President Hassan proved once again that he really believes in the ideals that he preaches. Real-life politicians talk a lot of idealistic bullshit about peace and hope, but how many of them would willingly sacrifice themselves for the lives of another country’s citizens? Hassan had every reason not to surrender to the terrorists. His wife and daughter were begging him not to go. Jack would have dragged him to safety, kicking and screaming. Basically everyone was telling him how important his life was — the freakin’ U.S. President felt that his survival was worth more than the lives of 58,000 Americans! And with every excuse in the world not to, he still felt compelled to konk Jack over the head and run off to surrender to his mortal enemies. That’s what I call noble.
The silent clock was well deserved.
Tonight’s two hours flew by for me. There were a number of awesome moments. Here are just a few of my favorites, in no particular order:
1) President Taylor giving her Chief of Staff, Rob Weiss, a wicked smack across the face and threatening to personally “throw the switch” at his execution. That’s the Allison I like to see!
2) A random guy loudly protesting as Jack casually steals his car. Hey, dude, maybe next time you’ll lock your doors.
3) Hassan’s alone time with Tarin — and later his conversation with Samir. These were great opportunities for Hassan to interact with his enemies, giving them a chance to vent their anger and show us what they hate about Hassan. It gave all of their actions a personal edge (as opposed to just a political one).
4) Arlo’s brush with death. Will he ever know how close he came to being Dana’s second garrotte victim of the day? I loved how Dana crept up behind him like a spider about to kill a fly.
5) Jack and Tarin’s parking garage car chase. What a fantastic car commercial — I mean scene!
6) Dana’s shootout, botched escape, and interrogation. At long last, some of my pent up anger at Dana can be released through Jack, Hastings, and Cole (I literally said, “Get that lying bitch!” seconds before Cole pulled her out of the car and yelled, “You lying bitch!” How cathartic television can be!). Not only is Dana’s nature finally exposed, but I’m eager to learn what motivates her besides money – Jack hinted that there’s more behind her actions. And I love how psychopathic she is — the way she wasn’t afraid when Jack was choking her was chilling because she seemed so devoid of normal emotions.
7) The “rescue” operation — and the ending. I knew they were going to fail. As soon as they located the apartment by zeroing in on the sound of Samir’s ranting, I knew that they were probably hearing the audio from the Internet stream. I also felt fairly certain that Hassan was going to die — only because that’s the most shocking thing that could happen at this point. I’ll tell you what surprised me — I was surprised that the statement and execution had been prerecorded. When did Samir have time to do that?
Well, that was a sad, horrible end for such a heroic man, but that was an excellent way for two hours of television to end. What did you think of tonight’s episodes of 24?
Clacked by Ruby T.
on Apr 06, 2010 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
Yeah there were some great car commercials tonight…
Toyota Prius: So quiet Jack Bauer won’t know you are coming around the corner. Toyota: Moving forward… even though you are hitting the brake frantically.
Hyundai Genesis Coupe: Because American heroes are too expensive for the domestic automakers to afford product placement with.
Hyundai Genesis Coupe: Unexpectedly beautiful and sporty. So remember to lock it and not leave it running in the middle of a crowded city when you get coffee. Its common sense dumbass.
NYC Taxi: Able to make it to NJ in rush hour in 10 minutes
All ads were made in memory of Hassan. The 2nd most badass president of 24. Your hair will be missed.
“Toyota: Moving forward… even though you are hitting the brake frantically.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Oh he did lock it. Via remote. The indicator lights were flashing when he left the car.
The idiocy is that Jack was able to open it. Either the remote locks were faulty (bad car, bad car commercial) or this was all BS.
That’s why I hated that scene.
Also because you could clearly see that everything that happened here was on a backlot which usually 24 doesn’t use. I know you can’t film all of the show on New York streets but it just didn’t feel right for “24”.
When that car cut Jack off in the parking garage, my brother said “Dammit the one time a Toyota stops.”
Yeah I agree with you on that last thing.
There wasn’t any time for Samir te record the tape, since it was already on the internet 2 minutes after samir desided to carry out the sentence himself. and the tape itself was over ten minutes, so it was just not possible at all
For those who think that the video couldn’t be taped before, there is something called buffering in devices… You don’t need to be live , just buffer a couple of minutes that would give them that advantadge. Anyways, this is 24 we are talking about , you don’t actually know the timeline, is hard to tell.
On the other side, where was the guy with the russian accent that helped the blonde terrorist escape? :) I guess that’s where we will be going next week.
When they brought up that it isn’t clear who’s going to be the successor to Hassan I had to think of his wife.
Wouldn’t it be nice if she was behind it all to get revenge for the adultery and the power to rule the IRK?
But that would be to neat of a twist for 24 I guess…
Funny, I was thinking that his wife would be the best successor to carry on his work. I would never imagine her to be the mastermind behind all of this, but I do think she might become the new president.
If she’d manage to get a peace agreement done with the US and the Russians it would be great as well. I have to agree :-)
8 hours of Jack chasing the insurgents of the IRK and Mrs. Hassan getting the peace arranged despite her husband getting killed would be lovely.
@Sebastian Now now, we all know Jack is magic and can open any door (locked or not)! Jack can do anything, well, except save President Hassan.
These were two great episodes and season 8 has completely restored my faith in this show just in time for it to get canceled. Oh well (s6 and 7, see what you did?).
Having Mrs. President Hassan succeed her late husband to sign the treaty would be awesome, but unlikely. Maybe Hassan’s death will cause all the other leaders to step up.
@Adrian, you mentioned absentee-kidnapper Russian guy. Pres. Taylor was talking with the glass-half-empty Russian leader. Coincidence? There has already been one connection with the nuclear rods and the Russians.
I forgot:
Arlo is SO lucky not to end up in the trunc line! After the way Dana killed the parole officer and stuffed him in the wall. I wanted Cole to beat the living snot out of her, but something tells me that they would have had to shoot him to stop him.
Renee deserves props, too. She is one smart cookie. And so calm after beserko-murdering creepo-Russian guy just hours before.
I was just rewatching this episode and the rescue operation was quite thrilling even though I had already known what was going to happen. The way it was set up made it seem like Hassan would be rescued only for Jack and Renee to discover that he was already killed. Very emotional silent clock.