[24H] Day 7: 11:00pm - 12:00am

TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 16
Date I watched this episode: 11/04/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 15 days.

The episode seemed to mainly serve the purpose of setting up the battle against Starkwood, which was quite rightly termed "a war in our own back yard". Unfortunately, this is not a new venture for 24, and bears striking similarities to the war against McLennen-Forster in season 4. As of the end of the episode, Larry has been put in a very difficult position, and likely has no choice but to retreat and wait for troops to arrive (violating the Posse Comitatus in the process).

Jack's results coming back positive was pretty obvious - even he didn't seem surprised when he got them, given what he's been through. There is not really any good way for this to get resolved unfortunately - we are going to end up with a similar situation as Michelle in season 3, where it turned out her DNA was immune to the pathogen; how convenient! There is generally at least 12 months between 24 seasons, and this virus (with supposedly no cure) kills in a couple of days. In fact the effects of the virus are really quite disturbing to look at during that Oval Office video. Perhaps Renee knows this, because she really is getting very emotional, and possibly too emotional to do her job.

Jonas Hodges is a bit creepy - especially in that scene with Tony. The way everything came right with Siegel was the pinnacle of this episode though. He got to "save his own ass" and fooled everybody. Even the call to Hodges from his office would have been a ploy, I'd imagine. So Hodges certainly is clever. I'm still not quite sure of his motives though.

Olivia Taylor seemed to do no wrong this episode. Her previous exploits with the leaking of information were not mentioned, and suddenly her mother has regained her trust enough to make her Chief Of Staff, an office which affects the entire country and should not be given out lightly. I must admit she is a much stronger character than Ethan Kanin though, in terms of dramatic value. I think she'll end up putting Aaron Pierce in a very difficult position when he realises what she's really up to.

There really isn't much of anything to say about this episode. Even Tony Almeida wasn't given much to do here and seemed almost background. I wasn't overly impressed or disappointed by it; it just kind of washed over me and I am looking forward to future battles within the Starkwood compound.