Date of airing: February 12, 2002 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 7.60 million viewers, 4.8/7 on Households, 3.7/9 with Adults 18-49
written by: Robert Cochran
directed by: Davis Guggenheim
This was an exciting episode. The writers were finally able to move forward in the story and think about what the season might look like if it went past the original 13 episodes ordered. Mr. Drazen had another appearance, making sure that the assassination attempt involves David Palmer and Jack Bauer together, while also establishing himself as a potential new threat very shortly. And in the meantime, the two targeted men on the other end of that assassination plot are slowly starting to figure out what they might have in common and where the backstory and motive for their predicament is. I could say that it was a long shot for Jack to figure out by himself that this is personal, but it was great to see that Jack connected the Serbian Ted Cofell to his own past two years ago in Belgrade and Kosovo, speeding up the proceedings of Jack and Palmer getting together and realizing face-to-face that this assassination attempt targets them both equally. By the way, Cofell dropping his solid American accent for a fake Serbian one after he was found out by Jack was quite hilarious.
So, Jack planned to torture Cofell by ripping out his stomach. Okay, he was not planning to, since Nina said that the talk of pain might break Cofell already, but it showed what Jack would be getting used to in later seasons, and what TWENTY-FOUR would be getting used to showcase (is that one torture scene in season eight still part of the show, now that it is streaming on Disney+ internationally?). The thought of a wet towel being forced down a throat, down to the stomach, so that the towel can be pulled out again, together with parts of the stomach... Well, that is sickening to *my* stomach. It is certainly a brutal way for the writers to play with their viewers’ imagination. And it worked in this case, because once again Jack Bauer does not come over as the hero at all, and it is believable that Jack would go through with the torture. He is ready and prepared to go the entire distance to get his family back, and that probably means he will not hesitate to kill the good guys if they stand in his way. TWENTY-FOUR once again made sure that it was a unique show back in 2002, by portraying a white hero who could turn out to be the villain real quick. I would not even say that Jack is an anti-hero. He is something else.
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| Teri is ready to do battle with that gun. |
Anyway, the story in the parking garage got a bit more exciting when Kevin Carroll, formerly known as Alan York, showed up. When Cofell was mentioning the name Kevin, I was already expecting “Alan” to be that Kevin (since Gaines called to warn him of Teri knowing about Alan York, and Gaines did call his associate by his real name), and I was awaiting Jack’s newfound attitude towards the man who kidnapped his wife. And I celebrated a bit when Kevin got into the limousine and saw Jack in the driver’s seat, not getting phased at all by the bullets that hit the separating window. That was a pretty cool moment.
The story in Camp Gaines was great as well, but this time because the writers pushed everything towards a finale of this story. Mr. Drazen is on-site and gave Gaines an ultimatum he could not commit to (did he even work in those 30 minutes Drazen gave him?), and Evil White Rapist was ordered to kill the women – a mission he failed to do as well. And now that Kim and Teri knew their minutes were numbered, they decided to kill Evil White Rapist, and now it is time for them to take matters into their own hands and escape before it is too late. And I am sure the next episode is the one where it is going to be too late. Neither Gaines nor Drazen will be happy to see that the two women have taken the upper hand and are roaming around freely, which is why I hope that Kevin leads Jack to Camp Gaines, and the one-man-army rescue mission can happen during the next hour.
The rest of the episode was okay. When David Palmer and Mike Novick were talking about the classified summer Jack had two years ago, I noticed the writers wanted to go there, yet they were being hindered to do so by Palmer’s current story, which is still dragging itself from one episode to the next. Carl is back in front of Palmer, doing his crappy business, and the story pretty much repeated itself. We have heard too often about the therapist David does not want to see end up dead, yet Carl is hoping to get rid of him, and the characters are doing circles around this story like vultures on the lookout for their next prey. I would have loved for this episode to depict that Carl already executed whatever plan he had (killing the therapist, maybe?), or let Palmer know that Carl successfully executed his plan (hearing that the therapist is dead), but that did not happen, meaning this episode continues to be dragged for possibly more episodes. I have to say though, the scandal is getting a little darker with each episode, and eventually, that darkness might overshadow Palmer’s candidacy and he can kiss the Oval Office goodbye.
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| No bullet can kill Jack Bauer. |
Then some stuff happened at CTU as well. Unfortunately, that stuff was rather boring. Alberta Green shadows over the entire CTU, but she is not that much of a danger for Nina and Tony for them to risk doing their deeds for Jack. Nina was still able to talk to Jack and give him info about Cofell, and Tony was still able to fool Alberta Green by getting her away from Nina. Damn, Nina and Tony even expected Alberta to know that they are helping Jack, so why is Alberta not diving right into this mess and making it more difficult for Nina and Tony? Is Alberta not tapping into Nina and Tony’s phones, expecting that they would assist Jack, who is a fugitive from the law after all? Is Alberta incapable of doing her job?
