...and so it ends. The sixth season finale of "24" stands in stark contrast with a majority of the season that came before it. In a good way.
With so many mediocre-to-terrible hours that made up this season, the finale is an odd little artifact that neatly bookends the premiere that it preceded it. Somehow the finale causes temporary amnesia to the general abysmal qualities of season six.
Of course, they need to resolve the Philip Bauer/Cheng/FB Circuit Board plot lines and introduce Chloe O'Brian pregnant with child (but, of course) — as we've come to expect from this season. Yet thankfully, writers Robert Cochran, Manny Coto and David Fury tamed the stupidity of these plots down to a minimum. All this comes too little, too late.
If this season were a different beast, I can easily picture Buchanan and Jack swallowing their pride and collective sense of outrage and watching from afar as Philip Bauer's oil platform, along with Cheng and Josh Bauer (Evan Ellingson), are taken out with missiles by the military.
Yet, that'd require a season of training the audience not to expect the usual from the show, which it did the polar opposite.
Crazy as it sounds, I actively rooted for the two in this scene. A Bill/Jack tag team plot seems so obvious that it's surprising that the writers didn't exploit it sooner. They've always played well with each other and Bill Buchanan's calm determination in the face of Jack Bauer's perpetual intensity is naturally fascinating.
The fact that they have Jack and Bill staging a rescue mission seems to serve as a mea culpa to the audience for putting them through so many disappointing hours. (It helps that it's one of the few things in the back half of this season that makes sense.)
Bad news: We have to suffer through one last episode of Josh Bauer being pissing and pouting and his repeated outbursts of, "Uncle Jack!" Good news: We won't have to see this character and his family ever again. Yay!
The last ten minutes are a bittersweet reminder of the season that could have been. After the airstrike, Buchanan drops Jack off at Heller's beachside property (which is only five minutes away from the oil platform), where Jack plans to take Audrey into his care from Heller. The two then confront each other.
The performances between Kiefer Sutherland and William Devane remind how good these two actors click together on this show. Too bad they never shared more scenes.
Because this scene between Jack and Heller contains understated character examination between the two and that Robert Cochran shares a co-writing credit, this obviously belongs solely to him. Many of his episodes were about interrogating aspects of the show, and this scene contains its own interrogation of Cochran's own past scripts on 24. What happens to Jack Bauer because of his repeated sacrifices for his country? When does he become jaded?
And Cochran, to his credit, sees that this is a good place as any for Jack to rant.
Even with good leaders within the series, like Bill Buchanan and David Palmer, they tended to use servants, like Jack, for their own patriotic purposes, even as it resulted in them being the husk of the men they were before. Remember at the end of episode 4 when Buchanan practically begged Jack to come back after killing Curtis Manning?
Heller isn't the ideal recipient of Jack's grievances because he's never sent Jack to war intentionally, yet his comments condemning Jack from episode 20 squarely put him in the crosshairs.
What gives their scenes an electric charge absent in most of the other stories this season is the valid viewpoints of both men: Heller is right for wanting to protect his daughter and Jack is correct in his indignation about why Heller didn't try "hard enough" to free him from Chinese captivity.
Too bad the series became preoccupied with telling the story of Jack Bauer's family troubles because the preexisting paternal relationship between him and James Heller was already much more rich and worthwhile. (It helps that William Devane elevated every scene he acted in.) Much of same context conveniently substitutes in as well. Heller uses power to do the right thing through policy, while Jack tries to do right when thwarting terrorist attacks.
Either way, the schism between these two men feels looks and feels utterly heartbreaking, as is that devastating final shot of Jack standing over Heller's balcony after letting Audrey go. The barrenness on Kiefer Suthlerland's face in that shot is particularly effective: just about every friend he has is dead and he still carries the scars of two years of torture from serving his country.
Jack and Heller run so parallel with each other that when Jack allows Heller to tell him he really is doomed to ruin anyone he associates with, his authority resigns Jack to this fact, leading to that concluding moment.
It's shame that the writers never realized, along with so many ideas this season, that Jack Bauer already had a father in front of him until it was too late. And like the season's ending, there's nothing left to do but retreat into your mind and wonder what went wrong.
With so many mediocre-to-terrible hours that made up this season, the finale is an odd little artifact that neatly bookends the premiere that it preceded it. Somehow the finale causes temporary amnesia to the general abysmal qualities of season six.
Of course, they need to resolve the Philip Bauer/Cheng/FB Circuit Board plot lines and introduce Chloe O'Brian pregnant with child (but, of course) — as we've come to expect from this season. Yet thankfully, writers Robert Cochran, Manny Coto and David Fury tamed the stupidity of these plots down to a minimum. All this comes too little, too late.
If this season were a different beast, I can easily picture Buchanan and Jack swallowing their pride and collective sense of outrage and watching from afar as Philip Bauer's oil platform, along with Cheng and Josh Bauer (Evan Ellingson), are taken out with missiles by the military.
Yet, that'd require a season of training the audience not to expect the usual from the show, which it did the polar opposite.
Crazy as it sounds, I actively rooted for the two in this scene. A Bill/Jack tag team plot seems so obvious that it's surprising that the writers didn't exploit it sooner. They've always played well with each other and Bill Buchanan's calm determination in the face of Jack Bauer's perpetual intensity is naturally fascinating.
The fact that they have Jack and Bill staging a rescue mission seems to serve as a mea culpa to the audience for putting them through so many disappointing hours. (It helps that it's one of the few things in the back half of this season that makes sense.)
Bad news: We have to suffer through one last episode of Josh Bauer being pissing and pouting and his repeated outbursts of, "Uncle Jack!" Good news: We won't have to see this character and his family ever again. Yay!
The last ten minutes are a bittersweet reminder of the season that could have been. After the airstrike, Buchanan drops Jack off at Heller's beachside property (which is only five minutes away from the oil platform), where Jack plans to take Audrey into his care from Heller. The two then confront each other.
The performances between Kiefer Sutherland and William Devane remind how good these two actors click together on this show. Too bad they never shared more scenes.
Because this scene between Jack and Heller contains understated character examination between the two and that Robert Cochran shares a co-writing credit, this obviously belongs solely to him. Many of his episodes were about interrogating aspects of the show, and this scene contains its own interrogation of Cochran's own past scripts on 24. What happens to Jack Bauer because of his repeated sacrifices for his country? When does he become jaded?
And Cochran, to his credit, sees that this is a good place as any for Jack to rant.
Even with good leaders within the series, like Bill Buchanan and David Palmer, they tended to use servants, like Jack, for their own patriotic purposes, even as it resulted in them being the husk of the men they were before. Remember at the end of episode 4 when Buchanan practically begged Jack to come back after killing Curtis Manning?
Heller isn't the ideal recipient of Jack's grievances because he's never sent Jack to war intentionally, yet his comments condemning Jack from episode 20 squarely put him in the crosshairs.
What gives their scenes an electric charge absent in most of the other stories this season is the valid viewpoints of both men: Heller is right for wanting to protect his daughter and Jack is correct in his indignation about why Heller didn't try "hard enough" to free him from Chinese captivity.
Too bad the series became preoccupied with telling the story of Jack Bauer's family troubles because the preexisting paternal relationship between him and James Heller was already much more rich and worthwhile. (It helps that William Devane elevated every scene he acted in.) Much of same context conveniently substitutes in as well. Heller uses power to do the right thing through policy, while Jack tries to do right when thwarting terrorist attacks.
Either way, the schism between these two men feels looks and feels utterly heartbreaking, as is that devastating final shot of Jack standing over Heller's balcony after letting Audrey go. The barrenness on Kiefer Suthlerland's face in that shot is particularly effective: just about every friend he has is dead and he still carries the scars of two years of torture from serving his country.
Jack and Heller run so parallel with each other that when Jack allows Heller to tell him he really is doomed to ruin anyone he associates with, his authority resigns Jack to this fact, leading to that concluding moment.
It's shame that the writers never realized, along with so many ideas this season, that Jack Bauer already had a father in front of him until it was too late. And like the season's ending, there's nothing left to do but retreat into your mind and wonder what went wrong.
