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Last post was dedicated to all the on-island action, this post is focused on all the off island events. To first tie the brief scenes involving Desmond, basically we saw him wake up next to Penny from a disturbing dream in which Daniel Faraday told him he had to go to Oxford. Desmond believes this was more than a dream, it didn’t necessarily happen, but it’s a memory of some sort and he has to do as Daniel says. That logic completely goes along with the “what the *&$%” logic that is crucial to this entire premiere.

As for the Oceanic 6, we return to Jack and Ben who are packing up Locke’s body in hopes of bringing him back to the island. Trouble is, they now need to round up the rest of the 6, and it doesn’t sound like Jack is on great terms with too many of them…

As for Sayid, you may recall that we last saw him busting Hurley out of the mental institution. This was one of the best parts of the premiere, because we got to see these two on the road and on the run. Unfortunately, it didn’t last too long because when Sayid brought Hurley to his safehouse, a hotel room, the place was compromised and Sayid had to kill two guys. More unfortunately, some hotel residents caught a glimpse of Hurley holding a gun so now Hurley’s face is plastered all over the news. And even more unfortunately, Sayid got hit with a dart that knocked him out cold, so Hurley’s only solution is to bring Sayid to his house, and let Cheech Marin handle this one.

Kate too, finds herself on the run when a couple of lawyers show up at her house, insisting on getting a blood test to prove that Kate is (more…)

As much as I want to dive right into last night’s awesome episode of “Lost” (which I soon will), I have to start at last week’s premiere, which was strange, but also enlightening. As you recall, season 4 ended with a bang…or perhaps it would be better to say, with a flash of light and a sudden whooosh. The island disappeared seemingly, but what we learn the season 5 premiere is that just as we once saw Desmond Hume become unstuck in time, shifting throughout his life, the island now appears to be unstuck in time. This is first implied with an opening where Pierre Chang (of those Dharma Initiative videos) explains to a construction crew that there is a certain force behind a wall that they cannot unleash, but if they can harness the energy, they can manipulate time. This is followed by the appearance of Daniel Faraday as part of the crew…but how the %$#* would he have gotten there?

Back on the island, Daniel gets back to the beach (my big question in the finale, among others, was that if Daniel’s out on the water, and the island vanished, what happens to him?) because apparently he was within the radius. Eh, I’ll take it. He meets Sawyer for the first time who is plagued by the question of where the freighter went and where the camp went. As per usual, Daniel is vague, explaining that they’re not gone and that he needs to find a manmade landmark, so Juliet leads them to the Dharma station (which Sawyer reminds her was blown up back in season 2).

At the station, they can’t get in through the hatch, so Sawyer heads around (more…)

Well, Renee pulled through due to the quick and timely arrival of Bill and Chloe to save her. Apparently Jack managed to contact them and let them know where to find her. She wasn’t breathing…so rather than go for the old fashioned mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, Bill immediately gave her a shot of adrenaline. Probably entirely unnecessary. Once revived she insisted on contacting her people at the FBI, but Bill filled her in on Jack and Tony’s undercover status and the conspiracy within the government, then explained that for the time being she needs to stay “dead.”

Jack and Tony arrived at the warehouse, but Jack really blew it with Emerson by asking way too many questions about how he initially recruited Tony and got Tony out of CTU that day. Not smart, which is probably why Emerson grew suspicious and put a gun to Emerson’s head, forcing Tony to blow his cover and point his gun at Emerson, only to have one of Emerson’s thugs point a gun at Tony. What a predicament. Fortunately, Jack’s fast gun and quick thinking rubbed off on Tony somewhere along the way, and Tony was able to take a shot at Emerson’s thug and give Emerson some severe wounds. With three gun shots, Jack and Tony are now running this whole operation, but an issue they’re faced with is getting Mutobo to allow with things and get captured.

At the White House, President Taylor finds herself backed into a corner when she receives a phone call from Dubaku, who as we all know, has control of the CIP device. He uses it to crash two planes into each other, giving President Taylor a hell of a view from the Oval Office. She calls the cabinet together to immediately discuss options, but she winds up insisting that they not respond to this threat, causing one of her Secretaries to resign and walk out on the meeting.

Back at the warehouse, Tony tries to help Emerson, but Emerson refuses and winds up strangling himself in front of Tony (I think that’s what happened at least, I really didn’t think that was possible, but it seems like that’s what Emerson did). Bill and Chloe soon arrive with Renee (more…)

Another Monday night means another hour of “24.” We last left off with Jack, Tony, and Emerson trying to abduct Mutobo, the prime minister of Sangala, the hitch of course being that Mutobo and his wife are in a panic room. Without Mutobo, Jack and Tony won’t be able to get to Dubaku. While Mutobo explains to his wife that they want names of his allies that he would easily take to the grave with him, he also insinuates that they’ll use her to get him to talk. Outside, Jack and the crew realize the FBI is coming, meaning they have to work fast.

Jack suggests using some household products, like bleach and ammonia to make a homemade gas and flush Mutobo out of the panic room by getting the gas into the vents. This works fairly well, and Mutobo and his wife almost see it through to the grim end, but Mutobo’s wife finally opens the door and gets them both captured. As Jack and the gang are packing up the van and getting ready to get the hell out of there, Renee shows up solo and gets caught by one of Emerson’s guys. Emerson is ready to just kill her, but Jack and Tony explain that they should keep her alive and determine what Tanner has told the FBI. That’s some fast talking.

Elsewhere, at FBI headquarters, there are heavy clues about Sean and Erica being secret forbidden lovers. Erica toooootally can’t stop thinking about last night, and Sean can’t either…but Sean totally has a wife so this whole situation is totally not cool. Janis also picks up a definite vibe that Moss has feelings for Renee. So basically all the FBI scenes were good for this time around was complicated love plots

First Gentleman Taylor continues his quest to unravel the conspiracy behind his son’s supposed suicide. As we learned in “24: Redemption,” Roger Taylor was looking into (more…)

And so begins a new season of “The Real World,” and this season our seven…I mean eight (!!!) strangers are taking on Brooklyn. I gotta say, this season they definitely pulled out all the stops on putting together a diverse house…ummm…very much so. Granted, in the premiere everyone seems to get along great, but once everyone loosens up a bit we’re bound to see some serious fireworks. With that said, the Brooklyn house consists of…

Ryan, an Iraq War vet and definitely the season’s big party guy. Katelynn, a post-op transgender person. Chet, a punk rock-type hardcore Mormon, despite his bizarre choice in attire (he dresses like a flaming homosexual, but is in fact a conservative Republican who views homosexuality as a sin). Devyn, a Miss Teen America pageant winner (definitely the best looking girl in the house). Baya, a kind of cute girl who aspires to be a hip-hop dancer. Sarah, a friendly and cool punk chick who apparently used to date girls but is now very contently in a relationship with a dude (right now I actually like her a lot because she seems like one of the more genuine people in the house). JD, a gay dolphin trainer who comes from a rough past. Lastly, there’s Scott, a gym trainer who it seems spends most of his time eating and working out…nice guy but kind of a jokebag from what I can tell right now.

Once everyone meets, everyone seems to click and get along pretty well, but Ryan and JD are suspicious right off the bat about Katelynn, who has not divulged her secret to anyone in the house. The whole gang heads out to hit the bars and Ryan gets absolutely hammered drunk…JD is sort of Buzz Killington though, acting overbearing about making sure everyone leaves together and that Ryan doesn’t get too out of control. Things turned out fine though…Ryan drank some water and they called it a night.

The next morning, Ryan and Sarah… (more…)

The following takes place between 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM

I’m just noticing now that I’m pretty sure that Tony wound up in an FBI interrogation room  a little fast despite the real-time nature of this show. That said, early on in the episode a very alive and very [seemingly] evil Tony Almeida finds himself waiting in the FBI interrogation room. Jack stares at him through the window while Agent Larry Moss whispers to Renee explaining that Tony is working with the Juma regime, blackmailing the White House with the threat of killing Americans. Jack, without so much as blinking, responds to Moss and says he wants to speak to Tony alone, believing he can get the information out of him. Reluctantly, Moss allows him to do so, and he seems even more reluctant moments later when they have to rush into the interrogation room and stop Jack from nearly breaking Tony’s neck. Jack didn’t get much, but he got something. A phone number. Who could be at the other end? Dubaku, leader of the Juma regime? Maybe someone serving on Tony’s little terrorist squad? Could it be a wrong number?

Nope, it’s former CTU director Bill Buchanan (he was always one of the more boring CTU directors, so this wasn’t so much of a thrill as the idea of other members of CTU being out there and working with Tony). Yeah, this was a huge OMFG and WTF moment for everybody. Things take an abrupt turn, and suddenly the plot somehow makes more sense and becomes a lot easier to explain.  It turns out Tony is not evil, but undercover and working with Bill and Chloe O’Brien. CTU has gone underground and is attempting to unravel a conspiracy within the government, which has been corrupted and has people working with the Juma regime. This corruption stretches everywhere, from the FBI as far as actually inside the White House on President Taylor’s staff. Jack’s day gets worse, ours gets better. Now that Bill’s filled him in on the dirty dirty, he cuts to the chase and tells Jack that he’s got to bust Tony out of FBI headquarters so Tony can get back undercover with the terrorists.

As one might imagine, FBI headquarters has a shit ton of trained agents mulling around, so if one person is going to take them head on and bust a prisoner and alleged terrorist out…well, Jack Bauer has the credentials and the balls to do it. With that, he chokes out Renee and takes her gun, then heads for the interrogation room where he holds Moss and gun point (anybody else notice that Tony was totally sitting there with a Jim-face before knocking out the agent behind him?) and springs Tony from custody. Chloe navigates them out of the building, avoiding contact with as many agents as possible while Jack and Tony make amends (”Bro, I’m sorry I almost broke your neck,” “Dude, it sucked, but I totally understood where you were coming from”), and finally escape, being showered with gunfire before diving into an unmarked van driven by Bill.

Once back at pseudo-CTU, it’s time for Jack to get some more answers, and I guess all he really needs to say to anybody at this point is, “Sooooo….what the hell is going on….?” Tony explains that (more…)

The following takes place between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM.

Finally, a new season of “24″! Things are off to a bad start though…CTU has been disbanded, Jack Bauer has to stand trial for his actions (despite saving the country multiple times), and a group of masked men have kidnapped a man named Michael Latham, who it just so happens designed the firewall for Homeland Security. Yeah, things are looking pretty grim, but things start looking worse when FBI Agent Renee Walker shows up at Jack’s hearing with a subpeona for him, because believe it or not, and very alive and very evil looking Tony Almeida was behind Latham’s kidnapping as well as a stolen device that hold the key to the nation’s security. Tony and company plan on selling it to Dubaku, a Sangalan general who is pretty pissed about the United States’ intention to intervene in Sangala’s ongoing genocide (Sangala is a fictional country that’s supposed to be an analogy for Rwanda). Completely confused yet? Me too, it’s a lot to take in.

Basically, the FBI needs Jack’s help in tracking down Tony, but it takes awhile for Jack to accept that Tony is actually still alive. You may recall that we last saw Tony get shot up in the jugular with some sort of chemical used for torture, hours after watching his wife Michelle die. As far as everybody was concerned, Tony was dead…but for plot purposes he’s back! If anyone has a problem with that and feels it’s completely impossible, please view season 1-6 and recognize that this show, like every show, requires a certain level of suspension of disbelief. Tony’s back…deal with it.

Jack helps Renee with a lead, an arms dealer named Schecter that he and Tony arrested and then turned undercover back in the day. Apparently Tony enlisted his help for some things, and now it really seemed to be the only lead that they had to go on. It seemed like Jack was almost going to get some answers from him, but then a couple of sniper shots came cruising through the window. Jack then receives a call from Tony (more…)