OMFG Jack Bauer lost it last night and it was SOOO GOOD
24: It Seems Jack Bauer Has Some Anger Management Issues
This is just a guess, but I'm starting to think Jack Bauer skipped out on last year’s anger management seminar at CTU.
And be that as it may, I am caught between two reactions to last night’s 24. My namby-pamby side struggles with the idea that Jack Bauer, for so long a hero grounded in a sense of duty, justice, and the greater good, has turned into a rage-fueled killing machine of the “vengeance is mine” school of thought.
But the still-lingering adolescent male part of my being couldn’t help but revel in the mayhem and madness that Jack continues to inflict on those he holds responsible for Renee’s murder. I’m not sure what it will all mean for Jack’s legacy or that of 24 as a series, certainly not until we see how things wrap up next week. But as pure entertainment, Monday's episode sure beat the hell out of Iron Man 2. what
As I watched a masked and armored Jack take out Charles Logan’s motorcade, Iron Man was simply the first of many associations that came to mind; (I thought of Iron Man coming out of his cave) I also thought of Jason Voorhees, Darth Vader, Anton Shugar, Robocop, and even Jeremy Renner wearing that bomb suit in The Hurt Locker. What a great pop culture moment and an absolute tour-de-force: Heroic, crazed, doomed, and just plain scary, this was Jack Bauer taken to a logical, or maybe illogical, extreme.
But seeing Jack charge down that alley, reminded my more high-minded side of the Hindu scripture uttered by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer as he watched the successful test of the first atom bomb: “Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds.” Give Jack Bauer a scythe and he'd be death, personified-especially for Charles Logan. Because here are a few words you probably never want to hear yourself say: “That’s Jack Bauer. That’s got to be…He’s coming for me!”
Feeling sorry for Logan is not unlike feeling sympathy for the devil. But 24 took us right inside his nightmare. And that nightmare methodically worked its way down a line of cars before kicking out the windshield and extracting Logan from the limo like a SIM card from a Russian operative's belly. What a nice touch, too, that Jack addressed Logan as “Mr. President.”
Okay, so Jack was still rational enough to spare Logan and plant a bugging device on him. That proved to be of little consolation to a long, bloody trail of Russian henchman-especially Novakovich, who learned the hard way that fireplace pokers aren’t just for moving burning logs around. As for Jack's plan to have Meredith publish the truth, that’s a little less logical: I’m not sure I would have trusted her with the lone copy of the incriminating evidence before somehow first uploading a back-up version. Not to mention that our only real glimpse of Meredith’s journalistic credibility is that she sleeps with her sources.
It’s a messy world that Jack Bauer operates within, one where Charles Logan gets to live another day. And speaking of Logan, let’s pause for a moment to give some praise to Gregory Itzin, who seems to be having more fun in the role than would seem humanly possible. Just re-watch the opening scene, in which he transformed the simple act of putting on a tie into a smug and wordless victory lap for Logan. Of course, that was before Logan learned that Jack Bauer was still alive, and his inner coward reemerged in an instant. At which point he laid out the facts for President Taylor, perfectly distancing himself and defining the gap between Taylor’s actions and any lingering notion of her as a “beacon of righteousness.”
Like Jack, Logan is a man of action-except that Logan manages to get other people to do his dirty work. It’s guys like Logan who are responsible for getting Jack to where he is today. Jack has always cleaned up other people’s messes, and now it looks like he’s going to keep mopping the floor with everyone he holds responsible until the job is done.
Have the events of the past few weeks on 24 changed your impression of Jack Bauer? For better or for worse?
I'm of the personal belief that Jack has gone through quite a transition, but not an unfound one. He's gone through so much, that I think if he hadn't reacted this way it would just not appear real. I wish Jack was on the 'good' side too righ now, but I think he's fighting for what he believes is right and I kind of agree with him
SOURCE
Oblig Jack Bauer gif
Click to viewThis is just a guess, but I'm starting to think Jack Bauer skipped out on last year’s anger management seminar at CTU.
And be that as it may, I am caught between two reactions to last night’s 24. My namby-pamby side struggles with the idea that Jack Bauer, for so long a hero grounded in a sense of duty, justice, and the greater good, has turned into a rage-fueled killing machine of the “vengeance is mine” school of thought.
But the still-lingering adolescent male part of my being couldn’t help but revel in the mayhem and madness that Jack continues to inflict on those he holds responsible for Renee’s murder. I’m not sure what it will all mean for Jack’s legacy or that of 24 as a series, certainly not until we see how things wrap up next week. But as pure entertainment, Monday's episode sure beat the hell out of Iron Man 2. what
As I watched a masked and armored Jack take out Charles Logan’s motorcade, Iron Man was simply the first of many associations that came to mind; (I thought of Iron Man coming out of his cave) I also thought of Jason Voorhees, Darth Vader, Anton Shugar, Robocop, and even Jeremy Renner wearing that bomb suit in The Hurt Locker. What a great pop culture moment and an absolute tour-de-force: Heroic, crazed, doomed, and just plain scary, this was Jack Bauer taken to a logical, or maybe illogical, extreme.
But seeing Jack charge down that alley, reminded my more high-minded side of the Hindu scripture uttered by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer as he watched the successful test of the first atom bomb: “Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds.” Give Jack Bauer a scythe and he'd be death, personified-especially for Charles Logan. Because here are a few words you probably never want to hear yourself say: “That’s Jack Bauer. That’s got to be…He’s coming for me!”
Feeling sorry for Logan is not unlike feeling sympathy for the devil. But 24 took us right inside his nightmare. And that nightmare methodically worked its way down a line of cars before kicking out the windshield and extracting Logan from the limo like a SIM card from a Russian operative's belly. What a nice touch, too, that Jack addressed Logan as “Mr. President.”
Okay, so Jack was still rational enough to spare Logan and plant a bugging device on him. That proved to be of little consolation to a long, bloody trail of Russian henchman-especially Novakovich, who learned the hard way that fireplace pokers aren’t just for moving burning logs around. As for Jack's plan to have Meredith publish the truth, that’s a little less logical: I’m not sure I would have trusted her with the lone copy of the incriminating evidence before somehow first uploading a back-up version. Not to mention that our only real glimpse of Meredith’s journalistic credibility is that she sleeps with her sources.
It’s a messy world that Jack Bauer operates within, one where Charles Logan gets to live another day. And speaking of Logan, let’s pause for a moment to give some praise to Gregory Itzin, who seems to be having more fun in the role than would seem humanly possible. Just re-watch the opening scene, in which he transformed the simple act of putting on a tie into a smug and wordless victory lap for Logan. Of course, that was before Logan learned that Jack Bauer was still alive, and his inner coward reemerged in an instant. At which point he laid out the facts for President Taylor, perfectly distancing himself and defining the gap between Taylor’s actions and any lingering notion of her as a “beacon of righteousness.”
Like Jack, Logan is a man of action-except that Logan manages to get other people to do his dirty work. It’s guys like Logan who are responsible for getting Jack to where he is today. Jack has always cleaned up other people’s messes, and now it looks like he’s going to keep mopping the floor with everyone he holds responsible until the job is done.
Have the events of the past few weeks on 24 changed your impression of Jack Bauer? For better or for worse?
I'm of the personal belief that Jack has gone through quite a transition, but not an unfound one. He's gone through so much, that I think if he hadn't reacted this way it would just not appear real. I wish Jack was on the 'good' side too righ now, but I think he's fighting for what he believes is right and I kind of agree with him
SOURCE
Oblig Jack Bauer gif