We have finally come to the end of 24... or at least the first 24, since it's coming back in at least some form next season. At the beginning of the season I probably thought it would be impossible to both sustain the tension and maintain the same style of the show, but to my surprise they managed to do it. And what a ride it was...

The two biggest shocks of the last hour-- or actually, of the last hour and two minutes-- were the unmasking of Nina, loyal CTU operative and my personal heartthrob, as a ruthlessly cunning double agent working for... well, that's an unanswered question; and the apparent death of Teri Bauer, Jack's wife, at the hands of aforementioned Nina (or "Yelena"). The mid-campaign divorce of the leading candidate for president pales in comparison, doesn't it?

Since these are fictional TV characters we are talking about, I can say that I was almost relieved at the tragic ending of the season, because it showed a refreshing willingness to not force-feed a "happy ending" to the audience. Think about it-- even in the movie industry, which certainly thinks of itself as being artistically superior to mere television, how many films would have the guts to send the audience out of the theaters on that kind of a downer? In a way, the fact that something life-altering occurs at the end of this 24-hour cycle gives repeated viewing of the season (and there will be repeated viewing-- I'm already preparing to dub all 24 episodes onto 3 or 4 tapes to facilitate the process until the DVDs come out) a lot more gravity and meaning than if Jack, Teri, and Kim walked hand in hand into the sunset at the end of the story. Well, the story ended at midnight, but you know what I mean.

Looking back on the season, I'm impressed how through luck or planning, the writing was sharp enough to keep multiple story lines running and still bring everything together to a fairly logical conclusion. Although there were some missteps... don't you think that if an airliner exploded over the desert near L.A. in the middle of the night, there would be blanket coverage for the rest of the day, instead of it only being a story for a couple of hours? But, I love to nitpick.

Is Teri really dead? I think she is, though some aren't sure. I believe that Jack, as he picked her body up, couldn't feel a pulse, and that's why he collapsed into a corner instead of rushing her to medical help. Besides, as I've read, if she is dead and if she was pregnant at the time, it means that the Drazens' evil plan of eye-for-an-eye revenge succeeded after all-- just adding another layer of classical tragedy to the story.

What's going to happen to the Palmer for President campaign now that he's separating from his wife, who was revealed to be the biggest schemer since Lady Mac Beth? By winning the primaries, it would seem that he has the nomination locked up, but his family problems might make him a sitting duck in the fall campaign.

Who is "Yelena" working for? She was obviously involved with the Drazens (Serbian nationalists), but her phone contact spoke German, and the implication was that the real headquarters of her operation lay elsewhere.

For next season, the rumors had been that the one-hour real-time format would be dropped and each episode would cover one day... but apparently from what I have read it will be back in the present format. I think that all of the above questions (well, except the Dennis Hopper thing) are going to be central to the story next season. This will especially be the case if Palmer goes on to win the White House... as president, Palmer could easily be written into any crisis situation that might arise concerning CTU. If he doesn't win the election, it would be a lot harder to keep the Palmer character relevant. And Nina... Nina, Nina, Nina. I could very easily see a storyline developing where a still-in-custody Nina would be required to spill information on both what she knows about a particular crisis and on who exactly it is that she worked for. Think of Jack visiting her in her cell, a la The Silence of the Lambs.

Why do I like this show? First of all, it's a great look at everyday life in New York, although how does Molly manage to afford that apartment when she never has a job? It was one of the first "dramedies", paving the way for a lot of shows on today. But mainly I identify with Molly, or at least as much as a midwestern guy can identify with a Manhattan woman. I love the way she kind of drifts along never really finding, as she put it once, anything "commensurate with her abilities." I can certainly identify with that...