24 6.22: "Day 6: 3AM - 4AM"
Written by Howard Gordon and Evan Katz
Directed by Bryan Spicer
In which tensions escalate between the
Status Report
With the return of Philip Bauer, the opportunity exists for the writers to bring resolution to a number of the lingering plot threads from much earlier in the season. There’s not a lot of time for it, but the opportunity is there, nonetheless. One big question, for instance, is Philip’s motivation beyond protecting his own business interests. His connection to Cheng is another element that could help expose the truth behind Jack’s release at the beginning of the season.
The retaking of CTU is a nice hand-to-hand struggle, though it mostly serves to gloss over the complication of putting Jack back into the field. Doyle is technically in command, which continues to place him in Jack’s usual role. In essence, Jack is still not himself again. As hinted earlier in the season, taking down his father might be the only way for Jack to overcome his psychological issues and return to his heroic stature.
That’s just the beginning of the action, though, as Jack races to save Josh. Philip’s motivations are clarified somewhat; he plays the best possible multinational angle for his business pursuits, and alliance with the Chinese is the best game in town, given his projections. This once again suggests connections that should have been made much earlier in the season.
Back at the White House, the sting operation with Lisa Miller plods along in the hopes of defusing an international incident, which is actually rather ironic, given Daniels’ previous activities. As far as Lisa’s concerned, she’s doing whatever it takes (for a rather long time, in fact) to make the operation work. All of this takes an inordinate amount of time, which could be better spent on other loose ends. This particular subplot all but destroyed the pacing and tension of the episode.
At CTU, despite some bad timing, Division comes down with exactly the right assessment of the situation. The circumstances at CTU were a complete embarrassment, long before Nadia was placed in charge, and the best thing she could do is leave well enough alone and hand over authority without argument.
The Russian president sets the timetable between this episode and the season finale, which comes down to the ability to recover the Russian circuit board from Cheng and deliver ample proof. This gives the writers two more episodes to put together the right connections and make them amenable. Unfortunately, with the episode ending as it does, there’s little or no hope of that.
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode plays like a transitional installment, which feels less like a measured development towards a palpable goal and more like a waste of precious time. Despite some well-staged combat early in the episode, most of the hour is spent on ridiculously slow exploration of a subplot that required far less material to make the same point. Once again, an episode that struggles to meet expectations.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4
Final Rating: 6/10
(Season 6 Average: 6.7)
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