Date of airing: November 13, 2001 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 8.77 million viewers, 5.5/8 in Households, 4.4/10 with Adults 18-49
And very slowly, the show continued to build its momentum of suspense and did something no other show had done before at this time. But once again, barely anything happened within 42 minutes screentime of a 60-minute event, and instead of moving directly to the new point of the story, the writers were carefully planting information that was both crucial to the characters, as well as important for upcoming storylines. Again I have to wonder how far the writers actually planned ahead and what kind of character backstories were used just to stall the assassination storyline, or even the story of the mole inside the agency, because I’m not sure the writers knew who the mole would be, even after Nina Myers’ name popped up on a screen in front of Jack Bauer.
It’s noticeable how much time this episode was trying to waste though. It began with Teri’s simple task of trying to find out the name and number of the store’s owner, or Mandy in the villain’s lair, having a conversation with the Martin Belkin lookalike – scenes that would usually get cut out during post-production, but in this series, they needed those scenes to stall time and move the clock to the next hour, in addition to making it clear to the audience that this truly is a real-time narrative and that you will get to see some of the more mundane stuff. At some point, Jack Bauer has to take a bathroom break, right?
But whatever happened in this episode, it was still entertaining. Jack and Richard Walsh silently shooting their way out of the office building in the middle of the episode was thrilling, and Kim’s realization that she was in absolute deep trouble made her story a little more interesting because now Jack or Teri (or both) really had to worry about something else than just the assassination attempt. Jack already has his hands full, but Kim’s miserable next few hours will at least keep Teri busy, making her character seem less useless going forward. And I considered her character a little useless throughout the pilot and this episode, because all the focus of the show so far seemed to rely on the assassination attempt, while Teri’s story only seemed to be in the show to stall some time. At this particular moment, I’m less happy about Teri’s story than I am about Jack’s issues.
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| Silent and dark office rooms are a nightmare for this show. |
That’s mostly because I’m finding myself not caring about Kim at all. Yes, her realization that she was in a ton of problems made her life more bearable for a scripted television thriller, but there was a short moment in the van where I realized that Elisha Cuthbert, as cute as she might have been in the early 2000s (making it easier for FOX to promote the show to a young male audience and therefore making it a little hipper), was not the right choice for the role. Kim knew that she was not getting out of this van, that she won’t get away from the two guys so quickly, that these guys have planned to do something sinister with her, yet the only thing she could do was the silent “leave me alone” move, knowing that she was only a character in a scripted drama, portrayed by an actress who was probably still studying the craft of acting.
In addition to that, there wasn’t any drama in the phone conversation with her mother, even though there should have been. Janet’s arm was just broken, proving to Kim that these guys are dangerous, yet she never managed to portray that fear for her life in her behavior or her voice during the phone call. Also, Kim is a troped-up American teenager on an American television show airing on an American broadcast network – those types of characters never have it easy, because they never act truly grounded. Then again, I truly wouldn’t know what a teenager is going to go through in a situation like this, but I’m not even sure Kim realized she was being kidnapped right now.
At least the Palmer family was properly introduced in this episode. Two episodes in, and this is the second episode the writers teased something about David Palmer and Maureen. And then David Palmer had it pretty easy in slipping out of the hotel room (what? How? Was there another door that led to the stairs?), going down to the parking lot, and driving away like he was not in the running for the nominee of President of the United States. By the way: What party is he running for? Did the writers care enough to establish that? Though really, the Republicans would never allow an African-American to run for President when the Republicans in the House didn’t even have black interns in 2016 (remember that group photo then-Speaker of the House Paul Ryan took and barely had any non-white faces in it?). I’m actually surprised that it was so damn easy for him to get away from the building when he should have been surrounded by Secret Service agents permanently. After all, aren’t all presidential candidates receiving that protective treatment? And to boot it, he is still a United States Senator, so he should have some form of Secret Service detail on him at any point.
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| Kim is trying to say "I love you." |
Finally, the events that Jack is involved in, showcasing the thriller aspect of TWENTY-FOUR. It almost hurt me to see Richard getting killed out in the open because he most likely was Jack’s only trusty confidante in the show and he seemed like a nice and trustworthy character. Richard’s death makes it a bit more difficult for Jack to find someone he can talk with and analyze the case properly, but his death also signified the danger of the situation Jack found himself in. The threat against David Palmer didn’t just have a lot of weight, but people from the villain’s camp were already taking action to erase Jack, which means that this might be more than just a conspiracy to assassinate a presidential candidate.
Meanwhile, Nina is the mole inside CTU? The show is two episodes in and there was simply no way the writers were spilling those beans right away. Prepare for the show backing off of this revelation and making it seem that someone hacked Nina’s computer to imply her involvement in the assassination attempt. After all, this is what conspiracy TV shows like to do.
