Jack is back everybody! And better than ever? Well, that depends on how much you missed 24 in its four year absence, because this new iteration looks, sounds and feels exactly like 24 down to its bones. For me it's exciting to welcome back old friends in the form of super-spy team Jack and Chloe and have them be every thing they once were (well, more or less, as those two in particular have some wrinkles to iron out, as we'll soon see).
It's been four years and Jack Bauer is a fugitive from the law for murdering those Russian diplomats and going on that revenge spree at the end of Season 8 (remember that?) Now, he shows up again in London just as President Heller and his daughter Audrey are there in order to sign a treaty with the British over extending a lease on the American military drone base (ahh- those familiar real world problems rearing their heads as always in a typical 24 season). But Jack arranges for his own capture by the CIA London station, populated by new characters in the form of chief Steve Navarro (Benjamin Bratt) and Agent Kate Morgan (Yvonne Strahovski from Chuck). Kate is the female version of Jack at this place, currently being let go because her husband was arrested for selling secrets to the Chinese, but out to prove herself, and as such, is the only person to realize Jack intentionally set himself up to be caught. Of course no one listens the one person who's always right, also in typical 24 fashion.
I like the touch of a cool, calm and collected Jack staring everyone down for a full forty minutes of the episode before he says anything, and we get the real reason he let himself get taken in when we cut late in the first hour to a gothed out Chloe being tortured (!!) for the first time with injections in the "special activities" unit. So yeah, Jack's there to rescue his own personal Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and as soon as he gets escorted to where he wants to be he takes out everyone and everything, stabbing Chloe full of adrenaline and blowing up the building to get them out. Awesome! It's nice to see Jack Bauer kicking ass and taking names again. Jack and Chloe make their escape, Navarro re-instates Kate to bring them in (of course) and Jack tricks Chloe into leading them to her new WikiLeaks-esque organization, where he reveals that he's there to stop an assassination attempt on President Heller that originated from their hideout. This place is headed by a shady Assange-type figure in Adrian Cross, who seems to have a special relationship with Chloe that Jack firmly disapproves of, as he finds out that Chloe has been radicalized and is now a document leaker having turned against the government (but we don't find why yet- my guess is it has something to do with her husband and kid, who get no mention tonight- might they be dead?)
But she's not so angry that Jack's hold on her has completely disappeared, as she immediately offers to help him catch the hacker named Derek Yates, who they booted out of the group for breaking into military bases through satellites. They track him to a rundown building where the two quickly fall back into their old roles (there's a nice moment where they put in the earpieces and check coms, as though it's official CTU business again) and Jack's once again kicking some serious ass while he takes out seven or eight guys in the hunt for Yates (who escapes with his girlfriend just in time). The CIA show up and slow Jack down, so he has to temporarily knock out Agent Kate (but not before letting her know she's after the wrong guy) while he escapes again with Chloe, who hotwired and stole a car, much to his surprise and admiration (lol).
So that's the first two hours with Jack tonight, and on the government front we get some new characters in Mark Boudreau (Tate Donovan, who fits into the 24 universe so well I have to stop and remember whether he's actually been on before- but he hasn't) as Heller's chief of staff and husband of Audrey. We find out he helped her through her catatonic state that we saw her in last (way back in Season 6) and for that reason hates Jack and is colluding with Navarro to get rid of him so that he won't ever have to tell the President or his wife (which means they'll find out very, very soon). And Heller is deteriorating mentally from early stages of what appears to be Alzheimers, and that's kind of sad because I always liked him.
Moving on to the villains, of which there are always multiple on any given season of 24. For now we get let in on Yates, who managed to hack in and take control of a drone being piloted by new character Lt. Chris Tanning (John Boyega, soon to be of rebooted Star Wars fame), who he frames for aiming the drone at his own convoy and killing four people. But Yates is only an underling of course and apparently being hired by the mysterious Michelle Fairley (Lady Stark from Game of Thrones) to develop the technology. After the successful test run, she has her daughter kill the guy in the men's room at the end of the episode and steal the device (turns out she was posing as his annoying girlfriend this whole time- ok that was pretty obvious) before Jack can get to him. Jack does manage to get what was left behind in the building though, of which Chloe decrypts only a fraction of a "schematic" (one of 24's all time favorite words- I'm serious, binge watch this show and try to mark how often everything hinges on a convenient "schematic" of some kind).
So that's it guys! What did you think of 24's big return? It's familiar, but exciting and entertaining, which is the level on which I've always enjoyed this show, and I like how they set up the Jack/Chloe relationship this season so that they have to repair the rift between them in some ways. On another note, does anyone find it slightly creepy how much Yvonne Strahovski resembles Elisha Cuthbert? I really hope there's no Kate/Jack attraction or anything because of that. She also looks a lot like his love interest from Season 2- so much so that I presume that's why they gave her the same name (seriously, they did miss that?) I should refer to her as Kate 2 from this point on.
