Note to reader: if you don't watch 24, there's a lot of inside references that may render the remainder of this post meaningless.
I was utterly shocked that they killed Edgar! Oh Edgar, thou of gentle spirit and undying devotion. I just knew that Chloe would eventually see into his heart rather than his girth. But I digress.
There are also some hilarious memes circulating about Jack's uh, shall we say; "tenacity":
- When google can't find something, it asks Jack Bauer for help.
- Every time the cops get an APB to arrest Jack Bauer, half the department mysteriously calls out sick. The fire department too, just in case.
- Jack Bauer doesn't kill terrorists. The terrorists actually die from fear of being killed by Jack Bauer.
- Upon hearing that he was played by Kiefer Sutherland, Jack Bauer killed Sutherland. Jack Bauer gets played by no man.
- Jack Bauer once forgot where he put his keys. He then spent the next half-hour torturing himself until he gave up the location of the keys.
- Jack Bauer doesn't miss. If he didn't hit you it's because he was shooting at another terrorist twelve miles away.
- Killing Jack Bauer doesn't make him dead. It just makes him angry.
And my favorite:
- If Jack Bauer was in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and Nina Meyers, and he had a gun with 2 bullets, he'd shoot Nina twice.
So what is the theological theme (if any!) we can see in 24? It might be that:
If Jack Bauer were Moses, there would only need to be one tablet and five commandments.
Well, perhaps Jack is a figure of Moses, Joshua, God - or a composite of all three?
Personally, I think Jack Bauer is a representation of the OT judges. Who where these people and what did they do? I think Bratcher paints a perfect portrait the climate and roles that the judges of Israel played:
A "judge" (Heb: shophet) was primarily a military leader of a particular tribe, although they could serve the role of both military and legal administrator. The book of Judges is primarily the negative theological counterpart to the book of Joshua. In Joshua, Israel was faithful to God and stood unified around the single figure of Joshua. As a result of allowing God to lead them they were successful and settled into the land with a minimum of major battles. Theologically the book of Joshua presents the results of obedience and faithfulness to God, summarized by the statement "the land had rest from war" (Josh 11:23, 14:15; 21:44, etc.).
The book of Judges presents quite a different picture of Israel. As the book opens, the tribes are not at all unified, are barely holding onto small pieces of land independently of other tribes, and are continually at risk from surrounding people.
Yeah, I think that is a fairly accurate portrayal of the America seen in Jack's world. A country torn by division, you can't trust anyone, at risk by terrorists, and one man - Jack Bauer - is going to do whatever it takes to secure our freedoms and rid us of of evil. Wow.
So in the book of Judges, is there one who seems close to Jack Bauer? I think so. How about Gideon?
- Gideon came from a poor tribe (Manasseh) and thus maintained he was not fit to be a leader. Jack Bauer wears his blue collar well, and is humble to boot around the president(s) he hangs with.
- Gideon used his fleece to get direction from God. Jack Bauer uses his PDA to get direction from CTU.
- Gideon used deception and misdirection to cause the Midianites to kill each other in confusion. Jack Bauer uses German intelligence agents and promises them the wet list and then burns their PDAs with a self destructing memory card.
