[24H] Day 7: 5:00pm-6:00pm

TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 10
Date I watched this episode: 24/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 7 days.

All 24 seasons have multiple parts to them, each with a key villain attached. Season 1 had Ira Gaines and Victor Drazen, Season 2 had Syed Ali and Peter Kingsley, Season 3 had Ramon Salazar and Stephen Saunders, etc. Since the initial part to this season was attached to Colonel Ike Dubaku, it was fairly obvious to assume that the next part would be run by General Benjamin Juma, Dubaku's boss. This episode was about the tying up of the Dubaku storyline and setting the scene for the new Juma storyline.

The set up scene was pretty rubbish to be honest. It was completely overdramatised, as if the writers intended to take the scene at the slowest pace possible for the maximum dramatic effect. This is admittedly a dramatic device which often works but it didn't work in this setting with these characters. In particular when Tony says "I need your help, Jack" this was a cringeworthy moment.

The capture of Dubaku involved a car chase, Jack was going the wrong way along some roads and driving across a park. This form of car chase has become so standard in 24 that it is pretty boring. You just really want to know the result and that's it. In fact I think there has been a very similar car chase earlier this season. Nevertheless, it was inevitable once Dubaku naively wanted to have his cake and eat it with Marika. It's intriguing to speculate what Marika's endgame was; whether she actually wanted to go with Dubaku or whether she was always intending to sabotage.

The Sean Hillinger mole storyline also found something of a conclusion in this episode. Erika's involvement was a bit silly - but I suppose once Sean was out of the FBI loop they needed to find a way to dispose of her character. She is incredibly annoying though and she almost completely ruined this episode, especially with her technobabble in the server room. The revelation of their working together, in the opening scene, was completely played down. The moment of revelation was when Sean said "you'll get us caught" and this was said so quietly you could hardly hear it.

The death of Erika in general, and the "erase all servers" piece, was a twist that eventually turned out to just be a time filler. It just all seemed too easy to get the data and make the arrests, as if the show had suddenly had to go in a different direction (kind of like the "Invasion" cancellation, in which an incredibly complex storyline was tied up in about half an hour, or [ALS] "Full Disclosure" as another example).

There were some glaring inconsistencies to this episode too. Would Jack really hand off the data disk to someone he had never met before (the copter pilot) - he didn't know if they would be working for Dubaku. Jack said he'd never seen anything like the data disk before but then Chloe was able to install it into a standard drive on a laptop. And Tony said he already has a tail on Burnett - but he is supposedly working alone now.

The good part around this episode was the chemistry between Jack and Renee. The long scene between them where she is hitting him and saying "do you feel that?" is quite well done, realistic and sufficiently dramatic/emotional. The character of Renee is being fleshed out quite well, her pulling a weapon on Jack Bauer was unexpected but also in keeping with the recent developments around this character.

Since this episode was really a setup episode, it is worth thinking about the future of this season. Tony says they don't know the exact target of Juma's attack so determining what this is is likely to be a big storyline coming up, with probably a major shock when it is revealed. Senator Maier's return is welcome, his personal crusade against Jack will add another dimension to the story to come. And as for Sean, well there is probably going to be much devoted to his arrest and interrogation in the next episode, while the Juma attack storyline picks up. I think there will be a redemption storyline now for Sean, especially with Rhys Coiro having a main cast credit. He will likely realise his mistakes and try to set things right - he doesn't seem to have the ruthless character of past moles such as Nina Myers.

In the final analysis, this was a wrongly-paced setup episode, which seemed generally out-of-place, and is probably the worst episode so far this season.