To be clear, some of last night's series finale was top-notch television. Daliah Hassan's initial confrontation with President Allison Taylor, when she found out Taylor had concealed the involvement of the Russians in her husband's murder, was intense, with Taylor threatening to attack the Iranian Republic of Kamistan with the full force of the US military if Dalia refused to sign the peace treaty.
Other great moments involved Chloe and Jack. In one such case, this ended with Chloe talking Jack out of assassinating Russian President Subarov. Jack and Chloe's interactions here was notably moving, and you had to love the moment when Logan, having lured Subarov to his impending doom, was left with egg on his face, not quite sure how to explain how he had gotten the wrong impression there was a spy among his people. Up until then, Jack had trained his gun sights on Logan threatening to kill him right there if he didn't play along.
Another great scene involving Logan was towards the end, when, having killed his lackey Pillar once it was obvious their plan had fallen apart, he then attempted suicide-and ended up in all probability with severe brain damage.
These scenes and a few others however were the exceptions, not the rule, to a two-hour overall lackluster series finale. This season was almost like a great novel, but in all the wrong ways. In a novel, you have the climax and then the anti-climax. Unfortunately, the season began building up to the climax at about episode 16, and culminated in the true climax at episodes 21, when Jack avenged himself on the Russian assassin that killed his beloved Renee, and in 22, when he killed the Russian ambassador that ordered her murder, along with almost his entire security detachment. He found out about the ambassador's involvement by his kidnapping and intimidation of Logan, and by bugginh Logan he learned of Subarov's involvement. He then made his plans to kill the Russian President.
But by this point, something seemed to let out the steam. The series finale was more anti-climactic, to the point that in many ways it was a let down. Although that scene with Chloe was intense, and moving, it was also the point when Jack started to get control of himself. Maybe Chloe was right, he decided. Maybe he should listen to her and go about things the right way. It was a rational decision on his part, but other than the comical scene where Jack was insisting that Chloe shoot him to make it look good ("Shoot me! Damn it Chloe, we're running out of time!"), it was still a let-down.
It was also unrealistic on so many levels it was almost frightening in itself once you realized where it was going. Unfortunately the fright was in the realization that a once great show was not going to go out the way it should.
For one thing, the building from where Jack intended to assassinate Subarov was completely abandoned, was never vetted by CTU or any other security force, and so it was unguarded. Despite the fact that it was in firing range of the UN, Jack somehow managed to find just the right room from which to have a bird's eye view of Logan's office-and Logan himself, in perfect range of Jack's line of fire. It was absurd, frankly.
And then there was the moment when Allison Taylor stepped forward to sign the peace treaty, following Subarov and Dalia Hassan. The show tried to create an atmosphere of tension, but you knew-not almost knew, you knew period-that she was not going to sign. On top of that, she fingered the Russians as responsible for President Hassan's murder, right there in front of the assembled UN delegation, in full view of the press and on live television. For a President of the US, or any high-ranking officials, this would amount to the actions of a deranged person, or at the very least a criminally irresponsible one. I realize it was meant to be dramatic, but it was a dramatization of the completely absurd, which is no virtue.
There was almost no violence in the finale, precious few deaths, and what little there was seemed like it was strained, just inserted for the sake of action. It almost all centered around Pillar. Jack spared his life after taking him hostage, but knocked him unconscious after Pillar begged for his life by invoking his family and his little girl. When Jack was taken into custody, after Chloe shot him, he mumbled something from his stretcher. When Pillar bent down to hear what he was saying, Jack bit his ear off, something that was meant ostensibly to create enough confusion for Chloe to leave with the evidence he had just handed over to her-but really it was just put in there gratuitously out of the perceived need for something violent to happen. It was a mirror of something Jack did to a captor in Season Three which proved popular with the fans, so evidently the writers decided to recycle it. Unfortunately, this time it didn't work. Pillar retrieved the evidence anyway, before Chloe could release it to the press, and to all the US government agencies, in an effort to make sure it was not suppressed.
But then Taylor is given the evidence by Logan, who in handing it over to her stupidly sealed his doom. When Taylor heard the part Jack recorded about why he had taken the steps he had, in a recorded message to his daughter-but which sounded like Jack actually intended for Taylor to hear it-you could see it working on her conscience. Suspense went out the window from that moment on.
Jack was kidnapped by a private security force working under Logan's direction, but when Taylor finally caught wind of her senses, she ordered the operation halted, right before the assassin was about to put the final bullet in Jack's skull. She and Jack then had a heart to heart, with her declaring her intentions to tender her resignation and turn herself over to the AG. She then advised Jack to leave the country. Both the Russians and the US government would be after him. After extracting a promise from Chloe to make sure her daughter and granddaughter were protected, Jack made ready to depart the scene, after thanking Chloe for the many times through the years she had watched his back.
Chloe then ordered the feed cut from the surveillance camera at the scene, and the series ended with a close-up shot of Jack's face looking up into the camera, then fading out.
There's going to be a movie, and I realize that a lot of this was intended as a set-up for that, but its unfortunate that the series ended on such a relatively subdued note for the sake of a feature film.
