Date of airing: March 5, 2002 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 8.18 million viewers, 5.2/8 in Households, 4.0/10 with Adults 18-49
written by: Joel Surnow, Michael Loceff
directed by: Jon Cassar
This episode is also known as the one in which Jack Bauer eats food and drinks water. And as it happens, this is the only episode of the entire series that shows him eating food – this is according to the IMDb trivia section of this episode, which I found amusing for a second or two.
This episode is also noticeable for giving Jack a rest for most of the episode. As soon as he was done talking to Teri and Kim and assuring them that everything will be fine, he took a seat in the interrogation room, and remained there until the end of the episode and into the next, where he will most likely be joined by a presidential candidate for a little eye-to-eye conversation. The hero of the series was taken out of the action, which is one ballsy move a show can do when it does not have an ensemble cast. TWENTY-FOUR has a big cast, but I do not quite consider it an ensemble, because the show seems to be carried by the character of Jack Bauer, who happened to be portrayed by an actor with somewhat of a movie career before. I like that the writers were trying everything to include the other characters in the show (and it worked in this episode), but they would not even shut out Jack completely in this episode, which would have been a great thing to do. Just to bring some more surprises into the show and tell the viewers that, even though the assassination attempt is all about Jack and David Palmer, the show does not have to be. Also, it would have helped to focus on the other characters more. This episode was close to being completely centered on Nina, and I would have liked that a lot.
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| There is a hidden story in this screenshot. |
So, the next best assassin is making his way through Los Angeles. At
first, he is exiting a parking garage at the end of the previous
episode, about 20 minutes later, he can be found in the middle of nowhere
to kill off Kevin and the remainder of Gaines’ goon parade, and in the
end, he is at the same hotel that houses Palmer’s campaign for the day.
Okay. First of all, Kevin should have been the smart guy and just ran
off into the woods in the last episode, like I thought it was the thing
he would do. But apparently, he was just another dumb villain who was
paying for his stupidity with a bullet in his head. His fault.
Secondly, I find it a little curious that the assassin would be in Palmer’s hotel already – is there no way to off Palmer in his hotel when the backup assassin already has a room there? Why not forego the whole detour with Jack and kill David Palmer in the hotel room, while Jack has a little “accident” on the road somewhere? Number three, as expected, a person of Palmer’s staff seems to be in on the assassination attempt. On the other hand, that thing with Elizabeth might just be about sex. It was 2002, Reddit did not exist back then, but I have read the hotel stories of boys and girls meeting in a room for some fun, exiting that room the next morning all relaxed and happy. Even if it is just sex, the fact that the assassin has an in with the Palmer campaign brings some tension into the next episode, since the assassin is already closer than previously expected.
Meanwhile, the story involving Keith’s murder continued, and I had to roll my eyes for a few minutes. I just want this story to stop, although it is a huge story in Palmer’s character arc that could derail his future presidency and could therefore lead to bigger things in the narrative. The episode gave me some much-needed info on what the cover-up means for David (I might have missed those bite-size info bits during the previous episodes, or they were never as established as Palmer delivered to Sherry), but it was still a story being dragged. After 14 episodes, what has actually been revealed? Nicole was raped, Keith allegedly killed the rapist, Keith told his therapist, the therapist told Maureen Kingsley, and Maureen has been blackmailed (?) to keep quiet about the story, while the therapist was probably killed by Palmer’s campaign assets. And all this happens so that Palmer becomes president and can do whatever the heck his campaign assets tell him to do. Usually, a Republican president would do that, but Palmer? He must be a Republican then.
At least I was able to forget all about that story when Palmer surprisingly and out of nowhere showed up at CTU at the end. That should not have been a surprising twist though. After Palmer learned about Jack, he could have told Mike he wanted to see him. That would have been two or three more seconds to that episode. But hey, Jack and Palmer face-to-face in the next episode spells excitement! Even if I was a bit curious how Palmer’s motorcade was able to head to CTU this quickly and unannounced.
Teri and Kim in the hospital were interesting though, although it took a while for the story to take off. I was already expecting some backup kidnappers to surround the women, and I immediately knew that Henri Lubatti’s character was a bad guy (he was a terrorist on SLEEPER CELL and a villain on an episode of SEVEN DAYS – he will never be the good guy for me and he will always be typecast), but Nina could have jumped into action a little earlier. I know why the writers decided not to reveal anything yet to Jack (that would have gotten him out of CTU, and he needed to stay in for a little longer), but she behaved a bit off for my taste. Not slow to the uptake, but it is like she did not quite want to deal with her suspicion at first, even if it was obvious as hell that Teri and Kim would not be safe in the hospital. Maybe she was right when she said she was too tired and paranoid to think clearly, but it took her half an episode to get an assist at the clinic when she could have let the ball roll as soon as it was established that there were only two FBI agents on site.
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| Castiel was a contract killer in his previous network TV life. |
And finally, this episode introduced Ryan Chappelle to us, who immediately made the point to not be the next George Mason. It was a good thing that he was not depicted as a butthole (that position was already filled by Mason) who decided not to listen to one word Jack had to say before he even stepped into the interrogation room. There was some humanity within his characterization – he had a little more of that than Alberta Green, and definitely more than Mason, and both remain the stiff people among the leadership staff of CTU or Division. Besides that, the writers continued to build the hierarchy of CTU, which I never expected to be part of the show. People have to answer to people higher in the order. And there comes the kicker: Maybe one of the higher-up folks is part of the terrorist plot, and the writers were slowly introducing the characters for red herrings before the ultimate reveal.
