24 season 5 wrap-up

The final two hours of 24's fifth day were full of the envelope-pushing panache that has made it such a phenomenon. Here's what Jack Bauer did in just the season finale:

gave a crash course in slitting a terrorist's throat to a green naval engineer with no combat training

snapped Russian separatist Bierko's neck with a leghold

killed Henderson in cold blood for his role in the deaths of David Palmer, Tony, and Michelle

kidnapped, interrogated, and threatened to kill the sitting President of the United States

And what thanks does he get? In the last few minutes of the day, a bunch of pissed off Chinese guys literally Shanghai him over the death of their consul in season four.

The critics seem to agree with my own assessment that day five has proved to be the best season of 24 to date. The stakes were higher, the risks were greater. Major characters were dispatched like it was going out of style. And the lengths our heroes went to undermining authority in the name of justice were just mind-boggling. I'm psyched for day six. I'd love to see part of it actually take place in China as Jack struggles to get away from his captors, but even the creators probably don't know exactly what's going to happen yet. I guarantee it will be awesome though.

[X] Jack Bauer continues to kick ass, although to a lesser extent now that the Chinese captured him so easily