24: Season 5, Episode 7: Day 5: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Review

Day 5: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Original Airdate: February 6, 2006
Writer: Manny Coto
Director: Brad Turner

Unfortunately, as 24 isn't planned extensively in advance, we have episodes that don't add much to the plot, essentially setting up the next big pay off. Such episodes are transitional, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Most of the storylines this episode are fine. However, they find themselves stuck using a lame plot device for some unknown reason. There are some cracks evident in this episode, but nothing too crippling, which isn't hindering this season yet.

As they talked about the ramifications of Jack's survival in the last episode, it makes sense that they would explore how this would affect Kim. Jack is right to keep Kim unaware of it because she shouldn't have to deal with the loss again. However, mentioning how much Jack wants to keep his faked death a secret from his daughter is obviously setting us up for Kim finding out in the least comfortable and appropriate way possible.

Having Kim on his mind sets us up for the raid on Rossler's penthouse suite and the discovery of Rossler's sex slave, an underage girl named Inessa. They teased at a surprise behind Rossler's bed both on the show and in the previews, making some fans believe it was someone we know. Thankfully the woman behind the bed wasn’t Mandy, because that would’ve been too obvious, or Kim, because that would've been too absurd even for 24. Instead, it is something unexpected and sleazy, which revolts Jack beyond words and places him in an unusual position.

It starts when Rossler remains tight lipped despite the torture, and Jack is forced to put that poor girl in a situation where she has to be near that scumbag, even though Jack would intercept Rossler once he served his use. Jack clearly despises Rossler for what he has done to Inessa, and that adds to the savagery of his torture, evidenced in his line "you're gonna wish you felt this good again" after Jack jabbed Rossler's fresh bullet wound.

What I do wonder is why Jack didn’t assure Inessa that he would make sure that Rossler would never get away with her. We know how Jack wouldn’t do that to an innocent person. In season two, when Wallace demanded Kate go with him, Jack had a tracking chip so they could track him and make sure she never got away with him (not that that mattered with the following gunfight). All of this is to get Inessa to gun down Rossler, destroying the one link they had since they apparently aren't too concerned with Nathanson anymore and to make Jack's return to obscurity harder to do.

Nathanson's role, now that Cummings has been exposed, should've been explored more in this episode. Since Cummings no longer has anything useful to offer the investigation, wouldn't it be fitting that they aggressively pursue where Nathanson is? Nathanson actively contacted the terrorists so he would've been CTU's closest connection to the nerve gas before Erwin contacted Rossler. All Walt says is that Nathanson went dark and that is that. It leaves something to be desired, even if CTU finds Nathanson's body in that black void he operated.

Unfortunately, we’re stuck with another side story that doesn’t add to the plot; Lynn’s encounter with his sister Jenny whose male friend mugs him. What is this doing here? Every season has their share of lame plotlines (Michelle and Carrie fighting, Chase’s baby, Maya Driscoll, etc.), but it doesn’t make it any easier when they pop up (and somehow we're never prepared for them). I thought Lynn’s storyline was fine with the generation gap between him and Buchanan. Perhaps this will pay off later, but like many of these subplots, it doesn’t fit in well with the rest of the show.

Apparently, the rest of Spenser's storyline wasn't about his guilt at helping a sociopath connected to terrorists as much as it was another step in the Edgar/Chloe dynamic. However, Edgar getting a kick out of Chloe turning Spenser away was a highlight of the episode. Edgar and Chloe are the new Tony and Michelle.

Initially, Logan is willing to accept responsibility for his actions, but during the hour, he learns that coming clean won't be as easy as he thought. We can see why Martha was friends with David Palmer; coming clean to the media is exactly what Palmer would do. Logan didn’t do anything wrong, but he would be if he tried to cover up the truth. However, when Walt commits suicide, the situation becomes more complicated. Such a shock may cause Logan to revert to his old ways instead of finding redemption. It'll be tough to explain the death of his chief of staff, much less keep it concealed for long. Logan's situation now places him in a situation where the need to confront this issue is extremely important.

Who hasn't wanted to slap Logan at some point during his tenure on 24? Thankfully, Martha is now able to prove that she is a capable member of Logan's inner circle. Both she and Novick can give Logan the Cliff's Notes on David Palmer and what it takes to be a great leader. We can only hope that she'll steer him in the right place now that they have to deal with Walt's suicide.

As custom with traditional episodes, the characters are usually doing something that could be contained in an act or so, an odd change from last week's charged episode. For our terrorists, they spend it coercing a hapless mechanic to cut open the canisters so they can reset the detonators or something (poor Cal; you have to feel bad for the civilians who are caught in the crisis on 24). Why didn't Erwin find out how to reverse what Schaeffer did from Schaeffer before they killed him? He was at Erwin's mercy before he died, it could've been easy to find out, if there was a way.

Having Erwin take on the role of head baddie feels a little awkward to me. This stems from when we first saw him, as the plant among the hostages in the airport terminal. Had the airport terminal situation not played out in his favor, the operation would've lost their leader. He may be willing to die once their attack is done, but to die before they can achieve their endgame doesn't feel right.

This episode is a typical transitional episode, a showing of the shortcomings the show has with the real time format. While it helps create suspense and intensity, when they make mistakes with storylines, they have to stick with them and write their way out of it. However, I have been enjoying this season a lot to cut the show a little slack (see my rating). In addition, they're heading towards something big soon because of the terrorists have almost everything they need to release the canisters in America. I hope that this episode earned the grade I'm giving it.

Score: 7/10