Date of airing: January 8, 2002 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 8.31 million viewers, 5.0/8 in Households, 4.3/10 with Adults 18-49
This was another very quiet-ish episode, albeit with a heavier ending, moving towards one particular goal: Having the assassination attempt happen within the next couple of episodes. Since TWENTY-FOUR only had a 13-episode order at the beginning of its lifetime, the writers needed to get that story going quickly before the show might become a flop, is canceled, and doesn’t just end with an entirely open storyline. So, basically within the next six episodes, the assassination attempt might be devoured for breakfast, and then the writers were able to do whatever they thought would be awesome for the show in the long run, as soon as they learned of the back-11 order some time the airing of the third or fourth episode. And I kind of liked that the show is slowly moving towards the assassination attempt, because there are moments when the writers tried hard to stall for time and wait for the end of the episode to deliver an important cliffhanger and leave the viewers behind with a shock on their faces, instead of leaving them behind in a more satisfactory fashion because of the neat storytelling.
For example, Teri’s official status as a hostage, starting with this episode. Almost for the entire hour, Teri and “Alan,” who now goes by the name of Kevin, were situated off Mulholland, seemingly in the middle of nowhere in Los Angeles, doing stuff. Teri hit Kevin with a rock and made him dream stuff and see birds flying circles around his head, but she didn’t even think about just running away, down or up the road, and looking for a phone or car. No, she waited at the scene of the crime for some reason. I can understand that Teri might have been scared senseless, maybe in shock, not knowing what to do because of her daughter, but I cannot understand why she remained with Kevin and pretty much waited to be abducted again. Well, it happened, because she conveniently called the mole inside CTU. Should I blame Teri for her own kidnapping here? I know, victim-blaming is an evil thing to do, but this was too much of a convenient way to write the story, I was about to roll the eyes out of the back of my head.
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| This is a story of a kidnapped girl falling in love with her kidnapper. |
I also didn’t quite know what to think of Jamey being the villain. She didn’t seem like one at the beginning of her minimalist character arc (although she seemed insecure about the things she was doing), and it turns out that Gaines didn’t even need Jack to switch the key card, making Jamey useless in the beginning. It’s something she could have done far easier and quicker, without Gaines having to risk the unpredictability that is Jack. I know Gaines said that he needed Jack (probably to do the hit on David Palmer), but the key card switch and the entire (albeit thrilling) thing with Nina in the final third of the episode very much looked like an add-on the writers could have shipped around easily by simply involving Jamey as the mole from the get-go and giving her more screentime in the process. Okay, if Jamey had been front and center in this episode, the story of Jack and Nina would not have happened, and it truly was the best part about the episode. But it’s not like moles are hired to be quiet and not do anything until something happens – moles can work hard as well, and it probably would have made me happy if Jamey had a lot more to do than just talking to Milo about his failure in hacking the key card and receiving a phone call from Teri.
By the way: Who is working at CTU at this time of day? The office is still very low-key and it looks understaffed, considering an attack on David Palmer is supposed to happen today. The only person who looks like he’s earning his paycheck is Tony right now, by pretty much investigating Jack for reasons that could be explained with jealousy.
Teri was not the only character in this episode who has shown some dumb moves. Kim turned out to be quite idiotic as well. She had the chance to escape and save her skin and get out of this nightmare, but as soon as she saw her mother being delivered to Camp Gaines, she decided to abort her prison break and go back to the shaft, seemingly thinking she could pull a move that would save herself and her mother (big mistake, after witnessing Gaines kill a person right in front of her). First of all, I thought Kim wasn’t interested in her mother seven hours ago, which makes it a little difficult for me to believe that Kim would erase her own freedom so easily, as soon as she saw her mother being brought in with a hood over her head. Secondly, Kim knew what had to be done after she escaped: Call her father, call the police. She sort of knows where Camp Gaines is (or she will figure it out during her escape), so get the heck out of there as quick as you can and come back with the military. Third of all, Kim is now portrayed to be a very selfless teenager – and that’s something I cannot buy at this point of the show, especially considering the crap she went through during the past six hours.
What was also a bit annoying was the slight romantic sub-tone between her and Rick. Kim, my girl, Rick is one of your kidnappers and you are essentially starting to fall for him? What are you doing, girl? And what am I watching here?
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| Gaines can't believe what he's watching on screen. |
Finally, a few more words of the Palmer storyline, which continues to be slow and melodramatic, essentially bridging the time to the assassination attempt that seems around the corner at this stage. I still can’t connect with the story, but at least Nicole is involved now, finding her own voice, finally talking about what she is thinking about all of this. But since the rape story and the subsequent and possible release of the story by either Maureen Kingsley or Palmer himself is currently circling the hotel suite they are all staying in, there isn’t much to talk about. Palmer has two kids, and both of them react differently toward this story. Then there is Sherry, who is on another level entirely, waiting for her shining moment in the show. I do like that the writers were slowly breaking apart the Palmer family over this, but they have been doing that with the same back story for three episodes now. Something needs to level them up immediately, or they all become loathe-worthy characters.
