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Monday, April 20, 2009

24 Season 7 Hour 19: One Great Spinning Season

Well, once again, my intrepid powers of analysis and prediction have apparently been proven ... wrong.

Last week, I said I couldn't believe that Tony was bad. Truthfully, I still can't believe it this week, but in the Season 7 Hour 19 I just saw, Tony sure looks that way. Jack thinks so, too.

Jack's still veering between functioning and collapsing, and he collapses before he's able to further question or shoot Tony, and Kim's on the way to the airport to fly back home. I predict she'll change her mind (hey, I have to be right about this easy one), though I still like my idea that Jack developed an immunity to the pathogen if/when he was exposed to it in Sangala.

Larry seems definitely dead. Hodges should be - he took the heart attack pill - but he seems to be hanging on. Is that because he had the heart attack in the car rather than in his jail cell? But if so, the knock-out redhead with the blond wig - who gave Hodges the pill - didn't seem too upset that Hodges was being taken out of the cell.

We see her next week - in Tony's arms - which further seems to be telling us that Tony is bad. But I still have my problems with that. One problem - as Dawn commented on this Infinite Regress blog about Hour 18 last week - is how the bad Tony was able to fool Buchanan and Chloe? Jack's reasoning may also have been a little off when he confronted Tony tonight - after all, he's in the throes of the germ. And why did Tony help bring down the Dumbaku attack, the Juma assault on the White House, and the Hodges attack as well? All in the service of some even worse bad guy or force? I suppose so, but doesn't quite add up.

But Tony's doing evil after evil. He killed Larry (assuming Larry really is dead). He could have easily killed Renee when he lured her and the FBI team into the building wired to explode.

If I had to bet, I still think Tony will turn out good. But the odds look long against me....

And that's why I'm really enjoying this great season! And, yeah, it was good to hear that Kim's little daughter is named Teri.







5-min podcast review of 24.7.19





See also: Hours 1 and 2 ... Hours 3 and 4 ... Hour 5 ... Hour 6 ... Hour 7 ... Hour 8 ... Hour 9 ... Hour 10 ... Hours 11-12 ... Hour 13 ... Hour 14 ... Hour 15 ... Hour 16 ... Hour 17 ... Hour 18






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8 comments:

M.P. Andonee said...

I can't vouch for this theory yet Paul, but I suspect Tony will turn again. In this show there are shades of gray and shades of light. Yet, Tony could have gone completely rogue -- as in completely bad, or turned completely good. He's done neither. In the service of the greater good, he's decided to kill Larry Moss (who I think is a goner) -- remember the Star Trek motto: "The needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many". After all, both Tony and Buchanan were very reluctant originally to come forward, even when Jack pushed them.

On the other hand, it is not beyond convoluted for Tony to have been playing both sides to get what he wants -- revenge for the killing of Michelle. But does revenge drive a man beyond friendship, beyond love, beyond patriotism? I guess, we're about to find out.

What I do find fascinating about Hodges and the other powers behind the scenes is the striking similarities with what is going on in our country today... Not, but a few minutes after this episode airs, I get online and I read about Sean Hannity doing an interview with former VP Dick Chenney. Fascinating from a political perspective, and fascinating for the parallels. There are those in the background of American Power who want us to go a certain direction and will do what they can to make it happen. The question one must ask, with some trepidation: "How far are they willing to go?"

As always, excellent blog, and keep up the good work...

OH, and I forgot to mention. I believe what brings Jack back from the edge is little "Terri".

24 Jumped the Shark said...

The show is no longer credible. As you said, why would Tony stop all of those other Terrorist attacks only to make off with one cannister of the biological weapon? It makes no sense that he's now bad. So many other times he could have tripped up the effort of the FBI. Afterall he helped to tip them off about the White House assault. Why bother? Let them say occupied at the WH while the biological weapons are brought into the U.S. There's just no logic in any of these twists. And if they suddenly swing back to him being good again, he's already left Jack thinking that he's bad. Why wouldn't he tell him that he's gone deep undercover?

The entire attack on the WH a few weeks back was very camp, and poorly done too.

This show has really jumped the shark.

Paul Levinson said...

M.P.: Thanks - and excellent analysis - especially on the trenchant similarities between the bad guys on 24, and Cheney and co in our reality.

24 Jumped: I disagree completely - and in fact think this is the best season of 24. What you find frustrating about Tony, I find a fascinating and provocative puzzle.

And I thought the White House attack was one of the best scenes of this sort ever on television.

24 has jumped not the shark but up to new levels of excitement and complexity.

M.P. Andonee said...

I tend to agree with you Paul. This is one of the better written seasons of 24. And I can honestly say that I have seen more emotional depth and range in Jack's character than in past seasons. Also, Renee, has been a great counterpoint to Jack, bringing a "human" face to the ambiguities he faces in his pursuit of suspects. This alone has increased the drama for me ten-fold.

We might have lost Buchanan, but we gained Renee this season -- a great character. The Tony puzzle has been extraordinary indeed and his motivations an interesting dilemma to write I bet. After all, how do you bring a character back from the dead and yet imbue him with enough life to be believable?

I can't wait for next week!

Unknown said...

If it weren't for Larry, I'd be convinced Tony is playing an inside game for the good of his country...but how the writers are going to pull this one off, I don't know. Tony apologized to Larry before killing him, leading me to believe Larry was a good guy Tony reluctantly killed-- for for a good purpose or an ill one, not yet clear. but yes, I'm still hooked.

What I'm finding this year is that I'm watching myself more closely when it comes to the justification of torture-- after all, this IS fiction and I doubt the U.S. has ever been so up against the wall in terms of timing that torture has ever really been necessary. The NYTimes had a very sad article today about how ill-researched waterboarding was before the Justice Dept. approved its use-- didn't know, for example, "that waterboarding had been prosecuted by the United States in war-crimes trials after World War II and was a well-documented favorite of despotic governments since the Spanish Inquisition; one waterboard used under Pol Pot was even on display at the genocide museum in Cambodia."

Paul Levinson said...

Yes, that was very powerful article.

I think 24 has presented the torture issue in a more complex, ethically conflicted way than in some prior seasons.

MC said...

All the things that Tony helped to upset on this season of 24 were things that Hodges had a hand in. So in helping Jack, the President and the FBI, he was serving his masters who wanted the bio weapons for themselves for some other purpose and Hodges actions were jeopardizing their interests. That's why he was working in concert with Bill and Chloe... they didn't know he had deeper loyalties than the enemies they saw before them. He knew what to tell them to get their help while not undermining or exposing the interests of his true masters.

Paul Levinson said...

That's an excellent analysis, Matt -
about why Tony worked against all the bad things.

And you're probably right in your conclusion.

But I have still have a problem with neither Bill nor Chloe sniffing anything wrong with Tony - after all, their antennae should have been way up...

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