"24" Day 3: 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. (2003)

User Rating:

8.3/10   

Director:

Jon Cassar

Writers:

Joel Surnow (creator) &
Robert Cochran (creator) ...

TV Series:

"24" (2001)

Original Air Date:

28 October 2003 (Season 3, Episode 1)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Three years later; CTU receives a threat that Mexican drug lord Hector Salazar is planning on releasing...

Plot Keywords:

Title Ends With Period | Period In Title | Digit In Title | Black President | Black U.S. President

Cast

Kiefer Sutherland	...	Jack Bauer
Elisha Cuthbert	...	Kim Bauer
Carlos Bernard	...	Tony Almeida
Reiko Aylesworth	...	Michelle Dessler
James Badge Dale	...	Chase Edmunds
Dennis Haysbert	...	President David Palmer
Sarah Wynter	...	Kate Warner
Joaquim de Almeida	...	Ramon Salazar
Christina Chang	...	Dr. Sunny Macer
Wendy Crewson	...	Dr. Anne Packard
Vanessa Ferlito	...	Claudia
Vincent Laresca	...	Hector Salazar
Riley Smith	...	Kyle Singer
D.B. Woodside	...	Wayne Palmer (as DB Woodside)
Jesse Borrego	...	Gael Ortega

Runtime:

UK:60 min (extended dvd edition)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 (DVD rating)

Company:

Imagine Television

Trivia:

A 3-minute trailer for this season's premiere aired during Fox's presentation of Wo hu cang long (2000) on September 7th, 2003.

Goofs:

Continuity: There's a non-realtime camera cut, at least in the non-commercial version that originally aired - Jack and his partner pull away from the prison and then the scene transitions immediately and directly to them already driving on the highway and talking about the body at the NIH building.

Soundtrack:

Horse Drawn

The third day begins

Few cliffhangers have been as shocking as the final moment of 24's second season, when President Palmer was poisoned and possibly dying, and in case anyone had missed that the scene is shown again right at the beginning of this episode, before the caption "Three years later" informs us that a new, gripping day is about to start.

What has happened in three years? Well, for starters, Palmer is alive, though still recovering from the chemical attack, and is currently back in L.A. for a debate with Senator John Keeler, his rival in the upcoming election. Also worth noticing, he has appointed his brother Wayne (DB Woodside) as his new aide. Things have changed a little at CTU as well: Tony Almeida is now officially the director of the agency, and married to Michelle Dessler (Reiko Aylesworth), whom he began dating during the events of Day 2. In addition, KIm Bauer works for them now, a fact that irritates several of her colleagues (Zachary Quinto's Adam Kaufman first and foremost) since the only reason she got the job is her father.

And what about Jack? He has a new partner, Chase Edmunds (James Badge Dale), who's secretly dating Kim, and has recently broken up with Kate Warner (Sarah Wynter) because of what his job does to him. More specifically, he spent a year working undercover to get Mexican drug lord Ramon Salazar (Joaquim De Almeida) behind bars. He succeeded, but now everything he fought for appears to be in jeopardy, as a dead body has been dumped in front of a hospital and tests have revealed it was infected with a deadly virus that, if released, will kill millions of innocent people. And who would be behind this threat? Well, none other than Ramon's brother Hector, obviously.

Following the assassination attempt of Season 1 and the nuclear menace of Season 2, the series gets even more ambitious by throwing a biological attack into the mix, with the addition of a truly worthy villain, played with the right degree of sleaziness by De Almeida. Other new characters, like Chase, Adam or Wayne are equally interesting and well portrayed (Quinto's work is worth contrasting to his performance in Heroes), and the old ones have lost none of the charm that won viewers over in the first place.

Then again, in the end this remains Kiefer Sutherland's show, and the episode's ending indicates his character will probably suffer more than usual in this season.