I'm going to present these resolutions in ascending importance, though every one of them is important to the continuing lore that is 24.
1. I take back what I said last week about Kim Bauer, being the eternal victim - tonight she was the best she's ever been, cool on the phone to the FBI when the terrorists are watching, courageously risking her life to get a briefcase to stave off another attack and locate her father, and not taking Jack's no for answer about using her stem cells in a dangerous medical procedure to save him. This was far and away Kim Bauer's finest hour - she's finally becoming her father's daughter (as my wife pointed out ) - and beautifully and movingly played by Elisha Cuthbert.
2. I knew that Jack couldn't die - and for all we know, he still may - but, yeah, they made it tough tonight. When the imam comes to talk to him, it sure looks like it's a final conversation before death. And the substance of the conversation was about the best we've ever seen from Jack about his life and work - he tells himself that he has to break the law and torture to save 15 people on a bus, but he's not so sure that he's right, and he realizes he may be taking the extreme action so he can live with himself. In an earlier conversation, he tells Renee - who is tempted to torture the head bad guy to extract information - that she has to follow her heart, whatever her head may tell her....
3. And looks as if Renee's heart may indeed be telling her to do what Jack Bauer, in less self-reflecting seasons, was quick enough to do (even though Jack has told her that he's been struggling with these demons of what to do all of his life). Renee handcuffs Janis, takes off her badge, and walks in to ... likely do whatever is necessary to get the information from Wilson (played by Will Patton). But the scene ends before we see what Renee actually will do ... leaving us hanging until next year. And I gotta say - great earlier scene with Renee riding on the side of the car, gun blazing!
4. Meanwhile, President Taylor has some spectacular scenes, in which she goes against her husband's advice, and turns her daughter over to legal authorities for her role in getting Hodges killed. She's been one helluva a President. And it makes me realize why I'm better suited to writing and teaching than public office: The President had no other real choice in tonight's situation. But I don't think I could have put what the law and public service may require above my children. (On the other hand, Olivia, objectively, did deserve whatever she got.)
5. And, then, there's Tony - I knew he wasn't bad! I said so in those blog posts, lots of times, but few of you believed me. Well, at least not all bad, not even mostly bad, just a little bad, on behalf of a greater good. In one of the best scenes ever on 24, Tony tells Jack that whereas Jack ran away, Tony went after the head guy who was most behind Palmer's assassination and Michelle's murder (and we find out Michelle was pregnant with Tony's baby boy). So Tony hunted Wilson, for years. And he did what we could to stop the worst of what Wilson was doing - the attack on numerous American cities, the germ-tipped warheads that Hodges was about to launch. But he did kill three FBI men in cold blood, and he was about to let some of the deadly prion-germs loose on the Metro. I would have felt better had Tony at least figured out a way to substitute a dummy for this weapon - but, I'm still satisfied that he is a good man, at heart, whose vision and purpose was blurred by the awful pain of losing loved ones, and who still did mostly the right and brave thing. And I hope we see him next season...
And, so, 24 has reinvented itself with a President of utmost morality and personal courage, Kim Bauer at the top of her game, Renee becoming more like Jack, Tony a far more complex and powerful character than ever he was, and Jack a little less like the classic Jack and far more human and contemplative....
I'm looking forward to Season 8.
10-min podcast review of 24 Season 7 Finale!
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11 comments:
The action will continue, expect another difficult day for Jack Bauer. But I've heard that they changes location again for Season 8.
I have to say this too... Aaron Pierce is just awesome. He is a man who takes the pursuit of truth to heart as well.
Good review. I agree that Kim was for sure the best we've ever seen her. I'm as die hard of a 24 fan as anyone but I don't think that I could have handled another Kim-napping. I got super excited when she said "Damnit", sounded just like Jack!
As for Tony - back at the beginning of season 5, Michelle didn't even look prego. Correct me if I'm wrong but don't you have be be like 20 weeks (or so) before you can tell the gender of a baby? While it certainly added to Tony's pain and to his storyline, it seemed like a stretch that he knew it was a boy when Michelle was looking as slender and hot as ever. Maybe I'm being picky???
MC - Agreed completely about Aaron. (I wrote a few weeks ago that perhaps he had a hand in Hodges' killing, but I'll never make that mistake again...)
Chad - yeah, I loved that patented Bauer "Damnit" from Kim, too.
About Michelle's pregnancy - women carry babies differently. There are some women who don't show until their 4th, 5th or even 6th month (supposedly hardly anyone knew that Sarah Palin was pregnant with her last child). So I think that, medically, Tony could have known that Michelle was having a boy, but she might not have looked pregnant.
The imam moment, while powerfully written and performed, irritated the hell out of me.
Faced with accusations of caricaturing Muslims as terrorists a few seasons back, the writers threw in a couple of hamfistedly written Arab convenience store bit-part have-a-go-heroes for an episode or two.
"Hey, Fox viewers, not all Muslims are terrorists!" the show patronisingly told its drooling redneck audience for about 30 minutes, then promptly forgot about them. Bone-throwing at its most obvious and cringemaking.
The Jibraan character from a few episodes back was quite a lot more believeable and a whole lot less patronising, but he still slotted into the same characer mold.
How hard would it be just to cast an Arab-American actor in a good-guy role in which race and religion are irrelevant?
Jack's deathbed confession to an imam he's barely met? Didn't ring true, not for a second.
After all, when you think about all the cold-blooded shit Jack's pulled off over the last several seasons, most of the really nasty execution-style evil stuff was perpetrated against white folk.
Blowing Ryan Chappelle's head off for no reason in season three was, in the views of many, the most unreasonably heartless move Jack ever made.
Frankly, I think I only carry on watching 24 to see eventually Jack get his comeuppance and/or admit he's a wrong idiot who deserves the chair.
It'll never get any closer than it did last night, but I suppose I can enjoy the gunfights while I'm waiting in vain.
Paul, I'm not so sure I'd describe Tony as "good." He seemed to be motivated pretty much entirely by his personal desire for revenge, and I think his arguing that he was taking down the bad guys behind everything was really just a way for him to justify his actions. He did some really horrible things to get to Alan Wilson and when he got him, he wasn't interested in finding out who else was involved, he just wanted to kill him.
That said, I think the actor that plays Tony (don't know his name) was excellent in the scene where he screams at Wilson. Unlike Jack, who likes to yell and throw things around, Tony has a very silent intensity and almost never raises his voice. His outburst could have come off as phony and out of character, but instead it was very well done and believable. You could tell that this was an emotional climax for Tony, who never showed emotion despite all the pain he was in.
Kevin - I agree that Jack killing Ryan was in many important ways the worst, and most personally and professionally agonizing, thing that Jack did. But I still liked Jack finally addressing the deep conflict he also felt over torturing bad guys - what he said to Renee in particular.
Eric - I don't disagree completely what you're saying about Tony - in particular, that personal revenge is hardly an indication of goodness, when it's the motive for killing innocent people (including Jack, who I guess Tony thought was dying anyway, and Kim, who surely was not).
But there is another significant element in Tony's motives - stopping the guy, Wilson, who was behind the Palmer assassination, and was prepared to do all kinds of monstrous things. Certainly stopping that kind of person - when Jack and CTU and the now the FBI etc could not - is a noble motive.
And agree completely about Carlos Bernard's superb acting.
I don't agree that the Imam character was a caricature and a throwaway. I certainly didn't see it that way. It is well established that as human beings approach the hour of death we tend to change, we tend to look at things in a different way. Jack just went through a very intense day -- therefore, those experiences along with his imminent death have crystallized his thinking regarding his past actions.
Similarly, in regards to him seeking forgiveness, the Imam was the one that spoke to him first a "couple of hours ago" in time about his actions, and how there was still time to atone. This is why Jack chose him to confess to. Jack has never had a spiritual support structure following the death of his wife.
Essentially then, Jack is taking those actions that will let him "die in peace". Maybe, he won't have a clear conscience, because as you say he has done some really bad things.... But I wonder?
Why do so many of us return to watch this show year after year? I will tell you that it is my belief that torture is a horrible crime and some of the things that Jack has done will certainly put him in Biblical Hell -- were he a real person, and if Hell esists. Yet, do we watch because the fictional character provides some sort of conduit for feelings we possess? Do we cheer for him (and this year Renee) to succeed because even though what he achieves, is through the wrong means, he is still a hero?
I do not yet fathom the reason why I return to this show every year. In the past, I kept thinking I was going to stop watching. This year, I was very satisfied by the story line. It has reflected current themes, it has brought forward major characters, and it was so well written, it surprised me with its twists and turns as it brought forward the conspiracy storyline.
Finally, one comment on Olivia and the President. I am going to disagree with what has been said. I would have chosen the other method. I would have chosen to hide the actions of Olivia as Acting Chief of Staff. After what that family has suffered it was the only logical conclusion. I know what the "Rule of Law" and why as President she could not do it...BUT, I also suspect part of the motivation for punishing her is as set-up for Season 8 of 24. Remember, the conspiracy has NOT YET BEEN WHOLLY UNMASKED.
Honestly? I can't wait until January!
Glad to see you agree with me about Tony, that his motives were about more than just revenge. A lot of people at the Fox forum are convinced he's 100% selfish and evil and was only doing this for revenge and didn't care about the greater good at all and they are calling those of us who saw it as being more complex like that "apologists". So i am glad to see I am not the only one who thinks he is still a good man at heart, albeit a very disturbed one, and that he was doing what he believed served the greater good, not just trying to get revenge for his own self-interest.
Welcome to Infinite Regress, AgentRez - you and I are clearly the only people with perception clear enough to see what was really motivating Tony ... :)
Good point about Olivia, MP.
Perhaps in the next series it would be good to have Jack Bauer in it. Roughly speaking Kiefer Sutherland was on screen in each episode for around 5-10 minutes - the last episode probably having the least screen time of all.
This is where they have lost the plot, with the finale probably being the most boring episode in 24's history.
It needs to be about Jack Bauer - not Tony Almeida or the President's family.
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