WRITERS: Joel Surnow & Michael Loceff DIRECTOR: Brad Turner
CAST: Kiefer Sutherland (Jack Bauer), Peter MacNicol (Lennox), Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe O'Brian), Marisol Nichols (Nadia Yassir), Jayne Atkinson (Karen Hayes), James Morrison (Bill Buchanan), Eric Balfour (Milo Pressman), Carlo Rota (Morris O'Brian), Powers Boothe (Noah Daniels), Terry Savage (CTU Guard #1), Ricky Schroder (Mike Doyle), Jonathan Adams (Peter Hock), Andrea Grano (Ellen Price), Kari Matchett (Lisa Miller), Tzi Ma (Cheng Zhi), Chad Lowe (Reed Pollock) & Kim Raver (Audrey Raines)
Jack sets up a meeting with Cheng, Doyle and CTU track the chip, Buchanan's career is placed in jeopardy and Daniels seeks comfort from his assistant Lisa...The troubling sixth season settles into its late groove with another neat and formulaic instalment. Jack's gone rogue for the greater good (again), meaning CTU are hot on his trail with every asset at their disposal. Erm, Mike Doyle.
There are some nice moments here and there, particularly when Jack uses electricity pylons to disguise his location from CTU's tracking device hiddein in the stolen chip. The fact nobody ever mentions Jack regularly "goes rogue" and is proven correct, or that Bill Buchanan doesn't immediately remove Chloe from duty (as she continually places her loyalty to Jack over CTU) is a little silly, but suspension of disbelief is always required with 24.
With the episode stuck in predictable chase mode, the only real moments of interest come from the White House. Acting President Daniels (Powers Boothe) gets in a clinch with assistant Lisa (the gorgeous Kari Matchett), which is another late development that will inevitable have repercussions soon.
Karen Hayes (Jayne Atkinson; great but wasted this year) has the episode's agonizing choice to make, as Reed Pollock threatens to reveal her husband's involvement in releasing terrorist mastermind Abu Fayed two years ago. Politics mean Karen must either allow the facts to reflect badly on the White House administration, or sacrifice her husband's career at CTU. It's a nice personal dilemma and its effects are the most memorable thing about this episode.
In summation, this is another repositioning episode without too much to recommend. It ends on a decent note, with Jack prepped to sacrifice himself once Audrey is safe and destroy the chip in the process. Everthing up to the final moments of action exist to burn up time and set new plots into motion with Bill Buchanan's career and Daniels' office romance.
Average stuff.
