24
Fox
Tuesday, 9 p.m / 8 p.m. CST

Fox's "24" is an action-espionage drama that unfolds in real time — meaning that the hour it takes you to watch it corresponds to an hour in the lives of the characters. Correspondingly, Flak will be providing a written-in-real- time-alongside-the- show review of "24" each week for the duration of the series or until the gimmick of the review becomes tiresome.

Episode 15: 2 p.m. – 3 p.m.

So my last installment wasn't everything I wanted it to be … really the first time that I was dissatisfied with what I was writing as I was writing it, but simultaneously unable to do anything about it (of course). For the record, I am going somewhere with all my "the compositional difference" prattle — I want to highlight some things about "24" for good and ill that only make sense contextually. More on this later.

The recap did the nice job of connecting what Palmer said when he heard about Jack's special forces — "Of course, the Drazen affair" — with the new Euro-baddie referring to his boss over the phone as "Drazen." A detail too small for many (my distracted self included) to pick up on during the last episode, but woven together nicely in the recap.

So the back-up assassin had a booty call arranged with one of Palmer's intimate staff before Gaines' failure was known, and she tipped him off to Palmer's being diverted to Nevada? Hoo yah.

This is actually a little bit anxious, the whole long set-up for the Jack Bauer/David Palmer meeting. The structure itself is not overly manipulative; what makes the difference is how invested you as a viewer are in the proceedings. You're so legitimately interested in what's going to come out of the conversation that the suspense is natural. And that's the best, rarest kind of suspense: real curiosity.

And now that it's come, it's so good that I can't type during it. Give me a moment.

OK, commercial. Nothing that we didn't know, per se; Jack had a mission in Kosovo where he lost a lot of men; Palmer was involved with that mission to some degree. But the, well, acting of the scene, the straightforward writing — really dynamite. A nice, small moment that feels very big.

Here we are with Nina, Teri and Kim. What a set-up — sending Jack's ex-mistress to watch over his family. It's really very canny, as well as a sly joke about how men value (and devalue) these things.

And now there's a third party to join Jack and David — Bobby, some kind of black ops know-it-all, who's in a rummy haze down in New Orleans. This could be fun.

And maybe the most perfect real-time moment yet — the clock ticking down as Teri waits for her pregnancy test results. And: She's pregnant. Now, this can't be from the rape — no time — but I hadn't supposed Jack and Teri were sleeping together before this. Is there Another Man? Hm.

So the Euro hitman and the wire-rim Euro man are brothers. The Drazen brothers. And, as they remark on how passersby resemble their departed family, they are revealed as the surviving Drazen brothers. Revenge is … sigh. Such a small motive.

An interesting scene with Kim's overreaction to the pregnancy test. You only got a small taste of Teri and Kim's long-standing issues in the first episode; those tensions have only been alluded to since. But a pregnancy is an issue of just enough magnitude to still complicate things in the middle of this complicated day. (And, yes, turns out it is Jack's baby.)

It's so weird to see something resembling a domestic scene in the show, as Teri and Kim breakfast. And now Teri and Nina are off together. David Thomson has his "Turn-on" column for Salon — a sort of embarrassing prospect for him, I'd think, where he delivers cultural criticism out the side of his mouth while overtly addressing something that, well, turns him on (for instance, talking about The Man Who Wasn't There in terms of getting to watch Billy Bob Thornton shave Frances McDormand's legs — he was disappointed, FYI) — and he wrote about "24," talking about how much he likes Sarah Clarke as Nina — "the sexiest thing on television", he said. And another critic wrote me to say she wanted Jack to get on with it and leave Teri for Nina. It's all true; not that Jack should leave Teri, but how indispensible Nina is to the life of the show. Clarke has had to give a very layered performance while still giving off just enough of that Other Woman scent, and she's nailed it.

Again, a semi-domestic scene, except this time with Jack and David, talking about their kids. (As a style choice, do they usually let you hear the voice on the other end of the phone in non-split screen set-ups? I don't think so. That's just how powerful Sherry's influence is on David; you can hear her on the phone when she calls.)

Should I watch next week's series premiere of "Andy Richter Controls the Universe"? It's on right before "24," but I'm not sure it would put me in an appropriately attentive frame of mind.

So the revenge idea is expanded to eye-for-an-eye — as the brothers mentioned, Drazen's family died in when Jack's men stormed wherever it is in Kosovo that they stormed. (Although Jack, being the upstanding sort, didn't know the family died, of course.) That's why they're so hot on Jack's family … but is there a correlation with David's family as well? If so, it remains hidden.

Another great moment of natural tension: Teri and Nina talking about Jack and Teri's separation. The camera on Teri is a nice touch; and now Teri is probing about whether Nina is the mystery person that Jack (allegedly) told Teri he had an affair with. Why are they dealing with this so explicity? And so early? To be setting this scene now, with nine hours remaining, suggests that something's going to Come Of It. Will Teri have to come to put all her trust in Nina? Will Nina's resentment cause her to commit some small indiscretion with big-time consequences? Will Nina have to give her life for Teri? I'm leaning toward this last possibility. In a show in which everyone has their lives upset, I suspect she's going to be the ultimate martyr. Which will be an interesting occasion for commentary in and of itself, but not until it happens.

Jack's asking for "provisional status until the end of the day." Which, of course, correlates to the end of the show. There's surprising satisfaction in those little stingers, the recognition of the ways in which the show folds in upon itself, references itself formally.

A nice shot of Teri tipping over on the bed. And Nina looked so tired out when she was on the phone with Jack. Like so many of the very successful scenes in this episode, it's predicated on the 14 preceding hours of character development — a lot of sublimated things that have never bubbled up until now, in the "domestic" moments. The plot threads weave together very well, and it reflects nicely on the show's new, expanded/contracted scope — that is, the assassination plot is about revenge for a family's death.

Oh, and, surprise, Bobby's dead. No points for predicting that one, however.

I didn't mention David's "it doesn't matter that I'm black" scene, though it warrants comment. Next time. Also next time: all those threads from last week about film and television. But I can honestly say that this episode was too good to distract myself from.

— Sean Weitner (sean@flakmag.com)