Breaking Down Bauer: Tackling the New Season of 24

Written by: Rob Van Winkle, CC2K Staff Writer

2-22-07 

The February 19th episode featured one of the best scenes I’ve seen in a LONG time on 24. But, we’ll get to that in a moment.

FIRST, I think we need to discuss the irresistible force of nature that IS…Jack Bauer.

Now, we all know that Bauer the warrior is unstoppable. This is a man who can foil assassination attempts, track down missiles while their hurtling toward L.A., defuse nuclear bombs as they’re poised to explode in mere minutes, and kick terrorist ass moments after he was tortured to the point of DEATH. Basically, no matter WHAT the situation you’re facing…if you know that Jack Bauer is on his way…JUST HANG ON.

All this is known to anyone who watches even a single episode of 24. No one questions Jack Bauer: the Agent. However, what I’m referring to is Jack Bauer: the MAN.

Let’s review:

Season 1 – Jack had reunited with his wife, after admitting to an affair with co-worker Nina. Nina, despite being a spy and conspiring to kill Jack, apparently just could not keep her hands off of him, and his wife, despite being cuckolded, could not help but take him back.

Season 2 – In the midst of stopping whatever it was that was happening in Season 2, Nina (now known both as the CTU mole, AND the murderer of Jack’s wife) resurfaces, and Jack is forced to pretend that he has forgiven her. She tests his claim…by forcing him to make out with her.

Season 3 – This season begins with Jack breaking off hjs latest love affair…with the helpless woman from Season 2 who he was trying to save.  (This woman, please remember, was able to start this relationship in the wake of discovering that her sister was a terrorist, and that Jack was the one who took her down.)

Season 4 – The first season of Audrey.  We discover that Jack has been involved with the daughter of the Secretary of Defense, who is technically still married to her husband. As the season goes on, Audrey is torn between the two of them when her husband expresses a sincere desire to reconcile, and Jack (thinking her husband possessed important information) ties him up and tortures him.

Season 5 – Jack returns to the United States after going undercover for more than a year. When he gets back, he finds…Audrey, who is single, and waiting for him. The second-to-last scene of the season is Jack and Audrey kissing, about to resurrect their love. (The LAST scene, as we all know, is Jack getting kidnapped and shipped off to China).

And this brings us to Season 6.  There are two things of note here. First, after we discover that the evil man behind Season 5’s assassinations was Jack’s brother Graem, we are taken to Graem’s home, where we meet his wife and son. Apparently (and for no reason that I can discern), Graem’s wife was once…in love with Jack! (can it be that all of Graem’s evil actions were due to penis envy?) Over these past few weeks, this woman has seen her husband killed, and her son’s life threatened by her father-in-law. And yet…she still had time to question whether Jack entered the military to escape her, and relishes his tender touch.

Second, we have Jack’s father Phillip. Now I’m NOT suggesting that Phillip did, or even wanted to, sleep with his son. However, Phillip is the aggressive head of a company that has yet to be explained in any way. He was somehow responsible for President David Palmer’s assassination in the last season, and when he feared that his son Graem would reveal this connection, Philip killed him in cold blood, then blamed the death on Jack’s torture tactics. When he thought that Jack was closing in on information that would implicate him, Philip then kidnapped his grandson, and blackmailed his daughter-in-law into leading Jack into a deadly trap. When THAT plot foiled, Philip put his grandson at gunpoint, and only let him go when Jack agreed to sacrifice himself in his nephew’s stead.

The preceding paragraph might be somewhat repetitive, but it’s important to point out what a cold-blooded bastard Jack’s father is. Over the course of three hours, he was perfectly willing to murder every heir he had to protect himself. In this latest episode, he had Jack at gunpoint, and forced Jack to his knees so as to take a bullet to his forehead. Jack, now completely at his father’s mercy, delivers a tiny monologue, where he apologizes for leaving the family and the company, and promises his father that he was never ashamed to be a Bauer. Philip Bauer – the ruthless killer from the preceding paragraph – softens to the point that he spares Jack’s life, and THEN gives Jack a key lead that will (theoretically) help him save the day yet again.  This is even more proof that EVERYONE LOVES JACK!  How great would it be to be the toughest motherfucker on earth, AND to have everyone you ever interacted with want to either bone you, or bone you again? Pretty damn great, I’d say.

As for the promised great scene: I just LOVED the section of the show dedicated to Morris O’Brian. When he was freaking out, Chloe suggested that he call his therapist, or “his sponsor.” This was (to the best of my knowledge) the first time we learned he was an alcoholic. Later on, he ends up in a liquor store, and buys some whiskey. He drinks it, then is so filled with self-loathing that he threw it back up again. There was more humanity in that segment than in entire episodes of this show, and it made me just love that character. More like that, please!