WRITERS: Evan Katz & Howard Gordon DIRECTOR: Bryan Spicer
CAST: Kiefer Sutherland (Jack Bauer), Peter MacNicol (Lennox), Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe O'Brian), Marisol Nichols (Nadia Yassir), Carlo Rota (Morris O'Brian), Powers Boothe (Noah Daniels), Ricky Schroder (Mike Doyle), Kari Matchett (Lisa Miller), Tzi Ma (Cheng Zhi), Michael Shanks (Mark Bishop), Rena Sofer (Marilyn Bauer), James Cromwell (Philip Bauer), Evan Ellingson (Josh Bauer), Ian Anthony Dale (Zhou), Spencer Garrett (Ben Kram), Matt McKenzie (Agent Hollister), Ron Yuan (Chinese Gunman), Kenneth Choi (Cheng's Operative) & Nick Jameson (President Yuri Suvarov)
Cheng arranges to have Josh delivered to Philip, Jack battles the Chinese in CTU and Daniels faces a tough decision when the plot to feed false information to the Russians begins to unravel...The double-bill season length finale is just around the corner, so the penultimate episode is the expected exercise in re-positioning dominos for their final tumble. The CTU crisis reaches a quick end with Jack back on one-man army form, racing through sewers after his kidnapped nephew Josh.
Yes, it appears that daddy Bauer (James Cromwell) wants to whisk his grandson to China -- so just forget about all that kidnapping and threats to kill Josh. It was all a clever ruse. He'd never hurt Josh, oh no. The diehard US patriot just wants to take him to China for economic purposes, see?
This is an odd episode. There are moments of excitement as Jack kick ass at CTU and chases tormentor Cheng, but the White House subplot is squandered. Here, Lisa (Kari Matchett, wasted) is still having difficulty pretending to still be in love with Russian informer love-rat (love-mole?) Mark Bishop, leading to a protracted plot that fizzles out.
There's a sense of disappointment as we limp toward the finale -- which can't come soon enough to put season 6 out of its misery. I have confidence the writers will manage to craft an explosive final few hours of entertainment, but the Cheng/chip subplot is too recent to really care about and the reappearance of Philip Bauer isn't all that interesting. There's no overall cohesion to season 6. No defining element to invest in. As a result, the season finale will likely prove entertaining but emotionally empty.
Remember when season 6 seemed to be exaggerating contemporary concerns over racial hatred? How it presented a worst case scenario for our own post-9/11 world? How far away all that seems now we're back in familiar preposterous villainy and threats of global war over microchips.
Episode 22 is just going through the motions of a narratively bankrupt season that will no doubt try to hide its failings with explosions, gunfire and deaths next week. The now-obligatory jaw-dropping final moment for Jack had better indicate a huge shift in dynamic for 24 when it returns for season 7.
You see, I still love and care for 24. For me, it was the defining show that shook up the TV landscape back in 2001. But I won't make excuses when it clearly goes off the boil. It's just unfortunate the writers didn't realize season 6 couldn't afford to rest on its laurels following its '06 Emmy win. I'm sure they won't make that mistake again, though...
