28 January 2007 - Sky One, 9.00 pm
WRITER: David Fury & Evan Katz DIRECTOR: Brad Turner
CAST: Kiefer Sutherland (Jack Bauer), Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe O'Brian), D.B Woodside (President Wayne Palmer), James Morrison (Bill Buchanan), Peter MacNicol (Thomas Lennox), Jayne Atkinson (Karen Hayes), Carlo Rota (Morris O'Brian), Eric Balfour (Milo Pressman), Marisol Nichols (Nadia Yassir), Adoni Maropis (Fayed), Roger R. Cross (Curtis Manning), Regina King (Sandra Palmer), Steven Schub (Henchman), Sammy Sheik (Masheer), Bruce Gerard Brown Jr. (Escort Guard), Shaun Majumder (Hasan Numair), Raphael Sbarge (Ray Wallace), David Michael (Guardsman #2), Jim Klock (Supervising National Guard), Pat Healy (Electronics salesman), Alexander Siddig (Hamri Al-Assad), James Parks (Guardsman #1), Scott William Winters (FBI Agent), Kal Penn (Ahmed Amar), Michael Angarano (Scott Wallace), Megan Gallagher (Gillian Wallace) & Al Faris (Salim)
Jack and Assad trail the subway bomb handler, hoping he'll lead them to Fayed. Meanwhile, Ahmed instructs Scott to collect a package and Fayed issues a demand to President Palmer...Every episode of 24's narrative is structured around escalating tension, but on a wider scale some episodes are more geared towards providing information and giving us time to breathe. Episode 3 falls into this category.
One of the great 24 staples is the covert tracking of a terrorist, usually by a tailing car or satellite. Here, Jack and Assad follow the subway bomber's "handler" across town, orchestrating a car accident in order for Assad to get closer to their mark...
The Wallace family hostage subplot grows slightly more interesting, with father Scott ordered by wounded Ahmed to deliver a package to a man called Marcus. Michael Angarano is doing good work as Scott, bringing a naturality and plausible sense of desperation to bare.
There's more office politics back in CTU, with Milo and Morris locking horns. Carlo Rota is quickly becoming one of the most enjoyable tech's seen on the show as Morris, with his mannered, playful, yet antagonistic working practice. The person baring the brunt of his disparaging remarks is Milo, with Eric Balfour's return to the show going far smoother than I'd feared. After all, he was little more than an underwritten lantern-jawed nerd back in season 1, remember?
In the White House (was the Oval Office set going spare after Command-In-Chief's cancellation?) President Palmer faces a patented difficult decision. Terrorist leader Fayed is demanding the release of 110 "freedom fighters" from the Palmdale Airbase, in return for an end to the atrocities. D.B Woodside is fine as Wayne Palmer, although he's clearly a poor man's David Palmer (perhaps intentionally) and not as much fun as the incompetent President Logan last year. But he's sympathetic and generally easy to watch. I just hope he can rise to the challenge and give us a performance worthy to sit alongside the great Dennis Haysbert or Gregory Itzin.
Peter MacNicol will hopefully get something jucy to sink his teeth into soon, as there are signs he could be trouble as Chief Of Staff, but for now he's just an occassional irritant. I'm sure the writers want Lennox to become the opposite of saintly Mike Novic from seasons past, so I can't wait for him to show real deviousness.
Overall, this is what I call a "piece-moving" episode. Every installment of 24 is required viewing to keep track of the storyline, but Episode 3's job is to deliver information in an entertaining and speedy fashion. It accomplished this with aplomb, but there's nothing particularly memorable or jaw-dropping to make it stand out.
