TV Review: 24 Season Five Finale

What's in a smile? Well, frankly, everything. As Season Five of 24 came to an end during its two-hour season finale, viewers witnessed some of the best acting in the history of the series. And that specific piece of acting, which didn't last more than five seconds, had coworkers chatting up a storm at the water cooler the very next day. And it could very well earn Jean Smart, who played the heavily medicated First Lady, an Emmy.

The real-time Fox thriller delivered merciless deaths of major and beloved characters in its fifth season. Gone within the first 10 minutes of the season opener alone was former President David Palmer (Dennis Haybert, who has defined gravitas since Season One) and former Counter Terrorist Unit agent Michelle Dessler (Reiko Aylesworth).

Later on, viewers would mourn the loss of the loveable CTU lug Edgar Stiles (Louis Lombardi) and former CTU director Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard), whose death still has 24 fans spinning Tony-Is-Alive theories on discussion boards because no one seems to want to let the writers get away with killing him off.

The man responsible for these horrible deaths? The President of the United States, Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin), who in a midseason mind-bending plot twist was revealed to be the evil catalyst behind the day's terrorist activities-and not the inept, fumbling politician everyone thought he was.

Though I have loved many characters on 24, the two that still stand out in my mind even though they are no longer on the series are former First Lady Sherry Palmer (Penny Johnson Jerald) and terrorist-mother Dina Araz (Shoreh Aghdashloo). The way they reveled in their wickedness was delightful to watch.

Palmer had an expert way of manipulating people and events to fit into her picture of the world and to ensure her own personal gain. Jerald played the character as a modern-day Lady Macbeth and knew how to deliver her lines in a way that made you squirm with unease, tense up with fear, and laugh at the lengths she would go to get what she wanted all at the same time. Her defining moment? I don't think it's ever been done before in the history of television-she yells a man to death.