[SPOILERS] Admittedly, this episode of 24 surprised me with unexpected development and the arrival of a new threat with only two hours left to go, and that all helped perk my interest levels...As of last week, patsy Jibraan (Omid Abtahi) is still being manipulated by Tony (Carlos Bernard) into boarding the Washington Metro, guided by instructions relayed to him via an earpiece. The plan is for him to board a train containing the stolen bioweapon and be blamed for the attack when the gas is released at the next station, killing thousands of commuters. Still, I have to wonder: why don't the terrorists wait for rush hour, where casualties would be even higher? Who attacks public transport at five a.m?
Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) and Renee (Annie Wersching) are on the trail of Jibraan, using information provided by competing nerds Janis (Janeane Garofalo) and Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) back at the FBI Field Office. On the Metro, Jibraan tries to raise the alert with incredulous officials, but finds that some of them are undercover with Tony's team and pressure him into fulfilling his mission to save his brother's life.
Elsewhere, Olivia (Sprague Grayden) is worried about being implicated about ordering Hodges' assassination, and angry that the hit went ahead because she didn't actually send the $250,000 payment. She meets with Martin (Leland Orser), who gives her a rather feeble reason for why the operation went ahead without payment upfront (er, he vouched for her), and tells Olivia to pull herself together before she arouses suspicion. But it's too late, her bodyguard Agent Pierce (Glenn Morshower) is beginning to wonder why Olivia keeps vanishing on "personal errands" without telling him, so he gets in touch with ex-Chief Of Staff Ethan Kanin (Bob Gunton) to enquire about using surveillance technology installed in Olivia's office to get to the bottom of the mystery...
The big surprise for me was seeing the bioweapon threat dealt with. It's not long before Jack manages to intercept Jibraan's earpiece and walk him through finding the bioweapon in his train carriage and delivering it to street-level, where he grabs it seconds before the countdown expires and throws it into a containment chamber. Job done! Tony was even captured after Jack rammed his van off the road during a brief pursuit, and promptly arrested. This is all becoming a breeze. I had expected the threat of the pathogen's release to extend into Day 7's finale, but the writers have wisely decided to move away from this eleventh hour dip...Instead, Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) gets to play damsel-in-distress once again, as she begins to suspect men are following her as she waits for her flight back home. Luckily, said men are actually working for Jack and keeping her safe while there's a threat to Washington D.C, but Kim wisely decides to sit with a nice couple for added protection. However, rather amusingly, she's picked the worst seat possible -- as the affable husband leaves to get some coffee and strangles Kim's covert protector in a restroom while he's at it!
With the bioweapon disposed of and Tony under arrest, his lover Cara (Amy Price-Francis) is still on the loose, and she has a plan to get Tony back before he's tortured into revealing details about the secret cartel behind today's events -- and it's her man who has Kim under surveillance. The episode ends with Cara contacting Jack via another earpiece and revealing she has his daughter under threat, using her as leverage to force Jack into letting Tony escape...
This wasn't really a great episode (the threat of a gas-attack was strangely bland and lacked any tension until Jibraan's final sprint with the canister), but I was glad to see the unpredicted resolution to that storyline -- even if it does mean that the past four episodes have been padding. Regardless, this epiode sets up a two-hour finale where Jack is forced to help the terrorists to protect his daughter... and that's a juicy dilemma.
Beyond that, well, there's not much else in play without the bioweapon, so I have no idea what the finale will comprise exactly. Maybe that's a good thing? It's certainly a good idea to make things personal by involving Kim, and it's always great fun to see where the season leaves us as the clock ticks its last: will Jack somehow survive his exposure to the pathogen, or will we have to wait until season 8 for an answer? Will Kim be killed? Will Tony die? Will Janis and Chloe ever get along -- and do we care?
Tick, tock... tick, tock...
18 May 2009
Sky1, 9pm
Writer: Evan Katz
Director: Brad Turner
Cast: Kiefer Sutherland (Jack), Sprague Grayden (Olivia), Annie Wersching (Renee), Glenn Morshower (Aaron), Leland Orser (Martin), Carlos Bernard (Tony), Omid Abtahi (Jibraan Al-Zarian), Amy Price-Francis (Cara), Elisha Cuthbert (Kim), Janeane Garofalo (Janis), Rafi Gavron (Hamid Al-Zarian) Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe) & Ethan Kanin (Bob Gunton)
