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Yes, yes, I know everyone's probably all talked out about the finale or is holed up with their DVDs. But it's taken me a while to process the finale because in many ways it was everything I wanted and nothing like I expected in terms of how it played out. I haven't yet heard the finale commentary because I want to go in with my own take before I hear what they were trying to accomplish, so here goes:
1. Taylor storyline. I think the biggest mistake thus far with the handling of the Olivia crisis that there simply was not enough Cherry. Because we spent more time with Alison than Olivia this season, we care as much about the emotional damage Olivia's actions caused, if not more than the political ramifications it will have on Taylor's administration. I wish we had gotten scenes where Taylor is wrestling with upholding justice for all and tempering her own guilt and anger the damage he inflicted on her family. It would have brought out the irony and pulled on the emotional core more when watching Olivia fuck up so much, because mostly we spent 4 episodes wanting to see her taken down by Pierce and Kanin. It was gratifying to watch because Aaron and Kanin >>>>>> Olivia, but once we're reminded of Taylor, our glee is tempered because we love Alison. Alison absolutely made the right call ( in parenting AND Presidential matters) and I'm relieved she did because it shows a consistency in Taylor to always make the hard choices, even in the face of Henry's opposition. Him blaming her for Roger's death was a low blow, and I think this is the first time she hasn't had him on her side, which is why I'm glad that Ethan was there to support her in the end. In the end, Olivia is finally learning her lessons the hard way and Taylor continues to kick ass, even at the price of her family. She's almost Jack-like in that sense.
2. Operation Save Jack- First of all, HOLY CRAP RENEE. Swooping in on a helicopter, shooting from a speeding vehicle, tuck and roll and continuing to shoot, then disarming a bomb all while taking in exposition from Jack? She was working on Aeryn Sun/Sydney Bristow kinda levels of kicking ass and taking names. Congratulations Agent Walker on being the most recent graduate of the Jack Bauer School of Bad-Assery. That was fucking AWESOME.
3. Also, WAY TO GO KIM. I'm so incredibly pleased to see that not only was she able to follow the Jack Bauer tradition of using household items as a weapon (Apparently the weapon of choice for Bauers this year is the ball point pen?), but she followed the guy, was able to get help, saved the laptop to preserve the lead, AND worked with Chloe. Renee's WTF face when Kim launched into technobabble was hilarious. And Kim's "Damnit" was hands down of the line of the episode. More impressive though was her adamant declaration that it's her body, her decision so damnit, harvest the stem cells. Of course, she had to wait for Jack to slip into a coma, but hey at least she came through in the end. I loved how her line about not being ready to let her go ties back to Jack's own philosophy of making decisions that you can live with. Oh Kim. You are your father's daughter after all. (P.S. I like this version of Kim the best. Can you use her exactly as effectively as you did here, writers, if you're going to use her next season?)
4. And yeah, we all know that Jack's not gonna die, but I liked that he made peace with Gohar. It's kinda LOL worthy how people are flipping out over "OMG is Jack gonna be Muslim next year?" or complaining about how it's a cheap form of pandering in the "See, we love Muslims, please don't get mad at us" vein. I really don't think the writers thought about that. I think they just chose to have this scene with Gohar not because he was Muslim but because Jack needed some help finding that forgiveness for himself that Gohar specifically alluded to in 7x22. He had already made peace with Kim and Renee, had stopped the bioweapon for Bill's sake. What he needed was peace within himself to die in peace. I kinda hate it when people toss in political message when there's a perfectly good logical reason within the narrative. Speaking of which:
5. Tony- Sigh. Okay, so now that we know that he at least had "good" intentions in that he recruited CTU-Lite to clean up the damage and save lives along the way of looking for revenge. This I can accept, from a narrative POV, since it makes Tony's story arc into a tragic one, and one that contributes to the season long theme of "whatever it takes." I just wish they hadn't saved it all for the finale, because in retrospect, waiting for a definitive answer on Tony was the biggest contribution to my impatience with the previous 4 episodes. I still think they could have given us a bit of a hint and saved the reveal of Michelle's pregnancy as the shocker, but I'll have to mainline the DVDs to make a final call on that.
But even though I get WHY he did it and am satisfied with his explanation of why, I still don't like it and can't forgive the character. They might have really ruined the character for me because yea, I get that in his head, Jack was going to die anyway, so by strapping a bomb to his chest, this way Tony incinerates Jack and makes it impossible to reconstitute the bioweapon AND he makes Jack's death mean something since it would be revenge for one of the people responsible for Michelle and Palmer's deaths. It's a strange kind of warped mercy he's giving Jack, since Jack's worst nightmare would be that his body would be used to kill millions of people.
But even knowing that Michelle was pregnant when she died, it doesn't excuse what he did to Larry and the lives he took to get to that point. Tony condemns crazy Jonas Hodges for his crazy ideologies, but is his method any different? Look at the bodies lying in the wake of his path of bringing those men to justice. I *love* the writers for having Jack, who knew Michelle, tell Tony that she would despise him for this. Cuz, uh, YEAH. They basically ripped my heart out and stomped on it, because I hate this Tony, even though I understand how he got there.
Also, DUDE, he was monologuing so much, both to Jack and to Wilson. When I said I wanted a Scooby Doo moment, I didn't mean, like LITERALLY rip one of the cartoon scripts and insert it. When he said, "But you screwed all that up" I almost fell out of my seat laughing because he might as well have said "And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids and your dog." But ultimately, I'm willing to overlook that because of:
6. Renee's struggle to find her line in the sand.
The scene with Jack was pretty fantastic because it's probably the most honest and open answer we've ever seen Jack give anyone about the life he leads and the things he's done. Even more so than the one he gave Mayer, because he's talking to someone like him who's out in the field and has to make the same kind of decisions. I like that Jack tried to warn her to stay on that side of the line, that she took an oath and that it's a good one, because it goes back to the words Larry said in 7x08 that must be echoing in his head ("I won't let her wind up like you, Jack") but ultimately leaves the decision in her hands, because that's where it belongs and has been all season long.
And I loved how it transitions from her asking what to do into her realization that this is her last moment with Jack. That despite her saving him, he's going to die anyway. Not only did Annie and Kiefer play it beautifully, the scene is important because of the way it informs her decision on whether or not to torture Wilson. It puts Larry and Jack back on equal footing in that Wilson is indirectly responsible for BOTH of their deaths, so Janis' words that Larry wouldn't want her to do it have less of an effect because it's so much more than just Larry's death she's processing. She's processing everything- Jack's "death" and Larry's death and all the people she led into the building that day, and the fear of Wilson going free to do yet another attack. It's funny because by making Renee think that both Jack and Larry are dead, the Triangle that Wasn't is still in place, just taking place in Renee's mind as both men's words are probably ringing in her head.
I almost wish that they had saved "the door shuts scene" as the last scene of the season because it's SO good the way they leave you with that pressing question- Did she choose to torture the guy or didn't she? Her taking off the symbolic FBI jacket and badge almost definitively points to the former, but the ending is completely ambiguous and I like that because it ties back to the non-answer Jack gives to the question. we've been asking all season long. If the question is "How do you operate within the law when everyone else isn't following the rules in the world you operate in?" the answer is there is no answer. Because everyone's rules are different and in the end, it's not about doing whatever it takes or what the law dictates but what your heart can take and what kind of cost you're willing to pay. And since the writers intended Renee to be the audience, I like that they didn't make it explicit because like Renee, we have to make our own decisions on whether we agree with the Jacks or Larrys of the world.
Plus, even if the answer is so obvious, the lingering question still remains: What price will she have to pay for this? So again, it's still the hanging questions we'll be eager to see resolved when we come back in January. It will certainly be interesting to see where it takes Renee in S8.
So overall, as a finale, it hit almost all my wishlist items so I'm mostly satisfied despite the subdued ending. S7 started out with a bang and ended with a whisper, but for the most part I think I'm okay with it. I have to mainline it one more time and listen to commentaries to make a final ruling and decide what worked and what didn't overall, but I'll do that in another post, with a season in review.
*off to listen to more commentaries*
1. Taylor storyline. I think the biggest mistake thus far with the handling of the Olivia crisis that there simply was not enough Cherry. Because we spent more time with Alison than Olivia this season, we care as much about the emotional damage Olivia's actions caused, if not more than the political ramifications it will have on Taylor's administration. I wish we had gotten scenes where Taylor is wrestling with upholding justice for all and tempering her own guilt and anger the damage he inflicted on her family. It would have brought out the irony and pulled on the emotional core more when watching Olivia fuck up so much, because mostly we spent 4 episodes wanting to see her taken down by Pierce and Kanin. It was gratifying to watch because Aaron and Kanin >>>>>> Olivia, but once we're reminded of Taylor, our glee is tempered because we love Alison. Alison absolutely made the right call ( in parenting AND Presidential matters) and I'm relieved she did because it shows a consistency in Taylor to always make the hard choices, even in the face of Henry's opposition. Him blaming her for Roger's death was a low blow, and I think this is the first time she hasn't had him on her side, which is why I'm glad that Ethan was there to support her in the end. In the end, Olivia is finally learning her lessons the hard way and Taylor continues to kick ass, even at the price of her family. She's almost Jack-like in that sense.
2. Operation Save Jack- First of all, HOLY CRAP RENEE. Swooping in on a helicopter, shooting from a speeding vehicle, tuck and roll and continuing to shoot, then disarming a bomb all while taking in exposition from Jack? She was working on Aeryn Sun/Sydney Bristow kinda levels of kicking ass and taking names. Congratulations Agent Walker on being the most recent graduate of the Jack Bauer School of Bad-Assery. That was fucking AWESOME.
3. Also, WAY TO GO KIM. I'm so incredibly pleased to see that not only was she able to follow the Jack Bauer tradition of using household items as a weapon (Apparently the weapon of choice for Bauers this year is the ball point pen?), but she followed the guy, was able to get help, saved the laptop to preserve the lead, AND worked with Chloe. Renee's WTF face when Kim launched into technobabble was hilarious. And Kim's "Damnit" was hands down of the line of the episode. More impressive though was her adamant declaration that it's her body, her decision so damnit, harvest the stem cells. Of course, she had to wait for Jack to slip into a coma, but hey at least she came through in the end. I loved how her line about not being ready to let her go ties back to Jack's own philosophy of making decisions that you can live with. Oh Kim. You are your father's daughter after all. (P.S. I like this version of Kim the best. Can you use her exactly as effectively as you did here, writers, if you're going to use her next season?)
4. And yeah, we all know that Jack's not gonna die, but I liked that he made peace with Gohar. It's kinda LOL worthy how people are flipping out over "OMG is Jack gonna be Muslim next year?" or complaining about how it's a cheap form of pandering in the "See, we love Muslims, please don't get mad at us" vein. I really don't think the writers thought about that. I think they just chose to have this scene with Gohar not because he was Muslim but because Jack needed some help finding that forgiveness for himself that Gohar specifically alluded to in 7x22. He had already made peace with Kim and Renee, had stopped the bioweapon for Bill's sake. What he needed was peace within himself to die in peace. I kinda hate it when people toss in political message when there's a perfectly good logical reason within the narrative. Speaking of which:
5. Tony- Sigh. Okay, so now that we know that he at least had "good" intentions in that he recruited CTU-Lite to clean up the damage and save lives along the way of looking for revenge. This I can accept, from a narrative POV, since it makes Tony's story arc into a tragic one, and one that contributes to the season long theme of "whatever it takes." I just wish they hadn't saved it all for the finale, because in retrospect, waiting for a definitive answer on Tony was the biggest contribution to my impatience with the previous 4 episodes. I still think they could have given us a bit of a hint and saved the reveal of Michelle's pregnancy as the shocker, but I'll have to mainline the DVDs to make a final call on that.
But even though I get WHY he did it and am satisfied with his explanation of why, I still don't like it and can't forgive the character. They might have really ruined the character for me because yea, I get that in his head, Jack was going to die anyway, so by strapping a bomb to his chest, this way Tony incinerates Jack and makes it impossible to reconstitute the bioweapon AND he makes Jack's death mean something since it would be revenge for one of the people responsible for Michelle and Palmer's deaths. It's a strange kind of warped mercy he's giving Jack, since Jack's worst nightmare would be that his body would be used to kill millions of people.
But even knowing that Michelle was pregnant when she died, it doesn't excuse what he did to Larry and the lives he took to get to that point. Tony condemns crazy Jonas Hodges for his crazy ideologies, but is his method any different? Look at the bodies lying in the wake of his path of bringing those men to justice. I *love* the writers for having Jack, who knew Michelle, tell Tony that she would despise him for this. Cuz, uh, YEAH. They basically ripped my heart out and stomped on it, because I hate this Tony, even though I understand how he got there.
Also, DUDE, he was monologuing so much, both to Jack and to Wilson. When I said I wanted a Scooby Doo moment, I didn't mean, like LITERALLY rip one of the cartoon scripts and insert it. When he said, "But you screwed all that up" I almost fell out of my seat laughing because he might as well have said "And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids and your dog." But ultimately, I'm willing to overlook that because of:
6. Renee's struggle to find her line in the sand.
The scene with Jack was pretty fantastic because it's probably the most honest and open answer we've ever seen Jack give anyone about the life he leads and the things he's done. Even more so than the one he gave Mayer, because he's talking to someone like him who's out in the field and has to make the same kind of decisions. I like that Jack tried to warn her to stay on that side of the line, that she took an oath and that it's a good one, because it goes back to the words Larry said in 7x08 that must be echoing in his head ("I won't let her wind up like you, Jack") but ultimately leaves the decision in her hands, because that's where it belongs and has been all season long.
And I loved how it transitions from her asking what to do into her realization that this is her last moment with Jack. That despite her saving him, he's going to die anyway. Not only did Annie and Kiefer play it beautifully, the scene is important because of the way it informs her decision on whether or not to torture Wilson. It puts Larry and Jack back on equal footing in that Wilson is indirectly responsible for BOTH of their deaths, so Janis' words that Larry wouldn't want her to do it have less of an effect because it's so much more than just Larry's death she's processing. She's processing everything- Jack's "death" and Larry's death and all the people she led into the building that day, and the fear of Wilson going free to do yet another attack. It's funny because by making Renee think that both Jack and Larry are dead, the Triangle that Wasn't is still in place, just taking place in Renee's mind as both men's words are probably ringing in her head.
I almost wish that they had saved "the door shuts scene" as the last scene of the season because it's SO good the way they leave you with that pressing question- Did she choose to torture the guy or didn't she? Her taking off the symbolic FBI jacket and badge almost definitively points to the former, but the ending is completely ambiguous and I like that because it ties back to the non-answer Jack gives to the question. we've been asking all season long. If the question is "How do you operate within the law when everyone else isn't following the rules in the world you operate in?" the answer is there is no answer. Because everyone's rules are different and in the end, it's not about doing whatever it takes or what the law dictates but what your heart can take and what kind of cost you're willing to pay. And since the writers intended Renee to be the audience, I like that they didn't make it explicit because like Renee, we have to make our own decisions on whether we agree with the Jacks or Larrys of the world.
Plus, even if the answer is so obvious, the lingering question still remains: What price will she have to pay for this? So again, it's still the hanging questions we'll be eager to see resolved when we come back in January. It will certainly be interesting to see where it takes Renee in S8.
So overall, as a finale, it hit almost all my wishlist items so I'm mostly satisfied despite the subdued ending. S7 started out with a bang and ended with a whisper, but for the most part I think I'm okay with it. I have to mainline it one more time and listen to commentaries to make a final ruling and decide what worked and what didn't overall, but I'll do that in another post, with a season in review.
*off to listen to more commentaries*
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And I'm not angry about the Tony development, I'm just not sure about the presentation, if that makes any sense. I agree that it was deliberate, I just wonder if it was the right choice. Because there's teasing the audience and straight up testing their patience because they give us nothing to chew on while we freak out. Right now I'm sort of on the fence, because it felt like too much- between the Olivia crisis and the Tony reveal plus the Kim escape and Jack rescue and then resolution of everything else.
Again, maybe if they moved the Olivia crisis and addressed that BEFORE the finale (much like the Sherry/Nicole/Keith stuff in S1 was mostly resolved before the finale), it might have been more manageable. Then we wouldn't be so restless and feel like the Taylor storyline took away from the momentum of the Jack-centric storylines.
Haha, yes. I never liked Kim all that much, but I never hated her either so I guess, I'm happy for you? LOL. This is why I don't take sides in fandom squee/bashing. I just like what I like and try not to harsh on other people's squee.
MMM. Renee is totally my new favorite character, and I have to watch S1-S3 to see how she holds up against Michelle, who long held my favorite in 24. (Full confession, I loved Tony and Jack, but when Michelle showed up, I always liked her the best, just thismuch. It's part of why I wasn't as interested in S5 and DEFINITELY in S6.) Renee totally saved the season for me and made me love 24 again in that obsessive icon-making, fic writing, episode reaction essay writing kind of way. And like, it's in FULL force, because I've made a TON of icons this season. Hehe.