07.14 | Episode twenty, 3AM - 4AM
Another brave move by the writers of '24'. Not only did Jack Bauer actually die last week, Stark, the man who killed him, is killed himself within the first five minutes of this episode. The shock here was that it wasn't Jack who got to exact his revenge.
Stark was a great character with plenty of potential. Think of him like Hans Gruber, Alan Rickman's money-obsessed terrorist in Die Hard. A cold, calculating son of a bitch who nearly got the better of our hero. Only that you couldn't confuse Stark with the camp guy from 'Allo Allo' who drove the little tank.
In fact, I'm being to think that the '24' writers aren't geniuses; they're just redeveloping long-forgotten plot lines from '80s BBC television series. Next they'll be rerunning Jack and Kate as hippy-ish 'The Good Life' drop-outs. Where is Richard Briers when you need him, eh?
And how come every time that someone gets locked in a store room on TV, there's always a blow torch, some flammable material and a smoke detector to set the alarms off? And why when the guard runs in does he always get knocked out first time?
Ryan Chappelle appears to be back, properly - taking on the George Mason role, no doubt. I can't see him wise cracking his way through series three, though. Chappelle looks like he's even meaner than he was in the first season.
Peter Kingsley is our new 'head honcho' bad guy. He's the dude who was flying around in the helicopter last week. I'm guessing that he runs some evil global megacorporation, since a) he's got a helicopter, b) his office is in a skyscraper, and c) he's blatently engineering the forthcoming war in conjunction with Vice President Jim Robinson Prescott.
The heart stopping moment of the episode was when Jack and the doctor tried making their escape from Stark's men. It was pretty obvious that the big hairy O'Hara dude would get stabbed in the back with a syringe of the Beroglide poison. Jack showing O'Hara his mercy by killing him quickly was the best bit in the whole show. More of this, please.
I'm not sure that Mike Novick is completely bad. It wouldn't surprise me if he turns around to President Palmer and tells him that he was only keeping the treason plot a secret from him to protect him. I'm sure that it's for the best if Prescott thinks that he can trust Novick, and that... oh, who am I kidding? Novick is badder than most of the baddies that we've seen so far. We've seen him and Palmer develop a beautiful friendship over the past two years - how could he jeapordise the relationship? He seemed like such a nice guy, too. Looks like Novick's sold out the President in return for a cushy job with Prescott and a share of the spoils of war.
The cliff hanger sucked, though. As if the red neck will smash the chip. As if the White House cabinet members will stand by 'looney' President Palmer. The good thing is that it leaves you with no idea how Jack gets the chip - does he kill the two red necks? Do they hand it over? Does the wimpy one chicken out and shoot his convict mate? Or are we in for a tense stand off?
Tune in next time, folks...
