Jack Bauer won't live happily ever after

If you're hoping that Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) will live happily ever after as "24" comes to a close, you're going to be disappointed.

It's not giving anything away to tell you he lives — there is that movie in the offing. But happily? No way.

"We tried on a couple of very different endings for size, and the one we came to at the end is the one that felt just right," executive producer Howard Gordon told TV critics in a conference call.

"One thing we tried that didn't work was happily ever after for Jack. What he has done — forget about the last eight seasons, but in these last six episodes — leaves him once again in a very compromised place morally and ethically and emotionally. This show is a tragedy, and so to give Jack a happy ending just didn't feel authentic."

Yeah, well, this is a guy for whom the end has always justified the means. He's tortured and killed and maimed any number of people over eight seasons of "24" — but always in an effort to protect the good people of America.

But this season, he's committed cold-blooded murder to avenge the killing of his latest love, Renee (Annie Wersching).

Happiness isn't in the offing for Jack, but Gordon is happy with the finale — which he considers a "risk" for "24."

"It was one really we think was worth taking, and I think it pays off really well in the end," he said. "But in the spirit of trying to take the series to a place where it hasn't been before, we've done this thing. It's certainly not playing it safe, but it is very emotionally climactic, and we're pretty excited by it."

Whether the show's remaining fans are excited remains to be seen. And there are far fewer fans than there used to be — the ratings for "24" have fallen dramatically in the past couple of seasons.

There's no doubt that "24" became repetitive. How many nuclear threats/explosions can one show have? How many moles can be inside CTU? How many utterly nonsensical plot twists can we endure?

Even Gordon admits that this year's plotline, in which Dana Walsh (Katee Sackhoff), a woman with a false identity, had the highest national security clearance, pushed beyond the bounds of credulity.

"Look, it's crazy," he said. "There is a girl from Rock Springs who somehow manages to get into CTU as an analyst under an alias. It's crazy. And the fact that the Russians had sponsored her and put her in there made it make some sense."