WRITERS: Chip Johannessen & Patrick Harbinson
DIRECTOR: Milan Cheylov
GUEST CAST: Gregory Itzin, Jürgen Prochnow, Reed Diamond, Graham McTavish, John Boyd, Bob Gunton, Necar Zadegan, Brad Fleischer, Joseph Kamal & Jack Shearer
[SPOILERS] This episode ranks as one of the most dialogue-heavy hours of 24 in a long time, but it laid a lot of cards on the table and gave three actors their best material this year. 24's not really known for its acting (although it's had some excellent actors doing great work on occasions), but watching Gregory Itzin, Cherry Jones and Kiefer Sutherland reminded you that 24 can have a "quiet" hour that doesn't feel tedious.
To recap events quickly: Logan (Itzin) threatened Novakovich with exposing the Russian government's involvement in the day's attacks on President Hassan, in order to get his country back to the peace treaty agreement; Jack (Sutherland) learned from Bazhaev (Jürgen Prochnow) that Dana (Katee Sackhoff) knows who killed Renee, and heads to CTU to interrogate her; Logan heard about Jack's investigation and was forced to tell President Taylor (Jones) about what the Russians have been up to, but convinces her to keep quiet in order to let the "greater good" of the peace treaty happen as planned; Taylor arrived at CTU to relieve Jack of duty personally, fearing he'll expose the Russians and foil a chance for peace; and Jack decided to go rogue by escaping from CTU custody and stealing a chopper.
As I said before, Itzin, Jones and Sutherland were all doing good work this week, each character given something interesting to play. Logan was back his snake-like ways of dirtying the morality of situations (I love how he rationalizes bad ideas), Jones showed some chinks in her armour by agreeing with Logan's plan to let Dalia (Necar Zadegan) sign a peace treaty with the country responsible for her husband's murder, and Jack was forced to commit treason and ignore the orders of his President because he's so convinced he's right and wants justice for Renee. All very good, interesting character moments, at least in terms of 24's playground. There wasn’t much else going on this week, but I enjoyed seeing an hour that skilfully recalibrated the storyline and put the goodie-two-shoes President in a very difficult position.
Asides
- Why isn't Logan still under lifelong house-arrest these days?
- I forgot to mention it last week, but Logan's advisor Jason Pillar is played by actor Reed Diamond, who had a similar role on Dollhouse.
2 MAY 2010: SKY1/HD, 9PM
