24 4.17: "Day 4: 11PM - 12AM"
Written by Duppy Demetrius
Directed by Jon Cassar
In which two campers find the nuclear “football” in some wreckage from Air Force One, sending Jack on a race against time to retrieve it before Marwan can take possession of it…
Status Report
The end of the “complication” phase of the season arc ended with a bang: the apparent assassination of President Keeler. To address one frequent criticism: the review for the previous episode was written without spoiler knowledge. In other words, based on what was shown, not based on what is revealed regarding future plot threads. The writers intentionally wanted it to look like the President was dead. As the review pointed out, even with the stakes as implied, the episode didn’t get it done.
The very beginning of this episode reveals the truth about the effect on Air Force One. The indirect hit was intentional, not just to allow the President to survive, but because the terrorists have another agenda. The plane is meant to be largely intact when it hits the ground. This also has the effect of letting the audience see the stunned reaction to the crash at CTU. It’s more effective to keep the focus on the characters and their reactions, rather than showing some glorified CGI shot of the downed plane.
Mike Novick returns to the forefront as a senior advisor, effectively playing the Leo McGarry role as the Vice-President fights off the urge to faint on the spot. One would like to think that the Vice-President would be more prepared to take the reins, but realistically, that wouldn’t be the case in the middle of such a situation. Had Air Force One gone down on 9/11, would Cheney have been ready to address the nation within an hour? And as hard as it is to comprehend, this season of “24” entails a terrorism scenario far worse than anything that’s happened in the real world.
Rather quickly, Jack gets the assignment from his boss (through Audrey) to secure the “nuclear football”, which is the President’s cache of warhead locations and launch codes. Marwan wants that information, since he has a thing for setting off nuclear destruction in major cities when possible (again linking him to the second season’s Second Wave), and downing Air Force One was all about getting those codes in the aftermath.
This is a good twist because it doesn’t leave the hunt for Marwan and his benefactors in a vacuum. The stakes continually escalate, and that places more and more pressure on CTU to get their act together and stop acting like rank amateurs. The entire organization has been reeling since the beginning of the season, and it has allowed Marwan to execute every single plan with minimal interference.
Even Jack has the whole “personal issues” thing in his way. Audrey can’t forgive him for letting Paul get shot and then moving on, compartmentalizing his emotions to work more effectively. This is somewhat amusing (if entirely frustrating) because it was obvious at the beginning of the season that this would be the result. Jack told Chase at the very beginning of the third season that it’s impossible to maintain a healthy, normal relationship when working a field ops job. Even as removed as he was from his former life, it’s taken about 12 hours for his own words to haunt him.
Meanwhile, the episode’s guest characters, camping out in the desert, awaken to deliver some horrible dialogue and remark on the distant sound of an explosion, which just happened to dump chunks of burning airplane parts within a few hundred yards. Apparently that wouldn’t get more attention, according to the physics of “24”. Whatever the case, these two red shirts are about to get a taste of Jack’s world, and it’s not a pretty sight. They are requisitely horrified to see pieces of Air Force One scattered all around them.
Apparently Buchanan has started drinking the water served in the LA field office, because despite the gravity of the situation, even he decides that it’s a great time to discuss personal relationship issues with someone who’s not even a real CTU employee anymore. At least this resolves the little question of whether or not Michelle is still sleeping with him, but it points out that the tension developed in the previous episode was a plot contrivance. Creating tension and then immediately resolving it is illogical for a serialized series like this, and it’s getting annoying. But the seeds are planted for a Michelle/Tony make-up session, which would be a nice moment if it happened.
The President is found alive, but for the moment, he’s down for the count. So Vice-President Logan still needs to take the reins and see the nation through the absolute worst day ever. Mike, of course, is ready and willing to trigger that 25th Amendment at the drop of a dime, but Logan looks a lot less certain. It might have been more interesting (and dramatically valid) to have Keeler die in the explosion, but perhaps the writers are hoping to hold on to the successful assassination of a president for next time around.
Somehow managing to have a coherent conversation using a cell phone in a moving helicopter, even while being quiet enough to keep it personal, Jack displays exactly the kind of compartmentalization that she can’t stand by reassuring her one second and jumping back to saving lives in the next. How Audrey managed to not freak out about this kind of thing while working with her father, who has to do that same mental exercise every minute of the day, is hard to reconcile.
By the time Jason and Kelly, the hapless campers, get in contact with Jack, the terrorists are within visual range and moving at the exact speed necessary to ensure that dramatic tension is maintained. It’s rather clear that the couple will be used to stall Marwan and his possession of the “football” for the rest of the episode. Surprisingly, this helps to personalize the situation a little, because it’s easy to wonder how one would handle the same situation.
Leaving aside that locating and destroying the transponder shouldn’t be that easy, it helps explain how Marwan would get wise to the presence of civilians. However, Jack could and should have considered that the terrorists would, even without the tipoff, notice the fact that someone opened the case for the “football” and obviously took it. And then the terrorists would use their brains and look for the nearest available shelter, since most people would try to lock themselves in and wait for someone to save them. The much smarter move would have been to send the campers in a given direction, since they have a compass, and then move to intercept while letting the terrorists waste time at the power station. Of course, that would have resulted in the terrorists not achieving their goal, so that’s not a possibility.
Events play out rather predictably from there. Jason and Kelly break into the power station. The terrorists show up moments later, followed by Jack and another CTU red shirt. The red shirt is killed. Things only get interesting when Jack tells Jason and Kelly to take parts of the “football” and split up, thus making it harder for the terrorists to get what they apparently want. This is one of the few genuine moments of the episode: who could split up with their loved one, knowing what the chances of survival would be?
In a nice move, Jack gets the drop on the terrorists covering the entrance to the power station, just as Marwan gets his hands on Jason. Somehow, in the middle of a room where every sound echoes like crazy, Kelly manages to have a relatively loud cell phone conversation with Jack. Speaking of, how many times is Jack going to have his cell phone ring at maximum volume when he’s in the middle of a precarious situation? Has he never heard of the “vibrate” option?
There’s an inevitability to what happens with Jason and Kelly. Most viewers were probably able to predict how well Kelly’s negotiation with Marwan would go. By the time that Jack shows up, saving their lives, it’s not even remotely surprising. The only real question is how Marwan is going to get away with the contents of the “football”, or to what extent thereof.
This is another moment where the writers drop the logical ball. Knowing that Jack is dealing with terrorists, having established that it only takes 20 minutes for CTU personnel to arrive from the middle of LA, and having established that the “football” cannot get into enemy hands, somehow CTU fails to provide adequate air and ground support to surround and contain anyone trying to leave the area. It’s not even as if Marwan is fleeing on foot; the man is driving a jeep!
Jack runs after the guy with the “football” case, which anyone with a brain would assume is a decoy (or at least only part of the package). After all, didn’t Jack already tell the audience how smart it is to split up the contents? Instead of having the chopper track Marwan while he takes care of the other terrorist, all of the resources available (all two of them) are devoted to helping Jack while Marwan runs off unimpeded. It’s ludicrous to think that after so much effort and with so much on the line, so little would be done to ensure success. Jack did call in air support, but it apparently doesn’t bother to show up. (Unless, of course, it was delayed until the beginning of the next episode, which makes this another trumped-up ending.)
The goal, of course, was to place the information about the location and launch codes for a nuclear warhead in the hands of the terrorists, so that the final episodes of the season would be the effort to prevent the final phase of the terrorist attack. Unfortunately, the writers take a contrived road getting there. It helps that there was less focus on the drama at CTU, unlike the last several episodes, but it’s not enough. CTU could have done a lot more to contain Marwan once it was clear that Jack had him located.
Like many of the episodes since the end of the meltdown portion of the arc, the material hasn’t been completely horrible. But it has suffered terribly from the lack of strong plotting. The writers keep using CTU errors and personal dramas as a crutch for getting the terrorists in position to strike. It’s long since past the point of absurdity. By this point last season, the writers had found their voice again and gave the third season a strong finish. Doing the same for the fourth season is going to require a minor miracle, if things don’t change soon.
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode continues the lackluster run of episodes, relying on plot contrivances to keep the story moving. There are moments in the final act that defy all logical explanation, especially given the current situation. There’s still time for some CTU personal relationship drama, which is always a drawback. Clearly an exercise in moving the story from point A to point B, by any means necessary.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Rating: 6/10
Season Average (as of 4.17): 6.7
Directed by Jon Cassar
In which two campers find the nuclear “football” in some wreckage from Air Force One, sending Jack on a race against time to retrieve it before Marwan can take possession of it…
Status Report
The end of the “complication” phase of the season arc ended with a bang: the apparent assassination of President Keeler. To address one frequent criticism: the review for the previous episode was written without spoiler knowledge. In other words, based on what was shown, not based on what is revealed regarding future plot threads. The writers intentionally wanted it to look like the President was dead. As the review pointed out, even with the stakes as implied, the episode didn’t get it done.
The very beginning of this episode reveals the truth about the effect on Air Force One. The indirect hit was intentional, not just to allow the President to survive, but because the terrorists have another agenda. The plane is meant to be largely intact when it hits the ground. This also has the effect of letting the audience see the stunned reaction to the crash at CTU. It’s more effective to keep the focus on the characters and their reactions, rather than showing some glorified CGI shot of the downed plane.
Mike Novick returns to the forefront as a senior advisor, effectively playing the Leo McGarry role as the Vice-President fights off the urge to faint on the spot. One would like to think that the Vice-President would be more prepared to take the reins, but realistically, that wouldn’t be the case in the middle of such a situation. Had Air Force One gone down on 9/11, would Cheney have been ready to address the nation within an hour? And as hard as it is to comprehend, this season of “24” entails a terrorism scenario far worse than anything that’s happened in the real world.
Rather quickly, Jack gets the assignment from his boss (through Audrey) to secure the “nuclear football”, which is the President’s cache of warhead locations and launch codes. Marwan wants that information, since he has a thing for setting off nuclear destruction in major cities when possible (again linking him to the second season’s Second Wave), and downing Air Force One was all about getting those codes in the aftermath.
This is a good twist because it doesn’t leave the hunt for Marwan and his benefactors in a vacuum. The stakes continually escalate, and that places more and more pressure on CTU to get their act together and stop acting like rank amateurs. The entire organization has been reeling since the beginning of the season, and it has allowed Marwan to execute every single plan with minimal interference.
Even Jack has the whole “personal issues” thing in his way. Audrey can’t forgive him for letting Paul get shot and then moving on, compartmentalizing his emotions to work more effectively. This is somewhat amusing (if entirely frustrating) because it was obvious at the beginning of the season that this would be the result. Jack told Chase at the very beginning of the third season that it’s impossible to maintain a healthy, normal relationship when working a field ops job. Even as removed as he was from his former life, it’s taken about 12 hours for his own words to haunt him.
Meanwhile, the episode’s guest characters, camping out in the desert, awaken to deliver some horrible dialogue and remark on the distant sound of an explosion, which just happened to dump chunks of burning airplane parts within a few hundred yards. Apparently that wouldn’t get more attention, according to the physics of “24”. Whatever the case, these two red shirts are about to get a taste of Jack’s world, and it’s not a pretty sight. They are requisitely horrified to see pieces of Air Force One scattered all around them.
Apparently Buchanan has started drinking the water served in the LA field office, because despite the gravity of the situation, even he decides that it’s a great time to discuss personal relationship issues with someone who’s not even a real CTU employee anymore. At least this resolves the little question of whether or not Michelle is still sleeping with him, but it points out that the tension developed in the previous episode was a plot contrivance. Creating tension and then immediately resolving it is illogical for a serialized series like this, and it’s getting annoying. But the seeds are planted for a Michelle/Tony make-up session, which would be a nice moment if it happened.
The President is found alive, but for the moment, he’s down for the count. So Vice-President Logan still needs to take the reins and see the nation through the absolute worst day ever. Mike, of course, is ready and willing to trigger that 25th Amendment at the drop of a dime, but Logan looks a lot less certain. It might have been more interesting (and dramatically valid) to have Keeler die in the explosion, but perhaps the writers are hoping to hold on to the successful assassination of a president for next time around.
Somehow managing to have a coherent conversation using a cell phone in a moving helicopter, even while being quiet enough to keep it personal, Jack displays exactly the kind of compartmentalization that she can’t stand by reassuring her one second and jumping back to saving lives in the next. How Audrey managed to not freak out about this kind of thing while working with her father, who has to do that same mental exercise every minute of the day, is hard to reconcile.
By the time Jason and Kelly, the hapless campers, get in contact with Jack, the terrorists are within visual range and moving at the exact speed necessary to ensure that dramatic tension is maintained. It’s rather clear that the couple will be used to stall Marwan and his possession of the “football” for the rest of the episode. Surprisingly, this helps to personalize the situation a little, because it’s easy to wonder how one would handle the same situation.
Leaving aside that locating and destroying the transponder shouldn’t be that easy, it helps explain how Marwan would get wise to the presence of civilians. However, Jack could and should have considered that the terrorists would, even without the tipoff, notice the fact that someone opened the case for the “football” and obviously took it. And then the terrorists would use their brains and look for the nearest available shelter, since most people would try to lock themselves in and wait for someone to save them. The much smarter move would have been to send the campers in a given direction, since they have a compass, and then move to intercept while letting the terrorists waste time at the power station. Of course, that would have resulted in the terrorists not achieving their goal, so that’s not a possibility.
Events play out rather predictably from there. Jason and Kelly break into the power station. The terrorists show up moments later, followed by Jack and another CTU red shirt. The red shirt is killed. Things only get interesting when Jack tells Jason and Kelly to take parts of the “football” and split up, thus making it harder for the terrorists to get what they apparently want. This is one of the few genuine moments of the episode: who could split up with their loved one, knowing what the chances of survival would be?
In a nice move, Jack gets the drop on the terrorists covering the entrance to the power station, just as Marwan gets his hands on Jason. Somehow, in the middle of a room where every sound echoes like crazy, Kelly manages to have a relatively loud cell phone conversation with Jack. Speaking of, how many times is Jack going to have his cell phone ring at maximum volume when he’s in the middle of a precarious situation? Has he never heard of the “vibrate” option?
There’s an inevitability to what happens with Jason and Kelly. Most viewers were probably able to predict how well Kelly’s negotiation with Marwan would go. By the time that Jack shows up, saving their lives, it’s not even remotely surprising. The only real question is how Marwan is going to get away with the contents of the “football”, or to what extent thereof.
This is another moment where the writers drop the logical ball. Knowing that Jack is dealing with terrorists, having established that it only takes 20 minutes for CTU personnel to arrive from the middle of LA, and having established that the “football” cannot get into enemy hands, somehow CTU fails to provide adequate air and ground support to surround and contain anyone trying to leave the area. It’s not even as if Marwan is fleeing on foot; the man is driving a jeep!
Jack runs after the guy with the “football” case, which anyone with a brain would assume is a decoy (or at least only part of the package). After all, didn’t Jack already tell the audience how smart it is to split up the contents? Instead of having the chopper track Marwan while he takes care of the other terrorist, all of the resources available (all two of them) are devoted to helping Jack while Marwan runs off unimpeded. It’s ludicrous to think that after so much effort and with so much on the line, so little would be done to ensure success. Jack did call in air support, but it apparently doesn’t bother to show up. (Unless, of course, it was delayed until the beginning of the next episode, which makes this another trumped-up ending.)
The goal, of course, was to place the information about the location and launch codes for a nuclear warhead in the hands of the terrorists, so that the final episodes of the season would be the effort to prevent the final phase of the terrorist attack. Unfortunately, the writers take a contrived road getting there. It helps that there was less focus on the drama at CTU, unlike the last several episodes, but it’s not enough. CTU could have done a lot more to contain Marwan once it was clear that Jack had him located.
Like many of the episodes since the end of the meltdown portion of the arc, the material hasn’t been completely horrible. But it has suffered terribly from the lack of strong plotting. The writers keep using CTU errors and personal dramas as a crutch for getting the terrorists in position to strike. It’s long since past the point of absurdity. By this point last season, the writers had found their voice again and gave the third season a strong finish. Doing the same for the fourth season is going to require a minor miracle, if things don’t change soon.
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode continues the lackluster run of episodes, relying on plot contrivances to keep the story moving. There are moments in the final act that defy all logical explanation, especially given the current situation. There’s still time for some CTU personal relationship drama, which is always a drawback. Clearly an exercise in moving the story from point A to point B, by any means necessary.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Rating: 6/10
Season Average (as of 4.17): 6.7
posted by John Keegan | 17:18
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