TV Verdict

“Jack, if I had only listened to you, none of this would have happened.”

So says President Taylor last night at the culmination of Season 8 and the series of 24 as a whole. More fitting words I cannot conjure. For years, Jack Bauer has been the man who broke rules and pushed envelopes and punched old men in the heart to get answers and no matter his methods, there was always a running theme: he was right pretty much all of the time.

No matter who was pursing him, be it the Drazens, radical Muslims from a fake country, CTU or even his own family, chances were heavily in his favor that he was on the right side of the circumstances.

Which is why the home-stretch to Season 8 was interesting. Jack was a mad dog and while he did have a point about the fragility of a peace process built on lies, the guy was seriously flirting with kicking off a thermonuclear war to satiate his bloodlust.

So here we are at the end-game: Jack has been tearing through the Russian consulate and every government agency out there has been given orders to shoot him on sight. Having easily breached a CTU perimeter—surprise!—Jack sets up for the kill shot, a sniper round planted in the brainpan of the Russian president.

Enter Chloe, who shows up to try and talk some sense into Jack. He’s not interested and promptly puts her in the trademark Bauer Sleeper-hold and resumes his sniping position. He’s got Logan on the other end of the phone, forcing him to get the Russian pres to come to his room for target practice.

Chloe regains consciousness and makes one last-ditch attempt to reach Jack, telling him that Cole is set to charge the building with the entirety of the CTU cavalry. Just as he’s about to hit the trigger, Jack relents and tells Chloe he’ll do things her way. There’s a catch: Jack knows he’s a dead man so he makes Chloe shoot him. And she does, but with pinpoint accuracy, places a round in the most perfect place of the human body you can shoot someone, which causes next to no damage apparently. Because when Logan’s flunkie Pillar hits the scene looking for Jack’s recording of Logan’s phone conversations, Jack takes a monster bite out of the dude’s ear.

At the UN, President Taylor is set to sign the peace agreement, despite the fact that everyone knows that the Russians were behind the craziness of the nuke attack and just as she’s about to put pen to paper, she holds off, cancels it and spills the beans about the corruption of the process. She the hustles to cancel Logan’s kill order on Jack and sends Secret Service to retrieve Logan. Panicking, Logan goes with his instincts and kills Pillar and turns the gun on himself. He of course botches the suicide attempt somehow.

Chloe, Cole and Arlo are busy tracking Jack, who’s been kidnapped by some mysterious guys in a black van. They watch in horror as Jack is prepped for an execution. But just in time, Taylor gets on the phone, orders the assailant to stand down under threat of Hellfire missile attack (yes!) and tells Jack to flee the country before Russian, the US and NATO descend upon him. Jack offers a heartfelt goodbye to Chloe before scampering off (with gunshot and knife wounds, natch) and the drone goes dark.

And now Jack Bauer belongs to the ages. And to the forthcoming feature film.

Cutting right to it, I thought this was a well-done finale, for the simple reason it was genuinely exciting. Though this season was maddening in its lethargy and familiarity, the writers, possibly freed by the news that the series was over, really brought their A-game for the last run of shows. Jack unhinged was a masterful arc and I honestly didn’t know how it was going to end (save for the fact he was going to survive somehow for the movie). These last two hours gave us thrills, bad-ass Bauer moments, resolutions and a path to more Jack adventures. That’s a definite win.

Here’s a breakdown of what I did and didn’t like about the finale:

Liked

The unpredictability.
Never thought I’d say that in a 24 recap, but Rogue Jack was truly capable of anything. No way he would kill the Russian president, right? Right? And though Jack’s ultimate fate wasn’t in question the circumstances were up in the air. I was in suspense the whole time and the two hours flew by fast.

The ear bite.
Speaks for itself, right?

Chloe and Jack share a moment.
Now this was genuinely touching. Chloe was always a critical component of Jack’s life (even more so that Tony, a sad casualty of last year’s dopey denouement) and I appreciated the writers penciling in a sentimental goodbye.

Logan’s implosion.
He was one of the more interesting villains and his dispatch was a memorable—if weirdly ambiguous—one. Seriously, this guy is almost as resilient to death as Jack!

The bad guys are from Russia.
I still think it’s a puss-out for the writers to make up an Islamic republic instead of going with Iran (we’re all think it), but I’ll give them props for making the Russians the bad guys this season instead of a corporation. Sure they’re still a bunch of white guys, but at least they have a real flag at the Olympics.

Disliked

The peace process.
I never found this gimmick particularly engrossing because, well, the reason Jack spelled out in his monologue. Peace in name only, forged with idiots is a sham. Not sure how President Taylor didn’t figure this one out, and why she absolutely went nuts trying to uphold it. Assassinating Jack? Really?

Michael Madsen slinks away.
For a guy who played a decent role in the arc, Madsen’s character just sort of departed with a blip.

No shockers.
I suppose it’s unfair to compare this to Season One’s TV-defining ender, but there were no neck-snapping twists even close to it. Logan’s attempted suicide? Eh.

Overall I quite enjoyed the finale. At this stage of the series, if there’s any tension that the show can give me I would have been happy, but these two hours had me glued. Also, with the movie looming, it doesn’t feel like the absolute dead end, which, to be honest, had it been I may have been a tad more demanding.

Ker-chunk. Ker-chunk.