Maybe you don't understand the seriousness of the Bashir situation. Bashir (Alexander Siddig), aka Hamir Al-Assad, exposed Jack Bauer's failure to extract information from a terrorist who had knowledge about impending attacks. Bashir, who apparently knows about how painful knifing someone in the knee can be after watching Reservoir Dogs during his off time at DS9, used a knife to great effect and Bashir's genetic modifications will come in quite handy in the ensuing quest to stop the terrorists from carrying out their nefarious plans.
Not only did Bashir extract the needed information, but showed Jack a new technique for information extraction. In the end, Bashir killed the terrorist and noted that Jack will get his mojo back. So, Bashir also appears to have watched Austin Powers as well. Nice. That bit of information will come in handy. Bashir not only plays a terrorist, but a shrink as well. What other skills will be revealed in the next few hours? That he likes singing songs, long romantic walks, and knows how to use a Patterson trocar to great effect?
Now, some of you think that this lays low Jack Bauer's invulnerability factor, especially as the Chinese appear to have penetrated that veneer such that Bauer's first words uttered in more than two years was to pine for Audrey.
Jack then shows that he doesn't quite have the stomach to vigorously interrogate folks like he has done in the past. Has he seen the dark side of what his efforts have wrought? Has he found torture to be distasteful after being on the receiving end for more than two years?
In other words, has Jack been broken by the Chinese government after being held for two years by real torture? [And does the US get to sue the Chinese for violating Jack's warranty?]
Not exactly.
Jack shows that he's learned a few things in the interim - killing bad guy number 1 with the jaws of death. I sure hope he was up to date on his shots. Jack also surprises us by showing that he's still pretty limber after being in shackles for the past two years. Jack takes out a suicide bomber by drop kicking him out of a subway car right as the bomber is about to turn into a red cloud.
Some things don't change. The nation still suffers when it does not listen to Jack Bauer. Jack may be off a touch, and doubting his abilities to get through another sticky wicket, but if Jack Bauer says X, then the government will do precisely the opposite thing, with the predictable bad outcome (just like watching a slow motion car wreck or watching the Palmer women undermine the President of the United States). When will they ever learn? You can be assured that Bashir will take advantage of this situation.
We're going to have to watch the Bashir situation closely. Jack appears to be quite vulnerable at the moment, and that's not a good place for him to be. That only means that the body count will be quite high.
Cross posted to Blogs4Bauer.
UPDATE:
Don't forget that today is talk like Jack Bauer day.
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