[24H] Day 7: 10:00am - 11:00am

TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 3
Date I watched this episode: 10/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 day.

Nothing could have prepared me for the AWESOMENESS of this episode. In fact, I was a bit uncomfortable before when my friend Paul was raising my expectations for this episode before I'd even watched the first one. But no matter how high my expectations were, this new storyline was a stroke of brilliance. 24 has truly proved that the demise of Joel Surnow has not left them stranded. It's not just because I was right too. Though, you have to admit, I was right. Tony wasn't really a terrorist, and the character profiles are still in-tact.

It's not like Jack hasn't gone rogue before. It's not like practically every single protagonist on 24 hasn't gone rogue before! In fact, the period toward the end of season 5 when Chloe and Bill are working at Bill's house is one of my favourite parts of the show. But the difference here is that this rogue operation has clearly been going on for months. None of the people involved have any rank. And the security breach is bigger than usual, stretching across who knows how many people. That said, we know some of the key players from Redemption. But it's still going to incredibly hard for four people to work against an entire country.

The initial revelation scene brought back memories of the Charles Logan revelation scene during season 6 (if you recall, Phillip Bauer gave Jack Logan's number). But it was so much cooler than this. Partly because Bill Buchanan is one of my favourite characters on the show, and partly because of the whole voice modifier thing. And the speed at which things unravelled after that (again, Abrams/Lindelof take note) didn't leave you waiting around for ages.

The way they got out was pretty cool. The car driving through a barrier thing had been on some early trailers and I'd seen that, but the seemingly-impossible escape of two people from an FBI headquarters was actually quite believable, and Jack and Tony still work well as a team (although I wouldn't be surprised if there is still some animosity between them after the interrogation).

Bill and Chloe are back to their good old selves. I liked Chloe's little awkward comment about how Jack looked good on TV. Her geeky hacker battle against Janis Gold was...um...interesting? It's a little different from a catfight anyway! Marshall Flinkman wouldn't have let that happen, he would have knocked them all down!

There were a couple of other almost-loose threads in this episode. Firstly the whole Henry investigating his son's death, which took seemed a little disjointed from the rest of the story. We know that there is a link there though (from Redemption) so perhaps we will see that emphasised more later on in the season. Secondly the whole "rules vs results" thing, and some of the FBI's feeble interrogation techniques (Janis's "is that comfortable for you?").

The mole story was also touched on but didn't get anywhere. Does it even matter now that Jack isn't working there anymore? Now that the FBI is "the enemy", it will be hard for the writers to make a mole story quite so dramatic. I couldn't even begin to guess though. Maybe it is Renee? That would be perhaps a bit too cliche though.

After Jack and Renee worked so well as partners, I was sad that he didn't take her with him. This was a mistake as far as I'm concerned; it would have added an extra dramatic sense of awkwardness to the reunion of old CTU agents, and I don't somehow think Renee would come off so well as an opponent. It will be hard for them to make this face-off dramatic too, especially as they have only known each other a few hours.

Surely now the terrorists must know that Jack helped Tony escape from the FBI, as they have people on the inside. Will Tony have to bring Jack in undercover? This will get very complicated, as Jack is exactly the man Dubaku wants revenge against.

All in all this is looking to be a very promising season.