DVDfever.co.uk - 24 Season 7 Episode 19 review by Dan OwenDVDfever.co.uk - Charts, News and Reviews of Blu-rays, DVDs, Games, CDs, Hardware, Laserdiscs, Cinema Films & more
Jack Bauer: Kiefer Sutherland
Tony Almeida: Carlos Bernard
Renee Walker: Annie Wersching
President Allison Taylor: Cherry Jones
Janis Gold: Janeane Garofalo
Jonas Hodges: Jon Voight
Kim: Elisha Cuthbert
Olivia Taylor: Sprague Grayden
Alan Wilson: Will Patton
Stephen: Paul Wesley
Agent Mizelli: Rey Gallegos
Agent Park: Tom Choi
Patricia Eames: Kathryn Gordon
Galvez: Gabriel Casseus
Chloe O'Brian: Mary Lynn Rajskub
Dr Sunny Macer: Christina Chang
Beware spoilers.
There's a final kink in Day 7's tail, it seems. After last week's shocking/silly twist (that Tony still has his own nefarious agenda), David Fury scripts an episode that tries to reenergize the season in its final half-dozen episodes...
That means there's a bigger conspiracy at work here, just as Jonas Hodges (John Voight) suggested to President Taylor (Cherry Jones) before he was frogmarched away to a White House cell last week. Tony (Carlos Bernard) appears to be part of that wider operation, as he's killed Larry and shoots himself to give his story they were attacked by two Starkwood agents added credibility. Renee (Annie Wersching) hears about Larry's death shortly after and, while numbed with sorrow, decides to join the FBI manhunt for his killer on the ground. Jack (Kiefer Sutherland), still feeling the effects of the pathogen he was exposed to, cuts short a debrief with an agent about the day's events, to join Renee -- because he feels he owes her that much.
This episode was essentially an hour of manipulation, with Tony secretly helping his accomplice escape detection as an "inside man". Amusingly, within seconds of Jack arriving on the scene, Tony's story about there being two Starkwood agents starts to show holes thanks to Jack's expert eye for ballistics. Can Tony keep his cover and help his collaborator escape with the bioweapon canister, without arousing suspicion -- particularly from Jack, who has an experienced eye for deception? Tony's plan involves getting as many of the FBI in an abandoned warehouse as possible, primed to explode, and escape with his co-conspirator in the bloody aftermath...
Interestingly, it's not quite the end of Hodges' story either, as two of his superiors arrive at his lawyer's home and steal her identity, allowing icy blonde Cara Bowden (Amy Price-Francis) to gain access to the White House with fake ID and thumbprints. And Cara's not there to break Hodges out of jail as he initially assumes; no, no, she's there to threaten his family, pass him a suicide pill, and persuade him that the only way to ensure his beloved company's survival is through suicide...
There's also a small bit of business with Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) to flower later. We catch up with her driving home, having failed to convince her father to take the experimental stem cell treatment for the pathogen's effects. She calls her boyfriend to talk about her day, and we realized that she's since become the mother of a blonde baby boy called Terry. And she couldn't bring herself to tell Jack he's a grandad. If she did, he may have gone through with the stem cell procedure, you silly girl. Someone needs to teach Baby Bauer a few choke-holds and how to pistol-whip a terrorist. She can only provide anti-cougar tactics.
Episode 19 was a fun episode, even if I can't yet swallow Tony being a villain all along. It seems that Hodges went haywire once he got his hands on the bioweapon, to further his own political ambitions, but now his bosses have stepped in to course correct. So, I guess it makes sense that Tony wouldn't have wanted General Juma and Starkwood to succeed in their aims earlier today, but still agrees with whatever target these conspirators have? Cara certainly knows and trusts Tony, so I guess there's no way back for Tony now. He's joined the dark side.
After so many episodes with Jack and Renee stuck at the FBI letting Tony and Larry do all the heavy lifting, I was glad to see Jack getting stuck in with the investigation again. But I'm still a little irritated by the writers keeping Jack sick this long. Sure he'll have the treatment eventually (probably when he hears about his grandson), so will the stem cell procedure be effective within a few hours, allowing for a full-health Bauer smack-down around hour 22? I wish they'd get on with it, but at least Jack tends to show no sign of the pathogen's effects when he's got a crisis to solve... until it's dramatically the perfect moment to start twitching and repeating your words...
That moments arrives in the closing minutes when, after helping Renee mop up the warehouse explosion, Tony manages to get his accomplice to an ambulance to leave the zone safely, and Jack is told that someone Tony claimed to have killed for information about the White House attack is alive. Tony protects his innocence, claiming he lied to give his informant a chance to start a new life, but Jack's not having any of it -- despite it being a fairly decent excuse. Then, with Tony unmasked in Jack's mind, he begins to convulse and drops to the floor, unable to point the finger. I'm assuming Tony still respects Jack enough to not kill him, as he had the opportunity. That'll come back to bite him...
Overall, we still don't know enough about Tony's plan and Hodges' superiors to determine if recent developments are logical progression, or a cheap stunt to make events last the distance. Possibly it only exists because the writers want a similar ending to season 5 (when Jack was chasing his mentor), but one that really matters in the audience's mind (as Jack and Tony have an established history together that gives it added spice.) It's still a dangerous move, considering Tony's popularity and the difficulty in accepting that a man who dedicated his life to stopping terrorists would become one. Still, they have five episodes to make it work.
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