With Carter having just broken out of CTU and a big hunt for him presumably underway, the first order of business... was for Rebecca to have a heart-to-heart with Nilaa and apologize for calling her a terrorist. And assuming you count this as a terrorist plot thread, it was still only the third silliest one of the night.
After episodes of hand-wringing about whether or not to be a terrorist, Amira was literally confronted this week with Daddy issues. After an hour of ridiculousness involving soup and duct tape and diabetes, I'm kind of over that whole story line. The writers cougared this one. Perhaps seeing this terror cell actually pressed into action will generate new interest?
Then there was the hour long argument between Jadalla and his number one goon, whether one attack was good enough, or there would have to be fifteen simultaneous attacks. It felt like an argument from the 24 writers' room dramatized on screen. "We've set off a nuclear bomb outside Los Angeles before! Do you really think one terror cell is interesting enough?" "We can't keep topping ourselves all the time, there's nowhere up left to go!" Presumably, this argument didn't end with a bullet in the head as it did on the show.
Speaking of crazy ways to kill time, we actually had a character spend time shaving this week. Grimes somehow convinced Carter that he just had to shave before meeting Gabriel, which just sets up so many questions for me -- none of them within the confines of the story itself. Did the actor get another job he had to shave for? Could that not just wait until he finished his one or two last days filming on this episode before they killed his character? Could they really think of no better way to delay those Grimes and Carter for 10 or 15 minutes of "real time?"
In yet another uninteresting subplot, we got to see Isaac go full Sean Spicer and demand everyone's cell phones so he could get to the bottom of who leaked on him. Nicole was already feeling uncertain about being there, and then Eric told her point blank to go somewhere else. The fact that she still hung around anyway strongly suggests that things between Nicole and Eric really aren't in the best shape; maybe there's still something between Nicole and Isaac after all. "Save the day, lose the girl" for Eric Carter?
Spicer-ing was on display for Daddy Donovan too, who looked Rebecca right in the eye and claimed that the things he said to his son were never said. Where did all of those lie detector sensors CTU hooks people up to go? (Well, I know where they went, we saw him wearing them. The question is, why do they suddenly not work? He can't be that practiced a liar.)
Gabriel turned out not to be a returning 24 character from the past after all. He also turned out not to be anyone of consequence, as he was introduced and killed off in less than half an episode -- yet another development that smacked of killing time to put off bigger developments until next week.
At least, I hope for bigger developments next week. This week was a bit of a snooze. Sorry, 24, you get a C this episode. Try harder next time.
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