‘2:00 PM – 3:00 PM’ Plot Summary:
With time running out, Eric Carter (Corey Hawkins) must find a way to deliver $2 million to Ben Grimes (Charlie Hofheimer) in exchange for the flash drive containing the list of Bin-Khalid’s sleeper cells. While assisting Eric, Rebecca Ingram (Miranda Otto) must convince CTU Director Keith Mullins (Teddy Sears) to help her and finds a potential link between the terrorists and her husband’s (Jimmy Smits) campaign.
Well, that was anticlimactic. After setting up a fairly exciting standoff between Eric and the Metropolitan Police Department, and Rebecca’s rogue behavior back at CTU, 24: Legacy wraps up the storylines in a manner that is far from satisfying. Quickly resolving cliffhangers in the first few minutes of the next episode is a pretty standard maneuver for 24, but the third episode of Legacy does so in a way that causes viewers to ask, “Why didn’t you do that in the first place?” and makes the events of the previous episode totally unnecessary. When a season only consists of 12 episodes, there really is no excuse for that kind of filler.
Speaking of filler, the school and gang plotlines continue this week. Nicole’s (Anna Diop) attempts to lay low in the ganglands continue to prove both irrelevant and honestly dull. There is a tradition in 24 of protagonists placing loved ones in safe houses that end up becoming the scenes of firefights, but rarely has a loved one been placed in a safe location that is clearly not safe. This episode provides more evidence that Nicole is only there to get entangled in gang politics and get in an inevitable catfight with the clearly traitorous Aisha (Tiffany Hines). Meanwhile, Amira’s (Kathryn Prescott) status as a sleeper agent at least ties her to the big terrorist threat and has gotten more dramatic thanks to a small twist. This twist, however, also paints Amira as a totally incompetent terrorist, whose only real talent is seducing her teacher. If all of the other sleeper cells are this sloppy, maybe Eric should just let Jadalla Bin-Khalid (Raphael Acloque) get the flash drive.
Thankfully, the episode’s big twist appears to have some exciting potential. When it comes to 24 and other thrillers with political elements, conspiracies and moles/traitors are always welcome because they create conflicts that our protagonists can’t shoot their ways out of or use techno-magic to resolve. Rebecca and John Donovan may actually have to put their heads together and think outside the box, which will hopefully flesh out these characters and their relationship as well.
The best news from this episode, though, is that Eric continues to establish himself as a hero the audience can get behind. He still hasn’t proven he’s more than a placeholder for Jack Bauer, but his attempts to protect Ben show he has the heart and moral compass to lead the series. If the writers can minimize Eric’s poor decisions and the anticlimactic resolutions, the show will hopefully write itself soon enough.
