24 Episode 6.17 - "10:00 PM - 11:00 PM"
Airdate: Monday, April 9th, 2007

Hey, everybody! It’s Fake-Out Week on 24!

Bet you can’t wait to read my review...but that’s too bad, since I’m never writing for this crappy site again!

FAKE! I totally caught you with that one! Just like those 24 writers. Man, are they fakers! Faker, faker, belly achers!

Seriously, was it pure plotting kismet, or a supreme act of laziness that left us with not one, but TWO major plot twists that hinged on totally PSYCH moments?

First, we have President Palmer, Who didn’t REALLY intend to take up Vice-President Daniels’ strategy of nuking the Middle East to kingdom come. He was just firing PRETEND deadly missles at Iran to get them to cough up a conspirator in the terrorist attacks, although honestly, it’s never revealed if Palmer had some kind of inside tip that led him to suspect the Iranians were holding out on him, or if he’s just learned a lot from watching the World Poker Tour on cable.

Then, in a truly wacky effort to ascertain the location of the suitcase nukes, CTU fakes an escape attempt on Fayed so that the pretend "terrorists" (actually CTU agents) will lead Jack Bauer and company to Fayed’s secret hideout.

The crazy thing is that both fake-outs actually WORK, which strains the boundaries of even 24’s loose attempt at an internal "logic." It’s frustrating to me when a show that can be so conscientious about its dangling plotlines and the soundness of its machinations just tosses the rule book out the window and says, "Sure, fake nukes and fake terrorists all around! Let’s hit the bar."

What’s even more confounding about it is that the episode ENDS with the biggest fake-out of all--Audrey Heller is still alive and being held captive by the Chinese, presumably. She’s also presumably being held someplace in Southern California, since it’d be a super buzzkill if Jack spent most if not all of the rest of the season on a flight to China. (How long does it take to fly to China from SoCal, anyway? I’d look it up but I can’t read.

(FAKE! OUT! YEAH!)

So Cheng Zhi is the fella who has Audrey, and he’s demanding that Jack calls him back in ten minutes on a secure line, or else he’ll kill Jack’s special lady friend. I’m guessing he’ll want Jack to do something extra nasty with those suitcase nukes, and that Jack will want to save Audrey but won’t want to blow up Sherman Oaks to do it, and he’ll go rogue or some such and probably Audrey will die, because JACK BAUER CANNOT BE HAPPY.

I’m not totally sure what to make of this week’s episode. On one hand, the multiple fake-outs were unsatisfying and lame; on the other hand, we got some great action sequences and lots of the good stuff (on 24, the "good stuff" involves Jack torturing and/or graphically killing bad guys).

On a third hand, don’t even get me started on the totally weird and inept "OH EM GEE Milo is SO totally jealous of Doyle now LOLLERS" subplot, which had all the emotional truth of a Disney Channel movie about junior high. Talk about a lame attempt to fill out some minutes. Yikes.

In theory, I support the final fake-out, where the place where we all thought the season would end is in fact the place where we stand now, with many episodes yet to come. That’s a neat idea, in theory.

In practice, we’ll just have to see, but it has me skittish. Will it all tie back around together, bringing back Jack’s nutjob dad and elements from previous seasons? Or will it just be a tacked-on coda with little value, other than to fill out a season where they ran out of ideas too early?

It’s hard to say, a risky gamble. As it stands, this week delivered a bit too much fake-out and not quite enough payoff. Then again, what the hell do I know? I didn’t even watch it.

FAKE. OUT. YEAH.

iTunes Links

24 - Series
24 - Season 6
"10:00 P.M. - 11:00 P.M."

Vern Seward is a writer who currently lives in Orlando, FL. He’s been a Mac fan since Atari Computers folded, but has worked with computers of nearly every type for 20 years.