24

And another average episode where not a whole lot of interest happens. Yeah, it's got tense scenes with Tony and his unwilling prion scapegoat Jibraan Al-Zarian, but those are only like...two ninths of the hour.
Jack and the FBI do some research and get duped into thinking Jibraan is an extremist. And Chloe learns that Jack's dying, and the ensuing scene of sadness is unnecessary on more than one level. You'd think we didn't already get a similar scene with Renee, AND you'd think Jack really will die at season's end. Also, that later bit about Jack possibly turning to Islam? Weird.
While Jack hunts down Jibraan, Olivia prepares to take some hitman-y action against Hodges. Until she changes her mind and decides to let Hodges go off into witness protection. Buuuut (and this is completely unexpected for "24") something bad happens, prefacing the conclusion of Olivia's subplot.
"4am - 5am" is the second of two consecutive "stepping stone" episodes that should have kept up the Starkwood arc's momentum, but just lack urgency and drag down the Final Six with their awkward and tacked-on feel, which isn't very different from...certain other seasons that WEREN'T allegedly mapped out in advance. Are the next three worth it? Sure. I've sat through much crappier hours than this.

Hourly Highlight:
Witness protection, my ass!

Jack goes back into the field to help the FBI track down Tony and the bio-weapon canister, but his decaying condition begins to be a liability. Tony uses Jibraan's brother as leverage to force him to record an admission of guilt for the attacks on the US throughout the day. Olivia's rage at Hodges's freedom takes her down a dark path that she might not be ready for.



Solid episode overall I thought. I liked the Oliva Taylor portion of the episode and the end to the Jonas Hodges arch. I like how they even give the baddest of the bad a "good" end sometimes. He was off to live a life that he was never going to adjust to and instead Olivia effectivly has him killed. We're unsure to the point as to why the transfer still went even though Oliva didn't send the money but - thats a mystery for the next episode. Jack begins to hunt down Tony but he is not successful as his condition begins to get worse and worse. With his condition getting worse and no Kim anywhere in site, you have to wonder how the last thrree hours are going to play out.

Jack and rennee tracks down a man which might have a lead to the people responsible for today.



8/10- slow but memorable. I think the racial profiling was a lesson to show that we should take everyrisk.. well in thatcase yes. and also jacks face off with the lead was awesome and the comebacks were good.



Tony continues to slave the man to pretend that he was responsible for today s attacks by creating a speech for him to speak.



7/10- slow,slow, very slow... it was interesting and a brief police checkup which was cool as well. but it wasnot that interesting until the FBI attacks and Jibraans brother stabs an operative through the neck.



Olivia thinks that she cant handle the fate of Jonas Hodges.



8/10- slow as well, but Olivia s rage made this episode to the car bombing death of Jonas Hodges... she is stuffed man !

Jack scenes was about finding clues, but this time was hard to me to identify if this was a filler or a relevant material, but I think that scenes wasn´t necessary, Chloe could find Jibraan house address if it was necessary for the plot to move fast. It is like Jane attitude towards the situation, seems pure filler. Jack scene with Chloe was pure drama and that was nice, Chloe crying can be heartbreaking, excellent acting.



Tony scenes with Jibraan seemed necessary but at the time seemed filler, the police appearance for example was filler to me, but relevant to find the address that Jack needed. The drama played between Jibraan and his brother was the only things well done or interesting.



The White House scenes, Olivia wanted to kill Jonas, but then she wanted to go back, but was too late, seems like bad Karma. Hodges drama, well….i didn´t care, seemed like filler. The only reason that Olivia actions are not filler is because this will be important (for her plot) in the last episodes, since this is irrelevant for the main plot it can be considered filler. Nice to see President Taylor and Henry Taylor together.



Presentation Phase - » (6/10). Normal



Complication Phase - » (6/10)*2. Finding Jibraan, they didn´t find him, only his brother.



Ending - » (6/10). Just following the scenes, nothing special.



Time and Scene Management - » (6/10). Too much filler scenes.



Plot Details/Holes- » (10/10)*2. Didn´t notice any flaws.



Drama - » (8/10)*3. Chloe crying because Jack will die was heartbreaking, nicely done and great acting. Hodges drama I didn´t care and Olivia decision to go back was funny.



This episode continues to be transitional, focusing more in drama and setups and too much filler.

Great episode, with Jack getting sicker and sicker. Tony and his team of terrorists have found a scapegoat for the attack they are planning. His name is Jibraan Al-Zarian. They created an elaborate setup to make it look like Jibraan is a terrorist and are using his little brother Hamid to make him do it. When Jack and Agent Walker get a location were Jibraan is living and are on their way their, they get word from Chloe after using her super tech skills that he is being setup by Tony. When they arrive at his apartment the only people there are his brother, Hamid and someone holding him hostage. When they break down the door, Hamid manages to break a mirror and stab his captor on the neck.



Olivia Walker if furious that Jonas Hodges is going free in witness protection and arranges to have him killed, but backs out at the last minute. When Jonas is about to leave FBI headquarters, the Van he is in explodes and he is killed anyway. It is unknown at this point who is responsible.



Jibrann is taken to where the attack is going to take place and it appears to be the subway system in Washington DC.



Tense episode with some plot twists; especially with Jonas being killed after Olivia had backed out at the last minute.

Tony's little crew force Jibraan to make a terrorist video and then making him tell his brother Amid about his terrorist activities. Chloe finds Jibraan in one of their searches on the CTU servers and Jack and Renee head out to speak to his personal reference at a mosque. The man at the mosque is reluctant help Jack and Renee when Jack thinks he's hiding Jibrann. Janice calls and gets Jibraan's address, Chloe keeps fishing and discovers that Jibraan didn't actually receive the money they thought he received from Muslim extremists; the deposits were back-dated to frame him. When they get to Jibraan's apartment, only Amid and a guard are there. They take both into custody.



Olivia meets with Martin giving him Hodges itinerary and agreeing to transfer $250,000 to him to have him killed. Olivia receives an anonymous call with the bank routing numbers she later chicken's out and doesn't go through with it. When they hear that Jonas was killed in bomb explosion, they learn that it had to be an inside job. Did Aaron kill Jonas with a car bomb for Olivia? You know what I think he did.

24 has done an outstanding job of reinventing itself as the best thriller on television. The character study of jack Bauer is much more engaging this year than any year in the past and the entire twist with tony has been nothing short of genius. Watching 24 for years, i always felt that tony would've made a lot more sense as an antagonist as hes always had an underlying jealousy for jack. Season 7 has given the show a much needed sense of importance that it has been lacking since season 1. Jack finally has EVERYTHING to lose, and the relationship with renee has been dissected just enough to make us wonder and possibly even want but never goes all the way.Welcome back 24...you've been missed

The last couple episodes haven't been the most thrilling or exciting of the season, but when you factor them into the season as a whole, they add some great build-up and some moments that continue to shock as much as the show did back in its first couple of seasons.



I felt that as much as the focus was on Jack, Renee and the FBI trying to find Tony and the Muslim man he's forcing to take responsibility for the impending attack, the most interesting part of the episode was Olivia's involvement with Jonas Hodges' death. It feels weird to say that one of Olivia's plots have interested me, but the possibilities that could come with Jonas' death are endless and it really makes you curious as to how this will affect Olivia. Will the hitman still be expecting his money after taking out Jonas? Or was his death the result of somebody OTHER than the hitman? Kudos to the writers for actually giving something for her to do besides backstab everyone.



I was also very pleased to see Henry Taylor back in the game. I thought the writers really built up his storyline back at the beginning of the season and taking him out of the show disappointed me a bit. But I still haven't doubted a step the show has taken this season, and the quality of this season compared to last season (well, not the first four of last season; those episodes were incredible) is enormous.



I'm counting on 24 to really deliver in the final stretch, especially considering next season will have a lot to do with this season.

If nothing else, the reconsideration given to the final six episodes of the season has given the final stretch of the arc a bit more cohesion. The drawback is that not much has happened since the revelation of Tony's apparent betrayal. The story the writers have chosen to tell to end this latest no good, horrible day requires a bit more setup than one might have anticipated.



On the other hand, it's still very much a part of the story that they had intended to tell from the beginning. This isn't like the third season, where it was all too clear when the writers decided to abandon the original plan and pursue a different course. The transition has been fairly seamless, and it really does feel like the writers just wanted to rethink the endgame. Without knowing the original plan, it's hard to say if the revision was justified or not.



The situation does, however, allow for the ongoing debate regarding tactics in counter-terrorism. In comments for the previous episode's review, some took exception towards Jack's decision to use the CTU servers to work up profiles on Muslims, calling him a racist fascist. Jack partially answers that challenge early in this episode: Jonas Hodges specifically mentioned using Muslim terrorists as a front for the domestic terrorist operations. Jack wasn't the racist; Jonas and his fellow terrorists were.



Yet this episode also demonstrated the thin line that Jack walks in the name of preserving his country's security. Whether due to his condition or a lack of information, Jack is a bit over the top with his tactics with the imam. Later, when discussing Tony's likely strategy, he says that it's what he would do in the same situation. Jack is hardly perfect, and he knows that he crosses the line when the situation appears to call for it.



In the world of "24", extreme interrogation methods almost always work, and they always seem to be used on the individuals with the information needed. With that kind of certainty in play, it comes down to pragmatism. When you know a method will work with a high degree of success, and there are no other short-term options on the table, the alternative is to allow American citizens to be casualties out of inaction. As Jack says to Janice: "Do you have a better way in mind?"



This is also a matter of public debate in the real world, where the stakes are just as high, but the success of coercive tactics are less cut and dry. Several sources within the intelligence community concede that extreme measures rarely produce actionable results. That being the case, the pragmatic approach is that alternatives must be developed and explored.



The realities of "real politik" force all nations, whether they want to admit it or not, to have counter-terrorist organizations that use borderline or even illegal methods to achieve the goal of protecting their country's interests. To put it simply, it's hard to stand on the moral high ground by refusing to counter illegal and heinous actions conducted by terrorists with their own methods when they're killing you. The trick is where to draw that fine line. "24" demonstrates how hard it can be under the best of circumstances.



It also makes the case that the right people have to be the ones willing to take those extreme actions. Olivia Taylor is not that person, especially given that she is the acting Chief of Staff. But she also doesn't consider the possible consequences of her actions. Why didn't it occur to her that setting up this assassination of Jonas, then backing off, would just make her (and by extension, the administration) the perfect target for blackmail?



The bottom line is that this episode continues to make the case for the necessity, within the "24" universe, for an organization like CTU and an operative like Jack Bauer.

Who else agrees that this is probably the best paced 24 season ever? Plot after plot have flowed into each other seamlessly, and the final hours are set up with plenty of stuff still to be done. Remember Season 6? By 11p.m. they had exhausted one disaster, and moved onto the next. But the very first baddy has been connected to the very last this season, and I'm sure this will join the "all 9 or more" rated seasons.



I literal jumped when the car exploded. Woah. I thought 'somethings gonna happen, I know it... okay nothing happening, no tense music... still nothing happening... looking at picture of famil- BOOM!'



I like it how even the guest stars are real characters as well. The Islamic guy was a very beliveable part and I like it when they put effort into even the small guys.



So... The Subway: connects every part of the city to every other part, connects to trains which go to other cities, is there a better target?



Had a thought: There's gonna be an eighth season, right. What if at the end of this one, tony just escapes to New York, where the next season is gonna be set. The next season could literally start like, 3 hours after the end of this one, and Jack dies right at the end. You heard it here first...

I keep hoping 24 will get better! It's my Favorite show!! Once again NOTHING was really new....I knew the Presidents daughter was NOT going to go through with the hit....then Hodges is sitting in the car and I told my husband "the car is going to explode" and five seconds later it does. Then there is the OBNOXIOUS actress that plays Janice or Janet...I turn my head off when she's on. Her politics in her private life totally ruin the show.

Tony being the bad guy still doesn NOT make sense. He's wife was killed yes...but it still doesn't make any sense. After seeing the previews....OMG the subway etc....."Hey writers it's been done before" We know Jack is going to live...geess been waiting all season for Kim to come back and save Jack! NO surprises!! If Bauer is gone so is 24...but then again after the past two seasons maybe they should have retired 24 after season five. Go out on a plausible tone. Geess I don't agree with the actors coming on during the commerials out of character to "INFORM" the viewing audience of globel warming etc!!! The 24 writers and producers have really SOLD OUT! So very very sad!!!!!! My husband wondered why I LOVED the show all these years so I finally got him to watch last season.....and he's puzzled as to what I saw in it. So I bought the first Five seasons. We're enjoying the brillant writing in these. They killed off all the GREAT original team except Jack and Chloe and Pierce....what's left?? Sigh they'll probably knock off Pierce. I'm still a Die hard 24 watcher.....guess I like to suffer. Please writers WISE UP and bring back some reality!! So many errors in commen sense!!!

It's a little bit slower but still keeps it's edge. The whole framing the muslim guy was great and very convincing!



Tony is just great as the bad guy. I didn't like the whole Jack is sick thing but I guess they are going to leave us at the end of the season with his final collapse or something (which we all know he will recover from for the 8th season but it's still good!). The actors are great, the plot keeps getting it's twists which is great. All us viewers of 24 knew that the killer Olivia hired is actually going to kill Hodjes regardless if she paid him or not but still its very good television when you think something will happen but you are not sure until the last second. It was great seeing Jack back in the action and it is obvious the writers are doing an amazing work.



Sadly, 24 is the last excellent TV show, the type that keeps you waiting for next week. After this show is over I think I should get rid of my TV...

I thought last episode was setting a stage to events to come but this episode continues that stage setting and even if the ending does bring up the motion and things really start to role, in majority of episode, there was some slow motion.



I loved the concentration on chars - the whole thing with Chloe finding out that Jack is dying. Poor girl - loosing all her friends. Bill dead, Jack dying, Tony turned bad.



Also the whole thing with the priest or who that man was Jack took with them while they was searching their "terrorist". The conversations they had, the thoughts and how the man reacted to all that. And Renee explaining Jack situation was great moment but little weird.



And the whole thing with fabricating the evidence and turning a bystander into terrorist - the concept of that.. the way they managed it.. it was quite scary..



And ofcourse Olivia.. she seems to be get into really big mess. All her actions, even if she did nothing in the end, make her a perfect person to suspect and the look on Pierce face reveals that he probably puts it together.. now when Hodges is out of the picture.. Anyway.. I really think setting the stage is over now and next three episode to come will be amazing.

24 takes a pause for breath this week, concentrating squarely on character rather than action and while this would ordinarily be somewhat lamentable, in the hands of the superlative Manny Coto, the strategy is a generally successful one. Crucially, the vast majority of the more introspective moments have some bearing on the overall plot, either arising organically from it or affecting its progression. Take the Chloe and Jack two-hander, which is a considerably lengthier scene than the show is really used to and essentially consists merely of the imparting of information that the audience is already aware of. In lesser hands, this would seem extraneous, an unnecessary pause for thought at the expense of narrative movement. However, the combination of some believably laconic dialogue and a stellar tour de force by both actors really validates the moment, making it powerful and engaging rather than pointless and tiresome. The same can also be said of Olivia's moment with her parents (nice to see Colm Feore again) which is very naturalistic; the inclusion of small familial exchanges such as the comment about leaning in to kiss him really helps sell the situation and while sure, it isn't exactly necessary to the story, it does help solidify Olivia's redemption and provide a semblance of foreshadowing when considered in relation to what ultimately happens to Hodges, placing the potential damage that this could cause to the Taylor family unit at the front of the viewer's mind. Coto even manages to create entertaining emotional conflict between characters with whom we aren't particularly familiar: Al-Zarian's scene with his brother is pointedly moving, something which can be credited also to Omid Abtahi's stellar acting skills, and only really falters when Hamid utters that horribly clichéd final line, "you said today was a bad day to be a Muslim, but it's a worse day to be a brother". Euck.



This particular plot element is certainly a high point overall as well: it is very refreshing to see the intricacies of the set-up actually being orchestrated, as opposed to the narrative simply arriving at the end-game (which, regrettably, appears to be to do with a subway... guys, we've done that before!) and the details being fleshed out later. This sells the threat even more and allows us to further get inside the head of the duplicitous Tony Almeida, whose oscillation between good cop and bad cop only amplifies the eeriness of the scenes. It is also a somewhat brave decision to have our protagonist misinterpret the situation. Thanks to the dramatic irony afforded by our glimpses into the Al-Zarian household, we are all too aware that Jack is barking up the wrong tree, so to speak, when he confronts the priest and it leads to some very strong exchanges. The dialogue here is superb, loaded with political relevance but grounded firmly in realism. Of course the guy would object to having his place of worship infiltrated and accusations being tossed about left, right and centre. The actor does a wonderful job of making the situation organic rather than forced, and actually acquiring the viewer's sympathies. I don't know about you, but I was rooting for him and not the bullish, head-strong Bauer!



It's a shame that this particular angle of storytelling is abandoned towards the end of the episode when, yet again, the terrorists prove that they are completely incapable of handling technology and have left errors in their programming, or whatever other meaningless technospeak Janis feels like uttering this week, and so the truth magically comes to light. This certainly could've been handled a little more believably, if at all; would it have killed the writers to have stuck with the problem of misinterpretation and for the truth simply to have come out later, thanks to the acquisition of evidence or even after the terrorist threat has been executed or thwarted? It would certainly have been more realistic and given some credit to Almeida and his crew, who already proved incapable of sustaining a ruse a few episodes ago when all it took was Jack spotting that the transponder was transmitting from outside the building it was supposed to be in. Oh, and we really could've done without the blatant stalling for time prior to Bauer and Renee's storming of Al-Zarian's home, when the completely unqualified priest gives operational advice to an FBI agent! "Oh, I don't think that man should be in charge of this operation, he looks unwell!" Huh? Instead of simply telling him to shut up, Renee actually goes to the trouble of explaining Jack's condition to the guy, repeating information that we are very familiar with in completely unnecessary fashion. There's some filler to be found elsewhere too, particularly in Hodges's, sorry Tippet's, narrative: while the scene where he is told about his new life is well acted, because Jon Voight can usually do no wrong, it achieves virtually nothing in relation to the overall plot. Sure, I got a mild kick out of seeing him throw a hissy fit by chucking the papers at the door but come on... we didn't need to see any of this. And if it was supposed to somehow disguise the 'surprise' execution of his character, it really didn't succeed. If anything, the overt concentration on him makes it feel like a conclusion, and you know what conclusion usually means on 24... death by horrible means! Jonas gets all blowed up and while it does elicit a slight shock thanks to its excellently abrupt positioning in the sequence of scenes, it's hardly a surprise that he snuffed it, is it?



This is an unusually quiet hour for 24, focusing more on character than drama, but there is still much to enjoy. Manny Coto's script is loaded with excellent and believable exchanges that make a number of individual scenes stand out as highly memorable, and there are several refreshingly original narrative slants to make things interesting. It's not without its flaws - occasionally, the stalling for time becomes too obvious - but '4am - 5am' certainly keeps its head well above water.

After the last episode I expected we see things really take off. But it didn't happen. Tony continues to look like the consummate villain, and it's going to take a big surprise to change that now. I still expect that.



Jack's moment with Cloe was great TV, and watching him run "point" again, was the best part of this episode. Still the writers developed more questions than answers, and sooner or later...they have to give us these answers. This episode wasn't as exciting as most, I'm a little bit bored with the President's daughter. She's obviously has her own agenda, but as of now it seems totally unrelated to the main plot. That's not like the writers, so we'll see where they are going with her character. Even with this slower episode, 24 is as good as it gets on TV. I wish Monday's would come around much sooner.