Spoilers.
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
• Ever Carradine as Erika
• Tony Todd as General Juma
• Hakeem Kae-Kazim as Colonel Ike Dubaku
• Kurtwood Smith as Senator Blaine Mayer
• Glenn Morshower as Secret Service Agent Aaron Pierce
• Sprague Grayden as Olivia Taylor
• Cameron Daddo as Vice President Mitchell Hayworth
• Jon Voight as Jonas Hodges
• Carlo Rota as Morris O’Brian
The Episode: “10:00 PM – 11:00 PM”
Jack is still suspected of killing Senator Mayer as the FBI has arrived at his house. But Agent Moss is (finally) starting to put the (millions) of clues that have piled up to indicate that maybe Jack isn’t the bad guy. Elsewhere, Jack and Tony rendezvous at the D.C. port where Starkwood’s bio-weapon has arrived. There they encounter a guard (Connor Trinneer) who is complicit in helping Starkwood acquire the shipping container, although he didn’t know they were smuggling a WMD. Jack promises him he won’t die if he cooperates, but it’s still only Jack and Tony against ten Starkwood mercenaries. At Starkwood, Hodges is kicking his plan into gear to get the bio-weapon, without the knowledge of the majority of the board. Meanwhile, at the White House, the fallout of Senator Mayer’s death means someone is losing his job. And Olivia Taylor is still a conniving bitch.
The Lowdown:
Pretty decent episode this week, as it’s only Jack and Tony standing between us, the bad guys and certain doom…as it should be. They now pretty much have all the details that Starkwood has been the major player in the day’s events, and that they’re planning a big WMD finale. It’s always good to see Jack and Tony back in action together and I’m hoping that Tony doesn’t buy it in the end, because Jack is seriously running out of playmates with the death of Bill Buchanan this season. Connor Trinneer shows up as Carl, a security guard who is working with Starkwood to help them abscond with the shipping container with the bio-weapon, although he didn’t know that they were smuggling a WMD, rather thinking it was illicit electronics. When the Starkwood guys arrive, they block all communications as a precaution and prevent Tony and Jack from calling for help, although they don’t know they’re there. Carl has to go out to meet them, and Jack and Tony know it’s a death sentence, but Jack promises Carl he won’t die.
As this is occurring, Moss and the FBI are at Mayer’s house. Moss starts looking at the evidence before him and piecing together that maybe Jack didn’t kill Mayer after all. But he still relays word of the senator’s death back to Ethan Kanin, who realizes that because he authorized Jack’s release to question Burnett, which led to both Burnett’s and Mayer’s deaths, his ass is pretty much toast. He goes to the president and informs her that he’s resigning. Olivia also gets word and once she’s alone, calls her TV contact and tells him to proceed with the story he was going to run on Ethan’s complicity and that Mayer is also dead, thus revealing she was the one who leaked the story.
At Starkwood, Hodges calls together a board meeting, railing about how their services could have been used to help prevent the day’s terrorist activity, even though he’s the one that initiated all of the days’ terrorist activity. He also tells them that they’re no longer going to be cooperating with the pending Senate investigation. He also is in constant contact with his men who are getting the shipping container at the port. He also calmly confronts one of the board members who questions him about whether or not he ordered the hit on Mayer.
Back at the port, Jack and Tony take on the Starkwood guys, with Jack very reluctantly keeping his promise that Carl won’t die, even though it alerts the mercenaries. Obviously he wanted make up for losing Marika earlier in the day after making the same promise. After some firefighting, Jack hijacks the truck and takes off, but Tony is captured. Jack is also exposed to the bio-weapon as the Starkwood guys get the truck back from him, which is where we end the episode.
Some decent action with Jack and Tony at the port, although I wish they could have taken out a couple more guys before getting separated. Jack promising Carl he wouldn’t die was good, when you know that he and Tony were barely able to sell the lie. The Olivia Taylor subplot is of practically zero interest to me and I’m still waiting for Renee to get back in on the action. My thinking on Jack’s exposure to the bio-weapon is that it’s one of those binary agents and Jack only got exposed to half of the formula, which is harmless. We’ll see.