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February 12, 2012
 
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24: 1:00PM - 2:00PM

by Jonathan Toomey, posted Jan 27th 2009 8:23AM

Jack (Kiefer Sutherland, L) tells the Motobos (Isaach De Bankole, C and Tanya Pinkins, R) about his plan.
(S07E06) "... you have to stay dead." - Buchanan

This isn't a good sign. After five incredibly strong hours, Day 7 of 24 just fell flat fast. It's inevitable in this show; there will be slow and boring hours. You can't avoid it. However, it typically doesn't start to occur until hours 12 to 18 - right before the final act.

Granted, we got some solid plot advancement in the sixth hour, but even by 24's standards, a lot of it was really drawn out.

On the plus side, at least Bill and Chloe were back again. "No... I'm a stay at home mom." Great line!

Even though it's a given with this show, we picked up right where we left off last week (surprise!) with Bill and Chloe digging up Renee, who had finally succumbed to being shot, wrapped in plastic, and buried alive. She wasn't breathing but after a shot of adrenaline, things were OK. Bill fills her in on everything (Jack and Tony are good, the FBI is compromised, etc.) and obviously Renee goes along with it. However, there's one problem with all of this - it's takes Renee out of the action. She can't call Larry at the bureau and she can't be involved with the plot to stop Dubaku because they think she was killed. So she's just a bystander now. We know what she's capable of and I'm sure she'll find some way to insert herself into the action, but for now... she's just sort of there.

As for Tony and Jack, everything played out as you sort of expected it would. I always assumed that Emerson was a dead man walking - just not this soon. It seemed like Tony had really grown attached to him. He had tears in his eyes as Emerson told Jack that it was his old mentor, Christopher Henderson (Peter Weller), who had been tasked with only incapacitating Tony - not killing him - in season five. The whole "we're brothers" thing got played out a bit too heavily, but you really saw the difference between the two when Emerson thought Tony was doing it to steal the diamonds. It never crossed his mind that Tony was doing it to save lives. That being said, I'm having a hard time believing that in their three years together, Tony and Emerson were never involved in another plot that endangered or led to the death of innocents. So why the conscience now?

More thoughts on hour six --

  • Henry is still going to have a hard time cleaning up Gedge's mess. It still looks like Henry killed Samantha, tried to commit suicide, Gedge discovered it, tried to stop him, and Henry killed Gedge. How else would you interpret that scene?
  • We did learn one important thing - Ethan isn't Gedge's boss. So who in Taylor's administration is the mole? We know that whoever it is, they stand to gain by having US troops pull out of Sangala so that Juma's regime can succeed. Based on Ethan and Tim's conversation... that's the entire cabinet. Joe, the Secretary of State, already resigned. So he's out. Any guesses? We still haven't met the VP.
  • I'm glad Jack shut Renee down the second she acted indignant about not being in on the plan from the get-go. She had this "duh" look on her face - she would have never believed him and she knew it.
  • I've never been a huge Star Trek fan, but I've noticed lots of readers mentioning Brannon Braga (one of 24's new Co-EPs) and how he destroyed either Enterprise or Voyager. Well... he co-wrote this episode. I assume this is what everyone was talking about? Then again, he also wrote this season's third hour and that was a great episode.

Dubaku's next move is to shut down a chemical plant in Ohio. Had he not crashed those two planes in this episode, I don't know if I would have believed him. However, based on next week's preview, it looks like Jack and Tony are closing in on Iké fast, thanks to the tooth transmitter Chloe put in Matobo's mouth. I wonder if this will play out similar to season three and the plot will shift drastically from Dubaku to Jon Voight's Jonas Hodges the same way that it shifted from the Salazars to Steven Saunders back then?

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Fred 13

I stopped watching 24 a few years ago and decided to give it a try again, especially after the word filtering out that this year was going to be a return to its strengths. But already the bull**** factor has gone into overdrive and I just can't watch it.

The whole CIP "device" thing and what it can do really bugs me. If we pretend that something like that can exist, and they fired their warning shot, then why are there still planes in the air? A couple of hours and everything is on the ground. No. 18 in a queue? Any big airport can land a plane every 2 or 3 minutes on a normal day - with no takeoffs even faster. And whatever magical fuel they have that let's them circle around forever is something I want in my car.

Even if (big bloody if) they couldn't get them down quick, they are talking to the pilots when the CIP device is not in control. All they would have to do is tell them to watch out for strange course changes and to keep their eyes open, rather than ignoring the big silver thing heading towards them. It is not like they take control of the plane from the pilot.

And as it has been mentioned before - the president should just withdraw for a week and then bring the shock & awe after they fix the CIP firewall thingy. They waited months before getting ready to attack anyway.

I know the show streches things, but it is supposed to be at least based on the real world. Jeeez.

January 30 2009 at 2:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Arnold

Why would Samantha have a key under her mat to her apartment. I mean if you are really suspicious of your fiance/husband (cant remember) being murdered and covered up as a suicide; wouldnt you be a lot more careful. That seemed like the writers kind of halfassed it a little there.

January 28 2009 at 1:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
patrick420

Gedge was still wearing gloves when they fell over the railing and Henry still has the muscle paralyzer in his system. That should be enough proof that it was a set up.

January 28 2009 at 2:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Xaul

I really think this was a very decent and enjoyable episode. I didn't feel it flat at all.

The scenes with Samantha/Henry/Agent Gedge were pretty awesome and stressful. I'm looking forward to see the next episode... Let's see how Henry manages to get out of this mess.

January 28 2009 at 2:09 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Chris

Maybe I'm alone in this, but in every scene with Matobo, I was getting the feeling that his wife is a secret bad guy. The way that Dubaku asked about her, the way she gets Matobo to do things, etc etc.

You heard it here first - she's secretly on the side of the villains!

January 27 2009 at 6:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Patrick

Decent ep, but one thing bugged me. When did Jack have time to get away from Emerson's team to call for Bill and Chloe to rescue Renee? I know Jack was being monitored, but Bill mentioned getting a call from Jack specifically regarding the location of Renee's body. It seems a phone call like that would have been awkward to make in the back of Emerson's truck. Maybe this was just another occasion where we have to accept it happened, like Jack taking bathroom breaks.

January 27 2009 at 5:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Patrick's comment
tireddawgma

Actually, Bill told Chloe that *Tony* called him. Then he lied to Renee and told her Jack called them (Presumably so that she would remain in the dark that Tony is also working with them, in case it's Renee that turns out to be a mole).

As far as the crash goes, it wasn't a completely cloudless day was it? I'm working on the premise that it was something along the lines of one of the planes being brought out of cloud cover into the other plane's blind spot.

I'm another one that thinks we may not have seen the last of Emerson; either in this season or perhaps even another. My first thought in that scene was that Tony has pulled something similar to what Emerson did to get ahold of Tony in the first place; give him some type of drug to fake his death. From the moment he decided to turn on Emerson Tony has known that it could come down to a moment like that. He's had a lot of time to prepare. In fact, he even played out a similar scenario with Jack to help Jack avoid being turned over to the Chinese after the embassy raid.

As for the President's husband, I have a feeling Gedge's partner will find him but will only get as far as getting Gedge cleaned up before someone else, police/condo securtiy/neighbor walks in on him. The water's will be muddied while Henry tries to convince people that he hasn't lost it.

January 27 2009 at 9:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
GerryofNorVA

Good point, which made me go back to review those scenes. Bill said "Jack told us where to find you" but didn't explicitly say it was a phone call. Could've been a surreptitious text message. Less likely is they could've GPS'ed his position and noted the location since they were stationary instead of mobile while the faux-killing was happening.

January 27 2009 at 11:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Diego M

this was a good episode a solid 8 out of 10.

The problem now with the Taylor/Gedge storyline is that there is another thug in the street. he can come upstairs and kill Henry unless he is able to grab Gedge's gun, since he won't need it. too bad about samantha gettin OJd. Henry got the Flash drive now so this plot is moving forward pretty well.

This next hour will be very action packed, dubaku and jack should meet and hopefully will avert the tragedy.

One thing i don't get, the planes were put in a collision course then they tried to evade and still clipped each other and crashed bellow? cuz as someone pointed out it was daylight, no clouds.

lookin forward to hour 7. oh and jack and Tony got some serious bling!!!

January 27 2009 at 1:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Diego M's comment
GerryofNorVA

I like the thinking from everyone on the how the apartment crime scene is going to play out. I doubt Gedge's partner will come up without a phone call. Also, two adults just fell 10-feet and smashed a table apart. Wouldn't that cause one or more neighbors to either investigate or call the cops ?!

Also, Gedge will have more guilt assoc with him with those plastic coverings and blood spatters on him and his shoes. Henry's main objective is to recover that thumb-drive before anyone else arrives on scene.

January 27 2009 at 11:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MERVE-THE-PERVE

Henry is still not out of the woods yet. He wasn't moving around very good after that fall and he still has that drug at least partially affecting him. And Gedges partner is still waiting outside in his car for Gedge to call him back when its done. He may go in there to see whats taking so long, esp if he calls Gedge and theres no answer. He may try to finish the job or just take Henry somewhere else and frame him for 2 murders. I don't think they will wrap this plot up this quick.

January 27 2009 at 1:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
C C

Flat? I thought last week's episode was flat! Last night was well-structured, if not subtle. I thought it was very Hitchcockian, especially the business with Henry Taylor, Samantha Roth, and the S.S. agent.

My feeling is that the first act of this season is one big Macguffin. The producers have hinted the episodes they filmed after the strike are better than the eight they filmed before. I suspect they planned it that way in the first place.

January 27 2009 at 1:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jeremy P.

Why has no one said that the President herself might be in on the plot? She's been the only one to truly keep pushing for the invasion.

January 27 2009 at 12:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Jeremy P.'s comment
Jonathan Toomey

Jeremy -

That wouldn't make sense. Those involved, whomever they are, stand to gain with Juma succeeding. Supporting the US troop presence would go completely against that.

January 27 2009 at 1:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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