(7:00 A.M. - 8:00 A.M.)
Review/Commentary
Reviewer: J
Remember when we were all excited that Kim might not be as much of a nuisance this season because she was now chained to a desk at CTU? Well, clearly we were kidding ourselves because, amazingly, Kim's the only one qualified (and we use the term "qualified" loosely) to pose as Saunders' rather alluring daughter. How fortuitous for us, the loyal viewers, that Saunders and Jack have daughters the same age who share the same mammographical traits! Fortunate, indeed.
However, this situation raises some questions. For one, why would Saunders leave his daughter in the LA area (Santa Barbara isn't that far away - it's where Aunt Carol lives! Remember?) when releasing a massive virus? Even if Saunders is egotistical enough to think he can control its release, he has to know the risks if even one person escapes a contained area. I just don't quite get this. One could say, "well, maybe he's crazy and doesn't care about his estranged daughter." They took this away as a possibility, though, when they made it clear that he has his daughter under watch and wants nothing to happen to her. I do like the fact that they've added a human element to this year's villain. Too often in Hollywood, the villains have no family, no friends, nothing to leverage against them, while the heros are always like Jack; family, weaknesses, etc. Hopefully, in the coming hours we'll see some further character development and maybe some franticness from Saunders. He already did seem to get a little frazzled when talking to Palmer about how awful Americans are.
Since I'm on the subject of Kim's assignment, I'll touch on some other aspects of it and its development. I did not like Jack's flying off the handle at Tony and Kim and anyone within a 50 foot radius. He and Tony share command of CTU and Kim is indeed an employee there. It's ludicrous of Jack to think that having her work for a government agency is a safer place for her to be than, say, being a nanny. Jack's temper and penchant for using physical force to get his way is just out of control, even for 24. He's got a heroin addiction, he pulled a gun on an American pilot a few hours ago to get his way, he shot a material witness (Nina), and the list goes on. In this hour, he sort of attacked Tony, (who, incidentally, I always thought could take Jack in a fight) and then even threw his own daughter against the wall. I just thought this was too much. Yes, Jack always gets the job done, but if this is how he's going to handle things, then he needs to be suspended. Either that or he shouldn't work in the same CTU office as his daughter, simple as that. Incidentally, I also think I'd knee my father in the balls if he got in my face and plainly stated that he got me the job, clearly implying I hadn't earned it. Screw that. Conversely, I did like Jack's crash-course field directive, making it clear that while Kim might defy him as a daughter she absolutely cannot defy him as a ranking agent. I liked how he forced her to acknowledge this. Well done.
Okay, on to other aspects of the hour. Speaking of which, I am glad I'm reviewing this hour, because I'm still mixed on the death of Chappelle last hour. I always had a soft spot for hard asses like Chappelle and the Mason of old. I kept thinking, even this hour, that there had to be an alternative to executing Chappelle. Put a flak jacket on him, a la Nina Myers in Season One. Or give them another corpse and use some of their technology to graft Chappelle's fingerprints onto the body (you know, like that technology that allows anything and everything from any agency - including MI6 - to be sent from one screen to another, i.e. "send it to my screen."). Regardless, I woke up the next morning thinking about the look on Chappelle's face while knowing he was going to die. As I said to D, I think it was the best acting we've seen from Paul Shulze, who to that point really hadn't been given much to work with - corny lines, predictable snottiness. However, the combination of fear and knowing he had to do his job, no matter what (since he's a by the book guy), was impressive to see. Even his shaking his head after Jack apologized for letting him down was well done. Maybe I'm just more sad to see the actor go than the character.
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