Season 2 starts fairly flimsily and picks up hugely after Nina is brought into CTU, and especially from the moment Kate is kidnapped
As aforementioned, there is a relentless tension which fills this season like a building smog, and it’s glorious
Season 2 also contains 24’s best episode (episode 15, in Bradley’s opinion).
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The Game/Max
- Love the first-person shooter stuff, similarly sniper missions
- Puzzle solving is solid but really repetitive and not that hard
- Interrogations are alright, weirdly I really struggled when I played recently having always done them fairly easily
- The driving missions are shocking
- He targeted Prescott, who survived an assassination attempt by Peter Madsen’s men
- Madsen kidnapped Kate and Max used her to blackmail Bob into helping him smuggle nuclear weapons out of the country
- He’s a German arms dealer with ties to the Middle East. The US government caught onto him, his deals with the Middle East fell through, and his contacts there forced Max to watch his children be executed, for which he blames the US hence the attacks
- Gameplay:
- Annoyingly the story isn’t the most coherent and often missions exist simply to exist (Bringing In Lee Jin Yu, who is actually a terrorist with Peter Madsen, where you’re chased and there’s a van that shoots at you, with the aim of destroying your car to kill you. Even though they need Joseph Sin-Chung to be at CTU)
- Max:
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David Palmer’s presidency
- Hell of a thing for David to deal with in our first in-office sighting of him, and within the first 10 months of his presidency
- I like that David remains true to his principles throughout, even when all non-fourth wall breaking logic suggests he should change his mind (e.g. we know Cyprus is fake, but David’s faith in Jack is *mental* given all the confirmations)
- Not keen on him having accepted Sherry back into things, even briefly, though I am intrigued by the moments 12-3am where he looks incompetent and like he’s just appeasing his highest-ranking staff with his decision-making
- David’s character and control is great, even when experiencing the pressure from everyone around him.
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What to do with Kim?
- On an emotional level, Jack’s concern for getting her out of LA is fine, and the various tearful interactions between them work nicely
- A bonkers plot involving an abusive father, technical kidnapping, assault, murder suspect, intentionally causing a car accident, coyote, creepy cabin dudes, store robber – it just doesn’t work, beyond the occasional high of Kim being responsible and mature beyond her age
- Kim episodes 1-14 and 16-17 are infinitely worse than anything involving Teri in season 1
- Kim’s existence made sense in season 1 when she could be the target of the Drazens’ revenge plot, but I don’t feel like she has any use this season
- I do really like her killing Gary and the aftermath of that, but everything else…
- Kim’s storyline was largely unnecessary – could have done with just highlights
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Jack’s journey
- Starts the day willing to (and seemingly willing himself to) die, ends the day willing to die (and having died) in the line of duty – which feels like we’re back to season 1 and general 24 Jack
- I feel like Jack’s depression could’ve been touched on more, it was prominent early on and popped back up when Nina took him hostage, but otherwise disappeared up until he flew the plane
- I think that, while Jack is battling depression, his reuniting with Kim and the events of the day have shown him that he still has purpose and can do good
AOB
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Favorite quotes (unless aforementioned)
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- “You still have a life, Jack. You wanna be a real hero? Here’s what you do. You get back down there and you put the pieces together. You find a way to forgive yourself for what happened to your wife. You make things right with your daughter, and you go on serving your country. That’d take some real guts.” – George Mason to Jack