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24
Episode 2.14, "9 PM to 10 PM"
Written by: Joel Surnow and Michael Loceff
Directed by: Jon Cassar
Episode 13, it was about this time last year that 24 wrapped its first arc in a gunfight between Gaines and Jack Bauer. At the time the writers wanted to wrap up the story if they could, because they had no knowledge about whether or not they would be picked up. It wasn't until they went and shot the pick up that the wrinkle of the Drazen's were introduced into the grand design. I only mention this because the writers attempt no such end here. The knowledge that they do in fact have the full season to work with has allowed them to make one major story, instead of splitting it into two arcs as last year did.
Jack of course has the airport under siege, trying to figure out the next best location to track the bomb. Omar is willing to talk, but he seems to be holding out when it comes to the location of the second bomb. Jack is a man with no leads to follow right now and he's desperately under pressure to produce.
Fate steps in though, when Kate Warner spots her sister Marie leaving the airbase and chases after her. As she does so though, she has the common sense to have a guard tell Jack what's going on. Marie slips by her in the airfields, before isolating Kate and drawing a gun on her. She wants Kate to give over the security badge she's wearing, but Kate tries to reason with her. No real luck with that, and after Marie slaps the taste out of Kate's mouth, she asks again and threatens to kill Kate if she doesn't reply. Kate once again shows a great deal of spine here, and refuses even though she knows she has lost the person her sister was.
Before the show can lose one of its many blonde starlets though, Jack swoops in and saves the day with a crack shot into Marie's forearm. It seems that sharp pain shatters the hard ass image that Marie has built around herself, and Jack takes her into custody. This again leads into what's almost an obligatory interrogation sequence. And though Jack is badass enough to always make it entertaining, I can't help but wonder if the guy has ever heard of Sodium Penathol. I'm sure a little truth serum would work wonders for his cause. Then again it's probably not as much fun as watching Jack dissect his prisoners.
He goes through several phases of interrogation here, threatening, torturing, and even bringing Kate in to reach her sister on a human level. None of it is able to penetrate the brainwashing that Syad Ali has inflicted upon her. She grasps to it with all the stubbornness of a petulant girl, and though she's scared of Jack and reality, she clings to her fantasy world. So of course Jack goes back to his favorite method of motivation - pain.
It works too, as Marie begins to feel the painkillers wear off, she confesses to Jack that the bomb has been smuggled out and is heading towards downtown L.A. and they only have three hours left before it goes off. Jack is all set to go when Marie tells him that he has to hurry and get down there with his men. This of course gives Jack pause. Why would Marie all of a sudden feel a sense of urgency to stop the bomb when she was so stubbornly refusing to give up its location?
Being smarter then the average TV agent, Jack realizes that her overselling means that bomb is still hidden in the airport. He orders his men to go hunting for it, and eventually they track down the van and capture it, revealing the true nuke. Only problem is that the bomb technicians say that there is no way to defuse the detonator.
All this tension is being communicated to the CTU, where a new face enters and a changing of the guard occurs. Mason is truly beginning to feel the radiation poisoning that's killing him. His hair is falling out, his skin is bubbling and bleeding, his thoughts are sluggish, and he ends up feinting in front of the new computer technician, Carrie Turner. All this makes him realize that he can't be of help anymore, so mustering up the last bits of his dignity, he arranges for Tony to take over as director the CTU branch.
This is a cool moment, as Tony has truly matured as a character. I still think Jack will be put back in charge of the CTU when this season is over, but for the time being I'm glad to see Tony get his moment in the sun. And if this is the last time we see the character of Mason, I just want to once more congratulate Xander Berkely on the nuanced performance he's given the character. Though equal parts ass, coward, and weasel; Mason has never comes across as anything else but a real human being. And as he descended into his dealing with death, we gradually got to see a greater degree of humanity to the man. By the end of this episode, we can truly understand and sympathize for a man who would be nothing more then a cliché on a lesser show or in the hands of a lesser actor.
Speaking of the new computer geek, it seems that Carrie and Michelle share something of a past. Obviously there's a great deal of animosity on both sides, but the details are still in the dark. I've heard theories from backstabbing, to lesbianism, to Michelle being a mole bandied about. The truth of it is, I don't know where they're going with this. Although it kind of reminds me of the dynamic that Nina and Alberta Green had last year. It is an interesting twist to add a bit more conflict into the safe haven that CTU has been this year.
Nothing and no one is safe for David Palmer though, as he tries to cope with the apparent betrayal of Sherry all over again. When he confronts her about it, she breaks and confesses that Stanton had approached her to form a coup against David and she agreed. However she insists that she did it to help David, to get close to his enemies so they would not be able to disrupt his presidency as they'd planned. She's even had her past meetings documented and time logged by an attorney to prove that she isn't making this up to save her own ass. Personally though, I still think Sherry has a hidden agenda. Her revelation of trying to help David just doesn't jive with her phone calls to Stanton warning him that David wasn't getting closer.
Palmer seems to have learned from his past however, and though he doesn't punish Sherry, he does send her away from him and the complex. Any wall that had started to crumble between them has been reassembled and re-enforced.
And then there's Kim. Sweet sweet Kim who is stuck going from bad story to bad story. It almost boggles the mind that the same great writing talent that can create the greatness of characters like Jack and Palmer cannot find something interesting or compelling for Kim to do.
Our little blonde bombshell is still stuck in the shelter with psycho-survival man thinking that the LA has just disappeared in a big mushroom cloud. And though he tricked her into coming into the shelter with him, he seems reluctant to take advantage of her. The poor guy just wants Kim to fall in love with him. Too bad Frank is a thundering loony. While pretending to listen to the radio, he doesn't notice Kim stumble upon a television and see that all of LA is still intact and that no nuclear bomb has indeed gone off. Instantly Kim puts her guard up, but pretends everything is all right until she can catch him off guard.
When she finally makes a bid for freedom by grabbing a knife and threatening Frank, he quickly disarms her. She then asks him to let her go, and surprisingly he does. I guess he's an insane psycho with a heart of gold. Kind of matches the kidnapper with a heart of gold she met last year. Perhaps Rick and Frank should start a fanclub. Arming her with a gun and giving her directions, Kim strolls on her merry way leaving me to wonder a very important question.
What the hell was the point of that? Kim's little adventure in psycholand served absolutely no purpose other then eating time up. It did nothing to strengthen the character or move the story along. It was a really boring event that happened. I mean good God, there has to be something more exciting for Kim to do; because these wacky hijinks of hers are really beginning to annoy me.
This was a nice tense episode, with some great character moments and observations. I'm still waiting for a little more action though; Jack hasn't killed anyone in hours for crying out loud. Once again the weak point of this episode is Kim, and I can't help but wonder what the writers have planned for her. Hopefully something sane and logical, but I severely doubt it. You know Kim could have been used differently this year, she could have been left in LA and been the touchstone to how the normal person is reacting to all this danger and rumor that's spreading about, trying to remain and keep the calm while panic slowly grips the city. That could have been interesting. Instead we get the ever-changing cavalcade of psycho's. Oh well, the good definitely outweighs the bad by a large degree in this ep, so I walk away a happy viewer.
Episode Rating: 8.5 out of 10
-- Tim Ritenour
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