"She had no idea that her husband was a killer, a traitor to hiscountry, yet she looked at me as though I was the monster."
-- Renee (Annie Wersching)
Spoilers. This was an episode that introduced a lot of new elements to Day 7, so ultimately it felt more in service of future episodes than anything else. A problem for 24 right now is that, having destroyed the CIP firewall doohickey and rescued the First Gentleman (Colm Feore) from death, we're just waiting for Dubaku (Hakeem Kae-Kazim) to unleash a contingency plan... and it doesn't seem very forthcoming. Our antagonist is more interested in saving his own skin and fleeing the country, the coward.
After the events of last week, Henry Taylor is in a critical condition with a chest full of lead, and facing five hours of surgery -- so we won't see him until episode 14, most likely. You have to feel sorry for actor Colm Feore, don't you; he's spent the majority of Day 7 incapacitated (paralyzed on a sofa, tied to a chair, and now hospitalized!) President Taylor (Cherry Jones) is anxious to be at her husband's side, so reinstates Bill (James Morrison) to become her trusted chauffeur and bodyguard as she leaves for the hospital. We're also introduced to Taylor's estranged daughter, confident contractor Olivia (Sprague Grayden), who's apprised of her father's condition by retired Agent Aaron Pierce (Glenn Morshower) -- still the only character who's appeared in every season of 24 not named Kiefer Sutherland. And you just have to love the unflappable, fiercely loyal ginger nut. A real cult character.Elsewhere, Jack and Renee (Annie Wersching) are on the trail of Dubaku, who is trying to leave the country with the help of someone in the US government (as Dubaku has leverage in the form of a file that implicates various US officials in the day's attacks.) Dubaku also appears to have genuine feelings for his oblivious American girlfriend Marika (Enuka Okuma), so pretends he's only leaving the country for Belize because US immigration are on his back, and asks her to come with him.
Fortunately, Jack and Renee get to Marika and her sister Rosa (Andi Chapman) while Dubaku is making arrangement elsewhere, and prove Dubaku's real identity and terrorist background. A distraught Marika agrees to help Jack capture her boyfriend, by going along with their dangerous plan to go along with Dubaku's plan and track her whereabouts using her cell phone.
The tracking is done under Larry's (Jeffrey Nordling) supervision at the FBI by someone not involved in the government conspiracy – computer geek Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub), who's dropped off at the FBI Field Office by husband Morris (Carlo Rota), travelling with her toddler son Prescott. Chloe makes the necessary preparations to track Marika in a private office with Larry, but her arrival gains the attention of Janis (Janeane Garofalo) -- who begins to suspect Larry's keeping them all in the dark about something important, so asks for Sean's (Rhys Coiro) help in hacking into Chloe's terminal via the server room, to see what's going on.Janis' snooping is nicely handled here, as we're not sure if she's taking an interest in Chloe for benign or malevolent reasons, and ultimately it works as a clever distraction for the genuine FBI mole – revealed to be Sean! Yes, it was a double-bluff of making Sean the most obvious suspect as the mole early on, then introducing a few more candidates, before finally reverting to the original choice. Here, with Jack and Renee tailing Marika (who's being driven to the airport by one of Dubaku's men), Sean manages to put out a federal warrant for Jack and Renee's vehicle to be stopped. The tailing of Marika hits a snag when Jack's road-blocked and forced to stop and step out of the car to be searched, leaving Larry and Chloe in the lurch -- knowing that Marika is now on her own in the lion's den...
Overall, this wasn't an especially thrilling episode (a few tedious subplots are beginning to creep in), but it smoothly cut some new facets into the storyline and built up to a great climax. Interestingly, this was the first episode filmed after the WGA writer's strike that halted production on season 7 back in autumn '07 (hence the first mention of events specific to the 24: Redemption prequel filmed much later in mid-'08), and I didn't notice anyone suddenly aging or sporting a slightly different hairstyle, did you? Well done, continuity team!
23 February 2009
Sky1, 9pm
Writer: David Fury
Director: Milan Cheylov
Cast: Kiefer Sutherland (Jack), Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe), Cherry Jones (President Taylor), James Morrison (Bill), Annie Wersching (Renee), Colm Feore (Henry), Bob Gunton (Ethan), Jeffrey Nordling (Larry), Rhys Coiro (Sean), Janeane Garofalo (Janis), Andi Chapman (Rosa), Eyal Podell (Ryan Burnett), Ned Schmidtke (Dr. Lee Schulman), David Fury (Arthur Carr), Jade Carter (EMT #1), Heidi Wallace (Nurse Mitchell), Detra Payne (Nurse #1), Marci Michelle (FBI Agent), Zachary Stockdale (EMT #2), Matt Nolan (Police Officer #1), Jeronimo Spinx (Dubaku's Driver), Cap Gordon (Prescott O'Brian), Enuka Okuma (Marika), Hakeem Kae-Kazim (Dubaku), Glenn Morshower (Agent Aaron Pierce), Carlo Rota (Morris O'Brian), Ever Carradine (Erika) & Sprague Grayden (Olivia Taylor)
