24 Season 8, Episode 19 10:00-11:00AM – review

24 is getting serious about exploring U.S. foreign policy, giving the last episodes of the series a reflective capstone on the schizophrenic fevered politics the show both engendered and thrived from.  Applause to the writers, who are delivering substantive and honest portrayals of our nation’s politics and the almost unbelievable hypocrisies committed by our political class.  This show has always operated on a duality, the first half of a season exploring occasionally real, but more often imagined, foreign threats, the second half forewarning exaggerated (but much closer to fact) internal threats from overreaching political and private interests.  While it may seem that the Bush years are long behind us, Obama has closely inherited and embraced many of his predecessor’s obscene policies; I will refer to the two Presidents as Obushma, as they are really opposite sides of the same coin.  This episode is short on action but, like last week, makes up for it with candid politicking and palace intrigue; also, Michael Madsen makes an appearance, complete with his patented Kill Bill Budd razor necklace.

The first section of the episode concerns Chloe’s internal moral dilemma on whether to help Jack.  Jack escapes pursuing Apache helicopters in a surprisingly competent CGI chase over the commanding skyline of NY.  On the ground, dodging CTU’s suddenly capable surveillance techniques, Jack shows his veteran evasion skill, buying a stack of prepaid cell phones.  He does check in with Chloe to enlist her help, and she has a much-needed talk about the President’s authority; Jack explains that authority was lost when the President chose the cover-up route; he is the final arbiter on executive privilege, after all.  Chloe goes against Jack, perhaps more out of not wanting him hurt or killed than because of her sense of duty.  Her decision to betray him seems very heavy until it is revealed Jack knew what she would do all along.

Jack purchases weapons and kit from Michael Madsen’s character, Jim Ricker, a black market type whom Jack let go in the past, in case he needed to call in a favor.  Madsen plays classic Madsen and is a good fit for this role, supplying plenty of quips and automatic weapons for Jack’s next assault.  The MacGuffin of the episode is Dana Walsh, who has been handed over to a private security firm (Blackwater) for torture to find the evidence of Russian involvement, and murder.  Chloe leads Jack to a CTU ambush, but he is wise to the play, and is out to recruit Cole Ortiz for his cause.  The assault is a bit out there even for Jack Bauer, and he is now taking cues from Sam Fisher on disposing of unconscious bodies and improbably stealth abilities (it is amusing to see 24 referencing franchises it was largely responsible for spawning).  The recruitment of Ortiz is dull but serviceable, and it will be nice to have him on board for these final conflicts.

The real meat of the episode is President Taylor’s moral dilemma, with angel Secretary of State Ethan Kanin on one shoulder, and devil former President Charles Logan on the other.  Kanin is clearly modeled after Colin Powell, and Logan serves as a mouthpiece for pretty much every other politician.  Taylor’s painful movement from the calling off the peace accord at Kanin’s urging to listening to Logan’s honeyed tongue and agreeing to torture Walsh is good stuff.  Logan is as manipulative and power-hungry as ever, preening for the President’s attention and eating up every advantage with vigor.  Kanin’s resignation out of moral indignation is the character’s best moment, and the shock on the President’s face when he speaks the truth is classic.  As Dana Walsh is taken (with Sackhoff giving a convincing frenzied and fearful performance) by mustachioed private security agents in suits to be tortured, Dalia Hassan is shown looking proud and righteous at a U.N. press conference.  24 waits a little too long to use water-boarding as a topical plot device, but better late than never.

By cutting between politicians Taylor and Hassan giving noble speeches, and Dana Walsh being tortured in a dark cell, 24 attempts to pull the curtain back on what our own leaders have been doing for almost a decade now.  Obushma has and is engaged in systematic torture, extra judicial murder, and war crimes on a continuous basis.  Noam Chomsky has commented that, almost without fail, politicians invoke the highest principles in order to justify war crimes and murder.  Bush started it, and Obama has picked up the reins immediately, and they both spouted off righteous absurdities while overseeing human rights violations, war crimes, and murder on a mass scale.  President Taylor has left the fictional world of noble leaders, and gone down the path of reality, wherein morality and ethics have little to do with those in power.