24 6.3: "Day 6: 8AM - 9AM"

Written by Evan Katz and David Fury
Directed by Brad Turner

In which Jack and Assad race against time to locate Fayed before a deadline to release terrorist prisoners, while Ray is forced into a difficult decision by Ahmed…

Status Report

(This review covers the first hour of the Monday night season premiere episodes; the second hour will be covered in a subsequent review.)

The episode begins with the standard “24” tactic: identify an action to be completed within a short-term deadline and let Jack do everything possible to prevent that from happening. And as usual, the best iterations of that familiar plot come with unusual and interesting interactions. In this case, Jack and Assad, men who should be enemies, work together in relatively clever and effective fashion.

Once Curtis is in the mix, the main plot improves. Curtis has been a character in need of further definition, and this episode provides some of that. The conversation between Jack and Curtis reveals much about both men. Curtis seems to have the kind of certainty that Jack once had, and Jack seems uncomfortable facing that truth. Jack may be wondering, in that moment, where his own certainty has gone.

Ahmed’s decision to use his friend as a hostage, forcing Ray to betray his own country to save his family, adds an interesting aspect to the episode. Though the audience never had the chance to see Scott and Ahmed in happier times, it’s still riveting to see them face each other down. It makes what is effectively a short delaying action for the writers a lot more tense and effective. There’s no question that Ahmed will follow through on his threat, which in turn makes it believable that Ray would be forced into murderous action to save his family.

Though some may feel that Wayne Palmer is demonstrating weakness, he is taking the same kind of action that David had to make on more than one occasion. If Wayne is less confident, it’s likely the combination of his lack of political experience and the besieged history of his short presidency. It should also be noted that his character, if he should survive, will probably become more confident over the course of the season. If so, his apparent weakness would be designed to help provide contrast to his strength in the future.

It certainly doesn’t help that his sister seems hell-bent on distracting him at the worst possible moment. Her own tactics leave much to be desired, since they make a difficult situation a lot worse. Walid in particular ends up as a detainee, despite his previous attempts at cooperation, and Sandra bears much of the blame for that. It would be quite a twist, however, if Walid’s experience led him towards a more negative opinion of the United States.

Once again, the weak point is the ridiculous relationship antics between Chloe and Morris. Anyone with Morris’ petulant attitude should have been fired long before this point in the story, if he had been problematic during the terror response over the past few months. Then again, CTU is hardly known for dealing with personnel issues at the right time!

Despite being part of the overall introductory premiere, this has the feel of a transitional episode. Characters and plot threads are moving into position over the course of the hour, and given Fayed’s deadline, it’s clear that nothing particularly earth-shattering will happen before the end. The point is to reveal Fayed’s possession of a nuclear weapon and his ability, quite soon, to detonate it. To that end, the episode accomplishes its task.

Final Analysis

Overall, this episode is largely transitional in nature, despite introducing some of the long-term plot and character threads to be explored over the next several episodes. The writers use this opportunity to explore some of the minor characters while setting the stage for something a lot more action-packed in the next episode.

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

Final Rating: 7/10