"24 S8.11" Recap – “Rocking Under Pressure”

24 S8.11 – “Rocking Under Pressure”

• Things start off with an impending bang as Jack needs to get Muhammad Blue-Eyes out of the Jacko Box. They decide to bring his gringo mom in.
• Damp Boi and Lifetime Starbuck are all tense and stuff in the elevator. Does Freddie Prinze Jr. know that The Sopranos isn’t on anymore and that he can’t use this as an audition tape?
• Bubba chews them out just like every black cop show captain ever.
• Dante’s lackeys are monitoring the hospital feeds, too.
• Starbuck now reports to Chloe who shows that she’s got the empathy skills of a barbed wire-wrapped cinder block. Drone Boy tries to move in.
• Jack tries to charm MBE out of the chamber, but he’s all jihad. How is it that the air controls are in the chamber other than to have them in a realistic spot would mean Jack could shut the air off, knock out MBE and then take him at his leisure? The writers are hoping no one will notice this gap.
• Zaboo and Fajita are all naked and sweaty indicating that these two can’t figure out how to work the room’s thermostat properly. Try turning it to the left, kids.
• Slumdog Regis and the missus are reunited and it doesn’t feel so good. Gee, a few hours ago he was rounding up everyone for torture and now you’re feeling remorseful? It’s like having Chinese food as a moral center.
• Damp Boi picks up Gringo Mom and she’s all like, “He must’ve fallen in with a bad element.” Ya think?!?
• Just as Starbuck starts trying to crawl out of the hole she’s dug, another Yahoo from back home calls and she, of course, agrees to take the meeting. She calls Damp Boi and the lame dial gets twisted back to the right. Yay.
• Well, it’s about fraking time!!! The whole segment with MBE and mom and then Jack threatening to take her to the blast site was the first time in this entire season that felt like vintage 24. INTENSE!
• Closing segment with Fajita learning that Zaboo and then being a bad liar also didn’t suck.

Thoughts: After 10 hours and 40 minutes of lameness, 24 has finally shown a spark that almost made me forget that the Hillbilly Starbuck plot is going to drag on. More tension, less lameness, please.

Hardcores: Jack for talking MBE out of the chamber as hardcore has he could without bashing the door down with his dick.

Little Bitches: Muhammad Blue-Eyes (RIP); Starbuck.

Up Next: WTF is with the preview giving away the times of plot beats and announcing that there will be a twist?!?!? ARGH!!!

Episodes Score: 8/10. (That one segment: 9.5/10)

JBBC: While it’s tempting to give Jack a point for that hardcore staredown scene, he remains holding at 8.