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24 7.10: "Day 7: 5PM - 6PM" |
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Tuesday, 24 February 2009 |
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By John Keegan
Visit Critical Myth for an archive of John's TV Review archives, with more than 1100 entries.
| This is an unusual season for "24", because the producers already had eight episodes in the can when they chose to go on a strike-induced hiatus. In the long meantime, the writers came together and revised the plan for the seventh season, using the existing material as a foundation. As a result, the writers needed to make a course correction to align the old with the new. (A similar course correction was apparently made for the final few episodes.)
The previous episode set up the course correction; this episode is the clear and blatant implementation of it. It's not quite as bad as it sounds. It's simply abrupt. Not a little abrupt, but the kind of resolution to a problem that feels more like the end of a season. By the time Tony returns on the scene with a new yet related threat, forcing Jack back on his feet, it might as well be a new season altogether.
Getting there is slightly disappointing, but only because of two specific items. First, there's the showdown with Dubaku. "Redemption" set up Dubaku as a personal enemy for Jack, which seemed to indicate that their cat-and-mouse game would escalate once the newer episodes came in queue. That synergy never materialized, replaced instead by a dreary "villain done in by his own humanity" scenario.
The second problem was designed to be a shocking and satisfying twist. The mole within the FBI, Sean, manages to erase the data from Dubaku that was downloaded into the mainframe. Chloe specifically states that the downloaded can only be done once, thus raising the stakes and making Sean's actions seem truly crushing. In short order, however, it's revealed that Chloe mirrored the download to a personal server, "just in case". Despite this, she freaks out when the data is initially erased, as though the data is really gone. It's a bit of a cheat, and clearly designed to milk the last bit of drama out of the old storyline before shifting to the new one.
The new direction promises to take much of what worked in the first segment of the season and build on it. There's still a conspiracy to uncover, and unfortunately, "CTU" just managed to give the president (and plenty of other people) reason to believe that it was all over and done. Jack is on the cusp of being granted a pardon, yet the circumstances are yanking him back into rogue mode. Unfortunately, this feels like a delaying tactic in terms of the season's main theme. It's still likely that Jack will be forgiven, but for a little while longer, his name is going to be dragged through the mud.
It's very likely that Agent Walker will be part of that process, however, and while that's annoying, it make sense. Walker has been struggling with the difference between what is moral and what is necessary, and more important, who has the right to make that call. Jack has no doubt that his actions are justified, despite the personal costs they inflict. Walker is less certain, especially when faced with a death directly attributable to her choices.
What makes it all ironic is that Jack is more right than he knows. Marika did make a choice to do the heroic thing: not just by playing the bait for a mass murderer, but by taking matters into her own hands. In essence, Marika was a victim from the moment Dubaku chose to draw her into his world. Walker is right to regret that Marika was killed after giving assurances that everything would turn out well, but in reality, she's more upset that she was foolish enough to believe that she could actually make such a promise.
The bottom line is that Walker is now angry with Jack for drawing her into his morally grey world, despite the fact that she made the choice to enter that world with both feet. This could lead her to repudiate Jack's actions and add to the testimony already leveled against him. In the eyes of the Senator leading the charge, this would be reason enough to deny the President's request for leniency. If Jack is already going rogue at the time, it's going to be messy. |
