(Courtesy FOX Broadcasting Company)
A sweaty Jack Bauer driving recklessly around the streets of Manhattan could not have set a better tone for this week’s episode of “24.”
After last week’s episode focused on personal drama in the lives of the employees of the Counter Terrorist Unit, the return to the show’s more standard fast-paced dramatic sequence of events was a nice change.
True to the plot set up of last week’s episode, Monday’s episode begins with CTU employee turned money embezzler Dana Walsh helping an old ex-con acquaintance, Kevin, steal money from the government.
While the events taking place in this sub-plot have come to be expected, a nosey CTU worker, Arlo Glass, beginning to key in on Walsh’s strange behavior in the workplace can only lead one to believe that her secret past identity will not remain secret for long, another twist that is sure to be revealed in coming episodes.
Glass’ character fulfills a “24” character archetype that, seen in past seasons, has expectedly returned: the know it all, too smart for his own good, annoying CTU employee that everybody loves to hate. Constantly pestering and making sarcastic remarks to his employees, Glass is a character who, despite being intelligent, is someone portrayed as being extremely annoying for unjustifiable reasons.
Drama between Glass and Walsh aside, this week’s episode featured the reintroduction of Jack Bauer as a main focus of the episode. Though Bauer’s presence has seemed to be lacking in this season’s past episodes, he came back defiant and stubborn, true to standard Bauer behavior.
While it was good to see Bauer back in the limelight of the show, ex-CTU employee returned undercover agent for CTU Renee Walker remains a rival to Bauer for star of the show. This plot addition, while a bit disappointing earlier this season, has become almost as entertaining as watching Bauer brutally torture terrorists in past seasons.
As to be expected, after last week’s episode revealed tensions between the President of the Islamic Republic of Kamistan, Omar Hassan and the President of the United States, Allison Taylor the treaty the two leaders were going to sign to cease Hassan’s production of nuclear weaponry has been terminated. No peace in the Middle East? Not surprising.
What was surprising was seeing Jack Bauer go undercover with the Russians to assist Walker, as the Russian mob leader grows more violent towards her. While this proved an interesting plot twist, it was a little hard to take Bauer seriously as an undercover agent; he shows up on the scene in reading glasses and speaking fluent German with one of the German members of the mob. Bauer pulled off worldly librarian better than undercover agent.
While the lower status members of the Russian mob are easily taken out by librarian Bauer, the head-honcho of the mob solidified his crew’s ruthlessness in this week’s episode, shooting and killing one of his defiant sons. Past seasons of “24” have seen some brutal villains, but Sunday night’s episode left viewers with some of the most ruthless terrorists the show has seen yet.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Jamie Magyar at Jamie.magyar@colorado.edu.
