24

3.3 That blows
Day 3: 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM - Kyle's coke hits the fan. Literally. But it isn't carrying the V-I-R-U-S; Kyle is. Dr. Anne's secret is revealed, and boy is it boring. Kiefer applies some Sutherland Velvet pressure on Special Agent Charlie Brown and Spawn's relationship. Soul Patch goes on a field assignment that ends badly.

Somewhere on some Los Angeles freeway. As Kiefer waits for Nicole in the Kiefmobile, he starts to feel restless and cagey and basically in need of a fix. He looks at his watch and whips out his handy-dandy heroin clutch and starts doing all those necessary pre-heroin activities -- tying off his arm to find a vein, et cetera -- right there in the Kiefmobile. Now, I don't expect a great deal of realism from 24 -- especially after last season -- but I just have to interject here that in real life, drug addicts (especially drug addicts who are trying to hold down white collar jobs) tend to be extremely skilled at finding places to use without detection. Didn't anyone read Elizabeth Wurtzel's last memoir about her addiction to Ritalin? In fact, just last night when I was in the men's room of this restaurant, I automatically took note of the fact that there was an aluminum ledge right above the toilet paper dispenser that, if wiped clean, would be perfect to do lines off of. I also noticed that the stall had a very tight doorway, and no one would be able to observe me if I were going drugs there. And I haven't even touched cocaine in at least five years. Add that to the fact that Kiefer is a CIA field agent -- a breed of people trained extensively in the fine art of deception -- and it's absolutely ridiculous and implausible that Kiefer would just be shooting up in his car moments before he's about to meet an associate. And that's my lesson for the week about the nature of addiction, kids. Oh, it's also part of a new regular feature of my recaps which I call, "Is my mother really reading my recaps, or is she just pretending to?"

3-6 Escape From L.A.
Day 3: 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
p2 Michelle wants to know why they're not pursuing options that don't involve killing off their renegade rogue agent whose unconventional methods always result in good triumphing over evil.
p4. KieferKopter. Our hero notices military copters flying in formation on the radar & correctly determines going to try shooting them out of the sky. Hartmano's like, hmm, interesting wrinkle, good thing Kiefer's a human iron.
p6. Palmer is like, but Kief's sacrificed evth; Brother Palmer more or less counters that Kief's got a martyr complex & that's nice for him, but it doesn't really outweigh how eeeevil Hartmano is.

3-12 You've Got To Be Somebody's Baby!
Day 3: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM - The baby subplot thickens as Spawn finds out that Tater Tot doesn't belong to Potato Face. The V-I-R-U-S is sold to Nina but it's really a bomb. Nevertheless, Nina and Amador both escape. Hector and Hartmano are killed.
"Well, just -a look at that girl with the lights comin' up in her eyes." was this song used in Fast Times at Richmont High ?
She's got to be somebody's baby. She must be somebody's baby. All the guys on the corner stand back and let her walk on by. She's got to be somebody's baby. She must be somebody's baby. She's got to be somebody's baby. She's so fine. She's probably somebody's only light. Gonna shine tonight. Yeah, she's probably somebody's baby, all right.
Graphic violence warning. Yay! 24. Blip blip blip blip blip. Previouslys.
Whatever, Mexico. Hector isn't dead yet. ..
Back at CTU. "We don't have an alternative; we have got to keep [Potato Face] in place!" insists Soul Patch, ordering Spawn to take care of the baby until this operation is over. "I do not want [Potato Face] distracted!" he says.
first was eager to get to the recaps by M Giant (starting at 3-20)since I've enjoyed his writing before, eg the recap of Six Feet Under finale. but now I am missing Gustave's 24 recaps. seem to suit the show, amped up? nicknames used constantly, even in quoted dialogue. just as on the show straight faces kept through the non-stop dramatic line delivery.
which, watching this, I keep thinking of these representative (what is the better word? for standouts in my memory ~ personally exemplary) dramatic lines in my formative movie-viewing:

"Markinson's dead. There is no Markinson." - Kevin Bacon to Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men.

"I'm out, baby." - Patrick Swayze, with quick dramatic turn of his head, in Dirty Dancing.