24 Questions, Predictions, and Hopes about 24

First off, spoilers. I mean, duh. You can't not talk about a season finale like that.

Secondly, the Chinese coming back in the last ten minutes of the show? Brilliant. But it also shows how compelling the rest of the show is. Before the start of season 5, speculation was rampant about how the Chinese were going to play into the storyline. They didn't. And because the story was so engaging, people stopped focusing on the Chinese to look at the matters at hand. And when the Chinese reappeared... we were all shocked, even though we should have seen it coming.

Questions (mostly pertaining to the end of season 5):

1) Henderson: dead or alive? This really shouldn't be an issue, and in fact it wouldn't have been, if one of the lead-in segments (I think it was around 5:52 am) hadn't shown Henderson's body on the submarine. I can't think of another situation in which one of the panes in a 24 lead-in was focused on a dead villain. I was fully expecting Henderson to show up during the 6 am hour; he didn't, which lends credence to the claim that he's really dead. I think having him survive two direct shots to the chest would be cheesy, anyway.

2) What happened to Wayne Palmer? One minute he and Aaron Pierce are busting up some Henderson goons with automatic weapons, and the next nobody seems to know where the heck he is.

3) How is Graham related to what will happen in the future? I like the character; I think he's exactly right for an evil criminal mastermind. His character obviously has a lot of similiarities to Max, the villain revealed to be behing Peter Kingsley in season 2. Both are wealthy businessmen with oil interests; both are somewhat disconnected with the actual events of the day, instead running things from an undisclosed location; both have the ear of an important official in the US government. But Graham had much more of a speaking role that Max ever did, which is why I think he'll rear his head again.

4) Who sold Jack out to the Chinese? Popular speculation seems to think it was Logan, but I argue that Logan was nowhere near lucid enough in the last few hours to contact the Chinese and set up a plan to catch Jack. Besides, if he did that, he would be practically admitting to the Chinese that he had failed to kill Jack like he had said he would. I think it was more likely Graham, who clearly recognized the danger Jack posed and wouldn't be above revenge for souring the day's events.

5) What happens to the political landscape of the United States? Clearly, Hal Gardner is going to take over as acting President. I'd be willing to bet that Logan doesn't stand through a long impeachment but, like Nixon (after whom the character was clearly modeled), will step down from office, and we'll never hear from him again. Will Gardner have been through an election cycle, having already won or lost the presidency?

6) What's going to happen with CTU leadership? It chages every season, so why not again? Buchanan has done a respectable job (read: let Jack do his thing and look the other way), which is usually rewarded in 24-land with "you're fired."

7) Why is Jack "too valuable to kill?" What are the Chinese going to do with him?

Predictions (for season 6):

8) Jack isn't going to China... or at least he won't be there at the time that season 6 starts. He'll be at the Consulate in Los Angeles, or on a ship in international waters. It wouldn't work for a major character on the show to be completely gone from the United States.

9) Jack's "value" to the Chinese isn't a political value; the Chinese are going to use Jack as a spy to infiltrate the United States for them.

10) Because we already know that Jack doesn't care if the Chinese kill him, the only way the Chinese can coerce Jack into doing their bidding is to threaten Kim and/or CTU.

11) While spying on the United States, Jack unconvers a terrorist plot against America. This plan has nothing to do with the Chinese: fitting the "every other season" pattern, it's Muslim extremists this time.

12) The only way Jack can get his information to American officials is to send it through Chinese channels. Because there's always a "we can't trust Jack" sentiment in the upper levels of government, the new president will not think that Jack is telling the truth, simply because it's coming from Chinese sources.

13) There are people who do believe Jack: his small but loyal and talent band of followers at CTU. This probably includes Chloe, Buchanan, Audrey, and possibly Mike Novick.

14) Speaking of Novick, the current president will retain Novick as chief of staff and Pierce as a special agent. Novick is too compelling and Pierce too heroic to be lost to a new administration.

15) And just to add a conspiracy element to the mix, the terrorist plot that Jack uncovers while spying for the Chinese has some connection to Graham. We've not seen the last of him.

16) Of course, Jack eventually foils the terrorist conspiracy. But he does this at cost to some members of CTU. At the end of the day, everyone who didn't trust Jack toward the beginning finally realizes "hey, we should have listened to this guy all along." Then, there's a twist explaining why Jack won't be working at CTU for the next eighteen months. Oh wait... that's not so much a predicition as a guarantee.

Hopes (for season 6):

17) Morris! Chloe? Married? ...what? As if that's not an interesting storyline on its own, Morris seems to be a really interesting guy. Now that the cat's out of the bag, you can't just throw this guy away, and I want to see more of the backstory.

18) No Kim. Things ostensibly related to Kim, whether or not they were actually related to Kim (eg, the phone call at the end of season 5), have gotten Jack into more trouble than anything else on the show. She's annoying and distracting from the main plot.

19) Less Audrey. I know there's some perception that Audrey needs to be there to show that there still is a human side to Jack. But characters like Chloe, David Palmer, and Tony have shown that Jack is capable of emotion... and I've never cringed any time one of those characters showed up on screen.

20) Buchanan gets some (from Karen Hayes, as we began to see in the season 5 finale). He's already shown himself to be a competent leader of CTU, and let's face it: the guy deserves some quality time that doesn't involve simultaneously fighting terrorists and someone in the government, all the while trying to balance the fact that he knows Jack is right with the fact that he gets reprimanded or worse for just letting the guy do is job.

21) More needle guy. I think his name was Richards? He was CTU's resident "get information out of the captured terrorist" specialist. Often, the threat of bringing Richards in was more than enough to get a confession.

22) More Curtis. The guy's the director of Field Ops at CTU, so I want him to... I don't know, lead some field ops? He had some of the most impressive non-Jack moments (eg. taking down Henderson) in season 5, and I want to see even more of those in season 6.

23) Miles gets his. That bastard ruined evidence against Logan, just because he wanted some promotions. Sure, he did become a victim of the Jack choke-hold and the Karen Hayes slap, but I want a more definitive "Miles was fired and will never be back at CTU."

24) Jack catchphrases continue. Because what would 24 be without "Damn it!" and "We're running out of time!"?


And a quick poll question: favorite moment of the finale? Mine was Jack (hopefully) killing Henderson on the sub, very dramatic and evocative of the end of season 1.


Currently listening: English Folk Song Suite: Intermezzo "My Bonny Boy," Vaughan Williams


EDIT:
My dad proposed a very convincing answer to the "what happens to the political landscape" question. The timeline seems to work out such that the country should have been through an election cycle. Hal Gardner, seen as a relic from the embattled Logan administration, decides not to run. Furthermore, the country's confidence in the Republican party is shattered after Logan. Sensing some nostaliga for the good old days of the Palmer administration, the Democratic party nominates none other than Wayne Palmer, who defeats the Republican candidate in a landslide.