24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY Episode 4
Episode Title: “Day 9: 2:00 PM-3:00 PM”
Writer: Patrick Harbinson
Director: Adam Kane
Previously on “24: Live Another Day”:
I can’t recall when the ruthless streak of Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) became so hilarious to me, but I was laughing again when Jack fired upon U.S. Marines just to get them to take him seriously as a threat.
Sutherland is still more than capable of landing Jack’s more serious moments, particularly in the juicy scene in which he calls out President James Heller (William Devane) for having him declared a terrorist. That was fantastic and it was the type of moment that could only have played between Jack and someone from the original “24.” Without that sense of history between Jack and Heller, it wouldn’t have had the same power.
When we last saw Heller, he was being eaten alive by the British Parliament in scenes that should have been cut to music from The Benny Hill Show. “24: Live Another Day” cheats by staying away from Heller’s speech for the first 24 minutes of the episode, which implausibly picks up with the Parliament listening intently to Heller’s platitudes… and then applauding his remarks! I’ve got to call bulls*** on that one.
Meanwhile, Jack made his way through the U.S. embassy and had his face-to-face with Drone pilot, Chris Tanner (John Boyega). This was actually the most significant scene that Boyega has had as Tanner and it still largely serves as exposition. I think I would have liked it more if Jack had freed Tanner just to get another ally on the inside of the embassy.
As it turns out, Jack already has one or two allies waiting in the wings. Lady Bauer aka Kate Morgan (Yvonne Strahovski) and Erik Ritter (Gbenga Akinnagbe) speak with Tanner and they come to the conclusion that Jack may actually be on to something with his terror attack warning. To keep Jack alive in the face of some trigger happy Marines, Kate “Lara Crofts” herself into the sealed communication room and she gets Jack to surrender before the bullets start flying. Even though Jack’s survival was never in doubt, his scenes had a lot of tension that held this episode together. I give a lot of credit for that to Sutherland, who has yet to be anything less than compelling as Jack.
I wish that “Live Another Day’s” villains had half of the charisma that Jack has. Episode 4 tries and tries to make the viewer give a s*** about Navid (Sacha Dhawan) and his wife, Simone (Emily Berrington); especially when compared to Simone’s crazy mother, Margot Al-Harazi (Michelle Fairley). But there is no real suspense here. Navid wants to escape with Simone before he is forced to kill innocent people with the Drones, but his efforts to leave seem half-hearted and Simone quickly betrays his plans to her terror mom.
While I wasn’t very invested in these scenes, I’ll give credit to the “Live Another Day” team for having a real shocking moment when Margot orders Simone’s fingers to be severed until Navid agrees to fly the Drones. I didn’t expect to see that, but it still didn’t make me feel anything for either Navid or Simone. I feel even less for Margot, who comes off as a pale imitation of other “24” villains. I just don’t find Margot to be a credible adversary, no matter what her plan for the Drones are.
Elsewhere, Mark Boudreau (Tate Donovan) finally got some comeuppance when he was forced to admit to President Heller and Audrey (Kim Raver) that Jack had resurfaced and that he knew about it for hours. At first, Heller and Audrey behave like people who know Jack well enough to decide that he can’t be a terrorist. But Mark manages to convince Heller that Jack isn’t the same man that he used to be and Heller gives the order for the Marines to go in.
The amusing thing about Kate acting as Jack’s savior is that Erik is just kind of along for the ride. Erik seems to recognize that being Kate’s wingman is probably a bad idea, but he doesn’t sell her out when he admits to the Marines that Kate has already worked her way inside the sealed room. More than that, Kate also gets Jack to give up the flight data from Teller’s renegade Drone with the promise that she’ll help him find the evidence that he wants to uncover.
It’s a little disappointing that “24: Live Another Day” is already going for filler episodes like this one, but it was a necessary step to get Jack and Kate on the same page. Whether President Heller and the other American officials figure it out remains to be seen. That weasel, Mark forged a document that would give Jack to the Russians a few episodes back. Now that Jack is back in custody, I wonder if that will immediately come back into play.
