24: 7pm to 8pm

I join the folks over on Dave Barry’s Blog on Monday nights to do a Mystery Science Theater” style commentary about the TV show . People seem to like it there, so I’m reposting it here:

7pm – Someone on a loud speaker is stating the completely obvious, which is don’t leave the sealed rooms. You’d think the dead bodies would be the first clue.

7:01 – The gas masks are completely safe in the gas filled rooms. No danger of human contamination.

7:02 – Jack wants Chloe to go back to her job, but she’s still upset about Edgar. The camera pans to Edgar who tries to get up, but someone off-stage pushes him back down.

7:03 – “Barry” to the rescue, to try and talk to Chloe. He starts singing “Mandy”.

7:04 – A red shirt guard starts to dress down The Hobbit for not reporting that he got beaten up. The Red Shirt guard can sympathize about getting beaten up, but is mad.

7:05 – Jack talks to the Doctor, and Tony finds out that Buckaroo is there. Tony jumps the doctor, and grabs a gun from the guy guarding Buckaroo.

7:06 – Tony tells Buckaroo – “My Name is Tony Almeda. You killed my wife. Prepare to die.”

7:08 – Jack talks Tony out of shooting Buckaroo, reminding him he really liked when Buckaroo was in Robocop.

7:09 – Jack asks about the truth serum, the guy who gave it to him said that more would kill him. Tony says he’s OK with that. Edgar peeks up from behind a desk.

7:10 – Vice President Scary and President Manilow is on the phone with Madam Alexandra Haig, who declares herself “in charge here”.

7:11 – VP Scary thinks it’s possible to clear the streets of LA all people. I suspect he’s planning on using the same system they used to get rid of the cars.

7:12 – A terrorist flunky asks IEST (Impecible English Speaking Terrorist) what he wants to do next, and IEST says “I’m going to Disney World!” When they remind him they’re in California, he decides to release all the rest of the gas instead.

Commercial

7:17 – Jack interrupts “Barry”, who tells Jack to back off of Chloe… And Jack starts to strangle him for going after Kim. Barry promises not to sing again.

7:18 – Warning message on the monitors say that the seals are breaking down! Chloe thinks it’s acid mixed with the gas, but if they look near the floor, they’d see Edgar has scooted up to the window and is trying to break back in, as if nothing happened.

7:19 – Cheney Looking Guy (CLG) is on the phone trying to convince VP Scary that he’s not interested in “usurping his position”, and that, no, he’s not interested in going to see Broke Back Mountain either. Mrs. Cleavage Manilow is surprised VP Scary is making policy….after all, that’s HER job. CLG tells Cleavage she needs to do something about it. She starts to have a nervous breakdown. CLG says that he meant that she should talk to President Manilow, not have a breakdown.

7:21 – Bill gets on the speaker system to let the other people in the other locked rooms that unless they’re very very careful, Edgar will break into one of their rooms to try and rejoin the cast. And also that the gas is in danger of getting through the seals. They’re going to have to help themselves. Edgar hears “help themselves” and starts rifling through the lunches people brought.

7:22 – Jack wants Chloe to access the ventilation system, and she refuses because there’s gas out there and stuff. Jack tells her to use her computer instead. She says there’s a computer in another part of CTU that can help vent the gas, and by an amazing coincidence, they have a way to get there through a false panel in the wall right behind her! Everyone turns to the camera and gives the “Do you believe that?” look.

7:24 – Jack takes a deep breath, and goes in!

Commercial

7:28 – Jack’s crawling around the insides of CTU, comes out somewhere and tapes the floor off, blocking Edgar who was right behind him.

7:30 – He’s going into the contaminated area, and prys open a wall panel, only to see that someone has been messing with the computers. It looks like someone installed Mac drivers on a Windows machine.

7:31 – Kim snaps at Chloe, and “Barry” says to “breathe”. Chloe says “What’s with your ‘breathing’? Is that your solution for everything?” I’m not sure what I can add to that.

7:32 – Jack gets to take a breath! Two minutes!

7:32 – They can’t get to the computer. They figure that The Hobbit is in Holding Room 4, and they want him to go to the computer to start the vents going. And, uh, whoops…. there’s no place to go after that, so he’ll, um….die.

7:33 – The Red Shirt guard realizes that they’ll BOTH die, and Jack tells him to look at the shirt color he’s got on, and think Star Trek. Edgar can be heard in the background…. “Don’t do it! It’s a bad career move! You’ll be out of the show!”. Red Shirt doesn’t understand until Edgar says “Think Tasha Yar!”.

7:34 – The Hobbit tells Red Shirt that they have to go to Mount Doom. Red Shirt doesn’t like this one bit.

Commercial

7:39 – Kim apologies to Chloe. Chloe is having a bad day. Edgar yells “So am I!”

7:41 – Red Shirt’s on the phone with his daughter to say his final goodbye. 🙁

7:42 – The Hobbit opens the door, starts running for the computer and restores the program. It’s going to take 15 minutes He made it back to the room.

7:43 – Jack thanks them both. Red Shirt thinks he’s OK…..but he dies. The Hobbit starts to shake and dies too.

7:46 – Buckaroo still isn’t talking. Jack wants Chloe to work on Buckaroo’s disk. Kim tells Jack that she doesn’t want to be around him. Kim says she noticed that people die when Jack’s around them. She runs to “Barry”. Audrey asks Jack if he’s OK, and he says “No”. Edgar yells “I’m not OK either!”

Commercial

7:51 – Manilow thinks that VP Scary’s idea is just great and sees to problem with telling the eleventy-bazillion people in LA that they can’t go outside, or try and leave, or anything like that. Nope, he’s thought it through, and he sees no problem. He’s sure everyone will cooperate. Mrs. Manilow tells him that VP Scary is pulling his strings. Manilow starts to tear up, and HE starts singing “Mandy”.

7:52 – Terrorist gets a phone call, and IEST calls a female terrorist, who hangs up on him because she still needs to get info. Oh, and she’s wearing a negligee and is with some guy in an apartment. Typical terrorists.

7:53 – Bill gets a phone call from Madam Haig in Homeland Security, who says she’s in charge. Bill looks pretty upset because first The Dead Hobbit wanted to take over his job, and now SHE does. Bill says he’ll need about 20 in comm, 35 in tactical, and one Edgar. She tells Bill he’ll be there in a minute.

7:54 – Madam Haig wants to take down CTU, and send everyone home! They’re reformating computers! Chloe’s gonna be mad about that! Offscreen, Edgar yelling “SEE! SEE! I TOLD YOU!”

7:57 – Jack tells “Barry” to get Kim out of the city, NOT turn back, and not to sing. Edgar tries to mix in with the crowd as everyone is leaving the rooms they were in, and a giant hook from stage left grabs him, but he doesn’t move. Then a second hook grabs him and he gets pulled off stage.

7:58 – Tony says Buckaroo looks dead and stuff. Jack tries to tell him not to kill Buckaroo, and that he’d regret it.

7:58 – Tony knocks out the other agent, and Tony pulls a hypo to stab Buckaroo, but he can’t do it. BUCKAROO RETURNS TO LIFE AS ROBOCOP AND STABS TONY WITH THE HYPO!

7:59 – Jack finds Tony and tries to call for help. Tony says that Michelle is gone, and dies in Jack’s arms.
—–

Are they going to kill EVERYONE?

24: 6pm to 7pm

I join the folks over on Dave Barry’s Blog on Monday nights to do a Mystery Science Theater” style commentary about the TV show . People seem to like it there, so I’m reposting it here:

6 pm – Terrorist car guy, having just shot The Hobbit’s sister and boyfriend, leaves the building to go reprogram the key card in his car, where all terrorist keep their computer equipment, and do a Michael Jackson “Black and White” morph.

6:02 – Manilow yells some more at Bill at CTU, wanting to know what’s going on. Bill says that, apparently, Manilow is actually President of the United States, but he has no explanation for this.

6:04 – Kim Bauer, Jack’s daughter is at CTU! Audrey sees her and almost cries.

6:05 – Audrey tells Jack that she almost cried when she saw him, and Jack tells Audrey she cries at everything. Jack gives her the OK. She starts crying, and Jack tells that’s not what he meant. She can go ahead and tell Kim.

6:06 – Kim introduces Audrey to “Barry”. Audrey says that if “Barry” comes in contact with President Manilow, the universe will implode, and that Jack is alive.

6:07 – Kim looks as if she just found out that she’s making less money than everyone else in the case.

6:08 – There’s a Scary looking guy in waiting for Manilow, and it turns out he’s the vice-president. Since he’s second in command, I have absolutely no expectations for this guy whatsoever. I’m surprised this guy is actually breathing. Cheney Looking Guy looks surprised too, because he thought HE was the vice-president.

6:09- The Scary Vice President (SVP) appears to have more guts that Manilow himself, although he’s already starting to do Scary things. Manilow will let ANYONE talk him into ANYTHING. I’m just waiting for Scary to tell Manilow to do the Riverdance, because in the state he’s in, Manilow might just do it.

6:11 – Buckaroo is trying to make a deal with Jack, but won’t tell Jack what he wants to know. Jack’s having none of it, because if he knew the whole plot the show would end early.

6:12 – Terrorist car guy is IN CTU! This can’t be good.

6:17 – Curtis is on his way back. Jack is back. Kim is back. Everyone’s back. Even “Barry”.

6:18 – Jack goes to see his daughter, Kim, because he always has time for touching moments during the middle of terrorists situations. Kim’s mad. And “Barry” mouths off to Jack. Baaaaaad idea, “Barry”.

6:20 – Kim doesn’t want to her Jack’s explanation, and wants to leave. Jack asks her to stay, but she needs to talk to “Barry”. Kim begins to do an Audrey impression, and starts to cry.

6:21 – Terrorist Car Guy has a gizmo with the layout of CTU, which is as accessible to terrorists as Manilow’s cell phone number. He goes into what looks like the server room, and looks fans that lead to the ventilation system. My guess is that he’s not going to be putting apple pies in there so everyone can get a nice whiff.

6:22 – Tony’s back in the hospital area of CTU. He confronts Bill and wants to know what’s going on, but Bill says he can’t tell him. Tony wants to know who killed Michelle. I think that if Tony spots Buckaroo, Buckaroo is going to go “Banzai” at the hands of Tony.

6:25 – Buckaroo is strapped into the chair in the interrogation room, and Jack finds out that Kim is dating her shrink. Jack thinks that Robocop is going to be a tough nut to crack. Edgar pops up and asks Jack if he means “Beer Nuts”.

6:27 – Robocop ain’t talking, so he lets a random CTU guy start pumping Robocop up with some CTU drugs that make Robo press his lips together really hard. Jack tells random CTU guy to use the drugs that loosen his lips, not tighten them.

6:32 – Mrs. Manilow’s outside for a smoke and Cheney Looking Guy says that Manilow needs her. Cheney Looking Guy wants Mrs. Manilow to stop Scary Vice President.

6:35 – Yup…server room. Terrorist guy just shut down the ventilation system. Kerry tries to warn Edgar, but since she has no food, he snaps at her. She goes to check out the problem with the vent system.

6:36 – Mrs. Manilow goes to see Manilow, who tries to look aloof, which is good, because he’s been acting like a Loof. He asks her to forgive him, and they share a tender moment. Edgar hears this, and calls to ask about “Tender Vittles”, but they tell him to get back to work.

6:38 – Kerry goes into the server room to check and sees the vents. She tries to make a phone call with her cell phone, and for the first time in the last hour and thirty-eight minutes, the cell signal doesn’t work because of the cement walls. Terrorist Guy kills her.

6:43 – Terrorist Guy places the canister to go off in 15 minutes, which again, is the top of the hour, the time for all critical plot twists.

6:44 – Kim goes to see Chloe, and Chloe confesses that she knew Jack was alive. Chloe tells Kim to cut Jack some slack, since President All-State and Michelle bought the farm, Tony nearly bought a small garden, and Chloe narrowly escaped buying a timeshare.

6:45 – Bill goes to see The Hobbit, and tells The Hobbit that LAPD found his sister dead. The Hobbit says that’s impossible. The LAPD would have taken weeks to find that out. The Hobbit seems pretty broken up, because Gandalf isn’t coming. The Hobbit admits that the CTU key card was taken.

6:47 – Bill calls Chloe to check the card, and Chloe finds that the card was used! IT’S LOCKDOWN TIME!

6:48 – Buckaroo is made of pretty tough stuff. (They haven’t figured out he’s really Robocop yet) A buzzer on the medical device, the CTU lockdown signal and Jack’s phone go off at the same time. No one thinks this is the least bit strange. I suspect Edgar’s messing the the computers to distract everyone while he raids the candy machine.

6:52 – Bill sends Jack into the North entrance. Red shirt guard, in grand Star Trek tradition, gets beaten up and taken hostage.

6:54 – Terrorist guy shoots him when an alarm goes off when they try and use a service entrance, which was clearly marked “SERVICE ENTRANCE. ALARM WILL SOUND”. Terrorist guy grabs a walkie-talkie for his kid.

6:55 – Jack finds the dead guard and notices that the walkie-talkie is missing. Jack sends a fake message to Audrey and Bill about where the terrorist is, and she sees him onscreen so she knows what he’s up to. Edgar behind Audrey and Bill, and is in the background shaking a candy machine.

6:56 – Terrorist Guy goes to leave, and Jack catches him. Terrorist Guy drops the gun, tries to shoot Jack with another gun (do NONE of these guys know about Jack?) and Jack kills him.

6:57 – Jack finds the device on Dead Terrorist Guy, and tells Bill about the little device that Dead Terrorist Guy had. Bill orders an immediate Code 6 evacuation. The phone rings, Chloe picks it up. Edgar is in the server room, finds Kerry dead, and leaves the room just as the canister starts passing gas.

6:58 – Gas is in CTU, and people are dying. Chloe does the lockdown.

6:59 – Robocop looks like he’s in stasis. People are dying all over the place.

Edgar runs back into the room, sees that he’s sealed off and dies.

Ah man! Not Edgar!

This stinks.

24: 5pm to 6pm

I join the folks over on Dave Barry’s Blog on Monday nights to do a Mystery Science Theater” style commentary about the TV show . People seem to like it there, so I’m reposting it here:

5 pm – Bill goes in to see Tony, and the Doctor doesn’t want to tell him about Michelle’s death. Tony has a silly straw up his nose, and Bill tries to keep a straight face while talking to him.

5:01 – The Secret Service agents decide it’d be just fine to let the Russians and Mrs. Manilow stand out in the wide open, because no one would attack them in the wide open.

5:05 – Impecible English Speaking Terrorist (IEST), who apparently has quite a few Terrorist Engineers at his disposal, talks to Terrorist car guy about the plan. You’d think by now that the governement would have screened for this

5:05 – Terrorist car guy calls the boyfriend of The Hobbits sister, and the boyfriend wants to sell the Terrorist guy the Hobbit’s access card. I see NO problem in store for them whatsoever.

5:06 – Manilow starts yelling at Cheney Looking Guy and starts acting manly. Apparently he’s been reading this blog

5:07 – Jack’s calling in on speaker phone, saying that the servers were blown up. Chloe hears this and looks really mad about the servers. Jack’s going after Robocop, who is disguised as a human named Buckaroo Banzai

5:08 – Buckaroo is on the phone, and gets voice mail when he calls. “Dial 1 if you’re a terrorist waiting for a money drop, Dial 2 if you’re a terrorist that just blew up someone he knows, Dial 3 if you’re a terrorist that needs plans for a weapon, Dial 0 to reach an operator”. He dials 2.

5:09 – Curtis is using his cell phone inside CTU, which, as you may have noticed, has cement walls specially constructed to allow cell phones to work right through them, unlike the rest of the country where cell phones can be blocked by a stiff wind.

5:12 – Tony talks to the doctor and pulls out the straw from his nose. He sees the giant cotton pad on his face, and rips it off. The cotton pad, not his face.
Tony goes to the computer, looks up Michelle, and the computer comes up with her record as deceased.

5:17 – A helicopter arrives with Mrs. Manilow and the Russians, and SHE’S MAD! She’s finally figured out that he’s a wimp.

5:18 – Manilow lets President Russian in on the whole plot, except that pesky part where he knew this was all going to happen. He tries to pass off the missle shot at the car and the flame thrower as an “American custom”, but it doesn’t look like President Russian is buying it.

5:20 – Bill goes to talk to The Hobbit, who looks MAD. (Everyone looks mad tonight!) The Hobbit wants to call his sister, who is secretly believes will call Gandalf for some help. He also wants the keycard for Mordor, but the boyfriend wants to sell it. I still see no problem with his plan.

5:22 – Manilow wants to go see Mrs. Manilow, and he backs down from Mrs. Manilow’s assistant, after calling her Ellen and Evalyn Good career move!

5:23 – Edgar has a match! And some cheese doodles! And the right place for where the terrorists might hit… It’s a grocery store! Edgar runs out in a panic, screaming at the top of his lungs, until Chloe points out that it’s a hospital that the terrorists might hit.

5:24 – A terrorist, dressed as an orderly, comes out of the hospital closet…..er, so to speak. He put a canister under gurney. He giggles as he says the word “gurney”.

5:29 – Jack’s outside Buckaroo’s house, talking to Audrey on the phone. She tells him about the hospital attack. He sees Buckaroo’s wife

5:30 – Curtis is on the phone to the hospital, telling him that the nerve gas will go off in about 30 minutes. The hospital guy on the phone tries to tell Curtis that it’s a big hospital, and it’ll take more time, and if he could please have more time to do it.

5:31 – Mrs. Buckaroo looks worried, but stands up to Jack better than President Manilow would.

5:32 – Mrs. Buckaroo looks at the Buckaroo’s Terrorist computer, which appears to be a Mac, which is suspicious, considering that most of them use Windows.

5:33 – Top Secret Service guy goes to see Mrs. Manilow, and she thanks him. He thanks her for the opportunity to shoot people. She squeezes his hand.

5:34 – Cheney Looking Guy interrupts, and she tells him that the president can go “convey” himself. Cheney Looking Guy is mad that Top Secret Service guy didn’t squeeze his hand too.

5:35 – The hospital. Apparently Michael Bolton has entered the building, because people are FLOODING out of it. The hospital admin says that the high risk newborns are stuck there, and Curtis looks concerned they might actually hear the Michael Bolton music.

5:36 – Terrorist guy at the hospital calls IEST guy, and tells him to go to the basement and call from there. Even the hospital has those amazing cell phone friendly cement walls!

5:41 – Audrey give the background on IEST guy to President Manilow.

5:42 – Chloe finds out that Buckaroo has been downloading illegal music files!

5:43 – Jack patiently tries to explain AGAIN to Mrs. Buckaroo that Buckaroo tried to kill him. By blowing him up. Mrs. Buckaroo says that Jack must have misunderstood the bombing, and that Buckaroo must have been joking! Ha! That card! Now she accuses Jack of being a hater.

5:44 – Chloe find a shadow drive on the computer, using that amazing networking software of hers. Mrs. Buckaroo doesn’t know the password.

5:44 – Hospital again, the security there is actually on the ball, having seen the Terrorist Hospital Guy on camera. Curtis takes a few security guards downstairs to find Terrorist Hospital Guy, while taking advantage of that amazing cell phone friendly cement.

5:45 – Terrorist Hospital Guy sets the bomb timer for 10 minutes, because he knows that all major plot twists occur near the top of the hour.

5:46 – Curtis tells Terrorist Hospital Guy to freeze, and when he doesn’t , Curtis uses some bullets to make him freeze. He’s frozen now.

5:47 – Curtis finds the canister on the gurney, and one of the guards tries to touch it because he’s clearly an idiot. Most people would see a scary looking mechanical device sitting on a gurney with blinking lights (the device, not the gurney), having been put there by a terrorist that just got shot and think “Oooo! Shiny!”

5:52 – Hospital again, and the Intel bunny suit guys are entering the building.

5:52 – Chloe won’t be able to analyze the encryption in time.

5:53 – Jack jumps Buckaroo! Mrs. Buckaroo still doesn’t believe Jack. Jack tells her to unlock the briefcase. It’s full of money! Buckaroo tries to convince her that there’s a perfectly innocent explanation.

5:54 – WHOA! Jack shoot MRS. BUCKAROO! Jack threatens to kill her, and Buckaroo tells her that he won’t do a thing. Jack calls an ambulence

5:58 – Remote timer says it’ll go off in 1:11, near the top of the hour, on schedule. They run through a heavily occupied area, and dump it into a glass tank just in time! Yeah, Curtis! I’m not sure I’d take the mask off as fast as Curtis.

5:59 – Hmm… I guess I was wrong about the Terrorist guy in the car and The Hobbit’s Girlfriend and her boyfriend. He shot them. I never saw that coming.

LOST: Maternity Leave

SPOILERS AHEAD. Don’t read further if you don’t want to know what happened.

I think this was one of the better shows of the season. We learned:

1) That Claire was drugged and kept down in a medical facility where Ethan was giving her injections. Injections that appeared to be the same drug that Desmond grabbed on the way out of the hatch.

2) Ethan spoke to another person we saw in the medical hatch. That guy looked very much like “Mr. Friendly” (the guy Sawyer called “Zeke” in the jungle), except he had no beard. He told Ethan that no one was to be brought to the hatch until the list was made. Which leads to….

3) Kate found some of the clothes “The Others” were wearing….and theatrical glue and a beard! The ragged look of the others is just a cover!

4) A team of doctors was preparing to take the baby from Claire when a young girl saved Claire and got her outside the hatch. The girl was very likely Alex, the daughter that Danielle (the French woman) had, and who was taken away 16 years ago.

5) Despite Claire thinking that Danielle was trying to take her away from the camp, Danielle actually saved her.

6) Henry Gale, despite being held in vault in the hatch, is trying to get inside Locke’s head to create division within the LOST camp. We already know that Locke doesn’t like being told what to do (and what he can’t do). I’m just a little surprised Locke didn’t realize that’s what Henry was trying to do.

Probably the biggest surprise to me was when Kate found the clothes, glue and beard. That really changes a lot of theories about The Others (including mine). So, let’s rethink this a bit.

For some reason, “The Others” feel it necessary to dress up as if they’re shipwrecked castaways. Why it that? The only reason I can think of is that they want to make the LOST castaways believe that they’re not people they can get any help from (which is probably true anyway), and that they’d stay away from. If “The Others” had been dressed in regular street clothes, it would be a lot more likely that the LOST group would want to go to find them and find the place that they’re staying.

It also seems a lot more likely now that Desmond is one of The Others. People have been asking where Desmond went when he ran out of that bunker. I think it he had to have run to return to “The Others”.

As usual, when some mysteries are revealed, a few more open up:

Who would have been on “The List” that Ethan was supposed to be making?

Who is the “he” in that Mr. Friendly and Ethan were talking about? Could it be Alvar Hanso?

Why would Alex had been willing to help Claire, if she grew up with them on that island?

We’ve seen two other bunkers that have been completely abandoned. The first was the bunker the “tailies” found , the second was the bunker that was shown tonight. Both were nearly completely gutted. Where did they move all that equipment? Why did they feel the need to move all that equipment?

If Mr. Friendly isn’t really the guy in charge and he’s not calling the shots, what orders is he under? Are “The Others” willing participants in whatever is going on, or are they stuck as well?

That team of doctors was going to get Aaron, and most likely kill Claire. Why do they want Aaron? Is it for the same reason they want Walt?

With the elaborate ruse that Kate seems to have uncovered, I think it’s more and more likely that the LOST castaways were brought to the island on purpose. We already know they people on the island wanted Walt. We know they want Aaron. Are there others in that group that they want? Since Desmond and Jack had contact, could Jack also be one of the people on their “list”?

I’m going to have to watch this episode again….

24: 4pm to 5pm

If you’re wondering what this post is about, it’s something a bunch of folks do every week over on Dave Barry’s blog of the show “24”, and here’s my contribution:


4:00 pm – The Russian terrorist, who inexplicably speaks better English that most Americans, gets a call from yet MORE terrorists in the field.

4:01 pm – Manilow finds out that Mrs Manilow is in the limo! Finally, a way out! …No wait…. He wants to stop the motorcade to get her back.

4:03 pm – Manilow calls Mrs. Manilow, and tries to convince her to come back. She hangs up on him! Well, he tried. Guess that’s it for her!

4:06 pm – Manilow realizes that the Russians might find out that Mrs. Manilow has never ridden in a limo. …Oh, and that he gave the terrorists their route so the terrorists could kill them all. Whoops!

4:07 pm – Audrey tells Edgar to meet her in the server room, but won’t tell him why. Edgar looks really hopeful, and pops a breath mint.

4:08 pm – The Hobbit is slowly decending into craziness, and starts asking about Lemba wafers.

4:09 pm – Audrey and Chloe are both in the server room. The Hobbit would never think of looking there. Meanwhile, if Edgar walked in that server room in his present state of mind, he’d probably faint at what he thinks is going to find there.

4:10 pm – Jack gets a phone call from Audrey, and we find out that Jack is going to meet his previous boss’s replacement boss’s boss, that Jack investigated for selling secrets. This is going to be a happy reunion.

4:11 pm – Edgar is shocked to find Audrey and Chloe there together, and immediately demands to know if they’ve already eaten the secret stash of Cheetos Audrey alluded too.

4:12 pm – Manilow keeps thinking of wacky scenarios to get his wife out of the limo. That kook!

4:12 pm – Mrs. Manilow asks about route changes, and says she’s just worried about heavy traffic. Doesn’t she watch this show? There IS no heavy traffic.

COMMERCIAL

4:17 pm – Back at CTU, The Hobbit, asks this new person “Cary” who she’s on the phone with, she says “Homeland Security”, and he fires her. I’m sure she’ll remember that the next time someone asks her that, she will NOT answer “Homeland Security”. I can only imagine what would have happened if she answered “FEMA”.

4:18 pm – Audrey and Chloe get caught by The Hobbit, and Audrey confronts him. Audrey argues long enough to let Chloe send a new security update to the computer system of the company that Jack’s going to. The Hobbit tells Audrey he needs “Precious” and Chloe goes with him.

4:19 pm – Jack bypasses the crack security guard, and gets Audrey to get an assistant to go away from her desk.

4:22 pm – ROBOCOP, CUNNINGLY DISGUISED AS A REGULAR HUMAN, TAZERS JACK!

4:23 pm – Jack tells Robocop that the terrorist have Centox gas, and Robocop swears he only shot a few people, and doesn’t know about the gas.

4:24 pm – Jack asks to see a bunker, and Robocop leads him out of the office.

Commercial – TWENTY FOUR THE GAME!

4:29 pm – Edgar tells Chloe about an intercept, and it appears to be some chatter about the exact situation they’re in on the website by a famous humorist who’s name rhymes with “Brave Dairy”. He’s going to do some further investigating.

4:30 pm – Edgar and Chloe go to The Hobbit to tell him about the chatter that was intercepted, and since it has nothing to do with “Precious”, he doesn’t want to hear about it. He says he’s been embarassed enough for one day. (He’s wrong. There’s PLENTY more to be embarassed about.) Curtis tries to tell him to put people on the threat assessment, and is told to go play with an elf.

4:31 pm – Impecible English Speaking Terrorist (IEST) calls to make sure that there’s still no traffic on any street in LA.

4:32 pm – Audrey goes to The Hobbit to tell him about the threat, and even threatens to cry, but The Hobbit STILL doesn’t want to hear about it, unless it involves The Ring. At this point, I think The Hobbit is in on the plot.

4:33 pm – Chloe instant messenges Edgar to meet in the hall. He sees Chloe and Audrey there, but still no Cheetos.

4:34 pm – Audrey wants Chloe to hack the Hobbits account, so she can send a secret message. Edgar doesn’t want to do it unless he sees some Cheetoes RIGHT NOW. They convince him to help them send the message.

4:34 pm – Audrey tells Curtis that she wants to invoke “Section 112” to get Bill back in charge of CTU. Curtis doesn’t understand how getting Bill to dress up like a circus clown is going to help anything, until he realizes that she said “Section 112”, not “Section 212”. He’s still not sure it will work, since a mad Hobbit is a bad Hobbit, not to mention it’ll be a LOT of paperwork.

4:35 pm – Meanwhile, there’s ZERO traffic on the freeway in LA. That ALONE should make the Russians suspicious.

4:35 pm – Manilow and Cheney-Looking-Guy (CLG) are talking about as much as the end of a scene in a soap opera, right before a commercial…lots of meaningful glances, but ZERO DIALOG. …Wait, Manilow tells a little story his father told him about a man named Jed, who was shooting at some food, and wants to know how this fits in with what the terrorists are doing. (I think it’s a race between The Hobbit and Manilow to see who goes completely berzerk first). Manilow starts blaming Mrs. Manilow for the situation she’s in. Now he wants to pray, and wants CLG to pray too. Apparently he doesn’t know that CLG is a Cthulu worshipper, and that would be a REALLY big problem.

4:38 pm – The jig is up! The Hobbit caught Edgar orange-handed! How could he not notice the Cheetoes dust all over his terminal! Chloe sticks up for him, and so does Audrey. The Hobbit has red-shirted security guards with him, so you know he’s kind of serious. The security guards have no idea what they’re in for, since apparently they’re not familiar with Star Trek theory of security guards wearing red shirts.

4:39 pm – Curtis goes against The Hobbit, invokes Section 112! He is one mad little Hobbit.

COMMERCIAL

4:45 pm – Bill is back! Everyone is back into the swing. Manilow finds out that CTU knows about the terrorist plot, and is speechless. Manilow looks mad. They’re about to save Mrs. Manilow.

4:47 pm – Terrorists are in position…. Secret Service goes into evasive manuvers, a missle is shot at the motorcade and top secret service guy looks like he’s dead. The terrorists machine gun the car, pull a flame thrower out, try that…nothing is doing anything to that car. The top secret service guy is alive, and he looks mad! He opens the door and fires on the terrorists, even blowing up the guy with the flame thrower! YEAH! And secret service guy is going to be OK! YEAH!

4:49 pm – Manilow gets the bad news. His wife is OK. The terrorists are going to be mad. Silly Manilow…. terrorists are ALWAYS mad.

More terrorism! Wait, that’s Amercian Idol, tomorrow. At least they warned us.

4:54 pm – Robocop and Jack finally get to where they’re going. That must be one BIG building. They go into a basement, Robocop says he doesn’t know who’s working on the Centox project, and as a senior VP, he is able to sit down at a terminal and actually use it, which is again…unrealistic.

4:57 pm – Robocop leaves, and when Jack goes to check the phones, they’re all dead. Jack checks the door, and it’s locked. He checks the notepad that Robocop left behind, and it’s got a bomb in it. Jack says he feels stupid. I’m guessing that’s an understatement.

4:58 pm – Robocop leaves, telling whoever is on the phone that CTU doesn’t have enough info on them. He goes out to the car, saying Jack will be dead in one minute.

4:58 pm – Jack puts the bomb in small room.

4:59 pm – Robocop remote detonates the bomb, but Jack was safe because he pulled a floor tile and hid there.. He walks out of the room with his gun drawn. That’s our Jack!

4:59 pm – Manilow and CLG are working on a cover story. Phone call from IEST direct to the president, saying that this time Americans are going to get it.

next time – TWO HOURS OF JACK BAUER! MRS. MANILOW TELLS SECRET SERVICE ABOUT THE PLOT! JACK’S DAUGHTER RETURNS! JACK CATCHES UP WITH ROBOCOP! I GET THE CAPS LOCK UNSTUCK FROM THIS KEYBOARD!

What’s Apple up to?

Speaking of mysterious new devices….

Apple will announce something “new” next week, according to the invitations that some chosen few have received. There’s a picture that’s circulating which looks like a small cube. The person that took it says it measures 8x8x8 and has a bunch of ports on the back.

My guess is that it’ll be a device that you’ll connect to your TV, will have a wireless internet connection, and the ability to download movies right to it. I don’t think they’ll go the TiVO route, since there’s still a lot of shakeup about to happen in that market.

People have been going “gah-gah” over the ability to have TV shows on their iPOD…doesn’t it make sense for Apple to introduce something that people will be able to use in their living rooms?

Any other guesses?

Microsoft “Origami” to debut March 2nd

There has been a lot of speculation on what Microsoft “Origami” might be over the last couple of days. The website http://www.origamiproject.com, has a weird little flash movie that doesn’t really do anything more than add to the mystery of what it might be.

A few years ago, National Semicondtor came up with a device named “Origami” which was a small handheld that could be opened and turned in a variety of different ways, depending on how it would be used.

The device that was talked about back then was a phone, pda, MP3 player, e-mail device, and video conferencing tool.

LOST: More Hieroglyphics

A couple of people have asked me where I found the information on Egyptian Hieroglyphics that lead me to the conclusions in my previous post about the LOST counter. I did all that research via Google. Here are some of the pages:

The Egyptian Vulture
Hieroglyphics!
Hieroglyphic Dictionary
Duke Papyrus Archive
Hieroglyphs.net

These are just some of the sites that I looked at. There are quite a few others on the Web that might help you draw your own conclusions about what the symbols mean.


One of the things I didn’t mention before was that apparently there is some controversy surrounding Hieroglyphics found in Australia, and whether they’re real or not. Since some of LOST centers around Australia, it brings up a lot of interesting questions.

There have been a lot of theories about what the hieroglyphics on the “countdown” timer in the hatch mean. The thing that occurred to me wasn’t so much what they meant, but why there were hieroglyphics symbols there in the first place. Doesn’t it seem a little odd that of all thins, Egyptian hieroglyphics would show up on the timer? Why not words? Why any message at all?