'24': Jack Bauer, meet the NYPD

Looks like it's still "Giuliani time" in New York City.

Monday night's two-hour "24" special opens with Jack Bauer getting pounded by the NYPD in a basement in Queens. He went there alone in pursuit of the mysterious assassin Davros, who has infiltrated the police as part of the plot to kill Kamistan President Omar Hassan.

Bauer arrives too late to find Davros, who has killed another cop and his wife so he can pick up the cop's shift at the United Nations. But while he's lurking around the murder scene, two of New York's finest show up and one of them lays a 1970s-style beat-down on our hero.

Back at CTU, a concerned Chloe O'Brian can't persuade CTU boss Brian Hastings to send a team to find Bauer. Hastings and CTU agent Dana Walsh, who dresses more for a night out in the East Village than for a day analyzing data, are still focusing on reporter Meredith Reed as the link to the hit on Hassan. When they find plans detailing a bomb in the U.N. on her computer, they move to evacuate the building, not realizing that is exactly what Davros and Hassan's brother Farhad want to happen so they can blow up Hassan's car on the street.

Bauer manages to break free of his NYPD tormentor before the plunger comes out and he convinces another cop that he's a good guy. Before you can say civil suit, Bauer's racing to the U.N. and persuading CTU agent Cole Ortiz to go rogue to stop the assassination.

Ortiz saves the Kamistan president's life and Farhad, realizing he's going to suffer the same fate as Fredo Corleone if he sticks around, goes on the run, but not before killing a cop. Ortiz then almost gets taken out by Davros, but is saved by Bauer. The two then return to CTU's high-tech bunker where Bauer is finally given respect by Hastings.

Realizing that the Russian mob is involved, a decision is made to bring back in Renee Walker, the FBI agent from last season who was forced out for becoming a Jackie Bauer and has since been struggling to keep it together both personally and professionally. In a "let's suspend belief even more than usual" move, it turns out she used to be undercover with the Russian mob and now six years later will try to go back inside. Bauer, who's against this idea, tags along, which is even more absurd. The idea of Bauer being able to go undercover anywhere after testifying before Congress and being splashed all over the news for years is, well, as likely as Jay Leno getting "The Tonight Show" back (oh wait, never mind).  

Walker quickly reconnects with one of her old Russian operatives and in no time at all is chopping his hand off to get information from him. Even Bauer is shocked by her brutality (now that's saying something).

Back at CTU, Walsh is stuck in a subplot involving an ex-boyfriend threatening to expose her tawdry past. Let's hope this goes somewhere in the weeks ahead, otherwise it's just a pointless distraction.

One can measure how good an episode of "24" is by how far you sit from the TV. During the first two hours, I was on the couch. By the end of hour three, I was inches away from the screen. But during Episode 4, I was behind my desk across the room. Let's hope I get a little closer to the screen next week.

-- Joe Flint

Photo: Kiefer Sutherland in Fox's "24." Credit: Richard Foreman / Fox

Comments

[Jackie]

At lease now Jack knows our president realizes this is a show and not real life. It's great to have Jack back and I hope Freddie Prince gets to work closer with Jack. As for miss Jackie Bauer well she's a female Jack and we know what he was like. Now Jack gets the chance to see what he was like as he watches Jackie do the same thing he did for so many years.

[The TV Obsessed]

Renee is way out of control, and is totally crazy. While it's predictable that Jack will bring her back to sanity, it'll be interesting to see how he does it in the midst of all the other craziness. Dana's story better tie-in to the main plot, because it is going absolutely nowhere.

Review of the episode on my blog:
http://th3tvobsessed.blogspot.com/2010/01/review-24-season-8-episode-2-3-day-8.html

[Bob]

The wrist-hacking was still a shock (like Renee's convenient backstory among the mobsters).
Love the casting on "24": the brutal cop who knocks up Jack was played by Domenick Lombardozzi, who was Det. 'Herc' Hauk on "The Wire," and it looks like David Anders, who played Sark on "Alias," is playing here a guy in cahoots with the Russians. Then, we can look forward to a "Battlestar Galactica" reunion: Kattee Sackhoff (Starbucks on "Galactica") may just meet Callum Keith Rennie, the Russian mob guy Renee and Jack are after. He played a Cylon named Leoben who kept Starbucks captive during Season 2.
Great post!

[Jake]

Agreed with #3 Bob-great to see the brutal cop played by Dom Lombardozzi, and at the same house that was his on Entourage!

[Noah]

How did those NYPD cops not know of Jack Bauer (echoing your sentiment about how he was splashed all over the news)?

Agreed with "TV Obsessed" - I have no patience for that Dana/Jenny storyline. I hope they turn can quickly turn that plot into something worth watching.

Also, I know it's for entertainment value, but if real life intelligence units were blind enough never to check various possibilities of each lead they got... we'd be in some serious danger.

[BarryPar]

I am a New Yorker. The only thing that benefits from a lack of geography was Jack Bauer's instant car ride from Queens into Manhattan (where he snares the assassin a few minutes later). Unless he went by hydrofoil, such logistics are highly dubious since they had closed the Queensboro Bridge (a/k/a 59 Street Bridge).