Culture: 24 - 4 to 6 AM

The season comes to a close!

The Veep orders the exchange of Josh for the component. Doyle is in charge of the hand-off and Jack is in custody to be taken back to CTU to keep him out of the loop. Yeah, right!

Jack uses his phone to enlist the help of Karen back in the White House. Karen calls Bill whose house is being turned upside down looking for evidence since he was ousted for letting Fayed (lack of evidence but Bill is being scape-goated) go sometime in the past. Of the various romantic angles in the story, I think I like the Bill-Karen one the best. I suppose it is because they are older folks like me! Anyway, Karen convinces Bill to help with the "whatever it takes to stop the exchange" non-command command. Karen gets the data for Jack's location and gives it to Bill.

Implausibility: I'm not sure the FBI would let Bill just walk out of the house under the circumstances. What is the hypothetical off-camera conversation?
Bill: I am going to go to 7/11 and get a big gulp. You want me to bring you guys a few?
FBI agent: Sure, awfully nice of you!

Anyway, Bill fakes crashing into the SUV carrying Jack and so it crashes and Jack knocks out one guard while the other guard talks to Bill wondering what is going on. Jack clobbers that guy too. Jack and Bill race to the beach.

Back at the beach, two guys in a boat land at the beach with the component. Unfortunately, for Doyle, the device is a fake and blows up injuring him and the bad guys take Josh.

Jack and Bill arrive just as they leave but Jack sees the oil rigs and asks CTU to figure out which one might be owned by one of his father's shell corporations.

Meanwhile, back at CTU, Chole faints. Its 4:59AM.

CTU figures out which oil rig has ties to BXJ Corp. The White House orders up two F-18s to hit the rig with missiles to destroy the chip but killing Josh too.

Jack decides to disobey orders to recover his nephew. Bill offers to fly the helicopter. Woo hoo! Great to see that! The other season it was so cool to see Jack and Aaron team up for some mayhem and the other time when it was Jack and Wayne Palmer (prior to becoming POTUS) knocking off some bad guys!

Meanwhile back in DC, the Veep tells Subarov that they will attack an oil rig where the chip is located. The Russians report that they have intel that says a Chinese sub is nearby... a fact not available to the USA!

Implausibility alert: I hope the US sub detection net is better than that???!!! Maybe it it isn't? Yikes.

The fighter planes are on the way while the helicopter with Bill and Jack close in on the rig. They shoot up the bad guys and land the copter and Jack searches for Josh.

He finds him and sends him back to Bill and the copter and Jack confronts his father. Not exactly like Luke and Darth Vader in Empire Strikes Back. Jack decides not to kill his father (though he was shot once by Josh when he tried to take the gun back from Josh) but he can't drag him back to the copter in time to escape before the attack. Hmm, does this leave the door open for Philip Bauer to return for Season Seven? It would be pretty hard for such an old guy with a gunshot wound to survive falling into the water after the oil rig is hit by missiles and then swimming ashore but who knows?!

As the copter flies back with Jack hanging onto the rope Bill left for him, Jack lets go as they near the beach and Jack swims ashore. Bill knows that Jack has unfinished business and doesn't pick him up.

Things wind down at the White House as they have live coverage feed to the Russians.

Back at CTU, we and Morris find out Chole is pregnant.

Jack's unfinished business is to find Audrey. He has a confrontation with Heller but realizes Heller is right that Jack can't really protect and provide for Audrey. Jack reluctantly leaves Audrey.

The finale was pretty solid. Some great action set pieces. The relationship angles were mostly tied up.

The episode finishes with Jack staring out into the ocean wondering what is next. Indeed, it is a metaphor for what the 24 creative team is thinking. The season was very uneven. There were too many plot devices recycled from previous seasons. Also the turn to more "soap opera" was at times "cheesy." What will they do for Season Seven?

We have to wait until January 2008 to find out.