24: Season 4, Episode 4: Day 4: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Review

Day 4: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Original Airdate: January 10, 2005
Writer: Stephen Kronish
Director: Brad Turner

If you can isolate 24 at its best and worst, you could find it in this episode. CTU's incompetence becomes more frustrating as they spend more time looking over each other's shoulders and yelling at the people who are actually working. However, what shines in this episode is the cold-blooded nature of Dina Araz, who would be the breakout character from this season.

Jack blacks out the cameras and corners the other customers and the clerk on duty. He gets their wallets and cell phones, too. When Kalil refuses to cooperate, Jack assaults him and gets his gun. Jack asking whether Kalil was a cop was priceless because this role allowed him to knock him down a notch. Unfortunately, Jack can't leave since Chloe hasn't gotten the satellite coverage yet. He'll have to wait longer as Chloe is called into a meeting.

Driscoll's head nearly explodes when she finds out about Andrew and what Jack has been doing since being cut out of the investigation. It is even interfering with her work, as she seems more concerned with Jack than the suspect now. Her desire to be above Jack overrides everything else.

The meeting of the heads at CTU is to discover if Chloe has aligned herself with Jack. Chloe's reactions tell Driscoll that she knew about Andrew and therefore would be working with Jack. To confirm these suspicions, she has Sarah spy on her. However, Chloe is great at her job, and can tell that she's being kept tabs on, so she appeals to Edgar for help. Edgar relied on her help a lot early in his tenure and this would be returning the favor.

Jack gets the cashier to open the safe, where he only finds one roll of cash and a few coins. What many viewers didn't notice was Jack put the cell phones and wallets in the safe. Perhaps the camera angle wasn't clear enough. Either way, Kalil is growing impatient and plans to do something. Ironically, they would consider him a hero, when he really is a part of the attack on America.

At the hideout, Omar grows impatient and has them prepare for the trial without Kalil. Heller has come up with a clever plan. Audrey grows concerned about Heller's behavior and its effect on his heart problem. He "left" his medication in the car before the kidnapping. It's good that they set this up now so when later their escape attempt isn't too contrived.

Ten minutes later, Heller collapses, feigning a heart attack. Audrey gets the one inept guard to come in to help him, allowing Heller to pounce on him. Whether she knew this was an act is unclear, but Heller's attempt to escape is bold and cool. He must have been in the 70s what Jack is today. They only gun down a few men before they are overpowered. Omar threatens Audrey's life to make sure Heller doesn't try that again.

The longer Jack stays in the convenience store, the harder it is to keep other people from coming in. It is mid-morning, so pretending to be closed while several cars are parked in the lot doesn't help your argument. While they are moving to the back, Kalil tries to spray Jack. Of course, it will take more than that to take him down. Then Jack finds a policeman stopping at the store. He gets too suspicious, so Jack takes him. Now, why didn't he at any point inform the officer who he really was? Jack disarmed him, and clearly was in control of the situation. He could've pulled him aside as an ally to keep the customers cooperative.

Here is the juiciest, most shocking part of the episode. Dina pretends to have a nice chat with Debbie about her relationship with Behrooz, while he tries to stay calm. She finds out the information regarding the hideout and informs Navi. Navi believes that Behrooz should take care of this problem since he started it. Dina instructs Behrooz to take Debbie to the basement and kill her. Behrooz tries to help Debbie escape, but Debbie collapses dead before they can leave. Believing that he couldn't kill her himself Dina poisoned the tea Debbie drank earlier. Then she coldly scolds him. Poor Behrooz, his mom's warped worldview believes that murdering his girlfriend is a favor.

Driscoll continues her incompetence by making Sarah spy on Chloe while they should be doing everything to find where Heller is. When nothing is found, Sarah is assigned to find out who is working with Chloe to help Jack. She suspects a possible connection when she sees Edgar looking at satellite photos, but nothing damning. It still worries Edgar that he may be fired for this, but Chloe says she'll shift the blame away from him. This is probably where the Edgar/Chloe shippers started to have an argument.

Marianne, ignored by Curtis during the briefing earlier in the hour, uses a chance conversation she overheard to gain some leverage. She confronts Edgar about what she knows and is able to extort some aid from him when she needs it. Sherry would be proud. I don't think a woman as beautiful as Aisha Tyler would need to worry about calling up my attention.

Now here comes the obligatory personal story line that irritates everyone. Driscoll gets a call from her daughter, who has not taken her medication. Why doesn't Driscoll have her under watch? Maya can't live without help. Driscoll tries to get her to take her medication, but she doesn't and it results in Maya getting into an altercation with a neighborhood boy. Driscoll again proves to be a terrible head by diverting resources to take care of her personal problem, where she scolded people for doing likewise.

The police arrive at the store and Jack leaves all the customers except for Kalil, taking him as his hostage. Satellite coverage is up. Jack informs Chloe that Kalil will be on foot. Kalil is obviously suspicious as he has been Jack's punching bag for the hour. Jack allows him to walk away. Driscoll finds out about the satellite and fires Chloe, although she was the only CTU agent doing anything relevant to finding Heller (and Mary Lynn had to shoot episodes for the now defunct The Sketch Show). Though Jack is proven right, it doesn't convince her to rehire Chloe.

They manage to tap the cell phone Kalil swiped (which seems to be an incredibly stupid thing for a terrorist to do) to discover more about their plan in a minute than they had the previous hour. Jack manages to drive for around fifteen minutes before police surround and arrest him. This isn't much of a cliffhanger, but it may have not meant to be one. At least the critics of the last cliffhanger are eased to see that the robbery scenario was confined to this episode.

Here is a slightly uneven episode. CTU and the robbery wore down as the episode progressed. Chloe's exit is sloppy considering Jack isn't penalized, even if it is for a nonsense reason. Driscoll's personal problems, an attempt to make her human, falls into another melodramatic plot line that 24 has a weakness for. However, it is the Araz story line, where we see how dark Dina truly is, that redeems this episode.

Score: 7/10