Date of airing: April 2, 2002 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 8.72 million viewers, 5.4/8 in Households, 4.4/11 with Adults 18-49
written by: Maurice Hurley
directed by: Frederick K. Keller
Finally, something is happening in the life of presidential hopeful David Palmer that has nothing to do with his aspirations of higher office. The tape Keith recorded was perfectly used to trap Sherry into a very dangerous situation with her husband, and it seems like Palmer is now able to get this thing in front of some press, which is why I am hoping nothing majorly screwed up is going to happen to him in the next episode, and Palmer can get this story over with once and for all. At this point of the show, the story has gotten tenser, and it almost NEEDS to be concluded in the next episode, just to have room for the fallout of the release of the story and to get back to focus on why Palmer was part of the show’s initial premise in the first place. The writers could not just waste an entire season of a murderous scandal in Palmer’s campaign and not show the aftermath of it for a few episodes when the scandal becomes public knowledge. And Palmer was pretty adamant when he told everyone he wanted to hold a press conference within the hour.
Until then, the story turned out to be great this time around. Palmer’s plan to trick his wife was malicious and I loved every second of it, because it continues to destroy the seemingly already troubled marriage between Palmer and Sherry, which gives their story a different sub-tone for the remainder of the season. It might also turn Sherry into a different character from here on – one that opposes Palmer, which means he would have another character opposing him, and this time it is someone within his own family. That is quite a twist this late in the season, with the sunset hour already approaching fast.
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| The future First Lady is about to be schemed out of power. |
Meanwhile, Kim continued to annoy me, and this time around the character even managed to have me drop my iPad with which I watched this episode on (thank you, Disney+), so I can roll my eyes and sigh in frustration. The writers were trying their hardest to keep her character relevant without dropping the story she is involved in, and I wonder why her character needed to be relevant at this stage. Sure, she is probably going to be used in the season finale when Jack and the Drazens battle it out, but until then, the writers could have simply written her out, given her character a break, and moved on with the main topics of the show. No one would have been hurt by Kim being absent for a third of the season or so (in fact, the studio would have saved some money by not giving Elisha Cuthbert screentime), but instead, she is thrown into this domestic story that keeps becoming more cliched and ridiculous, with a love story included.
When Dan’s brother Frank was mentioned, I was beginning to roll my eyes, because it was quite obvious that Frank, as soon as he arrives on screen, would cause more idiotic trouble for Kim, who (cue Dante Hicks voice) was not even supposed to be here. But before Frank became an on-screen issue, she dared to go for a kiss with Rick. I have a question: Is this a proper case of Stockholm syndrome? Because if it is not, it certainly gets nominated for being one of the stupidest character plot developments in twenty-first-century television history.
At least I was right about Kim wanting to go to the police with whatever intel she can come up with, but why does she need to know who and where the guys are who presumably kidnapped her mother again? She was already debriefed (or in the middle of being debriefed), so she already has information that she knows will not help her case right now. That she will not trust anyone within the police... Okay, I will grant her that, but I have no clue why she thought Rick would help her get information about the guys who hired him to kidnap her.
Then there is Teri. Well, not much happened with her, as long as you exclude her road trip with her love doctor. Again, the writers were trying everything to keep her character relevant without dropping the story (this seems to be a general issue with the Bauer women). Here I can understand why the writers did not want to drop her story though, yet it was done in the least fashionable way, because Teri is dragged through these few episodes, not doing anything that would move forward the story (conveniently helped by her current medical status of being an amnesiac). And even the writers noticed that because her story in this episode is almost entirely forgettable.
The only thing worth mentioning would be that Teri and her doctor met after she and Jack separated, delivering backstory. And I do not know which one of the writers to thank, but it was nice that Teri did not act in disgust and horror and anger when she learned that Jack and Nina were putting it into bed when Jack and Teri were separated. Looks like she was doing the same, so she had no reason to be angry about Jack’s own infidelity.
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| Government assassins are unprofessional when unshaved. |
Finally, there is Jack’s operation, which kind of seemed random, albeit perfectly placed between the beginning and end of the episode, creating the sense of a procedural. First of all, I cannot buy that the guy Jack/Alexis was meeting with did not even know Alexis by face, or could not recognize the voice on the phone (it is not like the voices of Jack and Alexis are even close to being similar). Secondly, the conflict between Jack and Teddy Hanlin could not have been more constructed just for the sake of conflict during a high-stakes field operation. I had to laugh a couple of times during Teddy’s little speech of pissed-off anger, but that was not because of the character or his background with Jack, it was because of who portrayed him: I still connect Kirk Baltz with his comically idiotic role in a first-season episode of the UPN time-travel action pulp hour SEVEN DAYS, and I simply cannot get that face off of him when I happen to see him in other roles (should be easier when I decide to watch the 1992 version of HUMAN TARGET, since he was younger back then).
On the other hand, Teddy’s ability not to listen to Jack and “accidentally” killing the suspect was one of those stupid twist cliffhangers that carry the episode over to the next one, without Jack having the chance to learn anything valid that would make viewers have goosebumps. Then again, I wondered why the buyer was needed alive. It is not like Jack cannot do anything with the info he has been given. So, at 7:20 p.m. something is going to happen. I will try to remember. Does Jack need anything else to know?
