24 – Season 2 finale (spoilers)
SPOILERS
I don’t want to say that the season finale was disappointing, but it did seem to undermine itself. The first season finale was so amazing because it definitively wrapped up its storyline with a bang. (More specifically, a long series of bangs from Jack Bauer’s gun.) And then a twist. Nobody saw it coming. It was shocking. It ended the series on a high note.
The second season came and things seemed a little more assured. The creators were confident that they’d have a full season to play with, and not just the first 13 episodes. Thus, no amnesia storylines just past the halfway point of the series. No scrambling for storylines. OK, OK, so there’s every plot point with Kim in it that was completely unnecessary in the second season. I like to think that she represented the “average person’s” reaction to the events of the day, but I can’t sell that to myself. The sad thing is that she’ll be back next season to continue to derail the 24 freight train. Speaking of which, let me get back on track here:
The season finale. They spent so much time trying to set up season three that they never truly ended this season. We thought we had the big bad guy in our sights for this episode. Except he wasn’t. He was being controlled by a guy on a yacht somewhere. But, wait, in the season finale we find out that that guy isn’t in control, either. He’s reporting to some other guy. So when the bad guy we thought was the bad guy is done away with, there’s a completely hollow feeling about it. We know he’s nobody. There are two other people higher up the ladder to be worried about.
And, dangit, where is Nina?
That’s where the season 2 finale failed. The three or four episodes leading up to it were fantastic. Everything ran a mile a minute. Big things happened. Obstacles got thrown in Jack Bauer’s way that we thought he’d never overcome. (Well, we knew he’d overcome them, but it would be difficult and at a potentially great cost.) The tension ramped up.
When the final episode hit, the now traditional Jack Bauer gun battle scene occured, Jack lost, and the big big and big big big bad guys both got away, and the President was attacked.
Oh.
I still love the series, as unrealistic and hokey as it can get at times. You really do need to suspend large levels of disbelief, but that’s the fun in the show. Don’t think about why nobody heard the helicopter until it was right behind them. Don’t question the lunacy and the paranoia of Big Oil starting WW3 and setting off nuclear weapons to affect the price of crude. Just enjoy the ride. It’s an old-fashioned Saturday afternoon serial on steroids for today’s network television.
Jack Bauer is, simply put, the man. But the writers undercut him at the end of season two.
Next season: Jack Bauer needs a pacemaker, and terrorists all over the world acquire microwave ovens to protect themselves from him. Kim goes psycho and catfights with Kate Warner for 24 episodes, guaranteeing a ratings bonanza.
28. May 2003 at 11:04
SPOILER*
But I did like Mandy (i think that was her name) showing up at the end. Kind of ties the two seasons together.
28. May 2003 at 12:06
Have to disagree with you Augie. Everything that I wanted to see wrapped up, got wrapped up. We know who instigated the attack, Palmer is president again (but for how long?), Sherry’s role in the whole affair was not only defined but she gained little redemption in the process and Tony and Michelle were exonerated. The set-up for Season 3 didn’t really come into play until the last 10 minutes of the show and I have a feeling that by making Mandy the assassin they’re letting us know that everything has been a set-up for what’s to come. It’s all connected somehow and that’s exciting. I agree with a the suspension of belief thing but I can’t wait for next season.
28. May 2003 at 14:12
The guy at the boat doesn’t have a boss. HE IS THE BOSS! He has his own agenda (along with some other guys). The other guy is an associate or his link to the mole in the government (’cause there has to be a mole working in the cabinet or in a high position, otherwise they wouldn’t know that Kingsley is dead, or that Palmer is the president within five minutes of being reinstated, or the feed of Roger’s torture, which was missing the last part)
29. May 2003 at 00:17
I kept waiting for the fact that Jack was dead for 10 minutes to have some serious ramifications. Sure, it caused him to run out of gas at the end, creating a few brief seconds of, cough, “tension” when Kingsley almost kills him, but then what? Hopefully we shall see.
And have we ever learned who Nina was talking to on the phone in the season one finale? That’s one dangler I’ve waited all season to have revealed …
4. June 2003 at 07:20
I enjoyed both seasons of 24 and am eagerly waiting for Season 3 to begin in the fall where hopefully they’ll reveal what it was that Jack whispered to Nina in Season 2 … though the whole Nina thread of the show is slowly becoming more and more unconvincing if it turns out that she is somehow involved in all three seasons worth of conspiracies.
As for Kim … I view her as the comedy relief of the series. Look at the drama of the situation … things getting too heavy? Throw the bouncing dippy blonde girl in on yet another misadventure … always good for a chuckle. (Though I was rooting for the mountain lion to gobble her up this season)
7. July 2003 at 14:22
A little dissappointed in the final episode. This season wasn’t as good as the 1st season but it’s still one of the best shows on tv. Can’t wait for the next season to start. Hopefully they’ll have more twists in this one.