24 season 7 episode 11 review

Tony Todd - the Candyman himself - starts to make his presence felt in 24...

Well, after a rather rocky start to the show, we hit the mid-season with a show full of happier surprises. Notably coming in the form of Mr. Candyman himself, Tony Todd, showing up at long last as General Juma. His presence had been very minimal in the show, only appearing in newscasts that the primary characters have been watching as atrocities take place in Sangala. Of course, this character was introduced way back in the Redemption two hour special. With a profile as high as Todd’s in the genre world, it was only a matter of time before he turned up for a much juicier part. And here he is, silently rasping away at the men around him.

It’s no surprise that it turns out he is actually in the States preparing the next part of his ultimate plan. And when that turns out to be storming the White House itself, then the stakes are raised higher than ever before.

Of course, this action doesn’t come to fruition until the end of the episode. So there is plenty of time for others to fumble their way about. Jack is still in deep shit with the authorities. Renee takes the centre stage on the action front and is the one who discovers the plot. Jack as ever gets to torture someone again, with his time old favourite: electricity. This time round he doesn’t quite manage to get what he wants. The fact that he does this in one of the White House offices means that it isn’t long before Bauer is put under arrest and left powerless to move any further. Again.

Ok, so we have been down these paths as well, but it works in this episode clearly because we actually have forward momentum. And with that comes tension, and the beeping clock begins to work.

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But what now? It seems as though we are headed toward another 24 meets Die Hard scenario, but this time in the White House. Last season it was CTU itself which resulted in the death of a main character in that series. With so many of the regulars there, Jack included, as well as some of this season’s stronger supporting characters – the stakes are going to be very high indeed!