Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Remember the Forum!
Just a quick aside to say that the 24addict forums are starting to acquire a few members actually willing to do more than lurk ;) So please think about joining us there for some more in-depth discussion of the show, the characters, the plots, the bad guys, the good guys and anything else that comes up :) Or just pop in and say hello as we do have a general topic area as well. You do need to register in order to post, but really it only takes about 10 seconds and I don't even require a valid email :D
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2am - 3am continued
So anyway, we were about to go through Nina's interrogation. I found it chillingly ironic that Jack was being interrogated at the same time as Nina. Especially since one of the reasons for his interrogation is his obvious deterioration since Nina killed Teri. And since I'm headed that way I think I'll go over what happened with Jack first. As Jack laid out the whole Salazar connection we learned that they were an up and coming drug cartel that Jack learned about two years prior to his initial takedown of Ramon. When he began working up the case, he apparently decided to begin shooting up in the December before he even had any sort of a meet set up with the Salazars. When the interrogator asked him why he began using 6 weeks before he had anything concrete set up, his excuse was that the Salazars were born and raised in the drug world, and Jack knew as part of the job he would have to use. But if he went into their world without any knowledge of how the H would affect him, the Salazars would know he was a cop and kill him. He claimed he needed that time to become a true junkie.
But his excuse was not good enough for Chappelle or the interrogator. Neither believed it would hold up to scrutiny. Why did Jack hide it from everyone?. Why did he not even tell his partner? I think they were hinting that a possible reason could be that Jack just did it as escapism from his private demons. But Jack responded with the fact that everyone at CTU knows his wife was murdered and that he has had difficulty coming to grips with it. For everyone to then know he was using would be misinterpreted. During this interrogation Jack is becoming more agitated because he feels time is wasting. He needs to know what is happening with Nina. At this point, Chappelle, in a very surprising move, stops the tape and tells the interrogator to change the date that Jack began using to be more in line with when the Salazar investigation began. The interrogator has no problem with this - but Jack does. He is emphatic about being honest about it. In my opinion, Jack's decided that since it's out in the open then everything might as well be out in the open. I would think he would be feeling some sense of relief that he no longer has to hide this. He may have to deal with some shame and embarrassment, but that's nothing to the pressure of having to conceal his addiction from everyone he knows and loves.
But now that it's out, Jack feels he has nothing to hide and is going to be a stickler for being honest. And I think that will serve him well. Ohh I could go on and on about the repercussions of his addiction because I find it fascinating. But I'll save it for another blog. Just want to quickly add, going back to his entrance into CTU and his confrontation with Kim - my god that was some extraordinary acting from both Elisha and Kiefer. I wanted to hug them both and tell them it would all turn out fine.
Getting back on track, as I said Nina was being questioned by Tony at the same time Jack was debriefing. Talk about some fine acting as well. Sarah made Nina ooze coldness and I felt there was nothing in her worth any kind of redemption. There is no more to 'discover' about her, no more questions that demand answers. I feel that during the interrogation with Tony we learned Nina's only motivations are selfishness and greed. There is no 'why' because it's easy to understand the path she chose. She's just bad to the bone. Behind the wall Michelle and techie-boy who is apparently a Gael replacement (I've read that the actor who played Gael had filming commitments, hence the new guy. I still wish we'd gotten some sort of explanation for Gael's disappearance from three episodes now.) are monitoring Nina's vitals in hopes of catching a 'tell' as Tony puts it. It's kind of creepy to see them zooming in on her eyes looking for any hint of a lie or of holding back.
When Tony walked into Nina's room, you could almost see the frost in the air. Nina had some great zingers as well that I wish to hell I could remember off the top of my head right now but I can't. I blame the drugs. It just felt that everytime Tony asked her a question she deflected with potshots about him being married now, something about, "First Jack, then you. What does that remind me of?" but I can't think of the context of that great line... But Tony wasn't having any of it. Instead he continued to press her about Alvers. He told her they had sketchy details, medical records and whatnot. See Nina was denying ever having met Alvers. Then Tony began mentioning a few medical records: an MRI on his knee, treatment for HIV - ooo! That sent her pulse racing according to Michelle and the techie. But her face was like stone. When Tony presses her on this she merely tells him that his neck is bleeding. Now, after the show threads began popping up everywhere about Nina possibly having had sex with Alvers and now she has AIDS. So that is the great debate-of-the-moment. My take is that Tony just threw that out there for the hell of it to see if it got a reaction.
But other than the racing pulse, Nina maintained her stony silence. So Tony decided to call in 'Richards' whose only job is to inflict pain (So CTU employs at least two people whose only purpose is to inflict pain: Johnson and now Richards. How scary.) While he waits for Richards to show up with his equipment, Chase interrupts Jack and Chappelle to update him on Nina. He lets Jack know that there's a possibility Nina may have actually known Alvers. Cut back to Nina and we find Richards injecting Nina in the neck with what looked to be the same stuff poor Gael had to endure earlier in the day. She stoically endures the pain, but when that initial injection is complete and Richards readies another, Tony asks her how much more she can take. Just as Richards is about to inject her again, she says something like 'That's about enough.' and throws her head back causing Richards to puncture or tear an artery in her neck. Blood is squirting everywhere and general mayhem ensues as they race to uncuff her and get her to the clinic and stop the bleeding. It's quite a trick because I was left wondering if she was just trying to get away, or if she finally figured 'to hell with this' and was attempting to kill herself. At this point it's hard to tell.
It was also hard for me to tell, when they had her in the clinic, on the gurney what she was doing while they worked on her neck. She reached down and grabbed some tubing near her hand and pinched it shut. I thought for sure she was going the suicide route. It wasn't until Tony showed up in Jack's conference area covered in blood and telling Jack what Nina had done, when the alert bells started going off throughout the building that it dawned on me that she was trying to get away. So I had a 'Duh' moment. No I didn't know that was going to happen because I managed to avoid spoilers as best I could :) I did stumble on one spoiler but it turned out to be wrong, thank goodness.
So Nina's on the loose and Jack tears out of that room like he was on fire, gun at the ready in that terribly gorgeous stealth pose he does so well. We see shots of the clinic room where they were working on Nina. A pile of bodies, all stabbed by whatever was handy. One woman is still alive but clutching her chest and points Jack in the direction Nina took off in. Meanwhile Kim's wandering around. I wonder if she was feeling panicky because she seemed to not quite know what to do. Then she happened upon the fallen body of a security guard and seemed to make the decision to hunt for Nina herself. She grabbed his gun and headed off. This was silly on her part, but I can sort of understand why she did this. She can't let this woman get away, this woman who murdered her mother and her unborn brother or sister, ruined her life and her father's life. Seeing her face to face must have been awful for Kim. Still, She should have left it to the more experienced to go after Nina. But of course, she did not. And Kim found Nina in a tech room full of circuit breakers and I believe she was trying to interrupt the circuits that had locked down the building.
The interesting thing about Nina and Kim's showdown is that I don't believe that Nina wanted to kill Kim. She pleaded with Kim to leave. In fact she was practically begging her to stay out of it. Which makes me wonder if there wasn't a tiny spark of remorse for the things she's done. Maybe she felt her own doom and like the thief who's not sorry he stole but sorry he got caught, she felt a twinge of regret. Who knows. Kim wasn't about to leave. Kim kept her gun trained on Nina and just as Nina realised she wasn't leaving she raised her own gun to shoot Kim, and would have gone through with it too, except Jack found them and took Nina down with a shot of his own.
So there's Nina on the floor suffering from a neck injury (I think one or more of the writers have a neck fetish), and a gunshot wound, completely at the mercy of Jack. It's just him, Kim and Nina in this room. (Speaking of this room, I do not believe it is the same room Nina killed Teri in. Just for the record. CTU has been rebuilt since it was blown up and the room just looks different from the one Nina and Teri were in.) Kim is about to say something to Jack, but what it is I don't know. Could have been her ethical self trying to tell Jack they need to get Nina secured, or it could have been her vengeful side about to tell Jack to kill her. But Jack sent her away before we could find out.
"You don't have anything useful left do you Nina." Jack says in a manner that suggests it's more of a statement than a question.
"I do." gasps Nina, feebly reaching for her gun that is just a few inches away from her hand.
"No. You don't."
Three gunshots echo around the room as Jack kills Nina Myers.
Tick, Tick, Tick.
But his excuse was not good enough for Chappelle or the interrogator. Neither believed it would hold up to scrutiny. Why did Jack hide it from everyone?. Why did he not even tell his partner? I think they were hinting that a possible reason could be that Jack just did it as escapism from his private demons. But Jack responded with the fact that everyone at CTU knows his wife was murdered and that he has had difficulty coming to grips with it. For everyone to then know he was using would be misinterpreted. During this interrogation Jack is becoming more agitated because he feels time is wasting. He needs to know what is happening with Nina. At this point, Chappelle, in a very surprising move, stops the tape and tells the interrogator to change the date that Jack began using to be more in line with when the Salazar investigation began. The interrogator has no problem with this - but Jack does. He is emphatic about being honest about it. In my opinion, Jack's decided that since it's out in the open then everything might as well be out in the open. I would think he would be feeling some sense of relief that he no longer has to hide this. He may have to deal with some shame and embarrassment, but that's nothing to the pressure of having to conceal his addiction from everyone he knows and loves.
But now that it's out, Jack feels he has nothing to hide and is going to be a stickler for being honest. And I think that will serve him well. Ohh I could go on and on about the repercussions of his addiction because I find it fascinating. But I'll save it for another blog. Just want to quickly add, going back to his entrance into CTU and his confrontation with Kim - my god that was some extraordinary acting from both Elisha and Kiefer. I wanted to hug them both and tell them it would all turn out fine.
Getting back on track, as I said Nina was being questioned by Tony at the same time Jack was debriefing. Talk about some fine acting as well. Sarah made Nina ooze coldness and I felt there was nothing in her worth any kind of redemption. There is no more to 'discover' about her, no more questions that demand answers. I feel that during the interrogation with Tony we learned Nina's only motivations are selfishness and greed. There is no 'why' because it's easy to understand the path she chose. She's just bad to the bone. Behind the wall Michelle and techie-boy who is apparently a Gael replacement (I've read that the actor who played Gael had filming commitments, hence the new guy. I still wish we'd gotten some sort of explanation for Gael's disappearance from three episodes now.) are monitoring Nina's vitals in hopes of catching a 'tell' as Tony puts it. It's kind of creepy to see them zooming in on her eyes looking for any hint of a lie or of holding back.
When Tony walked into Nina's room, you could almost see the frost in the air. Nina had some great zingers as well that I wish to hell I could remember off the top of my head right now but I can't. I blame the drugs. It just felt that everytime Tony asked her a question she deflected with potshots about him being married now, something about, "First Jack, then you. What does that remind me of?" but I can't think of the context of that great line... But Tony wasn't having any of it. Instead he continued to press her about Alvers. He told her they had sketchy details, medical records and whatnot. See Nina was denying ever having met Alvers. Then Tony began mentioning a few medical records: an MRI on his knee, treatment for HIV - ooo! That sent her pulse racing according to Michelle and the techie. But her face was like stone. When Tony presses her on this she merely tells him that his neck is bleeding. Now, after the show threads began popping up everywhere about Nina possibly having had sex with Alvers and now she has AIDS. So that is the great debate-of-the-moment. My take is that Tony just threw that out there for the hell of it to see if it got a reaction.
But other than the racing pulse, Nina maintained her stony silence. So Tony decided to call in 'Richards' whose only job is to inflict pain (So CTU employs at least two people whose only purpose is to inflict pain: Johnson and now Richards. How scary.) While he waits for Richards to show up with his equipment, Chase interrupts Jack and Chappelle to update him on Nina. He lets Jack know that there's a possibility Nina may have actually known Alvers. Cut back to Nina and we find Richards injecting Nina in the neck with what looked to be the same stuff poor Gael had to endure earlier in the day. She stoically endures the pain, but when that initial injection is complete and Richards readies another, Tony asks her how much more she can take. Just as Richards is about to inject her again, she says something like 'That's about enough.' and throws her head back causing Richards to puncture or tear an artery in her neck. Blood is squirting everywhere and general mayhem ensues as they race to uncuff her and get her to the clinic and stop the bleeding. It's quite a trick because I was left wondering if she was just trying to get away, or if she finally figured 'to hell with this' and was attempting to kill herself. At this point it's hard to tell.
It was also hard for me to tell, when they had her in the clinic, on the gurney what she was doing while they worked on her neck. She reached down and grabbed some tubing near her hand and pinched it shut. I thought for sure she was going the suicide route. It wasn't until Tony showed up in Jack's conference area covered in blood and telling Jack what Nina had done, when the alert bells started going off throughout the building that it dawned on me that she was trying to get away. So I had a 'Duh' moment. No I didn't know that was going to happen because I managed to avoid spoilers as best I could :) I did stumble on one spoiler but it turned out to be wrong, thank goodness.
So Nina's on the loose and Jack tears out of that room like he was on fire, gun at the ready in that terribly gorgeous stealth pose he does so well. We see shots of the clinic room where they were working on Nina. A pile of bodies, all stabbed by whatever was handy. One woman is still alive but clutching her chest and points Jack in the direction Nina took off in. Meanwhile Kim's wandering around. I wonder if she was feeling panicky because she seemed to not quite know what to do. Then she happened upon the fallen body of a security guard and seemed to make the decision to hunt for Nina herself. She grabbed his gun and headed off. This was silly on her part, but I can sort of understand why she did this. She can't let this woman get away, this woman who murdered her mother and her unborn brother or sister, ruined her life and her father's life. Seeing her face to face must have been awful for Kim. Still, She should have left it to the more experienced to go after Nina. But of course, she did not. And Kim found Nina in a tech room full of circuit breakers and I believe she was trying to interrupt the circuits that had locked down the building.
The interesting thing about Nina and Kim's showdown is that I don't believe that Nina wanted to kill Kim. She pleaded with Kim to leave. In fact she was practically begging her to stay out of it. Which makes me wonder if there wasn't a tiny spark of remorse for the things she's done. Maybe she felt her own doom and like the thief who's not sorry he stole but sorry he got caught, she felt a twinge of regret. Who knows. Kim wasn't about to leave. Kim kept her gun trained on Nina and just as Nina realised she wasn't leaving she raised her own gun to shoot Kim, and would have gone through with it too, except Jack found them and took Nina down with a shot of his own.
So there's Nina on the floor suffering from a neck injury (I think one or more of the writers have a neck fetish), and a gunshot wound, completely at the mercy of Jack. It's just him, Kim and Nina in this room. (Speaking of this room, I do not believe it is the same room Nina killed Teri in. Just for the record. CTU has been rebuilt since it was blown up and the room just looks different from the one Nina and Teri were in.) Kim is about to say something to Jack, but what it is I don't know. Could have been her ethical self trying to tell Jack they need to get Nina secured, or it could have been her vengeful side about to tell Jack to kill her. But Jack sent her away before we could find out.
"You don't have anything useful left do you Nina." Jack says in a manner that suggests it's more of a statement than a question.
"I do." gasps Nina, feebly reaching for her gun that is just a few inches away from her hand.
"No. You don't."
Three gunshots echo around the room as Jack kills Nina Myers.
Tick, Tick, Tick.
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Tuesday, February 17, 2004
2am - 3am
Holy repercussions!
Now Jack knows that Kim knows that CTU knows that Chappelle knows that he knows he has a drug problem. Chloe continues to amuse. I actually guffawed in the first few minutes of the show which is an unusual occurrence watching 24. Chase asks Chloe if Kim knows about the baby. She says she does know. Chase wants to know how she reacted so Chloe says, "Ummm, gee Chase, I think she's kinda pissed." Oh. My. God that was funny :)
So it turns out that the baby's mother sort of sprung the baby on Chase a month ago and he's becoming attached to the little sprog. Chloe and Chase's sister have been helping out with the baby as apparently he and Chloe are good friends. Which is weird. Anyway, Chase explained the situation to Kim after getting a bit of a cold reception from her when he walked into CTU.
Yes they have arrived back at CTU to try and squeeze more info out of Nina, who is under very heavy guard. As they arrive back at CTU, Chappelle meets them at the entrance and stops Jack before he goes in and tells him he knows about his drug addiction. I think Jack's shocked. After everything that's happened in this day, I think that was the last thing he was expecting to hear when he brought Nina back. Chappelle wants him to go to the clinic to be checked out, and then it will be decided whether he can get back to work. Jack realises he has little choice in the matter and decides to humour Chappelle. But first there's a rather sweet and tender reunion with Kim. That was really nice to watch. As he walked in he found Kim, who had just seen them bringing in the woman who killed her mother. I'm glad the next person she saw was Jack because the girl needed a hug.
But after she hugged her daddy, she hit him up about the drugs. Damn, no one's going to let up on Jack! Another lovely scene betwen Kim and Jack where he tells her he was too embarrassed to tell her. It was very touching. Then off Jack went to get 'checked out'. Which means he finally got to take that jacket off. Ahhhhh, that's nice. Sorry I'm in a strange mood this evening. As I write this in my little blogger editor I can see the top of Kiefer's head from my previous post. It's very distracting. Where was I? Oh yes, Jack's getting checked out in the clinic. Chase walks in and fills him in on what they are doing with Nina. Chase hesitates, and then spills it to Jack about his new daughter. Jack's slightly taken aback, but again, after all that's gone on during this day, nothing seems to surprise him much. He simply tells Chase that he better square it with Kim no matter what. For once, Chase listens to him and goes off to try and smooth things over with Kim, and it seems to work. Then we get to see a nice little shot of him cuddling Angela as Kim looks on from afar.
Meanwhile, Sherry's back at Palmer's place and lying through her teeth to David about where she's been. She tells him she ended up not going over to Milliken's and instead pulled over in her car to make phone calls. However, David's not an idiot. Pretty soon they get the call that Milliken's dead, and Wayne sneaks a call to Julia to press her to find out what really happened. Of course, Julia sings like a canary, the poor greedy little woman. And now David knows Sherry lied through her teeth. How on earth will she get herself out of this. Moreover, David's hands are pretty dirty in Milliken's death as well. Sherry made Julia standby and let Milliken die - and Sherry went there on David's behalf. Dum dum dummmm...
I'm guessing they're now beginning to tie the Palmer storyline into the virus storyline now that Amador has the virus in L.A. So he'll be dealing with the Milliken repercussions while the virus - the real virus this time - is getting set to be released on the population. Amador has taken it to Alvers at some seedy nightclub - the kind of place that requires a secret knock to get in evidently - and now Alvers begins to prepare it for distribution. Things are about to get worse methinks.
And now we come to the double interrogations. Yes, the double interrogations. You see, Jack's in pretty deep shit. So Chappelle has brought in... I don't know, someone who handles agents who are on drugs, I really can't remember her exact position right now. All I know is she was played by the chick who was John Connor's foster mom in T2. Anyway, She's got video and audio set up in a conference room and now she begins to interrogate Jack to find out whether he truly did become a user in the line of duty. The other interrogation is Nina, of course. And the handler is Tony. *gasp* Yes, Tony's doing it as Michelle looks on. This should be good. So good that I'm going to stew on it overnight and come back fresh tomorrow and go over it.
Hate to break my routine (again), but I'm knackered. I'll pick up where I left off first thing tomorrow.
Now Jack knows that Kim knows that CTU knows that Chappelle knows that he knows he has a drug problem. Chloe continues to amuse. I actually guffawed in the first few minutes of the show which is an unusual occurrence watching 24. Chase asks Chloe if Kim knows about the baby. She says she does know. Chase wants to know how she reacted so Chloe says, "Ummm, gee Chase, I think she's kinda pissed." Oh. My. God that was funny :)
So it turns out that the baby's mother sort of sprung the baby on Chase a month ago and he's becoming attached to the little sprog. Chloe and Chase's sister have been helping out with the baby as apparently he and Chloe are good friends. Which is weird. Anyway, Chase explained the situation to Kim after getting a bit of a cold reception from her when he walked into CTU.
Yes they have arrived back at CTU to try and squeeze more info out of Nina, who is under very heavy guard. As they arrive back at CTU, Chappelle meets them at the entrance and stops Jack before he goes in and tells him he knows about his drug addiction. I think Jack's shocked. After everything that's happened in this day, I think that was the last thing he was expecting to hear when he brought Nina back. Chappelle wants him to go to the clinic to be checked out, and then it will be decided whether he can get back to work. Jack realises he has little choice in the matter and decides to humour Chappelle. But first there's a rather sweet and tender reunion with Kim. That was really nice to watch. As he walked in he found Kim, who had just seen them bringing in the woman who killed her mother. I'm glad the next person she saw was Jack because the girl needed a hug.
But after she hugged her daddy, she hit him up about the drugs. Damn, no one's going to let up on Jack! Another lovely scene betwen Kim and Jack where he tells her he was too embarrassed to tell her. It was very touching. Then off Jack went to get 'checked out'. Which means he finally got to take that jacket off. Ahhhhh, that's nice. Sorry I'm in a strange mood this evening. As I write this in my little blogger editor I can see the top of Kiefer's head from my previous post. It's very distracting. Where was I? Oh yes, Jack's getting checked out in the clinic. Chase walks in and fills him in on what they are doing with Nina. Chase hesitates, and then spills it to Jack about his new daughter. Jack's slightly taken aback, but again, after all that's gone on during this day, nothing seems to surprise him much. He simply tells Chase that he better square it with Kim no matter what. For once, Chase listens to him and goes off to try and smooth things over with Kim, and it seems to work. Then we get to see a nice little shot of him cuddling Angela as Kim looks on from afar.
Meanwhile, Sherry's back at Palmer's place and lying through her teeth to David about where she's been. She tells him she ended up not going over to Milliken's and instead pulled over in her car to make phone calls. However, David's not an idiot. Pretty soon they get the call that Milliken's dead, and Wayne sneaks a call to Julia to press her to find out what really happened. Of course, Julia sings like a canary, the poor greedy little woman. And now David knows Sherry lied through her teeth. How on earth will she get herself out of this. Moreover, David's hands are pretty dirty in Milliken's death as well. Sherry made Julia standby and let Milliken die - and Sherry went there on David's behalf. Dum dum dummmm...
I'm guessing they're now beginning to tie the Palmer storyline into the virus storyline now that Amador has the virus in L.A. So he'll be dealing with the Milliken repercussions while the virus - the real virus this time - is getting set to be released on the population. Amador has taken it to Alvers at some seedy nightclub - the kind of place that requires a secret knock to get in evidently - and now Alvers begins to prepare it for distribution. Things are about to get worse methinks.
And now we come to the double interrogations. Yes, the double interrogations. You see, Jack's in pretty deep shit. So Chappelle has brought in... I don't know, someone who handles agents who are on drugs, I really can't remember her exact position right now. All I know is she was played by the chick who was John Connor's foster mom in T2. Anyway, She's got video and audio set up in a conference room and now she begins to interrogate Jack to find out whether he truly did become a user in the line of duty. The other interrogation is Nina, of course. And the handler is Tony. *gasp* Yes, Tony's doing it as Michelle looks on. This should be good. So good that I'm going to stew on it overnight and come back fresh tomorrow and go over it.
Hate to break my routine (again), but I'm knackered. I'll pick up where I left off first thing tomorrow.
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Monday, February 16, 2004
The old 1-2
Seems like everyone's favourite Federal Agent had a little run-in this past week in a bar. The 'altercation' in which Kiefer was 'defending himself', according to his spokesperson left him with a pretty nasty gash on his forehead that required six-ish stitches. I know this is kind of old news to most 24 fans but I'm a little slow with the updates lately. Anyway, many fans anxiously awaited fresh images of the cut, and thanks to the fabulous Jillyree of the TWoP boards, we can see just how bad it is:
He doesn't seem too bothered by it eh? Anyway, filming of 24 had to be juggled in order to give him time to heal so don't expect them to write it into the show. An amusing little side note about the incident appeared on tvguide.com:
"...Upon returning to work on Wednesday, the actor — who received multiple stitches on his face — apologized to the show's cast and crew for the inconvenience. Word is everyone accepted his apology except Chloe O'Brian."
Hehe.
He doesn't seem too bothered by it eh? Anyway, filming of 24 had to be juggled in order to give him time to heal so don't expect them to write it into the show. An amusing little side note about the incident appeared on tvguide.com:
"...Upon returning to work on Wednesday, the actor — who received multiple stitches on his face — apologized to the show's cast and crew for the inconvenience. Word is everyone accepted his apology except Chloe O'Brian."
Hehe.
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