'24' gets ready to call it a day

What's been happening this season on "24"? President Hassan (Anil Kapoor) turned himself over to the terrorists in exchange for the nuclear bomb that would have devastated Manhattan. The terrorists dispatch Hassan and Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) dispatches them. The threat appears over, and so does the peace treaty between the United States and Hassan's country.

In this episode, the landmark initiative of President Taylor's (Cherry Jones) entire term lays in ruin. With Hassan's death, a treaty seems impossible. But there's a lot of this day left - seven hours - and you may rest assured, the good prez's problems are just beginning. She needs to figure things out, with her trusted secretary of State, Ethan Kanin (Bob Gunton), sidelined.

Who you gonna call? Only one of the supreme villains in "24" history - Logan, a lad so bad even his own wife tried to kill him. Itzin recently told The Associated Press that his character is "a little more of a pragmatist, a realist" than Taylor, whom he says "needs somebody to whisper in her ear and take her to the dark side."

My say: History mirrors history, even in the fun-house mirror of "24" history. Logan of Day 5 was also set to sign a historic peace treaty before everything went kaflooey. As it turns out, Logan caused all the problems as a pretext to seize some petroleum reserves and even had dispatched popular predecessor David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) to reach his goal. Logan helped kill one prez and is now advising another? Only on "24."

But there's cause to believe the final season ends in dignity as opposed to ignominy: The eighth season has been solid. Fans scoffed at Dana Walsh (Katee Sackhoff), the former bank robber who just happened to score a key job at the highest levels of CTU. But Kapoor turned in an especially nuanced and intelligent performance, and Sutherland has been rock-solid. To think Bauer won't be around to save the world next spring seems unimaginable.