Kill Jack Bauer.

This is something I think the producers should have done a year or so ago, if not this year -- midway through the season, with no advance warning whatsoever.

After all, Jack Bauer has died on this series before. He's just been revived after a few minutes of the big sleep. But if he died mid-mission, the water-cooler and talk-show conversations the next day would be dominated by the sudden death of a TV hero. And the rest of CTU would be left to pick up the pieces, and we'd stay with them, leaning forward in our chairs all the way.

After all, if Jack Bauer can die, who's safe? No one. And isn't THAT a nice switch for a weekly TV series?

The second Jack Bauer got to kiss fellow agent Renee, you knew she was a goner. But what if it had gone the other way? The bad guys have surrounded Jack and Renee, gunfire is blazing -- and at the end of the episode, it's Jack, not Renee, who takes the fatal bullet, and is cradled in Renee's arms.

Cha-CHUNK! Cha-CHUNK! The episode ends, and you're left reeling. But the next episode continues, with Renee, not Jack, in full-on revenge mode. THAT would have been a cool way for 24 to go out -- and, perhaps, to continue next season, following Annie Wersching's Renee or some other agent. If Law & Order can continually refresh its roster of character and stars, why couldn't 24? And with Renee at the center, wouldn't that refresh the show -- until, someday, SHE dies unexpectedly?

This is nothing against Kiefer Sutherland, or his portrayal of the long-tortured Jack Bauer. (And in this case, the "long-tortured" can be taken literally.) It's just that in a show where the life-and-death stakes are so constant, killing the protagonist -- especially without warning -- would add credibility to the show's premise and reputation.

I know, you're saying, it's just wishful, ghoulish thinking. After all, the producers and Sutherland have talked openly, and often, about making one or more theatrical movie versions of 24 once the TV series has wrapped. You couldn't really do that, and expect to draw a big audience, once you've killed the main character.

Although, come to think of it, there IS a precedent: In the 1950s, ABC's Disneyland presented three monthly installments of a Davy Crockett miniseries, killing him at the Alamo to complete the trilogy. But by then, Davy was such a hit that Disney produced a couple of prequels, presenting more adventures of the frontiersman from the time before he met his well-documented end.

But regarding Jack Bauer, there's still a way to pull off one of the biggest dramatic surprises in TV history. What if all that talk of a 24 movie franchise has been a brilliant bluff? A sly smokescreen?

What if the producers have been throwing that out, as a red herring, so that they can kill Jack Bauer tonight, or next week, or the week after, and catch the nation by surprise? After all, once he killed Dana last week with only vengeance as a motive, doesn't he DESERVE some sort of serious retribution?

I'm not saying it's probable. I'm just saying it's possible... and boy, from the wider perspective of TV history, wouldn't it be wonderful?