24 Review/Recap

Day Five, 9 - 10 p.m.
Back in the 60's Doctor Who embarked on an ambitious, 12-part story featuring the Doctor doing battle with his greatest nemesis, the Daleks. The story was penned by two writers--Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner. The two writers would alternate episodes of the story. The classic Doctor Who series was built around having a cliffhanger in the action at the conclusion of every episode. According to reports, Nation and Spooner relished writing their contribution to the story and creating one outrageous cliffhanger after another just to see how the other would tap dance out of it.

So what does this have to do with 24? (I mean other than my obsessive need to bring Doctor Who into every conversation I have these days?) Well, in a lot of ways, 24 is built the same way as the classic Doctor Who--each episode builds up to a tension-filled moment that serves as a cliffhanger. The cliffhanger is designed to make us want to come back next week and see how it all gets resolved. Sometimes this is a bit more successful than others.

I'd have to say the cliffhanger to end last week was one of the less successful ones. From a shock value point and as a conversation starter around the watercooler, the idea that Audrey Raines would be a traitor is an interesting one. I know it was a theory I had last season that never came to fruition so to see it come up now was intersting. Especially in light of the fact that Jack and Audrey seem to be on the road to recovering what they lost when we all thought Jack was dead for a year or so. Now, all that has been thrown into chaos since I doubt Audrey is going to quickly forget that Jack was gripping her by the throat and shoving her up against the wall. Of course, the show could have at least brought up that Audrey was considered a suspect since her family had a history of being unwittingly manuevered by the bad guys as we saw last year. But, then again, we can't have too many call backs to previous days or else people will get confused. (Oh yeah, by the way, are the Chinese going to ever get a clue that Jack is still alive?)

Jack quickly figures out that Henderson is using Audrey's name to get at Jack. See, Audrey is a red herring, allowing the terrorists to get to a gas refinery and start pumping the Sentox into the system. Get the pressure low enough and the Sentox will be delivered to bunches of home in the area.

So wait....I'm confused here. And this may be me thinking too much again. I thought that Bierko was the head terrorist behind this elaborate plot but not it appears that we're shifting that focus to Henderson. How many masterminds does this plot actually have? It seems as if the head honcho bad guy shifts based on who is in custody. Oh Henderson is in custody, it must be Bierko. And now that Bierko is in custody, it will be Henderson. I bet we'll really find out in the end that the great criminal mastermind behind this is really....wait for it...wait for it..Nina Meyers. Seems that Nina is back from beyond the grave. She possessed Miss Cleo and is using her to mastermind this evil terrorist plot in some kind of insane revenge upon Jack, who she knew wasn't dead cause she never saw him hanging around the afterlife...

Speaking of the death of Jack--should Jack buy the farm come season's end, I think we have found our new hero for next year: Aaron Pierce. How much fun would it be for him to have his own show?

Meanwhile, back at CTU, Edgar's replacement arrives. And she happens to have been a chem major who can offer up a nugget of wisdom at exactly the right moment.

And she's accused one of the Homeland Security guys of sexual harrassment. At first, Chloe is sympathetic and then we see the woman in action. Seems that Bill patting her on the back and telling her good job is deemed inappropriate by her. This is why men live in fear of ever even smiling at a woman at the office because heaven forbid it be misconstrued as sexual harrassment. The thing is--should Bill be accused of it, he'll be seen as guilty no matter what. Even if he is exonerated of the charges, he'll still have that stigma attached to him. I hope he's saved up for retirement cause his career is pretty much over now.

I have to admit the actress who played Sherry looked familiar, but I can't place where I've seen here before. So, can anyone help me on that front? (Sure, I could look at IMDB, but I'm trolling for comments here!)

And finally, I have to wonder--if the lower PSI renders the Sentox inert, would raising the pressure back to a normal level make it go inert again? I mean, sure if it gets in the system, then having Jack blow up the place real good is far more visually interesting and we get to see Keifer Sutherland outrunning explosions. But surely it'd seem more cost effective in that whole not having to build a new gas plant mode of thinking to raise the pressure and nuetralize the Sentox that way.

Also, if they used all 17 canisters there, what is there left for Henderson to do to threaten CTU and the safety of our country?

Has the main plot of the season ended too soon? Or will there be another plot thread to chase after these last few hours of day five?