24
Fox
Tuesday, 9 p.m / 8 p.m. CST

Fox's "24" is an action-espionage drama that unfolds in real time — meaning that the hour it takes you to watch it corresponds to an hour in the lives of the characters. Correspondingly, Flak has provided a written-in-real- time-alongside-the- show review of "24" each week for the duration of the first season. Sean won't be providing the same kind of commentary next season, but will post occasional dispatches about the show that will feature such innovations as "forethought" and "critical distance." Thanks for reading.

Episode 24: 11 p.m. – 12 a.m.

Ha! Our first graphic-violence warning. Cute. They must have forgotten the finger amputation from Episode 2.

It's strange knowing that you've all finished watching the series — not just an episode, but the whole series — before reading this. So let me make my predictions fast:

I once gave the possibility of Teri or Kim's death at 3:1; that holds. It would be increased because of the last episode set-ups, except that "24" has been renewed for another season — more on that later — and I'd be surprised if they killed any of the Bauers. But one of those deaths (though not both) is not out of the realm of possibility.

Tony will either kill Nina right before she would have killed Jack, or he'll die immediately before Jack kills Nina.

David will die, at the hands of his financiers. That's a bold prediction, I know, because we haven't seen the financiers in forever … but that's exactly why it's a possibility. They expect we've forgotten. Plus, David is too perfect. So totally unimpeachable that he has to be crucified. People think it's going to be Sherry, but no. Plus, since "24" is being renewed, it's really the only noble way to removed the Palmers from the series. They've been too central to the show simply to be written out of it because the season's over … unless their exit receives sufficient gravitas. If this doesn't happen, it's because they've just let Karl and the financiers fall by the wayside, which will be terrible.

Cute use of split screen to permit subtitles blocks in the unused areas.

So: Nina the mole. According to a recent USA Today story, the producers decided to make her the mole around Christmas, which means that by the time all the good Nina and Teri stuff happened (including Nina leaving Teri and Kim at the besieged safehouse), they knew the gig was up. Which is a total shame. While there's some conspiracy-story cred to making your mistress integral to the conspirators, the backwards ripple through the show's infidelity theme is terrible. To make the mistress a scheming pillar of evil doesn't carry any weight. It's such a cookie-cutter good/evil dichotomy that it's ineffectual when it comes to resonating with us. For it to unfold in such a morally conventional way doesn't reinforce the underlying morality; it cheapens it by not adding anything to it. Nothing is communicated about adultery by having Nina be so deeply beneath redemption; instead, it's reactionary like Fatal Attraction. It's too cheap to teach. And while I don't want to harp on this or say that "24" should be morally instructive, it's just bone-deep dissatisfying to see something so loaded and occasionally thoughtful collapse so completely.

Nice Hulk-smash scene from Dennis Haysbert there. Wowzers.

Here's an excerpt from an Entertainment Weekly story from a few weeks back:

Fox's "24" may not pull in the numbers of a "Survivor" finale, but producers of the real-time show are still taking great pains to make the season ender a surprise for its fans. Creators-executive producers Robert Cochran and Joel Surnow have shot three radically different endings to keep everyone guessing; even star Kiefer Sutherland won't know his fate until the finale airs May 21, Cochran claims. "I don't want to give anything away, but I do think the ending is consistent with what is presented in the previous 23 episodes," he says.

I really hate what that implies — and this ties into the Nina bit. Good story design means that the author knows the ending, knows what the story should be about, so that those themes can be foreshadowed in a delicate way that makes the story seem of a piece. This seems like it should be particularly true of such a quasi-experimental narrative as this, which should demand elaborate, explicit planning. The alternative — story design with no end in mind — seems synonymous with "soap opera" to me. (And this issue is at the very heart of the mass dissatisfaction with last three years of "The X-Files.")

Ah, good split-screen, this phone conversation between Jack and Nina where she lies to him about Kim being dead — although it only reinforces Nina's utter awfulness, which has the opposite repercussive effect than I think the 24sters intended. For a show that has taken so few narrative risks, they get lots of points for their formal ones — the split-screen, the real-time reliance. The show comes back next year as another real-time serial; I know they've had an uphill time of it in terms of finding an audience, so congrats to them, and to Fox for seeing them through. I guess Jack's going to have another stressful day before too long. Hope he has some vacation time he can use before then.

Jack's ultra-Dad sequence here is pretty great. His breakdown was good, the bit with the van was good … Stephen Hopkins' John Woo-lite double-fisted gunplay is even fairly decent, especially for television. (Although Drazen running out of bullets is of course super-duper likely.) It's not exactly Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan, but it's not at all bad.

So the Drazens are dead with 37 minutes remaining … it's all about Nina now.

Boy, David seems too much like a politician in that "Whoops, I'm not dead" press conference. And this scene with Mike (David's aide) and Sherry is good, although … Mike telling Sherry to go into an unoccupied room? He's not in league with Karl, is he?

So what's Nina up to? And who's she calling? And who is she exactly? Serbian, clearly, but … a Drazen? As in, yet another Drazen who wasn't killed in the massacre that, you know, killed all the Drazens, except Victor and Andre and Alexis?

Ah, this is such crap, with Nina holding Teri at gunpoint. A terrible resolution to this storyline. Emotionally untrue. Just … blech.

So while I'm ragging on the show, let's lean on the show's implausibilities for a second: Blowing up a plane for a single assassination that could have been conducted in a taxicab or closet. Teri having an ovarian cyst that burst today. Jack finding that reflector in the woods to allow him to disarm Gaines. The Drazens hiring Gaines in the first place, when they had already set up a totally elaborate scheme that included Nina joining CTU and seducing Jack, like, six months ago. Victor Drazen being covertly transferred on the second anniversary of his capture, which happens to be the same day as the primary, which happens to be the same day (or day after) Keith's doctor breaks his confidentiality oath and goes to the media, which is the impetus for the whole Palmer storyline. There's willing suspension of disbelief, but there's also a limit thereto. This is too much. I acknowledge the writers and producers' tall task, along with the imposed difficulty of not knowing if the show would suddenly be cancelled at the 11th hour, but to leave so many balls in the air … !

Looks like Nina even killed Jamey. What? Why? Gaines (who recruited Jamey) never even knew about Nina. What's there to cover up? If you think about it, Gaines wasn't the main plan, he was the contingency plan. Why would Nina risk so much? They'll never deal with all this in the next 19 minutes.

"I just don't think you're fit to be the First Lady." Ooch. That is an ice-cold sendoff. I don't consider this well-handled; not really. David's only beginning to come to terms with his basically absentee fatherhood, and while I appreciate that he thinks Sherry has done some unforgivable things, him dumping her so flatly is really too much, particularly since David knows that he's been battered by a particularly strenuous 40-hour bender. For him to just terminate his marriage, full stop, no discussion … that's contrary to his normally well-reasoned character. It diminishes his straight-shooterness for him to be this dispassionate about his marriage. And while the Palmers may have another scene, I think their story is basically over. (Meaning I was wrong about the assassination.)

Wow. Seven minutes left … we're talking no denouement. (Also, Nina has 15 minutes to leave the building, which is maybe their funniest use of synchronous time yet … 'cause the rest of the show's not that long.)

I can't believe all the lost characters that never recurred: Rick, the female first-episode assassin, the facelifted photographer-assassin, Karl and the financiers … I don't suspect that the next season of "24" is intended to answer these questions, or why Richard (from the first two episodes) told Jack he could trust Jamey … so many loose ends.

What a good fifth-to-last minute, with George's soft-touch attempt to get Jack to stand down. "Jack," he murmurs. "C'mon. Kim just got here."

Again, though, with the loose ends: Who does Nina work for? And, wait — who in the world shot Teri? (There's another mole? George? Tony? Yeesh.) Of the producers' three "radically different" endings, I guess this piece of soap opera was the the-show-gets-picked-up-for-another-season ending, meaning that they intend season two to be a continuation of this story.

But surely, surely not the next day; Jack has been up for nearly 48 hours. And yet, in the story world, he's doubtlessly off to interrogate Nina right now; for us to be able to see that happen next season — an obligatory scene if ever there was one — we'd have to start it up again right away at 12:00 a.m.

I'm surprisingly at a loss to say something. From a visceral standpoint, it ended well; Jack holding Teri while the clock ticked off of 11:59:59, no credits, no nothing. But just when did they find out that they'd get a second season? The official announcement was late last week, and while the producers could have found out earlier, how much earlier was it that they could have had such a completely open ending? I mean, there's another level of conspirators above the now-all-dead-for-sure Drazens? The pre- to post-hour 13 schism was bad enough. Certainly, they have the loose ends to tie up, so bully for them for leaving themselves something to do next fall, but how long ago did they decide that they wouldn't be tying them for us this season? And with so many left so wide open, was a satisfying closed ending every really a possibility? Really truly, given the show's dodgy ratings, the go-ahead for a second season was by no means a certainty. And while I applaud that they were renewed, and will continue to be able to use the real-time format, I had genuinely hoped that we'd have some closure here. That tomorrow would be another day.

— Sean Weitner (sean@flakmag.com)