Jack Bauer is back, this time to try and thwart a conspiracy that goes to the highest level of government.
(Beware: this summary of season five is packed with spoilers. Read on at your own risk.)
Cast:
Jack Bauer: Kiefer Sutherland
Audrey Raines: Kim Raver
Tony Almeida: Carlos Bernard
President Charles Logan: Gregory Itzin
Curtis Manning: Roger Cross
Chloe O’Brian: Mary Lynn Rajskub
Bill Buchanan: James Morrison
Lynn McGill: Sean Astin
Vladimir Bierko: Julian Sands
Christopher Henderson: Peter Weller
Plot:
Super CTU (Counterterrorist Unit) Agent Jack Bauer has been in hiding since the end of season four, because the Chinese government wants him dead. Only four people know he is alive. When they are attacked, he must come out of hiding to defend them. He soon discovers a terrorist plot to attack the U.S. and Russia with deadly nerve gas. He prevents the attacks, but then finds out that the terrorists were acting with support from the US government, and he must figure out who is responsible.
New Faces:
Season Five features a number of new characters, including Diane Huxley (Connie Britton), Derek Huxley (Brady Corbet), Karen Hayes (Jayne Atkinson), Graem (Paul McCrane) and Martha Logan (Jean Smart). The new characters play very important parts in season five.
The Villains: Season five features some classic bad guys. Julian Sands is elegantly sinister as Russian terrorist Valdimir Bierko: he will remind some of Season three’s Stephen Saunders (Paul Blackthorne). Christopher Henderson (Peter Weller) is great as Jack’s former mentor turned evil. Miles Papazian (Stephen Spinella) is a slimy weasel from Homeland Security: you’ll hope the terrorists try out their nerve gas on him. Lynn McGill (Sean Astin) is a classic 24 character: sometimes good, sometimes bad.
Deaths:
Season five is a very, very bad time to be a friend of Jack’s. Two beloved characters from earlier seasons, David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) and Michelle Dessler (Reiko Aylesworth), are killed off moments into the first episode, setting the stage for the carnage to follow. Tony Almeida soon follows them into the TV afterlife (although there are rumors that he will be resurrected for season seven). Good-guy-with-no-social-skills Edgar Stiles (Louis Lombardi) dies a particularly horrible death, as does Lynn McGill. Naturally, the bad guys all get what is coming to them.
Romance:
24 often serves up a side dish of romance to go with the shootouts and explosions, and season five features more romance than in most of the other seasons. Jack was in love with Audrey Raines (Kim Raver) in season four and they are reunited in this season, much to the chagrin of Diane Huxley, with whom Jack had been shacking up while hiding from the Chinese. Chloe O’Brian has a one-night stand with coworker Spenser Wolff (Jonah Lotan) at the beginning of the series, but dumps him pretty quick when it is revealed that he is a double agent. Her possible budding romance with Edgar is cut short. Bill Buchanan and Karen Hayes, forced to work together in joint command of CTU, seem to be hitting it off: this is confirmed in season 6. Silent but tough Secret Servie agent Aaron Pierce (Glen Morshower) and Martha Logan seem to be fighting a mutual attraction. Those with marital trouble include President and Mrs. Logan (he’s a weak-willed jerk) and Tony Almeida and Michelle Dessler (she’s dead).
How it’s Left:
President Logan, revealed to be at the heart of the conspiracy, is caught on tape admitting everything to his wife, including his involvement in the death of former President David Palmer. It is assumed that he will step down. In the final moments of the season, Jack is captured by the Chinese, beaten up and put on a boat to China.
