24: Like Father, Like Daughter

Yes, I know the "24" season finale aired Monday night, and I’m not writing about it until more than a few days later.

What can I say? I had car trouble in Oviedo, FL this past weekend, so I wasn’t home on Monday to tape/watch the season 7 finale. (I guess next time I go out of town, I’ll tape all of the shows I want to watch the following week, just in case.) Fortunately, season 7 was released on DVD the day after the show aired its last episode, so I got to watch the finale at my leisure. (I know I could’ve watched it online, but I’m not a huge, "Watch a movie/TV show on a laptop" guy - especially not when the show in question was sure to feature gunfights and explosions.)

Despite this being a very good season overall I was actually pretty dubious heading into the finale. I wasn’t sure the show was going to give us a satisfactory explanation to Tony’s bad guy behavior. I wasn’t sure how the show was going to make Jack’s fight with a terminal illness interesting, since we ALL knew he wasn’t going to die. Most of all, I wasn’t sure how the show was going to avoid making Kim a helpless victim once again.

I’m happy to report that the show passed with flying colors in two of those scenarios, while coming up a little bit short in another (we’ll just say it passed with running colors).

Let’s get the Kim thing out of the way first. I liked that the "Jack has to bust Tony out" dilemma was resolved pretty quickly. I was also a little surprised that Cara the Moderator allowed Jack to tell Renee what was going on as Jack held Agt. Walker at gunpoint and was eventually taken hostage by Tony, who believed he could harvest Jack’s organs and use the pathogen. I think it would’ve been a lot more dramatic if Jack had to somehow break Tony out without giving Renee an explanation.

Then again, if that happened, Renee would not have known about Kim and would not have been able to call her at the airport to warn her that deadly operatives might be watching her. Kim eventually realized that the friendly couple with the conspicuously open laptop were the culprits (followed by a nice jump moment when the "husband" showed up right behind her.) This led to an awesome shootout at the airport (almost as exciting as the subway station bomb dash from the previous episode). Big time props to the anonymous airport security guys who killed the female half of the bad guys and wounded the guy with the skeezy hair.

Of course, this also led to (probably) the best Kim moment ever. As the guy ran away, Kim tried to call for help, noticed her cell phone battery was dead and let out a Baby Bauer "Dammit!" before pursuing him on her own. Brilliant! (This being Kim, the moment was also pretty dopey - why would she go after a dangerous man when she’s unarmed?) Eventually, she asked a couple of guards for help, and they were able to shoot at the skeezy haired guy before getting killed, causing his car to flip over. Kim went over to grab the guy’s laptop and was almost killed before breaking away from him (but not before her sleeve hilariously caught on fire). Using the laptop, they might be able to find her dad’s whereabouts (she knows this because she worked at CTU). Overall, a VERY nice resolution to my "Kim as victim" concerns - she stood up for herself, but did so in a (relatively) realistic way.

The action at the airport wasn’t the only source of tension in the first half of the finale. I’ve been a big fan of the Olivia Taylor saga, largely because Sprague Grayden is doing a pretty terrific job of playing an entitled, unethical, COMPLETELY over-her-head First Daughter/chief of staff. Ethan Kanin came to retrieve the recordings in his office, but was eventually detained by Olivia. I thought these scenes with Aaron, Ethan and Olivia were very tense. Eventually, Ethan listened to the real tape in his car (he had given Olivia a fake copy) and confronted Olivia about it. Olivia being Olivia, she assumed he was just angling for his old job. Ethan said he was going to allow the President to decide what to do about the matter. More importantly, I finally believed that the warden from "The Shawshank Redmption" was a good guy. (It only took until hour 24!)

Olivia confessed to Jonas Hodges’ murder to her mom and dad in a gut-wrenching scene. I was actually thinking about how Cherry Jones hadn’t been given much to do in these last few hours of the season, but she brought her A-game here. She had to decide whether to overlook a murder or send her daughter to prison for killing the man who murdered her son. Her husband couldn’t even fathom that she would consider turning Olivia in. In the end, President Taylor did just that after literally (and symbolically) kissing what’s left of her family goodbye. A couple of things here: 1.) I hope we see Grayden again because I thought she was excellent this year. 2.) I hope we never see Henry again. I get that the guy lost his son, but blaming his wife(‘s job) was just plain foul. HENRY SUCKS! Fortunately, the president still has Ethan (wink) and I like how she snapped back into presidential mode after all the family drama.

If this season’s been about anything, it’s been about watching these characters weigh the value of human lives versus the "greater good." It’s been about how much you can possibly do for that greater good before you eventually lose yourself as a good person. We’ve seen Jack, Renee, the president and others wrestle with this issue. It turns out Tony’s been doing that all year.

At last, we finally learned what his master plan has been all along - turns out that, "This time - it’s personal." We knew that the guy had nothing left in the world after his wife (and son’s!) death, but finding out that the motivation behind his actions was to avenge Michelle’s death was more "huh" than "wow." Everything he did today was to get to Alan Wilson, the man who’s seemingly behind the cabal of military contractors. (Yay I finally got to use the word "cabal" in a column!) He scored the invite after asking the Moderator to convince Alan to grant him a job interview. Tony’s plan was to rig Jack with explosives and blow everybody (himself included?) to hell.

Jack hadn’t gone down easy. After some spinal fluid was removed (ouch!) he’d killed his doctors (throat slash guy = triple ouch!) before temporarily getting away. He tried to light himself on fire in a garage, but Tony forklifted(!) his way into the garage and kicked the flare away at the last second. Now he was going to be used as a human WMD. I have to say, the revelation behind Tony’s motives was somewhat of a letdown, but it’s absolutely NOT Carlos Bernard’s fault. I think he gave us a hint of madness in his speech to Jack without overplaying it. I also think that, when I re-watch this season, I’ll notice how all those time that Tony seemed to be sitting very still and very quietly staring off into the distance, he was thinking about his next play, since he was playing both sides against each other.

Before Tony could blow Wilson up, the FBI/cavalry showed up. After a shootout that featured Renee hanging off the side of a truck (completely unnecessary or badass? - I say BOTH!) they got to Tony before he could kill Wilson. Tony continued to go for his gun, but Jack shot him in the wrist (quadruple ouch!)

With the day now saved, it was time for some introspection. The last half hour of the season was surprisingly low-key for Jack. His speech to Renee about his philosophy (he knows saving 15 people is ultimately not the most important thing, but he can’t help himself) could’ve been corny, but was well played by Kiefer Sutherland. His deathbed meeting Muhtadi Gohar was surprisingly touching, as he finally sought forgiveness and was able to forgive himself.

At least until he ends up kicking more ass NEXT season and has more stuff to be forgiven for. Kim arrived at the hospital and forcefully convinced Dr. Macer to go through with the experimental treatment. The final moment (pictured, right) with Kim sitting by Jack’s side was lovely, even though it was underscored by the fact that I’m looking forward to seeing Mr. Bauer trying to scramble from one crowded location to another in the Big Apple next year. Although he was in a coma, I like to think he was resting up for season 8.

So what’d you think of this episode? Do you think more shows should be released on DVD so quickly after they’ve aired or do you think that’ll just (further) discourage people from watching them on TV? (I watch on TV AND collect the DVDs, so I loved this!) What’s Renee going to do to Alan Wilson? Was Chloe’s compliment to Janis the nicest thing she’s ever said to anyone besides Jack? What would you have done about Olivia if you were the president? (I probably would’ve covered up for my kid - but I’m a lot weaker than President Taylor.) Finally, where do you think this season ranks? (Not with the all-time greats season 1 and season 5, but certainly on the next tier.)

Thanks for hanging out with me and reading my ramblings regarding one of my favorite shows.