24

When it comes to the stuff going on near the terrorist compound, this episode is the definition of "self-contained." Gaines and his men hunt Jack, Teri, Kim, and Rick down, when this could actually have ended in the last episode. I guess the writers just wanted to stretch things out for one more hour, so they came up with the idea for a manhunt in the forest. But do you hear me complaining?
On other fronts, Nina and Tony speak with Jamey's mother and pick up a thread on a contingency plan to assassinate Palmer. Since the Gaines arc comes to an end in this hour, the writers will need to keep the audience interested by hinting at the threat to come in the second half of the season (although we're technically already in that second half).
As for Palmer himself, he really hates Carl now. Why? Because Carl's planted evidence pointing to Keith as the one responsible for Ferragamo's death. In other words: blackmail. Awesome-o.
And Rick escapes to die another day. Or get arrested another hour, whatever.
The end is worth it; the Bauer family emerges victorious and boards a chopper out of this hell, their departure accompanied by some soft, happy music that isn't overly inspirational. It has all the markings of a family-friendly finale (three times fast), even though there's another eleven episodes of hell to go.

Hourly Highlight:
Jack and Gaines' final conversation.

As usual, this episode is less exciting the the previous one, however, continues to be good.



Is clear that the writers wanted to capitalize in this rescue plot, so they splitt this in two episodes.



This is good, since this prevent some fillers episode that they are forced to do.



CTu Scenes was nothing special, just that Nina and Tony get some new information.



Palmer Plot continues to be interesting and the situation seems to be complicating. Now things are getting serious. The threat from Carl will definitely made this plot more interesting. Jack and Gaines little confrontation was cool. Kim and Teri of oourse are safe and now a new plot is necessary to be built.



In the End, we already have a new plot.

This really marks a point to one story and maybe the start of another. Most of the episode is cat and mouse game in quite beautiful forest where Bauer tries to get his family to safety, same time not abandon boy who helped Kim and found out what is going on.



Also, Palmer storyline gets some interesting turns as senator is starting more and more see that he is not in the control and there are many other forces who play with him. And more and more it is sure that the mission Jack was once has part in all of this and those explanations Jack got.. they did not helped much. One thing is sure.. there is another assassin...

12:02 P.M.-12:07 P.M.: While Jack and Rick escape, Gaines, Kevin, Neill and a couple other thugs pick themselves up after the explosion. Gaines orders Neill

to take the jeep and cut Jack off at the service road, and the others to come up behind him. Gaines butts Kevin in the stomach with his rifle for letting

this happen, refusing to hear anything he has to say. Rick tells Jack to go on without him, as he's in too much pain to continue and he's slowing him down.

Jack agrees that Rick is -- and tells him to speed up. After a near brush with one of Gaines' men, they press on. Teri tries to follow Jack's route, but

is forced to make a detour to avoid the thugs. When she uses the palm pilot to see which way is best to go, Kimberly whines that it's not the way dad told

them to go. Never mind that it's, you know, the way where they won't get shot on sight. Nina attempts to call Jack, but gets no answer. Tony comes to her

with the results of some research he did -- Gaines' compound was leased six months ago by a company that doesn't exist. Nina is too worried that something's

happened to Jack to think about that. Tony isn't worried, because after all it's Jack, but Nina fears she should have listened to him, not Jack, and brought

Alberta Green in sooner. Nina apologizes to Tony for acting like such a martinet. Their conversation is broken up when the real martinet walks over to

say that she understands they're bringing in Jamey's mother. Nina tells Green that's so she can pick up Kyle. Green wants them to grill the woman first;

$300,000 was deposited in her bank account over the past four months.



12:07 P.M.-12:10 P.M.: Palmer's chauffeur is driving him and Mike back to the hotel. Palmer is on the warpath as he fills Mike in on his gameplan to first

talk to Maureen, then go straight to the district attorney. Mike admonishes him to get the facts first. Palmer doesn't want to get the facts first, he

just wants to give Maureen the story of her career. Mike recommends he tell Sherry before he tells anyone else, but the mention of that traitor does nothing

to calm the cranky senator down. Gaines is on his cell phone with Drazen. Gaines' announcement that Jack showed up at the compound and he expects to have

him back in custody soon pleases Drazen enough to think about giving him a second chance. Since Gaines wants to make good on his contract to kill Palmer,

Drazen says they'll talk about that after he sees Jack's body. After they hang up, Kevin asks about Drazen. Gaines responds that if they don't kill Jack,

Drazen will kill them. Kevin has a better idea -- since he heard Jack phoning in some GPS coordinates and he expects CTU backup to arrive any moment, perhaps

they should cut their losses and beat it. Gaines knows it doesn't work like that. No matter where you go, they'll find you. So if they want to live, Jack

has to die.



12:10 P.M.-12:12 P.M.: Rick has opted to follow Jack. Jack leads the kid into the water tower, and wonders why Teri and Kimberly aren't there yet. He sits

Rick down, assesses his damage, and tells him the bullet passed through his arm without hitting any bone or major arteries. He asks for some loose clothing

to make a tourniquet, so Rick directs him to a bandanna in his back pocket. Teri makes Kimberly stop for a moment to check where they are. But even with

the palm pilot, she has no idea. They're lost -- but Teri doesn't want to admit it.



12:16 P.M.-12:20 P.M.: Palmer and Mike are back at headquarters. The senator has decided to tell Sherry after all. It doesn't take her long to figure out

that Mike agrees with her. Palmer still doesn't want her covering up one more thing than she already has. Meanwhile, she doesn't want him to turn his career

and his family into a media circus, which is what will happen when Carl and his people get done hiding the evidence and twisting the truth. Sherry reminds

him that he needs power to fight Carl -- the kind of power he'll have after he becomes president. Mr. Morality has to sleep on that. Jack works himself

up into a frenzy that Teri and Kimberly aren't in the tower. After confirming with Rick that this was where he told them to wait, he calls Green to tell

her there's a new development and he needs to go back and find Teri and Kimberly. She asks him where to have the incoming team to pick them up. He gives

her the description and general location of the tower, and requests that the team pick up Rick even if he's not there when they arrive. After Jack ends

the call, Rick thanks him. Jack says to thank Kimberly instead. Rick is apologetic over what happened, and attempts to pin the blame on Dan. That doesn't

satisfy Jack, who feels Rick should have done something when he saw what was happening. Rick rudely blurts out that Dan was his friend. And Kimberly is

Jack's daughter. Before he leaves, Jack has a fatherly chat with Rick about accepting responsibility when presented with a second chance.



12:20 P.M.-12:24 P.M.: Teri thinks she knows where they are now. She and Kimberly have another close call when they see Neill and another guy in the distance.

They dodge the thugs and duck inside an abandoned cabin. Teri is forced to draw her gun, because Neill has ducked inside himself. Just as he's about to

come face to face with the women, Gaines' voice comes over his walkie-talkie, telling everyone to convene in a new location. After Neill exits, Teri says

to Kimberly that they wait until the coast is clear, then make a run for it. Her digestive track gets the better of her again, but before Kimberly can

do anything, she cries out, as she spotted Neill's face peeking in from a slat in the wall. Just when it seems the ladies have met their end, Jack comes

to their rescue, and pumps a few rounds at Neill from outside. Jack's gunfire eventually connects, sending Neill right through the cabin wall. Jack uses

the nice, new entryway Neill has created to come in and see if Teri and Kimberly are alright. Gaines, who heard the gunshots, gets on Neill's walkie-talkie

again to find out who was shooting and where they are. Jack tells his family they have to get out now. Kimberly picks the most opportune of moments to

ask where Rick is. Jack says he's waiting for them at the water tower, which is where they need to be ASAP. After checking to make sure no one else is

around, he leads them back out into the woods.



12:29 P.M.-12:31 P.M.: Jamey's mother, Mrs. Vasquez, is at CTU, tearily looking through photos of her daughter that are part of the belongings she has come

to claim. Nina and Tony enter the room where she's waiting. An angry Vasquez wants to know where Kyle is. Nina tells her she can get him in a bit, but

first they would like to ask her some questions. Vasquez would like to ask them a few questions too: for starters, how could they let Jamey bleed to death

and not do anything to help her. Tony offers a perfunctory apology, but swears they did try. Vasquez is too mad to answer their questions; instead, she

grabs a box of Jamey's stuff and begins to walk out. Tony stops her to lay down the law about how Jamey was a traitor who confessed. He warns her that

she could be tried as an accomplice, leaving Kyle with no one to take care of him. After sobbing quietly, Vasquez puts the box down on Jamey's desk, and

asks them what they want to know. Nina shows her the records that indicate she makes $45,000 a year, yet she has an account in her name with $400,000 in

it. Vasquez says it was from Jamey for Kyle in case something happened to her. Tony wonders where Jamey got the money, but Vasquez says she never asked.

He's a little steamed that she never asked, and warns her not to screw up at a time when Kyle needs her most.



12:31 P.M.-12:35 P.M.: Gaines repeatedly tries to get through to Neill and another guy, Maxton, over the walkie-talkie. Maxton finally gets on to say where

they are and how they're meeting up with another group in hopes of cutting Jack off at the service road. Jack still holds Neill's walkie-talkie, so it's

a sure bet he won't be at the service road. Jack has Teri give him the palm pilot to scope out new locations. When Gaines asks Maxton where Neill, the

only one he hasn't gotten a hold of, is, Maxton tells him he split off to the northeast side of the creek (where the cabin is). With Maxton's directions

and the palm pilot, Jack is able to pinpoint the best escape route. Palmer bangs on Maureen's hotel room door, demanding to be let in. After a pause, Maureen

takes a break from packing her suitcase to open for him. The annoyed senator asks why she's shutting him out. The equally annoyed reporter doesn't think

they have anything more to say to each other, but lets him in anyway. He says he no longer wants her to sit on the story, because Ferragamo is dead. After

saying it, he realizes she already knew. Her announcement that she's quit shocks him, but he has no intention of heeding her advice to follow her lead

and back off. At first he figures Carl's people bought her out, but when she ignores him to continue packing, it hits him that they threatened her. Palmer

changes his tune to concern and promises Maureen protection, but she considers her resignation her protection. When he blasts her for covering this up

like she's his wife or something, she takes Mike's stance -- these people are too powerful, and they've already covered the evidence up. On the verge of

tears, Maureen apologizes. That's all she can do.

This episode is the second half of the rescue of Teri and Kim and its slightly less exciting than the first half, but still pretty good! I guess the rescue could have been put into one episode instead of two as there was a lot of wandering about.



Jack and Rick are seperated from Teri and Kim as Gaines and his men are on the look out for them. Gaines motives become very clear in this episode after his conversation on the phone with Drazen. In the end, Jack kills him and it was a great showdown. Although he obviously wasn't the major villian this season, he was my favourite.



The CTU storyline was weak in this episode and I didn't get the point in Jamey's mother. And why did it take so long for her to pick up Kyle? He's been there for four hours!



The Palmer storyline was amazing though. The threat from Carl will definitely make this plot more interesting and it makes me wonder how Palmer will handle it all.



Quote of the hour! David Palmer: "How can I do the job when my own house isn't in order?"

This hour is the perfect example of stretching a story line to the point where it starts to wear thin. Jack and Rick become separated from Teri and Kim in the woods, and all four of them are pursued by Gaines right up until the end of the episode. I think that this extended manhunt has just one too many scenes, and as a result feels a little washed out by the time Jack and Gaines come face to face. It's not that bad. I mean, I don't think it's possible to make Jack being hunted by mercenaries in the wilderness NOT cool; it's just that this episode doesn't have enough tricks up its sleeve to sustain this plot for the whole hour. And as a side note, I personally think it would have been cool to make this Rick's last episode, with him disappearing, guilty and ashamed of what he had done. Whatever



I n any case, Palmer has an exceptional hour. Although his plot drastically shifted last hour, that doesn't stop some huge developments from popping up throughout this episode. David's determination, Sherry's excuses, and Carl's out-of-nowhere threat I think make this Palmer's best hour in the first part (not half) of this season.



The Best: Carl blackmails David. As I said before, the Gaines showdown was stretched a little thin.



The Worst: The scenes with Jamey's mother felt a little sudden and out of place in this episode.

This episode was written to be the finale of the series .. if Fox didn't renew past its original 13-episode order. Jack rescuing and riding off with Teri and Kim. Rick getting away on the bus. David Palmer safe and the houseful of would-be assassins dead. After the producers learned the show would go the full 24 episodes is when they inserted a few loose ends.

This episode marks the end of an incredible stretch of episodes with a thrilling and climactic ending that has become the norm for the best show on television, 24. This episode was quite possibly one the most action packed and action driven episodes ever on 24, and the feeling that I got when watching this incredible hour of television was simply unforgettable. Probably the most exciting hour of television you will ever see.



This hour could have marked the end of 24 as we know it, but luckily, FOX picked it up for the rest of the season. Nevertheless, it would have made an incredible final episode either way. Jack and Gaines have a showdown in the middle of the woods that ends with quite the satisfying conclusion, as the slick, bada** Ira Gaines goes out with a slick, bada** death. Then, the scene with Jack and his family evacuated through the helicopter was significant as well, since we had a rare happy ending for Jack Bauer on the show. Awesome music from Sean Callery throughout the scene and the episode, as well.



Meanwhile, Carl blackmails Palmer, and the assassination threat isn’t over yet, as we’re introduced a second shooter, Alexis Drazen, at the end of the episode. Overall, this was an incredible hour of 24, fueled by a riveting battle between Jack and Gaines.



Overall score: 98/100 (A+)

Jack plays a deadly game of cat and mouse with Gaines that results in a final confrontation. CTU arrives on the scene and flies Jack and his family to safety.



I thought that the beginning of the episode with Jack running from Gaines was an exciting park of the series. After that however, I felt that the show kind of went back into filler mode until the end of the episode, when it was revealed that there was a second hitter now in Los Angeles somewhere that Jack was going to have to deal with.



Palmer plans to talk to the D.A. about Ferragamo's murder, but a threat from Carl changes his mind.



The Palmer storyline is beginning to grow stale, simply because it isnt going anywhere. There hasnt been a real big confrontation and ive been a little dissapointed when Palmer and company get air time.

Jack uses the forest terrain to cut down the terrorist one man at the time. Eventually he gets Gaines. Gaines warn him that there are other elements that are more dangerous than him. Jack calls CTU for back up, he gets Kim and Teri out of the woods. They fly to safety. In this episode, it seems that everything is going fine for Jack. But there are so much more hours left in the day, a lot of things can still happen here. Nina discovers a second assassin arriving in Los Angeles, so CTU can't rest just yet. It's another great episode.

After the insane pace of the past two episodes, 24 kicks it down a notch in the latest installment. The previous couple of episodes where Jack is actually engaged in action are similar to the latest seasons, which are far more action based, and far less touchy/feely than season 1.



In particular, this episode suffers from the Kim factor. More than once in this episode, Kim is caught doing things that are just plain unbelievable: She tries twice to meet up with Rick, and begins moaning annoyingly when they can't find him. Let's not forget that she just met the guy less than 12 hours ago, and that this guy did in fact kidnap her and drug her friend. Yes, I do know that she's a teenage girl, but still, let's keep some semblance of reality here.



Jack is left doing his usual stuff, and we're given a nice angry sniper chase scene, but over all, the episode is just a bit too slow to really keep us engaged the entire time. Basically, we're so used to being glued to the seat that anything less than 24's usual fast paced action and suspense is considered a bit boring.

This episode spelled the end of the Gaines arc of Season 1. It had a sense of finality and greatness that one episode usually has each season as the story shifts into the second half of the season. The action was great and Gaines went out in a cool way, which is pretty rare for a 24 villain.



Highlights

-Jack blinding Gaines

-Gaines's death

-Final scene on chopper

-Jack saving his family...again

-Palmer's final line



Minuses

-Kim disobeying Jack to go look for Rick, almost getting shot in the process (While we knew Kim was dumb before this episode, this episode cemented Kim Bauer as one of the least intelligent characters on network TV. But hey...her boobs are big and shiny and bouncy right?)