History Headscratchers / TwentyFour

** Jack doesn't do what he does out of loyalty to his country, or any particular ideology. In his WorldOfCardboardSpeech at the end of Day 7, he reveals that he does what he does and keeps coming back simply because he ''can't'' walk away. Of all the bad things he's done, the one thing he wouldn't be able to live with himself with would be turning away when he was in a position to save an innocent life. ''Any'' innocent life, at any cost.

** This one is explained over in WildMassGuessing [[spoiler: He's an exiled timelord]]

* You'd think that having terrorists using a single piece of hardware almost managing to cause all America's nuclear power plants to meltdown would teach the administration a lesson about centralized infrastructure control through an open medium. But no - as of season 7, [[spoiler: it seems they've gone ahead and put ''all'' their eggs into one basket, without any form of localized oversight, contingency or countermeasure that can be implemented in a period of less than days. Just how many people had to have their hands on the IdiotBall simultaneously, over how many months, to bring this firewall system to fruition?]]

* The government, CTU, and so forth all appear to be run by uncoordinated idiots during the weeks leading up to any given day, whereas the terrorist organizations are always perfectly coordinated. By the end of the day, the government has survived through basically blind luck. Look at any season: four or so "good guys" will end up being moles, while rarely will even one of the bad guys be an undercover operative; the President will always have to make a decision which results in a few other people going behind his or her back and doing something even more extreme (apparently the slippery slope is easy to get onto and at a near 90 degree angle: recently on Day 8 [[spoiler: one government official went from being skeptical about not giving into terrorist demands to allowing his close friend and boss to die of a heart attack in a matter of ''minutes'']]; and there is always very little if any intel before the season about a potential attack.

* How did the terrorists record such a long video before [[spoiler: killing Hassan]]?

* I just find it head bangingly stupid that Jack didn't think to tell anyone that [[spoiler: Audrey was alive in Season 6]]. Wouldn't the news that [[spoiler: the daughter of the former secretary of defense was being held hostage by the Chinese]] cause an uproar in the United States? I can't think of any situation in which the American government would just take that sort of thing lying down.

* In ''Live Another Day'', President Heller signs a letter of resignation, effective at the time that he's scheduled to [[spoiler:turn himself over to Al-Harazi]], yet after [[spoiler:Jack unexpectedly saves him at the last moment]], he's still president.

* (Some fans are still hoping [[spoiler: Max and/or Trepkos]] from Day 2 shows up again.)

*** They haven't actually been building up to anything like that [[spoiler:Max was killed in the Game while the rest of his group were said to have been captured prior to Day 3. The second group was a company ran by Jack's father and brother that was resolved in Day 6 with their deaths, with it being completely separate from the previous group. The third group in Day 7 ATTEMPTED to be this, but it was so thrown together at the last minute that no one bought it and it just lead to people mocking the David Palmer assassination conspiracy, so it was dropped. This "ultimate showdown with a bland cabal of vagueness behind everything" was mainly the viewpoint of some fans who wanted to have a link between all the seasons even though none really existed. Basically all of them are aborted arcs that some fans tried to link together but in the show nothing actually came of them]]

** In spite of an earlier episode saying the data on the keycard is on a magnetic stripe, if you look closely it's obviously a smart card. It's likely they can't copy anything off the card without breaking the code first. This is by design specifically to prevent duplication.

*** It isn't TruthInTelevision. The vast majority of terrorist plots in RealLife are thwarted, mostly because of the incompetence of the terrorists- for a start, being part of a cell of fanatics makes one ''more'' likely to be caught since other people notice how unusual it is; most successful terrorist attacks are carried out by lone wolves. Real government agencies are constantly tracking down and monitoring terrorist websites (which terrorists in the show are shown to use and communicate through); keep extremely- often invasively- close surveillance on known or suspected extremists as well as anyone who so much as shook hands with them; run extensive background checks on ALL employees for months at least before hiring anyone (up to and including janitors, never mind computer analysts or field agents)...yeah, the truth is the agencies in the ''24'' universe are jus grossly incompetent.

** ''24: The Game'' revolves around Nina and Max working together, and brings in Chase following a lead to LA and Kim joining CTU. [[NoProblemWithLicensedGames If you're interested in season 2.5 pick it up.]]

*** There's a moment in Thomas Harris' ''[[TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal]]'' where Clarice Starling ruminates about a recent botched drug raid and who's going to take the fall. The exact term used is "Catch-Me-Fuck-Me". In a government, it's not about who's actually at fault, it's about who can be sufficiently ''blamed''; you can't make it far into any government without being a KarmaHoudini, and the fact that America is a democracy (where all elected officials need to look perfect to ''become'' elected officials) just makes it worse. Buchanan (and, as of Season 7, CTU itself) was simply too slow, and got caught. And fucked.

*** For me it's almost a JustBugsMe that people keep commenting on how his cell never dies. My phone can easily go 24 hours without needing to be recharged even when I talk on it a lot.

* How does Bazhaev's son get radiation poisoning from the fuel rods, yet Farhad and his mooks have them out in the open without being affected by the radiation? [[note]]Uranium radiation actually isn't that dangerous in real life, but what JustBugsMe is that the rods are dangerous at first when Bazhaev has them, then suddenly not dangerous when Farhad has them.[[/note]]

* Why was {{Fox}} so damn intent on painting all Russians as being evil in season 6? Did they forget that the cold war is over?

*** Actually, in season one, when Jack was in holding (in CTU) after rescuing Teri and Kim from Paul Gaines, you see him eating lunch. Few fans remember this happening, since they probably haven't viewed that scene since 2002.

*** Squirt a little, let it dry, repeat.

** It depends on the agency. The CIA, for example, wouldn't allow any previously unauthorized visitors. However, there are some subagencies of DHS that allow personal visits, although I'm sure they'd prefer if they were notified ahead of time and it wasn't on the employee's work time. That being said, they would definitely have a log of it. And it's possible to find the address of many "secret" locations thanks to the interwebs. And we've seen CTU employees give out the address before, so it's definitely not outside the realm of public knowledge at this point.

** Russia worked for what they wanted in season five; it has fairly recognizable terrorist problems (in the Chechen terrorists) and fits the Cold War model that Logan can evoke [[RichardNixon Nixonian]] imagery by engaging in diplomacy with. The Russians also work for they wanted in seasons six and eight because the former Soviet Union is probably the most recognizable place to obtain black market nuclear weapons from.

* SerialKillersSpecificTarget. If she murdered the photographer, she would have to do it on the plane and ''somehow'' hide the body, since its' likely that someone will come to pick him up at the airport. That is extremely risky and even if she gets away with it, the cover of their guy might be blown if the body is discovered after the fact and ID'ed. Murdering the photographer looks like murder; crashing a plane looks like a tragic accident.

** And in Season Five, Jack obtains, loses and recovers an incriminating recording and never once bothers to make a copy or even play it over the phone while he is coordinating with CTU.

** Tom Clancy syndrome. Clancy has never quite gotten over the Cold War, and it's clear he's the major thematic inspiration for 24.

*** Have you read Clancy's books? After 1991, his books pretty much portray Russia as working with America. In fact, Russia becomes a member of NATO. But that all ends in ''EndWar''. But if you think about it, nothing in ''EndWar'' makes sense.