Day Seven, 12 p.m. - 1 p.m.When
Star Trek: The Next Generation first started, there were a couple of early stories where you could easily scratch out the names of the original
Trek crew and pencil in the names of the new
Trek crew. ("Naked Now" is, by far, the biggest offender in this category). Same thing here. You can just crossout the name CTU and pencil in FBI for this season because the exact same kinds of wacky stuff that plagued CTU are plaguing the FBI. You've got a boss under fire for what his subordinates are doing, you've got interoffice affairs and romance, you've got the snarky computer gal, you've got unrequited crushes blinding people making decision. You've got it all...except most of it's been done before.
I think a lot of it is to throw off suspicion on who the mole in the FBI is by giving everyone a reasonable excuse to be a suspect. Right now, my money is on Erica, the blonde agent who moved Sean Hillinger's wife's flight up in the line. I could see her using the whole moving up the flight as a way to pressure Hillinger down the line and make him give up vital information. Also, the fact that they seem to be carrying on some kind of affair outside the office could mean she's using him to disclose vital information to her. She could be setting him up to take the fall when the identity of the mole comes to light. Of course, it could still be Hillinger who seems pretty disillusioned with things, but I'm not sure he makes as much sense.
Because really, other than wondering who the mole is, the FBI office scenes are not doing a whole lot for me.
Neither are the scenes with the President's husband who apparently graduated from the Kim Bauer school of stupid plot points. So, last week he discovers a huge conspiracy going all the way to someone high up in his wife's administartion. And now he's following clues on his own, gone off the reservation and no one knows where he is. Except his own personal Secret Service agent, that is. One who is all too willing to help out and we find out why--he's in on it. So, apparently everyone is against him on this one. Except his wife...and at this point I wouldn't be stunned at all to find out she's somehow behind the whole thing. Because really, that's the only kind of plot twist that might redeem this plotline. Wait...no, no it wouldn't. It just feels like something to do and tread water. And yet, somehow I know it will tie into the whole America's under threat plotline that is currently unfolding. Or else the guy will be saved at the last minute from death and given to the evil bad guys of the month as a bargaining point with the new president.
David Palmer, if we ever needed your ghost to come back from beyond and run things, it's now.
And there's Jack. I won't go into the silliness that is Jack's magic way of flushing out Matobo and his wife. OK, I will. So we spent a bunch of money on the safe room and don't have it on a separate or more secure ventilation system from the rest of the residence?!? I could maybe, maybe buy that if it weren't for the fact that said ventalation system is behind easily torn down drywall. I fully buy that Jack is Spider-Man, Superman and Batman combined into the most awesome super hero around, but even this is a bit of a stretch.
But we have to get Matobo out of the room and into the hands of Jack and Tony so they can get the computer controlling device back. So, you've got to have a way to get from point a to point b. It still feels like the writers came up with some peril and a cliffhanger first before thinking through how to get out of it.
Which may how things work out for Agent Walker. Or maybe she's really doomed. Jack goes out of his way to not kill her and then has to bury her alive. I've got to say the woman is pretty good because there are at least three or four points at which I'd be freaking out, no matter what Jack said about wanting to save my life. I'm not sure I can see a way out of having a flesh wound from a bullet and being buried alive in a trench. Add that she has no cell phone, so odds are the FBI won't magically show up this time in a helicopter. Unless, she's got some kind of subdermal transponder (oh wait, that was Star Trek) and that's how they find her. Or her boss will magically find her through the power of love or she'll be tracked down by some extra iron in her blood from a vitamin. Or she's dead and gone, though it just doesn't feel like they'd kill her off this soon in the season.
Clearly she needs a bit more time to become disillusioned with Jack.
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posted by Michael Hickerson at 1/25/2009 07:52:00 PM |
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