Tonight's season finale of "Jack & Bobby" (8 p.m., Ch. 30) may not be the last episode of the series. But it could be.

And, while it certainly leaves plenty of room open for a second season (and a third and a fourth and a fifth, if we're lucky), this episode is also a satisfying conclusion for fans who have stuck by the show.

Unfortunately, there haven't been a lot of them, which is why a show as good as this one may not return. We'll know on Tuesday when the WB announces its fall schedule.

"Jack & Bobby" has always been set not just in the present but also in the future. In the first episode, we learned that Bobby McCallister (Logan Lerman) will be elected president in 2040 — and that his older brother Jack (Matt Long) will die an untimely death before that happens. And there have been glimpses of the future through the device of a post-McCallister administration documentary that featured interviews with various friends, family members, allies, enemies and observers.

Tonight, that device is expanded — we see the documentary's host (Gore Vidal); an elderly Peter Benedict (Norman Lear ); Bobby's future father-in-law, played by John Slattery in the present; and, for the first time, we hear the voice of President McCallister himself (Oscar-winner Tim Robbins).

And we not only learn some future U.S. history — including a good deal more information about the War of the Americas — but we find out what happens to Jack.

All of this is intercut with the main story, set in the present. Jack and Bobby learn their mother, Grace (Christine Lahti), is going to visit their father (guest star Lou Diamond Phillips) in prison. And the boys finally learn why he's there. And why their mother lied to them about their father. (The episode tries to build tension about whether the boys will actually meet their father, and I won't give it away. But the dopes at the WB have been advertising the answer for days.)

The episode reaffirms the bond between Jack and Bobby and has a lot to say about family, doing the right thing and sacrificing for the greater good. It's not perfect — anymore than "Jack & Bobby" or any other TV show is perfect — but it's good and worthwhile.

I'll miss it if it doesn't come back. I'll rejoice if it does.

And the producers and writers deserve a lot of credit for recognizing their fans and giving them an episode that's worthy of a series finale, if it comes to that.

That's the sort of respect viewers receive far too infrequently.

---

E-mail: pierce@desnews.com