What I’m Watching: 24

24: Season 8, Episode 20 “11:00AM-12:00PM” (F)

This show gives its characters way too much credit. From Chloe presuming that Jack probably knew what she was going to do before she did it to Dana planting an explosive in her safe deposit box, these people being prepared for every possible scenario just doesn’t make any sense. I have a gripe with the show as a whole that I wanted to pick up on with this episode particularly – when President Taylor asked “is this true?” after being called out of a briefing to learn the latest news about Jack. Why would anyone bring her incorrect information? It’s just a stupid device, but it’s been used way too many times. Even though I’m not in love with Cherry Jones’ performance, I did enjoy her yelling at Logan to take her off speaker phone and then hanging up on him in the middle of the conversation. Sending in Logan’s lackey Jason Pillar does actually make more sense than putting Chloe in charge, but this is a scenario that has happened at least a dozen times: a new face in charge at CTU while the former person in command has to watch and often ends up calling Jack to provide with help. Much as Jack is still the hero of this story, Dana does raise a good point when she tells Cole that he isn’t just going to hand over the evidence and be done with it. Jack has gone over to the dark side, killing Dana in cold blood when she wasn’t even directly involved in anything. That murder is definitely going to haunt him, most likely in terms of the legal implications it will have once Jack finally finds a way to save the day and set things right.