707: '2pm - 3pm'
Teleplay: Manny Coto & Brannon Braga
Story: Michael Loceff
Dr: Milan Cheylov
Synopsis: Dubaku begins another strike against a chemical plant in Kidron, Ohio, but his plans are cut short when Jack's team arrives at his hideout. Janis helps the plant manager avoid any casualties by manually overriding the valves. Meanwhile, Ethan becomes increasingly concerned about the whereabouts of the First Gentleman and informs the president that Henry is missing. Dubaku orders Henry brought to him to use as leverage.
Review: Prepare yourselves for an about turn ladies and gentlemen because season seven of 24 just tied up its central narrative strand after seven episodes and if my maths is correct, there's another seventeen hours to go. Michael Loceff's script manages to shift the emphasis of the season away from the horror of the WONDER DEVICE THAT CONTROLS EVERYTHING and towards the politics of governmental corruption by destroying the gizmo in a wonderfully executed shoot-out sequence in which our heroes get to kick ass, take names and fail miserably to capture Dubaku, despite annihilating everything else within sight. Oh well, I suppose they had to keep the terror levels stoked somehow, right? Shame it means connecting this narrative with the First Gentleman's because if we spend the next seven hours desperately trying to rescue the poor sod while the President whines, I might throw things at my TV. Still, that's a little harsh: at least it (hopefully) puts an end to the whole 'paralysis thing and signals the start of something more substantial for poor Colm. And to be fair to the writers, at least this is fairly original; it hasn't really been done too many times before. Nor, for that matter, has the aborting of terrorist activity. While the 'chemical release' plot is arguably a show staple, and the whole 'sympathise with the brave plant manager' thing was about as predictable as a Pendulum album, the overall narrative was salvaged by the decision to have Dubaku back down, to withdraw and regroup. This has subsequently opened up a rather intriguing narrative avenue, as the FBI and the White House desperately fumble around in the dark, completely oblivious to the reality of what is occurring. Of course, this will soon be rectified with the marriage of the Bauer and Presidential narratives (nice of them to keep Tony out of the way of this one and reaffirm his mild bad ass credentials) but all the same, it makes for some captivating viewing. Oh, and then there's Dubaku's missus... when will these women ever learn? From the Presidential aide banging Alexis Drazen in season one to the First Lady in season five, the show seems to be littered with innocent individuals blinded to their significant other's inherently evil nature. I mean come on... are you really telling me she hasn't noticed his furrowed brow? His sinister tone? The way he angrily addresses EVERYONE HE SPEAKS TO?! Or has he put on his nicey-nicey voice every time he's spoken to his fellow terrorists on the phone when in his girlfriend's diner? Nah, sorry, don't buy that for one second.
Aside from this gripe, there isn't much to criticise in '2pm - 3pm'. Loceff's script is a decidedly solid and cohesive effort, concentrating firmly on one excellently orchestrated narrative strand and generating a truckload of tension, suspense and intrigue as a result. The cogs begin to turn on the season-long plot and we see the beginning of a shift in dramatic emphasis, suggesting that next week's episode could be a bit of a corker. I honestly don't really know where they're gonna go next. But I can't wait to find out. 8.6
708: '3pm - 4pm'
Teleplay: Robert Cochran & Evan Katz
Story: David Fury
Dr: Milan Cheylov
Synopsis: Jack and Bill win an audience with the President in order to secure the necessary clearance to continue their hunt for Dubaku. Dubaku counterstrikes by kidnapping Henry and using him as bait to force President Taylor to withdraw her troops from Sangala. Renee has to make a terrible choice when she holds the family of one of Dubaku's associates at gunpoint to obtain his whereabouts.
Review: Remember the writers' strike? Oh it was so long ago now, it's so easy to forget the months of desperate turmoil we spent, praying to the televisual Gods above that the execs would just fork out the cash so that our favourite shows could continue running and we wouldn't be bereft of new material until 2009. Well, it did come to a conclusion after a while but sadly, not quick enough to save 24, which had produced a meagre eight episodes of its seventh season before the shit hit the fan. The production crew decided it would be fruitless to try to produce the remainder at such short notice and pointless to give the viewing audience half a season (well, it would betray the show's concept entirely). So they shelved the eight and waited, bided their time, produced the rest of the season and laid off broadcast until this sodding year. Meaning, of course, that there was no 24 in 2008. Bummer.
The significance for you and I, dear reader, is that this is episode eight: the last to be filmed prior to the writers' strike. It will be interesting to see just how different everyone looks or, perhaps, what ulterior direction(s) the show will go in next week, if any. Curiously, this instalment, like the one before it, seems to signal an impending shift in the direction of the narrative, acting as the culmination of the first stage of Dubaku's plans. The CIP device is gone, Henry Taylor is back in the hands of the good guys (albeit shot... OMG! Think he'll die? No way, mofos! Renee's up and about after that brutal neck wound and BEING BURIED ALIVE, with just a plaster on her neck... Taylor's gonna be fine) and the terrorist threat is apparently nulified, if you are to believe the White House anyway, which it seems that irritating pissweasel Sean JUST ISN'T WILLING TO DO. "We're being kept in the dark!", "what's going on?", wah wah. You'd think, as an FBI agent, he'd understand that sometimes, operations/developments need to be kept under the radar for a reason and that he is not going to know everything all of the time. Ah but you see, his objections are just a convenient plot device to expose Moss' involvement in the cover operation to more grunts and, eventually, to have the mole exposed. And that's exactly how it feels when viewed, which is the polar opposite of what it should be. Unless, of course, Sean is the mole, in which case his actions are actually rather clever. Hmm. Judgment reserved. For now.
Casting this potential grumble aside, '3pm - 4pm' does come across as a refreshingly cohesive episode, predicated solely on the retrieval of Taylor within an alloted timeframe. This is something that 24 does exceedingly well when it rolls itn out: elevating dramatic tension by keeping the viewer tied to the clock within the hour. We are aware, painfully, of the ever diminishing timespan that Bauer has to find the guy and this suspense bukds as the seconds tick down. It's a simple but completely effective dramatic technique and one that should be used more often. Pleasingly, the whining about Henry is kept to a minimum and Cherry Jones does a stellar job of selling her unenviable moral dilemma, particularly in the scene in which Dubaku first contacts her. On the rescue operation front, Kiefer is top notch as always: from 'ask around' to 'are you gonna give me your keys or not?', this episode is packed with blassic Bauerisms, one liners that have you punching the air with glee. Yeah, stick it to 'em Jack, you tell those namby pamby idiots that no one's playing by their rules! Go on, stare the President in the face and give her a 'with all due respect' when she questions your loyalties! Go Bauer, go Bauer, go... *ahem*
And go Renee too. Check out the way she turns from reluctant, law-abiding FBI agent to FULL BLOWN INSANITY MACHINE as she threatens Vossler's wife and child with considerable venom. Comes rather easily, no? Sudden change of personality, you think? Little bit unbelievable, maybe? Well yeah, but it kinda rules all the same. It's a brilliant sequence, even if I don't buy that she'd actually do it, and it is tempered a little with her emotive moment with Jack in the aftermath. And speaking of emotive moments, can I get a wholehearted 'meh!' for Sean and HIS BINT, please? No one cares guys, keep these agency psycho-politics to a minimum, would ya? Thankfully, Dubaku's love interest element isn't too bad but you just know that he's gonna kill lovely Rosa, that the girlfriend will find her, go to the FBI and that's how they'll start to track him down again. Perhaps it's just becoming a bit too easy to read 24 after seven years...
A strong episode on the whole and one that feels confident due to its concentration on a single narrative element: finding Henry Taylor. There are some less than stellar elements - occasional narrative distractions, a few convenient developments - but generally, this remains encouragingly solid stuff. And if they've had about a year to prepare the next run, I can't wait to see what they can give us next. Optimism: am I a fool to covet thee? 8.7
709: '4pm - 5pm'
Wr: David Fury
Dr: Milan Cheylov
Synopsis: Jack and Renee track a lead to Dubaku's unsuspecting girlfriend, who, after learning of his true motives, agrees to help lead them to Dubaku before he flees the country. Meanwhile, Chloe O'Brian is brought in to the FBI to run tactical, but her progress is thwarted by a mole inside the agency. President Taylor is stunned to hear that her husband has been shot and is escorted to the hospital by Bill. She requests that her daughter be brought in, a task which Bill delegates to an old friend.
Review: And so we begin the post-writers' strike batch of the season with a fresh batch of narrative strands, a few loose ends tied up and a rather unexpected revelation. Everyone manages to look slightly different to their first eight episode selves - you can mostly tell by the hair length, particularly on Renee and Larry - but then, I suppose this is a change we're just going to have to accept. One thing that hasn't changed, however, is the quality of the writing. David Fury's script is a thoroughly entertaining story reboot, sparkling at points with intelligent, well-written dialogue and some superbly pitched pacing.
While '4pm - 5pm' essentially consists of the movement of narrative pieces around a board, manouevering individuals into position for the various new directions that the programme is about to take, it manages to successfully hide this fact by virtue of its originality. First, with the plot having effectively culminated at the end of the last hour with little or no loose ends, it is difficult to predict the avenues down which the show will turn. Second, the decision to introduce Chloe into the FBI HQ is an absolute stroke of genius. Not only does it promise an utterly spectacular showdown between she and Janine Garofolo (all those stares between rooms speak volumes), but it also gives a completely fresh take o the 'introducing a new element to the standard mix' plot trope. In past seasons, 24 has often taken the (sometimes necessary, sometimes not) route of bringing an outside source into CTU to oversee developments. This frequently creates a great whack of tension betwen our favourite, loveable characters and the new guy(s). Here, Fury flips the whole thing on its head by reversing the process. Chloe, the familiar character, the one we trust and have come to love, is introduced to the new locale and we are able to witness the phonomenon from the ulterior perspective. This gives the narrative a feeling of originality and opens up a whole new arena of possibility. Third, there is the mole revelation. While everyone and his dog thought something was up with Sean since minute one of hour one, no one actually believed he would be the dirty one. It was just too damn predictable: I mean, they were only trying to throw us off the scent regarding the real mole, right? Well actually, they were doing something far cleverer: orchestrating a double bluff. They made it so obvious that we ruled him out altogether and now we're eating our words in the process. It's perhaps the only successful way left of pulling the wool over all of our eyes... well, save for Jack being the bad guy and that.
This particular revelation is also tied in with a wonderfully executed sequence in the midst of Dubaku's girlfriend's journey to their rendezvous. This element in itself is perhaps the most telegraphed of the hour - it's obvious from the moment Jack and Renee burst through the door that she's going to be used as bait in an effort to capture Ike (this was a nice, 'jump out of your skin' moment though) - but the police's interception of Jack and Renee is completely unexpected and adds a distinct air of uncertainty to the trajectory of the next episode. With the two heroes stalled at present, will Dubaku manage to do off his lover and escape? Or will the police release them within the nick of time? For the sake of my sanity, I hope it's the former.
Other points worthy of note here include the President's decision to be with her husband, which is a deftly believable and very human touch. Where previous heads of state may have been swayed by their advisors to remain in office 'for the good of the country', Taylor follows her gut and gives us some lovely emotive scenes to boot. Then there's the respective returns of Aaron Pierce and Morris O'Brien: thankfully, these are restricted to cameo appearances rather than full blown introductions to the season-long narrative and they're more than welcome for it. An dfinally, we have a minor cause for celebration in the defective nature of the technology in FBI HQ which, for once, makes it so that Chloe is unable to solve everything with a quick fix. Just another example of some neat out-of-the-box thinking that makes the narrative seem fresh. Oh and did anyone else spot David Fury, the episode's writer, making an appearance as the businessman that the President's daughter is trying to win over? No? Oh well.
With so little to pick holes in, '4pm - 5pm' can only be considered something of a success. While it's hardly a rip-roaring action fest, some strong writing and original narrative touches elevate it above standard 24 fare and make the episode a thoroughly entertaining and rewarding ride. Let's hope this strength is inherent in the remainder of the season. 8.7
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