24 (SEASON 5)

'Season Five', 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 Season Five storyline starts and ends at 7:00 a.m. It is the same time frame as the previous season.
A 10-minute prequel to the season was available 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.

Contents

Season Overview

Major Plots

Subplots

Prequel of Season 5

Season Notes

Cast

Deaths

Reception

Emmy Nominations

Trivia

Goofs

List of episodes

References

External links

Season Overview

'Season Five' (2006) is set 18 months after Season Four, placing the current date in September, 2011.
After the events in Season Four, Jack Bauer is now working as a day-to-day laborer at an oil refinery under the alias "Frank Flynn" in Mojave, California. Jack is renting a room north of Los Angeles from Diane Huxley, a single mother, and her 15-year-old son Derek.
Season Five 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. U.S. President Charles Logan, Chief of Staff Walt Cummings, Defense Department contractor Christopher Henderson, and a group of mysterious men who monitor and influence the actions of Logan from an undisclosed location, led by a man identified only as Graem, 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 assassinated and Jack Bauer is framed for the crime, thus setting up the day's chain of events.

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 his close friends: former US President David Palmer and ex-CTU agent Michelle Dessler, along with the attempted murders of her husband and fellow ex-CTU agent Tony Almeida and CTU analyst Chloe O'Brian.

★ '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 (mostly failed - only 11 people died out of several hundred)

★
★ Tyler Memorial Hospital (failed largely because of Curtis Manning)

★
★ CTU (mostly successful - leading to 56 deaths, including Edgar Stiles and Lynn McGill)

★
★ Wilshire Gas Co. (failed - 16 of the remaining 17 canisters were used here, and Bierko is 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 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 Graem. Jack finally obtains a recording that implicates Logan; however, it is later corrupted by Miles Papazian at CTU (for the purpose of ingratiating himself to President Logan), 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, Aaron Pierce, 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(光彩号, Guangcai Hao), 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.

Subplots

★ Jack comes into contact with people who thought he was dead, including his daughter Kim Bauer and girlfriend Audrey Raines.

★ The terrorists, led by Vladimir Bierko, try to kill the Russian President and his wife.

★ 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 Graem's cabal.

★ A power conflict develops between new CTU Director Lynn McGill and Bill Buchanan.

★ 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.

★ Very slowly during Day 5, Jack and Audrey got back together as a couple.

★ 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.

★ 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.

Prequel of Season 5

Twelve months after Day 4, in Chicago, Illinois, Jack drives to meet Chloe.
He drives down an alley and parks beside a fenced-in scrap yard. His hair is long and stubble has grown over his usually clean face. He is wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt, and he makes sure the hood is up when he gets out of the car. He walks towards a semi-truck and passes two men who are standing beside an oil tanker. He goes into the scrap yard and waits behind the cab of a truck.
A blue car drives up and stops outside the junk yard. Chloe O'Brian gets out and looks around. She pulls out a piece of paper and reads it, then walks into the scrap yard. As she turns the corner where Jack is hiding, he grabs her and asks her if she was followed. She assures him that she wasn't.
An unknown man on a motorcycle watches Jack.
Chloe explains that three days ago, someone remotely hacked into her computer files and saw that she had accessed Jack's autopsy report before she could put up a wall to block the hacker. Jack is frustrated and asks her why she didn't erase all her files related to him, and she insists that she did erase them. She fears that the person who was poking around probably realized that Jack wasn't really dead after learning that she'd accessed the autopsy and that she was also in contact with an undercover operative in Chicago. She urges Jack to leave town immediately. He agrees to get out of the city.
As Chloe walks back towards her car, Jack calls out to her and asks about his daughter, Kim. Chloe explains that Kim was heartbroken after his death, but is doing better now that a year has passed.
Jack returns to his car and a motorcycle drives past him. Jack gets back in his car and watches suspiciously as the motorcyclist turns around. Jack and the motorcyclist each rev their engines. Jack checks his rear view mirror and puts his car in reverse.
The motorcyclist looks to his right, and suddenly a black car speeds out from another side street. Jack floors the gas and races backwards as the car chases him down. He turns around and attempts to lose the car in traffic. Jack pulls into another junk yard and the car follows. Jack speeds towards and forklift and jerks his car to the right at the last second. The black car also turns, but loses traction and slides into the blades of the forklift, which are midway off the ground, most likely impaling the driver.
Jack drives back out of the scrap yard. The unknown man on the motorcycle continues to watch him...
----
"He disappeared to protect his secret. He changed his name and started a new life. He thought he was safe...
Then Day 5 began."

Season Notes

Cast

'''This is a list of the main cast for Season 5.' See List of characters in 24 for a more thorough list.''
'Stars'

★ Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer

★ Kim Raver as Audrey Raines

★ Mary Lynn Rajskub as Chloe O'Brian

★ Carlos Bernard as Tony Almeida

★ Gregory Itzin as President Charles Logan

★ James Morrison as Bill Buchanan

★ Roger Cross as Curtis Manning

★ Louis Lombardi as Edgar Stiles

★ and Jean Smart as First Lady Martha Logan
'Recurring'

★ Jayne Atkinson as Karen Hayes

★ Jude Ciccolella as Mike Novick

★ D.B. Woodside as Wayne Palmer

★ Glenn Morshower as Aaron Pierce

★ Julian Sands as Vladimir Bierko

★ Connie Britton as Diane Huxley

★ Brady Corbet as Derek Huxley

★ Sandrine Holt as Evelyn Martin

★ Nick Jameson as Russian President Yuri Suvarov

★ Kathleen Gati as Russian First Lady Anya Suvarov

★ Carlo Rota as Morris O'Brian

★ Stephen Spinella as Miles Papazian

★ John Allen Nelson as Walt Cummings

★ Tzi Ma as Cheng Zhi

★ Paul McCrane as Graem

★ Peter Weller as Christopher Henderson
'Special Guest Stars'

★ Reiko Aylesworth as Michelle Dessler

★ Elisha Cuthbert as Kim Bauer

★ Sean Astin as Lynn McGill

★ William Devane as Secretary of Defense James Heller
'Special Guest Appearance by'

★ Dennis Haysbert as David Palmer

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. Martha's assistant, Evelyn Martin, and her 10 year old daughter, Amy, are presumed to have been killed by Christopher Henderson. Aaron Pierce was also going to be terminated, but a plea from actor Glenn Morshower saved him, making Pierce the only character other than Jack Bauer to appear in and live through all of the first five seasons and the subsequent sixth season of the series. ^[1]
The main cause of controversy was over Edgar Stiles receiving a silent clock, while Tony Almeida did not, and therefore, when Tony died, many viewers instead believed he had only fallen asleep from the injection, until his death was confirmed in the following episode.
The (unofficial) body count for this season is 192 deaths. According to Canal+ (in + Clair show), it's 77 with 60 deaths by gun.

Reception

Although Season 5 was a massive hit in the USA and UK; 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. Later in TV Guide's Best on the Box top 20 TV shows of the year, 24 was rated the 9th best show on TV for 2006 in New Zealand.

Emmy Nominations

Season Five of ''24'' was nominated for twelve Emmy awards, becoming the most nominated series. The nominations were:

★ 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 ("9:00 PM - 10:00 PM")

★ Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series ("") - 'WON'

★ Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series ("")

★ Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series ("9:00 AM - 10:00 AM") - 'WON'

★ Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore) ("") - 'WON'

★ Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series ("9:00 PM - 10:00 PM")

★ Outstanding Single-Camera Sound Mixing for a Series ("")

★ Outstanding Stunt Coordination ("9:00 AM - 10:00 AM")

Trivia

★ This is the only season to feature Jack Bauer in the opening scene.

★ Jack Bauer and Chloe O'Brian are the only characters to appear in every episode of this season.

★ When President 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.

★ In addition to FOX News Channel, a network known as CNB (which has been used in past seasons) is shown.

★ 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.

★ Senator John McCain appears in this season in a very brief cameo at the 1:32:22 PM mark, handing a file to Audrey.

★ This is the second time in Dennis Haysbert's acting career in which his character is given the 21 gun salute. The first time was in the 1990 film Navy SEALs.

★ By the time of this season's production, most of the cast have already worked together:

★
★ The actors playing Christopher Henderson (Peter Weller), Hal Gardner (Ray Wise), and Graem (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''.

★
★ The actors playing Chloe O'Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) and Derek Huxley (Brady Corbet) also appeared together in the 2004 independent movie ''Mysterious Skin''.

★
★ The actors playing Mike Novick (Jude Ciccolella) and Graem (Paul McCrane) both appeared in the 1994 movie ''The Shawshank Redemption''.

★
★ The actors playing Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin) and Aaron Pierce (Glenn Morshower) both appeared in an episode of (Boom).

★
★ The actors playing Aaron Pierce (Glenn Morshower) and Anya Suvarov (Kathleen Gati) both appeared in an episode of ER.

★ Reiko Aylesworth (Michelle Dessler) and Dennis Haysbert (David Palmer) both were 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.

★ 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.

★ The casting of Sean Astin was a stroke of luck. Astin's chiropractor was also Joel Surnow's chiropractor. The doctor asked Astin if he would like to meet Surnow; Surnow in turn asked Astin if he would like to be on the show.^[2][3].

Goofs

★ While interrogating Collette Stenger for the second time, Jack holds a gun to her forehead. The camera cuts away and when it returns to her, he's pointing it at her face; you can clearly see that the slide is locked back, as if it were empty.

★ Although the season takes place in 24 hours and no one (besides Martha Logan and Bill Buchanan) has time to go home to change, everyone's jewelry changes every hour, except for Chloe's necklace.

★ The DVD for Season 5 contains a typo on one of the disc cases. The outside of the case for Disc 4 states the disc contains episodes 13-15, however all 24 DVD discs contain four episodes and the disc actually contains episodes 13-16.

★ Another typo has Mike Novick's name misspelled as Mike 'Novak'

★ Yet another error: the DVD box lists the episode "5:00 P.M. - 6:00 P.M." as having aired on March 6, 2005. It actually aired a year later, on March 6, 2006.

★ It is never explained in season 5 how the villains acquired Jack Bauer's surveillance camera footage to set him up. CTU confirmed that it was not tampered.

★ It is also never explained how Lynn McGill regains entry to CTU following the theft of his ID card.

★ Another missing explanation is how Evelyn got to record a conversation between the President Logan and one of the terrorrists, which most probably took over cell phone

★ There is never an explanation at the beginning of Season Five how Jack's death and burial was faked from Season Four. Although Kim infers Jack's funeral upon their reconcilliation, why did Kim not want to see her dad's body? What about Audrey? Wouldn't the Chinese want a visual identification since they were trying to capture him?

List of episodes

References

1. TV week interview
2. "Supporting Players" featurette, Season 5 DVD
3. "10:00 AM - 11:00 AM" (audio commentary)

External links

★ TV.com: 24 Season 5 Episode Guide

★ Fox.com: Seasons 1-5 Episode Guides

★ 24 wiki on Wikia