24 - Season 3, Episode 24, 12:00PM - 1:00PM *SEASON FINALE* (SPOILERS)

Cafe Society
21

Okay, first off - this ending was really cool. I definitely enjoyed it and had a great time watching it. BUT …

All this time, I kept hoping and hoping that they would bring back the cliffhanger from last season’s finale. Mandy … the “thing” on Palmer’s hand … I heard, like everyone else, Palmer say that the people responsible had been dealt with, but did anyone out there believe that? It just seems strange for a show to go to such great lengths to create a huge cliffhanger like that and never pay off on it.

Regardless, it was still a fun season - kind of the opposite of season 2 for me. Whereas season 2 started off great and fizzled out when the bomb went off, this one didn’t really get good until the whole virus thing started to kick off and then made it through the end. Still, nothing touches season one for me … yet.

22

Amazing that Palmer’s brother, supposedly in shock over the two deaths, is still trying to spin it. David deciding not to run for re-election = good thing. Since he has let his brother talk him into one dubious decision after another.

But before he leaves, Jack needs to call upon David to get a Presidential Pardon for Tony.

Er… David… before you call the kids and tell them, you might want to call the police first? Having them know before the police know is going to cast some suspicion on you!

Okay, one of the comments in last week’s thread was something like “I hope this doesn’t become a ‘Do we cut the blue wire or the red wire?’ moment” and “it’s not a bomb, just put it in a sealed container”. I’m glad they actually thought of that here – CTU telling Jack to put it in a sealed container. And then the reason he can’t – good twist.

And as soon as they said that, my first thought was, “Can somebody get me a hacksaw?” :wink:

23

Nobody dates Kim Bauer and comes out of it with all their limbs! Really, I think she should be required to notify would-be suitors ahead of time…

24

Ahh…so that’s what the axe is used for in chemistry class…

Personally I was hoping for some hydrochloric acid to the face or a bunsen burner to a sensitive body part as the scene in the lab started, but it ended pretty well… :slight_smile:

Surprised to see that they won’t be bringing back Chase next year (Tony and Michelle being gone make sense)…does this mean Chloe is now senior agent at CTU (outside of Jack)? :eek: Or maybe its finally time to see what Agent Baker can do!

25

Yeah, Jack disarms (hee-hee) the bomb, sorta. What’s cool is that this deadly device was contained by a middle school fridge!

What’s not so cool is that the thing could have been “disarmed” by just putting a trash bag or two around Chase’s hand/the Device, so that’s a bit of a plot hole, I guess. Still, pretty good show-- but not up to the standards of the other season finales.

The whole “almost real-time action” of this show is as much a limitation as it it an enhancement. I’ve been hooked since Day 1, but I’d give it one more season and that’s it. There’s just too much difficulty for new veiwers to become interested if they haven’t been following every episode.

26

I’m glad they took care of the device the way they did. Cutting the final wire with 1 second left is so damn cliche now I hate seeing any such bomb predicaments on screen, because that’s how it always ends. Good to see the writers didn’t take the easy way out.

I just don’t see Chase as a desk guy. However, given the situation at hand (ha!) that’s probably his only choice now if he does somehow come back next season.

I don’t think Palmer should pardon Tony. Tony fucked up, and deserves whatever punishment he gets. However, it won’t surprise me a bit if he does get a pardon. Regardless, I can’t see him returning to CTU.

Seeing Jack break down at the end like that was pretty powerful. You could see how the entire day caught up to him. Do they really need him for the interrogation right now? Let him take a nap at least and get it all out.

I can’t decide if I ever want to see Chloe again.

And the witch really is dead. She deserved it.

Next season should be pretty interesting. Jack is going to have to deal with a new president. One who doesn’t know and trust him the way Palmer does. Getting things done could be much more difficult for Jack.

There sure is a lot of turnover in this cast. For next season, Jack and Kim appear to be the only two characters left from the original cast. Waiting until January is going to suck, but the tradeoff of getting the full day straight-through without interruption is worth it.

27

Why was Saunders, in leg chains, brought down to center of all CTU activity to look at photo’s??? Didn’t they have a laptop available or a remote terminal for him to use?

Why would ANY company allow someone (Gael’s wife in this case), into the innards of the company to pack up his belongings? Particularly CTU with a very important prisoner inside? Sheese. And of course, she not only manages to find a gun lying around the office, BUT the guard also doesn’t see her put it in the box. Then, no one checks the box before she carries it out, this being a high security government office! Finally, she manages to walk past Saunders, pull the gun out and get off two accurate shots. CTU screws up YET AGAIN!

Car chase! Malibu vs. SUV. How plebeian! Where’s Don Johnson when you need him? And then they have to go and use the standard TV/Movie device where the chase car gets cut off by the truck or piece of construction equipment. Puh-leeze, that was really, really cheap.

Chase needs more martial arts training. Not only didn’t he seem to know how to fight when down on the floor but this is THE CRIMINAL. I mean, go for his throat or eyes, rip off his ear.

And we thought the F18 sequence was great! I think Jack amputating Chase’s hand was a lot hell of a lot better! But I knew that was what was going to happen once he locked that thing on his wrist. Will they be able to reattach it? Does anyone care?

Palmer calls to congratulate Jack. Doesn’t say much except he has decided not to run and wants to become Jack’s friend when he becomes a civilian? I hope he signs a check for a few million dollars tax free for Jack before he goes. :slight_smile:

So what happened to Jane?

Jack does a poor job of crying at the end. Was this meant to show that he is actually human?

This whole episode was completely predictable and the last 15 minutes of wrap-up was just too anti-climatic for my tastes. Did they let the 2nd string writers finish this up?

24 will be back next January on Monday’s at 9:00PM.

28

More to the point: Beat-to-shit old Chevy vs Freshly-waxed current Ford – how sucking-up-to-the-sponsors! :smiley:

Anyway, as soon as Chase said “After today, I’m done – Just gonna focus on Kim blah blah blah” I knew he was in big doo-doo, even though the show was nearly over.

Getting attached to Kim does seem to get you detached from various and sundry extremities, donut?

29

I’m glad neither happened… it would’ve been horribly cliched.

I liked the show ending that way for that reason. Talk about a lonely man- with Gael dead and Tony going away, he’s the only one of the three guys who planned this operation who made it through. And he’s losing his partner/protege because he decided he wasn’t able to make the sacrifices Jack’s made. On top of that, he had to kill Chapelle and he got his revenge on Nina. I think that’d be more than enough conflicting emotions for one guy.

30

Totally disagree.

31

Jack running down the school hallway with a bomb seemed like poor writing. How would he know where a bomb-proof container would be? Wouldn’t it be more likely to find a secure container in the science classroom than anywhere else?

32

The people I was watching it with were convinced that when it showed an extreme close-up of Jack crying, there would be a trickle of blood from his nose. That woulda been pretty fucked up.

33

Ooh, that would’ve been so cool!

34

Well, there is Palmer too. In the news release I mentioned in a spoiler box in my post earlier it says that Haysbert will be returning. (I didn’t put the link to the news release because I wasn’t sure how it’d appear in the spoiler box.) Maybe Palmer and Jack team up somehow. The “I hope we become closer friends” comment by Palmer might be a hint of things to come.

And for what it’s worth, I also thought Jack’s near breakdown at the end was extremely well done. I thought it was convincing. It is rare for me to comment on an actor’s acting during a performance, but I was impressed enough to comment out loud “Wow. Good acting.” My daughter who was watching with me said “Geez Dad, you’re supposed to be caught up in the emotion, and you’re saying Good acting?” Regardless of how stupid the call for Jack to come help interrogate the bad guy, I thought it was a nice way to show that Jack is going “back to work”.

35

Would’ve been kind of a problem for next season, though.

The fact that the show’s season starts in January makes me wonder if it might be set on the date of the Presidential Inauguration (presumably Keeler’s). That’s certainly a good target for terrorists. I’m not sure how else Palmer would fit in unless the next season is set RIGHT after this one, and given the casting changes I doubt that.

Sounds like we might not see that much of Kim or Chloe next year either… I hadn’t really gotten that impression from past stories. I won’t complain.

36

But what did Jack say to Nina last year that made her blood run cold???

Anyway, is it possible that Palmer could become the new head of CTU? I hear they’re looking for a new chief. Is Kellior…Kenny…whatever the conspiring senator’s name is…is he coming back next season? The methods might not have worked out, but the end results remain the same. The Whigs or Tories or whichever party Palmer belongs to no longer have a candidate and it is coming up on election time. Senator doesn’t even have to give Sherry a seat at the table any more. He comes out scott free.

I was kinda torn on Jack breaking down at the end. Yes it shows he is human and the events of the day finally caught up to him. On the other hand, Jack isn’t human, else he couldn’t do all that in 24 hours. He’s above mortal man. Maybe he was just thinking about the ending to Old Yeller or something.

It was mighty odd that Jack knew right where to find a fridge, considering he didn’t run to the cafeteria. Was that a teacher’s lounge? I guess we can assume…nope, was going to say “assume he searched that room already” but Jack was on a different floor. Oops. I sure hope Jack put a “do not open” sign on the fridge door or someone is going to be really messed up when they go for their PBJ and pudding cup.

Sigh. See you in 7 months, Jack.

37

I remember seeing that fridge earlier when they were searching the school, and I think I remember Jack looking at it. It was a quick shot, but I noticed and thought, “Hrm, that fridge might come in handy.”

Heh heh… handy…

38

So, did they manage to get the virus under control or not?

I knew they were going to use the Mad Max 1 solution, even suggested that before they showed the fire axe.

Brian

39

The problem was not the spin (ok, it was kind of the spin)…but the problem was that the spin was so stupid. “One woman killed another because she was jealous that her impotent husband with heart problems was having an affair”??? That was his idea? How dumb is that? (Not to mention that Julia would obviously have been moved and his fingerprints were all over her & the crime scene.) Yes, stupider than Billy Beer.

But then, I’ve hated Palmer’s plot from hour 1…giving him amnesia would have been a better choice.

Plus, the failure to evacuate the school didn’t make sense to me… also, why was Tony the only one who could “run the floor,” Jack’s the only one who could be Jack, but what Tony did seems very delegable.

Still, overall, I liked it.

40

How did they get “handy” to a hospital and into surgery in under three minutes?

I only watched a total of about 4 episodes this entire season, so I had hardly any idea who anybody was. Still, it’s not hard to figure out the plot: stop bad guys from setting off a virus-laden dirty bomb, even if I didn’t know why they were doing it.

So the show’s been renewed? Seriously, what are its chances for lasting the entire length of the season? How many more times can Kim get kidnapped? How many more boyfriends can she endanger?