Blogs.4Bauer

Note: As promised, I’ve begun watching Season 1 of 24 and am blogging on one episode a week episodes after I see them, as a run-up to Season 7. Remember, I’m pretending I know nothing about Seasons 2-6, so blah blah blah, yackety schmackety.

I know, I’ve been very remiss in blogging on Season 1. Life’s been busy.

But this weekend, as all the sick people in my house napped, I watched episodes 5, 6 and 7 in a row and am back in the action.

And action it was!

I’ll deal with this character group by character group:

First up: The Palmers.

OK, what is up with this family? They make the Clinton and Bush families seem normal. The entire family knows that little Palmer accidentally killed the man who raped his sister and that family hatchet man “Carl” helped them cover it up and no one thought Papa Palmer should know?

Of course, if he had known, this storyline wouldn’t be nearly so dramatic, but still. I think he needs to rethink his relationship with his family. His son obviously has major father issues; his daughter obviously doesn’t want to do anything to harm daddy; and Sherry, well, I appear to have been wrong about her.

Sherry seems to have a very conniving side to her. I’m guessing we’ll see more of that as time wears on. The true character of many characters here seems to be coming out only now.

The big Q: Will all Palmers be by David’s side for the early morning breakfast? We shall see.

Next up: Kim and Terri Bauer

Kim has flashes of not being an idiot, but just can’t sustain them.

Now that her remaining kidnapper (in these three episodes, the meaner — and less attractive, how fortunate! — of the two kidnappers is shot point blank in the head by Gaines) is on her side (he has been sweet on her from the beginning) is on her side, she has the chance to get outta there.

While I understand that she doesn’t feel like she can leave her mom, she would have a much better chance of getting Teri free, it seems, if she escaped with kidnap boy and got to her dad, telling him where Teri was.

As for Teri, how shocked was she to realize the guy she thought she was with was actually dead? And what a blow to Jack to find that out. He’s totally screwed. I can’t even fathom how he’s going to get out of this one.

Then we have: Jack Bauer & CTU

I’m not sure how the bad guys have managed to hook into every single camera everywhere. In the hospital, in CTU, etc. OK, I understand CTU, given that there’s a spy there, but in the hospital? How’d they work that out?

It seems obvious that Gaines & Co. are going to try to either have Jack kill Palmer himself or at least be framed for his death. Can’t imagine why else Gaines would be having Jack head over to the breakfast.

Of course, we’re not all that far into the 24-hour cycle, so I’m not sure how that’s going to work. We have a lot of day ahead of us. Dennis Haysbert is listed as a star, not a guest star, so I can only think he’s not going to die. At least, not so early in the day.

As for CTU, it seems that George Mason has come to recognize that Jack is not a total rogue and actually knows a bit of what he’s doing. I’m glad he finally trusted Jack a bit. I think that Mason isn’t as bad a guy as he’s appeared to be up until this point — perhaps the bad things he did were for a reason; Jack’s done some iffy things already that we’ve accepted because we know he has a good reason.

Totally stunned when Jack shot Nina, and even more so when Tony discovered Jack had given Nina a flak jacket and she got up and walked away from her would-be grave. Talk about a dramatic moment when he shot her. I was on the edge of my seat!

He obviously wanted to shoot her in the back because there’d be less of a chance of him missing the jacket and hitting her; in the front, the jacket could have slipped open and he could have actually shot her for real.

But what about Jamie? She obviously is the spy. Teri calls, gets her, asks for help escaping her kidnapper and Jamie sends the bad guys to get her. Wow. She’s one of the only people Jack actually did trust in CTU. Makes it a little more clear as to why she didn’t want Milo working on that key card (what an annoying person he was! But Eric Balfour, the actor, looked better than he did when he was on Six Feet Under and had a shaved head.).

Wonder who’s going to figure out she’s on the wrong side. My money’s on Tony. He’s kind of a jerk, but he does seem to have his head on straight and seems to want to actually do his job and do it well. And actor Carlos Bernard has finally stopped that weird “voice” he was using, a half-whisper that just sounded like he had a cold.

I think that wraps it up.

In all, an excellent three-episode arc. Plenty of drama and payoff. Can’t believe the fake Alan York killed Janet after all she’d been through to survive. The Nina killing was utterly dramatic and fabulous. The show’s definitely picking up steam.

If I have ever said a negative word about Milo, aka Eric Balfour, I apologize. I take it back. I bow my head humbly in shame.

In fact, Milo is my new hero.

This is Mrs. Balfour — Moon Bloodgood.

Milo, I salute you!