The results are in, and the final tally for the Season Five Jack Bauer "24" Body Count is...
37.
After a couple of weeks of fairly bloodless sedentary behavior, Jack made a comeback last night by taking out six more bad guys (including RoboCop) and pushing his hourly kill rate to over 1.5. All that whacking must have pooped him out, though; he didn't seem to put up much of a fight when the Chinese operatives kidnapped him at the end of hour 24.
This presents us with an interesting question...is next season going to be a gradual transition away from the Jack Bauer character? Sure, they could tell most of the story from Jack's POV after he busts out of captivity. But wouldn't it be cool if they framed it like a rescue mission led by Curtis? Kind of a real-time answer to "Return of the Jedi's" quest to save Han Solo?
In retrospect, I think one of the best things the writer's ever did was kill off Jack's wife in Season One. Not just so Jack wasn't so vulnerable in future crises, but mainly because now "24" is about the only show that doesn't guarantee it's primary characters will survive. In this season alone they killed David Palmer, Tony, Michelle, and even upstart Edgar (and he didn't even get nailed for a DUI). So far Jack's pretty much been the only guy you could rely on to get out of the day alive. But I wouldn't take that for granted.
Other final notes on the series finale:
*"RoboCop" was probably the best bad guy yet for the series. He was the one guy that Jack couldn't crack.
*Jack DID crack President Logan, he just had to use his wife to do it. (Besides, when Jack confronted Logan on the airplane, Mr. Squirrelly tossed his confession out pretty liberally.)
*If Kim Bauer's dude doesn't make an appearance next season, it better be because he's filming "Soul Man II".
