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24 7.4: "Day 7: 11AM - 12PM" |
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Wednesday, 14 January 2009 |
(Note: This review covers the second half of the Monday night seventh season premiere event. The first half was covered under a previous review.)
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By John Keegan
Visit Critical Myth for an archive of John's TV Review archives, with more than 1100 entries.
| The odd thing about this episode is the amount of repetition. President Taylor and her ever-more-villainous chief of staff, Ethan, repeat themselves throughout much of the episode. Some might speculate that the writers didn't know that the third and fourth episodes would run back to back, but considering that these four-episode premiere events have been the status quo for a few years now, that doesn't quite hold water. It's more likely that the writers thought the president's difficult choice might have been too subtle.
Of course, it's not, especially when Ethan is doing his best to expose his true colors in every single scene. The writers tried to play a bluff in the previous episode with Sean and Janice, but that's as clever as they've been. There's no question that Ethan and the First Husband's Secret Service agent are working for the conspiracy. (Sadly, that probably means Carly Pope won't be around much longer.)
As if the implications weren't obvious enough, Bill Buchanan spells them out during his pitch to Jack. Sangala has diamonds, lots of them, and the conspiracy is working with General Juma to get them. There's probably going to be more to it, but it's enough for the moment. The more interesting side to the episode is this new "CTU" that Buchanan has pulled together.
As mentioned in the review for the previous episode, this new "CTU" is operating illegally in several different ways. They're essentially talking about taking down a large part of the federal government based on a conspiracy theory. It just so happens that they're right, but that doesn't change the fact that they're the kind of organization that the actual CTU would have been ordered to eliminate! From that perspective, the FBI (and everyone else likely to get involved) is completely justified in hunting down Jack and Tony.
It doesn't help that Buchanan is obsessed with this particular mission, to the point of practically browbeating Chloe when she gets concerned about certain operational and personnel details. One has to wonder why it's so personal for him. Tony's motivations are worse by far, and thankfully restore some of the depth that seemed to disappear in the previous episode. Tony actually was a mercenary and terrorist, supposedly until American citizens became fair game.
That puts Jack in a difficult position. Tony and Jack are working together under Emerson, but Tony was under the man's spell for three years. (Partly due to the bizarre resurrection that Emerson pulled off, which made no sense at all.) Jack only has Tony's word and Bill's faith that Tony is working against Emerson. If Tony was a terrorist all this time, who's to say he's not using Bill and Jack to add specific talents and resources to Emerson's gang? It certainly didn't take long for Jack to get implicated in terrorist activities, however well-intentioned.
Under the circumstances, with "CTU" being a collection of rogue former agents, there's no one with the skill set necessary to handle the conspiracy and the associated terrorism. That much is abundantly clear. Enter Agent Walker, who has decided that the best way to take down Jack Bauer and those like him is, in essence, to become him. Which is precisely the point that Jack was trying to make in the Senate hearing. In extreme circumstances, extreme measures might be necessary. The key is understanding the when and the why, and the cost of that choice.
That's why this season could have an ace in the hole. When the action seems routine and mindless, and the plot twists challenge willing suspension of disbelief, something has to make up for what's lacking. Instead of having Jack justify his decisions and actions in a Senate hearing, the writers are making the case through the characters themselves and the choices they make. Agent Walker's character thread is, in that sense, more critical than it might otherwise appear.
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