After watching Monday’s “24″ episode, were you worried about the fate of any of the characters? It seems there might have been a little foreshawdowing in there that has some fans worried. They are so worried, they are writing EW’s Ausiello for some scoop!

Question: Dude, the foreshadowing in this week’s 24 has me worried for Chloe’s safety. Please tell me she’s not going to take a header into the Dead Pool come season end. — Nicole
Ausiello: Relax, Chloe isn’t dying. But someone else is this Monday. Also in next week’s ep: A 24 fave returns and a new threat will be revealed! (Is it just me, or did that last sentence read like a Fox promo? I think I’ve been doing this too long.)

Image Credit: ©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Kelsey McNeal/FOX

We know very little about Janeane Garofalo’s upcoming character, Janis Gold, other than that she’ll be part of a group of agent’s investigating a national security crisis.  Now comes news that she may end up sparing with Chloe O’Brian, who along with Bill Buchanan will be rogue aides to Jack.

As I looked at the season seven promo photo’s, I couldn’t help but wonder, who’d win in a fight?  Gold’s slightly nerdy glasses infer that she is tv ’smart’, and Garofalo’s eyebrow’s give a bad ass vibe but then there’s Chloe.  In the past she’s been known to yield a machine gun to awesome results but she has been domesticated and is shockingly cracking a smirk in her official photo.

So I think all bets are off.

If they were gonna throw down, whose side would you be on?

At least temporarily. Michael Ausiello is reporting that Mary Lynn Rajskub will be breaking from 24 mid season to have her baby, causing Chloe O’Brian to exit as well. Why will Chloe be leaving? (SPOILER WARNING) Apparently she departs because of an emergency with her now four year old son, Preston O’Brian.

But who’ll help save the world since Chloe’s busy, you ask? Well apparently Carlo Rota (Morris O’Brian) will be returning the show after all. Last month I reporter that Rota wasn’t sure if scheduling would work out with 24 this season, and apparently it has. Morris will sub for Chloe while she’s out dealing with their son’s emergency.

It surely can’t be that big of an emergency if Morris can still help at non-CTU.

Are you guys excited that Rota’s returning, or did his season six appearance not make an impact?

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Image of Chloe and Morris courtesy of FOX, photo credit Kelsey McNeal.

For every fan of 24 there’s a stand out moment. That singular moment where you went from liking the show, to loving it. From enjoying that one character, to not being able to imagine the show without them. For me, that moment occurred in Day 4 when Chloe O’Brian left the CTU offices, got herself in a near death moment and promptly got out of it by BLASTING A GROUP OF TERRORISTS WITH A MACHINE GUN.

I still remember watching that moment with a group of friends, sitting there smile plastered on my face. That’s when Chloe took center stage, and even though she would eventually wield a stun gun, and be part of a love triangle, nothing was as great as Chloe and that gun.

Chloe O’Brian image copyright Fox Television.

24 fans have had a lot of time to reflect on the events of past seasons, particularly the shortcomings of season six.  What I want to know from  you is what you hope to see, or what you hope you won’t see in season seven?

I know I want the following things:

• Strategically planned out arcs but he writers.  No more flying by the seat of their pants.  Hopefully the 24 crew have learned from Lost, in that having a detailed plan is a good thing.
• The return of Chloe O’Brian as a lead, rather than an extra.  Season six saw Chloe go through many episodes uttering only a few lines of dialogue.  The few plots she got were tepid at best, and the introduction of Morris did nothing but take screen time away from Chloe. That’s no way to treat a fan favourite.
• No more character filp-flopping.  Audrey Raines may havebeen a decent character during season four but Kim Raver’s scheduling complications sidelined Audrey, leaving the writers no choice but to kill her.  Of course Raver’s show The Nine was quickly canceled and Audrey was suddenly alive again, except the writers had no purpose for the character.  She was easily rescued by Jack is what could have been a more effective plot had it been prolonged, and when she returned, she was damaged goods.  The writers should have left her dead, but they obviously had no plan.

What do you want or don’t want to see in Season seven?

Season seven cast photo copyright 20th Century Fox Television.

DAMNIT. Korbi Ghosh from Zap2It has just broken my heart by breaking the news that Chloe will not appear in the 24 season 7 prequel at all. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Ghosh also confirmed that Chloe won’t be pregnant when the show returns, but that’s not a shock to anyone who reads this blog, considering Chloe’s son Prescott will be between 3 and 4 when the show comes back in January. And considering most of Chloe’s scenes take place around a computer, it’s not hard to believe that the show will be able to hide Mary Lynn Rajskub’s real life bump entirely.

I really hope this doesn’t continue the trend set in season six with Chloe practically becoming an extra. The writer’s really lost focus of her character and either gave her absolutely nothing to do, or stuck her in the middle of the most absurd love story on Fox. Keep in mind that it’s the network that marries women off to millionaires, and pays uglies to have life altering plastic surgery.

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Image ©2006 Fox Broadcasting Co.

What’s in a name? Casting sides have revealed that 24 is on the hunt for a ‘3 to 4 year old boy’ to play Prescott O’Brian, the daughter of Chloe and Morris O’Brian.

We’ve heard in recent months that season seven would pick up a few years after the events of season six, but Prescott’s age shows that maybe more time has passed than we previously though, especially considering Chloe had just discovered her pregnancy, just as season six was coming to an end.

And as for the name Prescott? That’s a little too plain, I was hoping for some Chloe quirkiness, perhaps Linux or just an aggravated grunt. What do you think Chloe’s spawn should have been named? Let me know in the comments.

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Fox brought out the big guns at their upfront today, none other than Kiefer Sutherland himself.  Sutherland briefly spoke to advertisers, promising them that “I know for a fact that Season 7 is going to be the best season of ‘24.”  Wow, hefty promise there Kiefer. 

He also gave what I consider to be the most important piece of Season 7 information so far, saying that “Chloe is crankier than ever.”  Ah, at least there’s some things we can always count on.

24’s seventh season will premiere in January 2009, but a two hour prequel will air on November 23rd. 

Talk about reveals, this episode had them in spades. First we found out who was behind Kim’s kidnapping, then what Maureen Kingsley had on Senator Palmer. Plus Mandy’s an evil lesbian who cries, Nina’s not evil, and Tony’s a rat. And a brat. Ah the drama.

Turns out Nina wasn’t the CTU mole after all. Her computer had been hacked into. The thing that got her off? One weekend when her card was accessed, she was with Jack. Jack straight out confirmed to Jaime that he was dating Nina while he was separated from Terry, and even worse, he couldn’t say for sure if he didn’t give her confidential information. Bad Jack. Not to be confused with Badass Jack, who used the finger he cut off for a fingerprint. Tony is so not badass, as he called a higher up at CTU to try to get Jack ousted. Once again, BRAT.

Also bad? Senator Palmer’s son Keith. He’s apparently the reason Maureen Kingsley is after the Senator. Keith was involved in an accidental death a few years prior, but Kingsley seems to think it wasn’t so accidental. Palmer parked his vehicle is the most ghetto parking structure in LA, where he encountered two hoodlums who attempted to beat him with a baseball bat. Too bad Palmer’s strong like bull. He caught the bat with his bare hands, leading me to have a Major League flashback. He met with a shady cohort who promised to help deal with the matter, before the secret service finally hunted him down.

Mandy handled Brigit’s revolt by giving her the most overdramatic slap. It was hysterical. Then of course, they were revealed to be lesbians, and my issue with this plot grew exponentially. It’s already been established that Mandy is a black widow, willing to seduce men, and kill men to get what she wants. However, by adding the lesbianism to her sexuality it just creates one massive cliché. One I thought the writers of 24 would be above. There was no doubt Brigit was going to die, so seeing her get shot, followed by Mandy accepting Gaines’ offer of a new job, did have some emotional impact. Mandy was no doubt affected by her death, and one can only assume that she will get her revenge eventually.

Gaines was double dipping this week, as he was revealed to be the guy ordering the two jackasses who kidnapped Kim and Janet. I have to give Kim points for bravery as she did attempt a noble escape, but her friend was dead weight all along. Janet is left for dead after being hit by the car, but the cops are going to find her, and then she’ll be able to give some details into what’s going on. Anyone else think Jack’s going to be pissed that his little girl has been kidnapped? I can’t wait to see him kill the blond guy. Also, heroine probably isn’t the best solution to a broken arm. I’m just saying.

Discussion Questions:

• Tony Almeida, could you get any more annoying? It’s a testament to the writers and Carlos Bernard that Tony was this bad in the beginning. It’s hard to believe he’s the same guy.
• Does Nina Meyers still carry a torch for Jack? I couldn’t help but notice the annoyance in her voice when she relayed Terry’s call to Jack.
• Does Mandy’s sexuality as justification for her black widowness make you like the character less?

Episode 4 links will go up later in the evening.

12:00am to 1am
Original Air Date: November 6th, 2001

Before I dig into 12:00am, it needs to be noted when this episode aired. While filmed in the months prior to September 11th, 24’s pilot episode didn’t air until November 6th, 2001. The show unintentionally played on the nation’s newest, biggest fear, domestic terrorism. I didn’t watch the pilot live, so I can’t say how it affected me, but I can’t help but think that Mandi’s blowing up of the plane probably would have startled me a little bit, despite its utter ridiculousness. But it was that initial controversy that fueled 24 to be a hit right out of the gate, and despite the critical fervor surrounding the show and its ground breaking qualities, one has to wonder if 24 would have been so successful had it not tapped into the nation’s consciousness?

It’s ironic, because this first episode feels like the most conventional the show has ever done. The first time we see Jack Bauer, he’s domestic Bauer, playing Chess with his ‘angelic’ daughter Kim. We don’t know that he will eventually become the all mighty BauerGod, but rather see him as a mere mortal, a man who after a period of separation from his family, is trying to get his life back on track. We immediately have empathy, and how can we not? He’s human, and no matter how ridiculous his actions get in later years, Bauer was meant to be the average guy’s superhero, and that comes across perfectly in this first episode.

Once Jack enters CTU and begins to deal with the threat on Dennis Haysbert’s President Palmer, we get a taste of the character we’ll become so familiar with. He’s a natural leader, and appears to be damn good at his job. His people seem to trust and like him, with the exception of Tony Almeida!, whose dislike for Bauer is revealed to be because Bauer stole Nina Meyers from Tony. Nothing like a woman to keep two potential soul mates apart. The tension between Nina and Jack is evident from their first scene together, and it doesn’t take long for the viewer to connect the dots between Jack leaving his family and his affair with Nina. But that doesn’t matter, because in CTU, Nina is Jack’s biggest ally, the one person he appears to trust implicitly.

He’s also at his breaking point. The Jack Bauer prior to the show towed the company line, he sold out two agents, he regrets it, and he’s done compromising for the government. He takes on his superior, George, and in a classic BauerGod moment, tranqs him, blackmails him and forces him to tell him the source of some government intel. It’s our first taste of the Jack Bauer we’ll know and love, the one who will do anything to get the truth, no matter who he’s trying to get it from.

By the time Mandi blows up the airplane, we’re invested in Jack saving the day, we want him to win, and even though we knew very little about President Palmer, we don’t want him die. I mean come on, any Presidential nominee who has time to rub his wife’s feet cant be all bad, can they?

And unfortunately for the show, familial spats just can’t compete with that. Leslie Hope’s Teri Bauer ends off feeling like a disposable character, and then there’s Kim, played to bitchy perfection by Elisha Cuthbert. I could put up with her petulant spoiled brat act until she proclaimed to the obviously dangerous guy that her dad was dead. I just, there’s no excuse for that, no matter how much you resent your parent. And that moment right there pretty much ruined Kim Bauer for me. I never really cared about her fate whenever she decided to get herself in stupid situations, and honestly folks, I’m saying this to get it out of the way, I wanted the mountain lion to win.

The pilot ends on a cliffhanger, not only is there a threat against President Palmer, but the terrorists have now attacked. The consequences are real, and we want Bauer to win.

Discussion Questions:
• Do you think 24’s structure is innovative and groundbreaking?
• Would 24 have been such a big hit without the emotions surrounding 9/11?
• Initial thoughts on Kim Bauer, did everyone else hate her immediately too?
• Without spoiling who the mole ended up being, did everyone else think it
was obvious from the first episode?
• 24 without Chloe O’Brian, how much does that suck?

Guys, feel free to pose your own questions, as I’ll add them to the post if
you do.

So that’s it, my first 24 Rewatch. There’s no screencaps today because my Macbook drive has decided to die, so screencaps will go up on Thursday with episode two. I hope you guys liked it, and if you have any suggestions, just add them to the comments.

As for episode 2, here are your links:
Amazon
iTunes
Sidereel (free)

See you guys on Thursday.