(11:00 P.M. - 12:00 A.M.)
Review/Commentary
Reviewer: J
Well, we’re about to enter the home stretch and each season around this time there are a few episodes of filler material to keep us whetted for grand finish. That’s not to say that these episodes aren’t good – they generally are – but if you took them away, it wouldn’t change the overall story very much at all. Which is to say, an hour such as Hour Seventeen could be removed nearly entirely and the plot would not suffer at all. Which is further to say that the plot pretty much remained stationary for this hour. Think about it: what kinds of developments did we see? Air Force One is down, which we knew was going to happen. Marwan stole the nuclear codes from the “football.” Okay, that’s an advancement, I’ll grant you. And what else? The strange return of Mike Novick? Was Jude Ciccolella hard up for work and called in a favor? Don’t worry, I’ll get to him.
This is all not to say that I didn’t like the episode – I did, as usual. The opening was terrific, picking up from last week’s nail-biting ending. The “previously on 24” montage showed a slightly longer shot of the interior of Air Force One as the “indirect hit” occurs, and evidently Keeler and his son are so brave that they don’t even flinch when a missile hits their airplane. Indirectly. What does that mean, exactly? Does the missile have passive-aggressive tendencies like some of my co-workers and lack the ability to be direct? I don’t know. The “previously” montage also showed Jack bellowing again at Chloe as to whether or not Air Force One has been hit. Shut up, Jack. Your screaming like a raving lunatic does not help matters.
An oddity that I wanted to mention was the fact that 24 seems to be having budget problems. Heller has vanished; Curtis has been unseen for a couple of hours; there is a mention of Anderson being shot down in the Stealth though we see nothing about that (remember, he said something to Marwan about his cover being in place and that it “has to look like [he’s] dead.” Hmmm. Oh, and where’s Behrooz? Did Marwan forget that he traded for him? Has he been killed and they just don’t want to tell us yet? Not that it’s weird for 24 to randomly drop storylines, but it does seem odd for main characters to just vaporize into thin air. One would think this would be a time that the Secretary of Defense would need to be on the case. More so, than, say, comforting Driscoll. Maybe that’s where he is?
Tonight’s episode was written by Duppy Demetrius, so if you have any problems with it, chalk it up to the fact that it was written by somebody who was willing to have their name in lights as “Duppy.” For Duppy’s sake, I hope his parents didn’t name him that.
Naturally, early on, Jack arrives and begins immediately quarterbacking the situation. Jeez, Jack, how have they gotten along without you since you wussed out in Washington? Michelle, interestingly, seems to defer to Jack without hesitation every time.
Anyway, Air Force One is a mess. At about this time, the Vice President is being told about the potential status of the President. And who does he hear it from? Mike Novick, Palmer’s former chief of staff. Yeah, that’s why he looked familiar. In un-24-like fashion, nobody exposited Novick’s status as a former 24 character or as, you know, the guy who undermined the last President and orchestrated a fucking COUP on him, helping to inappropriately invoke the twenty-fifth amendment. Somehow, I’m not sure this guy would be allowed near Washington, D.C. again. Yet he’s evidently the Vice-President’s (or perhaps the President’s) chief of staff. Huh? Yeah, I don’t get it either. And not just because of his previous wrongdoing. Aren’t we to assume the Keeler and Palmer were of opposite parties? We never hear about their political affiliations, but I believe Keeler was gearing up to challenge Palmer in the general election, not in a primary. So if Novick works for Keeler’s administration, then he switched party lines? Unlikely.
Anyway, he’s back in the picture apparently, and he and the VP are just completely shady cats and very hard to assess. Are they nogoodniks? Or is it the way it appears and the VP is just a tentative ninny? Remember, Mike finished up Season Two not looking all THAT bad, but more like a guy who made a critical error in judgment and failed to trust the man he had worked with for so long (Palmer). Or maybe everybody just looks more shady at 2:30 in the morning, which is what it is in D.C. at this point.
Go On to Page 2
Back to the Unofficial 24 Page
Go Back to Television
Go Back Home!