Scott Davis reviews the fifth episode of 24: Live Another Day…
As we head towards the midway point of LAD, the events are becoming much more real for the guys and girls involved. Drone strikes, uneasy allegiances, former loves, and politicians slowly turning against one another. It’s just another hour in Jack Bauer’s newest “longest day of his life.”
As we pick up after the previous hours events, Jack is in custody once again. After his desperate attempts to shoot his way out of the American Embassy with the proof he so urgently needs, he needs to change his tactics if he is to protect London Town and the US presence.
Aided by Kate Morgan (Yvonne Strahovski) after his run-in with the US military, Jack’s (Kiefer Sutherland) main priority remains the flight key that could hold the information to clear both himself and Agent Tanner (John Boyega). As Jack is dragged away, the focus switches to Morgan, as she and Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) try to decode the encrypted key, and find enough proof to alert President Heller (William Devane) and Prime Minister Davies (Stephen Fry).
The code is found, and with the help of CIA tech expert Jordan Reed (Giles Matthey), it’s confirmed that the threat to London is real. And despite both Heller and Chief of Staff Mark Boudreau’s (Tate Donovan) resistance, they know that they really only have one hope: Jack.
With his future still unclear, the President confronts Jack with a glimmer of hope, despite the looming threat of the Russian government who will not look to kindly on his reemergence, let alone if he is seen helping the US. Some strong exchanges later, Jack’s future hangs in the balance. And just as the President rejects his ideas for capturing Al-Harazi, Jack is visited by Audrey (Kim Raver). Producing one of the shows most tender and tense scenes to date, their love, still strong, has some notes still to be played before days end, that’s for sure.
Meanwhile, the shows big baddie Margot Al-Harazi (Michelle Fairley) has begun the final stages of preparation for the attacks on London. Alongside her son and daughter, they are determined to follow through their threats, by any means. The stumbling block again is her daughter’s husband Naveed (Sacha Dhawan), whose loyalty is in serious doubt.
And before you can say “previously on 24”, Naveed again dares to double cross her, adding a location detector to the drone programming, for which the CIA pounce on almost immediately. Her response? To demand the President give himself up for the deaths of the previous drone attacks abroad, and to lure the CIA into an explosive trap.
As the show continues apace with its London-set story, it only seems to be getting better, and more volatile as each hour ticks by. As these reviews have mentioned in previous posts, the new format is doing wonders for the show. Now free of the shackles of trying to fill the whole 24-hours with non-essential story strands and perfunctory characters, the show is thriving.
The action is bigger, the storylines tighter, the acting exemplary, and while it must be said that it is still 24 after all, all those twists and turns now seem much more potent than ever before. Episode 5 is undoubtedly the shows highlight hour thus far, as the shows creators begin to crank those cogs even faster, and as ever the cast are as enthralling as they have been throughout LAD.
It remains to be seen what the second half will bring, and how the time jumps will work (we are still following the hour-by-hour course thus far), but as the seconds tick by, it’s only a matter until Jack Bauer is back in fully-fledged badass mode.
Scott Davis
