24 (season 5)

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The fifth season cast of 24.
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The fifth season cast of 24.

The fifth season, also known as Day 5 of the television series 24 premiered on January 15, 2006 and aired its season finale on May 22, 2006.

The fifth season's storyline started and ended at 7:00 AM. It is the same time frame as the previous season.

A 10-minute prequel to the season was available exclusively to the American audience with the fourth season DVD. It was broadcast on Sky One in the United Kingdom before the showing of the fifth season. Presumably, this will be available in the United Kingdom release of the fifth season DVD as this was the case with the prequel for the fourth season on the third and fourth season DVD.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Contents

[edit] Season Overview

The fifth season (2006) is set 18 months after the fourth season, and most likely takes place in September 2009.

After the events in the fourth season, Jack Bauer is now working as a day-to-day laborer at an oil refinery under the alias Frank Flynn at Mojave, California. Jack is renting a room north of Los Angeles from Diane Huxley, a single mother, and her 15-year-old son Derek.

Day 5 is supposed to be a monumental day in the Logan presidency. He is scheduled to sign an anti-terrorism alliance treaty with Russian President Yuri Suvarov at his retreat in Hidden Valley, California. This is believed to be the motive behind most of the day's events, as the Russian terrorists (presumably Chechen, although this is never stated for sure), led by Vladimir Bierko, that carry out the day's attacks, believe the treaty will increase the suffering of their people.

Later, it is found out that the day’s events are part of a massive government conspiracy. President Charles Logan, Chief of Staff Walt Cummings, former CTU head Christopher Henderson, and a group of mysterious men who monitor and influence the actions of Logan, led by a man called Graham, are all involved. Their initial plan was to release nerve gas on Russian terrorists and to use that as an excuse to invoke the military terms of the treaty that was signed early that day, allowing Logan to secure his oil interests in Central Asia. Former President David Palmer finds out and tries to stop them, so he is killed and Jack Bauer is framed for the crime, thus setting up the day's chain of events.

[edit] Major Plots

Much like previous seasons, the season can be divided into several acts:

  • Episodes 1-2: Jack Bauer is framed for the murders of former US President David Palmer and ex-CTU agent Michelle Dessler, along with the attempted murder of her husband and fellow ex-CTU agent Tony Almeida.
  • Episodes 3-4: Terrorists, led by James Nathanson, use the above plot as a diversion to take 40 people hostage inside Ontario International Airport in California.
  • Episodes 5-15: Terrorists, led by Vladimir Bierko, use the above plot as a diversion to steal 20 canisters of Sentox VX1 nerve gas. The gas is deployed at the following locations:
    • Sunrise Hills Shopping Mall (partially successful - leading to 11 deaths)
    • Tyler Memorial Hospital (failed largely because of Curtis Manning)
    • CTU (mostly successful - leading to 56 deaths, including Edgar Stiles)
    • Wilshire Gas Co. (failed - 16 of the remaining 17 canisters were used here, Bierko captured)
  • Episodes 16-21: Believing that all the nerve gas was incinerated at the gas company, Jack moves to bring the guilty parties to justice. Through the assistance of Wayne Palmer (David Palmer's brother) and Evelyn Martin (Special Assistant to the First Lady), Jack discovers that President Charles Logan is responsible for the attacks. Unbeknownst to everyone else, there is a secret group of men who monitor and influence the actions of Logan, led by a man known only as Graham. Jack finally obtains a recording that implicates Logan, however it is later corrupted by Miles Papazian at CTU, rendering it useless.
  • Episodes 22-23: Bierko escapes CTU custody, and uses his last nerve gas container to take over a Russian submarine and gain control of twelve multiple-warhead non-nuclear missiles, each one capable of wiping out approximately seven city blocks. After cutting a deal with Christopher Henderson, Jack and Henderson together stop the attack from the submarine, and kill Bierko and his men. During a final standoff, Jack kills Henderson as well.
  • Episodes 23-24: Jack devises a plan with Chloe to implicate President Logan. Jack kidnaps President Logan, and appears to use this as the way to get a confession. Jack fails, but unbeknownst to everyone besides the First Lady, Mike Novick, Jack, and Chloe, this is all a diversion to place a microphone on the President. The First Lady gets Logan to confess to her everything that has happened as Chloe records it. After playing the confession for the Attorney General, the Secret Service and Federal Marshals take Logan into custody.
  • Final Twist: Jack gets captured by the Chinese who have learned he is still alive. They still want him for the death of the Chinese Consul who was killed in Season 4, and presumably, to extract U.S. government and military secrets for the Chinese government. The season ends with Jack being taken away on a Chinese cargo ship, seemingly destined for Shanghai, moving slowly out into the realms of the Pacific Ocean. This is a reference to the end of Season 4, where the Chinese embassy threatens the CTU agent with transport in a Chinese cargo ship and spending the rest of his life in a slave labor camp.

[edit] Subplots

  • The four people who know Jack faked his death are all assassination targets. David Palmer and Michelle Dessler are killed. Tony Almeida was killed later in the day. Chloe was attacked, but saved by Jack.
  • Jack comes into contact with people who thought he was dead, including his daughter Kim Bauer and former girlfriend Audrey Raines.
  • Jack is twice falsely accused of the murder of David Palmer.
  • Terrorists take hostages at Ontario Airport as a diversion to acquire nerve gas.
  • The terrorists, led by Vladimir Bierko, try to kill the Russian President and his wife.
  • CTU tries to stop Bierko from releasing the nerve gas canisters.
  • Logan's Chief of Staff, Walt Cummings, is revealed to be involved in the conspiracy to kill Palmer and provide the terrorists with nerve gas. He is found dead shortly after of an apparent suicide. Later on in the season, Christopher Henderson admits that he suggested Cummings should be killed and made to look like he committed suicide, under orders from Graham's cabal.
  • A power conflict develops between new CTU director Lynn McGill and Bill Buchanan.
  • McGill's arrogance is his undoing. It results in both the loss of his job and eventually his death.
  • Chloe has to cope with the death of Edgar Stiles. In addition, the man she earlier slept with turns out to be a mole.
  • Jack's attempt to reconnect with Kim is unsuccessful; she wants time before he is in her life again.
  • Tony Almeida is murdered by the man responsible for his wife's death, Christopher Henderson.
  • President Logan signs a treaty of alliance with Russia, which is thought to be the motive behind the day's events.
  • The First Lady attempts to correct the President's perceived mistakes.
  • The seemingly ineffective President Logan is revealed as an orchestrator in the day's events.
  • Chloe, and later Audrey go against their superiors to help Jack, leading to officials from the Department of Homeland Security attempting to use Audrey to their advantage.
  • Homeland Security divides internally when Karen Hayes begins working against her assistant Miles Papazian in order to aid Jack.
  • The Vice President convinces the president to impose martial law on the city of Los Angeles without approval from Congress.
  • Aaron Pierce mysteriously disappears shortly before he was to reveal Logan's involvement to Martha.
  • An unknown group, led by a man named Graham, are revealed to be controlling Logan's actions.
  • The First Lady eventually discovers Logan is responsible for Palmer's death and falls into despair.
  • Audrey copes with the apparent death of her father, Secretary of Defense James Heller, who was later found alive and hospitalized.
  • Logan attempts to use all of his power to prevent Jack from releasing evidence.
  • Logan prepares to commit suicide but gets a reprieve from an unexpected source, Miles Papazian.
  • Vladimir Bierko escapes while being transported from CTU to a regional holding facility.
  • CTU enlists the assistance of Christopher Henderson in order to discover Bierko's next plan.
  • Bierko attempts to unleash an even deadlier weapon, in the form of a Russian submarine armed with warheads.
  • The Chinese, remembering the invasion of their consulate and accidental killing of the Chinese Consul, kidnap and torture Jack Bauer at the end of the season, leaving a cliffhanger for next season.

[edit] Characters of Season 5

See article List of characters in 24.

[edit] Season Notes

[edit] Cast

This is a list of the main cast for Season 5.

Stars

Recurring

Special Appearances

[edit] Deaths

This season is notable for having many cast members killed off. This sparked some outrage with fans, especially since most of the characters were well-liked. Major deaths included David Palmer, Tony Almeida, Michelle Dessler, and Edgar Stiles. Other minor characters who died were Walt Cummings, and Lynn McGill. It was also implied that James Heller had drowned after plunging his car off a cliff but it was later revealed that he survived. Aaron Pierce was also ready to get the axe but a plea from actor Glenn Morshower saved him.

[edit] Emmy Nominations

24 Season 5 has been nominated for 12 emmy awards, becoming the most nominated series. The nominations are:

  • Outstanding Drama Series - WON
  • Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Kiefer Sutherland) - WON
  • Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Gregory Itzin)
  • Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Jean Smart)
  • Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (9:00PM-10:00PM)
  • Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (7:00AM-8:00AM) - WON
  • Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series (7:00AM-8:00AM)
  • Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series (9:00AM-10:00AM) - WON
  • Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore) (6:00AM-7:00AM) - WON
  • Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series (9:00PM-10:00PM)
  • Outstanding Single-Camera Sound Mixing for a Series (7:00AM-8:00AM)
  • Outstanding Stunt Cordination (9:00AM-10:00AM)

[edit] Episode summaries

Time Original Airdate #
7:00AM-8:00AM January 15, 2006 501
8:00AM-9:00AM January 15, 2006 502
9:00AM-10:00AM January 16, 2006 503
10:00AM-11:00AM January 16, 2006 504
11:00AM-12:00PM January 23, 2006 505
12:00PM-1:00PM January 30, 2006 506
1:00PM-2:00PM February 6, 2006 507
2:00PM-3:00PM February 13, 2006 508
3:00PM-4:00PM February 20, 2006 509
4:00PM-5:00PM February 27, 2006 510
5:00PM-6:00PM March 6, 2006 511
6:00PM-7:00PM March 6, 2006 512
7:00PM-8:00PM March 13, 2006 513
8:00PM-9:00PM March 20, 2006 514
9:00PM-10:00PM March 27, 2006 515
10:00PM-11:00PM April 3, 2006 516
11:00PM-12:00AM April 10, 2006 517
12:00AM-1:00AM April 17, 2006 518
1:00AM-2:00AM April 24, 2006 519
2:00AM-3:00AM May 1, 2006 520
3:00AM-4:00AM May 8, 2006 521
4:00AM-5:00AM May 15, 2006 522
5:00AM-6:00AM May 22, 2006 523
6:00AM-7:00AM May 22, 2006 524


[edit] Trivia

  • When Logan makes his speech to announce that he is imposing Martial Law, the ticker at the bottom shows us some other events occurring at this time: A typhoon is hitting eastern Asia, the IOC has approved security plans for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, and a political conference has been delayed two days for security reasons.
  • After the attack on CTU, with the exception of the entrance, the officers' uniforms are white and have the logo of the Department of Homeland Security on them, since all the others were killed in the attack.
  • This season features the highest body count of regular cast members of the series, with several prominent characters killed off. Season three continues to hold the overall highest death count. 24: The Game has the highest body count for the terrorists.
  • The (unofficial) body count for this season is 192 deaths.
  • Although the season takes place in 24 hours and no one (besides Martha Logan and Chloe) has time to go home to change, everyone's jewelry changes every hour, except for Chloe's necklace.
  • Advertisements feature Kiefer Sutherland playing a Secret Service agent in a new movie, called The Sentinel.
  • Although not advertised in her role, Mary Lynn Rajskub plays an important role in the movie Firewall, which was playing in theaters during the season.
  • Jack is once again involved in diplomatic incidents.
    • Jack convinces a German intelligence agent to give up the woman he's been undercover with (Collette Stenger) for the last 6 months in exchange for NSA's list of every terrorist operating in Western Europe. Jack programs the computer chip with the information to explode once the officer attempted to upload it to German intelligence. There are, so far, no repercussions for what Jack did.
    • Jack hijacks a diplomatic plane carrying diplomats from Great Britain, France, Germany, and Russia, and possibly other nations, as well. Bauer forces the plane to nearly crash land on a freeway, after being informed that President Logan has ordered the plane to be shot out of the sky, causing great trauma to the passengers of the plane.
    • Jack is kidnapped by China in the last 11 minutes of the season.
    • More of a CTU problem, CTU lost Bierko allowing him to get Russian weapons to use on the US.
  • The actors playing Christopher Henderson (Peter Weller), Hal Gardner (Ray Wise), and Graham (Paul McCrane) all appeared together in the 1987 movie RoboCop.
  • The actors playing Christopher Henderson (Peter Weller) and Vladimir Bierko (Julian Sands) also appeared together in the 1991 movie Naked Lunch.
  • The actors playing Chloe O'Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) and Martha Logan(Jean Smart) both appeared together in the 2002 movie Sweet Home Alabama.
  • Reiko Aylesworth (Michelle Dessler) and Dennis Haysbert (David Palmer) both contracted to appear only in the first episode of Day 5. This leaked through the internet, and most fans were able to draw the conclusion about their fate well before the episode aired.
  • Select episodes are repeated throughout the 2006 summer season. This is the first time that FOX has rebroadcast episodes after the season finale.
  • During the finale, Mike Novick watches David Palmer's funeral at the FOX News Channel on his Sprint phone. Since this has only been available since early 2006, the later episodes were obviously filmed during the airing of the season.
  • In addition to FOX News Channel, a network known as CNB (which has been used in past seasons) is shown.
  • Jack uses four cell phones during the first six hours.
  • Season 5 received more Emmy nominations than any other network show. It received twelve nominations including best drama, best actor (Kiefer Sutherland), best supporting actor (Gregory Itzin), and best supporting actress (Jean Smart).
  • Although Season 5 was a massive hit in the USA; In New Zealand, the show was rescheduled from the primetime airing on Friday 8:30pm to after the 8:30pm film on Saturday, from Episode 15 because of the lack of watchers. It was replaced by a season one repeat of House.
  • In Australia, the season was originally shown two episodes a week, on Wednesday and Thursday nights at 9:30pm. Due to lack of viewers, Channel 7 ran four episodes a week, one each at 9:30pm and 10:30pm to wrap up the season as soon as possible.
  • Collette Stenger (woman with undercover German agent) drives a Lexus SC430, just like several other villains in previous episodes of 24. Kalil in season 4 drives a Lexus GS430.

[edit] External links

    24
    Seasons: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6
    Merchandise: The Game | The Soundtrack | Conspiracy
    Organizations: Counter Terrorist Unit | Operation Nightfall | Second Wave
    Characters: Jack Bauer | Tony Almeida | David Palmer | Chloe O'Brian
    Michelle Dessler | Teri Bauer | Kim Bauer | Bill Buchanan
    Nina Myers | Charles Logan | Wayne Palmer | Audrey Raines
    Minor characters
    Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../2/4/_/24_%28season_5%29.html"
    In other languages