I'm "live"-blogging the finale starting an hour late at 8pm Central so I can avoid all commercials. I'm including spoiler cues so anyone watching on delay can read as they watch without getting a spoiler if they scroll too fast.

To see the live updates, click Read More below to follow this story after the jump, and refresh the page for updates.

Overall recap: a pretty solid finale. Everything got resolved classic-24 style and there wasn't really a big cliffhanger for next season. See after the jump for the live-blog.

(And here's the character countdown.)

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All times are Central time. I'll start posting at 8pm.

8:01 And we're on! Recapping the last few episodes...

I still can't believe Jack didn't shoot Cheng when he had the chance.

8:04 Good plan, Doyle. The perimeter at the landing site should hold...everybody knows the perimeter always works.

8:05 Putting Jack in custody has always worked well too. I'm sure it will go without incident.

8:08 Karen: "Jack, I'm useless. I'm only involved in stuff going on at the highest levels of our government! *more whining*"

8:10 What does Bill have, nudie pics of Karen? Why's he so protective of his photo album?

8:12 I hope Bill goes rogue and kicks ass like Jack. That would rock.

** 4:11 in 24 time **

8:14 CTU has lame security on their network? Their physical security obviously sucked. So what the hell are all those CTU extras working on? Making more security holes for terrorists?

8:16 Of course Phillip only has 2 guys and he sends them both. Shouldn't he have more thugs?

8:19 A 3 letter password? No wonder CTU has security problems!

8:21 Uh-oh...Chloe wants to start some shit. And Morris and Doyle are getting crazy.

8:22 Hey-o! Two cars approach each other and....Buchanan's helping Jack break free! They're both out to sabotage the mission! Though ironically you know the mission would get screwed up if they didn't intervene.

8:25 Fast-forwarded some commercials...who's the new guy?

8:26 The new guy is....Milo's brother! Karen gets booted from her CTU feed, talking to Bill.

8:28 Looks like Karen's getting arrested. Good thing she provided a ton of help....not! Looks like Milo's brother's got a thing for Nadia too.

8:29 I love that Nadia is surprised that Jack escaped. And oops, Milo's brother disappeared. He looked kind of moley, so that could be a bad situation.

8:30 Doyle's "dammit" was incredibly insincere. It sounded more like he lost his cell phone or something than finding out that Jack and Bill are coming to cause some craziness.

8:33 Of course you were mistaken about Karen, Veep. You've only been mistaken about everything this season (see Lisa Miller, nuking China, etc). He'll probably also believe Tom wasn't aware of it.

8:35 Didn't Phillip make them turn off surveillance? How do they have a tracker on Doyle/Josh that Phillip doesn't know about?

8:37 Doyle and the guy are doing the hand-off...and Doyle gets an explosion to the face! Whoops, rigged component. Big surprise...Jack and Bill arrive seconds late.

8:38 It takes them all of 0.0002 seconds to find and disable the tracker on Josh. Nadia cries for Doyle and the upcoming commercial break.

8:40 VP's on a guilt trip. Gives sappy speech and makes Tom fidget awkwardly.

** 4:55 CTU time **

8:41 Of course you should have listened to Jack, Nadia. Don't ever argue with Jack Bauer. Hey, Jack's right about the oil rig too!

8:43 Phillip can't wait to kill Cheng when he gets a chance. Chloe's screwing up! Looking a little pale...and she's down!

** 5 CTU time **

Hey, a recap of what I just blogged! It's a double episode, why bother recapping? Maybe for the DVDs.

8:48 Josh could easily push the old man off the oil rig. Doyle and Chloe both injured/unconscious.

8:50 Found the oil rig...anyone notice Milo's brother is *still* missing?!?

8:52 Tom's reaction to the suggestion of an air attack was priceless. Who cares about Josh when there's a war at stake, moron? It's just one kid!

8:54 Nadia freely tells Jack there's going to be an airstrike (that will kill Josh), then expects him and Bill to come back to CTU? Are you completely retarded?

8:55 Wow, that helicopter pilot put up a hell of a fight. Jack: "Get out now!" Guy takes off the headset and jumps right out. Now there's a guy that knows you don't F with Jack Bauer. Put him in charge of CTU.

8:57 Suddenly the Russian president is cooperating? I thought the VP said they just wanted an excuse to attack the US. So why would they support the evidence?

8:59 Hey, Nadia, another shock! Jack and Bill are on their way to the oil platform! Surprise! Oh snap, Bill's ordering Nadia again. Awesome.

9:00 The Chinese spot the chopper. Cheng says they should escape by boat. Jack shooting people and blowing stuff up...classic. Cheng is hilarious as he rolls around and Jack shoots at his gun.

9:02 Whoops, maybe Josh can't overpower Phillip. What a pansy. Here come the F-18s! Running out of time.

9:04 Josh gets some balls, nails Phillip with a wrench. But he can't finish the job. ...And then he finishes it. Is he going to kill Phillip? Jack tries to talk him out of it.

9:06 Jack succeeds. Maybe he'll kill Phillip himself. Phillip says he'll die regardless because of the strike and he's right.

9:08 F-18s coming sooner than Bill thought...Jack's not back yet! Missile lock. Jack can't make it, chopper's lifting off. Bill wants to meet him on another level.

9:09 Jack jumps onto the helicopter's ladder in the nick of time!

9:10 I bet Philipp got away somehow. Maybe had some extra thugs carry him off or something. I doubt we've seen the last of him though.

9:11 Russian president gives sappy speech about what happened. There's still a half hour left though...

9:12 Jack (jumps?) falls off the ladder!! Yep, it was intentional. Who knows what he's up to now.

** 5:40 CTU time ** 9:15 You can tell by that smile on the VP's face that he and Tom more than made up for things during some private time they had - bow chika bow wow!

9:17 Bam! Chloe drops a bomb. Morris is an idiot. Chloe gets off on going back to work.

9:19 Good news for Karen and Bill. Apparently being forced to resign is good news. Tom tries to two-time the VP with Karen, but he only gets a smile.

9:20 Bill lies and tells Nadia she should be proud of her work. Nadia still doesn't understand Jack. Heller's on the phone talking about Audrey.

9:21 Enter Jack Bauer. Heller, you're a dead man!!

9:23 Heller and Jack argue about Audrey.

9:27 Jack's letting go of Audrey, gives her a sappy speech while she's unconscious and then leaves the house and stares at the ocean. Silent clock ticking ends the season.

Teaser for next season just shows clips from this season! Looks like they really are going to change it all up.