Ward

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8

It doesn't make any sense Rose, a teenage girl, would be working at UNIT which is a dangerous counter-alien agency. The last time we were at UNIT The Toymaker turned people into candy. It's a constantly dangerous place that is always going up against alien threats that may annihilate them. It's ridiculous a teenager with no practical knowledge and little to no experience is working at UNIT and has a higher clearance than the prime minister. Stupid.

I don't like the tardis skidding in, i always like the classic teleporting in because it's classic and it's the tardis and it's how the doctor appears and makes his iconic entrance, but it's only a minor nitpick of mine.

The Doctor looks stylish this episode.

The person of Susan being hyped up as the doctor's granddaughter and for him to reunite with her and how she's been mentioned all season was all a red herring apparently, it never meant anything except to be a reference, though there was a nice conversation with 15 and Kate in this episode about it. Though if this Susan was his granddaughter it would have been more interesting than what we got at the end.

I'm really annoyed at how little happened this episode, and of what answers we get to some of the mysteries are mostly disappointing and predictable.

The episode wasn't paced well at all and even the editing felt off. Instead of all the fancy entrances and friendly introductions to random characters and talk of accents, we could have had more answers to questions and better build up.

The ending looked to build up to something really interesting... And it was a bit with the bad guy gods appearing and one of them was always chilling around the Tardis (unnoticed by the doctor apparently), but the ending mostly fell flat for me.

Nothing much happened in the episode except the time window, some introductions, and the ending. That's it. Most of the episode was filled with pointless scenes. There were some deeper little chats, but they are outnumbered by the pointless ones.

And with what they've setup, it seems like too much to wrap up in 45 minutes for the next episode.

The time window scene was really jarring; the visual effects weren't up to the job of showing what was happening and the positioning of people in the scene/window was confusing and strange. And what actually happened in the time window in regards to the effects of time felt confusing and strange. Sure it was a little interesting but it was mostly jarring and disappointing. You're halfway through the episode of the two-part finale and you're supposedly going to find out who Ruby's mother is, and you don't. The end.

I'm so disappointed.

A good but inconsistent season.

There's a lack of moral complexity this season compared to previous ones, and i think the central story is weaker.

The compelling thriller plotline is still here, but it's also mixed in with some rubbish plotlines with both the good and bad guys. I think part of the problem is that whereas previous seasons usually had half the season with one plotline and the other half with a connected plotline, this season has it's main plotline throughout for the most part, and it drags and they filled the time with other more rubbish plotlines. Still, it's a good and compelling season of teleivision overall, but doesn't reach the heights of the previous one.

I like Curtis the most out of the new characters. Don't like Edgar. Driscoll was okay. Buchanan was okay. It's a shame Tony and Michelle are probably leaving the show now, but it's probably for the good so they don't get butchered more. Loved Palmer returning, and loved when Tony and Michelle turned up. Chloe is okay. The new president is annoying and rubbish, he's a bad president, and i'll be surprised if he wins a term in the next season if it's the next election/after or it's in the remaining 2 years of his term. Unless the original president survived the plane crash? I can't remember. He was a bad president also by how far he let things go and the incompetent people he had in charge like Driscoll who were too by the book.

Season rankings so far: 3>1>4>2

WHAT IS JACK DOING? He was living a calm and good life and then he's suddenly out of control and did illegal things that could land him years in prison? NO! And it was all to find out what's happening in minutes time? That probably wouldn't be able to stop it? NO! And one of the people who ends up kidnapped is Jack's love interest? NO!

What is going on? the writing is completely out of control and dumb. At least in this whole setup. Besides that it was all pretty standard stuff. I mean it was okay, but we mostly have new characters and irritating Chloe around. Ugh. Kim and Chase are away and doing okay apparently, and Michelle and Tony are nowhere to be seen. What happened to my show? What happened to realistic build up? What happened to my likeable characters? The head CTU woman in charge is a bit of a cold bitch and more concerned about saving money rather than having effective measures and personnel (she fired Jack) to stop terrorism.

We do get a bit of a morally ambiguous action though, with Jack going brutal on the prisoner to get answers. What if he wasn't planning anything or Jack was wrong? So yeah i don't agree with what Jack did in this scenario. He's not even with CTU anymore.

This dumb widow can see Saunders is actively helping (probably) the investigation, and then she goes and shoots him. Stupid. And then may have also become responsible for millions of deaths because of this dumb decision, stupid. And now she may be going to prison for years because of this dumb decision that the character and the writing did, stupid.

But it's a good episode overall. I'd give it an 8 (great) rating if TONY GOT A PRESIDENTIAL PARDON THAT HE DESERVED. That would have been amazing. But no, he's going to prison for YEARS, what the hell??? Ahhhhhh!

Still, i really liked the end scene with Jack breaking down. We see a realistic moment with the character just taking a break but also breaking down from all that he went through in that day, so much, and almost dying so many times. It's extremely stressful. But he managed to survive and succeed, again. A lot of people died this season. Those people in the hotel, Sherri, Nina, Shappelle, Gael. Palmer decides not to seek re-election because he feels he has become corrupted by what's happened. I'm glad Chase and Kim are okay though, and that his hand will probably be saved. Will he stay away from field operations though? Will his relationship with Kim work out? I hope so. Will Kim do more field operations? Who knows. I kinda liked Adam and even Chloe a bit at the end, they're both good at their jobs. I liked Chase as well, he's a good character and good partner for Jack. And of course i love Michelle and Tony.

Jack is getting help for his drug thing, and he'll beat that. I'm glad he's okay in the end, and his family is doing okay. It's a surprisingly happy end to the season for the most part, but Tony was done dirty. He should have got a presidential pardon, and if he has to serve prison then it should only be a few years, and i hope Michelle and he are still together in the next season. They better be, after how much they developed their relationship.

We didn't get a cliffhanger leading into the next season. It's a surprisingly happy ending for the most part. The bad guys were stopped and most of the heroes were rewarded, though we did have Palmer resigning. Was he a good president? Yes i think he was for the most part, but this season you saw him make dubious decisions, especially compared to previous seasons, and he slowly get more corrupted as the season went along. I think he should have stayed on though and become president again, he seemed better than the other candidate, though i'll guess we'll see what he's like next season when he's really tested. I feel like we could have got another season out of Palmer, the second season was in his first year and this season was in his last, but it's alright. Plus i guess there's the video-game that covered certain events during the middle of his presidency.

Random thing in an earlier episode, it was interesting how Palmer instructed people to stay inside during the virus outbreak, mirroring what happened during covid, proving Palmer made the right decision there, rather than telling the media or the public anything more. Also, Jack and Palmer's stamina debuff disappeared or wasn't that important.

I kinda loved this season, and i don't think i've fully appreciated how consistently compelling it's been. I really liked the first half with the gangsters, and i really liked the second half with the virus and Saunders. I liked the villains, they were all developed well, though Sanders could have had more, as the gangsters were much more developed. Still, Saunders was the bigger bad guy so it's alright, and he was developed well enough. It was really good, compelling season, full of moral ambiguity. We had good Jack and action stuff and him compromised with being an addict and then going rogue and then returning and being a full good guy again. We had Kim working at CTU and then eventually killing a guy, which was nice. We put an end to Nina once and for all, and that annoying bitch Sherri was killed.

If not for the situation with Tony, this would be a great ending to the show, and it's the best season yet. But you could headcanon that he only serves a few years, or does indeed get that presidential pardon.

Holy shit, that was tense. So damn tense! And Michelle having to be recaptured again to do the plan, and then they were walking towards each other, and then that girl ran back, and then there was shooting and i thought one of our likeable characters would be killed! But luckily they weren't, and the agency teams moved in with the patriotic music and killed them all, blew up the chopper, and Jack captured Saunders. And you have Palmer making the move to steal the evidence from Sherri in order to secure his next presidency, which is interesting. Loved it. Loved the episode. There was an incredible escape by Michelle, and how tense it was that she had to let herself be recaptured, though Sanders should have been suspicious that she was without a gun or phone, though maybe he was stressed and had a lot on his mind at the time and was rushing to recapture her to do the deal and save his daughter. Still, it was a great episode and very tense. I was so nervous! I thought Michelle was going to be killed, and i'm glad her and Tony reunited at the end. You saw Tony so desperate to save her and Jack so focused on the mission, wow, it was all great. I loved it. I think this is the best season yet. Most of it has been really compelling.

My own morality is tested in such a situation. Trying to balance the greater good and my own conscience. I don't think i would order the death of Shappel. It's going too far, and i don't think we should negotiate with terrorists. Saying a phrase can buy time, but now this is the death of an innocent man, working with us to try and take this terrorist down. I think it's going too far to kill him. To order his death and then have an ally kill him, no.

What a situation with those people in the hotel. I really hope they don't kill off Michelle.

Wow, i can't believe they actually killed off Shappel. He was becoming really likeable, and they actually kill him off? I don't think this is morally right. Wow, this season is going even deeper and darker with it's moral complexity, and i just can't follow it anymore. I just can't agree with it anymore. I think Jack was wrong, and i think the president was wrong, but they are interesting and compelling scenarios, and they're still hard decisions to make with millions of people at stake.

Wow... They actually did it. They actually killed off Shappel. Jack actually killed him. All this to buy some time...

Poor Shappel, what a good character at the end. Man, this reminds me of Mason. Two asshole higher ups who became likeable, and they killed them. Wow. A silent clock at the end, rare for this show to do that. I think the last time was with Mason. I'm sad.

Chloe has been an annoying asshole all season. And why wouldn't she explain who's baby it was? And at the end i remembered just before the reveal that Chase was the father, and it doesn't make sense. Why is the baby even here? In a government counter terrorist building? What? And why even put a baby into this whole mix anyway and also throw a wrench in Chase and Kim's relationship? No!

Why am i starting to like Sherri? Wow. Alan probably deserved to die anyway, i wouldn't lose sleep over it.

It doesn't really make sense after FOUR years that Nina had a worm embedded in the CTU computers? The computers would have been scrubbed after it was learned she was traitor, and then all the computers had a refit after CTU was bombed in the second season. This just doesn't make sense.

Jack not turning the plane around is interesting morally, and i don't think it's the right decision, i think. Luckily Chloe sorted the virus out and fixed it. But overall it was another tense and thrilling episode. The part with Sherri stealing Alan's phone in particular was a tense and shocking moment, that she would go that far.

Authorizing a bribe? Authorizing the breakout of a prisoner and thus unofficially negotiating with terrorists? Don't know how i feel about this. Palmer is doing more morally complicated decisions this season so far, and for the first time or more strongly, i don't think i agree with them.

It was nice he changed his mind about the bribe though., that was the right decision.

Jack goes rogue AGAIN.

I can't believe Jack would do such a thing as break this prisoner out and become a fugitive? On the hope that MAYBE they don't release the virus? Even if he's just trying to get to Salazar's brother it's still iffy. And that he'd do this while suffering heart problems, withdrawal, and wasn't he supposed to be protecting his daughter at CTU? Now he willingly becomes a fugitive? And might end up dead by Salazar/his borhter? If he ends up defeating the bad guys then i hope he gets a pardon at the end.

And then he opens the cellblock of the prison, where realistically many of the guards will be killed and raped by the prisoners and gangs will kill and rape each other, all caused by Jack. Yikes.

To my surprise, this season is even MORE morally complex than the previous one, but i think it's gone too far, or at least strayed into territory that i feel very uncomfortable with.

It does feel normal in it's creatures and plot structure with the historical setting, but i don't think it's a typical kind of episode. It's very Doctor focused, like the one with Madame De Pompadour where the Doctor had a romance with the guest character while his companions investigated the spaceship where they didn't have much to do. I feel the same with this episode with Ruby where she mostly lead around that woman, and while she gave her advice and they seemed to become friends, she turned out to be a villain anyway? And their friendship had no impact? It all felt a bit wasted, while the Doctor gets deeper development in his relationship with Rogue.

I like the episode, i think it's good and fun with the dancing and historical setting, but there are some caveats to it like what i mentioned, and i thought the villain creatures and their characters were generic. The relationship between Rogue and the Doctor did feel a tad bit rushed, and it was harder to connect with it since they have strikingly different personalities and Rogue was rude to him at first, and isn't very expressive as a character.

But i did like and buy their development overall. I loved the music scene in the spaceship and thought that was good flirting, and i liked the Doctor and Ruby immersing themselves in the historical setting. I really felt a strong sense of Ncuti's unique characterization of the Doctor this episode.

The comments on this episode are hilarious.

I had a suspicion the show might forget last season's cliffhanger and move on, but THREE years later? What??

So they apparently caught the guy behind that assassination attempt and exposed that whole organization. So they basically threw away last season's cliffhanger. It's mostly a bad thing, but also a bit realistic in how that plotline played out without us watching it, making the world feel more real, as we do only see one day each season.

Though as someone else said, they later addressed that plotline in the video-game.

I'm glad you brought Jack and Kate together in the interim years, but then why did you have to break them up? Why? I guess it makes sense with how Jack is now; much darker because of his undercover operation. But why did he go undercover for so long when he had Kate and Kim and a heart problem?

And Jack has a drug addiction? Like what the hell? That won't have been good for his heart either. Why can't they just give Jack a break? Jesus christ. At least he didn't take it, but i feel like they're not going to just put this once scene of him rejecting it and then never bring it up again.

Why give Palmer and Jack a stamina debuff? Why? It's a freaking action show! Do you know how stupid it looks when both characters have heart/stamina problems?

I like Jack has a partner, and he seems like a good guy.

I like Palmer is in a relationship.

It's funny there's concerns about Palmer's health when right now in the US election there's a choice between two 80 year olds.

I'm glad Tony and Michelle are married, and that Tony is director of CTU. It's nice Tony looks to be promoted to the CIA, and but he says he won't go unless Michelle can go with him and have a job there. He won't go without her having a good job there, even though she said she'd go and muddle through. Well done Tony.

I'm glad Kim is working at CTU and is at least part of the central plotline, but now she has ANOTHER love interest. Literally one every season. And they've been together 3 months and now it's time to tell people? Really? 3 months is nothing at all.

An interesting, inconsistent and mixed second season, but still quite compelling overall. The moral complexity is much greater, which i very much appreciate, but the plotting and characterization feel worse than the previous season.

Towards the end of the season there was a lot of wheel spinning and annoying characters and Kim's annoying storyline. So much annoying time spent on the chip and proving it and Kim's storyline and Palmer being betrayed and ousted. The season is a mixed bag of being compelling and boring, compounded by stupid things happening in the plots and Kim's storyline being rubbish all throughout the season, and we also had the early boring Kate Warner plotline.

I like Lin, and even Mike as a character because he was interesting in what he did and who he was.

I grew to like Michelle, i like her and Tony as a couple.

I also like and want Kate and Jack to be a couple.

Bring back Milo as the IT guy!

I didn't really care much about the end battle. The bigger villains behind the bad guys are barely built up, especially compared to the first season. Then suddenly the bigger bad guy has a backup plan from nowhere at the end. It's completely unnecessary and a bad cliffhanger to do for the end of a season finale, and robs us of a lot of the catharsis of what's happened over this long season, but it does make me wonder what's going to happen next, as i don't really remember. And why do we have to have a seemingly direct continuation of this season? I don't want to see the same annoying characters having annoying storylines, i want to see what happens after all this. Why would trying to or succeeding in assassinating Palmer start a war? How? When the evidence was revealed it wasn't those countries AND now the cabinet will be make sure to be CLEAR with the evidence AND the assassin of Palmer was a white woman and her method was a virus through hand contact. How does that start a war? HOW?

George Mason is a god damn hero. Well done, George, well done.

Man, the exchange with Jack and Kim was so emotional and such good acting. The exchange with Jack and George was so damn good.

Palmer has handled things well, but he's been put in a very difficult position now. But the thing is, this is partially his fault for all this happening, due to his foreign policy not being strong enough. It was so bad that even his own high ranking intelligence agency members/leaders conspired against him to wake him up, and other countries took advantage of this and plotted against America. A nuclear bomb was almost detonated in a major city, and they barely avoided that fate. Plus, if one of the bombs was a fake, then maybe the original bomb was taken? So it's still out there.

Should America invade those other countries due to the events that happened? I don't know. Do you let them get away with it and continue to be enemies? Or do you send in troops to topple the government? Or just bomb them from afar? All morally interesting things with different consequences.

The plot of this season i don't think has been as good as the last one so far, but the moral complexity is absolutely better. This was a great episode. I was hooked with most of the plot and very invested in the emotional depth going on.

When you read about people talking about 24, it's sometimes made to look as if there was no nuance to 24 depicting terrorists and terrorism plotlines, as if it was all patriot propaganda. But no, in the first season it eastern europeans who were the bad guys, and it was more about a revenge plot than a terrorism plot. In this second season you have a mix of middle eastern terrorism (no doubt influenced by 9/11, which happened a year before this season aired) and people working within the government against their own people, so domestic terrorism. It's not all painted black and white either, as we see with that British guy with brown skin color being suspected as a terrorist but he's not, and he talks about racial profiling, and another example is we see with the imam in the episode trying to help CTU and talking about how some may have terrorist thoughts but don't act on them. The show DOES show the nuance in this tense situation.

I love the moral complexity in the episode, which is what i remembered the show doing, and it's sure living up to the memory. I love Palmer authorizing the torture of the head CIA guy, and i love Jack threatening the terrorist's family. Mike made an excellent example with the weapons factory near a hospital. And all the rationale is absolutely right in my eyes, a few innocent lives to save millions. But i do admit that it can be a slippery slope, and you have to be careful. But in real life, no one and no western government would ever go this far, and millions would die. They wouldn't even go so far as to even do threatening actions, that's how morally compromised governments are in the modern day. In real life, the terrorist would sit in a room and be talked with in a calm manner, and soon after the nuclear bomb would kill millions of people. Then people will blame the government for failing to protect them and vote them out. Ironic, really, the government doesn't want to ever go that far because most people or a portion of people would disagree with their action to protect them, yet they'd still get voted out if they fail to protect them. Voted out even by most of the same people. It's a ridiculous irony, yet it's real life. For the record, i think most people would agree with the actions taken in this episode, but real life governments would be too afraid of the backlash from a minority of the population, whether it's small or large, and they'd be scared of the backlash from the justice system (as flawed as it is), and they'd be scared of their own compromised nature, as they might realize they don't have the courage to do what is necessary to protect the people and the country they govern.

Loved Sherri actually (probably, maybe?) working for David all along.

Loved Jack disobeying the president and ordering the death of the kid, but It's an absolute cop out with the kid still being alive and it was just a trick. If they actually went through with the moral complexity then i'd give the episode an 8.