Is Jack Bauer a pulp hero, or is he a tragic hero?
I never wondered about this before this week's episode. After all, as so many have reminded me, it's a #$@$! TV show(!!!).
But, there was something about Jack's decision to let Paul die in order to save the life of the Chinese computer expert who helped Marwan with the nuke. There was something about his reaction to having done so. For those who did not see Tuesday's episode, or who have forgotten the details these two long days passed, Jack invades China (well, the L.A. branch office of China, anyway) to capture this guy who had helped Marwan decode the nuclear bomb. Or, something.
A little more "Rambo" than I prefer, but within the context of this show, I'm okay with it. They get the guy; so far, so good. Until, that is, the computer expert takes a bullet.
Computer Expert [through an interpreter and mouthfuls of blood]: Yes, I know where Marwan is and I will tell you where he is... in exchange for full immunity from prosecution and free passage to anywhere I wish to go on God's as-yet green earth. However, I will not do so unless and until I have a signed agreement to that effect, bearing the signature of President Flopsweat and backed by the full faith and credit of these United States.The computer expert's lungs fill up with fluid (blood, presumably?).
Jack: There's NO TIME!(!!)
Computer Expert: Well, then, you got a problem 'cause I ain't sayin' nuthin about nuthin until I get my deal.
Jack: DAMMIT!
Jack: Get us to CTU!In the meantime, Paul has had a cardiac episode, requiring surgery. He is, in fact, on the table when Jack rushes in with the computer expert on a gurney. At gunpoint, while Audrey shrieks and begs him not to, Jack forces the doctor to stop operating on Paul and begin trying to save the computer expert's life. Paul goes into cardiac arrest. Jack and Curtis try to save him with CPR, defibrilator paddles and a syringe full of epinephrine. It is no use. Paul is dead. Audrey punches Jack in the face and curses his mother for a bitch.
Jack just stands there. Curtis and a couple of CTU Ensign Johsons (They'll get theirs. Just you wait!) drag Audrey off, cursing and hissing the whole way. Jack manages to ask the doctor if Computer Expert is going to live. Doc sez he's working on it. Tic Toc Tic Toc Tic Toc...
So. Does the computer expert live and give up the goods about Marwan, allowing Jack to track him down, kill him, disarm the nuke and save America yet again?
Or, does the computer expert die after all? Or, does he live, but refuse to give up Marwan? Or, does he tell Jack everything he knows, only for Jack to find out that it is worthless information, and that Marwan remains on the loose?
Or, does the nuclear bomb explode? For the first time, it occurs to me that CTU could very well fail to stop the bad guy, and that the worst-case scenario, rather being narrowly-averted, actually comes to pass.
I suppose that if the computer expert were going to die, then he would have done so at the end of this episode. That, my friends, would have been tragic.
But, is "24" a tragedy? Jack Bauer certainly posseses the characteristics of a classical tragic hero. His weakness is one that passes for strength and resolve in this post-September 11th age. He is willing to do anything, no matter how morally questionable, no matter how profoundly amoral, in the service of what he believes to be a greater good. Jack's tragic flaw is moral relativism.
Two seasons ago, he shot a shackled prisoner to death in a CTU interrogation room and cut off his head in order to make inroads with a band of criminals connected to, of all things, a nuclear weapon.
This season we have been treated to scene after revolting scene of torture. The torturers are, of all people, our protagonists. Are the producers and writers of "24" just a bunch of nutcases working out some aggression with all of this, or is there a narrative purpose driving it? It is ironic that some of the people who are normally the harshest critics of moral relativism are, post-9-11, willing also to condone such things as torture and lies in the service of a greater good, that of "defending America." They make jokes (jokes!) about Abu Ghraib. They think what is happening at Guantanamo is perfectly fine. They are happy to presume that suspected terrorists are guilty until such time as they are proven innocent. They support going to war against a nation that did not attack us and posed no threat to us. Hey, "the enemy attacked us, Jim." It's time for some payback. Against who? Who cares? All bets are off.
In Jack Bauer's world, all bets are always off. Rules were made to be broken. So were kneecaps, fingers, jawbones and skulls. "I'm doing my job," he snarls when confronted or even when questioned.
A man can dwell in such darkness for only so long before it seeps into his soul. What I saw in the last scene of "24" Tuesday night was a man seeing the darkness in his own soul. If he is still confronting it when next we see him, then I think we can give "24" the benefit of whatever doubts we have. If not, if they shrug it off the way they shrugged off the consequences of torture a couple of weeks ago, then maybe they are just having fun.
I want for this story to be a tragedy, rather than a simple adventure. That would indicate real courage and creativity on the part of the writers. It would mean they are trying to do more than sell us a piece of pulp fiction.
Will the nuclear bomb go off? That would require courage. Confronting the new world after such a catastrophe would be the only credible way to set up next season. After the planned assassination of a presidential candidate, the threat of biological warfare and two nuclear panics, what would keep us watching? Martian invaders?
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