In the beginning there was a man, his wife…and their daughter. Seemingly mild-mannered at first, we quickly learned that this man was far from quiet or reserved; the antitheses of what a family man is presumed to be. Before long, his daughter was kidnapped and his life plunged into a 24 hour race to find her, save a president, and expose a conspiracy.

He did. With cunning, efficiency, guts…and a shocking compunction about putting down whomever stood in his way.

But despite his lethal inner id, CTU agent Jack Bauer (played relentlessly by Kiefer Sutherland) still found he was too late to protect his wife from being murdered by one of the very people he trusted the most, in a sickening act of betrayal that set the stage for a series that could only have been born of our post-9/11 world.  

So began the legacy of 24, which I described in my April 2005 review of the first season as "a nail-biting, seat-of-your pants thrill ride that is terrific entertainment and as addictive as this genre gets." It redefined suspense on television by staging events in (mostly) real time, as Jack Bauer worked around the clock to thwart terrorism, corruption, murder and mayhem…doing whatever he had to do in the process to counteract all the bizarre twists & turns that came his way.

Nine years and many terrorist plots later, Jack has managed to expose and thwart a conspiracy once again…this time extending to the highest offices of his own country and others. The series came to an end last night, in some ways exactly as it had begun, in others leaving Jack Bauer in a far more vulnerable place than he's ever been; without apparent recourse, support, or indeed, even a country to call his own.

In last night's series finale, Jack demonstrated that despite President Taylor's (Cherry Jones) reluctant complicity in the Russian plot to kill Middle Eastern President Omar Hassan (Anil Kapoor), he could still adhere to his own moral code of right and wrong, though he did very nearly cross the line and assassinate Russian President Yuri Suvarov (Nick Jameson) until Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) managed to bring him back from the edge.

No matter. Though some might have pined to see Jack slaughter damn near everyone remotely connected to this season's conspiracy and the death of Renee Walker (Annie Wersching), it would have been too great a shock for the show's loyal audience, and likely compromised box office for the coming big screen movie. 

Of course, Jack's been here before, and always managed to survive. Presumably, that's where the 24 movie will pick things up. As a loyal viewer who has long felt that the show had extended about five seasons past its useful life, my hope is that the producers will dive into the meat of Jack's isolation, and give us a story akin to the 'Bourne' films, where we get to really see what it means to be trapped between two world powers, hunted by each, and with only one's wits to survive. What the gambit will be is so far unknown; presumably Jack will find himself in possession of some sort of critical intel that gets him back in the good graces of the US government, even as the Russians continue to hunt him for murdering their ambassador. But given that this will be a big screen outing, we can likely expect bigger production values, international intrigue and settings, and more graphic examples of what Jack does best: dispatch bad guys with extreme prejudice.

Move over, Jason Bourne—I hope.

We're going to miss Jack Bauer week after week; his willingness to do whatever was necessary to attain what he believed to be the right objective; his relentless determination in the face of insurmountable odds; and perhaps most of all, his ability to make viewers forget their problems entirely for an hour at a time as he reminded us that some folks deal with bigger stakes every day (even if they were represented fictionally).