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Episode 2.08, "3 PM to 4 PM"
Written by Joel Surnow and Michael Loceff
Directed by James Whitmore Jr.

Well I hope everyone had a great winter break, because I know I did. Mostly it was spent by being lazy, which is one of the reasons that this review is appearing about three weeks after the actual episode aired. Since I doubt anybody reads these reviews to hear about me (and if you do try and find someone with a more interesting life to fixate on) let's jump into the heart of the episode.

We're a third of the way through the season now, and the pieces are slowly beginning to tie together, as we can begin to see the outlines of how everyone's divergent storylines will come together to paint a greater picture. Which Jack will probably then blow up, but I digress.

The Kim storyline is actually somewhat interesting now, not due to the bad Lifetimeness of it, but the way it could potentially affect the scope of the larger storyline. She's pulled over by the cops, and is urged by Miguel to explain the reason that they're running. Kim is initially reluctant, but since she doesn't want to have to get into another bitch fight in prison like she did last year, she eventually relents. She tells the patrolman who brought her in that her father said a nuclear bomb could go if in L.A. today, and then pleads with the officer to not send Megan back to L.A. Two things here, the first of which is that Kim just set in motion a city wide panic. The officer is going to tell his family to get the hell out, which will then cause them to tell their friends to get the hell out, and before you know it everyone is going to be six degrees of Kevin Baconing their asses out of the city. The second is more of a question really, is Megan really worth saving? We already know she's whiny and a horrible actress, not to mention quite possibly retarded, but to be honest she's not that cute either. I mean she's fairly chunky for a little girl, and while I'm all about women having a positive self image, this girl is not going to grow up to be cute. At best she'll be a second Rosie O'Donnell, and really does the world need a second Rosie? I don't think so.

The best part of the Kim storyline has to do with what happens when she calls her father. See Jack is still on the plane with Nina and their new captive Faheen. Nina is trying to get Faheen to reveal the location of the men behind the bombing, but Faheen won't say anything. He's a man who is prepared to die for his cause. So not even Jack's intimidation would be effective in getting Faheen to share what he knows. Michelle translates for them, since only Nina seems to speak Arabic.

The phone rings at the CTU, and Michelle finds out that Kim is on the other line and transfers her over to Jack. Kim stars telling her father what's going on in a panic, and Nina senses that Jack is distracted. She then leans close to Faheen and starts threatening that his family will die in his stead if he doesn't tell her what she wants to know. This strikes to the heart of him, as he's not prepared for them to die. Jack senses that Nina is up to something, and begins to only half listen to his daughter on the phone. Kim can sense this, and is shocked to say the least. Nina is whispering too lowly for Michelle to hear what's going on, and then with a jagged piece of credit card she had palmed earlier she slits Faheed's throat. Jack assigns somebody in the CTU to get Kim, and hangs up on his daughter. His attention is fully on the job at this point. Nina is smug, now that she knows she's made herself invaluable again. She's the only one who knows how to find the bombers now, which gives her a bit of power. This was a great twist in the show, as it shows just how resourceful Nina can be. There is a reason she's as dangerous as she is.

Speaking of the bombers they seem to be having troubles of their own. Their tire blows out on the way to their rendezvous, but a friendly soul comes up and helps them change their tire. One of the three bombers, Marko, seems to be sweating and having a hard time with it. He keeps looking at the children playing basketball in a school yard, and the human face of who he is about to kill begins to seep in. When the three are back on the road he pulls over and informs the other two that he won't go through with it. Basheer, who appears to be the leader of the group, argues with Marko for a bit before taking out a gun and shooting him in the chest. I don't know why Marko seems so shocked, it's not like someone planning on killing millions of people is going to respect the sanctity of life anyways. In a nice bit of turn about though, the dying Mark shoots Basheer in the back. This leaves just one highly confused terrorist, by the name of Omar. It's doubtful that he even knows what he's supposed to do at this point.

Palmer continues to have political troubles, as Sherry finds out about the reporter he's been keeping locked up. She tries to sweet talk Wieland into holding off on his story, but the reporter goes forward anyways, calling a press conference to let everyone know what's going on. He is the epitome of journalistic slime, hiding behind the mandate of giving information to the people, but truly not giving a damn about what is in their best interests. He's a man more concerned with winning a Pulitzer then with being a good reporter.

Obviously this shocks Palmer as he hadn't authorized the release of Wieland at all. It seems that there are forces within his own government moving against him. I will now go out on a limb and predict the master plot for this seasons of 24. The terrorist group Second Wave is actually being supported by individuals in the Palmer organization, who want to so galvanize American opinion that they're willing to have a city destroyed to do it. Or something like that.

Another thread is drawn together when Michelle heard the name Syad Alli uttered by Faheen before Nina killed him. This is the same terrorist organizer that Reza is accused of having contact with.

And indeed Kate seems to find some support of this, as she breaks into her fathers computer and sees that large sums of money authorized by Reza were transferred to Syad. However before she can do anything with this information, a tripwire is hit and the computer starts purging itself of information. Koplin, the security officer who helped her, sees computer code being purged that's only used by government employees.

That's quickly confirmed when Bob Warner himself confesses to Tony that he does work for the CIA, and has security codes to prove it. However, I'm of the mind that this is a red herring, and that Warner is working for the same group that I cited earlier as being behind the terrorists. Reza is just the fall guy.

Kate leaves her house with Koplin, but is abducted by a group of masked men and thrown into a van which speeds off.

Jack is interrogating Nina, but suddenly the plane begins to rumble and an explosion echoes, like the plane was hit by anti-aircraft as we find out that an engine is gone.

Of course then the show chooses to go on a three week hiatus, just sitting there leaving us to stew over what's going to happen next. But hey, the fact that I'm still this impatient to find out what happened shows just how interested I really am, and how well a job they must be doing.

Episode Rating: 9 out of 10

-- Tim Ritenour

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