’24: Legacy’: Dan Bucatinsky on the show’s first
Every week, actor Dan Bucatinsky, who plays CTU analyst Andy Shalowitz, a.k.a. the new Chloe O’Brian, takes EW readers behind the scenes of the action-packed 24: Legacy with his blog. Here, he takes us into episode 105, “4:00 PM – 5:00 PM.” Take it away, Dan!
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Okay, if you haven’t seen the show, you’ve missed almost half the episodes. BINGE them STAT! Hulu, Fox Now… it’s available, people.
The show takes place over the course of ONE day. In REAL time! Eric Carter (Corey Hawkins) is an ex-Army Ranger who helped take down a terrorist leader named Bin Khalid. Today, a homeless, disgruntled fellow ex-Ranger Grimes discovers he has a computer drive with a list of sleeper cells to trigger terrorist acts across the U.S. But of course, now it’s in the hands of the terrorists.
WHAT YOU MISSED: I thought 104 might be my favorite – but now, after seeing 105… I’m kind of into it. Here’s what happened.
Rebecca has discovered the surveillance photo of campaign manager Nilaa was a fake. Nilaa WASN’T the leak after all. The scene was played beautifully by Miranda Otto and Sheila Vand. Nilaa may be cleared, but her reputation potentially ruined. (It was around this time we got a whole new hair/make-up team. Check out hair inconsistencies. I notice these things. I’m gay, remember?)
Henry Donovan is taken away to CTU in handcuffs. He admitted to John he was responsible for leaking the names of the Rangers. But now he’s being interrogated by Rebecca and swears on his wife’s grave he had nothing to do with it. Donovan can’t believe what he’s hearing through the two-way mirror. He busts into the room and freaks out at his dad. Gerald McRaney is brilliant — playing the unflappable father, convinced the campaign stress is causing his son to imagine things!
Meanwhile, Grimes is taking Carter to see GABRIEL, who he claims will definitely reveal Jadalla’s whereabouts in exchange for the weapon schematics Andy stole and uploaded to Carter’s phone. ‘Cause that’s what CTU analysts do! Ask Chloe! We download and upload schematics. (What does that mean? Google it. I had to…) Grimes shaves his beard in the car. He seems like he’s sitting on a bunch of secrets. But, it’s 24… so, who isn’t?
Jadalla and his team of thugs have discovered the flash drive is corrupt. Jadalla wants it fixed before ANY of the cells are activated or terrorist acts triggered. He wants all 15 cells activated at once. But it’s clear some of his thugs have other ideas.
Amira and her brother, Khasan, are planning their attack. Their dad surprises them with a visit. Khasan doesn’t trust him. Which is okay, because his dad doesn’t trust his son either. He knows his kids are up to something and wants them to come home. Man, I know how hard it is to get my kids to stop playing Minecraft, so this guy trying to get his kids to call off a terrorist attack? So next level! Khasan won’t have it. He beats up his own dad and ties him up. Amira helps until he admits he’s diabetic and needs food. That’s when we see the chinks in her armor.
Isaac and Nicole return to his drug-dealing crib. Isaac is REALLY stressed out and wants his gang to cough up any info about Aisha two-timing him. Nicole wants out of the whole situation, but it’s clear Isaac still has feelings for her, making her the only one who can set him straight.
And, finally, Mullins has it out with Andy. He knows Andy leaked the Onyx weapons schematics to Carter but can’t prove it. Regardless, Andy is benched. No more CTU clearance. It’s back to filing and monitoring servers. No more access to schematics or subroutines. Rebecca knows she probably got Andy in trouble and calls to reassure him. But I mean, have you MET Andy, Rebecca? He’s impervious to reassurance. This call between Rebecca and Andy was shot months after we wrapped on 105. It was part of a whole list of reshoots to help solidify interpersonal relationships among the characters.
When Carter and Grimes get to Gabriel, we learn of an unsettled financial score between Grimes and this scary-looking dude. Kudos to the make-up team who created the endless scar and burned-out eye on Gabriel, a face nightmares are born from — at least mine. Gabriel asks Carter to prove himself by shooting Grimes as punishment. Carter refuses, PROVING what he’s really made of.
Gabriel’s men shoot Grimes anyway. Carter knocks out two of the thugs and grabs a gun to train on Gabriel. He wants to know where Jadalla is, but Gabriel says he has no idea. Carter calls CTU and directs them to come get Gabriel and his men. Gabriel kills himself before anyone can catch him, and Carter makes off with his computer.
WHAT YOU COULDN’T POSSIBLY KNOW: (Because you weren’t there. But I was…)
This was the first episode where one of our “regular” cast found out they were being killed. Painful for all of us, as we all got very close, very quickly. We’re a family. So when we read of Ben Grimes’ demise (I’m a poet!), we threw Charlie Hofheimer a surprise party. We all hid in Ashley Thomas’ apartment and tricked Charlie into coming upstairs to “help with an audition.” Ashley came to the door with a towel around his waist — the old “just in the shower” trick. And when Charlie entered, we all jumped out! As if he hadn’t been surprised and startled enough during that week. But he really appreciated it.
Also, this episode was the one I’d been told about from the beginning — the one where Andy is benched and loses clearance. It was a tough scene for me to play with Teddy Sears (Mullins) because we’re close friends (and roommates) and the scene required us to be serious with each other. We kept laughing. I kept calling him Director Melons. Finally, we got through a take.
While it was fun to think about what Andy might be like going rogue and everything, it was hard not to resent my roommate for practically firing Andy from his job. Not to mention, it was getting cold in Atlanta, and Teddy kept eating garlic to fight off illness. I mean, come on! That smell of GARLIC oozing out of his mouth and pores?! So we rode our bikes to Ponce City Market and bought candles for the apartment. That’s when I started thinking about our lives as roommates and a potential new comedy series called “Will and Chase”… Maybe? Stay tuned.
