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24
5:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Written by Maurice Hurley
Directed by Frederick Keller
Woah nelly, did they manage to squeeze an awful lot into this episode. Each of the four major plotlines were pushed forward, and some minor background ones were clarified as well. As usual the Teri storyline is the weak one of the group, but they managed to keep it to a minimum this week, so that's a good thing.
We start out with Jack dealing with the fallout of Slut going psycho on Alexis. And women wonder why men are afraid to say "I love you" to them. Palmer is concerned for Slut - she's the daughter of an old friend you see. He's all over Jack, warning him that she must not be held culpable for what she did. Even if they do have videotape evidence of her stabbing a defenseless man several dozen times. Jack wisely chooses to not pursue this particular battle and assures Palmer that he'll do what he can for Slut. In the meantime, Palmer still has two other known threats after him, and he must not be lax in his security.
After dealing with Palmer, Jack talks to Nina about the phone call he received. Since there is no guarantee that Alexis is going to make it, Jack believes that his only chance is to impersonate Alexis with this stranger and pay him off in the bearer bonds they found. Nina has reservations about all this, but agrees that they don't have a lot of other choices. So they leave for the California Plaza to set up for the Jack's meeting.
Tony informs Mason that Teri and Kim are still missing and that the agents at the safe house are still dead. Mason once again orders Tony to not mention this to Jack. Tony obviously has a problem with this, but agrees to it for now. When Jack calls in to check on his family Mason lies to his face, and you can see this begins to grate on Tony.
Kim and Rick are searching Danny's room for information on who might have been behind Kim and Teri's original abduction. There's a lot of fun tension here, as the two play off their sexual attraction for each other. Of course, Rick's girlfriend is still there, and evidently doesn't realize that Dan is dead. Things become even more complicated when Dan's even more white trash brother Frank shows up and doesn't let Kim leave.
Dr. Phil Parslowe is still checking on Teri, but he can't find any head trauma that could cause the type of amnesia that Teri is suffering from. He does find evidence of bruises and abrasions on her body, though, and believes that Jack has been roughing her up. We also find out that he was dating Teri at the time when her and Jack were split up, but she left him to reconcile herself with Jack. I'm also still sure that Phil is the father of the Teri's baby. But we have no confirmation on that yet. Teri refuses to be taken to a hospital, and Phil guesses that her amnesia is self-induced and that she's trying to block out painful memories. Of course in his mind that painful memory is Jack beating on Teri. Regardless, he agrees to take her back to her place when she asks.
Palmer shows the copy of the tape he got from Keith that implicates Carl and clears Keith's name to his wife and Chief of Staff. Both, however, are against the idea of Palmer going public with it. Sheri wants to destroy it and brings up the point that it would be a terrible blow to the Democratic party, and will destroy Palmer's chances of becoming President. Mike wants Palmer to keep it, and to use it as leverage when he becomes President. With that tape in hand Mike believes that Palmer can be a President that doesn't have to dance on puppet strings. Palmer isn't willing to play ball though, and after talking with Keith and seeing that he isn't willing to wait on this, Palmer decides that he isn't either.
Meanwhile, Nina and Jack are having a heart-to-heart about Jack and Teri. This is actually a nice little scene. There's been so much tension between them and the situation that it's sometimes easy to overlook the fact that these are two people who genuinely like each other. Nina encourages Jack to call his wife, but understandably he doesn't get a response when he calls the safe house. We also get another scene with Mason and Tony that's a little puzzling. After rejecting Tony's pleas for more help to find Teri and Kim, he tries to imply to Tony that Nina and Jack might still be having an affair. He's obviously trying to subvert Jack here, so I have to wonder if Mason might not be on the Drazen payroll. He was implicated as someone who has taken bribes in the past.
Speaking of the Drazens, Andre calls Jovan to see if the other hitman has heard from Alexis. Obviously Jovan hasn't, and then he says that he's going to wait at the Bauer's house for someone to show up after losing Teri and Kim.
Jack and Nina arrive to set up the sting. Once there, they find out that their back-up is Teddy Hanlin. The problem is that Teddy is something of a loose cannon, and his partner was one of the people taken down by Jack for bribery... and he's holding a grudge. Now Teddy is a neat little character, and a great foil for Jack. One problem, the actor playing him is horrible. He's so monotone and hollow in his delivery that I actually flinched. He had the ability to take good lines and make them sound like hollow clichés. Bad casting director.
Regardless, the story pushes on and Teddy assumes a sniper position, verbally prodding at Jack until Nina calls Mason to intervene. He does, reprimanding Teddy so that he'll play along with Jack. And again this puzzles me. Why is Mason working against Jack in one scene, only to help him out in the next? It doesn't make any sense, unless Mason and Teddy had something arranged before this ever went down. Perhaps Teddy's goading of Jack and Mason's subsequent intervention was an act set up beforehand? Stranger things have happened after all.
Things are tense over at Rick's place as well. Frank has shown up and is threatening Kim while Rick just sits there and does nothing. Evidently Frank and Dan had some sort of drug deal set up, where they were going to use the 20K that Dan was supposed to receive for kidnapping Teri and Kim and then use it turn around and buy some ecstasy that they would sell for 50K. Unfortunately, Dan is dead and Frank doesn't know anything about it. Rick and Kim talk, and she gives him a seventh heaven-like sermon about how he can do better with his life. He points out, quite justly, that she doesn't know what his life is like. He does want to get out, but for now he's going to try and let this die down. Oh, and they also kiss rather passionately. To which I can only say, go Rick. Kim is a little minx after all. Definitely hotter than his current girlfriend. With a drug deal pending and no money coming since Dan is dead, things are about to get a lot more dicey for these two would-be lovebirds though.
Back at the Palmer camp, Sheri observes David put the cassette tap into a manila envelope and hand it off to an aide to put in the safe. Sheri, being the cold and calculating women that she is off, goes to safe and removes the cassette. We see her hold it and debate before we cut to a commercial break. When we return, Palmer enters the room and goes to the safe. Sheri does her best to delay him, but he opens the safe and finds the tape missing. She then confesses to having destroyed the tape. Dennis Haybert does a great job here of running a torrid of silent emotions across his face. From rage to betrayal to sorrow to resignation, he portrays all these emotions with a quiet intensity. He then pulls the real tape out of his jacket pocket. He just tested his wife; she failed. It's nice to see that Keith wasn't the only in the family born with a few brain cells. He storms out of the room and demands that a press conference be immediately set up.
Jovan arrives at the Bauer house, and scopes the place out but sees no one. While he's out back though, another car arrives and a CTU drone arrives. This poor guy might as well be wearing a red shirt. Since it wouldn't be an episode of 24 if at least one person didn't die, Jovan quickly snuffs the poor guy off-camera. Shortly after, we hear another cab pull up and see Teri and Phil get out. Looks like its playtime next episode.
Jack is waiting for his contact to show up, and finally the man in the red hat shows up. They sit for a second, and Jack bluffs the man long enough to find out that he was supposed to cut the power to somewhere at 7:30. The question is where. The guys is a little on the bright side though, and finally wonders what the hell happened to Jack's accent if he was supposed to be Alexis. He quickly wises up and makes a break for it, with Jack following in pursuit. The guy is unarmed and Jack orders that no one takes a shot. Teddy gets on the line though, and says that he can wing the guy, taking him down without killing him. Jack orders Teddy to stand down, but he takes the shot anyway. Not only does he hit the guy in the chest, the force from the blast throws the guy through the glass railings and sends him hurtling to the ground. Definite overkill. Now the question is why did Teddy do this? Is he just a hothead with poor aim? Was he just trying to get back at Jack for what happened to his partner? Or had Mason told him do that from the beginning? It's a conspiracy of X-Files proportions. Once again it leaves poor Jack without a lead though.
And so the episode ends with all the balls being up in the air at the same time. Next week sees Palmer's big press conference, Jovac's attempt on Teri's life (please succeed), the drug dealers arriving at Rick's, and Jack's need to find another lead. Oh yeah, and some guy named Dennis Hopper is supposed to show up as well. With six episodes left 24 is firing on all cylinders and it should be a hell of time right up until the end.
Episode Rating: 8.5 out of 10
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