With the recent passing of Gregory Itzen (President Charles Logan), we decided to put together this special tribute in his honor.

Brad and Joel discuss the entire series of 24 (minus the so-called 24: Legacy). They discuss:

1. The order of seasons from best to worst (comparing the ranking now vs. when they started this rewatch)
2. Some of their favorite (and least favorite) characters, quotes, episodes, cliffhangers, etc.
3. Feedback from a faithful listener

• This is the most interesting moral debate the show throws up
• I think this is the best character development season for Jack, as he goes from a bullish pride over his past to having to forgive himself for mistakes made during his career/life
• Through Jack vs. most everyone else (primarily Larry, Janis and the President) with Renee as the character in the middle the season is utterly fascinating in exploring the way “Do whatever it takes” can impact upon someone
• I really like that the show doesn’t go for the “is torture effective?” route, because barbarism has clearly been effective in every other season (see: Jack not pushing Assad’s man far enough) and it’d be silly to retcon that
• Instead looking at the impact of it on the torturer is far more watchable

• I think this would’ve been a really good way to end the show
• Perhaps the only thing which falls short is how understated Jack being infected is to begin with - I love the scene in which he finds out the results, but then it’s a bit like “well yeah he’s dying, what did you expect?”
• Jack and Kim’s scene is GOLD
• Really sad to see Jack struggle so much throughout the final few episodes
• Jack and Renee’s “15 people on a bus” scene is PLATINUM
• Really love the interaction between Jack and Imam Gohar

• Things get off to a shaky start with her - the “Do whatever it takes” at Schector’s is great, but then backing down on it the following episode is not
• Development after this is superb: she’s dragged into Jack’s world but not fully his mindset
• Interesting to see she doesn’t hesitate to interrogate Tanner
• Threatening Vossler’s wife and child clearly bothers her - love her “Tomorrow” though
• Marika’s death is the indication of their differences
• Larry’s death breaks her and as a result, her torture of Alan Wilson feels like the inevitable final step for the season

• This would rival season 5 if not for the final six episodes
• They’re just so bland, so stereotypical villain plot with Tony as the villain no one believes can actually be a villain, in a villain story that isn’t engaging
• Everything before that is magnificent
• It feels different to the first six seasons but familiar enough; it’s energetic again 
• Not to harp on about season 6, but season 6 felt like it was going through the motions of existence, where season 7 from start to Tony always felt like you needed to sit up and take notice

Key plot:

Tony has just killed Larry Moss, and Robert Galvez has the canister of the pathogen.

Tony has Galvez find a building, then blow it with FBI agents inside

Jack figures out Tony’s working against them after a discussion about Vincent Cardiff, the guy Tony found out about the White House attack from, but Tony steals Jack’s anti-seizure med-pack and escapes

Cara convinces her group including Alan Wilson to use the pathogen now instead of saving it for attacks next year, and they go about framing Jibraan Al-Zarian for the attack

After Cara meets with Hodges pretending to be his lawyer and suggests he must commit suicide to save his family, Jack offers Hodges protection - but Olivia Taylor decides to have him killed by Martin Collier’s contact

Using CTU archives at FBI, Jack manages to find Jibraan who has been set up to be on a Subway train when the canister of pathogen explodes, but they get it out in time

Tony has a man watching Kim as she goes to the airport to return to Los Angeles to force Jack into breaking Tony out of custody

The hostiles are outed and Kim manages to save the laptop after Sarah is killed and Bob is in a car crash/fire

This leads the FBI to Jack and Tony, where he has armed Jack with a bomb to murder Alan Wilson - the man who killed Michelle

Renee saves Jack and Jack stops Tony from killing Wilson

Renee decides to go in and prepare to torture Wilson 

Ethan and Aaron team up and recover a recording from Olivia’s office to expose her role in Hodges’ death

President Taylor decides that she can’t bury the evidence and has her reprimanded to the Justice Department, in a move which causes immense friction between her and Henry

Jack accepts his impending death with Imam Gohar but Kim arrives and decides she wants to do the stem cell treatment to try and save Jack’s life

• This is so sad - saddest death? Up there (alts: Mason? Edgar)
• Ends a nice mini-circle for Bill, who an hour ago told Jack he couldn’t question Burnett - in a way he’s responsible, about ten minutes pass between that and Larry’s call - so to sacrifice himself to save the President is great

• This is a very quick shift into the next threat - again with the relentlessness
• Once again, Jack putting a civilian in harm’s way expecting them to behave as they were going to before meeting them
• Admire the fact that Jack has no hesitation in stopping the leak once he notices it

• This antagonistic attitude between them from the get-go is a bit mad
• We learn almost instantly what Olivia is and see it in action very quickly after
• She is fairly narcissistic; does she not realise her mother is the world’s most powerful person? She doesn’t need to try and make a power grab (Tony in S4: “I don’t need to establish position. I’ve already got it”)
• Ethan is right to resign
• Her blackmailing of Ken is incredible, particularly given that she got herself out of a hole she dug

• Is he the most deranged villain the show has had?
• The bioweapon being loaded onto the missiles makes it an entirely pointless threat - why not just use missiles?
• Do enjoy the tension of it all though
• And also the air of confidence about Taylor when Hodges is arrested

• The scene itself is fine at best, it sets up where the only outcome is the one that happens or Galvez kills both Tony and Larry - and quite frankly the show was never going to have such a major character killed by such a nobody
• It feels like a very 24 twist in that he’s done plenty of good and “he’s changed” type stuff - Jack even speaks to Taylor about taking his positive actions into account 30 mins before - and then this
• I suppose at least he was on the other side of the law before S7

Jack, Tony, Bill, Chloe and Renee raid Dubaku’s office space, rescue the Matobos and destroy the CIP device

They decide to go to President Taylor to expose the existence of corruption

Agent Vossler takes Henry Tayor hostage and gives him to Dubaku, who blackmails the President: withdraw from Sangala or Henry dies

Jack and Renee threaten Vossler’s family and get to Henry, but not before he’s shot

They discover Marika Donoso, Dubaku’s girlfriend whom was told his name was Samuel Aboa, and ask her to keep a meeting with Dubaku and they’ll follow

In the sting operation Marika crashes the car and dies, while Jack gets a chip containing the co-conspirators’ names

This includes Sean Hillinger and Erika, who tried covering their tracks at the FBI but Sean killed Erika and his name was on the chip

Tony tells Jack there’s another threat from Juma and Ryan Burnett, Senator Mayer’s chief of staff, knows about it

Jack tortures him in the White House but is stopped

Juma attacks the White House as Renee escapes Laurent Dubaku, Ike’s son

Jack gets Taylor into the lockdown but Aaron Pierce can’t get Olivia Taylor there, and Juma finds her and forces the President to open the door

Contact:

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Jack is facing a senate subcommittee, only to be pulled out by Renee Walker

She’s investigating a group led by Tony, who’s actually alive and has the CIP device, which allows his group to breach the government firewall and access the country’s primary installations

But after capturing Tony, turns out he’s actually working with Bill and Chloe to find the source of massive corruption within the government, perpetrated by Ike Dubaku and his boss Benjamin Juma

They’re undercover with David Emerson and kidnap former Sangala Prime Minister Ule Matobo and his wife, having to fake Renee’s death in the process

They double cross and kill Emerson and wire Matobo so they can track him to Dubaku

New President Allison Taylor is planning to invade Sangala

Her son Roger died between Redemption and S7 but husband Henry refuses to believe it was suicide

He is given evidence by Samantha Roth, Roger’s girlfriend, that two of Roger’s managers at his brokerage firm were doing business with firms linked to Sangala

His Secret Service agent Brian Gedge is a traitor though, paralysing Henry and killing Samantha, before trying to hang Henry as a suicide - only to be killed by Henry

Bradley and Joel discuss some of the over-arching themes throughout Season 6 - what worked and what didn't. We also discuss 24: Redemption, the 2-hour TV movie that sets up the scene for Season 7.

• Clear picture of the season inside the opening four minutes: Middle Eastern man eyeballed with suspicion on his way to work and denied access to a bus, only for an East Asian man to blow it up; cut to the Oval Office crew arguing over Tom’s detention facilities and the restrictions of freedoms
• The Walid facility stuff highlights their pointlessness and leads to Wayne rejecting the proposals - fine - but then the show just kind of forgets its stance? Nadia’s denied access and it’s just like *shrugs* - until Bill leaves, then he sorts the issue with no fuss
• “And yeah, she is a Muslim. That’s enough to go on. Everyone here is thinking it, even if they won’t say it.”
• But then Doyle is also a reader of anything religious??!??!?!?!?!?!?
• Assad being framed for Palmer’s assassination attempt is again abysmal; presumably Daniels looks at America as being almost all white and just a handful of other ethnicities
• 2007: about 65% of USA was white (non-hispanic)
• Yet attempts to rally what I’ll loosely define as “his people” against what I’ll loosely define as “them” by pinning the murder on Assad (not to mention threatening Tom to get him to support this)

• 24 created a seismic moment when detonating a bomb to kill 12,000 people but it also meant it played all its cards four episodes in
• You can’t explode another bomb because a) as everyone says, it would ruin the country forever; b) 24 isn’t interested in fallout and cleanup and recovery - it’s only interested in the drama of the here and now (this isn’t a bad thing per se)
• None of the other bombs ever feel like a threat:
• The one Jack disarms, who cares?
• Five minutes pass and Jack doesn’t even remove his shotgun until the act returns
• The metal plates move twice in 11 seconds but I guess they hadn’t moved in the five minutes before? These also seem to move more quickly the closer to the potential blast we get
• The tension is completely false because Jack isn’t going to die in a nuclear explosion
• If this bomb goes off, Fayed’s chopper absolutely doesn’t survive it 
• There are 5 nukes that pose a grave threat to the US: this is one, and it doesn’t even get mentioned in the previously in 2-3pm
• We spend 4-7pm with no danger from the bombs because they’re getting the parts for and assembling the drones, then the drone one is stopped fairly easily (again no tension)
• The last two obviously never get used but Fayed’s line ““We’re going to take out Downtown Los Angeles” is so bad, so empty

• The romantic tension between them begins the moment they first share a frame, and never ends
• Jack finds out about Audrey from Marilyn because there’s a hint they could hook up now Graem’s gone, *six hours* after his death
• This is just… so horrible? Every single moment
• Rena Sofer is incredibly wooden (The Bold and the Beautiful)

• BAD

• This is really good?
• The real time concept is broken with the pre-title...

As we get into this last part of season 6, we have a shift of focus as Jack kills Fayed and then gets a call from Cheng. We also see Bill Buchannan being dismissed from CTU and Nadia becoming the acting director of CTU. And then Wayne Palmer has also collapsed after coming out of a coma for a short time, putting Noah Daniels back in charge in the White House.

• Leak in the White House
• Attack on CTU
• Phillip's return
• Audrey's condition
• Chloe and Morris

In this section, we deal with racial/national conflicts between Russians, Arabs, and Chinese (and, of course, America).

• Markov and the drone race
• Brady Hauser
• Stopping Fayed
• Cheng's back
• Wayne's recovery and demise

• Graem's demise
• Phillip's involvement
• Morris and the second nuke
• New and improved Charles Logan
• Assassination attempt

• Jack's return
• Assad: terrorist turned peacekeeper
• A nuclear bomb
• President Palmer: Mark II
• Walid's detention

Key plot:

Jack takes down Margot

• Ian sees through Chloe’s deception and realizes Heller is still alive, so Margot decides to attack Waterloo Station
• Jack tracks down Margot and saves the station, then throws her out of a window

Steve the traitor

• Jordan’s death becomes knowledge of the police and latterly the CIA
• Jack has the hitman identified as a former covert ops assassin who once reported to Navarro
• Navarro takes off and leaves the override device for Adrian Cross, who betrays him and Navarro is caught
• To get the tracker code Kate and Jack perform a ruse where Kate threatens to kill Navarro, and it works

Cheng returns

• Adrian decides he wants to use the override device to let every country expose holes in the defenses of every other country
• Originally he designed the device for Cheng who returns and kills all of Open Cell’s members
• Chloe reconfigures the device for him, he kills Adrian, and then gives a fake order to a US sub to sink a Chinese carrier ship

Jack’s Revenge at the Docks: Part 2

• Cheng has a sniper on Audrey after she went to a contact who could push the US case that it wasn’t them who gave the order on the Chinese carrier
• Kate goes to save Audrey and kills the sniper, but as they’re leaving a second shooter arrives and Audrey is shot and killed
• Jack goes after Cheng at Southampton Docks and is strategic in his assault until Chloe loses her feed and communications and Kate tells him about Audrey
• Jack goes on a rampage and kills all of Cheng’s men, capturing Cheng and then beheading him after providing CIA with the proof he’s alive

Ending (again)

• Kate leaves the CIA, Mark is prepped for transport back to the US where he faces treason charges, Heller laments his fading memory as he boards a plane with Audrey’s body
• Chloe was kidnapped by the Russians from the docks and Jack agrees to a trade: her return for his capture
• Chloe is safe and Jack is taken away by helicopter to face punishment for his acts in season 8

Contact:

@The24Podcast

24faithful.com

405-771-0567

Season 5 is hand-down our favorite season (almost flawless), and we've covered a lot about it over the past 4 episodes. Today, we go into some pieces that we didn't get a chance to before.

Some of the specific highlights:

• The end of Bierko and Henderson
• Homeland Security takeover
• Martha Logan

Share your own feedback by mailing joshua@podcastguymedia.com or going to https://24faithful.com

As Jack and friends discover that Logan has been behind the day's events, they track down a recording that proves Logan's involvement. When things don't go as planned, Jack comes up with (another) insane plan - to kidnap the President and force a confession.

• The recording
• Flight 520
• Logan’s cabal
• Taking down Logan
• Jack captured

This second half of season 5 is filled with insane ideas from Jack - unfortunately because he/they are put into insane circumstances. The insane circumstance that we left off with last week was the nerve gas attack on CTU, which led to the death of many CTU agents, including Edgar. It also led to Jack and several others getting locked in a few air-tight rooms. The new problem is that the nerve gas was laced with an acid that was deteriorating the seals of these safe rooms.

As we move into the second set of episodes in this season, we see the tensions growing and the conspiracy starting to grow. We also see the release of the Sentox nerve gas twice - at a local mall and in CTU.

Specifically, we talk about:

• Erwich's betrayal
• Lynn's mental breakdown
• Suvarov ambush
• And Peter Weller as Christopher Henderson
• Attack on CTU

He disappeared to protect his secret

He changed his name and started a new life

He thought he was safe

Then Day 5 began

Day 5 begins at 7:00am PT (10:00am ET), taking place 18 months after Day 4 and 7 years and 6 months after Day 1.

Main Plot Points Discussed:

• The defining premiere
• Airport attack
• Jack's return to civilization
• New season, new Logan?
• The Cummings Conspiracy

As we look at season 4 as a whole, our general consensus was that it was not quite as good as we remembered, falling to the middle-of-the-pack of all 24 seasons.

We discuss how the invasion of the Chinese consulate impacts the future seasons and how a single series of events can cause such a ripple-effect.

We also talk about the relationship between Jack and Audrey, Mandy, and Logan.

Marwan shot down Air Force One and has stolen the nuclear football, which he uses to find a nuclear warhead. It’s mounted onto a missile and aimed for Los Angeles. New President Charles Logan orders Jack’s arrest for torturing Joe Prado, only for that to cause Marwan to slip away, leading Logan to call on ex-President David Palmer to help him through the crisis. Palmer’s first act is to authorise an assault on the Chinese consulate to get Lee Jong, a man connected with Marwan. But during Jack’s assault, the consul is killed and Lee is shot, and at CTU there is only one doctor to treat either Lee or Paul Raines: Jack chooses Lee, and Paul dies. CTU are led to Mandy, who kills Lee Castle and takes Tony hostage, looking to utilise Michelle’s position to help her escape. Mandy fakes their death but Jack saves Tony and captures Mandy, taking down Marwan with her information. Logan agrees to turn Jack to the Chinese but Walt Cummings wants him killed, a fact which Logan ignores and Palmer warns Jack of, leading him to fake his own death with the help of Tony, Michelle and Chloe - and stride off into the sunset. Jack Bauer is dead.

Jack and co., through the takedown of Henry Powell and Dina and Behrooz Araz, found the trail of Habib Marwan, the man in control of the Dobson Override. Jack and Curtis managed to stop the meltdown of five power plants, although one did meltdown at San Gabriel Island. We learn that Marwan worked for McLennen-Forster under the alias Harris Barnes, but as Jack and Paul search their computer files, they detonate an EMP to cover their involvement. The pair manage to escape but as they’re rescued by CTU, Paul is shot twice and has to undergo surgery, which is successful but he remains critical. Jack goes undercover with Dina to find Marwan, but he sets up CTU, kills Dina and takes Jack, offering him in a trade for Behrooz to cover a missing person’s report of a military pilot. Mitch Anderson is impersonating the pilot to steal a stealth fighter and shoot down Air Force One, which he succeeds with, and Charles Logan is elevated to President through the 25th Amendment. His first issue is Marwan’s partial theft of the nuclear football, and of a nuclear warhead

So, in the first part of Season 4, Jack is now working for the Secretary of Defense, James Heller, and is dating his daughter, Audrey. Heller and Audrey are kidnapped at the end of episode 1 and then Jack rescues them less than 5 hours later. Of course, Driscoll didn’t want to work with Jack at first and resisted his attempts.

While everyone thought that the purpose of Heller’s kidnapping was to humiliate him and the country through a forced confession and execution, it turns out the whole thing was a diversion from the real purpose - Marwan using an override device to access the network of nuclear power plants across the country.

Jack Bauer is out of CTU: he’s got a job working for Secretary of Defense Heller and is in a serious relationship with his daughter, Audrey. But as terrorists begin attacking the United States with a train bombing and the kidnapping of Heller and Audrey, Jack is dragged back into action, tasked by new CTU director Erin Driscoll with saving them. 

Key plot:

Jack reunites with Heller and Audrey

• An arrested Jack is taken to Heller and asks to go back into the field to help stop Margot
• While there Audrey goes to see him and they have a heart-to-heart
• CIA follow a lead on Margot’s video demands which Naveed planted, but it’s a trap and the CIA team are ambushed by an explosive

Undercover with Rask

• Heller agrees to let Jack go undercover and see Karl Rask, an arms dealer Jack has been working for to sabotage his operations, and he’s also a contact of Margot
• The play: Jack killed Nils, another of Rask’s men, for being a CIA contact and has captured Kate, who was Nils’ contact. Jack needs Rask to complete a bank login so Chloe can access his system
• Kate opts to inject herself with a drug to knock her out, shocking Jack
• Prime Minister Davies tracks Jack’s operation after hearing of Heller’s condition and sends in MI5, who interrupt the mission
• Jack manages to get Chloe access and Kate survives her torturee

Simone betrays Margot

• Naveed is killed after trying to lead the CIA to their location, in front of Simone
• Naveed’s sister has heard of plans to leave London and Simone is sent to find out what she and her daughter know, which is nothing, but is told to kill them anyway
• She tries warning them but accidentally stabs Farah and while chasing Yasmin is hit by a bus
• Jack questions her as Margot sends a drone to kill her, which they narrowly escape

Heller sacrifices himself

• Heller offers Margot a trade: give himself up for the destruction of the drones
• He reveals to Jack his Alzheimer’s diagnosis and enlists him and Mark to help make the exchange go through
• Jack gets Heller to Wembley Stadium where he’s asked to go, and Margot fires a missile at him
• But actually Chloe cloned the feed with Heller in the middle of the pitch and Jack saved Heller - she told him she didn’t know if it would work 

Jordan uncovers the truth

• Jordan finds that files related to Adam Morgan were deleted but Navarro tells him not to pursue it until after the crisis has passed
• He doesn’t give in and so Navarro, who framed Adam, on the direction of Adrian Cross, has Jordan go to what he says is a dead-drop that will help lead to Margot
• It’s actually a set-up for an assassination, which Jordan initially survives
• He figures out Navarro sent the hitter but having gained the upper hand, is stabbed and dies

Contact:

@The24Podcast

24faithful.com

405-771-0567

Season 3 is near the top of our favorite seasons of 24, mostly for the second half of the season. It's also (probably) one of the worst days for Jack as well as the nail in the coffin for David Palmer's presidency.

• Overall thoughts on season 3
• • I underestimated 3A from memory, it’s a mix of the slow-burn nature of season 2 and the big moment-centric approach of seasons 4/5 but it really works
  • 3B is just immense, relentlessly thrilling and edge-of-your-seat stuff
  • There are a lot of threads early on: Kyle Singer, Tony being shot, the Gael stuff, Jack’s heroin addiction, Kim/Chase, Ramon in prison/breaking out, Hector and Claudia
  • • By the time we get to, say, 5am, there are very few: outbreak at the Chandler Plaza, Saunders’ demands of Palmer, CTU’s quest to stop Saunders. Then occasionally threads appear: 
    • • Odd reappearance of Kim/Chase, the Alan Milliken stuff resurfaces, Adam’s sister etc
      
      
    
    
  • I love season 3 for bringing us a great team with Jack, Tony, Michelle, and Chloe
  
  
• Jack’s worst day
• • Fairly confident in saying that more terrible things happen to Jack in season 3 than in any other season:
  • • Heroin addiction, almost dies in Russian roulette, briefly becomes a fugitive, has to pull the trigger on Chase to prove his loyalty, has to work with Nina, watched both Salazars die, almost killed at MI6, forced to kill his boss, threatens to sentence an innocent 19yo not unlike his daughter to death, chops off Chase’s hand
    
    
  • We talked briefly about it but I really love the end scene of season 3, it’s so rare that we get an insight into Jack’s emotions beyond anger, and at the end of such an exhausting season both for him and for us, I think it’s essential to see it
  • I also think that Jack’s breakdown gives the viewer an excuse to feel similarly, so many horrific things have happened today away from Jack (Ted Packard’s suicide, Alan Milliken, Chandler Plaza, Sherry/Julia) that the short epilogue finally gives us a chance to actually breathe for the first time in a while
  •  
  
  
• CTU’s newbies
• • Chloe: 
  • • If you were new and finished season 3, and someone told you she’d be a mainstay of the next 5 seasons, you’d probably question whether you want to continue watching
    • They well establish her talent and overemphasise her quirks and it doesn’t work in her favour

As Steven Saunders increases his control over President Palmer and the country, Jack and CTU make strides toward identifying Steven Saunders weakness. We also see Tony crossing the line in an effort to save Michelle. Ultimately, we see Jack getting the upper hand (no intended slight to Chase) and CTU tracking down the remaining vials of the virus. Unfortunately, even though Palmer gains control over Saunders, the final nail is driven into his political coffin.

Main talking points:

We pick up with Jack and Chase arresting Nina to bring her back to LA. She unleashes a computer worm on CTU which Chloe manages to stop, and while being questioned Nina manages to escape, only to be shot and killed by Jack. Stephen Saunders, one of Jack’s team on Operation Nightfall, is revealed as the true buyer of the virus, and has Marcus Alvers release a vial in the Chandler Plaza hotel, causing 800+ people including Gael and Michelle to become exposed. Saunders makes demands of President Palmer, just moments after he lies to the police to cover Sherry’s involvement in Alan Milliken’s death - the last demand being the murder of Ryan Chappelle.

Main talking points:

Last week, we started season 3, where Jack, Tony, and Gael fabricated a story that a virus is going to be spread through Kyle Singer. The whole point of the story was to facilitate Jack breaking Ramon Salazar out of prison so he could gain their trust and lead Jack and CTU to the real virus threat. Now, during the first six episodes, it wasn’t revealed that it was all manufactured, but it seemed legit. As we get into episodes 7 and 8, Tony comes out of the hospital and is forced to reveal the plot of the undercover mission.

• The undercover mission is revealed
• The virus auction and Jack works with Nina
• Chase's torture and escape with Claudia
• Tony's competency and Chloe's distraction
• David Palmer v Alan Milliken