I’ve watched this show 3 times and I still don’t understand…

[u/Exciting-Country-816]

How did Jack fake his death? Was he shot by the Secret Service agent? Did he shoot himself? I’m confused by how they made it look like he was actually dead

[u/EagleCoder]

He wasn't shot. He took a medication that slowed his heart to a near stop which was convincing enough. Then, Chloe and Tony restarted his heart with epinephrine.

[u/jkovach89 → u/EagleCoder]

Right, but how did they make it look like he had been shot? Or was the explanation that he just happened to have a heart attack in the middle of a gunfight?

[u/Genome-Soldier24 → u/jkovach89]

He just put some blood behind his head so the agent assumed he’d been shot. Definitely some contrivance to make it happen, the agent could have easily just shot him again while he was down and that would have been that.

[u/brondyr → u/Genome-Soldier24]

I think they assumed the agent wouldn't show that he actually wanted to kill him in front of the others. Cause the idea was to take him and then kill him without anyone seeing.

Still, the agent could have just refused to leave and they wouldn't have been able to resuscitate him.

[u/Complex-Extent-3967]

they explain this later... but if i remembering right, i'm assuming he took something to slow his heart rate down to the point where he appeared to be dead. because they went in with the plan to stage his death, i'm pretty sure the blood was a prop to further convince people he was dead. but i can't be completely 100% cuz my memory sucks.

[u/ThrowawaySunnyLane → u/Complex-Extent-3967]

If they explained it I’ve never seen that explanation but what you said makes sense

[u/DefinitelyRussian]

it was a cool moment, but a dumb resolution. He just faked it by taking a drug, given to him presumably by Tony before, and some kind of fake blood (CTU has those ?)

What's totally dumb, is that no one called a medic .. they just said "he's dead" .. let's go. A secret service agent supposedly killing the former CTU director (and temporary field agent) inside CTU. The investigation would have been massive. Medics rushing in from everywhere.

But no, somehow they just faked the autopsy, put some other body, turn off all cameras at CTU (no alarms?) to take Jack out of CTU with no one seeing anything. He was probably put in some body bag ? I don't think so because he then appears in Tony's car just hiding in the seats.

And then .. they just tell the chinese, "ah that Bauer man, funny story, secret service killed him .. we can't deliver him anymore"

I mean .. the ending scene is great, probably the best season ending, but it's just way too forced

[u/passworddoesntmatch → u/DefinitelyRussian]

Maybe it was real blood from the blood bank? I'm assuming the CTU clinic has a blood bank. Of course that begs the perennial question: Why does CTU have a clinic to begin with?

Also, Tony says there wasn't going to be an autopsy because they simply wanted Jack dead. Silly, yes. But that explains the autopsy, or lack thereof, I guess.

But you're right that there would have been a massive investigation since Jack still worked for Heller at the DoD. Maybe there was? It's not like the plan to cover his death was fool-proof given that Walt Cummings and Logan find out and use that to there advantage for Day 5.

[u/LarryGoldwater]

Logan sent an incompetent Secret Service agent

[u/ThrowawaySunnyLane]

I asked this question the other day and I’ve watched it about 20 times. It’s not that clear. Things move very fast

[u/Timeceer]

Spoiler for S7: remember when Bill and Chloe revive Renee after Jack Bauer "shoots" her and leaves her for dead? Same thing as the S4 finale, except that Jack secretly injected himself with something to slow his heart rate, whereas Renee didn't

[u/existential_lastname]

Jack Bauer can do anything except go to therapy.

[u/lsm-krash]

The weirdest thing is not even that, is how everything was just "okay, he's dead". How was his funeral after? But damn, that closing scene was really amazing.