The first two hours were primarily setup, and the show quickly tied in both the stuff going on in 24:Redemption (nothing more than background for this season) and the big twist already seen in the previews for this season...Tony is alive and he is a bad guy! He orchestrates the stealing of the CIP device and doing a demo of taking over flight communications using the device and causing two planes to nearly crash into each other when landing. In the meantime, the FBI subpoenas Jack to get his help to capture Tony, which gets him excused from the Senate hearing that isn't going so hot (Jack Bauer answers to nobody!). Tony calls Jack up after the guy he's interrogating/torturing gets shot by a sniper, but he won't explain why he's doing what he is.
Jack Bauer at a Senate hearing
Hours 3 and 4 got a lot more interesting. Jack interrogates Tony and nearly suffocates him, but Tony manages to pass him a CTU codeword. Jack calls up the number and finds Bill and Chloe! Apparently though CTU is officially disbanded, Tony, Bill and Chloe are able to do the same type of things without the whole gang of useless extras (you know, those nameless background people in CTU who couldn't protect the network or even the building). Jack finds out Tony is undercover and that he needs to be released, so he goes about breaking Tony out of the building (if he rescues anymore people from jail and government buildings, they may have to rename the show Prison Break).
They tried to cram in two "touching moments" with Jack apologizing to Tony for almost breaking his neck (because Tony was whining about it, despite provoking Jack in the first place saying he was 'spitting on Terri's grave') and Chloe saying how she missed Jack and was watching him on C-Span. But then Chloe's security feed hacking got busted by the FBI and things got intense in escaping the building. This escape was great, as it took all of 2 minutes for Tony to jump out of a parking garage onto a car and breaking its windows, Bill to fly in with the blue van like a total lunatic, and Jack to drive a car through the concrete wall of the 2nd story of the parking garage. Of course, Jack was barely injured. Best comment ever from the FBI guard as Bill drives the van away with Jack and Tony inside: "Agent Moss. They're gone. They're outside the perimeter." Ummm...no crap. you must not have been watching the last 6 seasons, or you would know that anytime they setup any kind of perimeter, it has more holes in it than swiss cheese. Seriously, has the perimeter ever worked?!?
And on that note, there were some pretty glaring plot holes and inconsistencies:
- Flight control got communications back after the plane miss demonstration...couldn't they have told the planes to ignore any further commands or found another way to contact them? The government can do all kinds of things, but they can't call them via the in-flight phones or something?
- The CIP device can't be disabled or prevented from transmitting? It's a small, single piece of hardware
- After the FBI lost Tony and Jack, their only lead was the Tanner guy that was in the hospital. The ONLY THING they were doing was waiting for him to regain consciousness to try to get a lead. And yet, when he regained consciousness, nobody was there ready to question him?!? Renee had to get Chloe and leave the FBI building...ridiculous.
- Not really a plot hole, but I really hate Janeane Garofalo being on 24. I can't find her believable in the slightest, and it's throwing off everything that happens at the FBI building, not to mention she's like a lame ripoff of Chloe, acting by-the-book at times and defiant at others. And it seems like she's trying to make her character quirky like Chloe too. But even without the Chloe comparisons, I just don't like her role. Am I alone on this?
Tony getting Jack into the terrorist group was too easy, but there wasn't any good way to go about showing it since you know they can't kill Jack. It was pretty weird that Bill told Chloe (seemingly seriously) that Jack would have to die to legitimize Tony's return to the group. It seems like he's ready to let anyone and everyone innocent get killed just to uncover the "conspiracy". Speaking of which, they've made it quite apparent that Ethan is the mole in the presidential council, as he had the fake SEC documents about Roger Taylor (the president's son) and he keeps pushing to call off the invasion. But that kid driving Henry (the president's husband) around is flaky too, with his watching Henry hold up the thumb drive from Samantha. I like how Henry was just sitting there holding it out in the open for everyone to see after trying to have such a secretive meeting and given the nature of what's on it. And since Samantha's already spilled the beans, I'm guessing she dies in the next episode. And lastly, surely Sean's bumping his wife's (or was it girlfriend?) flight to the front of the landing queue using Larry's credentials is going to come back and bite him in the ass at some point.
This was a review of Season 7, Episodes 1, 2, 3 and 4. Here's my previous 24 reviews. And here's the character countdown.
Update: Of course I completely forgot to mention that the season's opening scene was awesome, with the ICP engineer getting captured after getting his SUV rammed several times while his daughter was with him. I guess 4 more hours of action later, it slipped my mind! Between all the vehicle crashing and the cool camerawork, it definitely deserved a mention.
Posted by: junosand on Jan 14th, 2009 | 1:53am