"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Monday, March 30, 2009

24 Season 7 Hour 16: Prions and Posses

Another top-notch sizzling hour of 24 - Season 7 Hour 16 - tonight, with a big twist that I guessed (but that's ok) and some bad news which I know will be ok, and I'll explain why.

First, the bad news - Jack's been infected with the mad-cow disease prion pathogen. He's still not showing any symptoms, but coming attractions for next week show him collapsing. I predict he'll be ok - 24 won't kill off Jack Bauer - but not before he's in pretty bad shape, and we'll probably see Kim again. But he'll survive, and I think this will be the way: Jack was in Sengala, where the pathogen was developed. He was exposed there to a little of it, and developed some antibodies, and those will kick in at the last moment. (I know the prion isn't a bacterium, but, hey, we don't really know how our bodies might react to some slight, initial exposure - maybe we can build up some kind of immunity.) In any case, though, and for whatever reasons, Jack will survive.

Now the twist: Hodges' man Seton kills the guard who's about to kill Tony, and tells Tony he thinks Hodges has gone too far, and must be stopped. The whole ensuing government attack on Starkwood is based on this information, and on Seton's precise identification of where the WMD is being held and prepped - which turns out to be false. Of course, it was - with eight hours to go, getting the bad guys couldn't have been that easy. And we were given a few good clues - mainly, that Hodges didn't seem too worried when he was told the FBI attack force was just a few minutes away.

Other good beats in Hour 16: President Taylor is willing to send in the Navy Seals, even though it violates the posse comitatus prohibition about U.S. military deployed as a police force on domestic soil (without a court order). Given the imminence and immensity of the threat, that was the right call.

And, it was good to see Renee moving closer to Jack. She thinks that Jack did the right with the security guard last week, and is deeply affected when she learns Jack has been infected....

Eight hours to go!







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






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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The giant Cisco commercial didn't bother you?

Paul Levinson said...

No - in fact, I really liked the Cisco Webex segment - it made the scene nicely realistic.

Thanks for mentioning it here - this is something I should have mentioned and praised in the blog post.

M.P. Andonee said...

Paul,

How do you think the Government forces vs. the Blackwater wannabes, standoff will play out?

I wonder if somehow Renee and Jack will have a hand in this?

As always, '24' is very thought provoking. It's fascinating to me, now that '24' is touching on a completely different set of issues, "conservatives" have seemed to have stopped talking about it. Why is that?

Oh well, I am still enjoying it.

Marcelo said...

I might be wrong, but in Season 6 (or was it 5?) when Jack is brought back from China, he is delivered with a long hair and long beard to Bill Buchanan, remember? when Jack is delivered to terrorists?
At that moment, Jack shaves and takes off his shirt. He has ugly scars on his back.
Now, Season 7 hour 16, all his scars are in the chest, his back is clean.

Paul Levinson said...

MP: yeah, I finding the new set of issues on 24 this year very refreshing.

Marcelo - good question. Could Jack have gotten any of the scars on his chest in Sengala?

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