711: '6pm - 7pm'
Wr: Alex Gansa
Dr: Brad Turner
Synopsis: Jack and Tony hatch a plan to interrogate Burnett inside the White House, but it is interrupted when Senator Mayer and the President discover his activities. Chloe is under suspicion from Janis when she helps buy Jack some time by deleting Burnett's name from Dubaku's list. Renee traces Juma's team to the docks where she makes a split-second decision that puts her life in jeopardy.
Review: As usual, a certain amount of disbelief-suspension is required if one is to get the most out of '6pm - 7pm', but it's worth it in the end as there is certainly a great deal of good here. While the notion that Juma has managed to hot foot it to the United States within a few hours and remain completely undetected is farcical at best, and the fact that his team's plans of their target include a gigantic image of the outside of the building itself (it might as well have a neon sign next to it reading 'DIS IZ DA WHITE HOUSE') is a bit silly, the strength of Kiefer Sutherland's more-amped-than-usual performance in the interrogation scenes and a great deal of the dialogue between he, the President and the smarmy Senator thrusts these niggles to the back of the mind. There's a delicious current of foreboding running through this episode, as the juxtaposed dramatic irony of our knowledge of Juma's presence and the loons at the Oval Office's refusal to believe what's in front of their eyes greatly amplifies the tension and sets things up rather nicely for what is sure to be a kick ass instalment next week. It is a little frustrating that the authorities are so quick to reign on Jack's parade, forcing him to end an interrogation that is so obviously going to produce results, when he has proven over and over again THAT HE IS ALWAYS RIGHT, and Chloe's covert antics and subsequent arrest are eye-rolling in the extreme, but, on the whole, this is a solid effort and a major improvement on last week. 8.5
712: '7pm - 8pm'
Teleplay: Evan Katz
Story: Manny Coto & Brannon Braga
Dr: Brad Turner
Synopsis: Juma and his men take the White House by storm, killing most of the Secret Service and trapping Taylor and Jack in the saferoom. His efforts to extract her are thwarted until he is informed that the President's daughter is in the White House as well. Renee and Larry try to convince Vice President Hayworth to let them rescue the President, but Hayworth will not budge until the FBI can produce proof that she is not in imminent danger.
Review: What was I saying about suspending your disbelief? On any other show, an episode like this would have fans throwing their television sets off rooftops, bleating "jumped the shark, JUMPED THE SHARK!" but in the weird and wonderful world of 24, the production staff can get away with having a group of mercenaries hold the President hostage in the most secure building on the planet with the greatest of ease, through drilling a human-shaped hole in a storm drain within about two minutes, walking through a hole in a wall that must surely have been chiselled for the last eight months by the knife-wielding flunky who pushes aside the DASTARDLY SUPPLY CABINET in a sort of homage to The Shawshank Redemption, and by having the good fortune of Ms Taylor and Jack Bauer locking themselves in a 'safe room' that just so happens to contain no secret exit, no food, no weapons of any kind and, even more crucially, no communications device for that pesky business of contacting the outside world. No, on any other show, this sort of casual disregard for common sense would be pointed and laughed at by its fanbase, derided as the point of no return and brutally kicked to the curb in favour of first season re-runs. However, in 24 land, none of these things seem to matter. We are so caught up in the unrelenting drama of it all that we forget to consider the concept of believability until about seven hours after we've recovered from having our emotions and senses knocked around. There's no denying that this is hugely intense stuff, played to perfection by all without ever a whiff of the dreaded ham creeping cautiously in. Check out Jack and Alison in the safe room, Aaron and Olivia as they struggle to escape the building and warn the outside world, and even Renee and Larry as they desperately try to win over the clearly barking Vice President: the interplay is wonderful in each and the suspense is kept at breaking point throughout as we're really not sure how the hell they're all going to get out of this, quite frankly rather epic, one. And then there's the first appearance of the excellent Jon Voight to relish too and it's a beaut as he plays darts while the entire US political system comes crashing down around him. Screw realism... THIS is what makes damn good TV. 9.0
713: '8pm - 9pm'
Wr: Manny Coto & Brannon Braga
Dr: Brad Turner
Synopsis: The siege on the White House reaches an explosive end after Jack and Bill work together to try to save President Taylor. Meanwhile, Jonas Hodges makes moves to cover his own tracks, starting with Ryan Burnett.
Review: Um. Really? Is that it? The siege on the White House is over within the first ten minutes of this slightly patchy episode, and it's all thanks to some magical canisters of mysterious gas that just so happen to be conveniently placed in the previously useless safe room. Well, you know, who needs communication with the outside world, weapons and food when you've got GAS? This is a fairly disappointing deux et machina that is really unnecessary when you think of the myriad other possibilities that the writers could've used to allow Jack and Bill to gain the upper hand. With Buchanan's noble suicide (a wonderfully executed scene, by the way, and the subsequent, obligatory two minute mourn by Kiefer is just as effective), Tony Todd and his Band of Merry Cockroaches are vanquished to the annals of 24 villaindom as just another bunch of power-hungry, America-hating loons who serve as a front for the other, more deeply buried, conspiracy-type-thing that is going on behind the scenes. And sure enough, Jon Voight's admittedly excellent Jonas Hodges is PLANNING SOMETHING EVEN BIGGER! It's not over yet! We're peeling the onion again! Seriously guys, this is the third about face in half a season and while I am slowly falling in love with Voight's character (and therefore, potentially, his story), the stops and starts are starting to become a little tiresome. And while the dastardly Quinn seems like an admirable addition, given that he is at least given some weight as a legitimate, competent threat, the sequence in which he frames Jack for the murder of Ryan Burnett is just plain ridiculous. Oh look, some more mysterious gas... this time, it incapacitates you for precisely three minutes! Riiight. Surely it would've made more sense to have had him create a form of diversion so that the hospital has to be evacuated or something? Did we really need this credulity-stretching plot? Oh, but we have to have Bauer on the wrong side of the law YET AGAIN otherwise it just wouldn't be 24! Forgive me if I roll my eyes. This certainly isn't a bad episode, don't get me wrong, but it could have done with a little extra attention. 7.3
714: '9pm - 10pm'
Wr: Juan Carlos Coto & Evan Katz
Dr: Brad Turner
Synopsis: Jack seeks Senator Mayer's help to help discover the connection between Juma and the company that hired the man who killed Burnett. In an effort to track down Jack, Larry recruits Morris O'Brian in exchange for Chloe's immunity. Ethan becomes suspicious of Olivia when a reporter obtains leaked information about the internal affairs of the White House after Juma's attack.
Review: Oh look... everyone's chasing Jack again! Well, there's a turn up for the books, eh? While I have bleated on and on in previous reviews about the necessity of suspending your disbelief when watching 24, this is about seventeen steps too far. Come on guys, are we really supposed to accept that every single person in the FBI, never mind the White House, actually believes that Bauer, the man who has saved America and the entire world countless times in the last ten or so years (that's show chronology, by the way) and has halted TWO terrorist attacks on the country in the last fourteen hours, would just abandon his MO and start ruthlessly killing valuable suspects and, even worse, a perfectly innocent United States Senator? Give over. Every time Jack's loyalty is called into question, he proves it. Every time someone questions one of his decisions, they are ultimately shown to be wrong and he is right. President Taylor would know this by now. Larry Moss would know this by now. Hell, THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE KNOW THIS BY NOW. I cannot buy a single second of the clambering to accuse him of the deaths and while, yes, they sensibly have him contact the FBI and profess his innocence, the ease with which everyone jumps to the conclusion that Jack is a killer is just laughable and, above all else, bloody annoying. Presumably, the writers orchestrate this in the belief that it will create engaging conflict. Actually guys, it's about as engaging as watching twenty kids drag their nails down a chalkboard. While screaming. Get the analogy? If you can put all this aside, '9pm - 10pm' is actually quite enjoyable, however, and it's largely down to some stellar writing and acting in Bauer and Mayer's sequences together. There's a real believability to their conversation and the pair come across as actual flawed human beings rather than two dimensional ciphers for opposite sides of a political debate. Jon Voight's scenes continue to delight in their screwball lunacy, Carlo Rota actually gets something decent to do as the doting Miles O'Brien, completely owning Larry and Janice in the scene where he helps them, and Ethan looks like he's about to unravel after the revelation that his (supposed) misstep has led to a potentially crippling situation for the White House. Good to see this excellent actor getting something he can really sink his teeth into. Oh, and then there's that lovely trick with the screwdriver that Kiefer pulls off at episode's end. Now if only they could do all this without resorting to the frankly tired 'Jack vs. the world' motif. Sigh. 8.0
715: '10pm - 11pm'
Teleplay: Alex Gansa
Story: David Fury
Dr: Jon Cassar
Synopsis: Jack and Tony manage to locate the incoming biological weapons, but must convince a civilian security guard to go along with their plan when men from Starkwood show up to claim the weapons. After gaining control of the cargo, Jack engages in a gunfight with the terrorists and risks exposure when the canister is damaged. Ethan makes a drastic decision which upsets President Taylor.
Review: '10pm - 11pm' is very much a game of two halves with the first coming in a little weak and the second really picking up the pace. To begin, we have Ethan resigning as President Taylor's Chief of Staff in a rather stifled scene that overstays its welcome. Then there is the annoyingly unnecessary set up of security guard Connor Trineer's moral dilemma as the father of an unborn child which, while thoroughly believable, is nothing other than extraneous and serves to distract from the main thrust of the action. And then, of course, there's Taylor's absolutely ridiculous appointment of her daughter as her temporary Chief of Staff. What's the betting that, by the end of the day, she'll have made such a 'good impression' that she'll ultimately end up in a permanent post? Actually, scratch that. She'll be exposed as the duplicitous, evil little bitch that she really is and will have a showdown with Ethan. Or maybe that's just my personal fantasy. Anyway, however you look at it, this is just plain dumb. You're telling me there's no one remaining on staff in the White House who would be better suited than the President's fricking daughter? What about Tim? What's preventing this faithful aide from stepping up? Ack, this sort of rank nepotism is just irritating and smacks of lazy writing. Plus, every second that Olivia spends on screen is a second wasted, in this writer's opinion. What is exactly IS the point in her character, other than to piss every member of the viewing audience off? She's Sherry Palmer lite, an annoying vulture picking at the scraps of the overblown buffet that is the White House operation. And somewhere along the line, that metaphor went horribly wrong. Anyhow, if you can look past these disappointing elements, there's a great deal of good to be found in the later moments of the hour. Cassar shows his skill as a director yet again in the confrontation sequence at the warehouse which looks absolutely fantastic and could be one of the finest in the show's history. It's also very well written, making the right narratalogical movements in exactly the right places and ultimately leading to a rather dramatic, if surely superfluous (seeing as Sutherland is signed on for an eighth season), closing cliffhanger. Highly tense stuff then... it's just a shame the rest of the hour can't live up to these standards. 7.6
716: '11pm - 12.00am'
Wr: Manny Coto & Brannon Braga
Dr: Jon Cassar
Synopsis: Tony leads a group of FBI agents into Starkwood with the help of Hodges's aide, but finds that his intel might not be as accurate as he thought. Olivia moves her way deeper into her mother's inner circle when she is appointment as acting Chief of Staff, and chooses Aaron Pierce to be her personal bodyguard. Jack learns harsh news about his future after being examined by CDC.
Review: While it is certainly refreshing to see Kiefer Sutherland taking a back seat and allowing one of the innumerable other characters in the show to take centre stage and prove their mettle (and also to see him removing his clothes for the first time in a couple of seasons, much to the delight of many fans across the globe, no doubt, but not this particular one... euww!!), one has to question the writing staff's decision to have Jack genuinely be infected by the pathogen. The reality of this situation is that every bugger watching 24 is well aware that Sutherland is signed on for at least another season of the show. If you're a bit of an aficionado, you'll know that Cherry Jones and Annie Wersching at least are also on board for year eight (that'll be President Taylor and Renee Walker for those not in the know... so you can rule out their deaths any time soon) and so it is a 99.9% certainty that next year will not be some form of 'prequel' season, set years ago. Therefore, with Bauer guaranteed to be present and correct in the subsequent season, HE WILL NOT DIE IN THIS ONE. Thus, any shred of suspense that may have been generated by this storyline is completely obliterated. The viewer becomes detached from the supposed horror of the situation because it is inevitable that it will not come to pass. Oh sure, it is likely that Coto and Braga will argue that it's not all about the question of Jack's survival, but rather about giving him a handicap that will complicate matters in the next few hours, or perhaps about giving Sutherland some serious acting challenges and harrowing emotional scenes (which he will rise to, as always), but that doesn't escape the fact that the audience will not be as invested in these because, ultimately, they'll turn out to be an overblown red herring. Surely it would've been more sensible to have infected ANY OTHER CHARACTER?! Ah well, the decision's been made now and I suppose we'll simply have to relish all the fine beats that Kiefer's going to unleash at us in the next few hours... and take comfort in Carlos Bernard's step up to centre stage, where he proceeds to be just about as bad ass as his fellow ex-CTU agent. It's a shame, then, that Seaton's duplicity is completely obvious from the moment that Jonas tells him to 'get creative' with Almeida and is it somewhat takes the wind out from under the sails of the Starkwood storyline. Still, with Jack's life falling apart on one hand and the FBI investigation amping up on the other, there's a great deal at stake and, therefore, a lot to sink our teeth into. Let's hope the promise that we see here is fulfilled better in the episodes to come. 7.5
717: '12.00am - 1.00am'
Wr: Chip Johannessen
Dr: Brad Turner
Synopsis: Hodges threatens war on the FBI if they do not retreat from his property, but quick thinking by Tony and Moss shed new light on the whereabouts of the biological weapons. Jack begins to show symptoms of his exposure, but refuses to try a possible antidote when he learns it would involve stem cells from his daughter. Olivia is blackmailed by a news reporter into giving up the breaking story unfolding at the White House.
Review: Ah, so it's Kim who's going to cure our budding anti-hero, fixing him with her genetically compatible Bauer blood/stem cells/ah, God knows what as I don't understand science. Well, I suppose it's preferable to the ludicrous deux et machina of having Hodges whip an antidote out of his back pocket in the 24th hour. It does mean we will probably have to endure Elisha Cuthbert attempting to act for a few episodes, of course, but Kiefer's so good, he'll undoubtedly be able to disguise her woeful inadequacies. While the decision to infect Bauer remains questionable, some good has certainly come of it here as not only is Kiefer particularly adept at making the illness seem believable and horrifying, but the scene between he and Renee when he discusses his daughter is absolutely stellar, striking at least four for emotional believability. Elsewhere, the Starkwood storyline continues to move at a refreshingly intense pace as Tony infiltrates the compound once again with a guy who looks a hell of a lot like Joey Potter's dad from Dawson's Creek and all hell seems about to break loose as Jonas reveals he's got some bad ass looking missiles pointed at several American cities. The explicit marriage of this story with the Presidential one works very well, giving Cherry Jones the chance to do more than simply react to events and get into the thick of the action (well... for the first time since she was kidnapped by Juma, at any rate). And how about Hodges committing murder, eh? The scene in which he confronts the Starkwood chairman is simply excellent as both actors give it their all and Voight demonstrates his incredible ability to move from lucid, logical businessman to sociopathic loon in the blink of an eye. It's a deliciously creepy sequence that sends shivers down the spine, lending further credence to the character as a legitimate threat. The only disappointment here, really, is Olivia's storyline which is predictable in the extreme and only serves to further illustrate just how much of a waste of space she is. No one cares, bump her off please so we can get back to the real storyline. A solid effort on the whole though and proof that perhaps, just perhaps, 24 could actually survive without Kiefer Sutherland. Just a thought, you know. 8.5
718: '1.00am - 2.00am'
Teleplay: Manny Coto & Brannon Braga
Story: Howard Gordon
Dr: Brad Turner
Synopsis: Hodges meets with President Taylor to outline his demands involving Starkwood having a seat at the highest government level, but Tony's plan to detonate Starkwood's weapons systems dramatically reverses the control of power. Renee calls in Kim Bauer to see her dad, who refuses to get her involved in a possible treatment option to stop the degeneration caused by the bioweapon. One Starkwood operative manages to sneak a canister off the premises and is pursued by Larry.
Review: Wow, so much to talk about and so little time. Let's begin at the end, just to be contrary, with THAT plot twist. Well, while virtually every functioning brain cell that I have tells me to absolutely loathe Tony's 'turn', I'm going to reserve judgement until the forthcoming episodes have given us more of an idea as to what in the holy Hell is going on. To be perfectly honest, I bemoaned the revelation that Almeida was actually a good guy earlier in the season as I think, as the writers had the balls to turn him into an embittered, establishment-loathing baddie with a completely logical set of reasons for it, they should also have had the balls to follow through and give us THIS Tony for the duration. Still, I warmed to his old, Bauer-helping self, as was inevitable given Bernard's considerable talent, and now I'm unsure as to whether I really WANT to see the Almeida that I longed for after the first couple of hours. The problem now, of course, is going to be reconciling his helpful antics with the FBI with his treacherous MURDER OF LARRY MOSS which, let's face it, was freaking awesome. Just when you think 24 is settling into a familiar pattern, getting fairly safe with its narratalogical decisions, along comes a plot development that sucker punches you in the gut and reminds you that the writing staff aren't afraid to take the road less travelled every so often. Anyway, here's hoping Tony's 'turn' is suitably explained and that we can all buy into it, rather than it coming across as a desperate attempt by an idea-deprived writing staff to keep things engaging. In a way, I am rather concerned that this will turn out to be the case, especially when you consider that this season seems to chop and change as it sees fit: we've had the Dubaku plot, the Juma plot, the Starkwood plot and now, it appears, the 'this is bigger than you can imagine President Taylor, mwahahahahahaha' plot, all in the space of eighteen episodes, which doesn't exactly indicate a confidence in narratalogical structure. Still, this is mere conjecture for now so we'll leave it to one side and celebrate the culmination of the Starkwood extravaganza which looks and feels spectacular: some serious dough has spent on those sets, believe you me. The adrenalin rush of the race to destroy the missiles in the first twenty minutes is thoroughly addictive, and counterpointed nicely with a stellar set of scenes between President Taylor and Jonas Hodges, in which the battle of wits feels as epic as the physical battle going on down the road. This then gives way to a more reflective second half as Tony seems destined to get a pardon and Jack has a wonderful scene with Kim, in which Sutherland manages to disguise Cuthbert's poor acting skills, and then, of course, we have THE BIG ONE. This all makes for a highly engaging hour of television, shocking, surprising and entertaining virtually every step of the way. Let's cross our fingers and toes that Tony's turn doesn't transpire to be an ill-thought out damp squib. 8.8
719: '2.00am - 3.00am'
Wr: David Fury
Dr: Michael Klick
Synopsis: As the nation remains vulnerable, Jack Bauer endures the worsening pathogen pain. The FBI deals with recent deadly developments while matters involving key players takes this day into a unexpected direction.
Review: What a turn up for the books, eh? After the 24 fan community hummed and hahed about the logistics of Tony's turn last week, worrying their collective asses off that it would fall flat and read as little more than a desperate attempt by the writing staff to keep the momentum going or incorporate some unnecessary shock value into the show (and I will admit that, yes, I had my doubts too... in fact, I still do), '2.00am - 3.00am' turns around and smacks us all in the face with a top class set of scripts that magnifies the tension, amplifies the suspense and sets the action counter to overload. There's so much interesting stuff going on in this one it's almost too good to be true and the fact that Olivia and Janis barely get a look-in only helps to strengthen matters. So there's the imprisonment of Jonas and the visit from the LAWYER LOOKALIKE (a truly bizarre plot development that) which adds oodles of intrigue to the plot, making throwaway references to 'the group' and their various motives, how Starkwood shouldn't have 'shown its hand' and so on and so forth. While I'd hate to see the end of Jon Voight's time on the show at this stage, given that he plays such an incredibly good part, his acceptance of the suicide pill adds an extra level of depth to his character and nicely juxtaposes against the medical emergency that we subsequently see occur with Bauer towards episode's end. Carlos Bernard does a magnificent job as duplictious Tony, trying to keep everything under wraps, and it's a commendable writing decision to have the narrative structure pivot on Almeida's perspective as we get to witness how he disguises his actions and his frustrated reactions when they begin to fall apart. The sequences in the abandoned building are astonishingly well done and genuinely horrifying in places: the explosions are immense and the chaos that ensues in their aftermath is excellently realised. And then, of course, there's the confrontation with Jack which oozes antagonistic chemistry and bodes well for the inevitable showdown that is to come. Let's hope it's the truly epic one that these two deserve. Credit must be given elsewhere to Annie Werschung for hitting one out of the park in Renee's response to Larry's death and, yet again, to the writing staff for creating a palatable sense of mystery throughout the hour. As we don't yet understand Tony's allegiances, and the lawyer's hints at the nature of the group with whom we are now dealing are distinctly cryptic, the viewer is kept guessing as to the truth of what is actually going on. Yes, there are some further glimpses with the appearance of Will Patton but even this is fairly brief and doesn't give much away. The writers are keeping their cards firmly to their chests and it works very well, encouraging us all to return for more in the weeks to come. Let's just hope we don't have to see very much of little Terry as well. 9.2
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