- someone Jack cares about does something stupid & makes the situation much worse. (See: Terri, Kim, Chloe, new kid, etc)
- Jack has a reason not to fully trust/cooperate with CTU, leading to him talking other agents into working "off-protocol" with him as well.
- Jack does stuff SO INSANELY off-the-board/illegal but does something so heroic his crimes are absolved/not spoken of, except by:
- New "uptight administrator" from District to take over and cause more drama by acting like a dick & preventing people from doing their jobs.
- MORE moles! The 24-world government is made out of frigging swiss cheese it's so full of security holes.
- "Face in shadows" guy who's running the terrorist operation from some remote location... (who may yet turn out to be NOT the main bad guy, but just another lackey himself)
- The "multi-layered threat": It LOOKS like this situation is bad enough to warrant significant panic/CTU attention, but it's really just a set-up for THIS next, WORSE situation.
- Plenty of "with all due respect, sir"... which admittedly isn't just a 24-cliche, but used in almost every drama on television. It translates to: "Fuck you pal, you're wrong."
There are plenty of others I'm sure, but those are the ones coming to mind at the moment.
In other news, 16 years ago today Washington DC mayor Marion Barry was arrested for possessing/smoking crack. He is convicted & does jail time. Five years later he is RE-ELECTED MAYOR. Gotta love it.
