24 5.20: "Day 5: 2AM - 3AM"

Written by Joel Surnow and Michael Loceff
Directed by Dwight Little

In which Jack must infiltrate a plane while in flight to retrieve the recording that implicates Logan with Henderson, while Karen struggles to help the investigation and Novick has suspicions…


Status Report

Right from the beginning, the chess game continues. It’s a little odd that Chloe would question Bill’s sacrifice play, but she does have that innate loyalty to those who demonstrate trustworthy behavior. It’s not clear why the DHS personnel wouldn’t be watching the back of the house to see if Chloe was escaping. Then again, it took forever for Karen to come around to the truth, so why should the rest of DHS be any smarter?

It’s always fun to watch Chloe operate in the field. Leave it to Chloe to run rings around national security in the middle of a hotel lounge! Then again, Jack is demonstrating how easy it is to hijack a plane, so maybe it isn’t that much of a surprise, after all. One is left with the fervent hope that the real air marshals are made of sterner (and more intelligent) stuff.

Logan’s decision to keep Martha from her medication is actually rather clever. If there’s a quick and easy way to remove Martha from the board, it’s letting her own documented psychological issues take her down. Enlisting Novick was a risky move; then again, Martha doesn’t seem to do anything half-heartedly. Even if her desire to take medication is sincere, getting Novick to retrieve the medicine is an easy way to push him in the right direction.

This situation does raise a good point. If Novick is Logan’s Chief of Staff, how did he manage to leave Logan so far out on his own? If anyone is in a position to uncover the truth about the conspiracy with the oil magnates, it’s Logan’s Chief of Staff. Novick would effectively be running the country while ensuring that Logan was focusing on the major issues; very little should be getting past him. If anything, he ought to be noticing that information is being kept from him, even if he doesn’t know what it’s all about. At least he comes around in short order once his suspicions are aroused.

Of course, it can’t be easy for Jack, so he runs into two complications. Turbulence exposes the fact that the air marshal was assaulted and a passenger is missing. And everything suggests that he got the wrong man in the first place. By this point, the general direction of the rest of the episode is more than a little apparent. Chloe needs to race against time (and the libido of an annoying guest character) while Jack deals with the consequences of being caught. Chloe’s solution is absolutely priceless!

Jack’s tactics are a bit more complicated. Despite his best efforts, he cannot get the pilot to believe his story. Frankly, that makes a lot of sense, especially since Jack’s response to this complication must seem an awful lot like terrorism. Since one of the usual themes of “24” is the strained morality of a counter-terrorist agent and how both sides use similar means, this shouldn’t be surprising. Certainly the passengers look at Jack as if he’s a terrorist.

Unfortunately, all of this serves to expose Jack’s location to Logan and his handlers. That puts Karen in an even more compromised position. Thankfully, Miles chooses to contact Novick, who is already suspicious of the overall situation as it is. Not surprisingly, Jack manages, in the final moments of the episode, to get the recording and effective control of the plane.

Of course, that’s not necessarily the best position to be in, since the conspiracy is aware of his location and has every resource to eliminate him. The question is whether or not Jack’s growing list of allies can do something to prevent the plane from being taken down. Novick would be the man in the right position, especially in tandem with Gardner, but it may come down to something a lot simpler than that. If Martha has overdosed (and it sounds possible, given her last scene in the episode), then it might come down to Logan’s regard for his wife’s survival.

Frankly, it would be a nice touch if the entire success of the conspiracy comes down to Logan’s relationship with his wife. It would almost be a hint of advanced planning. Unfortunately, the producers have once again expressed how incredibly awesome it is that they wing the entire season. That said, the restraints of the end of the season are enough to force the story into the right mode.

This was a relatively simple episode, but it got the job done. The pieces continue to shift on the board. It wasn’t the most subtle use of the general “24” theme in the world, but it was fun to watch Jack play terrorist for a little while. And any time Chloe gets to deliver a bit of quick justice is a good time indeed!


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode was a bit more transitional than one would expect at this stage of the game, but there were some definite high points. It’s always good when the writers let the basic theme of the series take hold for a while. But the lack of much forward momentum in this episode, relative to the past several installments, means that the final four episodes will need to really deliver to end this season on the right note.

Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 7/10

Season Average (as of 5.20): 7.1