24: Live Another Day Ending

How do you end a show that already concluded? What scenario do you put your hero in, quite possibly forever? How do you end a series that's future is really unknown?

Well with this ending and what I've heard in the past few days, I'm not totally convinced that 24 is done. But we'll get to 24's future in a little bit, I want to talk about the ending.

The final episode is set up like this. Jack knows where Cheng is with the override device. The US is on the brink of war with China and this can all be prevented if they apprehend Cheng and prove to the Chinese that they were behind the attack on the Chinese aircraft carrier.

The problem is, Cheng has a sniper on Audrey and will not let her go until he is safely away. Jack must choose again between those he loves and the country he would give anything to protect. But of course, let's find a way to do both.

Jack and Kate decide to split up. Kate goes to help Audrey, Jack goes after Cheng.

And at first, it starts to work.

Jack and Belcheck (who I actually really liked, especially his line about his name being like Madonna's) go all stealth into the large cargo freighter where Cheng is leaving. Kate manages to kill the sniper that had Audrey pinned down. It looks like all Jack needs to do is go and kill Cheng. With his team of Chloe and Belcheck, its looking pretty good...

Then Chloe disappears, they no longer have oversight. But that's never stopped Jack before right?

Well then he gets the call...

There was a second shooter and Audrey is now dead. And she is dead. No smoke and mirrors, no clock sound at the end of her scene, she is dead.

And while I really like Kim Raver and I liked Audrey, I think this was probably the best way to go. Personally, I didn't want them to go down the road of having Audrey have to choose between Jack and Mark. I didn't want Mark to go to prison just for it to be convenient for her to end up with Jack. And while I think it probably could have been the best outcome for everyone, I didn't want her to not end up with Jack. So while it might be considered an easy way out of an awkward scene, Audrey's death was a decent choice.

And there of course is the great moment where Jack hits the lowest he's been the entire season.

There's a moment where nothing else matters, he really has nothing to lose. Again, I kind of go back to the whole there's Kim and his now two grandkids, but put that all aside, Jack again faces an incredible loss. There's even a slight indication that Jack might take his own life, and at that point I was afraid that was where they were going.

This scene was reminiscent of the scene from the first season where Jack believes his daughter is dead. He takes a moment, stunned by an incredible loss... then...