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More coherent thoughts on 24: 8x06
I have lot to say about this episode, but most of it centers on Jack and Renee, so really, let's sum up the rest of it with a letter to the writers:
Dear 24 writers:
1. Please fix Dana's plot by drawing in Cole so her plot becomes relevant to other characters. Why aren't you capitalizing on the fact that Cole is the reason Dana is doing this? Ratchet up the tension by at least dangling the possibility of him finding out. You've actually taken a step BACKWARD from the season opener to the point that one might forget that Cole's the one she's engaged to. Also, I'm still not understanding why Dana's being this dumb, when by all counts she was smart enough to fool everyone in the first place. If your plot requires the characters to be more stupid than usual, your plot is stupid. Get with the program.
2. Please show, don't tell us why we should care about the nuclear deal. On a theoretical level, yeah, nuclear weapons being sold to extremists is a bad thing, but I don't really get the sense of who these bad guys are and why they're...well, bad. The Russian storyline is interesting only because it's skating by on the skill of David Anders to make me care about his character and his brother. That's only going to carry my interest so far though.
Clearly Sergei went to the Phillip Bauer School of Parenting (so, evil!), but I still don't get why he's willing to sacrifice family for this deal. Or is money not the only motivation here? How did he even get into contact with Farhad in the first place? What isFredo Evil!Lester Farhad planning to do with the warheads, since the coup failed? Do the villains even *have* a plan?
If you're going to do a slow burn, you have to give the audience a little bit more of what the villain's plot and motivation are. And by that I mean, show us the villain's side of the story. For example: Who are Farhad's men in Fakistan / at the UN? I want to see him talking to his men because then at least there'd be some suspense in Hassan's witch hunt (are they on the right track or is that diplomat just an innocent?). Show us more of the moving pieces so that when everything starts to connect, we're just waiting for the characters to catch up. Otherwise it's just filler. You have a real problem when your most compelling villain is someone who just found out about the main threat in this hour.
3. On that note, please also let us know how Vladimir fits into all this. Is he on good terms with Sergei? Are we to assume that Sergei is Red Square btw? Because, um, you're not being very clear about that. Why is Vladimir such a lynch pin to the plan that Renee had to do what she did? This is key for me to wrap my head around the rape.
4. Please for the love of god, give Jack something to do other than sit in the car. We got 5 minutes of him actually interacting with the bad guys in 2 hours. Not.good.
***
And now onto the Renee portion of this episode reaction:
Look, I'm totally fine with dark storylines. I watch and like Dexter. I mainlined Farscape in 11 days and was fine. I've read the Song of Ice and Fire series and dude, that's some f'ed up shit right there. But this storyline with Renee kind of pisses me off because I'm not really seeing the necessity for it. Darkness for darkness' sake doesn't really fly with me because there has to be a purpose for it in the story arc. Otherwise it becomes nothing more than shock value and that's especially true when you deal with issues of rape.
At the heart of my problem with this storyline is this question: What is the value in victimizing the lead female this much? She is already suicidal and a danger to herself and others. Where are they planning on taking her that it requires her to be so broken as to have all of her agency stripped away as opposed to the already damaged soul she was? Why take that extra step?
Because all I'm seeing right now are the ways in which they are writing her down so that Jack can lift her up, and that isn't so great or original in my book.
I've already said how much I hate the set-up of the rape. By retconning Renee with such a victimized backstory, the writers are qualifying her bad-assness in a way that we rarely if ever get to see in the men on this show. Think for a moment how they've written Cole and Jack. Does anyone ever question Cole's badassery in the field? Does anyone need to give him a broken past? No. Why? Because it isn't necessary. Sometimes people just kick ass through years of training, natural ability, common sense and general competency at their field. We believe it with Cole like we believed it with Jack when S1 first started. There was no question that Jack was already a huge BAMF, even if he hadn't killed a man with his thighs yet.
Now compare that to the way they've written Dana and retconned Renee. Dana is super perfect CTU Barbie, the same way Cole is CTU Ken, but unlike Cole, the reason that the writers have given for her being so *perfect* is because she's overcompensating for her past. Her competency is qualified by her trauma, perhaps even erased because there's a level of pretend there, and as such, Dana as a character is handicapped by her broken past. Renee used to be like Jack, badass in her own right, but then they took that away from her. S7!Renee will no longer ever be remembered as the kickass knight in FBI standard issue armor, but as the woman with a broken past who happened to rise above it and only to get torn down again.
Which, okay fine. I don't like it, but that's still an interesting story. But by writing her rape into the season that Renee's supposed to be this huge badass, it's like they're doing the same thing to S8!Renee, but worse. It's like she's being punished for daring to be as badass as Jack, which I know sounds irrational because Jack's been through hell as it is, but they've crossed a line with her that they never would do with Jack.
There are (and should be) consequences for acting like the lone wolf and being so off the handle. We've seen it happen to Jack, because lord knows the man's been through a lot. But the difference, I feel, is that the things Jack has suffered have been a direct result of him choosing to act all loose cannon and the like. I'm not saying that the things done to him were just, but even the Chinese torture can be traced to him leading the raid into the Chinese embassy in S4. He killed a man. There's a level of agency that he can claim some element of responsibility.
But Renee- this is not something that is her fault. It's not something that she's giving up. It's something they're taking away.
That's the problem with rape within storytelling. It's never the fault of the victim that the rape happened, which is why so few storytellers let it happen to their leads, especially their male leads. This isn't Renee trying to get back undercover and having a gun pointed at her head as a result. Her only crime here is being an attractive woman. I can't even argue that the rape was motivated by Vladimir hating Renee or suspecting her of foul play from the previous undercover mission and that this is his way of punishing her. No, he just wanted her body, she said no, and he took it anyway. No other motives.
And no, she didn't have a choice in the matter. To lay the blame solely on her self-destructive tendencies is like saying a rape victim was asking for it by dressing in a provocative manner or drinking beyond her limit. Despite her self-destructive tendencies, Renee said no repeatedly, but she was trapped, weaponless and pretty much naked in a small space with a man who threw a glass against the wall near her head and had a gun in the next room. She's no match for him physically because we saw him take her down easily later on in the episode. Locks had no effect because she locked that door before the shower; apparently Vlad has the key. And despite what Jack was said in his desperation, no team could have extracted her in time to prevent the rape. Not that far deep into the warehouse and with the teams so far away, which we know are far away because Jack specifically TOLD Cole to keep some distance for fear of getting spotted. Her choosing between a route that would keep her alive and give her some angle to play the cover versus one that would end in probable harm, possible death isn't a real choice at all. It was still rape in a similar way that Teri "offered" herself up in Kim's place in S1, and I can't think of any intelligent fan of the show who would say that that wasn't rape.
But here's the difference between Teri and Renee, and why I find Renee's rape so much more horrific than Teri's, if one can put a scale on such things. At least with Teri, she didn't know her rapist. The writers were not clear about whether Renee was raped by Vladimir six years ago, but even if that isn't the case, Vladimir still brutalized her. And for her to suffer at his hands hurts so much more, because it's happening AGAIN. They're putting a victim in the room with her victimizer, and that history erases any and all choice she could have had in the matter because she clearly has a deep-rooted fear of him. It's not just "for the mission" that she's doing this; it's also because she's scared of him.
And again, I ask- is that extra step necessary? Rape is so debilitating to a character's sense of power, that I question their judgment to go there for a first time, let alone a second time, because it's such overkill. If Renee was going to be broken this season, I feel like it should have been the same as Jack: because of her own actions. Instead, she's a victim with nothing more than a thin illusion of agency that she can tell herself to get her through it.
And that's not to say that this exact situation can't be handled correctly in a compelling, non-Lifetime movie manner, because I've seen it done elsewhere. But this show has the constraints of 24 hours. It does not have the luxury of showing repercussions over time, and it's a show that moves according to plot, which makes it difficult to do this kind of story any justice.
And worse, I worry that Renee's storyline about *her* lack of agency will become Jack's storyline about *him* saving her. Jack is the star of the show, not Renee and the fact that his entire arc seems to be centered around keeping her safe and not on the mission at hand worries me even more. Particularly as people start to jump up and down at the possible hook-up, it's making me sad that important things like Renee being the one to take back the night might be lost for the sake of getting the ship together, because that's so not the point. This is Renee's story, but Jack's show so count me as skeptical that they are going to handle this correctly.
TL;DR version: For all that this darkness opens up a world of potentially interesting issues, I'm not sure the writers can handle it properly given the constraints of the show and the delicate subject matter. At best, anything she does from here on out that is remotely badass will be her taking control and power back as a victim rather her dealing with a situation of her own making and coming out of her numb stupor because she realizes her self-worth. And that SUCKS because the latter is far less commonly told about women with power and strength, even though technically, it's an easier story to do justice.
YMMV on this of course, but that's how I feel about it.
Dear 24 writers:
1. Please fix Dana's plot by drawing in Cole so her plot becomes relevant to other characters. Why aren't you capitalizing on the fact that Cole is the reason Dana is doing this? Ratchet up the tension by at least dangling the possibility of him finding out. You've actually taken a step BACKWARD from the season opener to the point that one might forget that Cole's the one she's engaged to. Also, I'm still not understanding why Dana's being this dumb, when by all counts she was smart enough to fool everyone in the first place. If your plot requires the characters to be more stupid than usual, your plot is stupid. Get with the program.
2. Please show, don't tell us why we should care about the nuclear deal. On a theoretical level, yeah, nuclear weapons being sold to extremists is a bad thing, but I don't really get the sense of who these bad guys are and why they're...well, bad. The Russian storyline is interesting only because it's skating by on the skill of David Anders to make me care about his character and his brother. That's only going to carry my interest so far though.
Clearly Sergei went to the Phillip Bauer School of Parenting (so, evil!), but I still don't get why he's willing to sacrifice family for this deal. Or is money not the only motivation here? How did he even get into contact with Farhad in the first place? What is
If you're going to do a slow burn, you have to give the audience a little bit more of what the villain's plot and motivation are. And by that I mean, show us the villain's side of the story. For example: Who are Farhad's men in Fakistan / at the UN? I want to see him talking to his men because then at least there'd be some suspense in Hassan's witch hunt (are they on the right track or is that diplomat just an innocent?). Show us more of the moving pieces so that when everything starts to connect, we're just waiting for the characters to catch up. Otherwise it's just filler. You have a real problem when your most compelling villain is someone who just found out about the main threat in this hour.
3. On that note, please also let us know how Vladimir fits into all this. Is he on good terms with Sergei? Are we to assume that Sergei is Red Square btw? Because, um, you're not being very clear about that. Why is Vladimir such a lynch pin to the plan that Renee had to do what she did? This is key for me to wrap my head around the rape.
4. Please for the love of god, give Jack something to do other than sit in the car. We got 5 minutes of him actually interacting with the bad guys in 2 hours. Not.good.
***
And now onto the Renee portion of this episode reaction:
Look, I'm totally fine with dark storylines. I watch and like Dexter. I mainlined Farscape in 11 days and was fine. I've read the Song of Ice and Fire series and dude, that's some f'ed up shit right there. But this storyline with Renee kind of pisses me off because I'm not really seeing the necessity for it. Darkness for darkness' sake doesn't really fly with me because there has to be a purpose for it in the story arc. Otherwise it becomes nothing more than shock value and that's especially true when you deal with issues of rape.
At the heart of my problem with this storyline is this question: What is the value in victimizing the lead female this much? She is already suicidal and a danger to herself and others. Where are they planning on taking her that it requires her to be so broken as to have all of her agency stripped away as opposed to the already damaged soul she was? Why take that extra step?
Because all I'm seeing right now are the ways in which they are writing her down so that Jack can lift her up, and that isn't so great or original in my book.
I've already said how much I hate the set-up of the rape. By retconning Renee with such a victimized backstory, the writers are qualifying her bad-assness in a way that we rarely if ever get to see in the men on this show. Think for a moment how they've written Cole and Jack. Does anyone ever question Cole's badassery in the field? Does anyone need to give him a broken past? No. Why? Because it isn't necessary. Sometimes people just kick ass through years of training, natural ability, common sense and general competency at their field. We believe it with Cole like we believed it with Jack when S1 first started. There was no question that Jack was already a huge BAMF, even if he hadn't killed a man with his thighs yet.
Now compare that to the way they've written Dana and retconned Renee. Dana is super perfect CTU Barbie, the same way Cole is CTU Ken, but unlike Cole, the reason that the writers have given for her being so *perfect* is because she's overcompensating for her past. Her competency is qualified by her trauma, perhaps even erased because there's a level of pretend there, and as such, Dana as a character is handicapped by her broken past. Renee used to be like Jack, badass in her own right, but then they took that away from her. S7!Renee will no longer ever be remembered as the kickass knight in FBI standard issue armor, but as the woman with a broken past who happened to rise above it and only to get torn down again.
Which, okay fine. I don't like it, but that's still an interesting story. But by writing her rape into the season that Renee's supposed to be this huge badass, it's like they're doing the same thing to S8!Renee, but worse. It's like she's being punished for daring to be as badass as Jack, which I know sounds irrational because Jack's been through hell as it is, but they've crossed a line with her that they never would do with Jack.
There are (and should be) consequences for acting like the lone wolf and being so off the handle. We've seen it happen to Jack, because lord knows the man's been through a lot. But the difference, I feel, is that the things Jack has suffered have been a direct result of him choosing to act all loose cannon and the like. I'm not saying that the things done to him were just, but even the Chinese torture can be traced to him leading the raid into the Chinese embassy in S4. He killed a man. There's a level of agency that he can claim some element of responsibility.
But Renee- this is not something that is her fault. It's not something that she's giving up. It's something they're taking away.
That's the problem with rape within storytelling. It's never the fault of the victim that the rape happened, which is why so few storytellers let it happen to their leads, especially their male leads. This isn't Renee trying to get back undercover and having a gun pointed at her head as a result. Her only crime here is being an attractive woman. I can't even argue that the rape was motivated by Vladimir hating Renee or suspecting her of foul play from the previous undercover mission and that this is his way of punishing her. No, he just wanted her body, she said no, and he took it anyway. No other motives.
And no, she didn't have a choice in the matter. To lay the blame solely on her self-destructive tendencies is like saying a rape victim was asking for it by dressing in a provocative manner or drinking beyond her limit. Despite her self-destructive tendencies, Renee said no repeatedly, but she was trapped, weaponless and pretty much naked in a small space with a man who threw a glass against the wall near her head and had a gun in the next room. She's no match for him physically because we saw him take her down easily later on in the episode. Locks had no effect because she locked that door before the shower; apparently Vlad has the key. And despite what Jack was said in his desperation, no team could have extracted her in time to prevent the rape. Not that far deep into the warehouse and with the teams so far away, which we know are far away because Jack specifically TOLD Cole to keep some distance for fear of getting spotted. Her choosing between a route that would keep her alive and give her some angle to play the cover versus one that would end in probable harm, possible death isn't a real choice at all. It was still rape in a similar way that Teri "offered" herself up in Kim's place in S1, and I can't think of any intelligent fan of the show who would say that that wasn't rape.
But here's the difference between Teri and Renee, and why I find Renee's rape so much more horrific than Teri's, if one can put a scale on such things. At least with Teri, she didn't know her rapist. The writers were not clear about whether Renee was raped by Vladimir six years ago, but even if that isn't the case, Vladimir still brutalized her. And for her to suffer at his hands hurts so much more, because it's happening AGAIN. They're putting a victim in the room with her victimizer, and that history erases any and all choice she could have had in the matter because she clearly has a deep-rooted fear of him. It's not just "for the mission" that she's doing this; it's also because she's scared of him.
And again, I ask- is that extra step necessary? Rape is so debilitating to a character's sense of power, that I question their judgment to go there for a first time, let alone a second time, because it's such overkill. If Renee was going to be broken this season, I feel like it should have been the same as Jack: because of her own actions. Instead, she's a victim with nothing more than a thin illusion of agency that she can tell herself to get her through it.
And that's not to say that this exact situation can't be handled correctly in a compelling, non-Lifetime movie manner, because I've seen it done elsewhere. But this show has the constraints of 24 hours. It does not have the luxury of showing repercussions over time, and it's a show that moves according to plot, which makes it difficult to do this kind of story any justice.
And worse, I worry that Renee's storyline about *her* lack of agency will become Jack's storyline about *him* saving her. Jack is the star of the show, not Renee and the fact that his entire arc seems to be centered around keeping her safe and not on the mission at hand worries me even more. Particularly as people start to jump up and down at the possible hook-up, it's making me sad that important things like Renee being the one to take back the night might be lost for the sake of getting the ship together, because that's so not the point. This is Renee's story, but Jack's show so count me as skeptical that they are going to handle this correctly.
TL;DR version: For all that this darkness opens up a world of potentially interesting issues, I'm not sure the writers can handle it properly given the constraints of the show and the delicate subject matter. At best, anything she does from here on out that is remotely badass will be her taking control and power back as a victim rather her dealing with a situation of her own making and coming out of her numb stupor because she realizes her self-worth. And that SUCKS because the latter is far less commonly told about women with power and strength, even though technically, it's an easier story to do justice.
YMMV on this of course, but that's how I feel about it.