24 Recap: The Heart of the Tragic Hero Wins Out in His Own Redemption

Jack Bauer is a man who is defined by many character traits, but heart and compassion aren’t always the first two that come to mind. But those were two traits that categorized the end of Jack’s reign on the television version of 24 which ended last night. I’m sure the reviews of last night will be mixed. Some people I know loved it and thought it was a great ending for a great television show that revolutionized how we watch TV. Others (our body count man from the bottom of the posts, Ari, for one) hated it and think that it was an injustice for the last two hours of a great action drama like 24 to have so little actual action and drama. Myself? I come somewhere in the middle. I think the writer’s took an easy way out but because they are making a movie and because of the American-superhero-like persona that Jack represents, it was the right move for the ending. But as the show’s final minutes ticked down, I don’t know whether I was sadder for Jack or sadder for the show which I’d been watching since a freshman in college was coming to an end. The truth is that unlike LOST (which the writers swear up and down is over in any and all forms including spin-offs), 24 is still an unfinished book and until we see the movie(s?), we haven’t really seen how 24 and the Jack Bauer story wraps up. But let’s recap the end of the television version one last time, shall we?

Redemption

Redemption is not just the name of the made-for-TV-movie that Jack and company did as a prequel for Season 7—it’s also a theme that kept on coming up last night. First redemption for those who kept 24 alive amidst cries to cancel the show before Season 8 even started. It wasn’t on the level of Seasons 1-5, but Season 8 was the best season since and was redemptive for the 24 writers who got royally killed (in this blog and elsewhere) for Season 6 and the ridiculous end to Season 7. But it was also a form of redemption for Jack Bauer the character who wanted nothing more than to finally get the justice he deserved for the people who were behind Freckle’s death. Sort of...maybe...ugh, not really.

I assume that’s where most of the audience’s frustration lies. Jack—personally—got no redemption. He didn’t kill Yuri Suvarov, the Russian mastermind behind the attack. He didn’t kill President Taylor who was behind the cover-up. He didn’t even kill Logan’s Executive Assistant who was spared by pulling the “D card” on Jack: he had a daughter. But most of all, fans like me are somewhat frustrated that he didn’t pull the trigger on Charles Logan. The man responsible for the deaths of President David Palmer, Michelle Dressler, Freckles, President Hassan, and many others was a man that Jack had in his grasp so many times—but was never fully able to pull the trigger. When Jack finally relented on pulling the trigger on Suvarov, he had a chance to just take out Logan and call it a day.

But instead, Logan was able—I think—to take his own life*. The big aside here, as I’ve pointed out, is that Jack was teetering on a fine line in so many ways the past few episodes but no more than the audience’s good will towards him. President Taylor’s assassination would have been counterproductive to any goal he was going after and make him into a hypocrite. I’m not saying that people wouldn’t have cheered the death of Suvarov or Logan or Logan’s Executive Assistant, Pillar, but executing Pillar in cold blood or assassinating a Russian president from a sniper rifle would have been a bit much for some to handle. It tarnishes Jack’s image as the one who always makes the correct decisions in the end. If Jack’s supposed to represent the ultimate American male, what would it say about us as a society if Jack had done one of those things? Logan may have been the one exception but even he was a former President and letting Jack go at the end would not have been as easy a decision.

*Side Note: The ending was pretty vague about whether he was successful—is he now a vegetable? Or are they trying to leave it open ended for the movie futures of the show? I don’t really get it though I think it was just that he did it so he couldn't tell them Jack Bauer's location. But wouldn't being dead accomplish that? Not sure why they chose to mention he was still barely alive...

I still think they should have had Jack kill him. I kept on waiting for Aaron Pierce to show up* and put a few bullets into Logan’s face. Or Wayne Palmer (who also had a reason to kill him). The fact that Logan was able to cowardly put a gun under his chin while he was locked in a room a la Warden Norton from Shawshank Redemption (H/T Jay...and there's that word again) was tough for me to swallow. Jack had him in his grasp in Season 5, Season 6 and now Season 8 and Logan—who has deserved a bullet from Jack as much as very few people in the history of the show besides Nina Myers—escaped Jack’s punishment. If one remembers, Logan had a gun out and was ready to off himself in Season 5 when circumstances intervened to keep him alive. This time, he just did the deed.

*Side Note: And herein lies my biggest disappointment of Season 8: the only 24 season with Aaron Pierce. While Jack has been shown as a beacon of light and a symbol of someone who does right, he looks like OJ Simpson compared to Aaron Pierce. And with Pierce’s absolute hatred for Logan, he would have been the most logical person after Jack to take down the former president. Alas, no Pierce for Season 8, though I’m still holding out hope for the movie version.

But I like that the ending of 24 was as bittersweet as the rest of the show. It wasn't a "hug it out, bitch" ending like LOST or some other TV shows have done and, really, it shouldn't have been that. It wasn't Jack's death, though I debated whether that would have been appropriate* and ultimately thought it would have been okay, but I'm glad they didn't take that route, though in some ways I was rooting with Jack that the shooter at the end would pull the trigger for his sake. I will point out that it wasn't really a series finale and it didn't really feel like that in some ways. But, as Annie Wersching (Freckles) posted on Twitter, the last two hours of 24 occurred between 2...and 4. Pretty cool.

*Side Note: As I've said in the past, you cannot kill Jack in the finale and then make a movie a prequel. The whole idea of a movie is the question of "will Jack die in the end?" If you know that the answer is no (because it's a prequel), you eliminate a lot of that mystery which will kill the amount of viewers you get. I guarantee you that more will flock to the theaters to see this movie if they don't know if Jack will live or die by the end.

Some Highlights/Lowlights and FP jr Ripping

I won't go through a full recap, but I will throw out some of my highlights from last night. Jack's whole relationship with Logan's EA, Pillar, was awesome from his hostage taking, to his threatening, to Pillar's stitching Jack up, to Jack knocking him out, to Jack Mike Tyson'ing  him with an amazing ear bite. Between last week's Robocop and last night's antics, Jack's bad-ass persona survived until the very end. I can't say it's easy being in his shoes because, really, how many lead actors have had that much screen time over 8, 24-episode seasons (plus Redemption)? Still, through it all and up to the very end, Jack never failed to surprise and always excited in his actions. Kudos, Kiefer*.

*Side Note: Kiefer was asked by EW whether he considered Jack an anti-hero and here was what Kiefer answered: "I think so, because my perception of a hero is someone who is victorious at the end of the day, and I don’t think Jack was ever that." I'm curious if everyone else agrees with that assessment? When I think of anti-hero I think of Yossarian from Catch-22, Batman, or even Jack Shephard from LOST...but probably not Jack Bauer from 24. Though I'm warming to the idea. I still think he's a tragic hero (and I'll describe why later), but I'm interested to hear what you all think in the comments.

Yet not much happened in the final two hours in that sense. He didn't actually kill anyone which was so-un-Jack Bauer and a tough way--in my mind, at least--to end the show. It was a little bit of a mixed season (some good, some bad, some recycled) and I was glad there was no ridiculous twist at the end like FP jr was working with the Russians or Arlo The Horndog was Denny's lover on the side and was going to carry out her legacy. No, the ridiculousness with the Denny plot died with her, thankfully.

Also thankfully, President Taylor (and Cherry Jones, the actress) decided to show up to work for the final episodes. I don't know whether it was the writers making her role suck or it was just Jones mailing it in, but her character has teetered from annoying to unbearable too much in the second half of this season. The fact that she showed so much remorse and so much sickness with herself was a nice twist in a very convenient plot line (omg! The President decided to do the right thing in the end? Didn't see that coming...). It was interesting to see how far she would go to protect this lie (threatening to bomb the Fake Islamic Nation back into the Stone Age), but in the end, it was such a stupid plot line and so ridiculousness that the peace treaty needed to die and her presidency needed to go with it. But in its wake we got a riveting scene between President Taylor and Dalia Hassan that left me wishing Dalia had bitch slapped the American president--the scene was pure 24 and it helped to recover some semblance of an OK ending to a poor plotline.

FP jr may have been his worst by the end but thankfully they didn't feature him all that much (except for that ridiculous idea for him to visit Jack's weapons guy). I'm not sure what the 24 writers were hoping for from an actor who, according to Rotten Tomatoes, has acted in one movie in his entire life that had positive reviews--and that was in 1997. Let's hope they have a convenient excuse to get him out of the movie. Maybe he moved to California and became husbands with one-handed Chase from Season 3.

In my opinion, Chloe put on her best performance of her time on the show. She's long been one of my favorite characters and her arc the past two episodes was compelling and real. She has long loved Jack and had his back and it was painful for her to be in the position she was in. She was the one voice of reason that allowed him to realize the mistake her was about to make (the collateral damage aspect was a biggie, it seemed) and that although he considered himself "judge and jury" that there was another way out. Chloe has been put in some tough spots by Jack and vice versa (the only reason he stayed in New York this season was because she begged him to) but in the end, they were a great, platonic couple and Chloe's guilt trip was what put Jack over the edge.

In a weird twist in the episode, it was Jack's guilt trip that put President Taylor over the edge. I was surprised to see that the card Jack gave to Chloe contained not a conversation between President Suvarov and Charles Logan but Jack's taped words (to Kim? his granddaughter Teri? Chloe? Taylor?). Those words were too much for Taylor to take and she broke down at the signing in classic-24 fashion. It all worked out way too conveniently for me, though, and I wish 24 had gone with a harder route (like the President signed it even knowing the consequences). But 24 knows they're going to a movie and I think they wanted to take the easy jump off instead of the hard ending. It was practical, but I can't say I wasn't a little disappointed.

My Favorite Scene

There was one scene that encapsulated everything was 24, in my opinion. It was the one where Jack called Logan and let him know that he had a sniper rifle aimed at him and ordered him to call in Suvarov. It's where Chloe converged on Jack and tried to talk him out of assassinating the Russian President. It had some snarky Jack humor and had everyone in suspense. It tore at your emotions and your conscious and was deliciously exciting all at the same time. When Logan asked Jack what he would say to Suvarov, Jack tells him to "try the truth for a change." When Logan got off the phone and asked how he did to Jack, he replied "you're a world-class liar, I would've expected nothing less." It was Chloe who convinced Jack to abandon his "I am judge and jury" quest at the end and Jack forced her to shoot him. Between Chloe, Jack, and Logan, this was the best 24 had to offer and I have to admit, the whole scene had me at the edge of my seat. Loved it.

Conclusions

It was scenes like this (and what we've been experiencing the past half five weeks or so), that allowed us to forget about the absurdity of the show. We had so much action that we didn't have time to decompress that much and think about this farce of a peace agreement. Jack was somewhat, well, neutered by the final hour and we didn't get to see enough classic Jack that it would allow us time to move away from thinking about the fact that Milton's body is still rotting in the walls of CTU or any of the other issues from earlier in the season.

But despite all this, it worked for me. I would have loved Jack to drop the Russian and American president and take out Logan too, but it just wasn't happening, especially with a movie coming up. But this was a clean, easy way to end it, and, when all else is considered, I think the right move by the writers. You needed to leave a plausible jumping off to the movie (though how a man with a bullet hole, broken ribs and multiple stab wounds gets out of the country is beyond me), and this provided it. I can't say that I'm not a bit disappointed that it didn't end with more of a BANG, but it left with its original themes in tact and I'll take a Fugitive-style Jack any day over one that is being shipped off to Death Row for killing a President.

This season, in my opinion, was saved by the presence of Logan, who like the snake in the Garden of Eden was just the right type of evil to allow the plot to unfold like it did. Logan was evil through-and-through and even more so because he continually convinced himself and others he was doing the right thing. His speech in the last episode to President Taylor that she needed to kill Jack Bauer because no matter where she sent him, he'd rise up again and come after them was great and compelling. Gregory Itzkin (and his piercing blue eyes) did a great job in that role and it was a shame the character had to end in that way. I continually thought Jack Bauer would be spared public scrutiny for killing people like Freckles' sniper and the Russian delegate, and I still think he would have been spared the same scorn if he had offed President Logan. But maybe it was more appropriate that Logan went out like a coward. Maybe.

But Jack's unhinging and questionable moral compass still pointed north when it counted most and the person who always has seemed to calibrate him was Chloe. 24 was not afraid to debate some of the bigger political issues of the time from torture, to civil liberties, to muzzling the press, to preemptive war. And for many years it's been Chloe's voice that has sounded those issues which have been debated back and forth. When Jack said to Chloe "when you first came to CTU, I never thought it was going to be you that was going to cover my back all those years" it made two of us. When Chloe came on the scene, she seemed more about comic relief and her "Chloe faces" than the ultimate Jack sidekick she became. Jack was the brawn and Chloe was the brains. Here's hoping they link them up in the movie to the same degree.

And it was the same Chloe who wrapped up the show by saying "shut it down". Her tears are the end were for all of us and for Jack who has never allowed himself to fully grieve. Instead of the anti-hero, I see him as the tragic hero, the man who saves the day but is never at peace after it. Season 1 he loses his wife at the very end, Season 3 he ends one of his toughest days by slamming the steering wheel of a car, Season 4 he ends by fleeing the country, Season 5 he ends on a slow boat to China. So it was right that Season 8 and the TV-version of 24 would not have a happy ending and it would not leave Jack at peace. But the fact that Jack's heart won out at the end--when so many of his greatest conquests have been through his smarts or his brawn--was an interesting way to end it. It showed a man who had been through so much. It left us all with the feeling that he still had something yet to accomplish.

And so a day after I bade adieu to LOST on this blog, I will do the same with 24--though this time, I will have the comfort of knowing there is still more to come and Jack will rise again to kick some more ass. I can't wait.

Season Grade: A-/B+. Good, solid season. Better than 6 or 7, worse than the first 5. That's all I can ask of the 8th season after so many of the plot lines have been used over and over again. The worst parts were Denny's subplot, Denny and FP jr, and the peace agreement. Otherwise, it was a solid season of Jack killings and a good wrap up of an epic. And as the picture on the right shows, you needed to end up with Jack as a broken man and he certainly was that by the end of the 8 longest days of his life. I think in the end, I'm OK with Jack's heart winning out and him being good (although it was fun to see him on a take-no-names killing rampage). I'll just miss him saying "dammit" all the time.

Best line of the week/Best moment of the week: "You're a world-class liar, I would've expected nothing less" Jack to Logan. I described it above and it was truly an awesome scene. Who knew that the best scene of the final episodes of 24 would take place inside a utility closet. I really loved it and truly had no clue what was going to happen (I kept on waiting for Jack to just shoot Logan for the heck of it). When I miss this show being on television, it'll mostly be because of scenes like that.

Ari's body count: 105. Not bad for 24 hours. Mayor Bloomberg is not going to be happy about all those deaths in his city.

What is there left to say? Probably a lot. That's why I'll open up the comments. And probably write another post at some point. Go down to the comments and let us know what you thought of the finale and help us say good-bye to Jack Bauer on television.

Pictures from FOX.com