Business definitely picks up this episode.  I commented last review on how the condensed season means we get less filler and get to the point quicker and this episode exemplifies that.  Honestly, to get the negatives out of the way, if I had one complaint about this episode is that they cram so much into this one that I think in previous seasons of 24 this would have easily evolved over 2 maybe 3 episodes.  But other than that, this was a pretty good episode.

Is Kate Morgan gonna have to choke a bitch?

We finally get that Jack & Kate team up.  Once President Heller gave Jack full operational control you knew it was going to happen.  My favorite part was when Jack looked and sounded confused as fuck when Navarro tried to tell him he benched Kate Morgan.  The thing I love about Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer this season is that he’s really in fedup mode.  When he was told about Kate being benched he had that look on his face like “Of course they benched their only competent agent….of course.  Amateurs”.   This is later confirmed to me when Jack tells Kate that the reason he knows so much about Karl Rask is that he was “working” for him.  Come to find out Jack’s been running his own secret operations to take out terrorists/criminals.  Jack’s pretty much realized he gets more done on his own without the bureaucracy or politics of an Intelligence Agency.  And real talk, he’s right.  On his own he probably would have stopped Margot 3 episodes ago. Like I said last episode, Kate Morgan is a female version of Jack Bauer.  Jack basically tells her “I’m going to offer you up to an arms dealer as the CIA contact for his mole” and Kate says “Let’s not waste any time”.  Then she gets tortured and almost killed and like Jack Bauer, all it does is make her mad.  She has her hands tied behind her back and she’s suspended in the air by them, yet she’s still able to kill a man and free herself.  Yeah, next season of 24 has to follow Kate.  She’s a badass.

Just another day at the office...

I haven’t mentioned him before but Stephen Fry is playing a pretty good Prime Minister Alastair Davies.  He takes a larger role this episode as one would expect.  As soon as President Heller slipped up and repeated himself in front of the Prime Minister I knew it was going to cause problems.  When the Prime Minister’s staff member told him they had unconfirmed intelligence that Heller might be suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s I knew he was going to start causing problems.  Thing is, like I said previously about Jack not being trusted at the beginning of this season, it makes sense.  Prime Minister Davies has to think about the safety of the people of London before anything else.  This is actually a nice thing to this season of 24 where it’s another country being attacked because of a terrorist group trying to go after the US Government.  So with the intel that Davies has, it makes sense that he would try to run his own operation.  He thinks the US President might be mentally compromised and as far as he knows, Jack Bauer is a wanted terrorist himself and he’s being asked to bet the lives of thousands of citizens of London on that information.

I’m actually feeling a bit sorry for Simone this episode.  Her mother just had her husband killed and she clearly loved him.  Ian, her brother, doesn’t trust her because he thinks his mother underestimates how much she loved Naveed.  And her mother is CLEARLY insane.  Margot Al-Harazi is clearly only concerned with the mission.  While she loves her kids, I don’t doubt for a minute that she would sacrifice them to get her end goal of revenge.  Simone is willing to back her mother because she’s her mother but asking her to kill her Sister-in-Law and niece for no real reason made her crack.  I actually don’t blame her for the death of her sister-in-law.  Look, when a person with a knife tells you to get your daughter and leave the city and don’t ask questions, you do just that.  Simone even told her she had to leave because her mother wanted them dead. Yet she still didn’t listen. I don’t think Simone would have killed Yasmin.  It’s funny, Margot wanted them Simone to kill them to protect the mission but it’s going to end up being the thing that puts Jack back on her trail. Remember, thanks to the virus trace they put on Rask bank account, Chloe is tracking Simone’s phone (they don’t know its Simone’s). I also got a laugh at Simone using the technique from The Presitge of really thick gloves to hide cut off fingers.

Mark’s insecurities are going to come back and bite him in the ass.  It’s clear Audrey still has feelings for Jack but as Jack said, he’s either going to die or go to jail.  There’s no reason for Mark to be this worried.  Didn’t help that Audrey didn’t really give an answer when Mark confronted her about Jack though.  And then there’s the rendition order.  Mark is going to have to do some underhanded shit now.  The Russians know the US knows where Jack is.  Even without a proper order, you KNOW they want their hands on Jack.  And I’m pretty sure the Russian knows the President’s signature on the rendition order is fake.  It’s going to be interesting seeing how this plays out.

And lastly, Navarro is a mole. You knew it was coming at some point.  Like I said last review, 24 is one of the most predictable shows on TV.  Hell, we all should have seen not only the traitor reveal coming but that it was Navarro.  Yet the predictability of it didn’t stop me from gasping.  I think the reason why even though it’s predictable, I’m still shocked by these turns is that 24 always plant just enough seeds in your mind to suspect someone else.  I’ve been loving the character of Kate Morgan but when Josh finds out there are missing files involving her husband, I started to question whether or not maybe she was a mole.  Everyone seems certain that she wasn’t involved with her husband’s espionage but that she should have known about it.  So the missing files had me questioning her.  I thought maybe she really is a traitor and she framed her husband.  Then they hit me with the fact that Navarro is the mole AND Adam Morgan (Kate’s husband) was actually innocent.  I knew there had to be more to story about her husband.

Halfway through this season and it’s been great.  Part of me does wish this was a full 24 episode season.  I’m liking the plot and the story and I kinda wish they could explore some of the characters a little more.  We still don’t know why Belchek is so loyal to Jack.  I feel like there has to be something there.  I know when Jack & Kate were talking about Rask there was mention of a human trafficking ring that Jack apparently took down.  Maybe it has something to do with that.  And we still might get more information.  There’s still 6 episodes left and they crammed a LOT into this one and it didn’t feel too rushed.  Business is definitely picking up and I don’t really see there being any room for any slow episodes going forward.  This episode was so good because it just makes me more and more excited for the rest of the season and hope for a possible 10^th season.  Which is an amazing feat.  24 took a 4 year break then came back with a limited 12-episode run. Even Sutherland was nervous about its return.  But so far so good.  While the season is shorter, it still has everything about 24 that fans love and I’m hoping the ratings stay strong and they bring us another season.

Comments

comments