I agree, keep the 24 hour format but ditch the current characters and go w/ something new. Let the "24" series be about the format from season to season not the specific characters. JMO

Well, I certainly THINK Teri is dead, but the same thought keeps popping up in my mind:

What do Charles Haid in Hill Street Blues, Julianne Margolies in ER and Denis Franz in NYPD Blue all have in common?

They were all supposed to be killed in the pilots of their respective shows. Funny things can happen when network executives and show producers start tinkering....

I really hope Teri is alive, so the next 24 hours can be dedicated to nothing but torturing her for "information" she doesn't have. Maybe they could get the guy from Alias to do the job. I'd watch that.

das

I don't think he's going to divorce her or announce a separation. He's just not going to include her in any of the decision-making. She'll be left out of the loop, making public appearances just for show (which she will do simply to keep as close to things as possible while she plots.) She'll want revenge, but she won't want to destroy Palmer. She'll want to somehow blackmail him into letting her into his circle of power.

If done right, the Lady MacPalmer sub-plot could be the best part of next season.

Dude, his exact words to her were: "After tonight, I never want to see you again." That sounds like more the just leaving her out of the loop.

Just got back from a trip.

Did anyone else find it strange that there was this magical camera recording in a room that was supposed to have no cameras, which is why Jamie was put in it in the first place? Does anyone else find it odd that the mole needed super-high clearance to get all the information the mole needed, yet it turned out to be Nina? (Could be explained by a higher-level mole.) Does anyone else find it unusual that no one bothered to check the security tape before midnight, to make sure it was a suicide and not another mole at work (which was clear that it could be since Jamie didn't have enough clearance to be the only mole)?

I thought this was an exciting episode, but I agree with many of das' statements. The camera thing was laughable, I'm sorry. I THOUGHT THEY TOOK JAMIE TO THAT ROOM BECAUSE THERE WAS NO CAMERA. IF THERE HAD BEEN A CAMERA THERE THAT GAINES MIGHT HAVE TAPPED, WOULDN'T THEY HAVE SHOT IT OUT OR SOMETHING RIGHT AWAY?

Anyone have any idea when FOX will announce a release date for the "24" DVD set?

I've heard it's coming, but haven't read anything official from FOX themselves.

I agree to an extent. But I think the writers could probably explain it away by saying that nobody actually even knew about the camera in there except for Bauer and his superiors.

I don't think the camera being in there was a big secret, since Nina obviously knew it was there. So maybe only a select few it was in there. But she remembered to delete the files. But as far as I remember only Bauer and people above Bauer (Mason, and Chappelle probably) knew about the 2nd digital backup.

Still doesn't make sense, though. She could have covered up the camera or done anything to it, and if anyone looked at the footage and asked, said it was because she was afraid Gaines might have access to it somehow. And it still makes no sense that no one looked at that footage until 11:40 at night...I remain disappointed...

Dave,

What reason would they have to look at the footage? Everyone thought Jamey was the only mole except for maybe Jack, Tony and Nina. And, even when they realized there indeed was another dirty agent at CTU (not till around the late hours of that day), they still probably thought that Jamey killed herself. In thier minds, they were thinking, "Why would two moles at CTU work against one another?" I know I'd be thinking that, which is why checking the tape wasn't as important as keeping Palmer and Jack's family alive.

wow...just watched the final episode tonight. yet another reason everyone should own a replaytv!

although i would like to know how in the hell Teri found Nina in her super secret room.

If you want to stretch the plausiblity, it is possible Teri heard a strange noise coming from that room. The strange noise being either the gunshot when Nina killed the female technician or Nina moving the equipment around on the metal cart.

Teri entered the room only seconds after both events had occurred.

But near the end Teri will escape and turn the tables on her captor, stabbing him in the neck with a needle!

"One in five, you little bitch! One in five!!"

I'm sad I missed that ep (he's referring to Alias). Hopefully I can catch it on the reruns.

I keep hearing people talk about "the DVDs", but I've not been able to find out that there ARE going to be DVDs. Can someone point me in the right direction?

I think they are talking about the eventual dvd's; a couple of years down the road that is. There's no way that Fox is gonna put this show out on DVD within the next year or two. Hell, they're not even rerun it.

That's one of the problems w/ being in R1. From what I understand the R2 version has already been announced (atleast according to the subject line in one of the other forums, I never really read the thread though)

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...postid=2431369

People say "soon." I know, pretty vague... but when I hear "soon," I think within the next year. Maybe they think they'll get more $ from releasing it on video as opposed to re-running it?

I'd have to watch again, but my recollection is that there were very strong indications the mole was significantly higher up than Jamie.

One reason: so the one doesn't give the other up?

Part of the problem with this plot twist is that there never was any major discussion of the mole, the logic (or lack thereof) of anyone being the mole, except at the very beginning of the show. Then it became clear there had to be another mole -- the safe house was hit, Kim's police car is hit, the terrorists have access to plans for a secret military facility -- and it's just like, hmm, couldn't be anyone we know...

It took Jack how long to look at the tape. 2 minutes? Please. If you want to excuse the rather sloppy writing that's fine, but I think you are going to some lengths to defend it. The writing could have been better had the season been mapped out more in advance, and I think it's clear it wasn't based on some of these flaws.

I'm not trying to defend sloppy writing. I think the hours of 12pm to about 7pm were just filler and rather uneeded. It's obvious that the writers only wrote thirteen original episodes. But, also, they did say that they picked Nina to be the mole at around episode 8, so it's not like this was put together at 11pm, episode-wise. I think anyone can find things illogical with any plot if they nitpick at it.

Could someone have checked the tapes? Sure. You could also argue that they felt they didn't need to. From Jack being interrogated and meeting with Palmer in ep 14 to them figuring out the motives of the Drazens to trying to protect his daughter--give the guy a break, he can't do everything.

I'm just saying that there's reason to think that someone should have looked at the tape, but with the information the characters were given, and we as the audience were given, it was obvious they felt they didn't need to.

Whatever. I mean, the whole thing to me is summarized by the

(1) camera appearing in the unmonitored room

(2) Nina pointlessly exposing herself by not disabling the camera first when she had a clear excuse not to, and

(3) Mason's demand that Jack provide other evidence besides his own testimony that Nina is a mole before Mason would even bother to have Nina detained.

Even if I give you that it made sense that no one checked the camera, that the camera was there, and that Nina didn't disable the camera before killing Jamie ... what about Mason's refusal to even put Nina in a secured room while Jack searched for corroboration for his allegations? Bear in mind that for the entire show it was clear the higher-ups thought that Nina was covering for Jack, and vice versa.

IMHO the last hour was laughably written. Drazen: "Hey, lets lure Bauer in here. OH S**T HE IS HERE AND HE HAS KILLED ALL OF US. OOPS."

I give the actors a lot of credit for making the last hour work as well as it did, and the writers deserve credit for building up the characters to the point that even when their actions made absolutely no sense, I still cared about what was happening.

I'll just answer your major question, you wrote:

"Even if I give you that it made sense that no one checked the camera, that the camera was there, and that Nina didn't disable the camera before killing Jamie ... what about Mason's refusal to even put Nina in a secured room while Jack searched for corroboration for his allegations? Bear in mind that for the entire show it was clear the higher-ups thought that Nina was covering for Jack, and vice versa."

In a way, you answered your own question. Nina and Jack had a past romantic history, as well as a work relationship. Mason blatantly saw this, which is why he understood, yet disliked, the fact that Nina would cover for Jack all the time. So, why would he suspect Nina even after Jack CLAIMS she's the mole? That's why he suggested that the information she gave Jack about Kim's death was just misinformation instead of a lie for the Drazen's.
Right after Mason saw the footage of Jamey being killed by Nina, he and other agents went in search for her, and found both Nina and Jack in the garage. It's not like he sat on his ass (at least not to me).

With all shows or movies, you have to suspend your disbelief, and this situation is no different. If every single thing a character in a show or movie did was out of complete logic, why would we watch? There'd be no drama or suspense. There'd be a lack of a story.

If the cops in the early episode of "24" secured the parking lot perimeter like they were supposed to do instead of letting Jack steal a car and drive out, there'd be no next episode.

Out of logic, in horror movies teenagers shouldn't walk towards the danger, but if they didn't, there'd be no suspense and no storyline.

Same difference here with the finale.

"Suspend disbelief" is not the same as "accept the major, developed characters act in ways contrary to logic and past behavior." It is also not "accept plot developments that are contrary to logic and past behavior."

Now, you might say I'm nitpicking, but I really don't think so. The writing for this show was generally pretty good. Your defense of the finale -- that I need a greater suspension of disbelief for the finale than I required for the other 23 hours -- makes my case, that the finale was not up to that standard. Other plots twists didn't bother me, because they made sense and didn't contradict what we knew, or make earlier actions by the characters non-sensical.