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So.
I've been relatively quiet about the past 4 episodes of 24, in part because it sort of broke my brain but mostly because these past episodes have shifted the tone of the season completely. It was getting pretty dark enough when we all thought that the worst thing to happen that day was Jack possibly dying, but now with this revelation of Tony being a bad guy, it really did send the show in a completely different direction. Love him or hate him, Tony's loyalty to Jack has been one of the cornerstones we've come to depend on and changing that requires a shift in the writing because it has to come front and center.
And I've been holding out in order to see how they would address that, and what they'd have to sacrifice in terms of storytelling, simply because it's such a HUGE aspect. Thus far, I'm still not completely sure that this twist has been worth it, but a lot can happen in 2 hours so here are my thoughts on what the finale needs to have/do to save these past 4 episodes:
1. We seem to have lost the intertwined connections of the storylines now that Hodges is dead. For the first 18 episodes, there has been a personal connection between the President's storyline and the main villain thread, thanks to the connection between Juma/Dubaku and Hodges. One can easily see how you go from Samantha Roth (wow that seems like ages ago, doesn't it?) to Henry Taylor to the White House siege to Olivia and Alison's interaction with Hodges.
Now that they've shifted the bad guy focus to Tony and the Evil Skype Session of Doom, Olivia's blackmailing troubles seem wholly disconnected to the action. Which isn't to say that past seasons *haven't* done this (hello S1's entire storyline involving Keith and Nicole Palmer, S3's Julia Miliken), but this season has been so strong in the first 2 thirds, that to have this disconnect now is unfortunate.
For the finale, they need to refocus the President's storyline back onto the *President* not Olivia, and they need to bring her back to where the action is with Jack and Renee and the FBI.
2. I'm still waiting for an explanation for Tony's actions as to WHY he's doing all this. For all that they've done to establish Tony as the bad guy, showing his dastardly interactions with Cara and the Brothers McMuslim (who were admittedly AWESOME), the fact remains that they haven't given us his explaination yet, in his own words.
Because the thing is? From a logical POV, I can easily fanwank his actions to make sense within the villain storyline. If you view his actions today through the lens of a mission, assuming that Tony was tasked to track Dubaku and Juma's actions and tie up loose ends as they wrecked havoc on the US, you can track the logic behind it.
He uses Bill and Chloe to stop Dubaku only until after he's caused planes to explode. Once the mischief is managed, he simply puts CTU-lite on his trail to make him a liability to Juma and then Tony just tells Juma to watch him because Dubaku might flip on him. Operating under that theory, it actually makes more sense as to how Juma got a man in the hospital so quickly after Dubaku was captured. Then he tells CTU-lite about Juma's attack, but not enough to stop it from happening. Just enough to stop it from getting too far, and ultimately result in killing Juma. Loose ends tied, he moves onto the canisters, only to discover that Jack's on the trail again, so he tags along to troubleshoot in case Jack forces Hodges' hand (which he did by keeping the FBI on their trail.) Much of his role is reactive, adjusting as best he can to the wild card that is Jack Bauer so that they stay mostly on track.
So one could certainly explain his actions away as logical if you look at his mission as a troubleshooter/overseer of the chaos. The pieces are all there. The problem is, I shouldn't have to do all the work. I have no way of confirming my theory because they haven't addressed his actions at all.
And more importantly, the logic may be there but his motivations don't make sense from what we know about the character. Tony has always been ruled by emotion, so I could see him doing these things if he was lost, confused, angry, stupid, idiotic, lashing out and morally grey. And they had Tony say a LOT of things earlier on in the season that made sense as to why he went bad when he was talking about Emerson. So maybe in those scenes, Tony was talking about the present as much as he was the past. But the writers need to do more to remind us about that rather than keeping him silent. All we've seen since the twist is Tony being...well, like Nina. Cold, unapologetic and stubbornly silent.
Sometimes we can kind of see glimmers that he's conflicted about it: I could see him justifying taking away Jack's meds because he's not killing him. The bioagent is and at least he called over the medics before getting away. I could see him alerting Cara to watch Kim and use her as leverage but telling Cara to only use it as a LAST resort. (That's the only reason I can think of as to why they hadn't made the play earlier). Even his apology to Renee in 7x19 works, if you believe that he doesn't want to play certain hands unless he has to. But the writers are doing a crap job emphasizing that if that's the case.
For the finale, they need to be crystal clear as to why Tony's doing it, and if they're going to sell this at all, they need to show us that Tony is grey and conflicted about some things.
3. Finally, they've dropped the overarching themes that were so present and compelling in the first 18 episodes. The whole torture thing aspect, the debate over where the lines should be on whatever it takes? Completely gone because without characters like Bill and Larry who are on the same level as Jack and Renee, there's no one to pick up that banner. Having Janis there helps a little, but she keeps getting shot down and overruled. That and they keep making her look petty with her insecurity about Chloe.
And Renee- wow. I love her but her using the exact same wording as she did in 7x01 ("Do what you have to do") and actually meaning it this time, not bluffing? That should have been a bigger deal than it was. The writers completely glossed over it and I really think it was a missed opportunity because they could have used that moment to illustrate that the reason why she's like this is because she's still so very angry about Larry's death and in her eyes, anyone associated with Tony is Larry's murderer. The scene would have been laden with irony because it's the exact opposite of what Larry would have wanted and you know Annie would have KILLED a scene like that.
To their credit, they've done a good job with racial profiling aspect with the iman (Hi Bug from Crossing Jordan!), and not since the hiker couple in S4 have I enjoyed a minor character getting wrapped up in the action as I have with Jihbran and his awesome awesome "I have a bomb" ruse to clear the field. However, the very awesome themes of loyalty and honor and lines and "how far do you go" dominated the first 18 eps and dropping them now makes these past 4 eps feel lesser somehow.
So for the finale, I'd like to see them at least touch back to them so we have some sort of consensus/statement/resolution to these on-going debates, even if the answer is, we're both right and both wrong. Just something so that it doesn't seem like they just dropped the ball.
***
All that said, I still think that this season is one of the strongest yet. The cast is KILLING it, especially Annie and Kiefer, and although I haven't been completely happy with the past 4 episodes, I'm excited for the finale.
I love, LOVE the fact that for once, it's looking like Jack is going to be the one who needs to be saved. They've never done THAT before, and I'm super excited to see how it will all end. Especially if it ends with Renee coming in like a knight in shining armor on herwhite horse black SUV to save the day so they can kick ass and take names together. The man deserves to have someone do the heavy lifting for once, and if anything, I'm grateful that this season has given us a character worthy to be Jack's partner whose emotional connection has been wholly centered on him (as opposed to Tony who understandably always had a pull towards Michelle). Team Awesome is AWESOME, especially because I can always get my LOLs from them like this:
So all in all, if they can give me these three things, I think I can be happy with this season no matter how they end it.
I've been relatively quiet about the past 4 episodes of 24, in part because it sort of broke my brain but mostly because these past episodes have shifted the tone of the season completely. It was getting pretty dark enough when we all thought that the worst thing to happen that day was Jack possibly dying, but now with this revelation of Tony being a bad guy, it really did send the show in a completely different direction. Love him or hate him, Tony's loyalty to Jack has been one of the cornerstones we've come to depend on and changing that requires a shift in the writing because it has to come front and center.
And I've been holding out in order to see how they would address that, and what they'd have to sacrifice in terms of storytelling, simply because it's such a HUGE aspect. Thus far, I'm still not completely sure that this twist has been worth it, but a lot can happen in 2 hours so here are my thoughts on what the finale needs to have/do to save these past 4 episodes:
1. We seem to have lost the intertwined connections of the storylines now that Hodges is dead. For the first 18 episodes, there has been a personal connection between the President's storyline and the main villain thread, thanks to the connection between Juma/Dubaku and Hodges. One can easily see how you go from Samantha Roth (wow that seems like ages ago, doesn't it?) to Henry Taylor to the White House siege to Olivia and Alison's interaction with Hodges.
Now that they've shifted the bad guy focus to Tony and the Evil Skype Session of Doom, Olivia's blackmailing troubles seem wholly disconnected to the action. Which isn't to say that past seasons *haven't* done this (hello S1's entire storyline involving Keith and Nicole Palmer, S3's Julia Miliken), but this season has been so strong in the first 2 thirds, that to have this disconnect now is unfortunate.
For the finale, they need to refocus the President's storyline back onto the *President* not Olivia, and they need to bring her back to where the action is with Jack and Renee and the FBI.
2. I'm still waiting for an explanation for Tony's actions as to WHY he's doing all this. For all that they've done to establish Tony as the bad guy, showing his dastardly interactions with Cara and the Brothers McMuslim (who were admittedly AWESOME), the fact remains that they haven't given us his explaination yet, in his own words.
Because the thing is? From a logical POV, I can easily fanwank his actions to make sense within the villain storyline. If you view his actions today through the lens of a mission, assuming that Tony was tasked to track Dubaku and Juma's actions and tie up loose ends as they wrecked havoc on the US, you can track the logic behind it.
He uses Bill and Chloe to stop Dubaku only until after he's caused planes to explode. Once the mischief is managed, he simply puts CTU-lite on his trail to make him a liability to Juma and then Tony just tells Juma to watch him because Dubaku might flip on him. Operating under that theory, it actually makes more sense as to how Juma got a man in the hospital so quickly after Dubaku was captured. Then he tells CTU-lite about Juma's attack, but not enough to stop it from happening. Just enough to stop it from getting too far, and ultimately result in killing Juma. Loose ends tied, he moves onto the canisters, only to discover that Jack's on the trail again, so he tags along to troubleshoot in case Jack forces Hodges' hand (which he did by keeping the FBI on their trail.) Much of his role is reactive, adjusting as best he can to the wild card that is Jack Bauer so that they stay mostly on track.
So one could certainly explain his actions away as logical if you look at his mission as a troubleshooter/overseer of the chaos. The pieces are all there. The problem is, I shouldn't have to do all the work. I have no way of confirming my theory because they haven't addressed his actions at all.
And more importantly, the logic may be there but his motivations don't make sense from what we know about the character. Tony has always been ruled by emotion, so I could see him doing these things if he was lost, confused, angry, stupid, idiotic, lashing out and morally grey. And they had Tony say a LOT of things earlier on in the season that made sense as to why he went bad when he was talking about Emerson. So maybe in those scenes, Tony was talking about the present as much as he was the past. But the writers need to do more to remind us about that rather than keeping him silent. All we've seen since the twist is Tony being...well, like Nina. Cold, unapologetic and stubbornly silent.
Sometimes we can kind of see glimmers that he's conflicted about it: I could see him justifying taking away Jack's meds because he's not killing him. The bioagent is and at least he called over the medics before getting away. I could see him alerting Cara to watch Kim and use her as leverage but telling Cara to only use it as a LAST resort. (That's the only reason I can think of as to why they hadn't made the play earlier). Even his apology to Renee in 7x19 works, if you believe that he doesn't want to play certain hands unless he has to. But the writers are doing a crap job emphasizing that if that's the case.
For the finale, they need to be crystal clear as to why Tony's doing it, and if they're going to sell this at all, they need to show us that Tony is grey and conflicted about some things.
3. Finally, they've dropped the overarching themes that were so present and compelling in the first 18 episodes. The whole torture thing aspect, the debate over where the lines should be on whatever it takes? Completely gone because without characters like Bill and Larry who are on the same level as Jack and Renee, there's no one to pick up that banner. Having Janis there helps a little, but she keeps getting shot down and overruled. That and they keep making her look petty with her insecurity about Chloe.
And Renee- wow. I love her but her using the exact same wording as she did in 7x01 ("Do what you have to do") and actually meaning it this time, not bluffing? That should have been a bigger deal than it was. The writers completely glossed over it and I really think it was a missed opportunity because they could have used that moment to illustrate that the reason why she's like this is because she's still so very angry about Larry's death and in her eyes, anyone associated with Tony is Larry's murderer. The scene would have been laden with irony because it's the exact opposite of what Larry would have wanted and you know Annie would have KILLED a scene like that.
To their credit, they've done a good job with racial profiling aspect with the iman (Hi Bug from Crossing Jordan!), and not since the hiker couple in S4 have I enjoyed a minor character getting wrapped up in the action as I have with Jihbran and his awesome awesome "I have a bomb" ruse to clear the field. However, the very awesome themes of loyalty and honor and lines and "how far do you go" dominated the first 18 eps and dropping them now makes these past 4 eps feel lesser somehow.
So for the finale, I'd like to see them at least touch back to them so we have some sort of consensus/statement/resolution to these on-going debates, even if the answer is, we're both right and both wrong. Just something so that it doesn't seem like they just dropped the ball.
***
All that said, I still think that this season is one of the strongest yet. The cast is KILLING it, especially Annie and Kiefer, and although I haven't been completely happy with the past 4 episodes, I'm excited for the finale.
I love, LOVE the fact that for once, it's looking like Jack is going to be the one who needs to be saved. They've never done THAT before, and I'm super excited to see how it will all end. Especially if it ends with Renee coming in like a knight in shining armor on her
So all in all, if they can give me these three things, I think I can be happy with this season no matter how they end it.
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