Spoilers 3: First Mutant Enemy, Now the World
[NAFDA] Spoilers for any and all currently running TV shows. All hardcore spoilage, all the time. No white font.
It is still a little spooky that the subliminal message is that if you are Middle Eastern or Chinese, you gots some righteous torture coming.
All the non-white people they tortured were shady, and gave up info. No white people have coughed anything up yet -- I don't think the moral is the one you're drawing.
One thing I can say for Jack. He thinks any one individual is expendable to save many, and he definitely includes himself. When Nikita-chick was initiating torture, it was from a privileged position of safety, and she damned well knew it.
Isn't there one CTU employee who was innocent was tortured without much "learning" there?
Yeah, and the Sec of Defense's son. (Though judging by the promo, he may have been less innocent than we thought.) But that wasn't Jack, it was Curtis. Jack only tortures bad guys, and his girlfriend's ex-husband.
Who's been tortured so far? Isn't there one CTU employee who was innocent was tortured without much "learning" there?
Yes, that woman, the pretty brunette analyst that could suffer neither Chloe nor Edgar. She was the one sucking up to the CTU chief (whose daughter killed herself in the CTU clinic).
Yeah, and the Sec of Defense's son. (Though judging by the promo, he may have been less innocent than we thought.) But that wasn't Jack, it was Curtis. Jack only tortures bad guys, and his girlfriend's ex-husband.
And I think Jack got tortured pretty badly this season, or was that from an earlier season I was just watching this season? Mmm. Maybe.
Hey, did Behrooz die? Did he die in a we-saw-the-corpse way. I know they made the exchange, and I figured Behrooz wasn't long for this world, but I can't remember seeing him die.
Discussion about how non-non-whites have got the stuff to withstand torture seems to be in line with an Amurrican Gots The Rights! agenda/message.
I read somewhere (Kristin nee Wendy?) that Behrooz will be back.
So far as we've seen, none of the non-whites had anything to tell. Well, other than Jack, but he's the hero, and has different rules.
The "others" have all been shady -- I think that's more of a message (though there are white bad guys -- so it's not much of one). The white folk can't tell what they don't know.
Well, OK. I don't need any more messages from Fox that I should stay ignorant, either.
Nevermind my melanin.
I have no idea what you're taking away from having watched 24 this season, Gus.
I think the torture has been very cavalier, and without much of a moral penalty, if any, associated with it.
What precisely that has to do with you and your race, I'm not sure. Or about ignorance, really.
I am perfectly comfortable leaving anyone's race out of it.
The torture on 24 this season has been more frequent than can be readily accepted as accidental. It is like justifiable torture is the message.
Maybe this is all conspiracy-theory thinking. It could be that the 24 writers have just been trying to get to plot inflections by the most gruesome means they can get away with on TV.
The message I'm reading, though, is that torture is justifiable. It is more efficacious against bad guys than against good guys. Go for it.
So we agree -- too much cavalier torture.
I'm not going to go as far as message, at least not intended, but it certainly is a theme.
I disagree with the good guy/bad guy thing -- was Jack even tortured this season? No other good guys with secrets were, and the hero isn't a hero if he gives anything up. No sample there.
The hero is a torturer. There is your sample.
(I think Jack was tortured, or anyways beat up pretty good just prior to the exchange. Let's call that torture, because I don't want to find myself making a case that Marwan has the superior ethical position, 'cuz he doesn't.)
