WRITER: David Fury
DIRECTOR: Milan Cheylov
GUEST CAST: Gregory Itzin, Michael Madsen, Thomas Ryan, Nick Jameson, John Boyd, Reed Diamond, Jennifer Westfeldt, Graham McTavish, Necar Zadegan & Navid Negahban
[SPOILERS] A very exciting and engrossing hour, with events heating up as we approach the series finale. There's been no change of plan with where the show's headed recently, it's just doing a very effective job of tightening the screws every hour as Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) takes increasingly drastic measures to avenge his girlfriend's murder. While the peace treaty remains only of vague interest as the "stakes" in this game, I'm enjoying the political tangle of Presidents and former-Presidents trying to manoeuvre their way out of a tough situation with Jack as a kind of boogieman that can't be stopped...
To recap: Reporter Meredith (Jennifer Westfeldt) arranged to meet her editor Klausner (Thomas Ryan) to pass on her evidence that the Russians were behind President Hassan's assassination, unaware that President Taylor (Cherry Jones) was aware of her findings and gave the FBI an executive order to arrest her; Jack got a location for Logan (Gregory Itzin) and attacks his motorcade, kidnapping the former-President and demanding answers about who in the Russian government was behind Renee's death; Chloe (Mary Lyn Rajskub) released Cole (Freddie Prinze Jr) from custody to go after Jack's accomplice Ricker (Michael Madsen); Kayla (Nazneen Contractor) received a call from Meredith telling her about the Russian involvement with her father's death; and Logan assured the visiting President Suvarov (Nick Jameson) that Jack will never uncover his role in the day's events, unaware that Jack's planted a listening device on his collar...
There were some great sequences here, particularly Jack's masked assault on Logan's motorcade single-handed, which saw Logan blubbing like a frightened schoolgirl at the mere sight of his nemesis. The interesting thing right now is that Jack's decision to take matters into his own hands has become a bloodbath, and I'm not sure how the show's going to justify his actions in the end. He's working to expose a terrible lie, but this is by far the most extreme way to go about doing that. And how will Taylor possibly come out of this intact? As Logan says, everything has been her decision, so she'll surely have to resign in disgrace as a tragic casualty of his season from a moral standpoint.
Overall, it really does feel like we're building up to a fantastic conclusion with 24 this year, which I'm so relieved to see.
30 MAY 2010: SKY1/HD, 9PM
