Justin Cox Presents:

24: Day Two

After throughly enjoying the first season of 24 I became hooked, commissioning Blockbuster Online to send me Season Two as well. While I didn’t go on a frantic search of the local Blockbuster’s to find the next disc this time around, I did manage to view all 24 episodes in about a week and a half. Here now are my impressions of the second day in the life of Jack Bauer.

The second season of 24 starts over a year since the end of first season. Jack Bauer has left CTU, blaming them for the death of his wife. His life is in shambles and he entertains the notion of killing himself. Jack’s relationship with his daughter, Kim, is less then stellar as she can’t seem to look at Jack without remembering her mother. Senator Palmer is now President Palmer and has divorced the she-devil that was his wife. Like in season one, a threat comes in that draws the attention of CTU. This time around a nuke is set to be detonated in the terrorist capital of America, Los Angeles. Of course, the only person capable of stopping this bomb from going off is Jack Bauer. President Palmer calls Jack into CTU and right away Jack’s “the rules be damned” attitude takes over and the second longest day of his life gets underway.

Jack follows up some leads, kills a few people, and discovers that a known Middle Eastern terrorist is responsible for bringing the nuke into America. While Jack goes off looking for that guy, President Palmer discovers that people in his administration are working against him; conveniently Palmer’s evil ex-wife shows up just in time to help him figure out who. When Jack finds the terrorist hiding under a mosque, the most intense moment of 24 (that I’ve seen at least) takes place. Jack captures the man, beats the hell out of him, and then convinces the man that security forces killed the man’s son — all in an effort to find the bomb.  When Jack was beating the man I had to remind myself that this was television — it was rather hardcore.

After his talk, Jack finds the bomb but of course, it can’t be disarmed. Jack decides to fly the bomb into the Mojave Dessert to reduce the harm to civilization. While he’s in the air, Jack phones his daughter to say goodbye. That five minute conversation is one of the most emotionally charged segments in television — I almost teared up, almost. Meanwhile, President Palmer discovers that the director of the NSA knew about the bomb for weeks and therefore was working against him. But he also learns that his former wife was also in on the conspiracy — yes, the she-devil returns!

After about 16 or so hours into the day the bomb goes off in the dessert and the whole focus of the season changes from finding the bomb to adverting a war with the Middle East. In the process Palmer is removed from office, Jack is killed and then brought back to life during a torture session, and Sherri Palmer gets stabbed (unfortunately she lives). At the very last minute Jack finds all those responsible, the bombers are recalled, and Palmer regains the Presidency. The day ends with President Palmer giving a speech and shaking hands with the crowd. One member of the crowd evidently had some sort of poison on her hand and Palmer goes down. There, my friends, is your cliff hanger.

The first 12 hours of 24′s season two are extremely exciting and intense television. The second half of the season slows down a bit as the there is no real terrorist plot to thwart, though it remains suspenseful to the bitter end.

Before my addiction to 24 I had never yelled at the television screen, willing a character to do one thing or not do another. 24 commands that kind of attention and is by far one of the best shows I have ever seen. Needless to say, the first disc of season three is on it’s way to my house.

Bottom line: Season two of 24 deserves to bee seen, especially the 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm episode.