Letting Jack Go

I have to come right off and say I was a tremendous fan of the first hour of last night's two hour finale of 24 and couldn't stand the second hour. Kiefer Sutherland promised the "most dramatic 24 finale ever" and, well, it was a lot of drama. I always thought that 24 was miscast as a "drama". It was an action show. It was an intense show. The times when this show usually got the worse was in its dramatic scenes. There are clear exceptions--when President Palmer signed off on Jack's death in Season 2 with Nina pointing a gun at him, when Jack had to deal with Season 3's emotional weight at the end, or when Jack has felt betrayed by those close to him, to name three--bust most times, this show has sucked the life out of it by slowing it down and talking.

The show got probably got rid of one of its best characters of the season in Olivia Taylor. Trying to get back to the David Palmer mold of Presidents, Allison Taylor needed to tell the truth about her daughter (harking back to Season One's amazingly annoying plot of Keith Palmer's murderous ways). Olivia brought back the Sherry Palmer vibe in a big way. I thought she could have been an asset to the show next season. And she still may be. But how they ended things, I highly doubt that (unless it's to sabotage her mother's administration).

Kim Bauer's plot was...interesting. She almost got kidnapped again. She fought back. She set herself on fire. But she managed to stay out of cougar traps this time which is good. The odd part is she was very willing to get on a plane and let her father die. But then she finally found some duty to not only follow this guy who tried to kill her (which didn't look like it was going to end well), daringly retrieve his laptop from a burning car, and find the location of her father...but then also to go through the potentially harmful procedure to save him (?). I have a feeling that she may be back for Season 8. Despite some weirdness, she made a good return to 24 unlike her Season 5 reunion with her dad.

The show also brought out its inner Lost as the end of the season was very, very ambiguous. Did Freckles end up torturing Alan Wilson? Did she learn anything while doing so? Did she get in trouble? Is she still a part of the FBI? What happened to Tony? Did Olivia go to jail? Did Henry Taylor forgive his wife? Did Kim get hurt by the stem cell procedure? Did Kim find a way to get kidnapped again? Did Jack convert to Islam? Did the stem cell treatment work on Jack?

The last answer is of course it did, as one of the lamest in a long line of lame ways to bring Jack back to life. They've injected him with adrenaline, restarted his heart, etc. But this whole stem cell thing is way out there. Not that I don't think stem cell treatments are effective or that I don't support stem cells. But, please, this is a weaponized version of a bioweapon that they know very little about but they do know stem cells may work...? I dunno. Seems a bit much for me. There was no miracle cure (I have expected after he finished praying with Muhtadi Gohar he would be miraculously cured), but this was as close as you can get to it. And all after Jack instructed no one to save him. I'm sure Jack will be PISSED when he wakes up (Kim better tell Jack about that granddaughter)!

One semi-satisfying thing: it was good to finally meet the guy at the top of the food chain (if he is really that person). According to my calculations (thank you 24 Wiki for some help), here's how the chain went: Chloe was sleeping with Spenser Wolff who was a mole (albeit an unknowing one). Spenser was working for Walt Cummings who was Charles Logan's head of security. Walt Cummings was working for former CTU agent, Christopher Henderson (and James Nathanson). Christopher Henderson was in turn working for President Charles Logan. Charles Logan was working for the "Bluetooth Gang" headed by Jack's brother, Graem Bauer (and also involving Jack's father, Phillip Bauer and some dude named Darren McCarthy). Then this season, we had Tony Almeida was working for David Emerson who was working for Michael Latham who was working for Iké Dubaku who was working for Benjamin Juma who was working for Jonas Hodges who was working for the Bluetooth Gang. And it seems the Bluetooth Gang's head was Alan Wilson (Ok...I'm winded). But he wasn't working alone...so there's probably more to this story next season (oh joy).

That being said, this ending was far from satisfying. We found out Tony's reasoning behind the whole thing: to get to the guy behind Michelle's murder since he also killed Tony's unborn son. But Jack's wife died with his unborn child and Jack didn't go kill thousands of people and try to kill thousands more in the name of justice (or at least not good people...only bad people). But we didn't get Tony's death which I thought we'd have by the end of the season. We didn't get some justice for the man in charge (most of the other guys on that food chain I laid out are long dead or in jail). And we had a Jack finally content on dying but his daughter was too selfish to let him go (really, that is all it comes down to with Kim).

Which is okay. We still need to have Season 8 (*well...if Kiefer is not in jail). And maybe Jack's best is yet to come. From Kiefer: "We're shooting it in New York. I can tell you that it's grounded in a political shift that's taking place in the world, and I actually think it's probably the most realistic thing we've ever done. It's going to be centered in one of the most realistic circumstances. Some of our stuff, to be fair, is kind of far-fetched. This one is actually quite possible, so that's going to be very interesting on that level."

Realism from 24? I'm not sure about that, but I am excited for the 8th and final season of a show that's kept my rapt attention for many years now. Will Jack die in the end? I don't know. But I'm not ready to let Jack go just yet either.