Series Premiere, Part 2 Plot Summary:
Ben (Charlie Hofheimer) demands a huge cash payment in exchange for the sleeper cell codes, forcing Eric (Corey Hawkins) to do something crazy to get the money. Meanwhile, Senator Donovan (Jimmy Smits) discovers information that could harm his campaign and Isaac’s (Ashley Thomas) own people plot against him.
24: Legacy doesn’t seem to understand what people liked and didn’t like about its predecessor. The race against time to stop the terrorists, that’s what people loved. It provided movie quality thrills every week. Viewers didn’t tune in for the random subplots. Apart from a few seasons, 24 exists in a world aggressively ruled by Murphy’s Law. Whatever can happen will happen. There’s a reason why Kim Bauer was such an unpopular character and why her encounter with a mountain lion became so infamous. This season is half the normal length, so it has no excuse.
This episode’s chief subplot is Nicole (Anna Diop) having to deal with Isaac’s gang issues. Eric obviously didn’t have many options when it came to keeping Nicole safe, since he was led to believe CTU was compromised. But is Nicole any safer with violent thugs than she is just holed up in a motel room with a few loaded guns? We’re supposed to get excited over the potential gang coup. Sorry to burst your bubble, Legacy, but having every conceivable thing go wrong makes the already fantastical universe all the more unbelievable.
My spiel also applies to the school storyline, to a lesser degree. At least we now know how it’s related. The one teacher co-planning a terrorist attack because a scandal ruined marriage adds up, but it does make me wonder why he’s still teaching there. I guess the school could never substantiate the students’ allegations. Still, he’s overreacting, wouldn’t you say? We don’t really need him to be part of the story. It could just be the one girl.
After the promo following the first episode, the plotline I thought I would be criticizing the most was Senator Donovan’s campaign, but it ties in nicely with the main storyline, now that we have reason to believe his campaign manager is working with the terrorists. Hopefully that eases up the situation at CTU. It wouldn’t be so bad though if Ingram brought Stiles (Coral Peña) into the situation.
The best part of this episode is definitely Eric’s storyline, as it should be. It’s a bit hard to swallow that he didn’t report his unstable squad member before the raid, and the cop almost breaking his arm is a bit much, but his break-in provides the thrills that 24 is known for.
Another solid part of this episode is Jadalla Bin-Khalid (Raphael Acloque). There’s just something about about the performance I like. He displays the right amount of confidence and self-righteous indignation, I suppose.
It’s a shame that half this season is going to be annoying subplots, but at least the A-plot is doing its job right now.
