I'm probably going to jinx things by saying this, but so far, day four is avoiding one of the major pitfalls of most seasons of
24--namely having a couple of hours in the day where nothing much of interest happens. There's not been any lag in this day nor has there been any plot developments that seem to have come too far out of left field. Even this week's big returning character twist felt right--Michelle Dessler comes back to head up CTU after Erin is relieved of duties following the suicide of her daughter. Will Driscoll come back or have we seen the last of her character until the next big day?
Last week, I wondered where do we go from here and this week delivered on that. We're halfway through day four and there seems to be no let-up of the tension and excitement in sight. I have to admit I liked the team of Jack and Paul. From the natural tension in the car on the way over to McLendon-Forester when Paul says he doesn't resent Jack (which is nice considering an hour before he was touching live electric wires to your chest to get information out of you. How does this guy make it as a lawyer?) , but he's going to fight to get Audrey back to his thinking on his feet and taking the printout and running with it. What could have been just an excuse to team up two people with natural tension is working surprisingly well. Paul's knowing how to find backdoors to the system and infilitrate it was nicely done.
Of course, it's nice to know that every computer system on the planet has IM running at all times so Tony can send messages to Jack. OK, I'll admit I found that a bit much but then again, have you tried to uninstall Windows Messenger from your computer? It's about impossible and the blasted thing comes pre-installed so Bill Gates can track everything you do.
Meanwhile, over at CTU, Tony is put in charge in a move that was one of those--well, I'm just going to go with it. I liked the scenes with Curtis when the two tried to get into a pissing contest and Tony smacked him down. I just hope Tony hangs around now that Michelle is back and in charge. And I said this about last year's installment--it just does not pay to be director of CTU. Look at all the bad stuff that happens to you--George dies in a nuclear explosion, Chapelle is killed to meet a terrorist demand and Tony goes to jail. You know, it's not exactly a job with long-term career benefits. It was not kind to Driscoll at all. And now Michelle is taking over. I think I'd seriously reconsider that.
But the most chilling part of this hour was the corporate esponiage angle. The whole, "We sold weapons to terrorists and we'll whatever it takes to cover it up" was chilling. Interesting that the company puts its own survival ahead of national security. Of course, seeing McClendon manipulated by those around him--who I think are up to their ears in wrong-doing--was intriguing. The only card they didn't pull out was--we'll be hurting all the employees who are innocent if we come out and reveal that we work with terrorists. The callous disregard for anyone else was kind of scary--so we set off an EMP and cripple an eight block radius of LA...yeah, as long as we cover up our dodgy dealings, the ends justify the means. So, now we've got a whole new set of bad guys and a terrorist agent out there who has another plan in motion to complete the day of attacks.
Man, it's gonna be another great 12 hours as we barrel toward the end of this day. Can't wait.
posted by Michael Hickerson at 3/09/2005 08:09:00 AM |
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