About Scott Cederlund
Location: Bartlett, IL
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Sometimes I think 24’s basic concept is also its weakest; a “real-time” program showcasing one really bad day. The concept requires the show’s creators to come up with twenty four action packed episodes that are all tightly connected. And that’s the problem: twenty four episodes. They’re locked into that basic formula where they need to stretch out an idea into twenty four 1-hour episodes. So, every now and then, we get episodes like this one; a repeat of events earlier in the season.
For a while, it appeared that the day was going to end on a good note. Jack had the recording that implicated the President in an assassination. The attorney general was going to hear the tape and justice was going to happen. But with a couple of hours left, there was still plenty of time for everything to go wrong. The recording gets erased and all the evidence against the President is lost. The only link they have to the truth is Christopher Henderson, Jack’s old mentor and current hit man for the President. The recording was Henderson’s only protection against retaliation as well so it’s in his best interest to assist Jack in tracking down more evidence against President Logan.
Meanwhile in Logan’s camp, Martha Logan and secret service agent Aaron Pierce begin moving against the President but have to fight agents loyal to the President. They realize that the only way to succeed is to bring chief of staff Mike Novick in on what’s happening and let him know about the President.
While all of this is happening, we go back to a plot involving terrorist Vladimir Bierko and the centox gas. Why are we going back to a plot that was wrapped up many weeks ago? They’ve gone weeks without mentioning the centox nerve gas so why bring it up know? They need to be focusing on taking down a Presidency.
With this episode, it feels like the series is in a holding pattern until they can do their big 2 hour finale. Everyone has moved back into their proper roles, the danger is still out there and, in the end, it will come down to Jack Bauer to save everything. This episode succeeds in getting all the players where they need to but it takes a couple of steps backwards by reintroducing a threat that has already been dealt with.
