24 4.2: "Day 4: 8AM - 9AM"
Written by Howard Gordon
Directed by Jon Cassar
In which Jack forces Driscoll to temporarily reinstate his field status with CTU so he can help find Andrew and work towards rescuing the Secretary of Defense…
Status Report
In an interesting scheduling move, designed mostly to set the series up to finish during May sweeps after an uninterrupted run, the second episode of the season aired on the same night as the premiere. The first episode focused largely on actively setting the stage for the initial character conflicts, all related to the plans of a Middle Eastern sleeper cell within the Los Angeles area. The first episode ended with the kidnapping of the Secretary of Defense, James Heller, and his daughter, Audrey, who also happens to be Jack Bauer’s current love interest.
The episode begins with the immediate fallout, and in a somewhat surprising move, Jack is detained by CTU Director Driscoll, who objects to Jack’s decision to torture a man in custody. This is surprising because Jack has gotten away with far worse over the years, not the least of which is the killing and beheading of a man in custody. At the very least, Driscoll enforces something akin to American law.
Once in detention, Jack doesn’t have to wait very long to get back in on the action. Chloe, obviously unhappy with the way Driscoll has been running things, comes to Jack to have her information taken seriously. One would think that Driscoll would actually wonder if Chloe was capable of colluding with Jack, but Driscoll doesn’t seem to be all that bright.
This places Jack in the perfect place to overhear Chloe talking to Andrew, and once Andrew confirms that he’s been hunted down, that’s enough for Jack to promise aid. There’s the small matter of him being detained, but that’s temporary when it comes to Jack Bauer. Meanwhile, Kalil, one of the sleeper cell’s assassins, has killed Andrew’s mother and tapped into Andrew’s cell phone. Jack happily asks Andrew for all the details necessary for Kalil to find the boy.
Thus begins a typical Howard Gordon script, which jumps through some rather unbelievable plot holes to get the characters where they’re supposed to be. The end goal is always in sight, and from the beginning of the episode, it’s rather obvious where it’s going (with the final scene being the exception, but that was clearly worked out ahead of time).
Navi and Dina have a conversation about Behrooz and his role in the terrorist activities. Dina is concerned, as she should be, that Behrooz could be the wrong person to send with the briefcase. Navi, on the other hand, insists that Behrooz is the right person, because a teenager won’t draw suspicion. This ignores the slight fact that anyone driving into the middle of nowhere and dropping off a briefcase to a sinister-looking Middle Eastern man is going to draw suspicion! But more interestingly, Dina talks about Omar, the apparent man in charge, as if he is going to send Behrooz to paradise for delivering a briefcase. Dina certainly knows how to make every little thing sound like a revelation, and a scary one at that.
In a scene that defies all logic and sense, Jack somehow gets out of the room where he’s detained and walks into a briefing between Driscoll and the rest of her team. Jack then openly criticized Driscoll for ignoring evidence (rather good point) and proceeds to demand reinstatement so he can officially find and protect Andrew. Instead of pointing out that Jack should simply hand over the information like a good boy, she cuts him a deal. He gets temporarily reinstated, works under Ronnie (his replacement) to find Andrew, and then he goes back into detention. (Yeah, like that was ever gonna happen!)
In one of the more predictable moments, Heller and Audrey are brought before Omar, who is a little unhappy about the fact that Audrey was brought along for the ride. Now, the smart terrorist would notice that Heller is far more concerned about Audrey’s welfare than his own, and act accordingly. Heller doesn’t look like the kind of person who would back down to terrorists, all things being equal, but watching his daughter be tortured would probably force him to reconsider. The writers seem to make Omar think that over a bit longer than he should.
The predictability keeps on coming in the scenes that follow. Ronnie resents working with Jack, which only presages the end of the episode. Similarly, Behrooz gets a call from Debbie just as he’s about to run off with the briefcase, and of course, Debbie suspects that Behrooz is cheating on her. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to guess when she’ll turn up next. Driscoll chides Chloe on turning to Jack instead of trusting her, but then turns Chloe’s objection around to make it look like Chloe should have taken initiative. It’s the kind of passive-aggressive management that one would expect from Driscoll.
The episode quickly turns from predictable to disappointing. When Heller refuses to cooperate by undressing, instead of using Audrey as a bargaining chip, they forcibly take Heller’s clothes off. One can only assume that the writers want to hold onto that card as long as possible, but the fans are intelligent enough to see that the writers are going out of their way to do it. If Audrey wasn’t to be killed, why then did Omar decide to hold her hostage? (Unless, of course, the writers plan to kill Heller before both can be rescued.)
The scene outside of Omar’s compound is equally bad. One thing the writers still don’t understand, despite the criticism of previous seasons, is how transparent it is when they try to build up minor characters as though they were important. No one cares about Debbie or the fact that Behrooz might betray his family for the sake of the American girl. It’s about as interesting as the Kyle Singer subplot in the previous season, and that was one of the low points of the season.
Some of the scenes later in the episode, however, do much to redeem the predictability. In the first episode, Richard Heller was the stereotypical naïve liberal activist. Conservative values seemed to be on the march once again, with the liberal looking like a spoiled brat. This episode suggests that Driscoll and CTU will treat Richard with little respect. There are shades of argument regarding the Patriot Act within the scene, and that could be the beginning of an interesting exploration of civil rights in the modern age of global terrorism.
If Behrooz and his relationship with Debbie is far from interesting, his relationship to his parents is fascinating and more than a little disturbing. Navi rules his house with an iron fist, and he’s not afraid to take that fist and beat the hell out of his son with it. Taken in context with the religious fervor, and this does much to develop Navi’s family. What does it take, in terms of a person’s psychology, to live for years in another culture while actively plotting to destroy it?
It’s not long, however, before the predictability creeps back in. Kalil intercepts Andrew at Union Station just as Jack and Ronnie arrive. Andrew seems to completely miss the fact that Kalil and Jack sound nothing alike until the moment that his cell phone rings. This is a rather transparent attempt to heighten the tension, similar to the end of the previous episode. Kalil manages to kidnap Andrew, but not before he’s spotted.
As expected, Jack and Ronnie disagree on how to handle the situation. Ronnie, clearly one of Driscoll’s acolytes, wants to simple take Kalil and Andrew into custody and be done with his association with Jack. Jack, on the other hand, points out that Kalil could lead them further into the big picture, since he’s obviously taking Andrew somewhere. The ensuing argument leaves Jack handcuffed to a pipe, but thanks to the fact that neither man was trying to hide during the argument, Kalil notices that he’s being watched.
Seconds later, Ronnie and a couple other people are dead. In his last desperate act, Ronnie hands off the keys to the handcuffs, but it takes a few crucial moments for that to happen. By the time Jack is free, Kalil is out of sight. In other words, the episode ends exactly as one would have guessed at 8:08AM, with Jack being the only person left in the field to chase down Kalil.
In what appears to be the payoff for the terrorists’ takeover of the Internet, a hostage tape like the ones recently out of Iraq is released to the entire world. In it, Omar and the terrorists promise to try Heller for war crimes. If he is found guilty, he will be executed in three hours, and Omar is more than happy to promise that the trial and execution will be aired on the Internet for everyone to see. That was not predictable, but then again, as noted earlier, it was also the one plot point that was probably worked out before the episode was written.
Had this episode aired a week after the premiere, it probably would have been seen as a letdown. Airing with the premiere made it very easy to overlook the predictable elements of the story, because the tension created in the first episode was still intact. It’s likely that the network realized that this was not the right place to end the “premiere event”, however, and that could be why they decided to run two more episodes on the following night.
If the network and producers played their cards right, then the next two episodes should be strong enough to make this episode a minor misstep in the course of the story. If not, then this is going to be the first symptom of weakness in the plotting, something that the writers cannot afford, especially if they are barely getting the scripts in on time.
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode was a bit of a letdown after the strong premiere. Many of the subplots were saddled with predictable development, making it hard to get excited about the direction of the season arc. The final scene was an interesting development, but unless this episode was simply an early aberration, the writers need to seriously reconsider how the subplots will be handled and avoid falling into familiar and disappointing patterns.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4
Final Rating: 7/10
Season Average (as of 4.2): 7.5
Directed by Jon Cassar
In which Jack forces Driscoll to temporarily reinstate his field status with CTU so he can help find Andrew and work towards rescuing the Secretary of Defense…
Status Report
In an interesting scheduling move, designed mostly to set the series up to finish during May sweeps after an uninterrupted run, the second episode of the season aired on the same night as the premiere. The first episode focused largely on actively setting the stage for the initial character conflicts, all related to the plans of a Middle Eastern sleeper cell within the Los Angeles area. The first episode ended with the kidnapping of the Secretary of Defense, James Heller, and his daughter, Audrey, who also happens to be Jack Bauer’s current love interest.
The episode begins with the immediate fallout, and in a somewhat surprising move, Jack is detained by CTU Director Driscoll, who objects to Jack’s decision to torture a man in custody. This is surprising because Jack has gotten away with far worse over the years, not the least of which is the killing and beheading of a man in custody. At the very least, Driscoll enforces something akin to American law.
Once in detention, Jack doesn’t have to wait very long to get back in on the action. Chloe, obviously unhappy with the way Driscoll has been running things, comes to Jack to have her information taken seriously. One would think that Driscoll would actually wonder if Chloe was capable of colluding with Jack, but Driscoll doesn’t seem to be all that bright.
This places Jack in the perfect place to overhear Chloe talking to Andrew, and once Andrew confirms that he’s been hunted down, that’s enough for Jack to promise aid. There’s the small matter of him being detained, but that’s temporary when it comes to Jack Bauer. Meanwhile, Kalil, one of the sleeper cell’s assassins, has killed Andrew’s mother and tapped into Andrew’s cell phone. Jack happily asks Andrew for all the details necessary for Kalil to find the boy.
Thus begins a typical Howard Gordon script, which jumps through some rather unbelievable plot holes to get the characters where they’re supposed to be. The end goal is always in sight, and from the beginning of the episode, it’s rather obvious where it’s going (with the final scene being the exception, but that was clearly worked out ahead of time).
Navi and Dina have a conversation about Behrooz and his role in the terrorist activities. Dina is concerned, as she should be, that Behrooz could be the wrong person to send with the briefcase. Navi, on the other hand, insists that Behrooz is the right person, because a teenager won’t draw suspicion. This ignores the slight fact that anyone driving into the middle of nowhere and dropping off a briefcase to a sinister-looking Middle Eastern man is going to draw suspicion! But more interestingly, Dina talks about Omar, the apparent man in charge, as if he is going to send Behrooz to paradise for delivering a briefcase. Dina certainly knows how to make every little thing sound like a revelation, and a scary one at that.
In a scene that defies all logic and sense, Jack somehow gets out of the room where he’s detained and walks into a briefing between Driscoll and the rest of her team. Jack then openly criticized Driscoll for ignoring evidence (rather good point) and proceeds to demand reinstatement so he can officially find and protect Andrew. Instead of pointing out that Jack should simply hand over the information like a good boy, she cuts him a deal. He gets temporarily reinstated, works under Ronnie (his replacement) to find Andrew, and then he goes back into detention. (Yeah, like that was ever gonna happen!)
In one of the more predictable moments, Heller and Audrey are brought before Omar, who is a little unhappy about the fact that Audrey was brought along for the ride. Now, the smart terrorist would notice that Heller is far more concerned about Audrey’s welfare than his own, and act accordingly. Heller doesn’t look like the kind of person who would back down to terrorists, all things being equal, but watching his daughter be tortured would probably force him to reconsider. The writers seem to make Omar think that over a bit longer than he should.
The predictability keeps on coming in the scenes that follow. Ronnie resents working with Jack, which only presages the end of the episode. Similarly, Behrooz gets a call from Debbie just as he’s about to run off with the briefcase, and of course, Debbie suspects that Behrooz is cheating on her. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to guess when she’ll turn up next. Driscoll chides Chloe on turning to Jack instead of trusting her, but then turns Chloe’s objection around to make it look like Chloe should have taken initiative. It’s the kind of passive-aggressive management that one would expect from Driscoll.
The episode quickly turns from predictable to disappointing. When Heller refuses to cooperate by undressing, instead of using Audrey as a bargaining chip, they forcibly take Heller’s clothes off. One can only assume that the writers want to hold onto that card as long as possible, but the fans are intelligent enough to see that the writers are going out of their way to do it. If Audrey wasn’t to be killed, why then did Omar decide to hold her hostage? (Unless, of course, the writers plan to kill Heller before both can be rescued.)
The scene outside of Omar’s compound is equally bad. One thing the writers still don’t understand, despite the criticism of previous seasons, is how transparent it is when they try to build up minor characters as though they were important. No one cares about Debbie or the fact that Behrooz might betray his family for the sake of the American girl. It’s about as interesting as the Kyle Singer subplot in the previous season, and that was one of the low points of the season.
Some of the scenes later in the episode, however, do much to redeem the predictability. In the first episode, Richard Heller was the stereotypical naïve liberal activist. Conservative values seemed to be on the march once again, with the liberal looking like a spoiled brat. This episode suggests that Driscoll and CTU will treat Richard with little respect. There are shades of argument regarding the Patriot Act within the scene, and that could be the beginning of an interesting exploration of civil rights in the modern age of global terrorism.
If Behrooz and his relationship with Debbie is far from interesting, his relationship to his parents is fascinating and more than a little disturbing. Navi rules his house with an iron fist, and he’s not afraid to take that fist and beat the hell out of his son with it. Taken in context with the religious fervor, and this does much to develop Navi’s family. What does it take, in terms of a person’s psychology, to live for years in another culture while actively plotting to destroy it?
It’s not long, however, before the predictability creeps back in. Kalil intercepts Andrew at Union Station just as Jack and Ronnie arrive. Andrew seems to completely miss the fact that Kalil and Jack sound nothing alike until the moment that his cell phone rings. This is a rather transparent attempt to heighten the tension, similar to the end of the previous episode. Kalil manages to kidnap Andrew, but not before he’s spotted.
As expected, Jack and Ronnie disagree on how to handle the situation. Ronnie, clearly one of Driscoll’s acolytes, wants to simple take Kalil and Andrew into custody and be done with his association with Jack. Jack, on the other hand, points out that Kalil could lead them further into the big picture, since he’s obviously taking Andrew somewhere. The ensuing argument leaves Jack handcuffed to a pipe, but thanks to the fact that neither man was trying to hide during the argument, Kalil notices that he’s being watched.
Seconds later, Ronnie and a couple other people are dead. In his last desperate act, Ronnie hands off the keys to the handcuffs, but it takes a few crucial moments for that to happen. By the time Jack is free, Kalil is out of sight. In other words, the episode ends exactly as one would have guessed at 8:08AM, with Jack being the only person left in the field to chase down Kalil.
In what appears to be the payoff for the terrorists’ takeover of the Internet, a hostage tape like the ones recently out of Iraq is released to the entire world. In it, Omar and the terrorists promise to try Heller for war crimes. If he is found guilty, he will be executed in three hours, and Omar is more than happy to promise that the trial and execution will be aired on the Internet for everyone to see. That was not predictable, but then again, as noted earlier, it was also the one plot point that was probably worked out before the episode was written.
Had this episode aired a week after the premiere, it probably would have been seen as a letdown. Airing with the premiere made it very easy to overlook the predictable elements of the story, because the tension created in the first episode was still intact. It’s likely that the network realized that this was not the right place to end the “premiere event”, however, and that could be why they decided to run two more episodes on the following night.
If the network and producers played their cards right, then the next two episodes should be strong enough to make this episode a minor misstep in the course of the story. If not, then this is going to be the first symptom of weakness in the plotting, something that the writers cannot afford, especially if they are barely getting the scripts in on time.
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode was a bit of a letdown after the strong premiere. Many of the subplots were saddled with predictable development, making it hard to get excited about the direction of the season arc. The final scene was an interesting development, but unless this episode was simply an early aberration, the writers need to seriously reconsider how the subplots will be handled and avoid falling into familiar and disappointing patterns.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4
Final Rating: 7/10
Season Average (as of 4.2): 7.5
posted by John Keegan | 15:10
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