Mary Lynn Rajskub: Last 10 Pages of Finale Script Ommitted

Mary Lynn Rajskub
Mary Lynn Rajskub

In a new radio interview, Mary Lynn Rajskub revealed the final ten pages of the 24: Live Another Day finale script have been omitted and are being kept secret – even from the cast members.

Do they keep that pretty secret when it gets down to the finale?
“Yeah, it’s been driving me crazy. I still don’t know! I’ve been given the last two scripts because we’re very close to shooting it, but they’ve omitted putting the last ten pages in. And honestly, I think they’re still kind of changing their mind on what’s going to happen with the end there. That should make it very exciting for everyone involved.”

Do you like that goth look?
“I got together with the hair and makeup and wardrobe. There were different versions of this – she was platinum blonde, and then dreadlocks. We sort of settled in on this general gothy look and it seemed to be the right thing. It definitely changes my attitude once I put that costume and makeup and stuff. It does something to me, puts me in a place.”

Update: Chlojack has pointed out this tweet from Kim Raver on Tuesday:

The bright red script is presumably to prevent photocopying and duplication and the missing pages indicate an even higher level of secrecy.

Source Norton in the Morning

57 Comments

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So pretty safe to say that Chloe is not in the final scenes…

That’s a reasonable assumption. Unless they’re just trying to keep things ultra secretive and MLR will get those pages when they actually film the scene(s)? There’s only eleven days left of filming though…

I’m starting to think they might actually kill off Jack Bauer.

Kiki Vanderway
May 29, 2014 at 4:45 pm
Oh please don’t say that! I truly can’t imagine Kiefer unable to play Jack Bauer again that kind of perfect alignment of character and casting is so rare that I can honestly say I cannot imagine how that would serve either the franchise or the legacy .

The only other time I’ve heard of a script being kept this secretive was Empire Strikes Back, where the Darth Vader reveal was left out. Nobody in the cast knew except Mark Hamill and James Earl Jones.

Hope the omitted pages is the surprise return of Kim and Tony and not the death of Jack Bauer. Hope nothing leaks though!

Kim Raver tweeted this yesterday:

@KimRaver Shooting last two episodes of LAD! Episode 12 arrived- bright red script and many scenes have yet to be revealed! Exciting!

They kept a lot of the LOST series finale secretive. In a behind the scenes special, Jorge Garcia (Hurley on LOST) got his bright red finale script and his cut off right after his final scene.

I wonder if Kiefer and the main writers are the only ones that have the completed script.

I think the final scenes have something to do with Jack’s family, too.

I really don’t think that they will return to the family. I would prefer that the show presents the reasons behind Jack’s accions in LAD. Why he is still wanting to defend inocent people. Magnify that.

Jack’s family balances out who he is. Without them, he goes a little crazy. The catch-22 of Jack’s life is he can’t do his job without his family in his life but his family is endangered by his job. If Live Another Day is the end of Jack’s story, it’s got to break that dilemma a bit for him. He’s getting to a point where he can’t do this job anymore but he needs redemption. Maybe he gets it and he passes the torch to Morgan and this day has led him to be able to make peace with himself a bit. What’s left for Jack then but the family he’s struggled to be with for the entire length of the series. It’s kind of either/or for Jack– he either dies (not happening) or he goes home to Kim. Jack just found out he’s got a grandson he’s never met. If he gets through this day and gets back to his old self, he’s got to get to that kid, otherwise it’s pretty unsatisfying.

Killing off Jack Bauer would make it very difficult to re-watch the series; plain and simple. Also, what death is worthy of Jack Bauer? Seriously, he has survived everything over the last eight seasons.

The only person capable of killing Jack Bauer is Jack Bauer…

That is a tough question to answer. Maybe the only way for Jack to die is the age. But I would like to see how Jack escapes from some kind of ultimate death.

But he’s a man, not a superhero. At some point, he’s going to die. Probably not at the end of Day 9 but at some point… however he dies, it makes everything he’s gone through all the more poetic, IMO, not pointless…

I don’t think they’ll kill off Jack, just in case they ever want him to pop into any potential Morgan spinoff in the future. Besides, his arc starts so bleak on Day 9 that he can really only go up from here and if they wanted to end it on a truly bleak note, they could have just left it with 8.24.

Yeah but don’t you think that this interview was recorded earlier? Since she says “close” to filming the finale?

I don’t think it was a pre-recorded interview because it’s from Tuesday and Kim Raver tweeted something similar that very same day. Maybe MLR just misspoke when she said the “close” to stuff.

That would make sense

Except that one of the execs (Manny Coto?) explicitly said they’re not gonna do that…

Bob Cochran said it, and yeah that’s the perfect thing to say to surprise us though lol

OMG NO !!!
How can they kill Jack ? if a bad guy kills him that means bad guys win, if he sacrificies himself to save Audrey, Heller, Kate or anyone else…it will be so commonplace.
And I think killing Jack will infuriate most of the fans. Itsn’t the same thing as kiling Brody in Homeland, Brody was a traitor, he redeemed himself, but Jack is a hero !!

This is a tragedy, though. Bad guys sometimes do win… I think Jack might be a little more Sgt. Brody than meets the eye so far this year…

A shocking ending for Jack Bauer -that no one has ever thought before- may be an ultimate sacrifice where he survives, but at the cost of being permannently incapacitated (i.e.: losing his vision). In this way, he doesn’t die, though, he’ll no longer be able to return if a new threat appears in the future.

I think the excitement is really going to start hitting me on the 10th episode because I know that it’s only one week away until the 2-hour finale.

There isn’t going to be a 2-hour finale.

Never knew that – sorry Trevor.

Don’t be

I’ve been convinced that their gonna kill off Jack for quite a while. Lots of people been talking about “closure”. Keifer is almost 50 too. He can’t keep going forever. I think this is gonna be the final send off.

kiki vanderway
May 29, 2014 at 6:27 pm
Yes but look at Liam Nieson who arguably only became a solid action star after he hit 50. Personally I think Kiefer has never looked in better shape.

I think they need to close out Jack’s story not because Jack is now in his mid-fifties on the show but because they’ve hit the last bit of his story. There is just not a lot more to do with his character before it’s the same season every season. They’ve pulled the trigger on their Jack Bauer end game already– he’s snapped, he’s gone to the dark side a bit, he’s trying to redeem himself and get back to his old self, he’s faced with reminders of the consequences of his life (the Hellers, Chloe) and if he can find his way back, he gets to go back home to his family and find some peace. It’s going to be up to the other characters to help Jack get back to that place.

Beyond that, what happens to Jack again? He gets pulled back into the game for the nine hundredth time? He imperils his daughter and her family again for the nine hundredth time? He might be alive to pop back in from time to time, help Morgan out (if their relationship ends that way, who knows where it’ll go) or he might even be the victim. Isn’t it Howard Gordon who says he thinks Jack dies shot by a sniper one day in the future picking a newspaper off his front porch? It’s kind of perfect, IMO. He finds peace with himself, he reconciles his past, he gets to go home and spend time with his family and then, one day, he gets taken out in karmic retribution in a way that he’s killed countless of other people. All very David Palmer. Kind of poetic, if they wind up keeping that. Imagine a season like Kate Morgan has to figure out who murdered Jack Bauer. I’d watch that.

24fanjackbauerrocks
May 29, 2014 at 6:35 pm
Killing Jack Bauer doesn’t make him dead, Just Angry !!!! :)

Don’t kill of Jack! I hope this season will end like this:

President Heller: Jack, because of your outstanding work today, the americans and the russians forgive you, and you can return to your family in Los Angeles.
Jack: Yheeey!
President Heller: But the planeticket will cost you 3928 dollars!
Jack: DAMMIT!

“Jack Bauer will return for Season 10″….

It is pretty big that Bob Cochran said they won’t kill Jack. I don’t think that’ll happen, and there always is the possibility that 24 will return in some form, no matter what Kiefer or Howard say.

Bob Cochran said in a recent interview that “there’s no way we’ll kill of Jack now.”

Find a way for him to save the Ruskie embassey so they’ll forgive him to and let him
go back to LA. Then reformat the show as a sit-com with him and Chloie running a gun shop. Call it 24 Caliber

lol I’d watch that! :) Can we keep Adrian as the wacky neighbor?

They should put jack and chloie together as a couple. I love jack I want to marry him x oxoxo I love 24 I can watch it over and over

Or the authors want to rise the tension, or they don’t really know how to close the season … or they wait the decision of Fox on a possible season 10 ….

Kiki Vanderway
May 30, 2014 at 8:43 am
I agree we are getting some mixed messages — we won’t kill him from Bob C.; This is it from Kiefer; I get to take it to the end with 24 from Jon C; I think with this kid of reaction they will do more limited event series-from MaryLynn. Arguably the words if Sutherland and Cassar weight most heavily but then again Kiefer loves to stay busy…I hope they leave it open….

I’m pretty sure that their idea is to wrap up Jack’s story and give it a definitive ending that is satisfying in that if there is never another moment of 24 canon ever, you feel like it’s done. The only way to really do that, I would think, would be to make this the end for Jack Bauer– not to kill him (why shoot the moneymaker of brand you’ve just revived) but to actually get us to a point where, by the end of this story, we would be totally okay if we never saw Jack Bauer again. It sounds crazy but what happens if this story takes Jack on a path that winds up with him reunited with Kim and meeting his grandson for the first time and able to go home? Would you then *want* him to go through all this again in the future? It would mean that Jack’s learned nothing from nine seasons of 24 if he gets to a point of peace with himself then throws it all over and endangers his family again on Day 10. That’s a pretty unsatisfactory way to leave a character.

It would seem like they’re considering whether or not they can work a Day 10 around Kate Morgan and revive the idea of 24 with new characters. Day 9 crosses Morgan into Jack’s world and passes the torch from him to her, giving Jack a sense that he can let go and the world will still be safe if he wants to go see Little Teri’s school play instead of taking out terrorists. That might be the reason for the mixed messages– Kiefer is done, this is it for Jack, but there might be more seasons of 24 itself, only they can’t say ‘starring Yvonne Strahovski’ yet because it spoils the show for everyone right now.

Then, if they need Jack in a new series, they can have him. If they don’t want him back, they don’t have to have him back. If Fox decides not to make a Day 10, it doesn’t matter because they’ve gotten their opportunity to close out Jack’s story the way they wanted to and it works as a standalone for the new characters, so all is good.

Season 10 filming to begin 2016 in france…jack told me we toured in borneo together

I hope you two had a lovely honeymoon. It’s so overdue. :)

If anything, I’m positive the ending won’t be Jack’s death. maybe he will be out into some sort of protection program (like they do with presidents out of office) on an island somewhere in the Bahamas or something! the notion that Kate may take the torch is a good assumption considering her already solid reputation as “the female Jack Bauer”. realistically it makes sense, though like many people have said you can’t have 24 without Jack. My dream is that Kim’s new son is named Jack and he will take Jack’s place, a true Bauer by blood.

If anything, I’m sensing a major character death – not Audrey because I feel like that’s far too much like Renee – possibly heller or Chloe. something tragic to give you feels. not sure though, but keep your hopes up everyone!

I love the idea of Jack on a beach sipping umbrella drinks as the final shot of 24 *giggles*

I think you’re right that Heller and Chloe are strong possibilities for death, especially Heller. Nothing says a going-out-in-a-blaze-of-glory plot like his arc about already beginning to lose his mind. And it would be kind of circle-of-life-ish if Jack’s father figure died and then Jack himself met his grandson…

Why couldn’t it be Little Teri who becomes the agent? ;) Either way, it’s such an awesome, if massively depressing, thought because it means that Jack went through all of this so that his grandkid could just go through it all again. But, yeah, sorta irresistible in that epic sort of way, I agree…

re: bloodlines factoring in… let’s just say Kim’s husband reminds me of a certain character who’s been around since the first episode and I wouldn’t be surprised if Jack’s grandson becomes the first baby capable of growing a soul patch.

Slot me into the camp that thinks Jack should die.

At the end of season 7, I was really hoping that the treatment only would have extended Jack’s life. Season 8 could’ve taken place maybe a month after day 7 and featured the hunt for the Red Dots. Jack would still be dying. I thought it was a huge cop-out that he was miraculously cured. Having Jack die with a new sense of humility by something that’s totally out of his hands would have been fitting.

I’ve also been a big fan of a possible Bauer suicide. It’s in his hands, and that’s the only way it should be. After nine days of bullshit and 20 years of fallout, Jack breaks. Imagine a season where the show is basically in a nuclear war scenario. A mushroom cloud erupts over Los Angeles at dusk in the final hour and Jack has reason to believe that Kim has died. He hangs himself in the darkness, only for a splitscreen to open showing Kim and her family safe on a train heading away from the chaos, looking out at the destruction. She tries to call Jack, but no answer as we see his silhouette writhe in the final moments of his life. The show’s last splitscreen is Jack going limp against Kim’s vague look of concern out the window of the train, with the reflection of the mushroom cloud in the glass of the window. The dual splitscreen goes directly to the final clock: 6:59:58, 6:59:59, 7:00:00. It is not silent.

I know so many people would hate that, but I think the imagery is fantastic, and if it doesn’t harken back to the gritty days of 24, I don’t know what does.

But I’m being fanciful.

I agree that Jack should die. I just think it needs to happen later rather than sooner to where the plot is now so that it has more of an impact.

If Jack were to die at the end of Day 9, where’s the drama? He’s already isolated, miserable, and working with terrorists, even if he is trying to stop the threat. If he dies, it ultimately creates no final arc in the last season for Jack– he doesn’t go anywhere as a character. He starts out bleak and then he dies. That could have been done at any one of the last four seasons of the show so what was the point of it all again?

But if Jack achieves something first? If he saves the day, gets his mojo back, goes home to his family, and spends a couple of years thinking he’s somehow going to live to be ninety and be there for his grandkids like someone normal, until one day he’s out doing something domestic and boring and he’s murdered by someone, his past coming back to haunt him? Now, it’s doubly tragic and I think the more tragic you can get with Jack, the better, because he’s just completely doomed, any way you shake it. :)

Don’t know if Chloe is going to survive in the finale on July 14th or it better not be Audrey. Hate to wonder if Jack is going to make it to the very end now that the Russians are still gunning for him after the events of Season Eight. Wonder if they going to do some sort of a Breaking Bad or Lost like ending in the finale. That will be a great idea.

Dam it why you guys all want Jack dead. :(
sounds like you’re all bored

I have a feeling that chloe dies, but I’ll become so sad if so. I really love her because of the characteristics that she has.

Regarding Jack, I believe if Audrey wasn’t in London he wouldn’t give a fuck about the attack for some reason……

I’d love if Jack was put in a position where he had to choose between the life of two major characters.

I like that idea as well. It has to be characters that we’re really invested in. It could be a choice of saving Chloe or Audrey (or one of them and President Heller).

kiki vanderway
June 2, 2014 at 7:15 pm
Except Heller would be the first one to say “save Audie” and if it’s a choice between Heller and Chloe he would save Heller– it’s hard wired to his DNA –that’s a no-brainer. He might not chose between the ladies either preferring to sacrifice himself instead.

And say he did chose– then what? He goes on under the weight of even more guilt? To what end?

A shocking ending for Jack Bauer -that no one has ever thought before- may be an ultimate sacrifice where he survives, but at the cost of being permannently incapacitated (i.e.: losing his vision). In this way, he doesn’t die, though, he’ll no longer be able to return if a new threat appears in the future.

PS: Re-posting this message since the original was put in the wrong place. Dammit! xD

I have a bad feeling Chloe is gonna die, or pres heller. I just don’t see them killing off jacks lover for the 3rd time…

I think they will find a way to add Kim into the last few hours of the show. At that point something awful will be happening. Jack will have to choose to save Kim, or let the bad event happen (death of President, massive bombing, ect). Sadly Jack will have to stop the awful event, and end up with his dead daughter in his arms, just like season 1’s ending. Brings things full circle.

Deborah Zawacki
June 11, 2014 at 1:19 pm
I don’t want another ending like Saving Grace. No more noble deaths.

Based on a variety of information, the finale will have something to do with Jack Bauer directly. I hate to say this, but it might even be about his death. 1) Even after the wrap party, Kiefer and Jon Cassar filmed for one more day on a closed and secret set. 2) It has been revealed that Kiefer was heavily involved in writing the final two episodes. I can’t imagine anyone else other than Sutherland determining the fate of Jack Bauer. 3) During the LAD press tour, Sutherland was going around saying that this is it for him as Jack Bauer. It wasn’t a slip up or anything like that because he kept repeating this on all the interviews. 4) There has been some speculation about the show going on with Kate Morgan continuing the show. Howard Gordon recently stated that the 12 hour / 12 episode season format is “just to good to give up”.