Plot hole: Day 8: Renee mentions that after her previous sting operation with the FBI against Vladimir Laitanan, he had major facial reconstruction surgery, but in all of the photographs of said operation she shows CTU New York, Vladimir looks exactly the same as he does now.
Day 8: 4:00 P.M. - 5:00 P.M. - S8-E1
Revealing mistake: When Farhad Hassan brings the press ID for Meredith Reed to security, you see the guard walk through the metal detector wearing his police belt, but the metal detector does not go off, showing that it's either not real, or not turned on.
Day 8: 8:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M. - S8-E5
Other mistake: In the car Jack practises his cover story posing as a German arms dealer. But when he mentions his fake name Ernst Meier he says it in the English way, not in the German one. No man with German language knowledge would say it in this very wrong way, and it would give him away immediately. (00:22:05)
Day 8: 9:00 P.M. - 10:00 P.M. - S8-E6
Factual error: The bad guys talks in German to Jack Bauer, posing as a German weapon dealer. But the German dialogue is very hard to understand, full of errors and with heavy accents - especially from Jack. After the first sentence his cover would be blown. (00:32:40 - 00:33:15)
Day 8: 7:00 A.M. - 8:00 A.M. - S8-E16
Character mistake: When the exit guard puts Dana Walsh's ID card in the computer it comes up with "apprenhend on site", which should obviously be "apprehend on sight". (00:09:45)
Day 8: 12:00 P.M. - 1:00 P.M. - S8-E21
Character mistake: When Chloe is talking to Arlo about the call Jack made to Meredith Reed, Chloe says that the call was made to Meredith's cell phone. But at Meredith's office, a coworker tells her the call is waiting (implying Jack called the office instead of Meredith directly), and once in her private office, she picks up the receiver of her land line. With all the phone tracing technology CTU has at its disposal, Chloe should be able to distinguish between the two.
Day 8: 1:00 P.M. - 2:00 P.M. - S8-E22
Continuity mistake: Day 8: 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m: When Chloe frees Cole from the detention cell she closes the door behind her. But once they're finished talking and they turn to leave the door is suddenly open again.
Chosen answer: Nobody knew, not even the writers, until at least halfway through the season when they were writing the end. They wanted to keep all options open.
Nick N.