24 (season 8)

Season overview

Set 18 months after season 7, the story arc involves Jack Bauer contending with assassination threats made during a peace conference between President of the United States Allison Taylor and President Omar Hassan of the fictional Islamic Republic of Kamistan (IRK). The season is set in New York City, with CTU's New York City Office having been re-activated, but while there were originally no plans for filming in New York due to budget constraints, some scenes were shot on-location.

The three main acts of season eight are:

1. CTU pursues Hassan's brother who is working with the Russian mafia to have nuclear rods transported to his home country.
2. Multiple government agencies pursue Kamistani terrorists who kill Farhad Hassan and attempt to strike at America directly.
3. Jack wages a one-man war against the members of the Russian government who are responsible for the conspiracy after Allison Taylor refuses to do anything that could jeopardize the treaty.

Major subplots

Summary

The signing of an important treaty between the US and the IRK (Islamic Republic of Kamistan) is about to take place at the UN. Kamistani terrorists, resentful of America and disappointed at Hassan's willingness to concede their attempts at developing nuclear weapons, choose this day to attempt to assassinate the Kamistani president, Omar Hassan. The assassination attempt is initially led by Hassan's brother Farhad.

CTU learns from the rescue of Hassan that terrorists have a plan to acquire nuclear rods from the Russian mob. With the help of Renee Walker, Jack forces the cooperation of Sergei Bazhaev's mob family. The nuclear rods are given to Samir Mehran, who plans to make a dirty bomb on American soil. Hassan's head of security, Tarin Faroush is revealed to be a part of Mehran's group and they present an ultimatum to Taylor's government — she must hand over Hassan for execution or the bomb will be detonated.

When Taylor orders that Hassan still be protected at all costs, a US black-ops team attempts to kidnap him. Jack Bauer and the rest of Hassan's protective detail kill all but one member of the team but upon learning of the ultimatum, Hassan turns himself into Mehran. With the nuclear crisis averted, CTU agents attempt to save Hassan and close in on Mehran. However, they arrive to see that Hassan has already been killed. Taylor is able to resurrect the treaty by convincing Hassan's wife Dalia to assume her husband's position as interim President and to sign the treaty on her country's behalf.

Considering their duties to be over, Jack and Renee return to his apartment where they have a romantic encounter. However, a Russian assassin follows them there and fires through the windows to tie up loose ends. Renee is hit and a frantic race ensues as Jack rushes her to the hospital. She dies on arrival whereupon Jack vows to avenge her death and bring everyone involved in the conspiracy and cover-up to justice. Allison Taylor fears that Jack's actions will be enough to have the treaty called off and orders his lockdown. Jack frees himself and at the cost of a third world war, begins to hunt down and kill every member of the conspiracy that killed Walker and Hassan. This leads to a cat and mouse game when Charles Logan approaches Allison Taylor and offers to use the unique resources at his disposal to capture Bauer.

Jack kills Dana Walsh (the mole at CTU), Mikhail Novakovich (the Russian Foreign Minister) and Pavel Tokarev (the assassin who killed Renee). He also aims a sniper rifle at Charles Logan's window and demands that Logan invite Russian President Yuri Suvarov to the hotel room. Logan agrees and Jack prepares to pull the trigger, but Chloe talks him out of it at the last second. When President Taylor has free rein to sign the treaty and have Jack permanently silenced she has a change of heart and turns herself into the Attorney General. Wanted by Russian and American forces Jack says goodbye to Chloe who is watching him through the camera feed of a predator drone. She orders that the feed be turned off and sees Jack disappear from the screen as he disappears from her life.

Plot twists affecting future seasons

Starring

Special guest stars

Production

Starting with episode 18, Chip Johannessen was promoted to executive producer by the production company Imagine Television. An interview with Kiefer Sutherland seemed to indicate that season eight would take place within very close proximity to the closing events of season seven, but ultimately the story picked up more than a year after the events of the previous season. The show got permission to shoot in the UN building in New York City but Kiefer Sutherland said that they would "probably use that primarily for exteriors".

Trailer

In October 2009, the debut trailer for Season 8 aired on Fox. It was titled "Survive" and hinted that the eighth season would be the last with the line "All Jack Bauer has to do is survive one more day." The trailer shows Jack relaxing with his family and being warned about the impending threat to President Hassan's life. On November 26, 2009 a second trailer was released which featured the song "Run This Town" by Jay-Z.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Metacritic, the eighth season scored 67 out of 100, based on 19 reviews, indicating "Generally favorable reviews".

Gregory Itzin, who played former President Charles Logan this season, was nominated for Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series, four years after getting the nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. The series also received the nomination for the Television Critics Association Heritage Award. In a review by IGN, the writing in Season 8 was compared negatively to the writing in other seasons with "It's always difficult to see a once vibrant and exciting show clearly drop in quality...the 24 writers simply didn't play fair – because there was no way the Dana from the beginning of the season could have been the Dana we saw later...This plot twist took an already frustrating character and made her even more of a mess. "

Home media releases

The eighth season was released on DVD and Blu-ray in region 1 on December 14, 2010 (2010-12-14) and in region 2 on November 8, 2010 (2010-11-08)