Jack Bauer: a MacGuyver of torture.
"I don't know how to do this anymore." The most shocking thing about Jack Bauer's return on Sunday night wasn't the sight of two years' worth of scars on his back after languishing in a Chinese jail (or the worst TV beard since the Others in Lost), but the thought that he might actually have second thoughts about torturing a terrorist.
Over the five long, bad days we've watched Jack stay up for, 24 has established itself as the litmus drama for our 9/11, Abu Ghraib, war on terror times, with Bauer evolving into a kind of MacGuyver of torture, capable of getting what he wants out of anyone with a penknife (generally reinterpreting the "you'll have someone's eye out with that" concept), a hotel lamp (pull out the wires, plug in, attach to nearest body part) or just his bare hands (snapping fingers usually seems to be a good starting point).
Day six starts with the tables briefly turned. Somehow, Abu Fayed, the terrorist brother of one of Jack's previous victims, has convinced the new President Palmer to do a deal with the Chinese. So, it's out of one dungeon and into another. As Fayed gleefully unrolls his tool-kit, stabs Bauer in the shoulder and pours alcohol over the gaping wound, you get the feeling he has done this before too.
Still, Bauer's both sadist and masochist, perfecting his patented "this hurts me more than it does you" look after volunteering to pump his girlfriend Audrey full of truth-drug Sodium Penthotal, and then slam her around a CTU holding cell. Let's not forget she also had to watch her slacker brother being handed over to Richards (CTU's other guy to go to for "information extraction"), and Jack torturing her ex-husband.
Other notable moments in 24's Amnesty report might include CTU's Sarah Gavin getting dragged into the back room after being suspected of being a double-agent (and then being expected to go back to work a few hours later); season two's "personal conflict? What personal conflict?" Jack and Nina showdown; blonde Islamist convert Marie Warner refusing to bow to Jack's extreme line of questioning (shooting her, leaving the bullet in, refusing to give her painkillers); or weedy teenage suspect Behrooz Araz getting the full CTU treatment (being whacked around a cell by man-mountain Curtis).
As 24's creator Joel Surnow pointed out, it's a show that appeals and appals in equal measure. You could argue that the plotlines involving torture either unmask the brutality of Bush-era politics or bolster it -- and perhaps this ambiguity explains its success: it works for both liberal and neo-con viewers. Throughout the series they've had it both ways, with CTU agents and their various global terrorist counterparts pushing guilty and innocent suspects to talk.
No doubt Jack will soon find his way back as the day six clock ticks away; but for one brief moment as he gave up on torturing a suspect, and then watched Alexander Siddig's Osama-like mastermind Hamri Al-Assad finish the job with that time-honoured knife-into-kneecap trick, it did look like he'd finally had enough.
