What Happened on the 24 Series Finale?

A special thanks to Phil for covering 24 for GMMR for the past two seasons.  I can’t imagine how many dead bodies you’ve witnessed as a result, but I hop you’re not scarred for life. Thanks for everything….Kath

So, this is the end. The last seconds of “24” just flickered across my screen. The clock ticked and tocked for the last time. And, save for the movie and whatever it might entail, we saw Jack, Chloe, and the rest of the cast of characters for the last time. Let’s get started, as I try to sum up everything really quickly.

Debrief

• Chloe, Cole and Arlo track Jack to a building and a perch right in view of where President Suvarov will be. Chloe eventually convinces Jack to stop his plans to assassinate Suvarov and to work with her to reveal the coverup to everyone. Jack makes Chloe shoot him so she can escape with the evidence.

• Taylor had to tell Dalia Hassan about the Russians involvement in her husband’s assassination. In order to keep her at the signing, however, Taylor threatened to reveal the IRK’s attempt to detonate a nuclear bomb in NYC and said she would have to retaliate with America’s full nuclear arsenal, therefore ruining their country.

• Pillar, who was attacked and knocked out by Jack earlier, showed up to get the card from Jack, who didn’t have it. After searching Chloe, he lets her leave. Looking at Jack’s wound, however, he realizes that Chloe planned the shot to wound and not kill. To buy her time, Jack bites off Pillar’s ear.

• Pillar has Chloe and Cole arrested before they can upload the evidence and send it out to the world. Logan shows the tape to Taylor. He also convinces her that the only way to clean everything up is to kill Jack before he reaches CTU.
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24 – Day 8: 1:00pm – 2:00pm

Pulling out all the stops seems to be the theme for these last few episodes, which is fantastic and kind of scary. If you think about it, even though he’s a flawed character and he’s made more than his fair share of questionable decisions in and out of the job, he’s always made those decisions with the noblest of causes in mind. And even though he is constantly espousing on the cover-up and the Russians, if Jack were to be honest with himself, all of this is about Renee’s death. The cover-up and looking for justice are all side benefits to finding who killed Renee and why. That dichotomy makes for some exciting and disturbing moments here at the end of “24”s run.

Debrief

• Cole identifies Dana’s corpse at the warehouse and goes back to CTU. He refuses to tell Pillar anything and is taken to holding.

• Jack watches Dana’s video footage. It is clear proof that the Russian’s were behind Hassan’s assassination. He then sends it to his weapons supplier, Jim Ricker, who identifies the Russian diplomat in the video. They, essentially, have all the proof they need. Jack then calls Meredith Reed, the journalist who was involved with Hassan and was arrested earlier in the day. Jack sets up a meeting to hand over information about Hassan’s assassination.

• CTU intercepts the call from Jack to Meredith. Pillar plans to have the man who killed Renee, Pavel, kill Jack and Meredith at the meeting place. When they meet there, Jack realizes it’s a trap, takes out all of the agents and escapes with Pavel in custody and Ricker and Meredith in tow.

• They go to a warehouse where Jack gives Meredith the video and sends her with Ricker while Jack tortures Pavel to find out who ordered the hit on Renee. After the torture doesn’t work Jack attempts to find Pavel’s SIM card. After figuring out he swallowed it, Jack guts Pavel and calls the last dialed number, which goes to President Logan’s voicemail.

Agent Philboy’s Assessment

Yeah, he gutted him! My dad and I were talking last week that we had really missed cheering for brutal violence, something only “24” seems to bring. We cheered last week when Dana was shot point blank and my girlfriend isn’t ashamed of the fact that she giggled and clapped when that blowtorch came out. But, was gutting Pavel too far?

I understand that due to their only being three episodes left (a thought which is just so sad to me) Jack couldn’t exactly wait for Pavel to…umm…pass the SIM card on to him. But, does it bother anyone else that Jack didn’t even flinch before taking Pavel out? Like I said up top, even though Jack has been unhinged for most of the series, having literally nothing else to lose is a scary proposition. I’ve brought up several times that the movie could carry on even if Jack dies at the end of this season. I think this is looking to be more and more of a reality. Whatever happens in these last three episodes, I don’t see a scenario where everything is tied up in neat little bow and everyone is happy. That would totally miss as far as the tone toward the end of this season.

Weekly Kill Count = 5 Total Kill Count = 48

24 – Day 8: 10:00am – 11:00am

So, not much happened this week. There was a lot of setup and not a lot of payoff, so this shouldn’t take long.

Debrief

• Ethan convinces Taylor that she is doing the wrong thing and that she must withdraw from the peace treaty. Before she can announce this, Logan convinces her that she can treat Dana as an “enemy combatant” and put her in the custody of a private security firm. This way, they can extract the evidence from her and it will be on their terms, not Jack’s.

• Jack escapes and calls Chloe, who acts like she will help him, but is actually setting him up. She directs him to a CTU safehouse where they will attempt a sting operation.

• Ethan resigns, saying he cannot be a part of the cover-up anymore.

• Jack knows that a sting is occurring and takes Cole hostage. Jack convinces Cole that Taylor is covering up for the Russians and Cole agrees to help reveal the truth.

Agent Philboy’s Assessment

Like I said up top, not much happened. Really, the entire episode was an exercise in the conflict of a certain action weighed against the concept of “the greater good.” “24” has really examined, in its over dramatic, simplified way, the philosophical idea of that greater good and at what point we should stop pursuing it. It’s something that I’ve even talked about here several times, so it really isn’t worth hashing over again. Needless to say, I’m sure that this isn’t the last time this will be discussed, especially as Jack gets closer to exposing the truth.

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24 – Day 8: 9:00am – 10:00am

There were some surprises for me tonight, though not on the scale of previous weeks. I have a feeling the next six episodes will come down to a sort of Jack vs. the World scenario, where all of the characters will be grappling with the right thing to do against the “greater good.”

Let’s get on to the recap…

Debrief

• Jack calls Chloe and demands to know what Renee was working on when she was killed. Chloe tells him that Renee recognized someone at Samir’s murder scene from her days undercover with the Red Square. Jack forces Chloe to tell him where Sergei, the Red Square’s leader who Jack arrested earlier, is being held. Jack goes to Sergei and threatens to kill his entire family unless Sergei can tell him who killed Renee. Sergei tells Jack that the Russian government has been behind all of the day’s events, including assassinating Hassan and Renee, and that Dana Walsh was their contact in America. Jack returns to CTU.

• Logan visits the Russian UN delegate and blackmails him. Logan says he will tell Pres. Taylor about the Russian government’s involvement in the day’s events if the Russian’s don’t sign the peace treaty. The Russians agree. Once Logan hears of Jack interviewing Dana, he knows that his victory might be short-lived. Logan eventually tells Taylor about the Russians’ plans for the day and what they have done. It is clear that, if that information is released, the peace process is over. Pres. Taylor travels to CTU.

• At CTU, Taylor tells Jack that she cannot grant Dana immunity, which would interfere with the peace process. She orders Jack to get on a helicopter to an Air Force base where he will be debriefed. He takes the helicopter hostage and goes rogue.

Agent Philboy’s Debrief

Episodes like this are why I’ll miss “24” so much when it’s gone. Episodes like this are kind of like “The West Wing” with explosions and bullets. There are a lot of ethical and political ramifications to every facet of what’s going on at this point. There’s so much that I could probably fill up another column entirely mapping out everything. But, I’ll try not to.

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24 – Day 8:00am – 9:00am

Are you ready to talk about one of the more momentous episodes of 24 in recent memory? Why do shows always shine when they know they’re coming to an end?

• Taylor assures Jack that there was nothing he could have done to save Hassan. Samir is barely alive, however, for questioning. While he is laying there, one of the EMTs injects Samir with something and leaves. Renee seems to recognize him, but thinks nothing of it. Jack and Renee leave, giving Cole full control of the situation. They return to Jack’s apartment to have sex.

• Taylor is on her way to inform the UN delegates that the peace treaty will be dissolved when the prime minister of the IRK stops her with a suggestion. They want Dalia Hassan to take over as President and sign the treaty. She agrees.

• With the changes in the peace treaty situation, Hastings is fired as Head of CTU and Chloe is hired as provisional Director. The world is a little better now.

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24 – Day 8: 6:00am – 8:00am

Well, that was eventful. I love that they planned a two-hour “event” to not only combat the juggernaut that is the NCAA Tournament and its incredible Butler Bulldogs, but also to really get you roped in early and unleash a ton of twists and turns in one concise package. There’s a ton of information and analysis here, so let’s get started.

Debrief (As brief as possible!)

* Hassan gave himself up and went with Tarin. Jack was going to intercept them when Dana told Tarin that he was being followed and led him to a parking garage. After a chase through the garage, Hassan was transferred to a different car while Tarin drove himself off the garage.
* Dana was found out through Tarin’s cell phone. She made a deal for full immunity in exchange for her cooperation in saving Hassan. She led them to the apartment building where they were going to stream Hassan’s confession and death live on the internet.
* As the broadcast started, CTU tried to save Hassan. But, once they found the apartment, he was already dead and they realized that the internet feed had been delayed. There was no way they could have saved him.
* In unrelated news, Rob and Sec. Douchebag were discovered by Jack and arrested. Ethan was rescued and is at the hospital doing fine.

Agent Philboy’s Assessment

I was so excited about this week because I knew, by the laws of “24” time, that so many things had to happen tonight. And, even though I mistakenly thought we were going to see Fmr. President Logan this week, all of my Jack Bauer-related wishes came true. Some might call this predictable, but I would rather call it knowing what you’re good at as a writing staff and executing it with gusto in your final 10, now 8, episodes.

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24 – Day 8: 5:00am – 6:00am

Is anyone else enjoying “24” nostalgia since Friday. If you didn’t see the news, or guess from tonight’s promo, it was announced on Friday that this would be the last season of “24.” And, while it’s sad, I’m pretty happy that they’re going out now and that we have had some awesome episodes to turn this “24” train in the right direction.

Debrief

• Tarin and Samir arrive at a warehouse where the bomb is being assembled. They start the process of putting the nuclear rods in the bomb and sending Tarin to drive it to its location.

• CTU attempted to track the two of them after they left the boat, but Dana conveniently cut the feed as they were getting close. They lost them, so Hastings calls the President, Ethan, and Rob, and tells them that he cannot secure the safety of Manhattan. They convene the joint chiefs and the President asks Jack to personally escort the Hassan family to safety.
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24 – Day 8: 4:00am – 5:00am

My bad on the delay in getting up this week’s discussion of 24. First time on the internet in a few days. Sorry Philboy, I’ll now turn it over to you. – Kath

I tend to think that TV doesn’t hold many too many surprises anymore. Every week I talk about “24,” I review it with the implicit undertone that we’ve kind of been through this before. But, on a show that I love as much as “24,” that’s part of the charm. It’s variations on a theme. And, of course, a mole working inside CTU is standard. But, I really didn’t see Dana as the mole, even though I could earn a lot of credit online by saying otherwise. Let’s get started with the recap.

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24 – Day 8: 2:00am – 3:00am

This week kept the pretty brisk pacing and hightened suspense going while still being as believable and tense as “24” gets. We also had one of the top five Jack Bauer moments of all time, in my opinion. Let’s get started!

Debrief

• Dana and Cole returned to CTU after getting rid of Kevin and the other guy. They’re on thin ice and Dana is now reporting to Chloe. Kevin’s probation officer is on his way to CTU to talk to Dana about her relationship to Kevin.

• The terrorists sent Marco the directions to manually arming the bomb. He began the process while CTU looked into his background and found his mother. As she was getting ready to leave NYC, Cole found her and brought her to the hospital.

• Tarin and Kyla plan to get immunity from the State Department. Kyla’s mom has returned to try to get ahold of her, but Tarin forbids her from talking.

• Marco’s mom shows up and tries to get him to surrender. She fails, but Jack succeeds after promising to kill her if Marco detonates the bomb. Seeing that Marco has surrendered, the terrorists remotely set off the bomb, not giving Jack enough time to disarm it. Before he died, Marcos said that Tarin was part of the nuclear attack planning.

• Tarin wants to leave for the embassy to apply for immunity. After hearing form her mother that Tarin is involved with the terrorists, she is attempting to buy CTU some time.

Agent Philboy’s Assessment

This week makes about three episodes in a row of consistent great episodes. I’m definitely back on the “24” train after a slower start to the season. This week had me playing a game of “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.”

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24 – Day 8: 1:00am – 2:00am

Another solid episode where the action kept moving and we thankfully got to see more of the President. I’ll take it.

Before we get started, can I say that my distrust has shifted from Arlo to Rob? Arlo was on my radar, but after his peculiar reaction when he found out that Jack would be running point on rescuing Farhad, I’ve put him in my doghouse. Who knows what his motives would be, but not having had the job until recently reeks of a “24” plot twist later on.

Debrief

• Farhad is still hiding as Jack leads a team to rescue him. As the terrorists get closer, he foolishly tries to escape and is shot. They fail to save him. Jack decides to fool the terrorists into thinking Farhad is still alive to draw them out.

• Dana and Cole decide to destroy the van and get rid of the bodies. That’s about it.

• Kayla finds Ali, who has been arrested by President Hassan. Ali knows someone who will help him escape and plans to meet with her later. They run off together eventually and Hassan calls his now-estranged wife to come back and help find them.

• The terrorists enlist Marcos to finish off Farhad at the hospital where he’s been transported. He called his mother first, asking her to leave the city. Jack leads an inexperienced tactical team in apprehending Marcos and disarming the bomb he had strapped to his chest. He flees into a hyperbaric chamber where he will attempt to detonate the bomb manually and kill himself before he killed his chapter.

Agent Philboy’s Assessment

I feel like this was the fastest moving episode of the season, with a lot of time spent in the right places to keep you on the proverbial edge of your seat. I was very thankful that we got to see more of President Taylor tonight. Overall, Cherry Jones has been underutilized this season and hopefully as the possibility of an attack on U.S. soil grows, she will play a much bigger role in things. Also, since her Chief of Staff is probably the mole working against her, that will have to come to the fore as well.

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24 – Day 8: 12:00am – 1:00am

There were some unexpected twists and turns this week and we bid what seemed like a fond farewell to a truly awful storyline.

Debrief

• Sergei and Jack called Josef and offered him immunity for the nuclear rods. He agreed, then was shot by Farhad’s men. Farhad took the rods and went to a facility to transport them. Once there, Farhad’s men decided that since they could no longer get the rods out of the country, they would use them to attack New York. Farhad disagreed with their plan, escaped, and called CTU for rescue.

• Rob Weiss called Hastings. Since Rob vouched for Hastings and the reformation of CTU, his neck is on the line as well as everyone else’s. He proposes to let someone from the Department of Justice set Renee up to take the fall for all of the failures that have occurred so far. Jack returns and stops them before getting tazed trying to escape. He is about to leave before Hastings realizes Jack’s value to him at CTU. Jack agrees to stay as long as Renee is released and is cleared of all charges.

• Dana follows Kevin and the other guy into the woods. She stares at them just long enough for Cole to stop her from killing them. Dana explains everything to Cole and Cole threatens the two. Kevin is about to obey before his buddy stabs him and is eventually shot by Cole.

Agent Philboy’s Assessment

Wow, I thought we would have Josef for longer than 10 minutes. I wasn’t shocked, since anything can happen in “24,” but I was a little bit surprised. My thoughts then went to finding a reason for Jack to stick around. Renee was the perfect conduit for that, but I’m not sure that any romantic relationship between Jack and Renee isn’t a little forced. And maybe romance is just being assumed on my part, but I think the reality is that Jack sees a lot of himself in Renee and wants to be with her for anything that might happen in life.

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24 – Day 8: 11:00pm – 12:00am

With the end of this week’s episode, we ushered in the second phase of Day 8 of “24” and I couldn’t be happier. While I may not be happy with all of the storylines (OK, OK, just one), I’m expecting some interesting things to happen from here on out.

Debrief

• Jack is transported to Bazhaev’s restaurant for questioning. Sergei doesn’t know if Ernst (aka Jack) is a cop, so the uranium transport has been halted. After many minutes of shock torture, Jack breaks free and kills his captor and apprehending Sergei. Sergei wants immunity for himself and Josef in exchange for the nuclear rods.

• After finding out that the transport was stopped, Hassan’s brother gets lippy. Sergei and Josef decide it’s time for him to go to the rendezvous point and wait for the rods. Josef decides to escort him.

• Renee returns to CTU and blames herself for Jack’s disappearance and torture. She’s being sent for a psych evaluation.

• Hassan has reached the peak of paranoia. When his daughter comes to him to think sensibly, he banishes her, thinking that she is part of the conspiracy against him. She seems to have a plan to help her boyfriend escape Hassan’s custody.

• Dana’s absence from the CTU floor forces Arlo to confront her, saying he will tell Cole her secret if she doesn’t. She tries to, but doesn’t. Cole has Arlo track Dana’s cell, while she goes to the strip club to presumably kill Kevin and his buddy, ending the problem once and for all.

• Sergei gives CTU the location of the nuclear rods. When they get there, the rods are gone and the henchmen are dead. Josef has taken the rods and is on his way to Hassan’s brother for delivery within five minutes.

Agent Philboy’s Assessment

One thing I need to get out of the way: The car battery that the Russians tortured Jack with wasn’t plugged in. Rewind and look at it again. Trust me. That thing had no power whatsoever. Way to pay attention, “24.”

Anyway, this week was the springboard for Phase II of the season and I thought it was done quite well. While the Dana storyline continues to annoy me, I like the fact that she, like so many others in this season’s pantheon of characters, is coming unhinged. I wonder if Cole will be able to stop her and how he will react whether or not he can.

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24: The Movie Gets a Scribe

Fox has announced that screenwriter Billy Ray, (“Volcano,” “Shattered Glass”) has been hired as the scribe for the upcoming theatrical release of 24.

According to Variety, Ray sent a script to Kiefer Sutherland who got Ray a meeting with Fox executives. Insiders say that in Ray’s script, Jack Bauer takes his kick ass ways to Europe.

Whether or not Jack Bauer and friends will hit the big screen might depend on the ratings of this season.   If the show doesn’t return, the cast would be free to work on the movie. But doing the show and the movie at the same time wouldn’t be feasible.

There’s been talk of a “24” movie almost as long as the show as been on the air. I’ve always had a picture of how a movie would look and be set up. I don’t see the real-time force of the show being brought over, but I can see Jack in a series of adventures where he is just kicking butt all over the world, a la Jason Bourne or a more violent Indiana Jones. Jack is at his best when he’s racing against the clock to get the job done by any means necessary. A movie could be uncensored enough to get that done, many times over.

Billy Ray is an interesting screenwriter who can be completely hacky or really smart and write complex plots. We’ll see which Billy Ray shows up.

24 – Day 8: 10:00pm – 12:00pm

Welcome to the new season of “24.” OK, I know that’s not exactly the truth, but doesn’t it seem like it? Since the near-assassination of Hassan, not much action has happened, which was OK, but not ideal. This episode, however, things ramped up and we moved into the second stage of this season.

Debrief

• Jack, aka Ernst, went to the warehouse to meet with Renee and Vlad. After meeting him, Vlad starts making calls about the nuclear rods. One of them is to Sergei, who poorly denies knowing anything about them. After all of his contacts deny knowing anything, Renee pushes Vlad harder. Things get violent and, reaching back six years of aggression since she was raped by him, Renee stabs Vlad. Jack walks in and she accidentally stabs him too. He takes the rest Vlad’s men out.

• Once Sergei gets the call from Vlad, he halts the transport of the nuclear rods and sends his men to Vlad’s warehouse. Jack decides that, since he is POSITIVE that CTU will be tracking him from the air, he will get captured and be taken to where the nuclear rods are. This seems like a great plan until…

• No one knows where Jack is nor are they tracking him at all. He is lost. Awesome.

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24 – Day 8: 9:00pm – 10:00pm

All events really did occur in real time this week as I finally figured out what is making this season stand out for me, even though not much happened tonight. Let’s get started.

Debrief

• Renee had to sleep with Vlad, who raped her at least once before. Jack is trying to get her taken out of the operation because she’s FREAKING NUTS! Hastings won’t go for it unless she’s truly compromises the operation. Jack officially begins his cover as the nuclear buyer. After the initial funds were transferred, Vlad tried to kill him, but Cole sniped them and the deal continues.

• Dana got her ex and his buddy information about a confiscated transit station locker that has drug money in it. She gives them the way in and will then talk them through getting the money and leaving. Arlo is suspicious, but no one will listen to him because…well…he’s Arlo.

• President Hassan continues his paranoid rampage on the opposition in his home country. He learns that one of the men his police arrested is cousins with one of his advisors. That advisor is being arrested. The peace talks are beginning to fall apart.

• The doctor was about to give Josef all the tools he needed to help cure his brother, but he was killed by Sergei. The brothers were taken back to the restaurant where Sergei killed his own, poisoned son.

Agent Philboy’s Assessment

Having recently joined the ranks of the unemployed,  I’ve been catching up on some reviews of this season. Most of what I’ve read has been negative, and there is a sentiment that this season has been scattered and a tad too unbelievable. While I see what others are saying,  I feel like I have to defend the season a bit because even with all of its faults its adding in a few new ingredients to the “24” recipe, all of which are satisfying my tastebuds.

This season hasn’t had the the action of previous seasons. Usually at this point in the ‘day’ we’ve had a nuclear explosion or two, or at the very least a major characters had died. Maybe we’re not getting that, but what we are getting is a deeper look at the characters. So instead of complaining because there hasn’t been a huge body count or enough explosions, look at it through a different lens. You’ll see an interesting, if flawed, tale of people consumed by fear and paranoia, being pushed to the brink and reacting in wildly different ways.

Hassan’s increasing paranoia might bring him to President Logan levels. The peace talks have been under utilized, but I think are an excellent driving motivation for Taylor to try as hard as she can to resolve this conflict. I’ve missed the involvement of the White House in CTU goings on. I know that this adventure is going to take about 15 different turns in the next 17 episodes, so we will eventually get to that point, but I’m ready for Washington to get its hands dirty. Plus, I know I’ve mentioned it before, but Renee being completely unhinged is fascinating to watch and is really the saving grace so far this season.

Still, there are some things that aren’t just working this season: Arlo! Dana! Hastings! Some elements are there to buy time, and I understand that, but if they want me to stay in the moment during the course of an episode, they shouldn’t have the action take place in a workplace where Dana is allowed to come and go whenever she pleases; Hastings has absolutely no one to answer and Arlo is free to make 14 suggestive, innuendo-filled comments before the commercial break.

What I Learned this Week

• To go undercover as a German arms dealer, you don’t really need an accent.

• As long as you say you’re from the right country, you can wear the DUMBEST LOOKING GLASSES EVER.

• On a related note, I want a pair of those glasses. Jack Bauer has the power to make the uncool cool.

• Apparently, an ailment that needs a team of surgeons and a bone marrow transplant can be cured with some drugs.

This Week’s Kill Count = 6 Total Kill Count = 16

Have you jumped off the “24” bandwagon or are you still along for the less action-packed ride?

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