January 11th, 2009 marked the return of the 7th season of 24 after a one-year hiatus because of the writer’s strike.

Summary

Season 7 Episode 1: 8:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m.

The Season 7 premiere of 24, the intensely acclaimed TV drama, starts with Michael Latham, chief engineer who designed the government’s infrastructure security system Homeland’s Firewall Project, being kidnapped by a group of thugs. Jack Bauer is on trial in front of the United States Senate regarding his supposed human rights violations because of his use of “unusual” interrogation methods. Jack Bauer is pulled out from the hearing, by FBI Agent Renee Walker, because he is again needed because of a national security situation.

The terrorists, who are currently aided by previous CTU agent Tony Almeida, have obtained a device which is able to breach the government’s security infrastructure.

General Benjamin Juma on the other hand is propagating mass genocide in Sangala. The White House, with President Allison Taylor in office, is contemplating on whether they should interfere with Sangala’s situation or just let innocent people die.

Apparently Tony Almeida’s turncoat on the government, as perceived by the FBI, has been brought about by previous President Charles Logan’s initiated attacks on his personal life, leading to the death of his wife, Michelle Dessler. Jack Bauer is then tasked to find Tony because they have the same roots, process of thoughts, and previously worked on the CTU (now disbanded) together.

The CIP firewall protects every major infrastructure system. Breaching the CIP firewall opens the gate to the nation’s most important resources such as energy, transportation, utilities. The terrorists, through the help of Michael Latham, have managed to hack through the CIP firewall and have the ability to control air traffic.

Henry Taylor, the first gentleman, digs into his curiosity about the real cause of his son’s death. Although reports indicate that his son committed suicide, he believes otherwise and gets a private investigator to look for leads to his son’s death.

Jack Bauer finds a lead in Gabriel Schecter, a supplier whom Jack and Tony used to buy from, off the records. FBI Agent Walker and Jack drop in to extract information from Schecter. Just as Schecter was about to talk, he was shot by one of the men that Tony is working with.

The terrorists have pryed through the communication lines of some commercial flights and are controlling their flight path.

Season 7 Episode 2: 9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.

Tony’s group has seized control of Global Skies Flight 117, the pilot thinks he still is communicating with air traffic control personnel. The terrorists plan to demonstrate to the government that they mean serious business.

Meanwhile the President of the United States meets with Sangala former Prime Minister Ule Matobo to discuss stopping the mass genocide being perpetrated by General Benjamin Juma in Sangala.

Iké Dubaku, General Benjamin Juma’s right-hand man, is on United States soil and planning a series of severe attacks against the US, should they interfere with the current events happening at Sangala.

FBI Agent Walker along with Jack Bauer follow a lead on a person which could possibly lead them to the location of Tony Almeida. Meanwhile Henry Taylor confronts his son’s girlfriend Samantha Roth, to further know about the cause of his death. The FBI Agent and Jack’s follow-up enable them to locate Tony Almeida and capture him.

Review

Probaby 90% of the cast is unknown, even to avid fans of the show. The 7th season of 24 marks the disbandment of CTU, which hands anti-terrorism duties over to the FBI. It’s also marks the first time in the series that filming location is not in Los Angeles, or at least they make it not appear like so.

Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is subpoenaed by the US government to appear in a court hearing, to be questioned on his unusual methods of coercing information out of an individual. Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard) magically rises from the dead, and apparently now works against the government. FBI Agent Renee Walker (Annie Wersching) personality appears to be in parallel with that of Jack, she gets the job done knowing that she might face dire consequences. Janis Gold (Janeane Garofalo), FBI’s counterpart of Chloe O’ Brian, evidently knows her way around computers. The first female President in the 24 universe, Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones), shows tremendous effort in governing the needs of the country and shows that she has the guts to go against people to make morally right decisions.

It does seem like the writers of 24 have replicated CTU’s crew in the FBI. 24 is the same old fast paced action-drama series everyone has come to know and love. As to what other twists the writers have in store for us, let’s just wait and see. The 2-hour season premiere leaves many questions unanswered, why is Tony now working for terrorists? What is going to happen in Sangala? What happened to the previous CTU crew? Can the FBI actually handle things as good as CTU, even by doing things by the book?