Going to break this reaction down into two groups: The first will be storylines that are still mildly intriguing. The second will be ones that have gone totally off the reservation.
Group 1: (Jack, Farhad, and the terrorists)
Was there any possible chance Farhad would make it out of this whole situation alive? First of all, CTU took their sweet time even getting to him (somewhere in the range of twenty minutes). Then he goes all bonehead and tries to make a run for it right before Jack and company get to him. He dies right before Jack can get him to identify any other terrorists. So basically it’s business as usual with CTU.
The terrorists get thrown a little wrinkle when Jack leaks a story to the press saying Farhad lived. That little piece of information lets us meet Terrorist Marco. He’s an American boy working with the bad guys for reasons unclear. He’s also still got a little bit of a conscience left and shows it when he calls his mommy to warn her about staying in the city. See, Marco and his boys are about to cause a little nuclear winter right after the blow up the hospital with Farhad’s dead body in it. I wouldn’t have minded a little back story on how a guy like Marco ended up being a terrorist. Alas, Marco doesn’t blow up the hospital and sort of escapes into some weird vault where he’ll just probably blow up anyway.
My god what is with this Agent Owen? Is he the wussiest agent in the entire history of 24? He was like what would happen if CTU just started hiring freshman in high school to handle the covert ops necessary to national safety. Right when Jack asked him if he was ok, I knew Owen was dead, but a little fight would have been nice.
Group 2: (Frederick Prinze II and his lady, Hassan’s daughter and her BF, Hassan’s hair)
Speaking of stupidity the Cole and Dana show is still in full stride. They’re working on covering up the bodies of the two scumbags from Dana’s past. In case you were wondering, Cole still has a weird accent, but Dana’s is gone. They drown the corpses in the Jersey swamp, mafia-style. Is anyone even wondering where they are at this point? I haven’t heard anyone even mention they were missing in the last episode and a half.
President Hassan’s daughter has run off with her boyfriend who just happens to be the ex-chief of security for Hassan. I was going to write a whole paragraph about them, but really, who cares. Their storyline ends in one of two ways: she gets taken hostage by the terrorists or BF is actually a terrorist.
Hassan’s hair hasn’t moved in hours so I’m starting to lose a little interest on that front. I’d like to see a little more emotion and depth from his locks. Right now they’re kind of just “mailing it in.”
Overall, another fairly strong episode of 24. The terrorism storyline has been working well all season. It’s the other, little filler, aspects of the plot that are very, very weak. Hopefully all of those people just fade away. I’m not holding out any great hope of that happening.
