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

TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 11
Date I watched this episode: 03/03/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 7 days.

It's unclear to me why the folks at 24 decided to make this 24 a double-bill, but there you go: two episodes were shown on the same night. At the time of writing this I haven't watched episode 12 yet, but I have that to look forward to. Anyway surprise, surprise: Juma is in Washington. Everyone is in Washington now: Bill, Chloe and Morris, Jack, Dubaku, Juma... Not really a shock anymore when you find out someone is in DC, and it's getting a bit ridiculous.

This episode had the "rules versus results" theme strongly embedded. Senator Mayer is basically the embodiment of this dilemma. He is a good character, and I liked the little debate between Mayer and President Taylor; I'm sure it reflects the dialogue going on her own head right now. She is swaying back towards the torture option though... It is interesting to see the president involved at this level; usually past presidents such as David Palmer have been shielded from the actual decisions of torture. Ethan's character was not strong in this episode; he merely provided a sounding board, which is less than what I expect from a credited cast member.

The idea of an attack on the White House, and Jack's interrogation within the White House itself, was a brave move but also rings of the epic things 24 used to do. (And much more controversial things have been done on television in the past, for example the Nazi White House in [ENT] "Zero Hour"). I think however it is a bit ridiculous to suggest that the White House can be infiltrated by swimming through a drain; this kind of thing will have been gone over a million times.

I liked the way Chloe and Janis played off each other in this episode, and we got another almost catfight here. Janis is quite jealous of Chloe, and I think Chloe is quite impressed by Janis, but they have to get past this initial phase before they can really start working together.

I didn't think Bill really acted in-character in this episode. He knows from past experience how fast results can demand desperate measures, and his refusal to co-operate in this episode, even chastising Tony, seemed out of place. He must also know that you can't talk Jack Bauer out of something like this, especially not when so many lives are at stake?!

Renee was being very obvious on her little infiltration mission this week. Her supposed stealth tactics (talking at a whisper rather than full voice, and hiding some of her face behind some blinds) were laughable, and I'm sure any real field agent wouldn't have taken such a big risk for basically no extra gain.

Unfortunately it does look like they may pursue some sort of 25th amendment style story here; led by Senator Mayer who thinks Taylor's judgment is impaired. This would be a shame as it has been done so many times before as to suck all the freshness out of the sequence.

I'd like to know what Tony's source was for the intel. He seemed to pause for rather too long when he said that the source was dead. Who is he protecting? Perhaps he has some skeletons that he doesn't want to air just yet. Maybe Tony himself directly worked for Juma at some point?!

I think in general the moral dilemmas added more to this episode than the action sequences. I will reserve final judgment on this episode though until I have seen the next one.