives in, then his presidency will be a sham and he'd be at the mercy of anyone with a little dirt on him. He wants the comings and goings of his staff to be on his terms, not anyone else's. Yet for all of that, the president is willing to 'sink to Milliken's level' and play dirty too. He picks up the phone and dials a number (that he seemed to know by heart mind you). Aaaaaaand Sherry picks up. "I need your help." says David. Meanwhile Wayne goes to see Milliken's wife to see if she'll be willing to convince Milliken to stop his dastardly plan. But the wife has something she wants: Wayne. When he refuses, she also refuses to help him.
Heading back over to CTU, Michelle tries to apologise to Tony for doubting him. He tells her it was her responsibility to do that if she felt there was a problem. But then he turns around and bites her head off anyway. Tension tension between them. I wonder if they're newlyweds. Tony doesn't seem to have a problem forgiving Kim though which I found odd since it was her observations that caused Michelle to go to Chapelle. Tony gives Kim an update after he speaks to Jack (I'll get to that in a mo) and seems concerned about how she's doing through all of this... But he made it a point not to tell her that Nina 'is in play' (I'm sorry.. i couldn't resist that line, I just watched that ep in S2 this weekend.)
And Chloe's back. Yay! And she's with child! Well, not literally but apparently she's a single mum. That makes me (a single mum) love her even more. I bring my daughter to work all the time. Granted she's 12 and doesn't usually make cooing noises from under the desk, but then I don't have Chapelle for a boss. The look on his face when he saw Chloe's kidlet was priceless! Apparently, Chloe's sitter had some emergency and had to bring her baby to CTU, which Chloe was having an absolute cow about. I have never seen such a neurotic, anal-retentive character like hers before. It brings a bit of levity, in my opinion, to a season that's been filled with pain on so many different levels.
Moving on to Jack, Nina, Claudia and Chase... My goodness, poor Chase. He's learned from the best when it comes to torture. Something I always wondered... When Jack or any agent comes back to debrief and tell of his or her adventures, do they go into much detail as far as the things they've had to go through to get from point A to point B? I mean, did Jack simply say, "I was tortured for information on the chip and my heart stopped." Or does he tell them everything they did to him?
I digress. Chase is being tortured with what I think is a cattle prod. While that's happening, Jack, Ramon and Hector have returned to the farmhouse where Chase and Claudia are. Hector contacts Gael (ahh yes remember the Salazar's don't realise that Gael is a double, double agent and he is still 'in' with them) to try and find out whether Chase came to Mexico alone or with a team. Gael tells him he doesn't know because that's a field ops question and Gael is not in field ops. Hector seems to buy that. Gael also tells him that just to be safe, they should keep Chase alive and Hector agrees. Then Jack gets on the phone and gives Gael the satellite number Amador was using and has him trace it so he can get to Nina.
I love Whatever Technology (tm TWoP). And oh man, Hector goes into the barn where Chase is and shoots that boy through his hand. Ouch! But he didn't break, good man. I think his knowledge that help was not far away, and that Jack really hadn't betrayed him was what kept him strong. Otherwise I bet he would have broken quickly if not for that.
Sergio, Claudia's little brother who idolizes hector nearly blows her plan to escape by telling Hector that Claudia told him to be ready to go. But she covers nicely and Hector is appeased. Phew! Silly kid. Meanwhile, Jack hurriedly tells her he's got to go after the virus but that there are military teams nearby if she can manage to get herself, her father, brother, and Chase out of there. Man I'd be scared to death to attempt anything like an escape. I felt Claudia's desire to escape and keep her family safe is what helped her overcome her fear.
Ramon of course is still wary of trusting Jack to go after Nina alone, so he refuses to let Jack out of his sight when the call comes in from Gael about Amador's whereabouts. He and Jack leave alone to try and isolate Nina when she meets Amador to get the virus. Hector plops down in a chair in the farmhouse and rests which gives Claudia her one shot. She finds her father and tells him to disable all of the trucks and be ready to go. She then goes to the barn, knocks out a guard with his own gun (you GO girl!) and walks in telling the torturers that Hector thinks Chase will talk to her. This is after they poured gasoline on his bullethole. *shudder*. But Claudia slips him a knife and together they kill the man torturing him, take his cell phone and run for her father's truck. Her father was waiting in it with Sergio. Claudia and Chase are lying down in the bed of the truck under some cover, but still, some henchmen stop Claudia's father before he can drive off and they don't look like they're buying his story. So Chase pops up and shoots them, which alerts Hector and there's a fabulous shootout as they get the hell out of there.
Phew!
But they make it away safely. Except that when Chase tries to tell Claudia thank you for helping him escape, he sees she's been hit by a stray bullet. Claudia is dead. Argh!! The first major death of the season and it's a doozy in terms of what this will do to Jack. From what I could tell from previous episodes, Jack might have actually fallen in love with Claudia. Her death is going to be devastating to him I think.
But at this point in time he's got his hands full with Nina. He has managed to track her to an abandoned church where she has just met with Amador. Amador told her that he would contact her in the next half an hour with the location of the virus and Nina's a little pissy at having to jump through hoops to get at it. But then Amador and his goons leave and Nina's alone with her own goons whom Jack manages to take out - all but one anyway. He has Nina at gunpoint again, but not for long. The extra goon Jack didn't see pops up allowing Nina to knock Jack out with her briefcase. When he wakes up, he's cuffed to a chair and Nina's trying to suss him and his motives out.
The exchanges between them were pretty intense. Nina wants to know if Jack can forgive her for killing Teri. Jack says repeatedly he just wants to get his cash and disappear. He tells her that the Salazars will pay her 10 times her 2 million dollar fee for this deal, and that he's a fugitive now anyway for breaking Ramon out of prison. She was able to confirm this, but she needs further convincing. So she kneels before him, runs her hands up his thighs and asks him to convince her he's over Teri's death. The final scene the kiss heard round the 'net. I don't know whether to be turned on or disgusted by it. I know why Jack had to kiss her - the stakes are high, lives hanging in the balance etc. - But... it's Nina.. and I don't think I can forgive her for killing Teri. Oh how filled with revulsion Jack must have been...
What an episode. Now we have to wait two weeks for the next one. Thanks Bush. Can't tell us what you're up to on a fecking Wednesday? Geesh.
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It's that time again.
Another 24 Tuesday, another uneventful day passes for me while I wait for my favourite show. Today I get to build a PowerPoint presentation about patient safety goals. As exciting as that sounds, I'd much rather spend today chasing bad guys and ferreting out moles. But unless my rotund marketing boss is really an undercover agent trying to right the wrongs of the medical industry, I don't see that happening.
Had some problems with the commenting here in the blog. Apparently the site I was using as the host for it went kaput and I've lost them all. Which irritates me no end. So I'm stuck using another system I don't like as much.
In other news... My god that Playboy interview with Kiefer was a killer. Very in-depth and honest. It was a pleasure to read. And then we have the added bonus of another interview with Sutherland (and the interviewer was Joel Schumacher, so that was nice) in Interview which you can check out here (Page 1) and here (Page 2). And then PHWOAR - Kiefer you're killing me. Jaysis...
Right since I am still recovering from that picture I think I will sign off now and attempt to concentrate on patient safety goals. Riiight...
Back later tonight!
Had some problems with the commenting here in the blog. Apparently the site I was using as the host for it went kaput and I've lost them all. Which irritates me no end. So I'm stuck using another system I don't like as much.
In other news... My god that Playboy interview with Kiefer was a killer. Very in-depth and honest. It was a pleasure to read. And then we have the added bonus of another interview with Sutherland (and the interviewer was Joel Schumacher, so that was nice) in Interview which you can check out here (Page 1) and here (Page 2). And then PHWOAR - Kiefer you're killing me. Jaysis...
Right since I am still recovering from that picture I think I will sign off now and attempt to concentrate on patient safety goals. Riiight...
Back later tonight!
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