24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY Episode 5
Episode Title: “Day 9: 3:00 PM-4:00 PM”
Writers: Sang Kyu Kim & Patrick Somerville
Director: Omar Madha
Previously on “24: Live Another Day”:
After four hours, Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is firmly back in U.S. custody as a prisoner… so of course he’s held in a room without his hands bound while he’s given private meetings with the President and the President’s daughter. Even though Jack is ultimately proven to be right about the terror attack, that’s still a lot of trust to put in a man who has already escaped from the CIA twice in the same day.
With Jack temporarily sidelined, “24: Live Another Day” hands the spotlight to Kate Morgan (Yvonne Strahovski), the Lady Bauer of this story, who continues his quest to prove that a renegade drone strike is about to occur. It was unintentionally funny to see Jack and Kate work together to cause a distraction so she could slip out of the U.S. embassy with the flight key from the first drone attack. That Marine commander clearly didn’t trust Kate, but he wasn’t smart enough to detain her and check her for the flight key.
One connection to Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) later and Kate has all the proof that she needs to convince President James Heller (William Devane) that Jack was right all along. Mark Boudreau (Tate Donovan) has to eat some serious crow, but he’s still not repentant enough for trying to bury Jack throughout the day. Mark hasn’t even been punished yet for forging the President’s signature on a document that will hand Jack over to the Russians… but that’s surely coming later.
The best scenes in this episode featured Jack as he was reunited with President Heller and then with Audrey (Kim Raver), his former lover. As ludicrous as it seems, Jack’s time with Heller has set up the rest of the season. Jack offers to go back into the field to help stop Margot Al-Harazi (Michelle Fairley) and he even promises to surrender himself once the threat has been dealt with.
Heller is obviously skeptical of Jack, but everyone knows that he’ll give into Jack’s request. There’s a reason that this episode essentially wipes out the bulk of the CIA’s assets in London. The creative team behind this miniseries needed an excuse to put Jack back in action as a U.S. operative and now they’ve got it.
But first, Jack has a very emotional reunion with Audrey that was very well played by Sutherland and Raver. While Chloe’s bonding moment with Jack felt forced a few episodes back, this seemed perfectly natural for Jack and Audrey, given the insanity of their lives. Jack actually confesses to the crimes he committed during “24” Season 8, but only as a way to keep Audrey at a distance.
Meanwhile, Navid (Sacha Dhawan) demonstrates that he must have a serious learning disability as he once again plots to betray Margot. Navid’s fatal mistake is that he takes his wife, Simone (Emily Berrington) into his confidence and tells her how he has led a trail for the U.S. forces to find them and stop the attacks. But this is long after Navid has already taken over six U.S. drones that Heller couldn’t ground in time. Somehow, Navid doesn’t even consider that his wife will betray him again even though it only took her a few minutes to do so the last time he planed to escape.
Predictably, Navid’s gambit fails and Margot personally executes him. To Navid’s horror, Simone doesn’t try to spare his life or even seem that upset despite losing a finger to her crazy mother in the previous hour. Despite the latest turn, I still don’t care for any of the extended members of Margot’s family and they aren’t particularly compelling villains.
One thing that “24” has always excelled at is action and pyrotechnics. This episode ends with one of the best explosions in the show’s history as Margot orders her son, Ian (Liam Garrigan) to bomb the fake staging area where the CIA’s team has been mistakenly sent. Kate escapes this fate because Steve Navarro (Benjamin Bratt) takes her out of the field after getting a complaint from the Marines. But Steve and Erik (Gbenga Akinnagbe) are both nearby when the drone drops its missiles, so at least one or both of them should be dead or out of action. If they both come through that alive, then I’m calling bulls*** a week early!
I was looking forward to seeing Jack take on a threat without his usual resources, but it seems like the “24” creative team can’t resist making “Live Another Day” more like a conventional season of “24” by once again reinstating Jack. Even Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) is sticking around as Jack’s tech support while Adrian Cross (Michael Wincott) and the Open Cell hackers flee like rats from a sinking ship. I don’t find Adrian to be compelling at all, but I doubt that’s the last we’ll see of him.
Aside from the lackluster villains, “24: Live Another Day” has been pretty close to some of the better seasons of “24.” But it still has a long way to go to match the glory days of Jack Bauer.
