Uh, no Tony? WTF?
24 aired the eighth episode of season seven last night, and you almost — almost — wouldn’t notice that Tony Almeida was entirely absent. Even though they shelved Soul Patch for an hour, the episode gets a major thumbs up for sheer Bauer power. Excellent episode for JB.
As usual, keep reading to find out the good, bad and the ugly!
What I Loved:
1. A Handful versus Thousands: The methods to Jack’s madness are on the hot seat again, this time with President Taylor doing the grilling. Renee steps up to his defense and offers that without Jack, thousands of Americans would’ve died instead of a relative handful. It sucks to play that numbers game, but she’s got a point.
2. Recruitment Drive: Shadow CTU continues to add more to its roster. This time it’s Taylor, Shawshank and Larry. Hopefully this will make them all better characters.
3. Best Line of the Year?: Is Jack trustworthy? The president isn’t so sure. But he stares her straight in the eye and grunts out: “With all due respect, Madame President? Ask around.” Bad ass.
4. That’s My Girl!: Welcome home, Erica. I missed you. You’re so pretty. I know you’ll probably end up being a mole, but still, I love you.
5. Rule Breaker: “The rules are what makes us better!” Larry shouts after Jack. “Not today,” he fires back. Baaaaaad ass.
6. Sneak Peek: In a blink-or-you’ll-miss-it moment, General Juma (Tony Todd) appeared on television for all of two seconds. That’s his first official appearance this season, but expect to see a lot more of him as time rolls on.
7. Widdle Baby: Look, the truth is that I just love little babies. Add a little crying snot-nosed baby to 24 and I am sold through the roof. Renee looked very motherly holding that child, too. Too bad she was complicit in the death of the baby’s daddy. Eee…
8. Riding Dirty: Great driving skills, Jack. Plowing straight into Vossler. That was a cool scene.
9. Pistol Whipped: And I love when Jack pistol whips Vossler through the car door. Take no prisoners, JB!
10. Fight Club: You can’t say no when Jacky boy’s laying the fisticuffs on you. His bout with Vossler was the best fist fight of the season (Jack versus Tony was a dud), though it’s still not as cool as the scissors move in early season five.
11. New Advisor: Bill Buchanan being in the Oval Office with Shawshank and Taylor instantly makes those scenes more watchable. But I do hope they put Bill back out on the field ASAP.
12. Tim Meadows?: Is it just me, or did the Prime Minister’s lookalike look exactly like Tim Meadows? I wish, dude.
13. Dubyeku: I’m psyched that Dubaku left headquarters before Jack and Renee got there. I’m not ready to see this guy die just yet. Give him some more time.
14. Pistol Whipped Pt. 2: Alright, Vossler deserved the pistol whippage, but this poor convenience store clerk? That was just cruel, Jack. AND I LOVE YOU FOR IT.
15. Shoot-’em-Up: Two back-to-back episodes with crazy awesome shoot-outs. This one wasn’t as good as last week’s, but it was still pretty great.
16. Bad First Impression: I’m not thrilled that Jack’s first meeting with my new favorite character Henry Taylor ended with a bullet in Taylor’s gut, but I do appreciate the fact that it made me leap out of my chair. It takes a lot to surprise me on this show these days, and I was genuinely shocked.
17. MVP: This episode was all about Jack. Definitely his best episode of the season. Best dialogue, best action, best pistol whipping, best everything. WWJBD, indeed.
What I Hated:
1. NO TONY?!?!?!?!: C’mon, guys, you don’t bring a character back from the dead and then shelve him, even if it’s just for an hour. If you don’t have something to do with Tony for every episode of the season, then why did you bring him back at all? Don’t be lame, people.
2. No Chloe??: Same statement as above, but to a lesser extent. Besides, get used to it now, folks… Mary Lynn Rajskub was uber preggerz during filming of this season, and word is she’ll miss a lot more than one episode because of that.
3. Secret Identity?: I’m an outspoken Dubaku fan, but it’s ridiculous that he can just run around Washington, D.C. in broad daylight. In the political capital of the United States, there isn’t a single person on the streets that recognizes who he is? Really? I definitely don’t buy that.
4. Poor Taste Pt. 1: Larry and Renee have obviously done it. In the dirty way. I mean sex. Gross.
5. Poor Taste Pt. 2: Dubaku’s girlfriend is cute but her sister sucks hardcore. I’m not into this storyline at all. Though I guess I’m looking forward to Jack harassing the hell out of them both in next week’s episode.
6. Real Time?: Larry travels back to FBI HQ way too fast. It literally took him 3 minutes. Not very realistic.
7. LVP: Alex Rodriguez. What a jerk.
Come back every Tuesday morning for new installments of 24 Things I Hate/Love About 24!
