Spoilage.
24 Official Site
The Time: Mondays, 8:00 PM, Fox
The Show:
Jack
Bauer is a former government agent, most recently assigned to the
now-defunct Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU), which was tasked with
investigating and preventing threats to American national
security. Doing whatever it takes to get the job done, Jack
is a dedicated and deadly instrument of justice who has saved the
country on numerous occasions, though frequently paying a high price
for his service. Following Jack’s exploits over a full 24
hours of one day in real time, 24 is an award-winning political and action thriller that created a new format – and standard – in TV drama.
The Stars:
• Kiefer Sutherland – Jack Bauer
• Mary Lynn Rajskub as Chloe O’Brian
• Cherry Jones as President Allison Taylor
• James Morrison as Bill Buchanan
• Annie Wersching as FBI Special Agent Renee Walker
• Colm Feore as First Gentleman Henry Taylor
• Bob Gunton as White House Chief of Staff Ethan Kanin
• Jeffrey Nordling as FBI Special Agent in Charge Larry Moss
• Rhys Coiro as FBI Special Agent Sean Hillinger
• Janeane Garofalo as FBI Special Agent Janis Gold
• Carlos Bernard as Tony Almeida
• Peter Wingfield as Emerson
The Episode: “1:00 PM – 2:00 PM”
First Gentleman Henry Taylor has been kidnapped by his other secret service agent, Vossler, after surviving a murder attempt by the late Agent Gedge. Meanwhi9le, Jack, Renee and bill meet with the President to fill her in on their activities. Dubaku gets Taylor and ransoms him for the withdrawal of American forces from Sanagalan territory. Jack and Renee have to go to extremes in order to learn the whereabouts of Taylor before it’s too late.
The Lowdown:
Yes. This is what I’ve been waiting for this entire season. This episode is classic 24. That is, classic good 24. In fact, the theme of this episode could be described as GTA: 24 because Jack is killing people, jacking people, interrogating, threatening and doing whatever it takes to get the job done. He gets as ruthless as he ever has been, even utilizing Renee to help him ruthlessly squeeze Vossler for info by using his family.
They manage to fill this episode up quite nicely. And the drama’s more localized as the fate of the world isn’t hanging on some pending nuclear or biological catastrophe. The action is tighter and there aren’t more ancillary issues as Jack gets to stay on point: find Taylor before 4 PM or he dies. And do it by any means necessary. Once he realizes that Agent Vossler is the key, he convinces Renee to go take his family hostage.
Once Jack tracks Vossler down, he plays bumper cars with him and drags him to a doorway where he tells him his family is going bye bye unless he tells him where Taylor is. Wersching as Renee is especially good at making this scene work, being remorseful yet steadfast in doing things Jack’s way because that’s how it has to be. Of course Vossler doesn’t go out easily and when Jack takes him out, the look on Renee’s face as she looks at his family is affecting.
There’s a funny little aside that Dubaku is having domestic issues with his American girlfriend, Marika, and her nosy bitchy sister. Her sister has a friend at immigration who tells her that Dubaku’s alias is a fake, so she demands that he break up with her or she’s going to tell Marika. This of course puts a neon “Kill Me” sign on her forehead, which I wouldn’t mind, because I hate nosy bitchy sisters. The climactic shootout is good, and the resulting casualty sends us nicely into next week.
Considering that the CIP device storyline and the kidnapping of Taylor and the death of his son storylines are now essentially resolved only 1/3 of the way into the season, the show is definitely set to spin into a new direction within the next couple of episodes. We also find out who Dubaku’s big mole in the government is next week. This season isn’t one of the better ones so far, but this episode gives me hope that it can still be turned around.