About Kiefer
| One of the famous acting brat-pack of the 1980s, Kiefer Sutherland is the star of the TV series 24 as counter-terrorism expert Jack Bauer. The show broke convention by having each hour-long episode represent an hour in Bauer's day. Sutherland's success on television came after a respectable 15 years in the movies: his memorable turn as a bully in Stand By Me (1986) led to a string of successful ensemble movies, including The Lost Boys (1987), Young Guns (1988), and Flatliners (1990). Although he has carried the lead in several movies and played a variety of roles, he has a reputation for playing bad guys, such as in A Few Good Men (1992, with Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson), Freeway (1996, opposite Reese Witherspoon), A Time to Kill (1996), Eye For An Eye (1996) and Dark City (1998). He is the son of movie star Donald Sutherland, he learned how to rope and ride in the movies and has competed professionally as a calf roper. Sutherland was nominated for the Emmy Award for outstanding lead actor in a drama series every year from 2002-2006; he won the award in 2006.
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// "24" SEASON ONE (DAY 1) //
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| Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. |
Season One of the television series 24 was first broadcast from November 6, 2001 to May 21, 2002. The season's storyline starts at 12:00 a.m. on the day of California Presidential primary.
Season One Overview
Season One (2001 – 2002) takes place on the day of a presidential primary during modern times in an unspecified year. Due to the hints in the program, most people believe that the season is set in March 2004.
The season's main plot revolves around an assassination attempt on Maryland Senator David Palmer, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, on the day of the California primary. The central character is Jack Bauer, a former Delta Force operator who is the Special Agent in Charge of the fictional Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) in Los Angeles. Bauer becomes professionally as well as personally involved when his wife Teri and daughter Kim are kidnapped by the people behind the assassination.
The season is essentially divided into two acts:
- The first act revolves around a mercenary group's efforts to control Jack Bauer and force him to kill Senator Palmer by kidnapping Bauer's wife and daughter. This culminates in Jack's successful rescue of his family.
- In the second act, the masterminds behind the plot are revealed and continue with their plans to kill the Senator as well as the Bauer family. Fox initially ordered half a season of the show to try it out. The successful rescue at the end of the first half of the season was planned as a series finale in the event that 24 was not picked up for the rest of the season.
Major subplots
The show rotates between the points of view of each of the five main cast members: Jack Bauer, Teri Bauer, Kim Bauer, Nina Myers, and David Palmer, as well as one main villain - Mandy for the first 3 hours, followed by Ira Gaines, Andre Drazen and finally Victor Drazen. The day's situations — both ongoing events and the relationships between these five characters and their associates — form the basis for the season's subplots.
Summary
The season starts and ends at 12:00 a.m. PST. The first half of the season centers on the efforts of a terrorist cell led by Ira Gaines to assassinate presidential candidate David Palmer. They kidnap Jack Bauer's wife and daughter in order to force him to aide in the assassination and take the fall for Palmer's death. Jack eventually defeats this cell in the process of saving his wife and daughter, but this only leads to information about a second group of terrorists who had employed the first cell. The second cell is led by those ultimately responsible for the day's events: Andre and Alexis Drazen.
Two years prior to this day, Jack Bauer was sent as part of a classified team to Kosovo on the orders of a secret Congressional panel headed by David Palmer to kill Victor Drazen, Slobodan Miloševic's "shadow." In order to keep Operation Nightfall totally secret, the panel never met nor knew the team of operatives, and vice versa, therefore Palmer and Bauer never knew about each other. The Drazens found out about both Palmer's and Bauer's involvement in their father's death (incidentally, Jack Bauer was believed to be the only operative still alive), and the whole assassination plot had been a means to get back at them -- Palmer would be dead, Jack would be imprisoned for the assassination, and his family would be killed.
During the last few episodes, the plot twists revealed many surprises. It was revealed that Bauer's team had only killed Drazen's body double. Drazen's wife and daughter, however, were inadvertently killed, prompting the "eye for an eye" aspect of the plot: as Drazen's family died, so would Bauer's wife and daughter. We also discover that the real Victor Drazen was being held in a top secret underground prison later revealed to be under government control, and the Drazens' primary goal was to free Victor Drazen.
Eventually, in order to satisfy the Drazens, Palmer's death is faked. The Drazens recapture Bauer's daughter Kim and offer to exchange her life for Bauer's. However, Kim escapes and the Drazens soon learn that Palmer is still alive. With time running out on his chance to escape before he is recaptured, in desperation, the freed Victor Drazen tells his mole inside CTU, who we discover is Nina Myers, to call Bauer and tell him that his daughter is dead and that the Coast Guard has found her body. Drazen knows that a grieving Jack will attack him, and he believes he, his son Andre Drazen (Alexis was dead already) and their henchmen can kill Jack. Nina is reluctant to do this, knowing full well that if Drazen's plan fails, Jack will very quickly learn that Kim is not dead and Nina lied to him, proof that she must be the mole, but she does indeed tell the lie to Jack. Of course, Drazen's plot backfires rather spectacularly, as an enraged Jack recklessly and ruthlessly massacres Drazen's son and men, then corners an unarmed Victor Drazen (Drazen's pistol is out of ammunition, and he tosses it into the water) and coldly executes him. After that, Jack Bauer called the Coast Guard to arrange to claim his daughter's body. The Coast Guard informs Bauer that they did not find a body that night. Hearing this, Bauer realizes that Nina Myers is the mole. He calls the head of CTU and tells him to detain Myers, but Myers, who heard that Bauer had survived, was already preparing for exfiltration by erasing all the incriminating information on her computer. Bauer's wife, Teri, was confused about the events surrounding Jack's attempt to rescue their daughter, and looked for Myers, whom she trusted. Teri realized that Myers was the mole, however, and Myers tied her up and shot her. Jack came to CTU and let them take Myers into custody (as opposed to killing her). He then discovered his wife's body.
The season has a dramatic and unexpected ending: the death of Teri Bauer. Many fans were dismayed by this sudden plot twist, while others applauded 24's genre-defying willingness to kill major characters with little warning. The producers also filmed an alternate ending in which Teri, Kim, and Jack are reunited, and another in which Teri is shot, but survives. However, they eventually decided to go with the death of Teri Bauer as the climax of season one. The first alternate ending is available on the Season 1 DVD boxed set, although it is noticeably less dramatic than the eventual ending that was aired.
Series Timeframe
Although it is not clear which year it is set in, it is known that it takes place during a presidential election year. Some fans have surmised it is the 2004 election and therefore, the date would be a Tuesday in March of 2004. However, others believe that this year is incorrect (whatever "incorrect" means with respect to a date of a fictional event in a fictional story) since, during Season 1, Jack Bauer states that he took part in a covert operation against a key member of Miloševic's government two years before. Since Miloševic was ousted from office four years before 2004, there is doubt as to whether this is the actual date. This is also evidence that the fictional story is not intended to be set in any particular actual year.
However, some fans do argue the possibility that Victor Drazen was not found and attacked by Bauer's group until two years after Miloševic was taken down. Another credible argument is the fact that, in Season Two, Gary Matheson states that his credit card expires in 2007. If season 1 takes place in 2004, then season 2 would take place in 2005, giving said credit card a life span of less than 2 years, which is not an unreasonable amount of time. Also in season 2, Aaron Pierce mentions that he joined the Secret Service during Reagan's second term (1985-1989), and Palmer acknowledges that it's been almost twenty years since then, making 2005 a strong possibility.
One other thing to note is that in the third episode of season 1, Nina proves her innocence (the first time) by showing that she could not have been the one who programmed a keycard containing vital information about the assassination plot. The card was created on Nina's computer on January 14th of the same year that season 1 takes place in. Nina then says that she could not have created the card because she and Jack had gone away together on that day. She remembered because it was the 2nd weekend in January. 2000 was a presidential election year and January 14th was on a Friday (technically the 3rd weekend). In 2004, the 14th was on a Wednesday.
In the end, this is a fictional story, and there is no evidence that the writers have made any attempt to have the story be taking place on any particular actual year, or to be consistent with such an attempt.
Plot Twists Affecting Future Seasons
Season One Cast
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Starring
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Recurring
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| Special Guest Stars
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Season One Episodes
| Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. |
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Originally Aired: November 06, 2001 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
Originally Aired: November 13, 2001 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
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Originally aired: November 20, 2001 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
Originally aired: November 27, 2001 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
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Originally aired: December 11, 2001 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
Originally aired: December 18, 2001 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
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Originally aired: January 8, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
Originally aired: January 15, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
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Originally aired: January 22, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
Originally aired: February 5, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
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Originally aired: February 12, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
Originally aired: February 19, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
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Originally aired: February 26, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
Originally aired: March 5, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
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Originally aired: March 12, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
Originally aired: March 19, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
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Originally aired: March 26, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
Originally aired: April 2, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
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Originally aired: April 9, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
Originally aired: April 16, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
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Originally aired: April 23, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
Originally aired: May 7, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
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Originally aired: May 14, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
Originally aired: May 21, 2002 on FOX Full Episode Breakdown |
Season One Trivia
Season One Goofs
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