24 6.14: "Day 6: 7PM - 8PM"

Written by Howard Gordon, Evan Katz, Manny Coto, and David Fury
Directed by Jon Cassar

In which the terrorists launch a nuclear device in a remote drone against another city, forcing CTU to overcome internal issues to resolve the crisis, while international tensions mount…

Status Report

As usual for this series, it can become difficult to divorce the issues emerging in the season arc from the specific strengths and weaknesses of an individual episode. This is especially true when each new episode carries the weight of repairing previous miscues and avoiding familiar patterns. Many of the episodes thus far have been average at best, which is an unfortunate symptom of the writing woes that have plagued the series for the past couple of seasons. With less than half a season left, can the writers deliver a strong episode and begin turning the tide? With four writers involved in developing the script, it’s not a likely prospect.

After a long stint in the background, Gredenko and Fayed return to prominence as one of the nuclear bombs is ready for launch in a remote drone. The remaining two bombs, of course, are kept for a later time. In the short term, of course, there’s a target to identify and an attack to thwart.

Just as the audience had hope that the drama at CTU might finally slip into the quiet background, Milo’s decision to allow Nadia to use his access codes comes back into the picture. This feels like a plot element dropped earlier in the season to emerge when it was convenient to complicate things for CTU when the story needed a bit of a jolt. Similarly, the idea of a mole within CTU comes back into the picture. It would be an interesting twist if it wasn’t so damned familiar and tedious. As if that’s not enough, Morris and his drinking history rears its ugly head again. It was bad enough the first time, and a waste of time now.

Unfortunately, the revelation of a leak and the effect on CTU can only be dramatic and meaningful if the audience has reason to care about the characters involved. That’s simply not the case. Nadia’s gets as much screen time in this episode as she has the entire season to this point, and at no point does the audience get to know her beyond a pretty face and a few factoids.

As annoying as it is to see Mike Doyle taking on Jack’s typical role (with some nasty racism along for the ride), it makes a certain amount of sense. Jack can’t be the primary hero of the day quite yet, because he’s still dealing with his fractured self-confidence. His reaction to Audrey’s death is a perfect example of that. As with the idea of a country under siege, Jack’s personal crisis could have been handled better, but it’s good to see more of that struggle back in the spotlight. With Doyle looking more and more like Jack without a conscience, the part of him that he’s always had to keep under strict control, a showdown feels like a matter of time.

With the drone in the air, Vice President Daniels is more than ready to proceed with his aggressive plans for retaliation in the Middle East. If nothing else, he makes things interesting and makes a massive escalation more than a possibility. Had the intensity of the terrorist activity in the premiere been maintained, this mentality might be more frightening.

Karen Hayes’ return to the political picture isn’t well explained, but it makes sense that she and Tom would get a chance to spar from their respective corners with a new executive in command. Wayne was more predisposed to Karen’s point of view, which forced Tom into desperate action. Now Karen faces Daniels, who is more predisposed to Tom’s point of view. This poses an interesting question: how far will Karen go to prevent an action she deems beyond extreme?

Planned or unplanned, this is an interesting direction for the season arc to take, even if it doesn’t quite fall along the national security/civil liberty lines that were established early in the season. Now the debate is retaliation vs. diplomacy. Still, putting the president’s life at risk is the kind of extreme measure that puts her into uneasy territory, not unlike Tom and his blackmail schemes.

Just like the previous episode where Jack defused the second nuclear device, there’s never a moment of doubt that Jack will stop the drone from detonating over San Francisco. In fact, it’s such a given that it would have been more intense and shocking if he had failed. The end result is the same in terms of Daniels’ reaction, however, so it just makes his decision more questionable.

Part of the problem is that the initial detonation in Valencia is now beginning to feel like the climax of the season, with the rest of the story as an extended and fragmented denouement. Some ongoing concepts are still viable, but other plot elements seem tossed on the wind. For example, whatever happened with Logan at the end of the previous episode? It’s as if Logan was never involved in the story at all! That’s why it’s so hard to judge individual episodes this season; the glaring issues with the whole are impossible to ignore.

Final Analysis

Overall, this episode has some good points, particularly in terms of the tension surrounding the response to the terrorist threat, but some overly familiar elements get in the way of progress. The CTU drama has been done before and far better, and a rather important plot point is completely ignored. Jack’s personal issues get some screen time, but his latest heroic effort is practically devoid of tension, which is not a good sign.

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

Final Rating: 7/10

(Season Average: 7.0)