Jack Bauer Is Shane.

The season finale of "24" aired last night. The ending put the show solidly in the tradition of the protective gunslinger epitomized by the movie, "Shane."

Shane is a gunslinger who comes to town and befriends the locals. He ends up saving them from the outlaws by operating outside the law himself. He does so in order to make sure that civilization has a chance to survive against the outlaws.

In the end, he has to leave town because he doesn't belong in society and the final scene is him riding off into the frontier where he belongs.

Jack's inability to keep his relationship because of what he has to do in his
job and then his walking off at the end were very much like the character Shane and the final scene in that movie.

A very good and mythic ending to the season.

-tdr