In case you don’t know by now, I really don’t like season 4, so picking my favorite episodes wasn’t very hard. I think my problem with season 4 is that I can’t suspend my disbelief enough. In one day, the secretary of defense is kidnapped, nuclear plants are on the verge of melting down, Air Force One gets shot down and terrorists get a hold of nuclear missiles. The only thing their missing is like aliens coming down and holding the president hostage. There are some good moments, like when Chloe uses a machine gun and we see part of Los Angeles go all black, but as a whole, I don’t think it works. There are also a host of new mediocre characters and side plots. It’s hard to pick what side plot I like the least, the Araz family, Erin Driscoll’s daughter or Secretary Heller’s gay son. The season finally gets better towards the end when Michelle comes back and Logan is sworn in as president, but before that it’s really incoherent. Anyway, here we go.
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. – I thought this might have been the turning point of the season. Jack and Audrey go to an office to try and ID a man she recognized while she was kidnapped. But of course, there’s a mole at CTU, and the bad guys are alerted that Jack and Audrey are there. Jack calls the “one person he can trust.” They come under fire, and we can kind of see why Jack loves Audrey so much. She shoots people with him and they make a pretty good terrorist killing team. But they run out of ammo and two bad guys are quickly approaching them, Jack’s only defense is an empty gun that he’s holding ready to hit the guy in futility with it. Then we hear gunshots and hear a familiar voice yell “Jack!” and we see Tony standing in the doorway of the garage. Jack, Tony and Audrey run to Tony’s car as the episode closes. I had been waiting with baited breathe for the return of Tony, and when he finally comes back, he saves Jack’s life and looks REALLY good doing it. In the following episodes we see that Michelle has left Tony and that his life sucks and he’s started drinking and living with a skank. It allows for probably the funniest Jack Bauer line ever. After dealing with Tony’s bitchy, skanky girlfriend, Tony looks at Jack and says, “Sorry.” Which prompts Jack to say, “No, she seems real sweet.” One of my favorite Jack Bauer lines ever.
2:00 a.m. – 3:00 a.m. – Ok this episode is pretty awesome. In this episode Jack goes into the Chinese Embassy to get a man with ties to terrorists that the Chinese wouldn’t turn over. This starts the hate-hate relationship Jack has with the Chinese government. The man they need to question gets critically shot in the melee and they bring him back to CTU to be operated on. The funny thing about this episode is that no one is supposed to know that Jack is going into the Chinese Consulate. He calls Tony and tells him to make sure no one else at CTU knows what he’s doing and has him bring up schematics or something of the building. However, Tony speaks in a normal speaking voice and brings the images up on the HUGE monitor so all CTU can see it. Why doesn’t anyone notice this? But anyway, Audrey’s husband, who had been shot earlier in the day, is in medical and starts to crash before Jack arrives. The witness needs to be operated on, but Paul is already in surgery that could save his life. Jack orders the doctor to forget about Paul and work on the Chinese guy. He points a gun at the doctor until he complies. Meanwhile, Audrey, who for some reason is allowed in the operating room, flips out. Paul starts to crash and Jack and Curtis do everything they can to save him but he dies nonetheless. Audrey screams at Jack and tells her she hates him. Every season we see Jack a little bit more unhappy, a little bit less of himself. This season started out pretty promising for Jack. He had a job that didn’t constantly put his life in danger and he was able to fall in love again. But once again, working at CTU destroyed his chances of being happy and that is embodied in this episode.
5:00 a.m. – 6:00 a.m. – The main reason this is one of my favorite episodes is because Tony is shirtless. It’s also a really good episode, but that’s the driving factor. Especially because there’s real no reason to show it. Anyway, in the previous episode, Jack, Tony and a bunch of field agents go to check out a lead. I don’t know why all throughout this season Jack treats Tony as if he’s a field agent, the last time Tony went out into the field he got shot in the neck. Whatever. Tony gets taken by Mandy, a recurring terrorist who always seems to pop up whenever shady terroristic deals are going down. Mandy’s pretty badass, she’s kind of the Jack Bauer of terrorists. She kills without thinking twice about it and always gets the job done. So she holds Tony hostage and learns about how he committed treason to save Michelle’s life. She decides to see if Michelle will do the same for him and calls Michelle and tells her to move the agents so she can escape or she’ll kill Tony. After Michelle gets the call, Buchanan comes in and at first Michelle doesn’t mention the call, but at the last second blurts it out. You can see that she’s really struggling with the decision. They tell Jack and the field teams about the call, and they try and make Mandy believe that Michelle’s doing what she asked. Mandy and Tony head out in the rain to a car but they see one of the field agents moving. They get in the car and it explodes.
They’re both gone. She blew herself up in the car and she took Tony with her. They’re gone. –Jack
Michelle cries out and Jack stares in disbelief. He feels that something is off and watches the video of what happened over and over again. Curtis tells him to stop and says the he understands that Tony was his friend. Jack yells at him and explains that Mandy wouldn’t martyr herself. He finally notices on the video that you can’t hear the rain falling on the umbrella and they go back in, knowing that Mandy sent two different people into the car. Mandy and Tony are trying to find another way out and Tony cuts his barefoot on a piece of glass in the hopes that Jack will follow the blood trail. He does and they catch up to Mandy in the parking lot.
Mandy: (holding a gun to Tony's head) Do you really have what it takes to let me kill him while you’re looking him in the eye?
Jack: Yes.
Mandy: I believe you.
Knowing she’s no match for Jack Bauer, she lets Tony go in exchange for the infamous presidential pardon. Tony calls Michelle to let her know he’s still alive and the greatest love story ever told comes full circle as they tell each other they love each other.
Season 4 is essential in that it leads up to the events of season 5. In the final episode, Jack learns from President Palmer that his life is in danger because some of Logan’s men don’t think Jack will keep quiet if the Chinese ever catch him. When Jack gets off the phone with Palmer, he smiles as he realizes what he’s about to do and goes to Tony for help. Tony, Michelle and Chloe help Jack stage his own death so he can escape. The season ends with Jack walking off into the sunrise in his aviators. And that is a pretty cool image.
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