|
24 7.7: "Day 7: 2PM - 3PM" |
|
Tuesday, 03 February 2009 |
|
|
By John Keegan
Visit Critical Myth for an archive of John's TV Review archives, with more than 1100 entries.
| By the end of this hour, it was surprising to realize how little had actually happened. The writers managed to spice up the previous installment by piling on some fun and unexpected elements (like off-screen plane collisions and stabbings). This episode is essentially built around one major incident and the subsequent prelude to the inevitable change in the game coming with episode 8 (because that's when it always happens).
This is cookie-cutter "24". There's a crisis in an industrial location, no time to evacuate civilians, and a government agent (Janice, this time, instead of Chloe) has to interface with the one heroic soul willing to sacrifice himself while Jack and his team make their move. It's just a jumble of elements that have been done before, and that may be why this episode fell a little flat.
The plane collision in the previous episode was designed to convince the audience that the Dubaku might actually succeed in releasing the pesticide into the atmosphere and killing tens of thousands of people. Yet nothing in the episode itself ever made it feel like the situation might truly get out of hand. The sacrificial lamb was obviously going to succeed in delaying the release of the poison, and "CTU" was going to arrive just in time to stop the attack. And of course, it was a foregone conclusion that Dubaku would get away.
Ending the threat posed by the CIP device is an important plot point, but Jack's role in the operation is more important to the overall season arc. This is about Jack and his particular kind of operative being seen less as a liability and more as an asset again, and that process is still on track. Agent Walker represents the distaff version of Jack Bauer, as she has since the beginning of the season, and her pragmatism is refreshing.
The process underway seems to be taking this "shadow CTU" and restoring it as a legitimate agency. One would hope that Walker survives long enough to be a part of that. While Jack doesn't necessarily need a new love interest to completely his journey within the series, Walker would be a good professional match. Keep Tony in the gang, and things would really fall into place.
Speaking of Tony, it's good to know that the writers aren't turning their back on the troubled history they gave him earlier in the season. That means that his sentiments haven't necessarily changed, either, and that leave plenty of room for debate with Jack as their bad day marches on. Hopefully he won't end up going rogue again; it's far more interesting to have one of the good guys question the government and call them out when they step out of line.
|
