The Hassan family’s secrets were laid bare last week. This week, we discovered more of the details surrounding Dana’s past with Kevin and Renee’s past with Vladimir (the Russian baddie played to brutal, intense perfection by Callum Keith Rennie, a.k.a. Leoben of Battlestar Galactica). Emotionally, the episode packed a punch and kept me riveted despite the fact that Jack spent the whole hour in a car.
Let’s talk about those dark secrets. First, Dana … She was bullied into coming home from the crisis at CTU so that jerk-face-Kevin can lay on the abuse in person. When he grabs her by the throat, I so wished that Katee Sackhoff would turn into Starbuck and break his arm or something — but sadly, Dana lets Kevin hit her, tries to pay him off, and agrees to use her job to help him steal more money.
What did you guys think of her big secret? When they were teenagers, she and Kevin committed a crime together. He thinks she got out of jail early by testifying against him. First of all, how would CTU not know this already? Second, what exactly would Cole do if Kevin called him up and told him that Dana was an accomplice to murder and had spent time in jail? Somehow, I think Cole would still be on Dana’s side.
Now that I hate Kevin utterly and completely, all I want is for this silly side plot to reach a quick conclusion so that I can enjoy seeing Kevin suffer.
Renee also has her share of secrets, as Jack finds out (thank you, Chloe). While operating undercover six years ago, she had apparently been sexually assaulted more than once by Vladimir. She was fired from the FBI after torturing a prisoner (that was at the end of Day 7), and since then, she’s tried to kill herself. Although Jack worries that Renee is trying to get herself killed by the Russians, I never felt that she was actively trying to fail. Rather, she has become fearless because she no longer cares about living.
I loved Annie Wersching‘s performance in the climactic scene. When she tells Vladimir to go ahead and shoot her because she’s sick of living, her eyes and face look so desolate, and the whole scene is kind of breathtaking. Vladimir seems fascinated by her response. I can’t wait to see more of him. What a fantastic bad guy — he even manages to make the Russian accent sound … well, not silly!
This was really Renee’s episode, but I’ll just briefly comment on a couple other developments.
Sergei Bazhaev is indeed a cold-hearted bastard, but his older son Josef is not. Josef defies Papa’s orders and takes his little brother to a doctor. I like this. Even no-good Russian mobsters have humanity, and the writers wisely gave the Bazhaev brothers some warm scenes to make them more than two-dimensional villains.
Also, President Hassan begins to “purge” his enemies from the IRK’s government, and President Taylor pressures him to stop out of concern for human rights. She continues to be the idealist that she always was. In contrast, Hassan has had a bucket of cold reality dumped on him. He’s not going to accomplish anything for the IRK if he’s overthrown or killed. It’s a tough spot to be in. What would you do if you had conspirators in your government? I say, throw their traitorous asses in jail!
So what did you think of this hour? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Clacked by Ruby T.
on Jan 26, 2010 @ 09:00 EST5EDT
Was it me, or did Jack say “Shit!!” when he turned the car around?
Oh he did and they cut it out after the “s”. Heard that too.
Again I’m so baffled there’s someone at CTU who has a dark secret
*yawn*
Yeah, I thought so. A couple of us just checked it out on Hulu.
I’m liking the main plot(s) and the subplots. I think this season is going to be full of some nasty turns, surprises, and backstabs.
I was thinking about this too: What if Fox, for season 9, moved the show to FX? Give it a big shot in the arm in terms of risque TV?
This is my first season. I’m wondering if I’m going to have to see Sackhoff wimper around for 10-15 episodes before she gets proactive about disemboweling that loser. I’m not sure I can stick around if it’s gonna take that long.
I really think she will. I mean she showed signs of it and it would be a great payoff and I don’t really expect the showrunners to cast her in a role where she’s not supposed to kick as AND I don’t expect her to play anything that has her wimpering from start to finish.
But honestly that’s not my main gripe about that part of the show. It’s just braindead that 24, in it’s 8th season, AGAIN uses the “there’s a person on CTU who’s being blackmailed” subplot. They do it EVERY single motherfracking season.
I think it’s embarassing.
You are probably right about the casting of Sackhoff. I’m reminded that patience is a virtue. :)
Maybe there will be a twist in the blackmail scenerio this year….? Hope springs eternal, no?
Renee is in a dark place & i’m betting that’s from her undercover work. she didn’t act like that at all during day 7 so i think her uc work was after day 7. just my thought.
The timeline is confusing, but they did specifically say that her undercover work happened six years before Day 8. Here’s my understanding of the situation: Since Day 8 is supposed to take place about eight* months after Day 7, that means the reason she is in this dark place is not because of the undercover work – it’s because of torturing that prisoner (Wilson) at the end of Day 7. That’s why Jack feels responsible for her current state.
*I’m not completely sure about the eight months – I’ve also read that it’s eighteen months. But either way, it’s not six years.
This backstory actually makes her characterization in Day 7 more understandable. She appears as a principled, by-the-book agent in hour 1, but we can see she’s more conflicted under that façade long before her rogue interrogation of Wilson in hour 24. She’s the one who recommended they bring in Jack to consult with the FBI, she plays right along with him in strong-arming the first informant they visit, and she later tortures one of the conspirators in his hospital bed all on her own. This was a pretty big character slide in 24 hours, but can now all be attributable to the psychological strain of her undercover experiences.
I just checked the episode and Jack clearly yells, “Dammit!” when he turns his car around.
Dana clearly picked up the skills for her job at some point after prison, and probably used them to create her new identity. It’s not just a simple name change, but a false background good enough to fool CTU. Outside the CTU elevator, Kevin even asked her if she had stolen some dead woman’s identity.