24 – Renee finally does what we all knew she was going to do

We knew what was coming. This episode didn’t make any shocking revelations but did confirm and expand on what we gathered from previous episodes – i.e., Renee is on the verge of insanity, Dana’s ex-partner-in-crime Kevin is an idiot, Hassan is paranoid, and Sergei is a bad, bad man. Oh, and Jack is awesome. But I enjoyed this episode because the thing that we were waiting for happened at last.

As I expected, Vladimir didn’t last the hour. Renee finally lost control. Jack called it — he told Hastings it would happen (but does anybody ever listen to Jack?). Although I knew Renee was unstable, I was still surprised by how stupidly she handled Vladimir. I mean, did she really think it was a good idea to tell a violent, obsessive, Vodka-soaked Russian mobster that she didn’t give a damn about him and was just using him to do the deal? At least in the end, she got to put a knife in him.

I’m actually glad that we got this whole “When will Renee go nuts?” thing out of the way. What’s great is that it led to a lovely scene between Jack and Renee that highlighted Jack’s tender, marshmallowy side. She tells him essentially the same thing she told Vladimir (“I don’t have anything, anyone”), and Jack whispers, “You’ve got me, okay?” Awwww, how sweet.

I think that conversation sparked something in Renee that is going to make her try to find and “rescue” Jack, now that CTU has lost him (how useless are CTU’s drones, by the way?).

Okay, moving along … Dana runs ops for a different kind of mission. Kevin shows again that he is an utter numskull (though he’s a genius in comparison to his imbecile friend Nick). I actually liked the water gun scene; it was pretty funny. But, of course, the guys botch the operation after Dana made it so simple for them. She’s probably tearing out her very flat hair. The sad thing is that, at the end of the hour, we see Kevin and Nick driving away and laughing as if they did a great job. Idiots.

Hassan has become totally paranoid. The issue of torture, a running theme in 24, comes up again. Hassan arrested and tortured a member of his own delegation, and now he wants to use the man’s family to get him to talk (even though the guy appears to be innocent). In Day 2, Jack had terrorist Syed Ali’s family detained, and he faked their execution in order to get Ali to talk. And in Day 3, Jack used terrorist Stephen Saunders’ daughter to force Saunders to cooperate. So in the past, we’ve seen Jack use this tactic effectively. With Hassan, we are seeing a different take on the issue.

Random thoughts on this episode:

• Favorite action moment: Jack gets stabbed by Renee. Enter mobster. Jack, still on the floor, pulls the knife out of his gut and whips it straight through the Russian’s throat. Wow.
• When Vladimir calls Sergei, I love how meek Vlad’s voice becomes. That really helps to establish the pecking order and demonstrate Sergei’s level of power.
• Once again, Chloe puts Arlo in his place, calling him a creepy stalker and telling him to mind his own business. I’m so glad Chloe is there to speak my mind.
• What will Josef do? That’s the question that intrigues me. Do you think he will turn against Sergei?

What did you think of the episode? Leave a comment, and share your thoughts.

Clacked by Ruby T.
on Feb 09, 2010 @ 12:00 EST5EDT