Spoilers. Every week my concerns about Day 7 continue to dissipate. What's nice about this season is how the characters feel like they exist in a slightly more realistic world -- with concessions for entertainment-value, of course. I haven't forgotten the supremely silly, but gripping White House raid. But previously, everyone was part of the fictional CTU (which regularly turned blind eyes to torture and were a law unto themselves), but this season has found Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) and the veteran characters forced to deal with people who don't share their attitude, beliefs, or have much trust in them. 24 had grown quite insular and cozy (with everyone prepared to trust Jack's hunches and steer him in the direction of the day's terrorists), but Day 7 is far rockier terrain.
This fourteenth episode pushes us deeper into the second phase of Day 7, as Jack escapes the hospital after being framed for murder, with Larry (Jeffrey Nordling) determined to recapture him because -- like many people who should know better this season -- he has a tough time trusting Jack and giving him the benefit of the doubt. Renee (Annie Wersching) actually has a nice scene when she reprimands Larry (on behalf of the audience watching at home) for his witch-hunt, because Jack has been proven correct countless times already.Here, Renee helps Jack ID the operative who framed him, despite the fact she's been suspended from work, and refuses to give Larry details of where Jack is, or what he's up to. A file she sent Jack from her laptop has been encoded, so Larry decides to use the arrested Chloe O'Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) as leverage to force her husband Morris (Carlos Rota) into breaking the encryption. But will Morris do it, knowing that he owes Jack his life, and where his wife's professional loyalties lie?
Regardless, we ourselves know that Jack's attacker was one John Quinn (Sebastian Roch), an employee of Starkwood -- a Blackwater-esque contractor that run private armies around the world for the Pentagon. Interestingly, Jack learns that Senator Mayer (Kurtwood Smith) is opposed to Starkwood and has been trying to shut them down for the past six months, so Jack decides to pay him a visit at his house to try and find a link between Starkwood and General Juma.
Seeing Jack work with a man who believes he's a right-wing menace is one of this episode's stronger aspects, as we begin to get a clearer take on Mayer's belief system. The pair even reach an understanding and call a truce on their disagreement, it seems. Of course, minutes after Jack deduces that Starkwood gave Juma the technology to attack the White House, in exchange for an area of Sangala to test a biological weapon, and Mayer persuades Jack to give himself up, promising he'll pull political strings to get his fugitive status revoked, Quinn makes a surprise appearance at the front door and guns the Senator down in cold blood. I should have seen it coming after six seasons, but this surprise was effectively handled, and I didn't expect them to get rid of Kurtwood Smith so soon -- having assumed Day 7 would be bookended by his character's Senate hearing.Fleeing the scene of Mayer's killing just as Larry's task-force arrive and incorrectly assume he was responsible, a bleeding Jack is stalked by Quinn around the local neighbourhood. Both men eventually engage in a rather grueling fist-fight inside a construction site, with the victor eventually our hero – who finds a surprisingly helpful text message on Quinn's phone giving him the location of the incoming biological weapons shipment.
This episode was most concerned with giving us the link between Starkwood and Juma, punctuating its fairly average storyline with a well-executed surprise for Senator Mayer and arduous brawl for Jack. It appears that Jonas Hodges isn't a total lunatic (he shows some concern about having to use his weapons on US soil), but ultimately we're into familiar territory now – with Jack and Tony (Carlos Bernard), finally re-entering the story properly, as the duo with the knowledge and skills to stop Hodges plan succeeding, while avoiding capture from their own misguided authorities. A small subplot for Olivia made for a good breather, as anxious Chief of Staff Ethan assumes the President's daughter has leaked details of his negligence to the press to embarrass him, only for her to prove otherwise in the end. Or is that a double-bluff, and Olivia still has his cards marked? She certainly strikes me as a game-playing meddler.
Overall, despite an inkling that 24 is inching into more routine territory (stopping WMD's from detonating on home soil), I'm hoping there are still some twists to come, and the writers won't totally give into formula. 24 is a very difficult show to keep fresh, but Day 7 has done an admirable job so far… be a shame to see it relax into old habits in its second movement.
23 March 2009
Sky1, 9pm
Writers: Evan Katz & Juan Carlos Coto
Director: Brad Turner
Cast: Kiefer Sutherland (Jack), Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe), Cherry Jones (President Taylor), Annie Wersching (Renee), Bob Gunton (Ethan), Jeffrey Nordling (Larry Moss), Janeane Garofalo (Janis), Carlos Bernard (Tony), Carlo Rota (Morris), Sprague Grayden (Olivia), Rory Cochrane (Greg Seaton), Tim Guinee (Ken Dellao), Sebastian Roch (Quinn), Lesley Fera (Angela Nelson), Jon Voight (Jonas Hodges), Lucas Ford (FBI Administrative Agent), Marci Michelle (FBI Desk Agent), Kurtwood Smith (Senator Blaine Mayer) & Pablo Espinosa (Mayer's Driver)
