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Dammit! Just when you think you're out, they drag you back in! You know, the funny thing about Jack Bauer is that even when he steps way over the line and seems to be irredeemable, he can show his soft underbelly and make us feel compassion and understanding. I really thought he had gone too far; he did go too far. But I saw that underneath it all, beyond his misplaced grief over Renee, Jack wanted to expose a great injustice. Thanks to a great bit of acting by Kiefer Sutherland, I felt Jack's internal agony and his aloneness. I understood his emptiness and how much he felt like giving up everything, even his life, if he could just expose this one last conspiracy. After an extremely ludicrous middle of the season and especially after the arrival of Gregory Itzin's Charles Logan, the level of acting seemed to rise all around.

Well, that was tremendously unsatisfying.

In the end, President Allison Taylor doesn't sign the peace agreement with the Islamic Republic that she worked so hard -- and broke several laws -- to create. She's overwhelmed with guilt about the conspiracy she helped cover up against President Hassan. Dalia Hassan found out about the Russians' involvement, and that President Taylor subsequently knew about it. Furious, she had threatened to pull out of the agreement, but President Taylor threatened her with a nuclear strike if she exposed the truth.

After all the lies and former President Charles Logan's plans (he shoots himself, by the way, and for some reason the show didn't entirely kill him off, leaving him ripe for more Jack Bauer torture in a "24" movie), President Taylor can't go through with the treaty under these circumstances. She pulls out.

In the meantime, Chloe finds out Jack is at the Un...

Jack got himself all Iron Manned up this week. I wonder if he's trying to get in on that franchise - after all, he and Robert Downey Jr. came up through the ranks together. But Jack, man! You got the Walmart version of the suit; if you didn't have that huge gun they might have been laughing at your Halloween costume. Next time go big. Get yourself invited to a Favreau shindig, pull one of your Oh-that's-just-Kiefer-throwing-back-a-few-and-having-fun-again stunts, and you'll be the next Mickey Rourke! Oh and take Gregory Itzin with you, that man is a national treasure.

Logan is watching the news yet again, adjusting his tie as President Taylor's press secretary announces the former president's involvement in the peace process. He smiles his Grinchy smile. An advisor alerts Logan that his transportation to the helipad is almost ready and that Russian President Suvarov's plane is near touchdown. Jason...

Jack, Jack, Jack. Don't you know revenge will eat you up inside? Jack's clearly not himself, nor thinking straight, nor properly motivated. He really didn't have enough of a history or a relationship with Renee to be so hurt and so bent on revenge. I can only deduce that this is a cumulative revenge quest he's on; that Renee was the last straw after Teri and all the crap he's been through, all the torture and the pain and people screwing him over, denying or dismissing him. And it's not just the revenge thing that makes Jack seem a little off - let's talk about his choice in partners. Ortiz is only on Jack's side about half the time, and Jack seems to trust Ortiz even less than that. The two of them have started acting a little goofy lately, and instead of thinking of them as competent partners, they...

I might be a genius. Last night as I watched and thought about where the final episodes of 24 might be headed, everything began to make sense. Jack is going to die. I'm 87.325 % certain! First, we had all the media speculation on whether or not this will be the final season - Kiefer made statements that it all depended upon ratings. Next, the movie rumors were trotted out, yet again, but no one paid much attention since we've heard them before. But then, Fox announced that indeed, the eighth day will be Jack Bauer's last. Now all of a sudden we have writers and a director attached to the movie, and yesterday Kiefer said the script is already finished, though he hasn't read it. Meanwhile, is Kiefer staying in shape and keeping his nose clean so he'll be ready to work on the film? Nope - he's out getting drunk and into trouble again.

Hello my pretties. This week your recap is coming to you live, from Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Yes, I'm just that dedicated to all five of you. Every time I heard dramatic music, I drank (Sol)! And believe me, I did some drinking my little flying monkeys. This hour of 24 was filled with somber moments, goodbyes, a few tears, one hearty laugh, a little wham, bam, thank you ma'am-ing and ended with another silent clock. So that's the plan, writers? Get rid of most of the cast so you can start the feature film anew? I like it! And I especially like where that yellow brick road led us tonight, so let's get started.

Jack phones President Taylor and says he doesn't know what to say other than, he's sorry. The President asks if there was anything he and his team could have done differently, and Jack affirms that President...

©2010 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Greg Gayne/Fox Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) in “24.”

Chloe gets a major upgrade at CTU, President Taylor reluctantly enters a very uneasy alliance with the last person she ever expected, and Jack’s life takes on yet another tragic dimension on this, a most eventual and pivotal seventeenth hour of the eighth day of “24.”

Where to begin this week? Well, with Jack and President Taylor, talking on the phone. Jack feels that he’s let the President down by failing to rescue President Hassan. President Taylor implores him not to bear such a burden, but she’s feeling defeated herself; with Hassan dead, she despairs that the peace talks have died with him.

Meanwhile, Cole is leading the efforts to get Samir, who has survived, back to CTU for questioning. He leaves the terrorist in the hands of an Emt, only he pulls out a syringe and...

We were duped! That was no old-school episode, unless by old school they meant tedious, slow and inducing grumpiness. Wait, maybe they meant an episode for old people? Seriously, writers, we still have fourteen hours to go -- do you know what that means? It means that if you don't get your scheiße together, Herr Meier and I will have to kick your collective arses because we'll be the only ones left watching. Yes, we had fewer stupid asides with Renee and Starbuck; yes, we had more Jack and Chloe; yes, we had a predictably tense ending that left us with mildly higher hopes. But with so much of this season feeling like retread, we're going to need more. We're going to need you to take that extra step and pull very, very, very hard so that your heads come entirely out of your asses, not just out halfway. We're...

Hell yeah, now we're talking: not every episode of TV's best action drama can hit it out of the park, but tonight's episode (finally) had everything going for it: murder, suspense, sex, submerged bodies and Mare Winningham! The timing couldn't have been better: the network has yet to be convinced whether to order future seasons of the series, which remains Fox's second-most watched show behind House even though it's down almost 13% in viewers (to 10.4 million from 11.9 million). Production on the current season is scheduled to wrap March 24 so if this ends up being the last, the writers will want to prepare a series finale.