Bauer by Hour: To Be Continued ...

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Matt Swenson has lived to tell about seven "24" finales.

The following takes place between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m.

IF YOU ARE A CHILD of the '80s, and your faithful "24" blogger most certainly is, than you have "Back to the Future" pretty much memorized line by line.

And as we all recall, the movie resolves its plot before tossing in those fateful words "To be Continued."

Marty McFly, meet Jack Bauer.

While it's true those three magic words never appear in the Series 7 finale, they might as well have.

In years past, "24" has shocked viewers with the death of Jack's wife, an assassination try on David Palmer and Jack's kidnapping — and those are just the good years — to lure viewers back for the following year.

Nothing quite that dramatic happened Monday night. Instead, we got some serious character development capped off with a "huh, it's over?" moment.

You see, this season began with Jack being interrogated by a senator over his previous use of torture, more or less leading to a 24-hour long debate on the merits of harsh techniques.
Jack says a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Agent Crybaby and the deceased Larry Moss took the other approach — and look where they got Larry.

In the most intriguing moment last night, Agent Crybaby handcuffs Janeane Garofalo and opens the door where the evil Will Patton (the chief bad guy of the group organizing all these terror attacks) is in custody. She flashes an evil look and then it's all over except for Kim Bauer giving up her stem cells to save daddy.

One must presume Crybaby went in to use any means necessary to get more out of the baddie. But that look suggests that maybe, just maybe, she's in cahoots with him and they will make quite a pair next year.

January can't come soon enough.

To the minutes and lots of "24" gravitas.

» SAY CHEESY: Tony finally explained himself in one of those awful diatribes where a bad guy spills his guts before doing some terrible deed. At one point, we think he's going to use Jack's infected body parts to build a new bioweapon as his endgame. Nope, turns out he's like a triple agent who was a terrorist, then helped the good guys only to betray them and, finally, he stands alone. He did all this to catch Patton's character, who years ago was responsible for setting off a chemical attack that killed Tony's wife, Michelle Dessler. Apparently, she was pregnant, too. "You killed my son" a weeping Tony yells at Patton before he's foiled by Jack and Crybaby.

» ALL ALONE: In the most shocking turn of the night, "24" really stuck to this whole Olivia Taylor killed Jon Voight and must be punished angle. Former Chief of Staff Shawshank got the proof, thanks to super secret service agent Aaron Pierce's help, and told Olivia to tell her mommy or it goes public. Olivia's mommy is, of course, the president. President Taylor faces a choice: prosecute her daughter or destroy the evidence. Papa Taylor (Colm Feore) pushes for the latter. And when we say push, we mean he implies dire circumstances if she doesn't. But the president make the tough call and sends Olivia to jail and re-hires Shawshank.

» BAUER HIGHER POWER: Jack's accepted his death, but right before the morphine-induced coma takes effect, he gets a visitor. Nope, not Kim. It's the Islamic religious guy who called Jack out on racial profiling a few episodes ago. Jack finds peace and, to its credit, the show makes a plausible case for Jack dying. But Kim saves the day, just as she did by helping take down some evil-doers at the airport in the first hour. She's her father's son.

» WHY THIS SHOW IS "24" AND YOURS ISN'T MOMENT: Kim's phone dies calling the FBI about the aforementioned airport scare — which was exciting. Her reaction? "Dammit." She is her father's son, and this was one of the better years "24" has had.

» RELATED: "Out-Foxed by Jack: Suspending Belief in '24'" [Express, May 2009]

Photo Courtesy of Fox