The Baron's Thoughts on 24's Finale

!!!SPOILER ALERT!!! If you have not watched the Series Finale of 24 stop reading now, unless you don’t care that I am going to be writing about it below.

My history with 24 seems much shorter than many of yours might be. I started watching the show during the finale of Season 5, when Jack was abducted by the Chinese. I then spent the next year catching up on seasons 2-5 while they were being aired on A&E and finally watched season 1 last year. This could be the reason why I still watched 24 with so much excitement; it was still new to me. Jack Bauer became the great American Hero and indestructible towards the end of the series. If I had to pick a team of fictional Law Enforcement Officers that did not have super powers but felt like they were super heroes, Jack Bauer would be on that list along with John McClane, Martin Riggs, Jason Bourne, and I guess you can’t really leave off James Bond. This group would make the A-Team look like chumps. Anyways back to Jack, Monday nights series finale started out exactly how everyone thought it would. Jack is back on a rampage to kill everyone involved in Renee Walker’s death. I almost believed he might even go after the sitting President and was almost certain he would go after former President Logan. Instead nothing happens the way I thought it would. Jack comes back to Earth and it follows the predictable alternate ending. I think the series would’ve ended differently if there was not a movie deal in place for 24. I think Jack would’ve died; he should’ve died. I asked a friend the other day, if Jack died in the finale would he watch a 24 movie that starred Freddie Prince Jr. as Agent Cole Ortiz? Without hesitation he responded, if Bauer dies I am not going to watch an Agent Cole 24. It was this thinking that caused them to let Jack live to fight another day. Now as for my opinion on the final season, there were some story lines that didn’t work for me.

President Taylor letting President Logan walk all over her and compromises her moral standing. In Season 7 President Taylor sent her own daughter to jail for putting a hit on the season 7 villain. She watched as a corrupt group of domestic terrorists killed her son and his fiancé and almost succeeded in killing her husband. Because of her high moral standing she lost her husband because he didn’t agree with her sending their daughter to prison. In Season 8 she decides to sit on information about the Russians being behind the events of the 8th day, information that puts them behind the assassination attempt on President Hassan, murdering Renee Walker, attempting to kill Jack Bauer, and bringing a nuclear bomb into Manhattan. She becomes the key person in the cover up and keeps the information from President Hassan’s family. As the day unravels and Jack gets closer to the answers he wants, while leaving bodies with Russian ties in his wake President Taylor gets deeper and deeper into the cover up. My question is why? Why sacrifice your administration to protect the Russians and Logan? She says it’s for a peace agreement, but how good is a peace agreement that’s covered in murderous blood. President Taylor saves her reputation with the viewers a little at the end by calling off the hit on Jack and not signing the agreement. She is also going to expose everyone involved in the cover up. Congratulations President Taylor, too little too late. At least she stopped Jack’s execution.

Jack’s Murderous rampage. Let’s look at the timeline here for a minute. Jack met Renee Walker during season 7, they spent 24 hours together. Season 8 takes place some 6-10 months later and during that time we learned that Renee left the FBI, went crazy, and tried to commit suicide at least once. Also during that time Jack was healing from an experimental surgery. So we can assume that they didn’t spend a lot of time together during that period. Now on Day 8 they spend a few hours together, where Renee gets a little crazy, as sex with a Russian mob guy, gets taken into custody and then sleeps with Jack when the mission is over. So I am to believe that this relationship is the one that sends Jack on a murderous rampage. When it started he didn’t even know who was involved. When Teri was killed he knew who did it, but he didn’t hunt her down and kill her. When Audrey went mental after being tortured by the Chinese, Jack didn’t start killing more Chinese people to get revenge. So why Renee, why does she send Jack over the deep end? That’s all I want to know, it doesn’t add up.

President Taylor’s last words/apology to Jack Bauer. This is basically how it went:

Taylor: Jack I’m sorry
Jack: It’s ok Mrs. President.
Taylor: Jack I know you wouldn’t have done any of this if I hadn’t been a stupid bitch and tried to cover up the murder of the woman you love and put you in lock down. It’s my fault you killed all those people.
Jack: No shit, so now what
Taylor: Jack you should run, the Russians will come after you……and we will come after you.
Jack: Thank you

Ok so that’s not the exact text but that’s what it felt like to me. One thing I want to say about this whole ending. President Taylor is the President of the United States of America; she has the right to pardon anybody of anything. Why not pardon Jack for the murderous rampage he went on that day? If she would’ve at least he would only have to worry about the Russians finding him. Plus, is President Taylor worried about public criticism at this point, she just covered up murders and jailed a journalist who was going to publish the evidence of the cover up. The President just crapped all over the constitution and she can’t throw Jack a bone here.

Last season I had an issue with Tony flipping sides but after last night it surprises me that Jack has not done the same. Everything Bauer did for his country and they can’t even say thank you.

Chloe and Jack’s Farewell. First let me congratulate Chloe for living through 7 seasons of this show, especially as close as she was to Jack. Aside from Chloe and Jack, Kim was the only other series regular that lasted the duration. The whole season I was waiting for someone to kill her and then they almost had Jack do it. No chance Jack would do that to her. But the ending when Jack calls Chloe and she is watching him on the CTU big screen broadcasting a Predator Drone’s video feed was a little too cheesy for me. Jack repeatedly looks up into the sky and is looking directly into the camera, Chloe is crying, they have their tearful goodbye, the whole scene seemed odd and didn’t feel right. Then the camera zooms out and Jack takes off running. Then the screen fades to black while the clock counts to 00:00.00.

The ending left me with disappointment. Series finales should tie up loose ends. My friend AJ said it felt more like a season finale then a series finale. Jack gets no happy ending and he is on the run as a fugitive, I guess if I want closure to this show I will have to spend $10 to see the movie whenever it is made.