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"11:00 AM to 12:00 PM"
Written by Larry Cohen
Directed by Stephen Hopkins

Well, I was slightly surprised by this episode. I was expecting a full octane blistering action episode with everything on the line, but instead we get an action episode that seems to be set on slow burn. This doesn't mean that it was any worse, it just means that I had to adjust my perceptions of it.

Now anybody following this show knows that the crap is about to hit the proverbial fan. Jack has finally managed to track down the location of his family, but Gaine's employers, the Drazens, have issued orders for their deaths. So now it's a race against time to see if Jack can save his family.

He sneaks into the compound with the aid of Kevin Caroll who had been impersonating Alan York earlier. Kevin gets the pair through the gates of the heavily guarded compound, but once Jack lets down his guard, Kevin attacks him. There's a cool close quarters fight here that takes advantage of pressure point blows and close range punching. It's a neat concept and it comes off well. Kevin ends up getting his butt kicked by Jack, who shows mercy in not killing the man but simply ties him up and then leaves to find his family in the compound.

Jack had been aided by Nina this whole time, who has been downloading satellite images into a Palm Pilot for him to reference. Alberta Green, however, the new head of the CTU, suspects that Nina knows where Jack is and is understandably upset that she's not being let in the loop. She pulls Nina and Tony aside and begins the interrogation process on them. It's a given that Nina wouldn't crack, but the show did a nice job of building an atmosphere and quality of character to Tony that would honestly raise doubts if he would buckle under the pressure that Alberta is rearing on him.

Teri and Kim have taken the body of Eli and hidden him under a metal basin. They begin to discuss escaping when they hear another person coming. They prepare to ambush the person, but the mysterious figure leaps into the room and gets the best of them, only to be revealed that it's Jack. There's a sweet and tearful reunion of the family here, and it makes sense when you stop to consider the sheer amount of crap they've all gone through in the past twelve hours.

Gaines is wondering where Eli is as they begin to pull out of the compound, and sends Rick to check on him. Rick suspects what happens, seeing as how he gave Teri and Kim a gun and all, but gets a rude surprise when he enters the room and sees Jack who starts strangling him to death. After much protesting by Kim and Teri, however, Jack manages to get a hold on his rage and releases Rick. Everyone then begins to share their information with everyone else, until everyone is on an equal footing.

Jack begins to plan his escape, saying that he wants to go get the car and bring it back to this family. Teri is against this idea though, as she doesn't want them splitting up again. Rick pipes in, and offers to steal them one of the vans since Gaines still trusts him. After Kim speaks up for Rick, Jack decides to grudgingly trust him.

On a side note, if both Rick and Kim should survive this experience and become a couple, could you imagine the stories they could tell their kids? I can see it now:

Child: Mommy how did you and Daddy meet?
Kim: Oh your father kidnapped me for a militia group that wanted to kill your grandfather.

There's a level of family bonding you don't see everyday.

Rick goes to get the van, and along the way picks up an uzi. Might as well. Just before he can take off with the van though, Gaines stops him and wants to know where Eli is. As Rick tries desperately to come up with an excuse, a dispatch comes over the radio. A wandering guard has found Kevin and the car that Jack left. Gaines hops into Rick's van and orders him to drive them out to the car.

While all this is going on, Jack has done the smart thing and called into the CTU. He speaks to Alberta, who mercifully keeps the posturing to a minimum and actually believes Jack when he says there's big trouble going on. She lets Nina and Tony go and orders a full assault on the compound.

Rick and Gaines have reached Kevin by this point, and the beaten up former Sentinel tells them that Jack is loose. While all this is going on, Rick is slowly beginning to back up towards the van, and while Gaines is caught up in Kevin's words, he speeds off in the van. Gaines seems honestly shocked by Rick's betrayal, and it makes me wonder if Gaines would have really killed Rick when this was all over and done with. Obviously though, Gaines didn't realize that Rick was a kidnapper with a heart of gold. Of course, at this point I'm pretty sure it going to be bullet ridden heart of gold.

Just as Jack and the gang believe that Rick is not coming for them, and has in fact betrayed them, he comes roaring up to the entrance and orders everyone to get in. Jack gets behind the wheel and heads for the gates, but by this point the entire camp has been alerted to his presence. Gaines, Kevin, and a few others come roaring by in a jeep, and in a bit of nifty shooting that will probably never be given to the villain again, Gaines manages to blow out the van's tires with his gun.

The van tips over and the four bail out. Jack orders Rick, Teri, and Kim to head for cover while he does his best to hold off mercenaries as the firefight begins. Teri and Kim eventually do run for cover, but Rick stays behind to help Jack fight off the Gaines and the rest. Nifty little gunfight sequence, that really alters nothing except for the fact that Rick gets shot in the arm. Hey, at least it wasn't in the head. Rick might get out of this show alive yet. Then again, Janet York was drugged, beaten, had her arm broken, hit by a car, and then suffocated before she died, so this could just be the beginning of Rick's pain.

While Rick is covering him, Jack crawls over to the upturned van and starts poking holes in the fuel tank with a knife. The two pull out just as Gaines and the rest prepare to close in, and as they leave Jack fires at the gas tank, blowing the van and providing the pair with a brief amount of cover. But Rick's shot in the arm inexplicably prevents him from running well. Then again, I've never been shot, and I hope to keep it that way, so maybe it is realistic for Rick to be all groggy and unable to run. Proving that he really is a good guy though, Jack refuses to leave Rick by himself and begins to drag the young man through the woods.

Oh yeah, and while all this is going on, Palmer's doing stuff as well. Palmer is trying to get a hold of George Ferragamo, the psychiatrist who's saying he will come forth with the truth about Keith. When Palmer try's to warn him that his life might be in danger though, Ferragamo assumes that it's a threat. Mike Novick, Palmer's chief of staff, is outraged that Palmer has tried to contact Ferragamo directly, because if something should happen to the psychiatrist then it can now be linked to Palmer. He asks Palmer what he was thinking, and it once again becomes clear just how naďve Palmer is in some ways. He's Jimmy Stuart's Mr. Smith, forced now to see just how dark a game Washington plays.

Palmer refuses to back down, and the two ride over to Ferragamo's office to see him in person. When they get there though, they see an ambulance out front and black smoke pouring out the windows. Carl has obviously gotten there first. Sure enough Ferragamo is dead, and all his records gone. This now places Palmer in an interesting position. How does a truly moral man respond to the fact that somebody was just killed in order to preserve his political career? Where can Palmer turn from here?

As I said earlier, I was kind of expecting this episode to wrap up most of the questions, and then the second arc to begin next week. Instead though, we get a natural progression of plot. There are so many different ways for this story to turn out at this point, and for once a show has me honestly guessing. I know that nothing will happen to Jack and Kim, but what about Rick? Will he actually live? What's wrong with Teri? Somehow I get the feeling that she's not going to live out this season. Call it a hunch.

And if Teri should die, than that even leaves up possibilities for next season with Nina. Oh, and about next season. Some people are wondering if 24 will be renewed since it doesn't bring in stellar numbers, but on the other hand it does bring in critical praise and decent ad revenue. Should they be renewed there are several options open to the show. It can become a normal drama that uses the same cast, but no longer tells a grander story. Rather it would be a complete story in one hour, ala CSI. A second option proposed is to tell three eight hour stories, involving a rotating cast of new characters. This way they can keep their serialized format, but make it easier for new viewers to jump on bird once a new arc begins. The third option is to do another 24 episode one arc season. This is the least likely to happen. To begin with, they couldn't use the same cast since it would come across as incredibly ridiculous. If they should do it with a new cast of characters, there's no reason to think the ratings would get any better. So the future of this great show is in some degree of question. Now I could fuss and whine about the unjustness of such a great show not being guaranteed a return, but the world of TV is anything but fair. And even if 24 should not come back next year, we will have been treated to one thing; a great and complete story. There's really a lot to be said for that.

Episode Rating: 9.5 out of 10

-- TJarvis

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