24

Now begins a major story arc where Tony, joined by Jack, goes back undercover with David Emerson, the man who will unwittingly help lead them to the CIP device. Do I buy that Emerson would really trust Jack? Nope, but hey, he kinda doesn't after all. Still, it's great fun to see Jack try to convince him otherwise, especially since he doesn't get to play the "bad guy" very often.

Taylor contemplates for the whole episode, while Henry meets with Samantha and learns the unnecessarily convoluted details behind Roger's death. In summary, he was murdered and there's a crap-ton of moles in Taylor's administration.

Our buddies at the FBI don't do much, except for Renee (cue hearts). She goes to the hospital to question Alan Tanner and ends up taking drastic steps to get information out of him. Already she's starting to show signs of Jack's influence, which I think is supposed to be a bad thing? I have doubts because it makes her even hotter. Anyway, in the end she learns what Jack, Tony, and Emerson are up to: a high-profile kidnapping.

The large number of things Jack gets done in this hour might strain your obligatory suspension of disbelief, but that and Renee's inner conflict both make the episode work. With the CIP threat's looming deadline, would you really prefer a slower pace?



Hourly Highlight:

Jack gaining Emerson's trust (sort of).

Presentation Phase - » (9/10). We have some explanations about Tony sudden resurrection and this operation that Bill are running with Chloe and Tony. Also, Matobo is presented because he is the next complication.



Complication Phase - » (9/10). Reinstate Tony undercover and put Jack with this crew too seems impossible, at least for Jack. Then things get more interesting when Jack, Tony and Emerson had to capture Matobo.



Climax Phase - » (8/10). The moment with High tension was when Emerson wants Tony to kill Jack, that moment was suspenseful, but Jack can´t die.



Suspense/Tension - » (9/10). Great tension you get when Emerson decides to kill Jack.



Drama - » (8/10). Renee little by little starts to act more like Jack, but since torture is not something that is usual for her, she get a little emotional but gets the job done. It seems that Tony like´s Emerson like a brother. Henry finally discovers that his son was murdered and why.



Action - » (8/10). Little action that was nice to see.



Ending - » (8/10). At least the episode ends in the middle of something, that was a nice step.



Surprises/Shocks/Twists - » (8/10). Little surprises like knowing that Tony was not undercover as Jack and thought or the fact that Jack, Tony and Emerson mission was to capture Matobo, that had impact.



Time and Scene Management - » (9/10). Very hard to notice any filler, Henry plot was tied to the main plot about the conspiracy, only Sean continues to be boring. The writers gave Renee two filler scenes but nothing that could be boring.



Plot Details/Holes- » (10/10). Hard to notice any flaws, but what happened, the undercover operation or invading Matobo place´s so easily is nothing that is important to note.



What I liked -» Tony sudden resurrection was nicely explained. Jack, Tony and Emerson had very good tense scenes.



What I Didn´t Liked -» Sean starts to be annoying.



This episode continues to be great, following the last events, making some explanations and moments filled with tension and focus in two plots, while doing some character development.

11am-12pm is a really quick paced and very eventful throughout.Jack knows what Buchanan and Chloe with tony are doing, working outside the government as they believe the government is corrupted and can not be trusted. Jack learns a lot during these 8 minutes, and agrees to work with them. So he goes undercover with Tony to his group,and we learn more about David Emerson. later on we learn that the package that will be delivered to Ike Dubaku is the Former Prime minister Ule Matobo and breaks inside the home place leading a delaying problem.



A great and fast paced episode.

So the four hour treat for the eyes comes to a close with perhaps its weakest instalment. '11.00am - 12.00pm' feels like it's treading water a little, biding time before the big narrative tropes are hauled out. This is especially true of the Dubaku scenario which is hindered somewhat by the longevity of the time allowed for President Taylor to withdraw her troops from Sengala. Effectively, we're waiting around until the 1pm mark for a decision to be made or for any catastrophic action to take place. Yeah, that's right, all I wanna see is bloodshed baby... lots and lots of American bloodshed. Crash those planes now! Contaminate that water supply! Yeah! *ahem* There's much to enjoy here though: James Morrison and Mary Lynn Rajskub fall straight back into their respective roles as if they've never been away. While the 'mini CTU' is a little contrived, the actors pull it off with enough panache for us to forgive it... let's face it, why would we not want these wonderful characters back on our screens? Carlos Bernard continues to be at the top of his game and credit to the writers for not back-tracking entirely on Tony's 'wayward' status. This sort of nuance is exactly what is needed to make the players in 24 less like ciphers functioning to aid the plot, and more like believable human beings caught up in impossible situations. While Jack's infiltration of Emerson's group has been done countless times on the show before too (come on... undercover Jack? In what season have they not pulled that one out of the bag?!), Keifer does it so well that it still seems fresh. Henry's pursuit of the truth regarding his son's death also moves forward a few significant steps and it's continuing to intrigue, largely thanks to the talents of Colm Ferore, but what's the betting that the incredibly hunky Secret Service Agent Gedge is in on the whole thing? Ya boo hiss if he is. That man is TEH HOTNESS.

Tony explains to Jack how's he still alive and that he's been working for Emerson, former British SAS agent for the past 3 years. Tony needs to go back undercover and Jack agrees to help him; he tags along as well by offering to work with Emerson. Emerson thinks' Jack's too much of a risk but proves himself with his intelligence and ability to talk (and fight) his way out of being killed. Emerson tells the crew that they are going to kidnap the former Prime Minister of Sangala and deliver him to Dubaku. Meanwhile Renee wants to redeem herself by trying to find Jack and Tony herself, she visits the only lead in hospital and uses Jack's Tactics to get the Info out of him. Henry learns that his son was killed and the President herself trying to decide whether to withdraw American troops and cough up to the terrorists demands.

(Note: This review covers the second half of the Monday night seventh season premiere event. The first half was covered under a previous review.)



The odd thing about this episode is the amount of repetition. President Taylor and her ever-more-villainous chief of staff, Ethan, repeat themselves throughout much of the episode. Some might speculate that the writers didn't know that the third and fourth episodes would run back to back, but considering that these four-episode premiere events have been the status quo for a few years now, that doesn't quite hold water. It's more likely that the writers thought the president's difficult choice might have been too subtle.



Of course, it's not, especially when Ethan is doing his best to expose his true colors in every single scene. The writers tried to play a bluff in the previous episode with Sean and Janice, but that's as clever as they've been. There's no question that Ethan and the First Husband's Secret Service agent are working for the conspiracy. (Sadly, that probably means Carly Pope won't be around much longer.)



As if the implications weren't obvious enough, Bill Buchanan spells them out during his pitch to Jack. Sangala has diamonds, lots of them, and the conspiracy is working with General Juma to get them. There's probably going to be more to it, but it's enough for the moment. The more interesting side to the episode is this new "CTU" that Buchanan has pulled together.



As mentioned in the review for the previous episode, this new "CTU" is operating illegally in several different ways. They're essentially talking about taking down a large part of the federal government based on a conspiracy theory. It just so happens that they're right, but that doesn't change the fact that they're the kind of organization that the actual CTU would have been ordered to eliminate! From that perspective, the FBI (and everyone else likely to get involved) is completely justified in hunting down Jack and Tony.



It doesn't help that Buchanan is obsessed with this particular mission, to the point of practically browbeating Chloe when she gets concerned about certain operational and personnel details. One has to wonder why it's so personal for him. Tony's motivations are worse by far, and thankfully restore some of the depth that seemed to disappear in the previous episode. Tony actually was a mercenary and terrorist, supposedly until American citizens became fair game.



That puts Jack in a difficult position. Tony and Jack are working together under Emerson, but Tony was under the man's spell for three years. (Partly due to the bizarre resurrection that Emerson pulled off, which made no sense at all.) Jack only has Tony's word and Bill's faith that Tony is working against Emerson. If Tony was a terrorist all this time, who's to say he's not using Bill and Jack to add specific talents and resources to Emerson's gang? It certainly didn't take long for Jack to get implicated in terrorist activities, however well-intentioned.



Under the circumstances, with "CTU" being a collection of rogue former agents, there's no one with the skill set necessary to handle the conspiracy and the associated terrorism. That much is abundantly clear. Enter Agent Walker, who has decided that the best way to take down Jack Bauer and those like him is, in essence, to become him. Which is precisely the point that Jack was trying to make in the Senate hearing. In extreme circumstances, extreme measures might be necessary. The key is understanding the when and the why, and the cost of that choice.



That's why this season could have an ace in the hole. When the action seems routine and mindless, and the plot twists challenge willing suspension of disbelief, something has to make up for what's lacking. Instead of having Jack justify his decisions and actions in a Senate hearing, the writers are making the case through the characters themselves and the choices they make. Agent Walker's character thread is, in that sense, more critical than it might otherwise appear.

This episode picks up right from where the last one left off and Jack reunites with Bill and Chloe. I don`t know if it was just me but it seemed like Chloe was scared of Jack when she first saw him. I expected her to give him a hug but no such luck. We are then given answers to a long awaited question, how did Tony survive. It explained well enough, and I`ll take that. Anything to have one of my favorite characters back, then they twist it around and reveal that Tony has been working for the bad guys for three years, like really working. But he turned against them and is now trying to bring them down. I liked the fact that Bill and Chloe have tried to get CTU to live on but thet`re going to need to recruit some more people. I`m not sure if it`s just me but I`m getting the feeling that Mr. Taylor isn`t going to live long. It just seems, that he is going to find something he doesn`t want to while investigating his son`s death.

well 24 is back and i am loving every minute of it.

i like most of the new characters especialy president taylor and red, and the new chloe is ok.

also not ctu and a new setting is working great for the show cause they needed a change and i think they got a good one also i get the feeling the writers know where they want to take the season (and they got over a year to write it so it was logical)

the tony story is decent enough pretty much what everyone was expecting and i most say i am very excited about watching next episodes and im also very glad we got chloe and bill back this is shaping up to be a fantastic season

enjoyable low-key episode. Set up and a little 'splaining is what it was all about.



WE finally find out everything about Tony. Shame that 24 doesn't use flashbacks, because we could've used one here... but anyway, the explaination was actually pretty cool minus the "dead for 10 minutes" part. I LOVED the fact that Tony was in fact a bad guy for a while.



That just kind of shocked me. Tony was, in fact, a terrorist. Can you believe that? Amazing! And Bill being so dedicated surprised me aswell. Even he was ready to give up Jack's life just to accomplish the mission. Speaking of which... great idea to sort of bring back the "CTU"... underground style. Hey, maybe they'll recruit some people during the season. Agent Walker? Aaron Pierce? Lets hope so.



Like Tony's boss/partner(Emerson), Can't wait to see what they do to get to the President the next episode. And what will happen to him...

After all that thinking and wondering, we finally have the answer.. I do not know how to feel about it - it was quite sure they cannot come up with something super original or super unique.. but I think they did quite ok.. but even more than learning how he is alive, I liked the backstory.. the way he talked about how he ended up where he is - working with those guys.. He really worked for them. And to be honest - that was much easier to accept than he died and is now alive.



I like the development on president's son side.. I liked the way Jack went with Tony.. and more and more I start to like Walker.. They have managed to make her char work with so few episodes so fell..



But this episode was not as good as previous one.. Maybe it had some slow motion some moments and the action was not so catching all the time. Walker taking those actions to get the information - that I did not expected and the whole thing when Tony is asked to kill Jack.. it sounded too much like the all those other times so many people are asked to shot Jack.. (or Jack Chase in one case) to prove they are in.



Good episode.. don't get me wrong.. But just little off the motion..

We get the long-awaited Tony story that the fans have been waiting for since we knew he was going to return to the 24 screen. He was dead for ten minutes until he was later revived by the man that Jack and Tony now work for, undercover obviously. The mind blower in this episode was that Tony has been a bad guy for 3 years. This isn't "Lost" so we won't get to see any of those bad things that he has claimed to have done - but that was one twist that I didn't see coming and amazing job by the writing staff in keeping one little extra twist in the bag. Right after we just got back into the thought of Tony being a good guy - he admits that he has in fact been a bad guy for the last three years. As soon as the project called for the killing of American lives though - he wasn't able to do it. I'm not sure what bad things he could have done if he wasn't out killing people, but I'll accept the writers for putting that little twist in there. The episode didn't get as high of a rating because after the first 15 minutes of Jack - Bill - Clo - Tony meeting the episode kind of went a little downhill. Jack has to quickly make sure he doesn't get killed when Tony brings him to his boss, but the ten minutes of conversation after the two minutes of action didn't do it for me here. We did get to see them attempt a kidnapping, which is sure to be a part of the ploy for the next episode. We also saw Walker step out and be basically a female version of Jack Bauer. Kind of goes against everything she said to him in 7x01 but maybe she has some dark secrets no one knows about.