[24H] Day 7: 9:00pm - 10:00pm

TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 14
Date I watched this episode: 23/03/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 9 days.

This was something of a slow episode. In particular it was slow to start; but then they were dealing with the fallout of the last episode. Slow episodes are not such a bad thing sometimes. All too often 24 is rushing around like a headless chicken...

The most compelling and interesting story of this episode was the one between Jack and Senator Mayer. Since Mayer died at the end of this episode, it's good that they gave so much screentime to his character as a last chance. The frank and blunt conversation between Jack and Mater when they were sitting at the computer desk (and the followup conversation) was the absolute gem of this episode. Jack and Mayer had a proper man-to-man talk and managed to make some headway. The death of Mayer was shocking and I was quite upset because I felt like I wanted Mayer to continue. The point about Jack "learning to trust the institutions he's sacrificed so much for", was very good and I hope they will continue this theme on.

The ensuing fight between Quinn and Jack was also great and Quinn is a great character, who also died in this episode. The fact that Jack has met an equal is a really good storyline, and it's a testament to how fragmented this season is that that story only continued for a couple of episodes.

The villain of Jonas Hodges was fleshed out a bit more in this episode than even Dubaku or Juma was. He seems to have some morals and believe he is fighting a righteous battle, rather than the thugs that Juma and Dubaku are/were. He doesn't necessarily have the cool factor, but he makes you think.

Obviously the other big side-story in this episode was the interplay between Allison, Ethan and Olivia. Sprague Grayden was excellent as always, and Ethan was just boring and average. He's rather in the doghouse right now, but I still think there is some scope for Olivia to make some serious mistakes.

It looks like this story will also come to an end soon; the weapons are in place and it'll only be a few episodes before we see a new villain and a new plot. This fragmentation is not particularly believable and doesn't make for a gripping and flowing storyline; this season feels like a series of short films. Unfortunately there's not much they can do to pull it back now, but I think that'll always be how I'll remember this season.