24blogging
Wow.
To me, 24 has always been about one thing: the conflict between duty and humanity. Last year was probably the most coherent realization of that theme, as from episode 1 to episode 24, Jack, Chase, David, Wayne, and Tony all found different ways to balance their jobs and their families, with varying degrees of success. Actually, with unmitigated failure, except in the case of Chase, who finally realized his duties as a father required his getting the hell out of CTU.
Tonight’s episode brought that theme back with a vengeance. Jack’s confrontation with Dina was just brilliant - they’ve both been in the position of having to choose between a child and a supposedly higher calling. Lesser writers would have made Dina change her mind about everything when Behrooz was endangered and fight on the side of CTU, but Dina genuinely believes in her war against the United States, and will only assist CTU while it has the potential to save Behrooz.
What really keep people watching this show are, I suspect, the production values. 24 just looks and feels better than most television. But character arcs like these make up for a lot of the other silliness in the writing.