After a quick-moving premiere, 24 eases up on the throttle a bit as it starts to shade in the various characters and their places in this world. “1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m.” starts to fall back into some annoying patterns, but it’s still an enjoyable episode.
The premiere portrayed a Jack-Chloe relationship fraying at the ends, only motivated by pure loyalty and necessity; in this episode, though, we get a bit of backstory on what exactly happened after that clock counted down to zero: Morris and Prescott were killed in a car accident, with Chloe targeted due to her connection with Jack. Now, on the one hand, if this isn’t developed upon throughout the course of the season, then it’s just going to come off as contrived and emotionally manipulative. On the other, the Jack-Chloe relationship is the strongest on the show right now due to their history. Both have lost people they love, so they turn their efforts toward saving others; it’s a goal born from both emotional connection and duty.
We also get some more insight into the relationship between Margot and Simone Al-Zahari, and here, we get the other side of the coin in regards to duty. It’s all about revenge–change it up sometime, show–and Margot exhibits a twisted sense of control over her daughter and Naveed. Speaking of, I’m not interested in Naveed at all, considering I can already predict his fate: bullet in the head. No, the chest. The back? Who knows?
The episode is bookended with two excellent action sequences, the first taking us down into the subways and up through the streets of London; this is easily the best usage of the setting we’ve seen so far, so hopefully, this isn’t like New York back in season 8: inconsequential. The final sequence is interesting and exciting, with Jack shooting a few civilians in order to get into the U.S. Embassy, and we leave off with Kate and Erik chasing him down as he’s off doing what he does best.
GRADE: B
OTHER THOUGHTS:
-So, Morgan’s obviously being played as Jack Bauer 2.0, but like I said last week, I hope there’s more to it than that. Strahovski can pull it off, and we don’t need to see a repeat of Renee, as much as I liked her.
-Mark Boudreau, forging the President’s signature. Also, it’s a nice touch that Heller doesn’t find success with his speech, as you would expect after Boudreau tears him apart.
-RIP, Morris.
Photo credit: FOX, 24: Live Another Day
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