4.24: 6:00am - 7:00am - The End of the Line

4.24: 6:00am - 7:00am
~ The End of the Line ~ 
2005.04.23

6:00

Jack is talking on the phone, Mandy watches still cuffed. He asks Buchanan if the president has signed the pardon and it should be any minute. Buchanan doesn’t like this whole thing, by the time they verify that she is right it might be too late.

Logan confirms that the Attorney General has reviewed this document. He has. Aaron Pierce enters the room and apologizes for interrupting. He has found something that they might want to see. Pierce is pretty certain that David has met her before and asks if he can use the monitor. David gives an ‘Absolutely’ and on the right hand side the hostile appears, Aaron says that on the left side is footage from 4 and a half years ago in LA moments before the attempt on his life. He pauses the tape and enhances it so that David can see clearly Mandy in the crowd. David stares and concludes that Aaron is telling him that the woman they are about to cut a deal with tried to assassinate him. Aaron says, “Yes sir.” Mike’s phone rings and it is word from the Attorney General that everything is in order on the pardon. David still stares at the monitor and is rubbing his hand that was injured by Mandy. After verifying that this pardon also pardons her for crimes in the past David softly says, “Sign it.”

Jack tells Mandy know that they will pull her deal if the missile goes off before they can use the information. Mandy will not talk before she has spoken with her representatives and has confirmed her immunity. Curtis’ phone rings and the phone is pressed up to Mandy’s ear. She listens as a voice says that they just got a document. The call ends and Mandy says simply, “Good.” Jack asks right away where Marwan is. She says that he is at the Global Centre and he is taking a chopper off of the roof and going to a ship. Curtis thinks he could be flying low enough to evade radar. Mandy tells Jack that he is leaving now. Jack requests a chopper to be ready, Mandy is to stay with the agents until he can verify the information. Tony is sitting in an SUV waiting to be transported to CTU. Jack and Curtis and a few other agents move to the chopper. They are to not use lethal force, not even in self defence. They take off in the chopper.

Marwan is following his helicopter pilot out onto the pad and making a call. There is no answer and Marwan doesn’t understand why she’s not answering, she should have been there already. The pilot reminds Marwan that she did say she’d be delayed. He is not going to wait, he asks how long it will be before they make it to the ship in international waters. The pilot says it will be 10 minutes. Marwan is worried that something is wrong but he and the pilot get in the chopper, the rotors start to turn.

Jack speaks to Edgar on the COM and he wants the target confirmed. Edgar has it and sees the chopper on top of the Global Centre, it’s on the south-east corner. Jack tells the pilot to take a south-east approach and to stay below the building. Marwan has a PDA out and looks at a radar image of the missile heading towards its target and its distance away. They have to get out of there and the pilot has to wait to pick up speed. Jack tells them to move on the building and the chopper flies above the one Marwan is in. Jack tells the pilot not to let the chopper take off, stay above him. Jack shoots at the rotors on the plane and the engine goes out. Jack wants the chopper in a position so he can bail. Realizing what’s going on Marwan drops the PDA and shoots it. The chopper hovers and Jack jumps off, Marwan is out of his own and running. Jack follows along with the other agents and they chase Marwan and the pilot. Jack shoots and hits the pilot, he chases Marwan down some stairs. Curtis has Jack covered as they go slowly down the floors. Jack hears something and they get out onto a parking level. Jack sends Curtis to one side and he goes to the other. Marwan hears them coming and hides behind the pillar. When they get close gunfire erupts and one of the agents gets shot. Curtis goes out from his cover to pull the agent out of harms way and gets hit himself. He moves to safety and Marwan starts to run again. Jack moves to the fronts of the cars so he can’t be seen and then lays down so he can see Marwan’s feet. Marwan is behind a tire for cover but when he comes out to shoot Jack shoots him in the ankle. Marwan shoots some more as he falls and the chamber clicks empty. Jack approaches slowly and Marwan backs away. He scrambles farther away and then to the edge of the lot. Realization dawns on Jack and he says ‘No’ as he sees Marwan going for the edge. Jack runs to the side and manages to catch Marwan’s hand as he gets over the railing. As Jack tries to hold onto Marwan he says ‘Tell me where the missile is.’ The CTU chopper has arrived to light the scene and Jack tries to grab onto Marwan with his other hand as well. Marwan is too heavy and Jack has to use one hand to ground himself on the railing. He wants Marwan to tell him where it is. Marwan reaches with his free hand into his clothes and pulls out a knife. He pulls his arm up and uses the knife to cut deep into Jack’s hand. Jack yells in pain and blood pours from his hand. His grip on Marwan begins to slip and soon he slides out of Jack’s grasp. As Marwan falls Jack screams ‘No!’ Marwan hits the ground and blood covers the pavement. Jack is livid and screams ‘NO!’ again at no one in particular.

6:11

6:15

Logan is angry about Marwan’s death. The orders were to keep him alive. David is sure that they did whatever they could, Logan thinks this is not good enough. They are trying to find something useful in the chopper right now, Logan says they are out of time. Palmer says they aren’t yet. Mike arrives and apologizes to add to the already stressful situation but Su Ming, the acting Chinese Consul wants to speak with them and he says it’s urgent. Logan will allow him to be put through. Su rehashes the events of earlier and Logan reassures Ming that they had no knowledge of this. Ming says coyly that that is strange since one of their agents confessed that he was part of the mission and has implicated another agent. The video changes to show Howard Bern. He identifies himself and says that he is a federal agent with CTU in Los Angeles. He is speaking of his own free will and under no duress. He participated in an unlawful assault on the Chinese Consulate and he was acting under the orders of special advisor to the secretary of defence, Jack Bauer. Ming returns and says that he has information that leaves no doubt that he was part of the mission. They are forwarding the entire video to the US. Ming is now questioned, putting aside the details of how he managed to get a hold of Bern, what does he want them to do? Ming says that if Jack was acting without the approval of the government he should be turned over to them and tried and sentenced according to Chinese law. Logan will get back to him.

Logan rounds on David yelling that he said he would handle this. David is sure China doesn’t want war but they do want to embarrass them. If they allow this to happen they will put Jack on trial and use it to take the moral high ground. Mike only sees one option here and that is to hand Bauer over. Palmer snaps at them that it is unacceptable. Cummings, Logan’s security advisor, is worried that if they turn him over he will implicate the government in this, they made Bern talk. David strongly says that Jack Bauer will never compromise national security and Cummings brushes it off that “Everyone breaks eventually.” David fires back, “What you believe is irrelevant.” Cummings goes to Logan and quietly suggests that they suppose Jack Bauer had an accident. David is incredulous and says that that’s an obscene suggestion. Logan will take care of this and turns to Cummings telling him that “This administration does not condone murder and it never will.” Cummings apologizes.

Jack is up on the roof of the centre where they had Marwan. There was nothing on Marwan’s body and Curtis is getting patched up for a gunshot to his right shoulder. The agents have found something on Marwan’s PDA and they are uploading it to CTU. Buchanan tells Jack that Chloe has it and she is trying to download the interface. She has nothing yet but she tells Jack to give them a second. Edgar brings up a bunch of random codes, Chloe wants him to try a correlation matrix. He doesn’t understand why but does it anyway. He doesn’t get anything but Chloe tells him he didn’t change the parameters. He does this and comes up with 2 parallel columns. Chloe tells Jack this and he just wants to know what it means. Edgar figures it could be a flight path and he imposes it over the map of the US. Chloe tells Jack that the missile is headed due west over Nevada, it’s gotta be coming towards LA. Chloe sets up a time analysis and has narrowed the missile down to a 30 mile radius. There are planes ready to be in the air now, they should be able to find the missile quickly. The casualty rate if they don’t find the missile will be over a million lives, including theirs. F-18’s are flying over LA and aren’t finding much. While they wait Edgar asks Jack if the warhead will detonate if they shoot it down. Jack confirms that it is programmed not to until it hits its target. Edgar presses asking if shooting it down could trigger the nuke to go off. Jack admits it’s possible but they don’t have a choice, they are out of time. The F-18’s have found the warhead and one of them locks on for a clean hit. Jack and Curtis can see the planes from the roof of the Centre. The F-18 pilot locks on and fires at the missile. The missile is hit and erupts into a fireball. CTU cheers and Curtis and Jack appear relieved.

6:22

6:27

Michelle is getting briefed by a woman in the hallway of CTU. She hears people coming in, back from the field operation. She stops listening to the woman and watches the door waiting. She catches sight of Tony and tells the woman that they’ll pick this up later. Michelle and Tony’s eyes meet and Tony, limping from the cut on his foot, goes straight for Michelle. Without saying anything they meet and Tony pulls her hard into a hug. Michelle starts to say, ‘When they told me that you were dead’ but stops mid sentence. Tony says he’s sorry and they kiss. ‘I love you,’ Michelle says, ‘I didn’t realize how much until I thought I lost you.’ Tony pulls back so he can see her better and asks “What is it?” Michelle cries, ‘When that woman called an she told me that…’ again she trails off. Tony reassures her, she did what she had to do. Michelle finally says, ‘But I didn’t do what you did. You chose me and I…’ Tony doesn’t seem to care, he tells her that ‘We only did the best we could, now it’s over.’ They continue to hold on to each other.

Audrey is standing over Paul’s body bag, the tag is visible with his name. Audrey is on the phone trying to get military transport for the body. Jack watches her from outside the room and soon she looks up and sees him standing there looking like he’s not sure what to do. Audrey tells the person on the phone that she will get back to her, there’s something she needs to deal with right now. Audrey pushes the door open and joins Jack in the next room. They exchange awkward hey’s and Audrey says that she wants to talk to him. Jack looks at her and then down to the floor and back. Jack says her father told him that she’s going back to Washington tomorrow. Audrey says she is, she has to take care of Paul’s funeral. Jack asks hopefully, “And after that?” He soon realizes that he is not going to get a favourable answer, he continues, ‘I’m sorry. I know this is not the right time to talk about everything.’ He finishes quickly, ‘Maybe tomorrow before your flight we can get together.’ Audrey answers sympathetically that she doesn’t think that’s a good idea. Jack is surprised saying that he thought they agreed they wouldn’t make those kinds of decisions today. Audrey seems to have made up her mind. Jack confesses to her, “Audrey I love you. I want to spend the rest of me life with you. That’s all I want.” Audrey reaches out and grabs the collar of Jack’s jacket. Sadly, she says tells Jack, ‘We both know you belong here at CTU doing what you do best, and I thank God that there are people like you who can deal with that world.’ She pauses and rests her forehead on his. She pulls back and finishes, “But I can’t.” Obviously devastated Jack says quietly “Please don’t say that.” Audrey says his name and runs her hands over his face. She kisses him softly and says, ‘I love you too, but after today it’s just,’ she looks at him, ‘It won’t work.’ She kisses him again and says she’s sorry. Jack says nothing as she turns and leaves him standing there, crushed and dumbfounded.

After she leaves Jack’s phone rings and he answers “Bauer.” David Palmer identifies himself to Jack and he praises him saying, ‘Words cannot express the debt this country owes you.’ Palmer gets right to it, though, saying that this is hard for him but he doesn’t seem to have a choice. China has proof of the assault on the consulate. Jack asks what kind of proof and David says that Howard Bern made a full confession. He has identified Jack as the agent in charge of the operation. Jack finds the nearest wall and slides down it so he’s sitting on the floor. Jack finishes the sentence, ‘And now China wants me.’ Palmer warns that they want Jack to implicate the government. Jack stonily assures Palmer that that will never happen. They want to put him on trial and make a spectacle about American arrogance and then put him in prison. Jack understands but Palmer says this is unfair and he is ashamed of his part in it. ‘I promise you this, I will make it my life’s purpose to bring you back to US soil as soon as possible.’ Jack knows that Palmer will do what he can. Palmer warns Jack that there is a secret service agent coming to CTU to place him under house arrest. He does have some time if he wants to get his affairs in order. Palmer continues, ‘Jack, my friend, I wish there was something I could say.’ Jack seems unaffected and says that he knows he is doing what has to be done and so will he. Palmer thanks Jack and Jack thanks Palmer. They hang up and Jack looks at the ground.

Cummings is on the phone with a Secret Service agent in LA named Dale Spaulding. He is in the middle of saying that even if Bauer doesn’t implicate the government there are going to be other problems. He is an advisor to the secretary of defence. He would be a high value prisoner with a gold mine of information. The Chinese could squeeze him dry and then share the information, they could find it in the hands of terrorists. Spaulding asks what the bottom line is and Cummings is reluctant to spell it out for him. Spaulding wants to know if this is coming from Logan and Cummings tells the truth, it’s not and he’s forbidden it but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to be sorry if it happens. Spaulding asks about any investigation into Bauer’s death and Cummings says that it would be brief and superficial. Spaulding will take care of it. Cummings hangs up and we see that the door is open nearby. On the other side Mike Novick has been listening.

6:34

6:39

Mike has gone to David about what he heard from Cummings. David can’t believe it, the president ordered Jack extradited, not murdered. He shut Cummings down but it was a weak rebuke at best. Mike knows what he heard and he knows Cummings, David doesn’t. He has been doing Logan’s dirty work for 15 years and Logan is used to looking the other way. Mike urges David to get involved. If he doesn’t get involved now it may be too late.

Logan is glad-handing some other people and signing some papers, a man congratulates him for steering the country so effectively in a time of crisis. He sees Palmer looming outside the door and he points at him and waves him in. Logan has been overwhelmed by good will from heads of state around the world. Logan, with a big slimy smile tells David playfully, “You played a role David.” David thinks him and Logan asks what he can do for him. David would like the others to excuse them. The people in the room file out and then begins saying that he has reason to believe that Logan’s security chief may be pre-empting his decision to hand Jack Bauer over. Logan laughs at Palmer and defends Cummings saying he was speaking hypothetically, he can’t be taken at face value. All Palmer is asking Logan to do is to talk to him and make sure he understood his orders. Palmer believes he has earned the right for Logan to do what he asks. Logan crudely tells David that it’s no secret that David’s administration was filled with paranoia and scandal but it will not be a sign of his administration. Logan is sure his chief will not undermine his authority. David simply adds, “Hear no evil.” Logan asks what he’s talking about and David is sure he heard him. Logan thanks David for his assistance today and with a note of finality he thinks that it’s time for David to go back to civilian life and let him do his job. David nods and turns to leave. Logan sits behind his desk as David pauses at the door and turns to look at Logan. He stares at him for a moment and then leaves

Tony is in the change room at CTU getting into a CTU t-shirt. Jack comes in with his bandaged hand still held up. Tony says hey and Jack replies and then opens his locker. Tony just found out that Logan is making him take the fall for what happened at the consulate. Jack says that no one is making him do anything, the president didn’t have a choice. Tony observes that it doesn’t make it fair, does it. Jack says grimly that it is what it is. Jack’s phone rings and it’s Palmer. Palmer starts to talk and Jack leaves the room. David gets to the point and says that Jack needs to listen, he is not to turn himself in, the man who is coming to get Jack has orders to kill him. Jack asks who gave the order and Palmer answers someone in Logan’s camp because they think that the Chinese will be able to break him. Jack asks if Logan authorized this and David admits that he didn’t but he won’t do anything to stop it. David says to get out of there now. Jack thanks Palmer and begins to think. He’s still outside the change room and when he looks up he half smiles and looks at Tony who is putting his holster and gun on.

Chloe shows Spaulding into one of the rooms at CTU and Buchanan introduces himself when he enters. Spaulding has some papers for Buchanan to sign before he takes Jack into custody, it’s a chain of custody authorization. Buchanan will not sign the papers until Jack has debriefed with Tony. When that happens he’s all Spaulding’s. Spaulding is okay with this and Buchanan takes the chance to give him a piece of his mind. They would be burying a million Americans right now if it wasn’t for Jack Bauer, he’s a hero. Spaulding is just following orders and Buchanan wants Jack treated with the respect he deserves. Spaulding says ‘Of course.’ In CTU the alarms for a lockdown start to blare. Chloe says that Tony is on line 1 and it’s to do with Jack. Tony says that Jack has escaped, there’s nothing he could do. Jack is still in the building somewhere in section C, Tony is the one that ordered the lockdown. Buchanan observes he’s trying to get away.

6:45

6:50

Chloe is working on a computer and Michelle looks at a surveillance camera split screen seeing that most of them are static. Jack has disabled the surveillance feeds but they did have visual contact before he did. He is in section C. Most of them are confused, Jack was willing to turn himself over before. Tony can’t shed any light on it either, all he knows is Jack got a phone call and the next thing he knows he’s on the floor, Jack cold cocked him. Tony leans on the wall and rubs his neck. There are 4 entrances and exits from the section and Tony has 2 guards posted at each one. Spaulding pulls out his gun, cocks it and heads to the exit. Buchanan steps in his way asking what he’s doing. Spaulding has orders to take Jack Bauer into custody and that’s what he’s going to do. Buchanan says this is his jurisdiction but Spaulding thinks Buchanan lost it when he lost Bauer. He tells Buchanan to call the president or stay out of the way. Tony gets to his side and wants to go with Spaulding. He says no but Buchanan says that he either takes Tony or he’s not going. Spaulding instructs Tony to follow him. They leave as Bill watches closely, Michelle looks very worried.

The pair enter the section and it appears electrical. There are no desks or furniture, just some small metal towers sitting throughout the room. Tony calls Jack asking if he’s in there. Shots are fired from the other side of the large room and they hardly come close to Tony and Spaulding. Tony pleads that it doesn’t have to go down like this. Jack can be seen aiming carefully and Tony calls to him to give it up. More shots are fired and again they aren’t close. Spaulding returns fire and Tony gets in his way and pushes him a bit. Spaulding warns Tony to stay out of his way. Tony says this is over. He puts his gun up and Spaulding has his gun trained on Tony. Tony puts his gun down and says that he’s going to bring Jack out, if Spaulding wants to shoot him he can do it in his back. Tony tells to Jack that he’s putting his weapon down and coming in. There is no response and Tony heads towards the source of the gunfire. He calls to Jack with still no answer and Spaulding follows. Tony gets around a pillar to see Jack sprawled out on the ground, a puddle of blood formed over his right shoulder with spatter on his neck and the side of his face. Tony whispers his name and hurries to Jack’s side quickly taking his pulse at his neck. Tony looks to Spaulding and announces, “He’s dead.” Spaulding still has his gun out and Tony leans back away from the body. Spaulding takes Jack’s pulse for himself and Tony, mortified, accuses Spaulding of killing Jack. Spaulding points out that he was shooting at them but Tony defends his friend, he was aiming wide and laying down cover fire. “If he wanted to hit us, he would have hit us.” Buchanan, Michelle, Chloe and some security personnel arrive to see what’s going on. They are all effected at the sight of Jack laying dead on the ground and Tony starts at Spaulding yelling, “You killed him! You son of a bitch you killed him!” Buchanan grabs Tony before he can get to Spaulding and he orders Spaulding taken to the situation room. The security escort Spaulding out of the room. Buchanan apologizes to the others and starts to head out of the room. Michelle breathes, “Oh God, Jack” and kneels at his feet. Chloe simply stands gaping at Jack’s body. Tony is breathing hard back at Jack’s side and the room is silent until they hear Buchanan leave and the door close. Tony urgently tells Michelle to get the epinephrine out. She pulls a plastic tube out of the back of her waist and takes a needle out of it. Chloe hopes that it’s not too late, “He really looks dead.” Tony tells Chloe that that’s the idea. Tony rests his hand on Jack’s upper chest and inserts the needle between his fingers into Jack’s heart. Chloe asks how fast this is supposed to work as Tony stares at Jack and waits. There’s no answer from Tony and he looks for a pulse on Jack. He urges him, “Come on, Jack.” Still not feeling a pulse Tony starts to pump Jack’s chest giving him CPR. Chloe looks scared as Tony continues to attempt to bring Jack back to life, pumping his chest and saying “Come on, man.” Michelle sighs and says Tony’s name looking like she knows this isn’t going to work. Tony keeps going, panicking, “Come on, Jack, dammit.” With Tony still working Jack chokes and starts to wake up. Somewhat relieved but still in a panic, Tony asks, “Hey, hey, can you hear me? Do you know where you are?” Jack is hardly awake but grunts and then says, “Ah, yeah.” He clears his throat. Tony assigns Chloe to run interference with the coroner until they can switch bodies, the description will have to match up when they do it. Chloe asks about the autopsy and Tony tells her that there isn’t going to be one, “They wanted Jack dead and now he’s dead.” Tony and Michelle help Jack into a sitting position.

Buchanan, looking a little bit bewildered, runs into Audrey. She just talked to her father and she heard that they are handing Jack over to the Chinese government. Buchanan slowly says that they were supposed to be but, he tried to escape. Audrey doesn’t understand and Buchanan, looking baffled, doesn’t either. He shakes his head and Audrey catches on to what’s coming. She says, “No” and Buchanan just continues to shake his head. Audrey begins to cry again and tells Buchanan, “No, don’t say it, no.” She walks away from him and Buchanan says he’s sorry to her retreating back. She stops and the tears start to fall as she puts her back to the wall for support. The file she’s holding and all it’s papers are dropped on the floor.

In the split screen we see Audrey crying, Logan looking happy, Palmer leaving.

Michelle’s Mercedes SUV is driving out of the CTU parking lot. The guard waves at them with Tony behind the wheel and Michelle in the front seat. Once they’re a bit away Tony checks the rear-view and says, “Alright, we’re clear.” Jack sits up in the back seat with a grimace. Michelle asks if he’s sure he’s okay and, wiping his eyes, he assures them he’s fine, they both need to get back to CTU before they get suspicious. Jack says just up here is fine. Tony has secured Jack a new identity that should get him across the border. Jack asks if they got him a phone and Michelle got him one with a scramble filter. As long as he keeps his calls under 1 minute he can’t be detected. Tony stops the car and Jack tells them, “I can’t thank you enough, for everything.” Tony looks in the rear-view and somewhat awkwardly Jack says that he’s gotta get going. He gets out of the back of the vehicle and puts a bag over his shoulder. He takes a few steps and Tony calls Jack’s name. Jack comes back to the car and Tony warns him to be careful. Jack smiles a bit and offers his hand to Tony saying “Yeah, you too.” Michelle meets Jack’s eyes and Jack again thanks them for everything. Jack walks and Tony and Michelle exchange glances. Tony restarts the car and turns around.

Jack has been dropped at some train tracks and he ducks behind some crates to make a call. Palmer answers and observes that Jack threaded the eye of the needle. Jack admits that he had some help. He wants to thank Palmer for advising him of the situation, he saved his life. Palmer is sorry it came to this, Jack is as well, and he just wanted to let Palmer know he was out. Palmer is glad and continues, ‘This is probably the last time we’ll ever speak. Jack, you do understand that when we hang up this call for all intents and purposes, Jack Bauer is dead.’ Jack, of course, understands and tells Palmer, “Mr. President, it has been an honour.” Palmer answers, ‘The same for me my friend.’ They hang up the call and Jack sighs. He comes out from behind the crates and begins to walk the tracks. He digs out his sunglasses and walks away into the sun hesitating to cross his bag over to the other shoulder. Jack walks off into the sunrise off the right side of the screen.

7:00

Miscellaneous Thoughts:

-It feels like we’ve come a long way since the beginning of the episode, never mind the beginning of the season.

-Well, at least Logan can do something right. He signed the damn pardon for Mandy.

-I’m not sure how this works usually but don’t they assign Secret Service Agents to ex-presidents? If so, how would Aaron Pierce not get assigned to Palmer. I’m sure he’d pull all the right strings to get him there.

-Jack isn’t the only one sacrificing for the cause, Palmer just let the woman that tried to kill him get away to save the country.

-That was similar to what happened with Jack and Nina in season 2 when she was pardoned in order to get information about the nuke in that season. Now he knows how Jack must have felt.

-They should totally tell Mandy that they know about her past crimes (or at least 1 of them) so she doesn’t think that they’re stupid.

-What kind of terrorist has representatives? Doesn’t that count as ties that can be traced?

-I found it completely ridiculous that Marwan didn’t know how long it would take them to get to international waters. This guy has back up plans for everything and probably planned everything for today so well that he scheduled 5 minute windows so he could take a leak. There’s no way that he wouldn’t know how long it would take to get where they’re going.

-That was a wonderful look of realization that crossed Jack’s face when he figured out what Marwan was about to do.

-It was cruel and unusual that they had two things in two hours in parking garages. That totally threw me off after seeing the preview because it was easy to associate the person dangling with Tony and Jack, not Marwan.

-That was a really good idea for Marwan to shoot the tracker on the missile. Too bad it didn’t work out for him.

-I’m starting to like Curtis more and more. That was brave of him to go get the other agent. Or stupid, either way.

-See, if it was Mandy over the edge Jack wouldn’t need that other hand to hold on. Marwan’s just a taller guy then Jack and weighs more. The actor himself, Arnold Vosloo has at least 4 inches on Kiefer Sutherland, and that’s if you believe that Kiefer’s actually 5’10”. When I met him he seemed at least an inch, maybe two shorter than that. No wonder he had to hold on to the railing.

-They do a lot of great things in this show and are high budget for what they do. All that said, the images of Marwan hanging over the edge of the parking lot were just terrible. Especially when he fell. Wow.

-Really Jack, when you’re holding him over the edge of a building do you really think he’s going to tell you where he missile is? He’s going to die so what does he care if millions of others die too?

-That looked like a nasty cut that Jack got from Marwan. Eww, that’s gonna hurt tomorrow when Jack wakes up on a park bench somewhere in Mexico.

-Logan is pissed off that Marwan ended up dead. Well, mister-I-have-no-idea-what-really-happens-in-the-field, I’d like to see you do a better job and let Jack come and hide in that bunker for a few hours.

-The more I see Mike Novick back the more I realized that I missed him while he was gone. This is vintage season 1 Mike, not scheming season 2 Mike.

-Anti-interrogation training? What anti-interrogation training? It looks like Bern would do a naked tap-dance if they asked him.

-We all know what Palmer’s thinking while he’s watching Bern’s confession, “How did we let a useless jerk like this work with the likes of Jack Bauer?”

-I don’t know a whole lot about Chinese law but I get the impression that Jack wouldn’t want to be tried under it for this.

-And again, when Logan yells at David, could he have done better? I think not.

-It’s sweet how angry Palmer was at the idea of turning Jack over. Too bad it did no good.

-“Everyone breaks eventually.” Famous last words. Obviously Cummings doesn’t know Jack.

-For those that missed the parallel to season 2 on that, when Jack was strung up and tortured by Kingsley’s men (2-19) while they were looking for the chip that was something the torturer said to Jack, “You’ve been on this side before and you know … everyone has a breaking point, even you.” This happened about 5 minutes before he shocked Jack with a tazer so long that it made his heart stop and he was dead, Jack never gave the information up, either. Palmer should really be telling Logan and Cummings this.

-As if David never had any death under his administration *cough*alanmilliken*cough*

-I’m sad to see Curtis got shot, I’m happy to see Jack didn’t.

-How is it possible that the 6 gunshots Marwan put in that PDA didn’t damage it beyond recognition. Honestly. One glitch in a hard drive and everything’s lost, this guy shoots the thing and it’s still good. I gotta get me one of those.

-Are there any other cities in the US other than LA? ‘Cause I’m not sure after watching this show. I think I might have heard of something called Washington once, but I’m not sure. Why wouldn’t Marwan send the missile to New York or Washington? It’s way closer to Iowa than LA. Maybe he was just too lazy to cover his tracks for after today so he figured he’d nuke the whole shebang.

-After all this, for like more than 12 hours now they’ve been after this nuke and it took about 1 minute to find in LA. It’s was kind of a lacklustre end to the whole thing. Oh, good, it blew up. Now what?

-Tony and Michelle’s reunion was so emotional. The hug without a word was perfect.

-Even though Michelle’s doubting the right decision compared to what Tony did, overall it worked out way better this way, I mean, she’s not going to jail for this.

-Well, Michelle and Audrey need to compare notes on resenting the people they love until they are in mortal peril.

-Shouldn’t Paul’s body be in a cooler or something? CTU has enough deaths that they must have a morgue. The amount of bodies around there at any given time must smell the place up.

-Where has Audrey’s father gotten to now?

-It’s almost like Jack is asking for the first date again when he asks her to coffee tomorrow.

-Audrey absolutely crushes Jack in this hour. It has taken him since season 1 to get his life on track, to fall in love again and to hear him say he wants to spend the rest of his life with Audrey was monumental. She does let him down nicely but she just ripped his heart out and tossed it in the garbage. She might as well zip it in the body bag with Paul.

-Line of the week: “Audrey, I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

-Drive the nail a little deeper with that ‘People like you’ remark. Hard core.

-Jack looks like a lost child after Audrey leaves him.

-As soon as Tony and Michelle made up to be happily ever after I knew there was no way Jack and Audrey would end up together. Someone has to be miserable and it’s almost always Jack.

-Just when Jack thought things couldn’t get any worse, you’re going to China!

-After all they’ve been through it was great to hear Palmer call Jack ‘friend.’ They had expressed interest in getting together once Palmer was out of office but it seems like it didn’t happen. I was hoping for some extra footage of the two of them on the golf course, plaid shirts and funny hats just shooting the shit. I don’t think I’d want to golf with Jack Bauer, though, what would happen if he played a bad hole? He’d be interrogating the caddy, “WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR?”

-When Palmer told Jack he had time to get his affairs in order I completely expected him to call Kim right away, maybe have a little chat with Chase, you know? It would have been a good chance for Elisha Cuthbert to make an appearance.

-I wonder if Jack remembers what Stephen Saunders told him during ‘Day 3’, that one day his government will abandon him. It was something that seems to have come true.

-I was wondering, going into commercial, if Mike had grown a spine and was going to do the right thing after hearing that phone call.

-Here’s a switch, Mike urging Palmer do to something to help Jack. Usually it’s Mike telling Palmer he’s crazy for bothering with him.

-“You played a role, David.” Yeah, how about the leading role, a solo act with no supporting cast.

-I couldn’t believe Logan laughed right at Palmer. I would have punched him in the teeth.

-That was a hit below the belt on David’s administration. That was mostly Sherry’s fault anyway.

-This is just how classy Palmer is. He doesn’t have to call Logan a stupid idiot or tell him to get his head out of his ass, no, he simply says “Hear no evil.” Beautiful. Maybe it's 'Hear no evil because your head IS so far up your ass that the voices are muffled.'

-I’d like to see Logan do his job without David there, I really would. On second thought, no, I wouldn't. I'd like to se HIM sleeping on a park bench in Mexico.

-After this time with Mike, I wonder if he will continue to work for Logan or if he’ll take off and go back to working with David.

-Can someone tell me the point of CTU locker rooms, where they get changed, with glass windows? Glass. Are you kidding? You can see right in. Why don’t they just get changed in the atrium of CTU? (Actually, that might get more viewers on the show…)

-Tony’s been there like 14 hours and he’s got a locker, change of clothes, he’s good to go.

-Jack doesn’t seem too worried about going to jail in a foreign country for possibly the rest of his life. Sure he’s good at withstanding torture but he should at least be a bit worried.

-What was Jack smiling about after he got off the phone with Palmer? Oh, good, someone’s coming to kill me. MY day is now complete.

-By the way, Cummings is obviously is not familiar with Jack. Why else would he send 1 agent to pick him up. Anyone who has any familiarity with Jack’s background would be sending at least 4.

-Even though I don’t think Buchanan is in on the plan to get Jack out of CTU he sure isn’t doing Cummings any favours.

-It’s weird to think of Jack as a hero. He’s just Jack. Sure, he’s great but he also makes mistakes, and can’t get a relationship going to save his life. That’s something that they work for, though, to make Jack still human. Always.

-Wouldn’t the attempted escape be a tip-off to those on the outside of the loop that something is going on with Jack?

-That was the fastest plan-hatch in history. It must have taken less than 5 minutes for Jack to get the pills he needs, the epinephrine for Michelle, explain it to Chloe (That’s a 4 minute job on it’s own) and tell Tony. Plus he had to do the cameras, Jack was a busy man.

-Nice touch for Tony to be rubbing his neck. It’s always either neck or foot with him, isn’t it?

-Exactly what happens in Section C of CTU? It must be electrical backup or something.

-It’s good that Jack spent all that time aiming to miss Tony and Spaulding.

-Really thought Spaulding was going to shoot Tony.

-My stomach just dropped when I saw Jack lying there dead. It was a terrible feeling being stranded between the fact that the writers love to surprise and then they always say that Jack Bauer is not expendable. I was thinking, but then, maybe that’s part of the surprise. It would be a surprise alright. Of course, the first time I saw this I couldn’t get any reason out of my mouth so all I managed to say about 6 times was, “No.”

-Line of the week: Tony to Spaulding – “If he wanted to hit us, he would have hit us.”

-Tony should have at least got a punch in at Spaulding for being such a dick.

-Let’s take a minute and talk about how Jack ‘killed’ himself.

According to the Fox site, Jack took ‘beta-blockers’ to stop his heart from beating. What beta blockers do is basically slow the heart down. It’s usually used to treat heart attacks and arrhythmia. The kidneys produce adrenaline which then binds to the surface of certain cells and muscles. They’re called beta-receptors. Once the adrenaline is in the beta-receptors it causes your fight or flight reactions to switch on which, in turn, causes increased heart rate and blood pressure.
When taken, beta-blockers sit in the beta-receptors, stopping the adrenaline from having a place to go and thus stopping the fight or flight responses. When your body releases too much adrenaline you take beta-blockers to stop it from happening. If a person with no problems (like Jack) takes beta blockers, they still do what they’re supposed to. The blockers sit in the receptors and stop adrenaline from doing its job, slowing the heart.
Epinephrine is the same thing as adrenaline. When they injected Jack in the heart with it, it would cause the heart to beat again by restarting the ‘fight or flight’ actions in the body.

-I don’t think I breathed from the time the shots were fired until Tony told Michelle to get the epinephrine. I was 100% sure then that this was a set up.

-Chloe is still Chloe, isn’t she? The trick wouldn’t work if he looked like he was alive, now would it?

-Where is this a good idea? Jack already has a weak heart from season 2. Lets just kill him again to see if we can bring him back to life. How about no.

-In the last 5 minutes we really channelled 2 of Kiefer Sutherland’s other movies, Flatliners when they brought him back to life and then Desert Saints when they dropped him off.

-I don’t understand how they are going to get away with Jack’s faked death with the Chinese. They can say it but they don’t have the body to prove it. They didn’t even get any images of ‘dead Jack’ so they can’t prove it that way either.

-What are they going to tell Kim about this whole thing? She’s security cleared since she worked at CTU but for the funeral and stuff she’d need to be sad, really sad. Lets hope if they don’t tell her that she wouldn’t want to see the body.

-On second thought, I don’t think there’s a way that Tony wouldn’t let her know.

-What, now Audrey wants to be with Jack? Too little too late, hon.

-I don’t know how Tony and Michelle stepping out of CTU for about 5 minutes is not going to be suspicious. Unless they say they were going to *ahem* re-consummate their marriage, or, if they come back with coffee.

-Jack sure doesn’t look okay.

-That Mercedes SUV that Michelle is driving is either an ML 350 or 500. Either way it’s 40 to 50 grand, US. That’s probably 10 times more than Tony’s early 90’s Cherokee.

-Everyone seems to assume that Jack is going to Mexico. What’s to say he’s not going to Canada? Most of the guys involved from the show are from here and hey, we could find him ice-fishing in the extreme north at the beginning of season 5.

-What do you say to the couple that just saved your ass? Somehow, ‘thanks’ just doesn’t cut it.

-I’m glad Tony didn’t just let Jack walk away after that awkward silence.

-Can we call Palmer saving Jack's life 'returning the favor' for all those times Jack saved him?

-Jack’s call to Palmer was about 2 seconds under a minute. It doesn’t get closer than that.

-It’s weird that I usually reference people ‘walking off into the sunset’ when I talk about people being happily ever after. This time, it’s Jack walking off into the sunrise and, well, probably not exactly happy, but happier than he would have been dead.

-The end of the line for Jack Bauer is the beginning of the line for Jack’s new life. Anyone got some ideas for his new name? Hopefully Tony got him something good.

-It’s interesting that ideally, I would have liked the last episode of 24 ever to end in a manner like this. Jack has taken off and is not dead but finished with CTU. Now what are they going to do when this is finally all over? If they kill him, even in the end, it would feel wrong. Jack needs to go on and live a life away from CTU where he can be happy. But that’s a few years away yet…