5.13.2014

Television: 24: Live Another Day, "1:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m."

Decidedly dull, really.

I mean, Jack tracks Yates' dead body to the pub toilet and then goes after Wannabe Sansa (these characters almost surely have names, but whatever), nearly catching her at Waterloo Station. The most interesting bit was when Wannabe cut her own thigh (no one notices?!) and smears blood on her face, then jumps off the Underground screaming that Jack is trying to kill her, thus ensuring people attempt to stop Jack while she gets away. No Transport police around, of course. And apparently TfL workmen also never notice when people slip past open barriers.

Chloe has a short-circuit moment when she thinks she sees Morris and Preston—we then get some story about how they were killed in a crash with a truck one day when Morris was driving Preston home from soccer. Chloe says it should have been her, since she was the one who usually took Preston to soccer. It sounds like a cliché until you realize she means it; she believes she'd been targeted because she knows the truth about Jack but they'd hit the car the one time she wasn't actually in it.

I suppose paranoia is something one gets used to when working for CTU or with Jack in particular, but hey Chloe, sometimes crap things just happen in life. Not everything is a conspiracy. Unless you count, you know, the Universe actively working against you. (Happens to me all the time.)

Meanwhile, Kate is out pistol whipping baddies in attempt to get them to talk about why Jack would go after Yates in the first place.

Almost too much of the episode was spent hovering around the Stark household (for lack of any other working name). Wannabe's husband is having a difficult time getting used to the idea that his wife was off sleeping with another man for three weeks as part of this "operation," and that she's now killed a man and intends to keep doing it. Mummy gives him a verbal warning . . . And also watches via surveillance camera while Wannabe and Hubby make out? Ew.

With Wannabe in the wind, Jack and Chloe go back to Adrian Cross & Crew to get Jack a fake ID that will get him into the U.S. Embassy. But Cross double-crosses (har) Jack and the ID gets flagged at security, so naturally Jack has to shoot some people. And then go grab the poor military prisoner who has been blamed for the drone attack.

And speaking of the president, he does a terrible job attempting to address Parliament. The flip side of that being that Parliament are apparently terrible people and terrible hosts. If that's how they run things—by shouting down one another and never giving a person a chance to speak—it's a wonder they ever get anything done. I'm sure the U.S. can't really sit astride a high horse here, but at least we let people talk and save our snark for after. We've learned the more you let a person go on, the bigger the hole they'll dig for themselves thus saving you the trouble.

In all, I generally expect better from Jack. More action at least. In the first three hours, things have been slow to develop. And yes, it's real time, so things don't happen instantaneously. But . . . More could happen. Or the things happening could be way more intense. Or something.

Let's see if things gather steam next week.

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