LogFAQs > #969928415

#75: Day 3: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
https://i.imgur.com/H5HgVQV.jpg

Show: 24
Original airdate: May 11, 2004

"Just because you sacrificed your wife for this job doesn't mean I'm going to sacrifice mine!"

Up to this point, I had been a fan of 24, but not a totally diehard fan. There had been some EXCELLENT episodes (one in particular will be discussed later), but oftentimes I'd get sucked in and then fall back out from watching as my excitement died down. However, one particular stretch of episodes in the second half of the show's third season sucked me in for good, and 24 has been my favorite show of all time ever since. This episode, third-to-last of the third season, was the culmination of that incredible stretch. Up to this point, some truly crazy shit had gone down, including Jack Bauer being forced to kill one of his bosses at the behest of a terrorist leader, Bauer then kidnapping that terrorist leader's daughter and threatening to throw her into the hotel the terrorist had contaminated with a virus, and the terrorist leader then having Jack's friend Tony's wife Michelle Dessler kidnapped, forcing Tony to go rogue and sabotage CTU's attempt to catch him. This episode represents the culmination of that conflict, with Jack forced to go after Tony, Tony racing against the clock to save Michelle, and the terrorist leader Stephen Saunders threatening to deploy even more vials of his deadly virus. This episode was a nonstop rush, with Jack and Tony alternating between working together and being at each other's throats... and meanwhile, Michelle was a badass in her own right, orchestrating an escape attempt, only for Jack to realize that her escape would cause his plan to catch Saunders to go awry, causing even MORE tension between Jack and Tony. There were still two more episodes to go in the season, but I feel like the season peaked here, and 24 would only get better in subsequent seasons (and then worse, and then better again... but it was always awesome).