24 Season Finale (1 Viewer)

[Frank Anderson]

Has anyone considered that Teri may not be dead? On TV the only way to kill a character is to shoot them in the head (Victor Drazen?). But of course even then they can come back. They could have a crew come in and miraculously save her at the beginning (or in a flashback scene) of season 2.

 

[Andres Munoz]

but if someone had to die, shouldn't it have been Kim? It was her stupidity that caused all the trouble in the first place

True, but then we wouldn't have any cleavage to look forward to on season 2.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Hmm...cleavage as a plot device. Works for me.

 

[GlennH]

Jack follows the wake of dead CTU guards that Nina left in her path. He enters the transformer room and finds Teri with bullet wounds in her abdomen. He picks up her lifeless body and collapses to his knees. As Jack cradles his dead wife, he breaks down in grief and sorrow.

Besides, for her to turn out later *not* to be dead would cheapen the whole thing. Anything is possible, but for the writers to go back and make that happen would be a big mistake in my opinion.

 

[DaveBB]

Hopefully the producers will insist on an entirely thought out 24 hours game plan, and not the 12 first hours we got and the patchwork effort afterwards.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch had an article a week or two ago where supposedly the producers of "24" were able to keep the current format by laying out a full season story arc that blew the suits at Fox away.

 

[Quentin]

While I'll admit that this finale somewhat made up for the glaring mediocrity of the last 10 episodes...

I'm still miffed at the Nina "twist" which I still don't buy.

And, what is with the Drazen's? In the first few episodes it seemed like they had put together a terribly complex and ingenious assassination plot. Then, Dennis Hopper aka Boris Badenov shows up and they start acting like idiots!

You've gotta love when he tells Nina to lie to Jack so he'll come in guns blazing, "Ve vill keel heem," he assures her. Then, when Jack comes barreling in, what do they do? "Run! Get to the boat!!" Heh...some plan, guys. They deserved to die.

 

[John Thomas]

So far, I've made it without reading anything about the finale evne this thread. I'm posting blindly but here in about 20 minutes I'll be watching the rerun of the finale - sorry, it was either 24 or Buffy:TVS on tuesday night.

 

[Jim Tudor]

My wife and i have been faithfully following this series from the beginning, and like most of you, agree that the first twelve hours were spectacular while the second half was sketchy if not effective at times. but we disagree on the finale. I don't like it. I hope they accidentally ran one of the wrong endings of the three they shot. Talk about a downer ending! I definitely felt short-changed after it ended. We watch this show for months and months, rooting for this guy to get the bad guys and save his family, and the whole crazy thing ends with him sobbing over his dead wife's body? His dead *pregnant* wife!? Grr.

My current theory is, this ending is really all about next season. There was probably the wrap-it-all-up-in-a-nice-package ending, where Teri probably survived, and everyone went home happily ever after; and then there may've been another even bigger downer, and then there was this one. Since the creators of the show knew Jack Bauer would be returning, he'd need motivation for whatever he'd be up against next season, most likely whoever Nina's "really working for". If I'm right, that means next season could very easily pick up where this one left off, at 12:01.

My idea is that season 2 should be a year later, when Palmer is President. For all his hard work and sacrifice, Bauer has been appointed Palmer's head of personal security. (Of course he is torn over having taken the job, since his job helped to cost Teri her life.) Some crap breaks out, and bang! We've got "24" in DC! In any case, the show definitely needs to get out of L.A., the most painfully overshot locale in history.

IMO, killing one of the main characters who propelled our hero forward all season long, and survived a lot of crap herself, shouldn't have been their method of motivating Jack into further action on season 2. Plus, I wouldn't be surprised if this was also a way to open the door to have a new element of romance on the show that you generally can't get when the main hero is married. Next season, our wounded hero will slowly recover, and will be nailing hot foxy mamas by the end of the season. My thinking is that a season finale needs to be about the season we just saw, not setting up the next one coming up in five months.

My wife wasn't surprised by this turn of events, and thought that it was in keeping with the show's "edginess". She thinks that if they wouldn't have done something like this, the would've jumped the shark. I say where's that motorcycle chase I assumed we'd be getting (remember the "didn't you race motorcycles" lady at the Palmer breakfast?), and the ending where in the last minute of the show, someone says to Jack, "Looks like that's it Jack, all the bad guys are dead and your family is safe.", to which Jack would just mouth under his breath "I need a nap." Boom. Over.

I'm not saying this was where "24" jumped the shark, but I definitely am saying that this was the wrong ending. Note to the producers - next time you do a 24-episode action movie, deliver a pay-off in the final episode. Don't redo the key points of Brian Depalma's "Blow Out" over the course of an entire TV season. The way it ended, the high point may've been the second-to-last show. It certainly wasn't the finale. (I'm a big Depalma fan, BTW, and do appreciate "Blow Out".)

Also, did anyone notice that "Due to violent content" warning at the beginning? If they've used that at all in the past I can't recall (maybe they did on the first episode because of the plane explosion - can't remember). But was this show any more violent than the last 22 shows that preceded it?

JiM T

 

[Jay W.]

Jim T, why does it have to have a happy ending? It took serious balls to run that ending and I'm glad they did. I'm just so sick of predictable happy hollywood endings. I was expecting a happy ending with a chessy last line along the lines of it's been a long day or "i need a nap" which would of been lame IMO. I wish they would have killed Kim too so there would be no kidnapping plots next season.

 

[David Forbes]

the ending where in the last minute of the show, someone says to Jack, "Looks like that's it Jack, all the bad guys are dead and your family is safe.", to which Jack would just mouth under his breath "I need a nap." Boom. Over.

Lame, cliched, hideous. Thank GOD they didn't do anything like that. I'm truly surprised you liked this show at all if you think that's an idea for a "good" ending.

This whole show was about doing the UNEXPECTED. That's why the first 12 hours were so phenomenal, and why large parts of the second half fell short, because you could SEE what was coming because they were doing predictable, cliched, "Hollywood"-type scenarios. And that's why the ending returned it to greatness, because it was NOT what you expected and was, indeed, edgy (though I generally dislike that term).

 

[GlennH]

More on the "is Teri really dead" angle. Here is an excerpt from an article (see the very bottom segment) in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette yesterday:

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Oh wow, I just remembered (because of someone else's post) that Teri was pregnant...that gives a little more impact to the ending. Damn.

If the next season's story is good enough to make top brass keep the format, then bring it on!

(I wish 24's seasons would air as frequently as Survivor's do)

 

[John Thomas]

because you could SEE what was coming because they were doing predictable, cliched, "Hollywood"-type scenarios.

I wouldn't call killing off the main character's pregnant wife as 'predictable'. The whole season was excellent. The reason the second half was 'predictable' is because things started coming together, with the pieces of the puzzle coming together.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I find the symmetry of both Jack and Palmer losing their wives (Jack physically, Palmer emotionally) as fitting payment for a mission gone wrong 3 years ago, and they now also suffer the consequences of collateral damage from their decision in their chosen professions. There are all sorts of shades of gray on this show.

 

[Scooter]

Jack yes..paid a price for doing his job. Palmer...got a weight lifted off his shoulders. Good riddance!

 

[jeff lam]

So did nobody else think the first 22 episodes were unbelievably awesome (especially the first 6 or so) and the last two were unbelievably stupid.
with everything that Nina did to help Jack, Teri, and Kim in the first 22 episodes, it made no sense at all that she was the mole.
Remember when they asked jack to shoot Nina and he did after he gave her the vest??? What's that crap??? Everything that happened in the first 22 ep makes no sence and was all for nothing now that the last 2 episodes ruined the whole series.
Seems like the writers didn't have it done in time and just threw whatever crap that was in their head together for the last 2 episodes in a couple minutes.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I thought the first 13 or so were the best of the series. When more than half of a series like this (where each episode is THAT dependent on the previous one and takes place chronologically) 13 GREAT episodes and 11 good ones is excellent.

Can't wait for the DVD!!! I wonder if we should try running a full day marathon. Maybe we could have a live chat as it goes on and switch DVDs and all at the same time as everyone else....

 

[Mike Broadman]

jeff, Gaines did not know that Nina was working for the Drazens. He himself was on a need-to-know basis as he was hired by them.

 

[Jeff Behlendorf]

Today the IMDB Movie/TV News column had this article:

"Stars of 24 Balk at changes"

Two of the stars of the Fox TV series 24 have expressed concern about the direction that the second season of the series is taking - but their worries have little to do with the producers' decision to tinker with last season's real-time format and use a more traditional one instead. Leslie Hope, who plays Teri Bauer, the wife of Kiefer Sutherland's character, Jack Bauer, told today's Guardian newspaper at the Monte Carlo television festival that she is particularly upset about the decision to replace the show's director, Stephen Hopkins, and an apparent decision to use younger and sexier performers. "When they put out a casting call for a bunch of beautiful women in their 20s, you have to ask yourself why" she told the newspaper. Although the series was critically well received, it never attracted the big audiences that many had expected. Hope said that she feared that next season, "the tone might shift into a new area." Likewise Dennis Haysbert, who plays African-American Senator David Palmer on the series said that the black characters had a rare depth and complexity and implied that Fox executives might shy away from them in the future.

End of article

Now my question is if Hope's character is dead, why is she so concerned about the future of the series? Although it never specifically says Hope is working in the second season there could be a lot of implications by reading between the lines. I also was unaware that they were going to change the format. I thought they were going to have the whold next season as a single day like before.

Very interesting.

 

[Will_B]

The first part of the article has no sources, so the writer was probably just trying to make a good opening line. He had probably heard the rumours that they were considering changing the real time format, and went with that as his intro to the real "meat" of the story (the part with sources). Of course WE know they did not change the format, but the reporter isn't neccesarily someone who would know that.

Casting too young and changing the director (director of how many episodes?) sounds like network meddling to me, but who knows.

It would have been nice if they had announced that some ringer directors were going to do some hours of the show. Get David Lynch, David Mamet, David Fincher, other directors named David, etc., to do guest directing gigs on it.