Paul Raines--takes a licking and keeps on ticking! Of all the characters in day four, I'd have to argue that Paul Raines is having, by far, the worst day. So far, his wife has told him the marriage is over and she's seeing someone new, then he has to work with the new love interest for his wife to help save the country and he finds out that he's been used as a front for terrorists. Oh yeah and also in the last four or so hours, he's been beat up by Jack, tortured for information by Jack and now the security grunts at McLennan-Forester have beat him and slammed his fingers in a desk drawer looking for information. And to top it all off, he gets shot in the end, saving the life of our hero, Jack Bauer. Which is kind of ironic because if Paul lets Jack get shot and killed, odds are that he might be in a good position to at least work on reconciling things with Audrey, who is having some second thoughts about Jack.
Relationship woes take the front and center this time around. It's like an episode of "As CTU Turns" what with the Tony and Michelle drama, Audrey's having second thoughts about Jack and Sarah acting like a spoiled child ("I know the world is in danger, but I want my pay raise,"). Sarah, you know, there is such a thing as picking your moments and I don't think that was the time to run and confront Michelle about your pay raise and promotion for being tortured. I hate to say it, but I think Erin Driscoll had other things to worry about besides drafting a memo on your pay raise.
Interesting that Michelle's style of leadership is coming in, piss everyone off and then apologize to them all later. Also interesting to hear Audrey point out the merits of having Tony be part of the team and how Michelle needed to re-think her professional eveluation of her ex-husband. And wasn't it just sweet the way Audrey plays seventh-grade matchmaker with the whole "I think he still likes you" thing? Why is it that when I see Tony and Michelle together and think back on their relationship, I think of the Keanu Reeves line from
Speed about relationships build on stress don't always last?
Thankfully, we had Jack out in the field, doing what Jack does best--improvising. Let's find a stronghold, protect it and draw CTU to us. Jack knows that having Tony over at CTU means there is someone there who will know how Jack thinks and operates and react accordingly. Of course, I did find it a bit shaky that no one checks the bad guy head of security to make sure he's knocked out or at least to take the gun away from him. Come on, people! Show a lick of common sense, please! And, I have to feel for the poor intern at CTU who is going to have to type in all those pages of encrypted data in order to have a CTU computer decipher it.
And it was interesting the almost public service announcement like moments we had about the two guys who owned the store. Yes, I get the point that not all people of Middle Eastern heritage are terrorists. Why we had to stop the action every three or so minutes to remind us of that, I'm not quite too sure. Thankfully, this plotline has come to an end (unless the last hour of the day is Jack coming back to help them clean up the store). It was getting a bit grating.
Also, I have to say--I called it! I knew that Paul would get injured somehow working with Jack. And, boy howdy, has he.
So, I'm also going to make another bold prediction. We see Marwan contact an agent, who then goes and apparently infilitrates an Air Force base. I predict that the second leg of the plan is to somehow gain control of Air Force One.
posted by Michael Hickerson at 3/15/2005 07:52:00 AM |
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