24: Legacy - 3:00pm - 4:00pm - Review: "Slower and steadier wins the race" + POLL

Where the opening three hours of 24: Legacy were fast-paced, action-oriented affairs that propelled viewers into the heat of the narrative, the fourth hour, “3:00pm - 4:00pm”, relaxed that and gave the show some room to breathe. And that isn’t a bad thing because ultimately a key aspect of telling this story is going to consist of slower, more character- or conversation-driven moments; this is as good a time as any to do that. Even at its peak, 24 often struggled to remain on full acceleration for long periods of time, so Legacy is on the right track in that regard.

It helps, too, that this was a much more competent and arguably engaging hour than last week’s dismally dumb outing, the show not hindered by a need to ramp up the tension with gunfights and chases. Instead, the quieter suspenseful moments worked much better, enabling the characters to actually contemplate things and for the episode to make those scenes mean more, rather than to just exist for the supposed pleasure of the audience.

Take Amira’s murder of Drew as an example. She and Harris having to chase him across the field last week because he wasn’t dead was monumentally stupid and terrible television (I called it the worst scene in 24 history), but this episode gave that storyline weight for the first time. Through the opening two hours, Legacy struggled with making Amira out to be a teenager and instead painted her much more strongly in the light of being a competent terrorist collaborator. Last week proved that false with little dramatic success, but “3:00pm - 4:00pm” reminded us that she’s still a teenager and not adept at this life - particularly in comparison to her brother, Khasan (Themo Melikidze). That she needs to ask him exactly what to do is telling (*); Harris follows her lead and she follows her brother’s. Khasan is sure to play a much larger role in the coming episodes, so it’s smart to get this foundation built now.

(*) This establishes 24 - and television in general - as existing far outside our reality, because TV and film have both enabled me to know that injecting someone with air is an effective and simple way to kill someone.

What also helped here is the humanity involved. The necessity of having to murder Drew is a heavy burden to bear, and the history between the two made that even more difficult. From what came before this hour, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think that Amira is a competent manipulator who is long past her feelings for her ex-boyfriend. But that’s not believable nor is it very interesting, especially given the nature of her character. Instead, making it such a tough choice only aided her development, and though it almost certainly won’t change her goals moving forward, it will likely change her mentality, at least to an extent, and that’s a much more promising sign than where we were by the time the credits rolled last week.

Over in the Donovan house, things took a revealing turn with John learning of his father’s treason and the justification behind it. Selling out the Rangers to prevent Jadalla from exposing Henry’s company and, with it, derailing John’s campaign is logical. The chances of Henry being some mastermind behind all this (à la Peter Kingsley, Alan Wilson, etc.) seemed slim, even more so after revealing him as the traitor so early in the run, so making clear that his treachery was, depending on perspective, a necessary evil is smart.

Less smart, however, is the conversation he and Luis had, in which the latter suggests denying everything because “Unless he was wearing a wire, there is no hard evidence linking you or me to anything.” If Legacy can pull this off then great, but the idea of it is laughably frustrating, in part because it comes across as little more than a shoehorned in way of keeping Henry around longer, but also because it will inevitably lead to stagnant storytelling - we know what Henry did and why he did it, so very little can come out of this that will make for must-watch viewing.

Nicole’s arc, which has been little more than a slog so far, received an uptick as she finally did something about Aisha’s betrayal of Isaac, and indeed, something. Though her escape from Jerome by flipping a table into him was pretty stupid, her takedown of Aisha and Jerome and subsequent arrest (somewhat strategically, mostly by blind luck) worked well, and for the first real time in the show, watching her was fun. So too was Isaac’s quick thinking to disarm Royo (Jimmy Gonzales) by insinuating that he had snipers ready should anything happen. Though this side of the show still isn’t great (*), there may now be some life injected into it, which can only be positive.

(*) Regardless of the improvement in the narrative here, the sexual tension - at least from Isaac’s side - when he returned is less than desirable.

Eric, meanwhile, entered CTU’s national headquarters for the first time. It’s an impressive sight, and, like Jack’s return in season four, is shot so that we get to see a lot of its structure as he does. Much of his story consisted of trying to figure out his next move, which turned out to be planning to bait an arms dealer named Gabriel, who likely sold the terrorists’ weapons to them, with the schematics to a current anti-missile defence system, on Ben’s word. Mullins raises a valid concern over how trustworthy Ben is, given that he’s the reason this is even a problem, but unless Legacy is planning to uppercut viewers and reveal him to have been colluding with the terrorists from the get-go, chances are that he’s telling the truth now. So Eric trusts his friend and, in true Jack Bauer fashion, steals the schematics (thanks to Andy), knocks out multiple security guards, temporarily disables CTU’s systems, and makes off with a car. It’s an exciting closer and sets things up nicely for next week.

And that, in short, is what this episode’s goal was. It was much more an hour of setting the stage for things to come, despite its progression in certain aspects. It worked out well, culminating in a strong episode that overcame the problems of last week and turned each of the story arcs into something intriguing. Three prior episodes had failed to do that across the board, so that’s a good step to take.

From the CTU Archives (connections to 24’s original run that aren’t referenced above):
• Amira’s hesitation to kill Drew is almost a mirror image of Tony Almeida’s “death” in season five.

• Eric’s “I’ll kill you myself” threat is one 24 used frequently.

• Nicole telling Aisha “I just need to make one phone call” is almost the exact same line as Jack in the season five finale. Likewise, Jack used Eric’s “Don’t make a sound” (or variations of it) on a couple of occasions.

• Gabriel worked for Starkwood before it went under. Having your CEO revealed as a terrorist and being murdered will do that.

Notes:
• The “Events occur in real time” opening remains. It’s difficult to gauge why, given that long-time fans of 24 know this, and people watching Legacy also now know this (and the serialised nature of the series means people are very unlikely to watch a random episode in the middle of the season). Chances are, though, that we’ll be seeing that every week until the end.

• One of two things is true about Drew’s death: either TV and film have lied to me for years and medical personnel don’t come to a hospital room if a patient’s vital signs drop or cut out entirely, or 24: Legacy abandoned that for the sake of allowing Amira to not get caught.

• Henry’s nonchalance prior to John calling him out was immensely frustrating because McRaney was so heavily telegraphing unease that it was impossible to not be suspicious. Yes, you could argue that he was nervous about being found out, but until the show revealed him as the mole, everything was normal; why should that change because we now know something the characters don’t? It happens so often in scripted content, but that doesn’t excuse it when it does occur.

• It took Isaac over an hour to get to his meeting with Royo, but roughly 25 minutes to get back from it.

• Jadalla believes he’s on a righteous path because he just saw the man who murdered his father. Sure.

• Andy took initiative and was already looking into stealing the schematics since he “had a feeling this would end up in [his] lap.” Smart man.

• Director Nelson McCormick, like Jon Cassar last week, elects to open bluntly, with Nilaa claiming her innocence to John. Given 24’s tendency to open with at least one brief establishing shot before introducing dialogue, this technique will always be jarring to me.

• This is the last episode FOX have sent to critics thus far, so there’s a possibility these reviews may be up on Tuesday afternoons at the earliest in future weeks.

What did everyone think of “3:00pm - 4:00pm”? Leave your thoughts in the comments and be sure to vote in the poll below!