'24': Beware the Jack Bauer Imperial March

While watching the third-to-last hour of "24" ever, did anyone else get the impression that Jack Bauer had finally succumbed to the Dark Side?

The hour begins happily enough for Charles Logan. He gets the President to publically announce his involvement in saving the peace deal... but the good times just aren't destined to last.

Jason reveals the brutal disembowelment of Pavel, which coupled with the imminent revealing of information by Meredith means the whole operation is about to be blown wide open. Because of this, Logan begs President Taylor to effectively shut down Meredith's paper and censor the free press. Incredibly, she goes along with this and orders an equally unwilling Tim to sic the FBI on the case. To Meredith's credit, she doesn't immediately favor Jack, especially when he initially reveals nothing. But once the truth begins to come out (and she gets her hands on the proof), she deftly maneuvers to meet with her editor... except he's been silenced. Lucky for her, she piques Kayla's interest in the whole deal before the FBI hauls her (and the evidence) away.

Back at CTU, Chloe's still feeling stifled by Logan's hired gun, so she continues to have Arlo work around the system to get the information they need. Not only do they secure a live feed following Jason's every move, but they acquire the real deal on Jim Ricker, including his current residence. Chloe is able to use Jason's ridiculous restrictions against him by securing the services of Cole (under the guise of UN security) to locate and question Jim. Of course, Cole is no longer gonna treat Jack as anything but a threat. To this, he promises to take Jack out if he is anything but 100% cooperative... bringing an arsenal as a back-up plan.

Speaking of arsenals, Jack gets his hands on quite the package of weapons and gear from Jim. With a live feed of the Charles Logan motorcade, Jack flies solo and tracks the cars to an underpass. Dressed in full Imperial Stormtrooper regalia, Jack goes all-out with the automatic gunfire assault, wounding most everyone in his path. Seriously, the man rather calmly walks right up to Logan's limousine and begins shooting at the bulletproof glass to the point it weakens enough to drop a canister of teargas into the front seat, forcing Logan from the car. Jack then drags the weasel to a back room where it doesn't take much to scare most all of the information out of him. Logan reveals that he's merely involved in the cover-up... that Novakovich is the man behind the conspiracy AND the killing of Renee. What seems like a death by strangulation for Logan ends merely by an aggressive sleeper hold.

Tracking his boss, Jason isn't far behind. He finds Logan on the ground and Jack far away. When he finds out Logan gave up Novakovich, he tries to warn him... but it's too late. Seems Jack assaulted a limo driver for the Russian's suite information, and then killed two guards on his way to annihilating the entire Russian delegation (including the impaling of Novakovich, among other wounds). As a result of the battle with the guards, Jack received a wicked stab wound to his left side.

In the end, Jason tells Logan how screwed they all are, which causes Logan to personally call Russian President Yuri Suvarov (who is on his way to sign the peace treaty) and warn him that Jack will be the death of all of them. As suspected, Suvarov knew of and endorsed the entire operation all along... even Renee's killing. What they don't know is that Jack heard every single word of the conversation, having placed a bug on Logan's shirt collar.

190 hours down, two to go... how will the eighth and final longest day of Jack Bauer's life end?

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Photo credit: FOX