I wouldn't say that the big sting operation twist in Season 3 is best characterized as a "detail."
And to further bolster my point, I direct you to
this article:
Quote:
...
It was all there, six episodes' worth, meticulously planned before the pilot was even broadcast: every exploding, collapsing, double-crossing, fate-of-the-nation, assassination-plot cliffhanger that would soon turn "24" into the most talked-about TV show of 2001.
Considering the complexities of the plots, and the fact that each season's 24 hour-long episodes (with a ticking countdown clock on screen at all times) sketch out a single crisis-filled day in the life of the nation, a precise outline would seem indispensable. Except, it didn't work out that way.
"That was the furthest ahead we were ever able to plan," Cochran says, wistfully, walking over to the first-season grid, touching it as if it were some kind of long-lost relic. "We were able to plan ahead maybe five or six episodes a couple of more times that season. In the second season, maybe three or four."
And this year?
He looks a little embarrassed. "This year, I would say . . . none."
Hard as it is to believe – and Cochran says no one from the outside ever believes it – the writers of "24" are pretty much making it up as they go along, this year more than ever...
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This makes sense to me as Season 4 was basically incoherent. If the writers really did plan the whole season ahead of time and the best they could come up with was six mini-plots in rapid succession involving the main villain escaping from the authorities no less than five times, that would have been pathetic.
Also,
an interview with Leslie Hope (Teri Bauer) reveals that the writers hadn't decided who the mole was going to be until near the 20th episode (Sarah Clarke, who plays Nina, didn't even know which is why her character shift was kind of jarring).
So yeah, the writers are, in fact, making it up as they go along. It's just that in Season 1, they were making it up five or six episodes at a time and apparently in Season 4 they were making it up almost as they shot it. I can accept the sort of plotting that resulted from the way they wrote Season 1, but Season 4 was simply a mess.