Ricky Church reviews the season one finale of 24: Legacy…
24: Legacy’s finale arrived with Carter facing down 24 veteran Tony Almeida in a bid to save Rebecca’s life from Naseri and bin-Khalid. It was a pretty good finale full of tension that brought to a close many of the series’ loose ends. This didn’t necessarily solve all of the problems Legacy had throughout its inaugural season, but it still delivery a fairly satisfying conclusion.
Corey Hawkins again delivered a good performance as Eric Carter in his final hour, once more showing us different sides to the character as he switched between compassion and deadly skill when dealing with Ara, Naseri’s daughter, and Rebecca. He’s a pretty well-rounded character and though he started out almost as a carbon copy of Jack Bauer, Hawkins has been able to make the role his own.
The standoff and fight between Carter and Tony was the episode’s best part. The choreography in the fight was very well done and it reminded me of just how much Tony had changed. He never really got into fights in the original series, but this Tony is a much harder and edgier man and the scene successfully made me wonder if Carter would actually kill Tony here. However, it was a slight cop-out that Tony couldn’t offer his help since Carter broke his arm. It would have been really cool and a nice payoff to see Carter and Tony team-up to save Rebecca.
Miranda Otto didn’t get too much to do as Rebecca in this episode, which is a shame since it was her final hour. Rebecca was one of the series’ best characters, though her death presents a couple of problems. One is that it was a little unclear as to why exactly Rebecca did not inform Naseri his daughter was still alive and she knew how to contact her. Not just in this episode, but the last several. I had assumed that Sims was perhaps lying to John Donovan about Rebecca’s involvement, but it turns out it was her idea after all. Did she not say anything because she felt guilty about kidnapping a little girl and felt she needed to be punished or just to protect hers and the country’s reputation? Why exactly she kept silent was really unclear.
Secondly, 24: Legacy continued the trope of the old series to kill off its female characters in a dramatic fashion. Though Rebecca was honoured with 24’s silent clock, it’s still problematic that she had to go. If you also think about it chronologically, that’s three seasons in a row now where a main love interest has died: first Renee Walker in 24’s eighth season, then Audrey in Live Another Day and now Rebecca. Rebecca’s death was at least somewhat earned given her actions and character arc, but it still was rather unnecessary.
Another element that fell somewhat flat was Naseri’s motivations. While it’s completely understandable that he would turn against bin-Khalid in order to save his daughter, this would have felt strong had Oded Fehr featured in more of the season and actually had some development.
When Carter asked him if killing the family in Yemen was payback for killing his daughter, he said “I don’t have to explain my reasons to you”, but it really left his character in a murky area. Naseri never felt like he had any solid motivations except for being a textbook terrorist villain. Not to mention the elder bin-Khalid who never received any sort of development in these final episodes, being portrayed in a fairly typical evil fashion.
Certain elements may have fallen a bit flat, but 24: Legacy’s finale was still fairly satisfying. It closed out the season pretty well with some nice bookends to the very beginning, but a bigger focus on its villains and character’s motivations, not to mention subverting some of 24’s tropes, would have improved the season finale much more.
Rating: 7/10
Ricky Church
Originally published April 18, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
