Date of airing: February 26, 2002 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 8.93 million viewers, 5.6/8 in Households, 4.7/11 with Adults 18-49
written by: Andrea Newman
directed by: Stephen Hopkins
This was a pretty wild episode to finish the first batch of storylines and move on straight to the next chapter of TWENTY-FOUR. Not only is the kidnapping arc concluded by having the Bauer family in each other’s arms in the helicopter, on their way back to CTU and possibly a hospital (as well as Rick finding his redemption and escaping on the bus, hopefully on his way to Mexico, never to be seen again), but even David Palmer seemed to have made the decision not to follow up on his son’s apparent homicidal action any longer, and now he has accepted the murder of Keith’s therapist and destruction of evidence, making sure that if David wins the presidency, he will rule under the cloud of a covered-up conspiracy, in which the people who did the covering up will constantly tell David what to do because they own him and he owes them.
While the kidnapping arc was the legit ending that led to the appearance of the second assassin (fancy sunglasses are indeed fancy), the latter arc could help the show in the second half of the season, let alone for the series arc of David Palmer who has now an element in his life that is unpredictable and always dangerous. Although for my taste, the writers focused a little too much on the scandal surrounding Keith’s therapist, as there was no time left for other stories to keep the Palmer family busy (Keith currently does not have screentime, and Nicole never seems to be important, even though the show is dealing with her backstory). One can only hope that David makes the decision to not rat out his entire family to reporter Maureen Kingsley, who somehow left the network she was working for on the same day she was covering a presidential primary. That by itself is a great scandal that would keep Brian Stelter and Twitter busy for a few weeks.
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| Can Teri handle killing terrorists? |
Once more, the writers were stalling time by waiting until the closing minutes of the episode for Jack to kill Gaines when both of them had the opportunity to face each other and exchange bullets much earlier. Also, the tactic of stalling time was shown by how long the CTU took to get to Camp Gaines – an entire hour! – I do not care about at this point, since the CTU’s arrival was unnecessary anyway. Jack was perfectly capable to kill Gaines’ men all by himself (he needed to, as this was his obstacle course, not CTU’s) because Gaines’ men were unable to do the same to Jack and decided to save themselves or disappear. I mean, where was Kevin at the end of the episode? He was supposed to circle around and bring Jack out in the open for Gaines to kill, but Kevin circled right into the deep woods, never to be seen again. Well, maybe Kevin is a little smarter than Gaines has ever been. Maybe Kevin took a page from Rick, made like a tree, and left for Mexico.
The run through the wilderness was a bit less tense than expected though. Jack did his thing as silently as possible, and Rick was pretty much not doing anything (not even bleeding, even though he got shot), while Teri and Kim were bombarded with what seemed to have been the inability to save themselves or not run into open sniper fire. I can understand that shock might have been a factor in Teri’s case, which is why she got lost, but heck, even Kim was a bit dumb in the scene when she wanted to get to Rick in the water tower, and immediately got shot at by Gaines. That part might have been used as a plot device to signal Gaines being near the Bauer family, but it did not make Kim look good at all, which I find shameful. Maybe Kim should have met her maker at the end of this episode, because it would have allowed me to say goodbye to the character and never think about her again. Kim is after all one of the dullest supposed-to-be teenagers in the history of American television.
Jack and Gaines’ cat-and-mouse game was great, however, for the short time that it lasted. Both always thought they had the upper hand, and both never gave up, knowing what was at stake. It made Gaines look a little suicidal at the end, because when it came to his speaking lines, he always sounded like he was just waiting for Jack to gift him a bullet hole in his chest. CTU was close by and Gaines had nothing else to do but try his best to kill Jack since he kind of knew there was no way out for him. I would have wished for that element of Gaines’ final story to be more visible, but their final conflict, as well as Jack’s kill, were entertaining to watch. Mostly because Jack had already won when Gaines started to bleed, and the scene turned into the predator (Jack) slowly creeping up on its prey (Gaines) for the final kill move when it has been the other way around for the majority of the last twelve episodes.
In the meantime, something was happening at CTU, even if Nina and Tony’s questionnaire for Jamey’s mother felt like TWENTY-FOUR just turned into a crime procedural for a minute. I do not know if this scene was necessary story-wise since Jamey died episodes ago and I was starting to forget about her, but it showed that an event depicted episodes ago would still have repercussions, even if just for one scene. The writers were practically forcing themselves to continue the real-time formula of the show. Then again, Nina’s realization that the connection to Belgrade was just a way for them to tell Alberta Green that a second assassin is in the country was a bit convenient. It is the step to the next half of the season, but it looked like an add-on at the end of the episode, because the show survived the 2001 Fall season and needed a scene to continue into 2002.
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| The future president is unhappy about recent events. |
And David? Well, I am happy that it looks like his focus is elsewhere from here on. I still like that his family is breaking apart (in contrast to the Bauer family), bringing in some personal stakes for this man, but a story that has been dragged through 13 episodes, just to reveal one mini twist in each of the episodes... It was starting to get on my nerves. But David starts the second half of the season in a great spot storytelling-wise. His rejection of Sherry was almost too brutal to watch, and now that David has made his decision regarding his private life and the covering up of his son’s murderous actions, and with Jack’s family safe, it’s time for the back story of these two men, which has already been teased, to come front and center. With the second assassin having been introduced, it is the perfect time to do so, because I am sure the next assassin needs an hour or two to prepare, get his weapons, and start targeting his victims.
