24: Season 4, Episode 19: Day 4: 1:00 AM - 2:00 AM Review

Day 4: 1:00 AM – 2:00 AM

Original Airdate: April 25, 2005

Writers: Howard Gordon & Evan Katz

Director: Bryan Spicer

I was worried about 24 coming into this episode. Of recent episodes, many were below their standards and two, one of them being the previous week’s, were among their worst. With six episodes left, how would 24 recuperate from the growing pains of the transitional arc and begin delivering on its promise? This week’s episode is a strong indicator that things are coming back to shape, which is a relief.

One of this episode’s flaws was the lack of continuity regarding Jack’s resignation. It appeared that it happened so he could get the information out of Prado, but in the opening minutes of this episode, we learn Jack is still working. Did he resign and reapply within three minutes? Being cheated out of another segment of Jack rogue was a disappointment. It does lead to consequences later on, which hurts their investigation significantly.

Audrey represents the way they should’ve handled last week’s torture debate. Instead of coming off like a babbling idiot or a bleeding heart that would rather help the terrorists than prevent future attacks, Audrey is thorough and strong rationalizing the consequences of Jack’s actions. It would’ve been better if they explored this further and had it do more than thwart the sting operation. This does seem to be a step in the right direction to get an effective dialogue going again. 24 blurs the line between good and evil, as the good guys end up doing deplorable things to prevent deplorable things from happening. In desperate times, they go extremely far and while it does help the dramatic impact, there needs to be a follow up.

Logan can’t win. His indecisiveness has been harshly criticized since his entrance. When confronted to make a choice, he calls Secret Service to arrest Jack for going against his orders. As Jack is finding Marwan, using a cool camera through the ventilation shafts (man I want to raid CTU’s toy chest), Secret Service arrive, which blows their cover and leads to another escape by Marwan (4^th since 6 PM). Jack really shouldn’t get so mad at them. They have no choice. He should be mad at Logan.

Although this wimpy president is a little ridiculous, it does set the stage for the return of another old friend, Palmer. I was hoping to see him at the start of the season as a civilian friend of Jack’s, following up on their conversation in the season three finale, but the Audrey arc was more important to establish where Jack was when the madness started. Some may criticize 24’s decision last year to fire all the leads except for Kiefer Sutherland, only to bring them back later on in the season. I don’t agree with this. It helps to see Tony, Michelle and Palmer back. Their returns this season certainly were better contrived than Sherry and Nina’s last season, which were far more to please fans. If only Sherry had been scraped last year and put in this season.

While in the club, Marwan, unmasked, records a statement made to instill fear. I think it is safe to presume that that tape was what Terror Thug had when Jack killed him. This will soon be revealed to CTU when they analyze it. Although the chip Nabila found will probably be the most useful, the tape could provide some clue that we didn’t see when they shifted perspective to Jack and CTU. As for the threat itself, it was appropriately chilling. Vosloo, with those haunting sinking eyes, does a fantastic job at keeping his voice at a slow boil. Despite the incompetence of some of Marwan’s associates, he never raises his voice, which can be effective at scaring the audience.

If anything other than Jack is going to take out Marwan, it’ll be one of his stupid subordinates. Why did Sabir bookmark a terrorist website for his non terrorist girlfriend to see? That’s like a regular boyfriend leaving porn in the VCR or DVD player. I guess detachment works for both sides. Many of the terrorists have been brought down through some personal relationship (Syed Ali in season two, Stephen Saunders last season.) Maybe this will be the first step in Marwan’s downfall.

Nabila, Sabir’s girlfriend, succeeds where the “Look, We’re Not Racists” brothers failed. I think most people know that not every Middle Eastern person is a terrorist. Interest groups, offended by the terrorist’s race, pressured 24 for positive Arabic characters and the result was too over the top not to be an attempt to appease them. Although I believe the actress is Indian, it was a much more natural portrayal of someone who wanted to help prevent the attacks. This was far more important than her ethnicity.

Chloe and Edgar have to get together by the end of the season. Granted many fans are hoping for Tony and Michelle to get back, but Chloe and Edgar seems like there would be some potential. While there is still schoolyard bickering between the two, like when Edgar refuses to let Chloe use the computer to work on the only lead they have because he’s doing general work. But it’s clear that there is something, like when he tells her that he wanted to go, but couldn’t because Chloe is the best and compliments her. Chloe’s awkward “I know” still represents how she isn’t quite ready or sure how to handle whatever feelings they have. Next week will definitely feature the aftermath and hopefully the end of the pettiness between them.

After all of these missions where the bad guys surprise them, wouldn’t they want to bring some more reinforcements to obtain the only lead they have in capturing and preventing his next attack of a major terrorist who has already done a lot of damage. Two Red Shirts doesn’t make sense, especially in the middle of the night. After Curtis’ melee at McLennan-Forester not even twelve hours earlier, wouldn’t they take better care at retrieving vital information? I don’t know why they needed to access it there. It looked as though all the information was on the lap top.

How cool was it to see Chloe out in the field? This could be a major turning point for her character. As the socially awkward but technically (literal sense) brilliant analyst, she has never been in a situation where her life was threatened. I loved the fake out when the thug shot at the car they were in, only to have the bullets repel because of the bullet proof glass. It helped add to the suspense to have him standing at them firing with a shotgun. Then to have him get in his car and start ramming them, all the while Jack and CTU could only tell them the password to access the weaponry. When they got it open, it was beautiful. I was jumping out of my bed.

This episode makes up for last week’s awkwardness. They’re continuing to set up the pieces for the final part, but it seems as if the transitional phase is over. The last five minutes made this episode. Chloe blowing away that terrorist was one of the best things I've seen on 24 in a long time. I think my faith has been restored.

Score: 9/10