Date of airing: March 19, 2002 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 9.20 million viewers, 5.9/9 in Households, 4.3/11 with Adults 18-49
written by: Robert Cochran (credited as Robert Cockran), Howard Gordon
directed by: Stephen Hopkins
One of the dumbest and silliest storylines of TWENTY-FOUR has found its first appearance near the end of this episode, when Teri woke up after seeing her daughter explode inside the car, not being able to remember anything, including her name. I can see how realistic this piece of storytelling is, since she just went through a traumatic experience, and your mind can play tricks on you to “work the case” and protect you from an emotional breakdown that could be more severe than just losing your memory, but when I watched this season the first time around, I could not help myself thinking that this was just the writers’ final nail in the coffin to extend the season, to keep Teri busy with any story that comes to mind, to carry her and the threat against her and her family to the season finale, and to bring in some additional thrill for this character, so that no one has to explain her absence from the narrative.
For some reason, the writers thought that having killers go after her and Kim is not suspenseful enough, even if it would have resembled and repeated the majority of the season’s first half. In reality, Teri and Kim could have run for their lives for two consecutive episodes, but instead, that only happened just for one scene, until Teri somehow decided to get out of the car to look if her killer is nearby. I have question marks popping up above my head. Why the heck did she need to get out of the car? She could have just continued driving. She could have checked her surroundings inside the car. She could have continued to drive to safety and not care at all about who may or may not be following her.
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| Wat does it feel like dating a known assassin and terrorist? |
However, the involvement of Elizabeth in this episode was great. I loved that the writers were not waiting for that big twist and instead had her reveal her romantic contact immediately for a future trap. Any kind of hesitation would have taken away too much time, but since she came forward, the next episode could be all about Elizabeth’s fearfulness of having to face an assassin while federal agents are watching her every move from behind a corner. I do not understand why Jack found it necessary to have Elizabeth continue in her role as a lover though. I get that a tracking device might help to find out where Alexis is going, but CTU knows Alexis’s location already. They know where he will be at a given time. They could just force him out of the hotel and follow him with their satellites – that is what George Mason was doing when Jack broke Penticoff out of jail during the night hours. There was no reason for Elizabeth to risk her life in this scenario. Still, this is an exciting and tense storyline being promised for the next episode, and I am expecting to be entertained by it.
In the meantime, Keith continues to be annoyed by the fact that his story will not be released. First of all, why is he even waiting for his father to release a statement of his son’s accidental murder? Keith could leak the story to the press himself and immediately give an interview, even if that means he would stab his father and his entire presidential campaign in the back (and Keith is apparently not that villainous, even if he talks that way to his father sometimes). Secondly, why is Keith so adamant to release this story *right now*? I get that this has been carrying him over the past years and that makes him feel guilty, but he has been remaining quiet for that long already, and the Palmer family just recently learned about how deep this little family conspiracy goes. Even Keith should know that the primary is a little too important for his father at this very moment and that the revelation of the story to the press may have to wait at least until tomorrow. Especially after Keith has also just learned that his father is targeted for assassination by an unknown party of terrorists.
That Keith would go out by himself to deal with this matter... Well, it kind of looked like a plot device for Carl to tell him that he can be easily framed for murder. Something David knows already and cannot act on, and now a story that Keith has to go through in this episode, which also makes it impossible for him to act on it. There is a bit of a conundrum here, which would make this an intriguing development, but it does not fit with everything else the Palmers are going through at the moment. Plus, it is about to get boring, since this is a story that has been going for episodes now – realistically speaking, it is a story that does not just vanish from the characters’ lives within a day, but in a multi-hour narrative, it is dragging.
The rest of the episode was okay. I did not mind Jack’s frustration in the office, but I did mind that Jack just bought Nina’s words of the women being protected in the safe house when it was somewhat obvious to her that they were not. Jack just learned how dangerous this case is, that his wife and daughter are still targets, and he should be expecting that the Drazens would probably be able to do something to get to Jack’s family. But I am stunned that Jack has not been thinking about this – though it was kind of funny for Nina to tell him they are safe, while the split-screen is showing the opposite.
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| Getting debriefed is all about reliving certain family drama. |
And finally, why is Rick still part of this show? His story was over. Kim’s crush on him is silly and does not seem to mean a damn thing to either of them. And now it looks like Rick will continue to be part of the show, now that Navi Rawat’s character has entered the fray, essentially telling the audience that there is more to come with the addition of a new character. Dammit, Kim, he was your kidnapper, why do you not realize that? Stockholm Syndrome is certainly a possible story to play at, but the writers have not done that one properly in this hour. This is one of those times where I wished that Kim had died in that explosion. While I appreciate that the cliffhanger was none and Kim’s survival was established at the end of the episode (it is a good thing not to carry the unanswered question of her survival to the next episode), I am disappointed that she did not go up in flames as well. Because now I have to go through Rick’s drama again.
