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There are two kinds of season finales: the ones that are good but not particularly edgy, used prominently in sitcoms (see most seasons of Friends and Seinfeld), and the really shocking ones that prove how audacious the show is willing to get and leaves the audience overwhelmed as they eagerly wait for the following batch of episodes. The epilogue of 24: Day 1 belongs to the second category.Everything is at stake now: with the mole's identity (Nina Myers) exposed and Kim's fate uncertain, Jack is headed to the Port of Los Angeles for the final showdown with Victor Drazen, while David Palmer makes a tough but necessary decision regarding his marriage. As for Teri, she has no idea of what is happening to her husband and daughter and shares the news of her unexpected pregnancy with Nina. That can't end well...Like few other programs (Desperate Housewives among them), 24 is able to surprise viewers until the very last moment of the season. Exactly how it ends is not up to me to tell (although few people are unaware of how things turned out in the first series' climax), but it's fairly safe to say the outcome is so bleak three different endings had to be filmed (the most optimistic one is included on the DVD).As a matter of fact, the whole episode is quite violent, possibly the most violent of the entire season, with the final confrontation between Jack and Drazen (Dennis Hopper, still magisterial) particularly bathed in primal brutality: it's a brief but very intense moment that perfectly sets the mood for what will come next, and it allows Sutherland to appear at his most vulnerable and desperate, making Hour 24 one of the best in terms of performances. The same goes for Dennis Haysbert, who started the day worried about his life and ends it fully in control, after a last devastating conversation with his unreliable wife (Penny Johnson, the best female manipulator the small screen has ever had).All in all, a great ending: aside from a little misstep in the day's second half (that stupid amnesia subplot), the first run of 24 was a practically perfect mix of entertainment, suspense and real emotion, a fact that makes the last minutes of the series more harrowing than the usual TV thriller. If there were any skeptics in the beginning, chances are they will have changed their mind by now: 24 is great television. Be warned, though: it's also very addictive.
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