"He's the greatest. He's fantastic. Wherever there is danger he'll be there…"
OK, so the above words were written about a cartoon rodent called Danger Mouse – but they could easily be applied to Jack Bauer too. The torture-liking, terrorist-hating 24 hero is back with another twenty-four hours of action and tension later this month. Day Eight of the hit show promises plenty of new faces, sudden twists and shock comebacks, so now is a great time for a quick refresher of the past seven hellish days in Bauerland…
Day One
The real-time thriller kicked off back in late 2001 on the day of the California presidential primary. Jack Bauer managed to save Senator David Palmer from an assassination attempt by the politically-motivated Drazen family (spearheaded by the legendary Dennis Hopper) and rescue his dumb blonde daughter Kim and estranged wife Teri in the process.
However, there was a mole lurking in the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) headquarters – Bauer’s ex-mistress Nina Myers. In the shocking end to the season, Myers killed Teri before being apprehended. This didn’t do much for Bauer’s anger management issues. All together now – “DAMN IT!”
This season introduced two iconic parts of 24 – the distinctive telephone ringtone in the CTU office that has since found its way onto countless mobiles, and the fuzzy goatee beard sported by Bauer’s mega cool colleague Tony Almeida.
Day Two
Set 18 months after Day One, the second season featured Jack Bauer working with the now President Palmer to prevent a nuclear bomb from being detonated in Los Angeles by the usual Arab terrorist stereotypes that could have walked straight out of Team America: World Police.
It soon emerged that the real masterminds were a consortium of European and American businessmen who wanted an excuse to go to war in the Middle East to profit from the resulting hike in oil prices. Oooh, 24’s going all political on us!
Along the way, Jack had to begrudgingly cooperate with Nina Myers to repel the threat, while his dumb kid Kim somehow became tangled in a tedious subplot involving an angry cougar and a nutjob played by Matt Dillon’s brother.
The legendary Alan Dale – better known as ‘Jim Robinson from Neighbours’ also surfaced as a power-hungry Vice President who briefly deposed Palmer, plus CTU legend George Mason sacrificed his life by deliberately crashing a plane loaded with the nuclear bomb into the desert.
But that’s not all! Tony Almeida copped off with fellow CTU worker Michelle Dessler and a shock twist ending saw Palmer crumble to the ground after a potentially fatal virus was passed onto him. Phew!
Day Three
It was third time luck for Jack as he finally managed to put several bullets into Nina’s head, although he spent more time trying to quit a heroin addiction he picked up while going undercover to infiltrate a Mexican drug cartel run by Ramon Salazar. They had in their possession a lethal virus that they want to sell to the highest bidder in Mexico. President Palmer returned, but had health issues and treachery from his family to contend with and decided not to seek re-election.
Bauer had to kill his smarmy boss Ryan Chappelle in order to delay the virus being released by the main villain of the season Stephen Saunders - a British former MI6 agent gone rogue. Palmer’s devious ex-wife Sherry resurfaced but paid with her life for meddling, and Kim somehow landed a job at CTU having presumably had an operation between seasons to give her more than the solitary brain cell.
She wasn’t too impressed when her father hacked off her boyfriend Chase’s hand though, but to be fair it was in the interests of saving the country. Tetchy CTU analyst Chloe O’Brien joined the crew and was subjected to the first of many cries of “damn it Chloe!” by Bauer.
