24 4.12: "Day 4: 6PM - 7PM"

Written by Howard Gordon and Evan Katz
Directed by Jon Cassar

In which Jack enlists Paul’s help to uncover Marwan’s involvement with the company that created the override, while efforts at the CTU are hampered when Driscoll can no longer function…


Status Report

With the conclusion of the nuclear meltdown threat (including the apparent minimization of the body count), the writers had a particularly difficult challenge to overcome: shift the focus of the plot from one crisis to another without losing the momentum of the season arc in the process. On both accounts, the writers struggled, and the result was an episode that seemed to reflect the lack of long-term planning that has been dogging the writing staff since early in the season.

Usually, the middle episodes of a season, for an arc-driven show, pound the audience with a series of escalating conflicts, usually due to moments of revelation within the plot structure. The previous episode was a good example of this: resolving one plot element and thus providing a springboard for something bigger in the second half. Some scenes actually accomplished this task, but others seemed to be marking time.

The beginning of the episode is dominated by the fallout from two major plot elements: Driscoll’s reaction to Maya’s suicide and Marwan’s escape. One seriously affects the other, and the writers are more than aware of that. While it’s easy to criticize this series for moving on too quickly after a massively traumatic event, there’s a limit to how long the writers can linger over something internal to a character. With most characters, the internalized emotions transform into almost immediate action. With Driscoll, she’s paralyzed, and she drags the momentum down with her.

The search for Marwan begins with the realization that, under an alias, he has been an employee of the same defense contractor that created the override. Apparently this company makes all kinds of toys for DOD and international clients, and they also train their employees in the use of those toys. All well and good, though someone should eventually wonder why such a company would have a testing facility for such weapons in the middle of a major city!

As it happens, one of Paul’s companies (this guy has his fingers in every kind of mess) happens to provide the software to the defense contractor, and of course, he knows all the backdoors and hidden code of that particular software. Thus continues the highly annoying task of taking Paul from assumptive black hat to white hat, making Jack look very bad in comparison. Jack has every reason to worry about Audrey’s sympathy for Paul, because a day like this one shows off everything about Jack that puts people off.

Most of the action (or lack thereof) revolves around the fact that there’s only one lead regarding Marwan, and it’s obviously going to take the entire episode for Jack and Paul to get anywhere with that lead. So the drama shifts to CTU, where Heller shows his compassionate conservatism in the best manner possible. Heller is a very realistic character in that his personal manner is quite honest and easy to appreciate, but he makes decisions as a part of his job that can be seen as draconian or overly harsh (like allowing his son to be tortured).

For instance, Heller is only hours removed from worrying over his daughter’s possible death at the hands of terrorists, and he was willing to place Audrey’s safety over the best interests of the country. Driscoll made similar decisions (and many other bad ones), and the outcome was not nearly so positive. It makes sense that Heller would be able to console Driscoll on a very personal and empathic level. (That said, in a couple of cases, Heller’s methods bordered on highly inappropriate, but without knowing how close the two were as friends before this particular crisis, it’s hard to know for certain.)

For all that, it shouldn’t have taken so long for someone to tell Driscoll to go home, and if anything, it should have been handled through Division. A lot was made of the clear division of authority in a previous episode: CTU does not answer to the Secretary of Defense. So how can Heller use his authority to place Tony in provisional charge of CTU until a replacement arrives? It’s a plot device that is used to set the stage for a more dramatic conflict in the next episode, but in essence, this is unnecessary and contrived.

When the characters themselves point out how contrived certain plot points are, it’s not a good sign; it’s even worse when the writers don’t bother to follow that up with a justification that makes sense within the internal logic of the story. Edgar notes that the CTU doctors should have been able to prevent Maya’s suicide, yet no explanation is provided. Similarly, Heller points out every reason why Tony shouldn’t be given authority over CTU, despite his experience. It’s a fact that Heller appreciates the kind of passion and dedication behind someone like Jack or Tony, but given the jurisdiction issues and Tony’s recent history, it’s a massive plot contrivance.

Once Tony is in charge, of course, Curtis is left hanging. In all fairness, the correct protocol would have been for Curtis to be in charge until Division either sends a replacement or affirms his interim status. Curtis’ proper authority was dismissed without cause, and of course he has every right to be angry. This is also a plot device, however, since it’s clear that every disagreement between Curtis and Tony will be used against Tony in the near future. (Never mind that Sarah is probably still operating under the deal she made with Driscoll, and is therefore keeping a list of everything Tony does that can be seen as outside proper protocol.)

Meanwhile, the executives at the defense contractor are in quite the panic, making the reasonable assumption that news of an employee’s use of company property for terrorist activity might be a detriment to future growth. Indeed, this would make sense if the writers hadn’t already mentioned that most of the company’s business is either with the DOD (who understands that the company was the victim of a sleeper plot, among many others) or international clients with possibly impolite intentions (who would probably see Marwan’s success as clever advertising). Cooperating with CTU is, by far, the easiest way for such a company to continue normal operations.

Of course, that’s not what happens, so the writers treat the audience to what seems like endless internal debate over how to handle the fact that CTU wants to go through their records. Taken in context with the fact that Marwan has an unknown number of sleeper terrorist allies (some of which are working on the second phase of the plan), it’s not hard to believe that someone else at the contractor’s office was an inside operative. Even so, it comes down to Reiss and Conlon, two contractor employees, against the computer expertise of Paul and Jack (who seems just as competent, when it comes right down to it).

Conlon’s bright idea is to use an EMP bomb to destroy all electronic data systems in the building if CTU gets too close to anything incriminating. Once again, it’s hard to believe that the company would actually take overt action against a federal agent, especially since they are absolutely correct in the assumption that the EMP blast would be attributed to Marwan. In fact, it would have been better for the company if Conlon had ordered the EMP blast without the rest of the fun and games. But then, there wouldn’t be the antics caused by the countdown and the slow but steady realization that the contractors themselves have something to hide.

In previous episodes, these plot points would have been covered in an act, maybe two, as a prelude to something much bigger. By the time this point is reached in the story, however, the episode is nearly finished, and what comes next must have looked much better on paper. The EMP bomb begins to power up for detonation, and the effect is a slow but steady decline in the utility of electronically-powered systems.

One would think, especially those understanding the nature of EMPs, that the effect would be uniform within the radius of the EMP blast: no power to electrical devices. Instead, some systems work, while others cut out only when convenient. For instance, while the lights flicker and go out in the building, adjacent buildings clearly have full power; this should not be the case, based on the CTU estimates of the EMP effect. Never mind that the computers, and the shared network server that Paul and Conlon are using, would be affected almost instantly!

Once the pulse goes off, of course, the inconsistencies are beyond comprehension. Why would certain cell phones work after a blast, when just the build-up to detonation was interrupting signal? And why would the lights go out in adjacent buildings from bottom to top, when even a normal power outage immediately cuts power to an entire building? And even if Paul had a printout, why bother threatening him and trying to stop him, if the EMP blast was going to be blamed on Marwan anyway?

With Jack and Paul’s plot thread falling apart at the seams, there’s only the CTU drama left to give the episode a proper ending. Even that seems to fall flat, since Tony’s temporary promotion from unemployed to provisional CTU director was more than obvious as a sign of Michelle’s impending return. Was there any doubt that she was coming back, since her position at Division was conveniently mentioned earlier in the season? And of course, now she’s taking over the position that Tony fought to claim, even for a short time. Could this be more contrived?

The sad thing is, the elements of the plot were already in place for each plot thread to work. The writers could have simply had the defense contractor employees take over, revealed as terrorists themselves, and it would have made perfect sense. The EMP blast could have been depicted more consistently and still been dramatic. And Tony didn’t need to be elevated without cause to a temporary leadership role for Michelle’s return to have a major impact. But because the writers didn’t have the benefit of a short-term roadmap to keep them from straying too far while working without a net, as soon as there was slack in the rope, they hung themselves. (How was that for mixing metaphors?) It’s sad to say, but this is exactly the kind of thing that has become Howard Gordon’s Achilles’ heel: good ideas undermined by poor execution.

At least the writers took a marginal amount of time to remind the audience that Dina mentioned more than one cell under Marwan’s watch, thereby giving his activity in this episode a reasonable context. It should be interesting to discover what plans might be in store for a nearby Air Force base, but if the writers are smart, they’ll make an effort to accelerate that subplot as much as possible. Another episode like this one might derail what had been a resurgence for the series.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode was a major misstep after a long run of consistently strong episodes. The narrative flow comes to a grinding halt, and the various plot threads descend into a mess of faulty logic and contrived twists. Most of the problems were unnecessary, since all the right elements were in place to keep the story moving; this is most likely the effect of too many episodes written under an impossible deadline. Sooner or later, it was going to catch up with them.

Writing: 0/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 0/4

Final Rating: 4/10

Season Average (as of 4.12): 7.3