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This is it: Part Two of the series finale! (Part One is here.) Suvarov quickly realizes that Dalia knows all about his part in Hassan's murder, but he still agrees to come up to Logan's office. The deadline she gave Cole expires, and he calls in the full SWAT force of CTU. Just in time, Chloe talks Kiefer into changing his mind and letting her go through with her plan for publicizing the evidence. The only catch: she has to shoot him before CTU does.
Now the challenge before Chloe, Arlo and Cole is to get Kiefer's recording of Logan and Suvarov out into the open. This proves tricky when Jason shows up to search Chloe, but she's equal to the challenge, and a perforated Kiefer even manages to give an assist from his gurney. But Pillar figures it out before Chloe can upload the file, and she and Cole are busted, as well, and the data card is recovered.
Now all Logan has to do is convince Taylor to let him have Kiefer killed, which he does without effort. But watching the video message Kiefer made for Kim, she seems to have second thoughts. And at the signing ceremony, Taylor makes a dramatic confession in front of the entire world.
Unfortunately for Kiefer, she's too late to prevent Kiefer's ambush and abduction. And Logan reacts to this setback by shooting both Jason and himself. Now it's up to Cole, Chloe and Arlo to find Kiefer with CTU drones, which they do. They also manage to patch Taylor through to the hit team at the last second, and she calls them off. Taylor then apologizes to Kiefer, while telling him to run like hell. He and Chloe have an even more emotional farewell before the clock counts down to 00:00:00. Can't wait for the movie! Okay, I kind of can.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!No more "previously on 24", which is ironic considering that everything that ever happened on 24 -- ever -- is about to be "." But events still occur in real time, for one more hour. Let's do this, and hope to God things don't end with a zombie prom.
Suvarov continues his speech to the press gaggle in the U.N., pouring out a rhetorical 40 for Omar Hassan. He wraps up by saying he extends "the open hand of friendship to my partners in peace: President Taylor, President Hassan. Thank you very much." He's the only president who gets to speak (I guess the ladies had their turn earlier), and the minute he's done, Dalia can't get off the podium and out of there fast enough. "It appears I'm not the only one who does not want to be here," Suvarov quietly observes to Taylor. Taylor reminds Suvarov that "her husband was killed six hours ago." "Is that why she refuses to look at me?" Suvarov asks. Well, derr. When Taylor doesn't answer, Suvarov realizes that Dalia knows the truth. Taylor explains that Dalia heard it from a reporter, and when she came to Taylor, "I told her the truth." Yeah, that's not quite how I remember that happening. Suvarov marvels that Dalia's still here, under the circumstances. "Mrs. Hassan understands the benefits of peace," Taylor claims, sounding more like Logan every time she opens her mouth. "Because you helped her come to that understanding?" Suvarov ventures. They're interrupted by a Russian flunky with a phone call for Suvarov. "Must have been very convincing," Suvarov fishes. Taylor snaps, "Take your call, Yuri," and walks off. In Russian, the flunky tells Suvarov that it's Logan calling, and saying it's urgent. Suvarov is clearly not all that interested in talking to Logan right now, probably because it's Logan's fault he's even in the U.S. right now, but he takes the call anyway. Apparently, in the international community, Charles Logan is that annoying neighbor who moved away but still keeps calling you and whinging for favors.
Over his desk phone with his open cell phone in his hand so Kiefer can still hear him, Logan tells Suvarov that he needs to come up to his suite, and when Suvarov protests, Logan tells him to trust him. Because that always goes well for everyone. He claims Suvarov has a leak, and Suvarov reluctantly agrees to come up for a visit. Oh, Yuri, just put your foot down and tell Logan he can't borrow a squadron of MiG fighter planes.
Logan hangs up and tells Kiefer, "I hope I was convincing enough for you." Always seeking approval, and Kiefer gives it to him: "You're a world-class liar. I would have expected nothing else." Behind Kiefer, Chloe is waking up already. Logan asks if this is really just to get justice for Walker. Kiefer says yes, "and for all the other people that died today trying to protect this country. Now sit at the desk and keep the line open." Chloe, now fully awake, calls over to Kiefer to tell him that they can use Kiefer's audio file to expose Suvarov, using the CTU servers. "President Taylor's already censored the press," Kiefer says. "NSA's putting up firewalls." No idea how he knows either of those things, unless that window also gives him a clear view of the Conde Nast building and Fort Meade. Chloe says there's no way to lock down everything. Her phone rings, and she says it's Cole calling. "If I don't answer that, he's sending a TAC team in here." Kiefer says it'll be too late, which I guess is why he's going with plan B to kill Suvarov in Logan's office rather than waiting around for the more public kill during the press conference later. As spectacular as that would have been. "I'm gonna finish what I started," Kiefer vows. He looks at Logan, sitting at his desk with his hands spread wide like some kind of evil talk show host.
Cole gets Chloe's voice mail, and reluctantly makes a decision: he grabs a walkie-talkie and tells Agent Burke to have everyone move in on the Hart building, 22nd floor. "I have intel on a possible sniper." Burke asks if Cole knows who, and Cole tells him it's Jack Bauer. Burke verifies that the lethal force order is still in effect, and Cole confirms it. Agents swarm toward the front entrance like it's the last reel of The Blues Brothers.
At 3:05:02, Suvarov and two guards walk through a U.N. hallway towards Logan's office. Meanwhile, Chloe is still trying to talk sense into Kiefer. "Killing Pavel and Novakovich was one thing, but killing Suvarov? The Russians will consider an assassination of their president on American soil an act of war." Kiefer says Suvarov started it, which might work on the schoolyard, but -- okay, actually that doesn't even work on the schoolyard. "You're provoking a war with a nuclear armed country," she points out, and he snaps at her to shut up. "Or what? You're gonna kill me, too?" Kiefer actually looks away from his scope for a second (either he's feeling bad or he's actually considering it) before saying, "They brought this on themselves." Chloe brings up all the collateral damage and innocent lives. Oh, yes, the "innocent lives" Kiefer has done so many horrible things to protect. She might actually have hit on something there. While Kiefer watches, Logan's assistant comes in, and seeing him sitting weirdly at the desk, just tells him Suvarov is outside. Logan takes his time telling her to send him in, and gets up from the desk.
"You're going to start a war because you lost someone?" Chloe says. Kiefer says it's not about him, which, sure it isn't. She plays her trump: "Renee wouldn't want you to do this." He again tells her to shut up, but she still won't. "The last thing Renee would want is for you to start a war in her name." Really? I don't know, suddenly the War of Renee Walker seems like a really romantic gesture. At least by Twilight standards. By now, Suvarov is entering Logan's office, and Kiefer has his big square head in the crosshairs, but Chloe is still begging him, "Don't dishonor her memory like this." Kiefer starts getting emotional. In Logan's office, the ex-prez is now standing and facing Suvarov, who's looking at him expectantly. Kiefer finally lowers the gun and tells Chloe they'll do it her way, but he needs her to promise to see it through, "because there's no way I'm getting out of this building alive." Not with that attitude, Sunshine. He makes her promise that she'll do what he says. I wonder if he said that to Walker before they went into the bedroom.
Meanwhile, across the way, Logan has totally been left hanging. I mean honestly, is there anything more awkward than finding yourself in a private, one-on-one meeting with someone who was supposed to drop dead the minute he walked in the room? It's not like you had anything you were planning to say. This may actually be the meanest thing Kiefer's done to Logan yet. Logan just lamely tells Suvarov he was wrong, and apologizes for wasting his time. Suvarov glares at him and storms out without looking back. "See you after the signing," Logan calls after him like they're still best buddies. Then he snaps at his assistant, "Find Pillar!"
At 3:08:05, the TAC team is almost to Kiefer's sniper nest. He's removing the memory card from his recorder, and Chloe thinks she just needs to get to mobile command with it. "You won't make it out of the building," Kiefer says. "You and Cole found me first by circumventing CTU. If Logan hasn't figured that out yet, he will soon enough." He reminds her of the shoot-to-kill orders, which he seems to think applies to her as well. "If you don't shoot me, that file's not going anywhere." He cocks her gun and sticks it back in her hand, telling her to point it at him as he draws his own weapon. He instructs her to tell them that she found him with the gun and she shot him in self-defense. Obviously, Chloe has something of an issue with this. "Don't ask me to do something I can't do!" she whines. Kiefer yells at her to pull the trigger. Even when he points his own gun at her, she still won't do it. He yells at her that they're running out of time, for what may be the last time ever. "I know how hard this is for you, but if you care about me at all, pull the trigger. Do it!" She still won't, even when the TAC team is visible on Kiefer's laptop, closing in on their position. "Damn you!" he yells, and puts his own gun to his temple. Which is when she finally shoots him in the left shoulder and he goes flying back. A second later, the CTU squad comes in to secure the scene. Burke takes the gun in Chloe's hand (let's hope he doesn't look at it too closely and realize it's the same one he gave Cole less than an hour ago) and orders medical up to attend to Kiefer. Kiefer's on the floor, not moving. It's 3:09:22. So do "shoot to kill" orders stop being valid when the target has already been shot? Or do you keep shooting at the inert body until you're sure? I think the hardest thing about being in CTU would be remembering those kinds of protocols, especially in circumstances like this, when a kill shot would be so easy to make.
3:15:15. Kiefer clearly survived, because he's up on a gurney and wearing an oxygen mask, but he's still in the utility room where Chloe shot him. Along with more agents and EMTs than I would have expected to be able to fit in there. Cole calls Chloe to say he's on his way. It's only been six minutes, so no hurry or anything. She tells him to stay put anyway, because she needs him where he is. Cole wants to know what's happening, so Chloe explains to him about how Kiefer gave her the recording of Logan and Suvarov's conversation. "Why did you shoot him?" Cole wonders. Chloe promises to explain later. "Right now, you just need to make sure that Arlo is ready to upload that file." Cole agrees and asks if Kiefer will survive. Chloe doesn't know, and signs off. A she leaves the room, Kiefer looks at least semi-conscious, and gives her a nod. Which is nice of him, considering his last words to her were so damning. Literally.
In the outer hallway, Agent Burke accosts her and tells her that Jason's been found in the back of his SUV, and he wants to talk to Chloe now, so she's going to have to stay right where she is. Chloe tries to blow on past by pulling rank, but Burke insists, "His authority comes from the president. If you want to make a call to the White House, we can do that." Rank pulled back. Chloe defeatedly asks when Jason will be here, and is told he's on his way now. She lets Burke lead her back to the utility room at 3:16:55. Kiefer's still being worked on, but his mask fogs and unfogs in a pattern that looks like Morse code for "Back so soon?"
"I'm sure it was a terrible ordeal, Mr. President," Jason is saying over a phone to Logan, with remarkable patience. Sure, Kiefer had them both at gunpoint in the last hour, but Jason was closer. Jason thinks it's all over, but Logan tells him about the recording Kiefer has. "How do you know?" Jason asks. "Because the son of a bitch played the damn thing for me!" Logan says in a voice choked with rage. "He must have put a bug on me or something when he attacked that car." Like I've been saying, it wouldn't be the first time. "For all I know, he has recorded every conversation I've had for the past two hours." Including this one? Jason promises to get it back, and Logan warns him, "You're on the line here, too. If this evidence gets out, we all go down together." He hangs up and takes some cleansing breaths, but they don't work; he's still a dirty slimeball.
When Jason arrives in the utility room, Burke points out the recording device they found, and also gives Jason his phone back that they took off of Kiefer. Jason examines the recorder with its missing data card, and whispers to Burke, "Bauer has a digital file that poses a threat to national security. We need to find it." Burke promises to keep looking, not even a little curious as to how a digital file could threaten national security. Jason now turns his attention to Chloe, asking her what happened. "He drew his gun and I shot him. What more do you need to know?" she snits. Jason asks her about the data card for the recorder, and Chloe lies -- really badly -- that she doesn't know what he's talking about. She gets even less convincing as he first makes her empty her pockets, then searches her. "I hope you enjoyed yourself," she snarks when he's done. I'd tell her not to flatter herself, but those 30 or 40 minutes when he was patting her down were just about the first time I've ever seen Jason not in a hurry. Chloe stomps out. And in the hallway, waiting for the elevator, she checks her cell phone to make sure the card is still in there where she hid it. That was her clever ruse? Now I really don't think it was a data card Jason was looking for.
Jason now turns his attention to Kiefer, who is obviously conscious but still isn't talking. Jason asks one of the medics if Kiefer can be treated at CTU. "He got lucky, it's a through-and-through," the medic says. Yes, if Kiefer is anything at all, he's lucky. He's the luckiest boy in the world. In other words, Chloe missed all the arteries and organs. Jason comes over all suspicious and is about to go after Chloe, head out, but Kiefer suddenly seems to have an attack of cooperativeness. He pulls off the oxygen mask and acts like he's trying to talk. Jason leans down close to hear, but all Jack wants to put in Jason's ear is his teeth. He locks on, and Jason screams until the agents separate them. He orders Kiefer taken away and Chloe locked down, while blood spurts from his head and the EMTs suddenly have a new patient. I knew Michael Madsen was going to be a bad influence on Kiefer.
Chloe has already gotten back to mobile command, which means the walk over to the Hart building is about four times longer than the walk back. As she sits down at a computer and starts typing, Cole says that Arlo's ready to e-mail blast the file, but he wants to know why Chloe shot Kiefer. She explains (leaving out the part where she was a whiny wuss about it until it was almost too late), and he angrily asks, "How did you know you wouldn't kill him?" "I didn't," Chloe says. I guess Kiefer's luckier than I thought. She's already got the file uploading, but Cole sees some agents coming, and she asks him for a few more seconds. Cole sets his jaw and steps up to run interference while the file still has 22% left to go. Now 19%. Dammit, if Kiefer hadn't decided to record his own State of the Union it would probably be transferred by now. But the agents subdue Cole and drag Chloe away from the computer, then snatch the card out of the drive. "Upload Failure," reads the message on the screen. Failure is right. Burke asks Chloe if that's the card from Kiefer, and Chloe says yes, and he needs to listen to what's on it. "Pillar is part of the cover-up. That data card will never make it to evidence." Burke walks away to call Jason on his cell phone while Chloe yells at him to think about what he's doing. Following orders? I don't think Chloe has time to persuade Burke about the whole situation here, unless he's standing in a cell phone dead zone. Too bad Chloe's restrained, or she could probably make one.
Burke reaches Jason, whose ear is already being treated, and says Chloe and Cole are both busted and he's got the data card. Jason tells him to have Chloe and Cole brought back to CTU, and the data card to Logan. Cole and Chloe are dragged out at 3:23:33. Cole hadn't been arrested for over an hour, so he probably forgot what it was like.
At 3:29:26, Logan walks into Taylor's office waving the data card and saying, "This is it." He tells Taylor about how Kiefer, Cole and Chloe planned to distribute the file using CTU servers. "It almost worked. My people never gave up, and now it's over. You won. Congratulations." Taylor somehow doesn't look all that victorious. He sets it down on her desk, and she asks if he listened to it. "Frankly it's not worth hearing," Logan says. I'm sure that'll work. In fact, I'm kind of surprised he doesn't try to make a grab to get it back. He adds that Kiefer's about to be brought back to CTU. "I realize that this is a difficult area," he begins gently, and she already looks dismayed at what he's about to say, which is that Kiefer will never let it go. "No. I don't suppose he will," Taylor sighs wearily. Logan makes a little speech: "All great achievements in state are fragile things, Madam President." Like "state" is a sport you can letter in or something. "Especially in their infancy. They need to be protected. Our peace agreement? Very vulnerable." Notice how it's "our" peace agreement now. Taylor promises, "We will lock him away in a black site halfway around the world," like that's not bad enough. Suddenly Logan's not as optimistic as he usually is. "He will find a way. Madam President," he says. In a quiet but insistent tone, he presses, "Mark my words. He will rise up out of the deepest hole in the ground. He will claw his way back from the ends of the earth, unless we stop him before that can happen." By now, Taylor is staring miserably out the window again, and Logan adds, "Pending approval, I've taken it upon myself to, uh, put a plan in motion." "Of course you have," Taylor says without looking at him. After a pause, he slimes, "I will take your silence as tacit approval," and leaves the room. She could maybe still almost save her soul if she stopped him. She doesn't stop him.
But when he's gone, she goes back to her desk and pops that little memory card into the reader on the side of her laptop. Suddenly there's Kiefer on her computer in the middle of his speech, like this is a videocassette that starts playing at whatever point it was at when the last person ejected it. He picks up a bit before where we saw him leave off, talking about the day's deaths. "These people died today because President Suvarov wanted to destroy the peace treaty for his own interests. And President Taylor knows this because I told her. But she's willing to cover it up because she believes the peace accord will serve the greater good. She is wrong. It won't." Taylor pauses it to answer a call from Tim telling her the signing ceremony is about to begin. She thanks him and hangs up before going back to the video. Kiefer lectures, "Lasting peace cannot simply be political. It has to be born out of trust and honesty and understanding, and most importantly a will on both sides to move forward." Well, look who's such an expert on peace all of a sudden. "Currently, that will does not exist and this peace is fraudulent, and I cannot in good conscience allow the people that lost their lives today to go unspoken for." So he's still in good conscience after everything he's done the past few hours? Good to know. "You reminded me of that earlier today," he tells Spawn. "That's who I am." Taylor takes out the card and looks sad. But at least after letting Logan arrange a hit on Kiefer, she won't have to listen to any more speeches like that from him.
At 3:33:58, Jason, already in a new suit and with a bandage over his ear, meets Logan in the hallway and says that Kiefer's covered. How many hit squads do these people know, anyway? They smile and gloat, and as Taylor comes out of her office to head to the signing, Logan wishes her luck. She doesn't bother to respond as he gazes at her, and she gets on the elevator with her guard detail. For once, a closing elevator door does not trigger a ticking clock.
Logan takes Jason into his office and goes to the bar to pour them a drink and give Jason his props. "Here's to all the political capital the president is about to bank downstairs, and here's to helping her spend it," Logan says. Clink. He really thinks he's going to be the Secretary of State, doesn't he? And maybe Jason can be the Secretary of Not Knowing What Direction Sounds Are Coming From.
In the room where the signing will take place -- no cameras or reporters, just delegates and the Secretary General -- Dalia and Suvarov exchange knowing looks as they take their places on the dais. So she knows, and he knows she knows, and she knows he knows she knows. This treaty is going to be awesome. Taylor enters, to general applause, and Tim places Taylor's new pen in its case on the podium at 3:39:02, because now he's her piss-boy or something. She shakes hands with both the other presidents, and Dalia's expression is unsurprisingly icy. Good thing there are no cameras. The Secretary General gives a little speech and then invites the three presidents up to the dais with him, one at a time. Dalia, the last one, is pretty slow to move, and for a while it looks like she isn't going to at all, but finally she does. That was almost suspenseful. SecGen does some more talking, then turns to Suvarov, giving a rather informal nod as he invites the Russian to sign first. The Russian signs "Yuri Suvarov" using the Roman alphabet, like he's just a regular guy, and it's projected on a screen overhead. All the delegates applaud. Dalia goes , and again there's a long pause as her pen hesitates over the paper. But finally, after a very tense moment, she signs as well, also in the Roman alphabet, right under Suvarov's name. More applause. Now Taylor steps up to the podium. She opens the case containing the pen from Hassan, takes her time unscrewing the cap, and holds the nib over the paper for an even longer time than Dalia. Perhaps she's looking at the other two signatures, the names of people she threatened, blackmailed, and lied to get them there. Or maybe she's trying to move the pen with her mind. But she finally ends up capping the pen and putting it back in Dalia's hand. "Your husband wanted me to have this," she whispers. "I cannot accept it." Looks like she's keeping the case, though. It'll be perfect for keeping hairpins in. On her way back to the podium, Suvarov quietly but urgently tries to talk her down, but she insists this is something she "should have done hours ago." And I get all the criticism about how unrealistic it is that Taylor would suddenly have an about-face now, in the 24th hour, fully as a result of Kiefer's little speech. But there are pragmatic issues as well; until very recently, Dalia and Suvarov didn't know stuff about each other that they know now. Before, the treaty was only a partial sham, but now it's a complete one. She must realize it's only a matter of time before it all falls apart, and not very much time, either. And when that happens, everything's going to come out. Might as well get out in front of it. And Taylor doesn't do anything halfway.
She speaks loudly into the mic, "Mr. Secretary General, my fellow delegates, grave crimes have been committed in the run-up to this treaty. I have participated in a conspiracy to hide those crimes. Before there can be a meaningful peace, justice must be served. I will be giving a more complete statement within the hour, but for now, this peace process has come to an end." She walks off, and Dalia fixes Suvarov with a small smile that contains a measure of victory, and maybe a little bit of "I know where your wife lives." Taylor comes bursting out of the room at 3:41:15 with Tim scampering along in her wake, telling him to have CTU alert Kiefer's ambulance. Tim's confused, and maybe a few laps behind. "He is about to be ambushed. Just make the call, Tim, we may already be too late!" Tim makes the call, and then tells her, "Madam President, talk to me. Tell me what's happening." Shaking all over, Taylor says, "I have made a terrible mistake, Tim. And one that I can never undo. But I need you to help me stop it from becoming worse." "Yes ma'am," Tim gasps, shocked at seeing her this way as he follows her onto the elevator. Probably too late for him to get a ride home with Ethan, too.
Kiefer crawls out of the overturned wreckage of an ambulance, so it looks like they were indeed too late. There are dead CTU agents all around, and squawking walkie-talkies. Kiefer looks up from the street, and suddenly three gas-masked faces are looking back down at him. A hood is thrown over his face. This is starting to look familiar.
Still in the elevator, Tim gets a call and tells Taylor, "We didn't make it. They got Bauer." Taylor actually lets out a very unpresidential moan.
The Secretary General returns to the microphone in the signing room, where reporters have been let in. "My statement is brief and I will take no questions," he begins. "Moments ago, President Taylor declined to sign the peace accord and excused herself from the proceedings." Jason and Logan are watching in Logan's office as SecGen continues, "She did so after making allegations of crimes which she did not specify and which the United Nations has no knowledge of. President Taylor said that she would come forward within the hour to explain the reasons for her actions." Somehow Logan's entire body changes without his moving a muscle. Celebration over, looks like, and his desk phone is already ringing. Logan mutes the TV and quietly tells Jason, "That's the president asking about Bauer." Jason gets up to answer, but Logan tells him to ignore it. Defeated, Jason asks, "With respect, sir, what good will it do? It's over. Let's not add murder to the list of charges already against us." I think he means another murder, because I don't think the guys who were traveling across town with Kiefer are napping. Logan gets up and stands to the desk and creepily tells Jason he's right, and to go ahead and answer it. But when Jason turns to do so, Logan picks up a heavy decanter from the wet bar and clonks Jason on the head with it, even as Taylor is heard through the phone demanding to talk to Logan. Jason goes down hard. His brain is going to look like a bruised banana by the end of the day. Logan takes Jason's gun out of its holster and tells him, "This was my last chance, and Bauer took it away." The he grabs a throw pillow off the couch and says, "It's come to this because of him." Even to a guy he just knocked out, he feels the need to justify himself. And then he shoots Jason in the back of the head, through the pillow. I stand corrected; Jason's brain is going to look like a banana split. Worst boss ever. And Jason thought it would be Kiefer who killed him. Logan's still standing over his body when Taylor and Tim arrive outside the door and of course find it locked. Taylor bangs on the door as Tim calls for the master key. Inside, Logan puts the gun under his chin and cringes. When they hear the bang outside, the Secret Service hustles Taylor away, as she hollers back to Tim that she needs Logan alive. It's 3:45:17, and I think that was the longest act ever on this show
3:51:12. Of course Logan couldn't even manage to kill himself properly, and is now being attended to by EMTs on the floor of his office. Taylor returns, and Tim says they think he'll make it, "but even if he regains consciousness, he's probably suffered severe brain damage." So maybe he'll wake up nice, then? "He knew he was the only one who could locate Jack," Taylor says. Tim says maybe CTU drones can help, and Taylor asks where Chloe is. Tim says she and Cole were brought back to CTU under arrest. Taylor orders them sprung at once and wants Chloe to use everything she has to find Kiefer. "I've already done that, Madam President," Tim says, and nods modestly when Taylor thanks him. Tim can enjoy the satisfaction of a job well-done for someone who's about to be in jail.
At 3:53:04, the CTU floor looks pretty empty, and Chloe is having Eden dragged into holding for good measure. With her hair in disarray, Chloe explains to Cole about Taylor's change of heart. "But she had already ordered the hit on Jack." She adds that the ambush already happened. "How does she know Jack's still alive?" Cole wonders, and Chloe says she doesn't. "She had everyone cleared from the floor except for you, me and Arlo." No wonder it's so dead in there. I thought the show just got tired of paying extras. Arlo's using the big screen to display a satellite shot of the ambush site, where Kiefer's body was not found. A moment later, he's got archive footage; which shows the three masked men dragging away a hooded Kiefer "five minutes" ago (even though it was at least ten) and putting him into a van. The tracking begins. They'd better snap it up if they want to find him before the end of the season. Wouldn't that be a pisser if they didn't?
Luckily, it doesn't take them long, because the van is backing into a construction site, and Arlo has it up on the CTU big screen in real time. Chloe tells them to dispatch NYPD. "Never gonna make it in time," Cole says, his one contribution to this entire effort. Chloe looks lost for a minute. "Okay, uh, hold on," she says lamely. Oh, solid plan.
The leader of the hit squad is 24's last guest star ever: Alex Carter, who played Detective Vartann on CSI and Jason Bly on Burn Notice. He leads Kiefer away from the parked van and puts him on his knees to a pile of slag and a wall marked with the graffito "ABEL." Biblical. Kiefer's hood is pulled off, and while Kiefer blinks in the sunlight, the hit man says, "I know who you are. So I'm gonna make this quick and clean." "Am I supposed to say 'thank you'?" Kiefer asks. Somehow he manages to get a leg around to kick the hitman, and even with his hands cuffed behind him, manages to get a couple of good licks in. But the hitman quickly regains the upper hand, telling his lieutenant to stand down before popping Kiefer again and then putting him back where he was. What kind of hitman would he be if he needed help dealing with a guy in handcuffs, especially one in the condition Kiefer's in? Kiefer spits blood and blinks up at the sun and the bridge. The hitman still wants to talk, telling Kiefer, "I really don't want to do this, but orders are orders." "It's all right. Pull the trigger," Kiefer says. The hitter is just about to when his second, on a satellite phone, tells him at the last second to hold off. The hitman pulls the gun away at the last second as the other man whispers that it's Taylor. "I don't have positive confirmation but it sounds like her. She says CTU has a drone overhead. "They got a directed microwave signal, that's how they got through to the phone." Well that certainly sounds plausible, and something that could totally be invented and implemented in the matter of seconds it took. The lead hitter looks up, and sure enough, something's way up there in the yellow-gray sky is reflecting the sunlight back down like it's fricking Venus or something. All this talk about drones all season, and this is the closest we get to seeing one. The leader takes the sat-phone while the second covers Kiefer.
The leader seems pretty confused about being ordered by Taylor to release Kiefer, but her orders are pretty clear: "You and your men are to leave Mr. Bauer where he is. Stand down and withdraw outside the west gate until the FBI arrives. If you have any thoughts of fleeing before then, the drone is equipped with two AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. I will not hesitate to use them, are we clear?" They're clear. Seems like a clear violation of posse comitatus but it wouldn't be the worst thing Taylor's done today. Now she wants to talk to Kiefer. The leader orders Kiefer uncuffed and tells his men to get ready to leave. Then he gives Kiefer the phone and says, "The president wants to talk to you." Don't they always?
Kiefer takes the phone, and as the van drives around the corner with the hit squad in it he tells Taylor, "You should have let them kill me, 'cause I'm not gonna stop until this is over." Taylor tells him it is; "I withdrew 15 minutes ago from the signing of the peace treaty. Within the hour I will tell the world what happened today. I will tender my resignation and remand myself to the Attorney General, and face the consequences of my actions. Unfortunately you will have to do the same." But how will he ever get near the Attorney General? She goes on, "I wanted this peace so badly, Jack. And for that, I have betrayed every principle that I have ever stood for. And I betrayed you." And then she says something that Kiefer probably wishes that he could print on a T-shirt and give to every person he's ever met: "If I had listened to you, none of this would have happened." Kiefer graciously says, "We both made mistakes we're gonna have to live with." See how magnanimous he can be when he finally gets his way? Taylor says she wishes she could take it back, "but all I can do is tell you to leave the country while you still have a chance. The Russians will be coming after you. And so will we. Jack, I am so sorry. I don't know what else to say." Looks like neither of them does, because she hangs up without either of them saying another word. So I guess a pardon is out of the question?
At CTU, Chloe's been watching the Kiefer-feed with Arlo and Cole, and crying. He's switched to his own cell phone -- which, I don't know how the hell he still has one of those -- and he's calling to tell her what happened. Chloe was listening in on the line, of course, which is good because there's not enough show left to go over anything twice. Kiefer says they'll use Spawn and her family to get to him, and he makes her promise to keep them safe. "How much time do you think I've got?" he asks. Chloe doesn't know, but says she'll get him as much as she can. So that means it must be okay for him to spend a few minutes shooting the shit with her. "When you first came to CTU, I never thought it was gonna be you that was gonna cover my back all those years," he says. "And I know that everything that you did today was to try and protect me. I know that." He suddenly turns to look up at the drone, so it looks like his big old bloody face on the CTU big screen is looking deeply into her eyes as he says, "Thank you." "Good luck, Jack," she says. "Yeah," he grunts, and disconnects. Finally he gets to his feet and walks to the fence as Chloe tells Arlo to recall the drone. "Whatever happened here didn't happen," she tells Arlo and Cole." Understand?" I'm sure Cole has some things he'd like to add to the list of things that didn't happen today. Like, he didn't kill Nick, and he didn't dump Nick's body along with Kevin's, and besides, if he'd had anything to do with anyone named Nick and Kevin, wouldn't there have been a Joe involved as well?
Kiefer manages to jog a short distance down the street. He's far from home-free; just in the past few hours he's been re-shot, re-stabbed, in a car accident, gassed, and beaten up. All he's got now are the bloody, tattered clothes on his back, a cell phone that he shouldn't have and a face that looks like it was used to tenderize a frozen side of beef. He's the most wanted man in the hemisphere. So what's he supposed to do now, hop on a bus to JFK and catch the first plane to Paris? Oh, fuck it, he'll be fine. He always is. That's why this doesn't really seem any more like a series finale than the end of any other season. He's always fucked but alive when things wrap up; it's just that this time the balance is tipped a bit more toward the former than usual. We've still got a movie to make, after all.
Kiefer pauses to look back up at the drone just as its camera is zooming in tight on his face. Because Chloe's orders don't supersede Arlo's flair for the dramatic. Chloe's face is covered with tears as she says, "Shut it down." Kiefer's face dissolves into pixels -- just like the title sequence -- as he gets moving again. And the final clock beep-booms 00:00:03... 00:00:02... 00:00:01... 00:00:00. Because in a world without 24, time has no meaning.
So that's it. The last "beep-BOOM." This isn't the first series finale I've recapped, but this one's a little more significant to me than, say, Rock Star. Obviously my emotions are mixed here, but lucky for you I'm not going to bore you with them now. I decided to stick it in a blog a few weeks ago. Suffice to say I'm grateful to this sometimes brilliant, sometimes infuriating show and everyone who made it; everyone who made it possible for me to write about it (and yes, that's everyone from Sars/Wing/Glark to the current editors to you, and thanks for reading and sometimes writing); and most of all my family -- M. Edium, who's five and a half now but wasn't born when I started, and Trash, who put up with so many long hours of my eyes shuttling incessantly back and fourth between two glowing screens, especially on season premiere weeks. Sure, I've still got other shows to write about, but you never forget your first. It's been a real time.
Find out what your favorite past 24 stars are doing now, then see what made the cut in this list of TV's 50 most shocking moments ever.
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M. Giant is a Minneapolis-based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, follow him on Twitter, or just e-mail him at M.Giant[at]gmail.com.