24: Season 3 (Slim Packaging)

It has been three years (show time) since the last season. Jack has been working under cover with some drug lords. In doing so, he has picked up a heroin habit he has kept secret. He's not really interested in the drug trade but the drug lords have ties to terrorists with some nasty plans.This season has many characters from previous seasons and some new ones. The plot twists are more unexpected than ever before and the geographic range is wider but the season as a whole seems to start off slower. It DOES pick up and it is another excellent effort.Episode Synopses appear below:1 PM - 2 PM - Jack has spent a year under cover to get the goods on a drug dealer. This guy has ties to terrorism and a deal is about to be cut where the dealer, Salazar, will give up information. In the middle of signing the deal, Salazar takes a pen and murders his lawyer giving an ominous warning. About the same time, a body is dropped off which is infected with a deadly virus. A phone call reveals that the virus will be released into the general population unless Salazar is released. This is a bug which can kill millions in days.2 PM - 3 PM - President Palmer gives CTU carte blanche to do whatever is needed to find the bio terrorists. They get and ID on the dead body which turns out to be a low level drug dealer. Jack heads out for his last known address to try and backtrack. He nails a suspect who gives up the name of a dumb kid being used as a mule to smuggle the weapon in. It looks like regular cocaine. Kim, Jack's daughter, is now working at CTU. She is dating an agent and Jack doesn't like it. CTU has worse problems, though, there is yet another mole loose working there.3 PM - 4 PM - Jack Bauer knows the location of the mule carrying the virus and is getting set to raid the place but the kid makes the mistake of getting in a fight with his father who suspects he is a drug dealer. The kid doesn't know what he's carrying but the virus doesn't care. The bag is ripped in the fight and the kid fleas. The mom makes things worse when the feds bust in. She doesn't want her kid going to jail so she tries to flush the evidence. She flushes the wrong stuff. Salazar manages to get out without the BIG THREAT. A guard breaks him out because his own son in being held hostage. President Palmer has more problems. He is running for re-election and his opponent is ready to spread some dirt. Further problems come from the mole in CTU and from Kim's boyfriend who is a hothead. Because the mole has the kid under surveillance, the agent who tries to get the kid gets hit.4 PM - 5 PM - The infected kid escapes the sting set up to get him and gets away from the Feds but not from the BAD guys tailing him. Salazar's brother is the guy organizing the terror plot to release his brother. He's got extra problems. His girlfriend is giving him grief about sucking her father and brother into the nasty business. Jack decides that the only way to save the city is to go under very deep cover. He clears it with the president and then proceeds to break Salazar out on his own. In doing so, he further antagonizes Kim's boyfriend. The Bureau of Prisons can't be too happy with him either.5 PM - 6 PM - The big prison break is not going well. In order to stage a diversion, Jack opens all the cell blocks and tries to sneak out in the ensuing prison riot. This does not work out too well. Jack and Salazar are both captured. Now the cons and the feds are both after his hide and Salazar wants a piece as well. He has to take to the air. Jack's involvement in the breakout has extensive repercussions. Kim comes under suspicion because she is his daughter. The investigation of his office turns up evidence that Jack is a drug addict. Kim turns up some evidence that not everything is going well at CTU. The cloud over her head makes her reluctant to let anyone know. The president goes forward with his debate and, as expected, his opponent starts throwing around dirt. He does not handle it well although he does handle it with integrity.6 Pm - 7 PM - Jack gets away with Salazar but does not realize that the kid has been captured. The higher ups at CTU want to shoot down his chopper but are hesitant because of his relationship with the president. The president is contacted and asked to make a decision. This takes place during a live, national debate. The president abruptly leaves the debate and has to make a decision over whether to fire or not. He makes the decision but it comes too late. Jack and Salazar escape. That is bad because it turns out the kid is not the vector for the virus. Something else is planned and Jack has now gotten himself kidnapped by Salazar's gang. Worse, Kim discovers the mole at CTU just as it discovers her.7 PM - 8 PM Whoa! This one goes in some unexpected directions. Most of it takes place on the plane in which Jack and Salazar are heading to Mexico. Salazar is impatient to kill Jack. Jack doesn't want to be killed but there is more than just self preservation going on. The mole at CTU is being sweated and clearly knows more. What his involvement is turns out to be truly mind boggling. The president is trying to conduct damage control for his campaign. He is hampered by being truthful, by his brother who serves as chief of staff and is more interested in politics than truth and by a girlfriend who takes it into her own head to right the political wrongs done to him.8 PM - 9 PM - Jack, Tony and an unexpected member of CTU are involved in a sting operation of gigantic proportions. When they clue the president in on it, he is hacked off but sees no choice but to continue. There is a virus. The wildcard in the deck is Kim's boyfriend. He has no idea what is going on and is going to make a serious attempt to screw up the operation. The attempt succeeds. The president's girlfriend heads out to try and stave off the political damage but gets herself in over her head.9 PM - 10 PM - Salazar and his brother are finally beginning to trust Jack. This trust is predicated on his willingness to kill his former partner and on him being the one to make contact with the guys selling the virus. Special Forces are in place ready to grab the virus and rescue Jack but there is a problem. In his scuffle with his partner, his tracking beacon went dead so no one knows exactly where he is. Jack does head for the meet but there is another complication. Somebody else wants to buy the virus. The seller wants to set up an auction. When the other buyer shows up, she knows Jack and does not trust him. The auction does not go well. Back at CTU everyone is struggling to find out where Jack is but Tony is not functioning at full capacity. The earlier bullet to his neck is affecting his ability to think. The President gets a call from an old friend. The friend wants to meet him without his brother present. He has reason not to trust the brother, the chief of staff, and wants him fired. The president does not respond well to threats and the friend does not respond well to refusal.10 PM - 11 PM - Jack and Salazar get in touch with CTU to try and track the seller of the virus; the Salazars still think their mole is in play. They manage to get the location where Nina is going to meet the seller but Jack gets himself captured by Nina. He does manage to get her interest is possibly betraying her employers. The president is not happy with the way his brother has behaved but is not willing to give in to blackmail either. Neither is he willing to sit still and let an old friend blackmail him. He calls in the queen of dirty tricks: he calls his ex wife. Jack's partner manages to escape from the Salazars with the help of Hector Salazar's girlfriend and her father and little brother but the girl doesn't make it. Now, he is stuck and awaiting rescue. Getting the virus takes priority.11 PM - 12 AM - Jack manages to turn the tables on Nina and now she is his prisoner. She is forced into agreeing with setting up a meet for the transfer of the virus. Jack manages to let CTU know where it will happen but tensions and nerves are getting frayed. One of the Salazars is getting cold feet and the other is determined to proceed. The Confrontation gets ugly. Nina is using this tension to further her own goals. The president's brother and ex-wife get together and start plotting. Each has a political motive.12 AM - 1 AM - Salazar is cold blooded. His brother is gone but he is ready to go through with the transfer. Everything is set up. Salazar is staking out the transfer and CTU is staking out Salazar. Lots of things have to go right. Nothing does. The transfer takes place but a premature shot sends everyone scurrying. In the confusion, Nina escapes and so does Salazar. Salazar is caught again but he does not appear to have the virus. The brokers have pulled a double cross and everyone is left hanging out to dry. The Ex Mrs. Palmer is not having any better luck. Her attempts to get some dirt on the opposition founder in confusion.1 AM - 2 AM - The virus broker has escaped and is on his way to Los Angeles. Nina has been captured and is being transported back to CTU. She gives up some useful information but when she offers more, she dupes CTU into releasing a computer worm that starts destroying their computer network. She refuses to tell them how to stop the spread of the worm unless she is released. The president's ex wife is still up to her own brand of skullduggery and makes contact with the wife of the man trying to blackmail the president. She too turns out to be a backstabbing b*tch. Though frightened, she is convinced that if she can get the goods on her husband, he will go to prison and she will get his money. She gets caught by the husband but it's of no consequence since the two women manage to arrange for his heart attack. CTU manages to narrowly avert the computer disaster but that leads to its own complications. The Geek who fixes the network is in trouble because of a strange baby she is taking care of. When she is finally forced to reveal who the baby belongs to, Kim Bauer is not amused.2 AM - 3 AM - Nina is in custody at CTU. She is being interrogated but not giving up much in the way of information. She manipulates even her interrogators and uses an injury to herself to plan an escape. It goes badly for all involved. Jack is being interrogated also. His interrogation is because he was a heroin junkie while under cover with the Salazars. The higher ups are willing to lie to make his story sound better but Jack is not. The president is interrogating his ex wife. She claims she has nothing to do with his opponent's death but the president doesn't trust her.3 AM - 4 AM - The president's wife is implicated in the death of the guy trying to blackmail the president but manages to avert suspicion for a while. The wife of the blackmailer is the prime suspect and she is dragging the president's brother into the matter. CTU gets a location on the virus courier and makes a bust but they are too late. They get the courier but not the mastermind.4 AM - 5 AM - Jack finds evidence that the target is a hotel and a team is dispatched there. They catch the terrorist but not before his device goes off in the main ventilation system. He claims that there are eleven more but will not give up their locations. All that is known is that the planners for this escapade have some sort of history with Jack Bauer. Whether this history is from working in conjunction or opposition is not known and the guys in custody are too scared of Mr. Big to tell CTU. Jack arranges for one of the guys to escape so he can be followed but Mr. Big eliminates the guy first. Mr. Big then calls Jack. He still doesn't identify himself but demands to talk to the president. He has big demands. The president is having more troubles with his ex wife. She owns up to being involved in the death of his opponent but then threatens the president with plausible lies if he tells the truth. The people isolated in the hotel are beginning to panic. Some are showing symptoms and all want to leave. Leaving will spread the virus but CTU does not seem to have enough people on the premises to contain the situation.5 AM - 6 AM - CTU now knows who is running the terror threat. He is a former British agent who worked with Jack in Kosovo. He was presumed dead but he is very much alive and looking to kill unless the president does exactly as he wants. He starts out small. The president just has to hold a press conference on any subject whatsoever and utter a code phrase. From there, he goes on. He wants the president to have the division director of CTU killed. Jack has a lead involving a Madame who used to do business with the chief bad guy. He tracks her down and takes her into custody to deliver to British intelligence. He gets her there but the place comes under attack from armed terrorists and many are killed including the woman. Jack does make it out, however, with a vital piece of hardware. People at the hotel are starting to drop.6 AM - 7 AM - The president steps across a big line. The terrorist orders him to kill the divisional director of CTU and the threat of millions of innocent deaths makes him concede. Shappel's only hope is to figure out what why he has been marked for death and follow the lead to the terrorist. The terrorist is one step ahead, however and is hacked off that they tried to get him. That means that Shappel has to die. He is not a very likeable character but, in this case, one feels sorry for him. More bad news comes when it is realized that somebody has escaped from the hotel and that person is likely carrying the virus. The icing on the cake is that the press is beginning to snoop around and they are going to do their best to turn a tragedy into an even bigger tragedy.7 AM - 8 AM - Shappel is dead and his execution is trying everyone in knots but life goes on...and so does the threat of death for millions. The head terrorist finally reveals his agenda. He is an America hater and wants to dismantle the entire US military and intelligence operation. CTU gets one lead. They find out that the terrorist has a daughter in college in Santa Barbara. They want to talk to the daughter about her father but suspect that she is under surveillance. They decide to pull a switch but the only agent who can pass for the daughter is Kim Bauer. They pull off the switch but she is soon caught by a terrorist. While trying to escape, she shoots him. The guy who escaped from the hotel quarantine is showing symptoms. That means he is contagious. He is caught in an emergency room but not before he had contact with other people. There is now the potential for wide spread contamination.8 AM - 9 AM - The virus is out and is starting to spread but CTU finally has a way to locate the terrorist. They have his daughter and convince her of her father's doings. She gives them a private phone number for him. Through this, they are able to locate his position. He knows they are coming but waits in place anyway. He has gained some serious leverage over a CTU member and persuades him to botch the apprehension. The press is getting more and more restless and the president has to clamp down on them. At the same time, he draws a line in the sand. He will not knuckle under any more. Meanwhile, 11 other vials of the virus are still in play.9 AM - 10 AM - The terrorist gets away because he holds the wife of the CTU director hostage. This seems to be a hostage situation that will just keep growing and the terrorist will get more and more mileage out of it. The situation is used to force Tony to break the daughter out of CTU. The president's ex wife contacts the opposition candidate. She wants to sell out her ex husband and frame him for the death of the extortionist. She's reaching for power again.10 AM - 11 AM - Jack catches Tony as he flees with the daughter. He forces him into trying a sting operation. Meanwhile, the wife escapes custody and manages to place a call to CTU. Jack convinces her to let herself be caught again so that they can pin down the kingpin. For a change, the exchange goes well from CTU's point of view. They have their prisoner but they still do not know where the other vials of the virus are and the kingpin shows no sign of cracking. The opposition candidate confronts the president with another blackmail scheme. He is insisting that he withdraw from the race. This leads the president's brother to look for some dirty tricks of his own.11 AM - 12 PM - The head terrorist is in custody but the virus is still in play and he will not reveal it's whereabouts. Not even pleas from his daughter are effective. He has a cause and is willing to die for it. Jack has to get dirty. He threatens to put the daughter in the infected hotel unless they get the information. That works for 10 of the 11 vials but the last one is till in play. It is in Los Angeles but even the head guy does not know where. He just gave instructions for it to be put into a "very public place with maximum casualties". Tony is in lots of trouble over his part in breaking out the terrorist's daughter. The bureaucrats are even talking about the death penalty. The president is setting up a meeting with his ex wife. He is trying to distract her while his brother and a burglar break into her place and steal the damning evidence. She gives him an ultimatum and he plays along but she gets suspicious and leaves. She returns home while the burglars are burgling. The brother tries to wimp out but the professional burglar lands the most satisfying punch in the history of television. They get the evidence they need but then the widow of the former blackmailer shows up and makes a hash of the situation. The last vial is located on an LA subway but they still don't know who it is whose doing the dirty work. They manage to grab the guy with the tracking device but it seems it was planted on him. The last terrorist is still at large.12 Pm - 1 PM - The subway where the virus is presumably located has been locked down but they still have no idea who controls the virus. A video link is established so that the head terrorist can ID the courier. He doesn't get to do his job though. The widow of one of the agents killed by the virus grabs a gun and kills him before he can make the ID. They get a good idea of who he is, though, when he flees and leads Jack and his agents on a high speed chase that ends at a middle school. They get their man but not without a few unexpected plot twists. The episode has taken its toll on the president. He makes an honorable decision. I wish he was really running for office.

Thus reads the back of the boxed DVD set.Fox's primetime hit series =24= has peaked new heights in edge-of-your-seat storytelling with its third - and best - season. Commercials provide the only pause, the only letup, in this colossally suspenseful terror-trip.For those who would do so, there is no need to bash it for being less than perfect - nobody could expect absolute flawlessness from 980 minutes of television drama, no matter how refined. I will briefly mention the two foremost problems. (1) That so many events of such large and interrelated significance would take place, all within twenty-four hours, stretches probability way beyond the breaking point. (2) I have had the privilege of working occasionally with a substantial number of Spanish speakers; consequently, I can say that, for the show, the Mexicans should have spoken to and among each other always in Spanish, very nearly never in English (a problem with the Czecks in the first season as well). But the handling of the story is so very good that, understanding and accepting these and other minor flaws, most of us can suspend our disbelief.Jack is back! - this time to stop terrorists from unleashing a weaponized virus into the American public. The quest to capture it takes him through twists and turns, to a Los Angeles prison, northern Mexico, run-down neighborhoods, a hotel, subway, and an elementary school. This time the threat is biological ... on a virtually unimaginable scale.Since the series began in the fall of 2001, coinciding, as it would, with the awful tragedy of 9/11, the characters have become quite distinguishable, possessing interesting personalities, and colorful - if in some cases annoying - subtleties. Most of the acting appears quite convincing; as network dramas go, there is minimal contrivance. I shall go quickly through those at CTU and the president's company, first; followed by the terrorists, second. Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) has a secret this time, and he seems genuinely fearful of being exposed. We have a Tony (Carlos Bernard) who, not suprisingly, is down-to-earth, sometimes rigidly so, yet every now and then we see that he carries at his side a sense of compassion. Michelle (Reiko Aylesworth) has married, and though occasionally it doesn't look like she's handling things splendidly at first, we see quite the turnaround later. Kim Baeur works at CTU, not far removed from boyfriend Chase Edmunds, a newbie to the team. Those who like having Kim remain in the series but dislike the idea of her working for CTU should consider the alternative: Kim, on the outside, getting herself into further trouble. We watched this during Season One, then we were thrown the same KIND of thing in Season Two. Chase Edmunds is a tough guy; the more we see of him, the more we think, `Here is a would-be Jack'. Chloe (a quirky, annoying, protocol-wary technician), Adam (efficiency-loving), and Gaiel (cautious, ostensibly a mole) are new sign-ons as well. Finally, getting much more screen time than in Season Two, Regional Director Ryan Chappelle - a no-nonsense, give-it-to-me-straight boss. President David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) remains the strong moral compass we grew to admire in the first two seasons. But this time, it's not just him dealing with interpersonal problems within his own campaign and the ensuing damage to the outside world. Here we see how he responds to new situations, posed by the competing political party (Republicans, we may say, given Sherry's Season One statement to that effect) toward his own campaign, as opposed to the press and personal staff adversaries of the earlier seasons. And later in the third, we come upon a nasty and inevitable dirty struggle between the president and his much-needed contributor, Alan, who tries to extort him. In the middle is Alan's wife, Julia, not wanting to get involved but eventually forced to. How will David deal with new problems that tempt new compromises, as his steadfast morality goes head to head with the convenience of relativism? Taking Mike's place as chief advisor is his brother Wayne, whose broader philosophy is at least faintly like, however much less devious than, Sherry's. She, too, is back ... with intent more malicious than anything we've seen from her yet.Now, for the terrorists. In particular, Joaquim de Almeida does a terrific job portraying Ramon Salazar, the initially incarcerated leader of a north Mexican drug cartel. He looks, feels, and smells like a bad guy in every conventional way. His younger brother Hector is believable as a second-man in charge (even if the director should not have cast them as brothers; they don't `look' at all like family). Nina returns, escaping confinement in North Africa, and as we've seen what she is capable of in One and Two, it is not that difficult to imagine. Former CTU mole, conspirator in a domestic nuclear attack, and now buyer of a biological superweapon, Nina is more of a matter-of-fact `bad guy': a cold, sinister, `I-just-enjoy-this'-type killer. Michael Amador is an arms dealer, reserved in nature, and we think we know his intentions .... Alvers is a loyal agent in Stephen Saunders' plan, sent to distribute the virus in L.A. Saunders himself is the worst terrorist - a man with a single weakness - as he sets into motion a diabolical arrangement that more terrible than anything that's come before it. A final note: a teenager named Kyle Singer, while not a terrorist per se, constitutes part of the plan to deliver the package.Several hours into the season, a drastic plot shift will hit most first-time viewers more or less like a freight train. As in One and Two, perhaps the best reason the bad guys keep falling is, well, they underestimate Jack. Consistently: from Hector to Jack's airplane guard to Ramon to Amador to Alvers and even Saunders. Nina seems to be the only exception ... which makes sense enough, given their past. (Sorry, I can't reveal what happens to her.)I don't think I've ever seen one other network series attempt what =24= has. It would not be exaggerating, nor employing hyperbole, to say that if enough things went wrong over the course of trying to take and contain the virus, it is entirely possible that the vast majority of the WORLD's population might have perished, probably within several weeks. In no other show have I witnessed TV drama so carefully weave together a tapestry of plot and subplot, push the limits of suspense, raise the stakes as high - with so very, very many lives caught in the balance - or represent so tenacious, so persistent, or so very deadly-serious a counter-terrorist agent as Jack Baeur.The DVD set contains six episode discs, as well as a seventh for commentary, deleted scenes, and other extras.