Date of airing: March 26, 2002 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 9.33 million viewers, 5.6/9 in Households, 4.6/11 with Adults 18-49
written by: Michael Chernuchin
directed by: Stephen Hopkins
The only reason this episode exists is because of its final third, when Elizabeth and Alexis Drazen were in the same room together and no one knew what was about to happen. Alexis did not expect Elizabeth to know about his business as an assassin and that she had CTU in her back pocket, and Elizabeth did not know what she would eventually do, knowing that she is in the den of a very dangerous and blood-hungry shark. Even Jack and Nina seemed to be confused at times about Elizabeth’s actions in the hotel room, and things started to derail as soon as Elizabeth mentioned the 15 hours she and Alexis have seen each other over the past month – the first sign of something bad about to happen, whether it was Alexis catching up on her drift or Elizabeth being unable to withstand the pressure. I do like the twist ending though, as well as Elizabeth taking her fate into her own hands, as Alexis’ potential death in the next episode makes things a little worse for everyone involved.
But now that the season is getting into the evening hours and we are getting closer to the day’s end, it kind of was time for major plot development. And the entire scene in the hotel room, thankfully not interrupted by anything else happening in Los Angeles (Kim used that time off-screen to ride a cab to Rick’s place), was a good way to lead into the next chapter of the season and start explaining where the story is going to head for its inevitable climax. Also, maybe the rest of the season would benefit from the Drazens knowing that Jack is already after them, this way they would stop acting in the background the entire time and be more active and get more screentime in the process.
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| She is still sleeping with the enemy. |
I still was not able to do much with Teri’s amnesia, however. I get that it is related to the trauma she experienced an hour ago and I know her amnesia was portrayed as grounded as possible (with director Stephen Hopkins, who had some personal experiences with the topic, giving Leslie Hope specific notes about the story), but absolutely nothing is happening with Teri in the state she is currently in. For more than half of the episode, she was sitting at a restaurant and waiting, while it looks like her assassin as portrayed by Henri Lubatti stopped looking for her (Andre Drazen will not be happy), and in this episode, the writers missed the chance to bring Teri in danger again – this hour was the easiest for Teri to get into danger again because she cannot remember anything anyway, so an evil dude could have simply come along, tell her that he is Jack Bauer, and off she goes, getting kidnapped yet again. But in the end, she just sat in a restaurant, talked to the manager who knew her, talked to the doctor who sounded like he was Teri’s fling from way back when (I do not want a twist in that story, it just needs to end), and then the episode was over. I am surprised Teri had so much screentime with that story in the first place, especially when the episode focused so heavily on the tense situation in the hotel room on the other side of town.
Meanwhile, Kim got a little too much screentime. I can understand why she would not tell Tony where she is, but I still have a problem with Rick continuing to be involved in her plot, and with him and Kim being together again, they are about to drop into their latest deadly adventure. This kid should have left the city when he had the chance, and Kim should have gotten out of this mess by simply not going back to Rick and thinking that her crush on him would save him somehow. Even though Rick is not affiliated with Gaines’ men any longer (since all of them seem to be dead or got arrested) and therefore cannot do anything to Kim, it is just annoying that Kim would trust one of her kidnappers, deciding to hide out at his place, all while also dealing with another trope of teen romance: the jealous girlfriend. The only thing that promised something better coming from this story was Kim’s plan to find some of the people who kidnapped her, because maybe this way she would have a handle on her situation and be more than just the teen damsel in distress.
Then there was also Keith, who decided to go to his father and play him the tape he just recorded of evil Carl doing evil things. Of course, the story went nowhere from here, and David and Keith had another confrontation as father and son instead. 17 episodes in, and the story of Keith accidentally murdering Nicole’s rapist is still not going to be released to the public, while both Keith and David do not understand how important the release/non-release is for the other. They were arguing over each other, and this has been happening for quite a while now. And neither of them realized that they had Carl at his balls. All this time it looked like Carl was leading David’s biggest contributors in making sure that David does what they want him to do, but now David has leverage against Carl. I am surprised that he did not think of that when he heard the tape for the first time.
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| Kim can finally take a breather after the kidnapping adventures and car explosions. |
Finally, there was that private moment between Jack and Nina, and Nina telling him that Teri knew about their affair. It is some character drama that was probably necessary for the show, but it felt a little lost within the episode, while Teri and Nina’s conversation during the safe house episodes looked less important than it was, because Teri was already starting to deal with the trauma of the kidnapping and rape, as well as the news of the pregnancy, all while Nina just needed to get over the notion that the wife of her former lover knows about their relationship.
I almost immediately forgot the scene as soon as Alexis and Elizabeth were in the hotel room, which is why I hope this piece of character drama did not disappear after this episode, and that there will be some sort of continuation. Yes, the past Jack/Nina affair is slightly unimportant for the story, and it is only here to deliver more depth and backstory during calm moments when the writers did not know how to get to the next piece of action and thriller, but with Jack being emotionally exhausted about this part of his life, it should affect him in one way or the other.
