By: Brandon Wolfe
The ‘24’ writing staff is pretty much set in their ways. They know their formula inside and out and adhere to it as if their very lives depend upon it. In the series’ original run, this rigorous sameness grew wearying. In ‘Live Another Day’, it has mostly been fine, even welcome, like revisiting an old friend who hasn’t let the years away change him one bit. But the sole aspect that marks this event series as a deviation from the original series is in its length, 12 episodes versus the usual 24.
With the Al-Harazi threat neutralized and defenestrated last week, this is the precise point where ‘24’ would be gearing up for the next big thing that will act as the primary focus for the next ten or so hours, and that is indeed what happens in “8:00 PM – 9:00 PM” when the override device is used to successfully order an American military sub to launch a strike against a Chinese aircraft carrier. This is huge, an event that could trigger a third World War, and the sort of thing that would keep Jack busy for at least a couple months’ worth of episodes. Except there are only two episodes left to deal with the consequences of this. One can’t help but begin to wonder if the writers have fallen so deeply into their old grooves that they’ve lost sight of the fact that they’re playing in a much smaller sandbox now.
The new crop of villains who’ve emerged to do villainous things is a band of Chinese mercenaries led by Cheng Zhi (Tzi Ma), a character who sort of lurked around the margins of Seasons 4-6. Cheng is the man who held Jack accountable (in the form of two years’ worth of torture) for a perceived act of war against the Chinese when Jack led an assault on the Chinese embassy in L.A. for reasons that have long since escaped me. Now Cheng is perpetrating his own act of war against the Chinese, for reasons that also escape me. Cheng’s resurgence shows how deep into the barrel the ‘24’ crew is having to scrape to dredge up old characters. Cheng is a character we remember as having existed, but not one that I would imagine anyone remembers fondly. Him bubbling back up to the surface provides us with no particular thrill. He’s here simply because he’s perhaps the only preexisting villain that the show never got around to killing off. ‘Live Another Day’ really could have benefitted from the writers having, years earlier, left a few characters alive for a rainy day.
The show directly calling to mind that Chinese thread from all those years ago feels appropriate since this continuing thread with the Russians very much echoes it. As Cheng once did, so do the Russians want Bauer’s head for a perceived act of war, and Mark Boudreau is still fixing to hand them the platter that holds it. Boudreau’s reasons for cooperating had been largely mere self-preservation for having forged the President’s signature earlier in the day, but as his relationship with Audrey has grown colder while her feelings toward Jack have reheated, there is now the sense that it’s a bit personal as well. But Mark is still new to ‘24’ so he sends the Russians after Jack without realizing that Jack has immediately transitioned into resolving the inevitable next crisis, thus jeopardizing the mission when the Russians pin down Jack and Kate while they are on their way to intercept the override device. That Mark will get his comeuppance is now assured, but it does beg the question of how ‘Live Another Day’ will resolve this Russian thread. ‘24’ already ended a stretch with Jack being shanghaied away by a foreign power for revenge. Doing the same thing again would seem unlikely, but doing the same thing again is the core principle upon which ‘24’ operates.
That resistance to change certainly carries to over Jack himself. Jack doesn’t really change as a character. He’s eternally the self-sacrificing superagent with a mean streak. But one aspect where Jack actually is a bit different this year is that his streak is slightly meaner. This is presumably a conscious effort by the writers to convey how the last four years spent in hiding (to say nothing of all the terrible years he’d had prior to that) have affected him, but Jack – never a plush animal to begin with – has become a notably pricklier pear. After his stunningly ice-blooded murder of Margot last week, Jack is back at the CIA station to deal with Navarro, whom Jack suggests to Acting Station Head Ritter that he interrogate himself. When Ritter finally agrees, Jack goes out of his way to snidely spit "Just so we're clear, I wasn't asking. That was me being courteous” before contemptuously shoulder-checking the man as he walks past him. Then Jack conducts his Navarro interrogation, which goes exactly as all of Jack’s interrogations do. The suspect asks for immunity and Jack does something horrible to him, in this case shattering the man’s hand with the butt of his gun. While Jack has certain done much worse when in torture-mode (and, considering how little torture he’s inflicted this far in ‘Live Another Day’, I half expected him to cut off Navarro’s face), it’s made plain that Jack’s already perilously low patience level has reached a new depth.
Finally, we lost Michael Wincott’s Adrian Cross in this episode, who was not only the most (only?) interesting new character of the year, but probably also the most interesting character ‘24’ has given us in the past several seasons. Much of Cross’ seeming potential can likely be chalked up to Wincott, one of the more compellingly insidious character actors around, but some credit must also be awarded to the character’s neutrality. He was a criminal, but one with murkily noble intentions. Even when the show made him an actual Big Bad, as it did in these last few episodes, he was allowed to retain motives that at least could look somewhat estimable if you squint. This might not seem like much to crow about, but on a show as white-hat/black-hat as ‘24’, it counts as progress. So naturally ‘24’ killed him. Never change, ‘24’.
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