I am – Hercules!!
Don’t highlight the invisotext if you don’t want to know; it swims in super-spoilers for Sunday’s and Monday’s episodes.
24 5.1/5.2/5.3/5.4 FAQ
A recent issue of TV Guide has already revealed that:
* Jack Bauer has been impersonating an oil digger named Frank Flynn. “Frank” has been “shacking up” with a local woman (Connie Britton) and her son;
* Jack will be roused from his “death” by “Eastern Bloc freedom fighters” overseen by a billionaire (Julian Sands);
* Russia and the United States are about to sign an antiterrorism treaty;
* Tony and Michelle, remarried and running their own security firm, “will facilitate Jack’s reentry into his old life and, inevitably, the CTU offices”;
* Jack will “butt heads” with a new CTU leader (Sean Astin) and be reunited with his “G-man mentor” (Peter Weller);
* Audrey Raines will learn that Jack lives; and
* Kim Bauer will stage a “comeback.”
True?
TV Guide has indeed reported these things.
Is there anything TV Guide is … not telling us?
There is.
Wait. First. Did TV Guide get any of it wrong?
The “shacking up” thing might be misleading. Jack is renting a room in the Connie Britton’s character’s house. While there’s some sexual tension, there’s no outward evidence (at least at first) that the two are or ever were a couple.
What about last week’s Entertainment Weekly with “24” on the cover? Any new spoilers in that?
EW confirms what I theorized last month when I got the “24” season-four DVD set and saw Elisha Cuthbert adding her voice to a 2006 “24” videogame: Kim Bauer will be back this season (though not, apparently, in the first four episodes airing Sunday and Monday). EW reveals that Kim is no longer sleeping with fellow CTU vet Chase Edmunds. “The belief that Jack was dead pushed her life in directions which she now has to come to terms with,” creator Robert Cochrane tells EW. She has hooked up with a “controlling shrink played by C. Thomas Howell,” according to the magazine.
Any chance Jack Bauer will die this season?
No. The EW piece indicates that long-term plans for “24” (its ratings have never been higher) call for carrying on the franchise without Jack Bauer at some point, but the same article suggests plans are afoot for a series of big-screen features that would continue Bauer’s adventures.
What are this week’s episode’s titled?
7:00 A.M. – 8:00 A.M; 8:00 A.M. – 9:00 A.M.; 9:00 A.M. – 10:00 A.M; 10:00 A.M. – 11:00 A.M.
Who’s responsible?
5.1 teleplay is said to be credited to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”/“Angel” vet Howard Gordon. 5.2 teleplay is said to be credited to “Special Unit 2” creator Evan Katz. 5.3 teleplay is said to be credited to former “Star Trek: Enterprise” showrunner Manny Coto; 5.4 teleplay is said to be credited to series creator Joel Surnow and Michael Loceff, who has been contributing “24” teleplays since the series’ second episode.
Does Jack start out with that hoodie-Cobain look he sported in the season-four DVD’s 10-minute season-five prequel?
He does not. Jack starts the season looking pretty much the way he does in Fox’s season-five promos.
The big news?
Within the first five minutes of 5.1, a character we’ve known since season one will die violently. Within the next 20 minutes, another character we’ve known for several seasons will die violently. Within this same time period, someone else we’ve known since season one will barely survive an attack and be injured so severely that this character will not be able to speak a line in the remainder of the first four episodes.
Have Edgar and Chloe and Curtis gone the way of Milo?
At least 13 characters from prior seasons return for the season premiere:
07:00 CTU/DOD Vet Jack Bauer
07:02 Former President David Palmer
07:02 Former White House Chief of Staff Wayne Palmer
07:05 President Charles Logan
07:05 Presidential Aide Mike Novick
07:05 Presidential Aide Walt Cummings
07:07 CTU vet Bill Buchanan
07:07 CTU Vet Curtis Manning
07:07 CTU Vet Edgar Stiles
07:10 CTU Vet Chloe O’Brien
07:12 CTU Vet “Soul Patch” Tony Almeida
07:12 CTU Vet Michelle Dessler
07:20 DOD Vet Audrey Raines
Is it true, as reported on IMDb, that Tzi Ma is back for 5.1?
IMDb lies about 5.1. If our intel is correct, Tzi Ma does not reprise the role of Cheng Zhi in 5.1. Ping Wu does not reprise the role of Su Ming in 5.1. William Devane does not reprise the role of James Heller in 5.1. Sean Astin is not in 5.1. Sabrina Lloyd is not in 5.1. And IMDb failed to list several returning cast members who will return in 5.1, including Bill Buchanan.
But. But. Sean Astin. TV Guide said he was playing a CTU …
Astin does not appear until 5.4.
Is Chloe still working for CTU at episode’s start?
She is. In her first scene, we learn that Chloe has something in common with fellow CTU vets Jack Bauer, Chase Edmunds, Michelle Dessler, “Soul Patch” Tony Almeida, Nina Myers, Curtis Manning and Kim Bauer.
What does Chloe now have in common with Jack Bauer, Chase Edmunds, Michelle Dessler, “Soul Patch” Tony Almeida, Nina Myers, Curtis Manning and Kim Bauer??
I must know!
Chloe likes to bone the occasional CTU employee!!
Ew! Edgar??
It’s not Edgar. And boy, does he seem sore about it.
Is Audrey now working for CTU?
No. She’s just comes to visit CTU on behalf of President Logan shortly after all hell breaks loose.
Is Logan in D.C., as he was last season?
No. Like all the other returnees, he is in California.
Any new key characters TV Guide fails to mention?
Two of the biggest are First Lady Martha Logan (Jean Smart), who has a history of mental instability, and Martha’s stunning aide Evelyn (“Rapa Nui” star Sandrine Holt).
Is Milo back?
Eric Balfour was busy with that witless primetime soap about Silverlake.
Nakedness-prone lesbian assassin Mandy? Does she cavort?
Not in the first four.
Does Jack decapitate or dismember anyone in the first four?
You could say that. Not in 5.1 or 5.2. But brace yourself for the latter half of 5.3.
More!
Near the end of 5.1, Chloe has to fend off a sexual attack, sees her clothes torn, and screams. She racks up 26 protocol violations in two episodes. President Logan doesn’t learn Jack is alive until 5.2. In 5.4, Lynn McGill kicks an unhappy Bill Buchanan out of his own office.
Are these good episodes?
Some of the best ever. The stuff with Chloe and the stuff with the Bakersfield teen learning of Jack’s secret identity is priceless.
How does it end, spoiler boy?
5.1: Audrey learns that Jack is still alive. 5.2: We learn a shocking new fact about one of returning characters. 5.3: For the first time since his trouble with the Chinese, Jack Bauer is captured. 5.4: As the First Lady lies unconscious, a pair of hands unbuttons her blouse.
5.1 8 p.m. Sunday. Fox.
5.2 9 p.m. Sunday. Fox.
5.3 8 p.m. Monday. Fox.
5.4 9 p.m. Monday. Fox.
The supercool sci-fi “24”-esque graphic novel Joss Whedon wants made into a TV series!! Global Frequency: Planet Ablaze
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