Most will probably react with righteous indignation at the suggestion that President Buck Buck Brawwwwwk was pulling the strings behind the day’s events; but not me, and not for the reasons you might think. It’s only television, after all, and the truth is that we simply don’t know enough to have any idea why Logan and Robocop are in bed together, so there’s no real point in trying to figure out what the connection is. That information has not been revealed yet. For all we know, Wayne Palmer is lording something over Logan, which is why Logan plotted to have David Palmer killed. Anything is possible. It’s late, I’m tired, and I’m willing to wait until next week to obtain more intel before I bust another cap in the ass of an innocent.
Carl Spackler’s prediction about Evelyn came to fruition this week, but of course they made her a sympathetic baddie. Hell, she wasn’t even a baddie at all, just someone who tried to get info to President Palmer before Robocop killed her daughter. Of course, Vice President Leland Palmer (man, this whole former President/current Vice President Palmer thing is getting confusing) spotted Palmer with Agent Pierce at the compound, which may wind up signing Old Yeller’s death warrant, since he lied to the VP about why Wayne Palmer was on the premises. Leland extended to Wayne what appeared to be the most insincere, sleaziest condolences you’ve ever heard, but what if he’s telling the truth? They set us up to not trust him, and I feel like an idiot for buying it.
There are a lot of things at play here. When the episode ended, I looked at Buffybot and said, “My head hurts.” We thought that Leland Palmer was a baddie because he’s hell-bent on seeing Homeland Security absorb CTU, and that gave him motive for manipulating the day’s events, since his actions are directly interfering with CTU’s ability to do their job. But it’s actually even sweeter that Leland Palmer and Chicken Little are acting alone with separate agendas. When Leland came in to tell Logan that Wayne Palmer was there, you almost got the sense that Leland knew something, but maybe that’s nothing. That’s the thing about “24”; when you think it’s something, it’s nothing. When you think it’s nothing, it’s something.
So what to make of Audrey’s Faustian deal with Homeland Security that ran Buchanan out of town on a rail? Entertainment Weekly revealed that Kim Raver, the actress that plays Audrey, has signed on for a new show, which suggests that Audrey bites it, and soon. Will it be at the hands of Buchanan? I doubt it…
…but suddenly I’ve started to wonder if Secretary of Defense James Heller, Audrey’s father, isn’t somehow involved in all of this. Obviously I have no info to prove that, but if they’re willing to make both the President and Vice President bad guys, why not the Secretary of Defense? If we know anything about Logan, it’s that he is easily intimidated. I’m sure that he is not doing what he’s doing because he wants to, but because he thinks he has to. James Heller, on the other hand, has balls of steel. He’s stared down his own execution on national television. Perhaps Heller is the man that’s pulling Robocop’s strings. Jack said it himself; Robocop is a soldier, not a terrorist. Heller strikes me as the kind of guy that Robocop would follow to the ends of the earth, if the price was right.
And man, are Kim and Ponyboy really gone for the rest of the season? What a ripoff! I thought for sure that they would make at least one more appearance. Why even come back at all? And don’t think that the curfew isn’t going to come back into play. They didn’t bring that up for nothing. This was Hour 16, which is mathematically the end of Act II. Seeing Chicken Little as the baddie is a hell of a way to finish that. Let’s hope Act III sustains the suspense.
