I think it was Cole who said, “There are no good guys in this,” and I think that’s a pretty fair assessment of the turmoil leading to the finale. Since I was worried that the show would portray Jack as the rebellious hero, I quite enjoy that rather simplistic view. And like I said, it’s accurate. Over the past few weeks I’ve defended President Taylor’s stance. Or, at the very least, I said it’s no worse than Jack’s. But this past episode, with her sly remark to Logan about how she thought he was going to take care of the Jack situation, you could tell that she knew full well that Logan had planned to have Jack killed. Really, she’s crossed the point of no return.
So with that in mind, I’m glad they established early on that Jack executed Dana, and that Cole relayed that message to everyone else. As Cole noted, Jack made a deal with Dana and promised Cole that this wasn’t about revenge – words that he would go back on, of course. And Cole also correctly pointed out that Jack completely used him. He never planned on bringing in those who were responsible so that they could face the consequences. He was going to make them pay in his own way, and working with Cole was merely a means to that end. Just look at how willing he was to put Meredith – more or less an innocent bystander – in harm’s way to get his hands on the assassin.
How about that scene with Jack and the assassin, by the way? That was unlike any form of torture we’ve seen from Jack in the past. I’m not going to claim that I don’t think Jack enjoyed inflicting pain on bad people, because to an extent I believe he did, but he always had his eyes on the prize. That prize was getting necessary information. I don’t think that was his intent this time. Yes, Jack wanted to know something from this man, but I do believe his main objective was to hurt this man, and he had every intention in the world of killing him afterwards.
And for the first time since this conflict started, we not only saw how truly dirty Taylor is willing to get, but we also got a glimpse of how much she’s beginning to fall apart. Between her forgetfulness while dealing with the new President Hassan, to her submissiveness while dealing with Logan, you can tell that she’s at the end of her rope, and at this point she’s just willing to do whatever it takes to cover up this whole mess (again, reminiscent of Palmer’s political downfall).
And then in the middle of this all is Chloe. She now realizes that, yes, there is a presidential conspiracy to hide something, so that in that regard Jack is right. But with her Intel from Cole, she realizes that Jack has gone off the deep end and is killing and using people with little regard. And, rightfully so, for her it’s no longer about stopping Jack or even helping him – she simply wants to make sure he gets through this day without being killed.
And what was with the preview for next week? Does Jack become Batman or something? A masked, costumed vigilante?
Matt Basilo has been writing for Inside Pulse since April 2005, providing his insight into popular television shows such as Lost, 24, Heroes, and Smallville. Be sure to visit his blog at [a case of the blog] and follow him on Twitter.
