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24 – Jack can handle getting beat up, but can he handle crazy Renee?

24 - Jack Bauer and Brian Hastings at CTU New York

I love how getting beat up by a vengeful New York cop doesn’t faze Jack in the slightest. He just goes about his day like it never happened, saves a few lives, heads back to CTU to say so long to Chloe … The guy’s a superhero, and it’s nice to see him occasionally get the respect that he deserves from the bigwigs like Hastings (who was clearly embarrassed when Hassan thanked him for saving his life).

President Hassan continues to remind me of David Palmer. Hassan insists on doing the honorable thing and trusts Hastings to keep the revelation about his affair with Meredith Reed secret. Although David Palmer later became more willing to get his hands dirty, the early Palmer was a lot like this — idealistic and determined to do the right thing, even when his advisers insisted that it would ruin his political career. So far, President Taylor has been taking a back seat, and that’s okay with me. I never found her particularly interesting.

Farhad (after stopping at Walgreen’s to pick up a new pen) runs off to meet with the Russian mob, who have weapons-grade uranium for sale. The new bad guy, Sergei Bazhaev, seems like a cold-hearted son of a bitch, letting his son suffer like that. Bazhaev is played by Juergen Prochnow, the German actor who portrayed Duke Leto Atreides I in Dune (1984). Heroes’ David Anders plays his son Josef (the one who is not dying of radiation poisoning).

Hey, just by the way, has anyone been keeping track of all the sci-fi actors who have appeared in 24 over the years? I’ve lost count, but I think I should make a list. Cliff Simon (Baal from Stargate SG-1) was the first one I spotted this season. Obviously, we have Katee Sackhoff. Leoben — I mean Callum Keith Rennie — will play Vladimir Laitanan, the guy that Renee is trying to track down.

Speaking of Renee, who else is excited about Annie Wersching’s return? Although Renee initially seemed happy to see Jack, she doesn’t appreciate his concern for her mental fragility. Then she justifies his concerns by carving up Ziya with a glass cutter. The woman is NUTS! Takes a lot to shock Jack Bauer, but she managed it. When Jack did something like this, his actions were calculated. Renee may also have a plan in mind — in which case, Renee has shown us how crazy Jack seems when he does stuff like this without explanation. Only when you know what he’s doing do you realize that he’s not crazy. So maybe Renee is not nuts; she’s just turned into Jack. We’ll see.

A few additional thoughts on the Day 8 premiere:

  • My favorite moment: Jack shoots Davros, saving Cole in the nick of time.
  • I love Chloe and Hastings together. Even though they constantly clash, I think Hastings secretly enjoys Chloe’s bluntness, and his humility in acknowledging that she was right has really elevated him in my eyes.
  • Kevin must have something big that he’s holding over Dana’s head, because I don’t know why else she would take the crap from him. If I were her, I would send Cole to smack him around.

Photo Credit: Fox

Categories: | Episode Reviews | General | TV Shows |

10 Responses to “24 – Jack can handle getting beat up, but can he handle crazy Renee?”

January 19, 2010 at 12:05 AM

Nobody in the police academy, or police force bothered to question those suspicious tattoos? C’mon. Can that be explained?

January 19, 2010 at 2:58 AM

Hastings has gotten on my last nerve until he finally acknowledged Chloe’s work. I hope this will make him a bit more open to her suggestions from here on in.

And it’s been fun counting the former Battlestar Galactica cast members on Fox the past two days. Besides Sackhoff and Rennie, we also had Tricia Helfer and Donnelly Rhodes on the premiere of “Human Target”! Be nice to see Jamie Bamber and Grace Park show up somewhere!

January 19, 2010 at 10:55 AM

As you mentioned loads of Sci-fi actors showing up… Was fun to see Cliff Simon in the first episode, I was like “Hey thats Baal! Oh wait… Wrong show!”

I also know that Paul McGillion (Stargate Atlantis, Carson Beckett) played a baddie in Season 6.

January 19, 2010 at 1:17 PM

Actually, that was Paul McGillian in Season 8 as one of the docs that extracted the bioweapon from Jack’s blood.

There’s also been Michael Shanks as a baddie in Season 6 (the mole that was sleeping with the prez’s assistant).

Bill Buchanan (James Morrison) was the Space Marine squad leader in Space: Above and Beyond.

And then you have Reiko Aylesworth in Stargate Universe this season.

Good Ol’ Carlo Rota is now the head of the IOA in Stargate Universe.

Robert Carlyle was Carl Benton in 24: Redemption

All in all, there’s a pretty long list. There’s alot of crossover with other 24 actors in the Star Trek TNG, DS9, Voy, and Ent series.

January 19, 2010 at 12:23 PM

Here’s my list of sci-fi actors in 24. I know I’ve missed some – can you guys think of some more?

Penny Johnson Jerald (Star Trek: TNG and DS9)
Michelle Forbes (Star Trek: TNG, BSG)
William Devane (Stargate SG-1)
Gregory Itzin (Star Trek: DS9 and Enterprise)
Katee Sackhoff (BSG)
Zachary Quinto (Heroes)
Daniel Dae Kim (Lost)
Julian Sands (Stargate SG-1)
Michael Shanks (Stargate SG-1)
Gina Torres (Firefly)
Tony Todd (Star Trek: TNG and DS9)
Cliff Simon (Stargate SG-1)
Callum Keith Rennie (BSG)
Lou Diamond Phillips (Stargate Universe)
Alan Dale (Lost)
Alexander Siddig (Star Trek: DS9)
Glen Morshower (Star Trek: TNG, Voyager, and Enterprise)

January 19, 2010 at 2:12 PM

There’s a post in there somewhere ….

January 19, 2010 at 1:02 PM

Why won’t they listen to Jack?

Why???

Man I was so surprised that there was someone working at CTU that could be blackmailed. And someone close to the assassination target working with the assassin? Unthinkable!

Still those 4 episodes entertained me more than the last two seasons did combined. Even if it doesn’t look that way I’m able to turn my brain completely off and simply look at Freddie Prinze Jr. and imagine what our wedding would be like. Err… I mean Katie Sackhoff. She’s the handsome one working at CTU, right. I mean the girl. I definitely mean the girl. The one with those muscular arms with the brown I mean blonde hair. Right. Blonde.

January 19, 2010 at 1:11 PM

Katee is a lovely girl, and she will need all her upper body strength to reach into that man’s chest (the one who is troubling her) to pull out his beating heart.

January 20, 2010 at 8:33 AM

Oh that would be perfect. I would really love to see Starbuck kick some ass. These blackmailing-situations with CTU personnell annoy me to no end. I really hope she’ll get a gun. And soon :-)

January 21, 2010 at 1:17 PM

Was Steve Bacic from Andromeda, Smallville, BSG:Razor, the other gunman in the 1st hour?
The Axe Man… best kill evar!

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