24 BLOGGING….Jim Henley reminds me that I forgot to follow up on my 24 post from a couple of weeks ago. To recap: I suggested that 24’s weirdly casual use of torture this season was actually a cleverly disguised anti-torture message. Why? Because the torture never works!
As it happens, this was a testable hypothesis because the previews of the upcoming show included ? natch ? more torture. So how did it turn out?
Answer: After Jack finished up a session of home brew torture directed at his girlfriend’s almost-but-not-quite ex-husband (don’t ask), it turned out that GABNQXH wasn’t a bad guy after all. He was telling the truth all along, and after the girlfriend got Jack to ease up GABNQXH cheerfully (under the circumstances, anyway) opened up his laptop and found the information Jack wanted. What’s more, this week GABNQXH was a positive sink of help, magically knowing how to open up a secure database before the bad guys neutralized it with a pulse bomb that took out half of LA in the process.
So how does my theory hold up? I’m not sure. Technically, I think I’m vindicated: GABNQXH wasn’t a bad guy and couldn’t provide any more information than the minimal (and legitimate) records he had on his computer. But ? given the way the show progressed, viewers might very well come away with the impression that Jack only got GABNQXH’s records because of the torture. So I’m not sure how to call this one.
As for who killed Driscoll’s daughter, beats me. This isn’t a show where they drop clues, so it could be anyone. But I will say this: I sure hope they give Edgar the Hero of the IT Industry Award First Class at the end of the season. Revenge of the nerds indeed!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Yes, I know many people don’t watch 24. If you’re one of them, there’s no need to leave comments trumpeting the fact, OK? Let the rest of us have our fun.
