24 (season 5)

infobox tvseason
season_name = 24 Season 5


caption = Season 5 Cast
dvd_release_date = December 5, 2006
dvd_format = NTSC
country = flagicon|USA United States
first_aired = January 15, 2006
last_aired = May 22, 2006
network = Fox Broadcasting Company
num_episodes = 24
prev_season = 24 (season 4)
next_season = 24 (season 6)|

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. [ [http://futoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=20051205fox01 Breaking News - ACTION-PACKED 10-MINUTE PREQUEL LEADS INTO NEW SEASON OF "24" | TheFutonCritic.com ] ] It was broadcast on Sky One in the United Kingdom before the showing of the fifth season.

eason Overview

Season Five (2006) is set 18 months after Season Four.

After the events in Season Four, Counter Terrorist Unit agent 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 Charles Logan's 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-separatist terrorists (presumably Chechen, although this is never stated explicitly) who 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 "Graham" (sic) who possibly was the one who made Jack come out from hiding, 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 clauses of the anti-terrorism treaty, allowing Logan to secure American petroleum interests in Central Asia. Former President David Palmer begins to find this out and is assassinated to keep him quiet; his death becomes the main motivating factor in Jack's crusade (completely aside from how he is framed for the killing). As he states several times over the course of the day, "This is personal."

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 (resulting in 11 fatalities out of several hundred shoppers); Tyler Memorial Hospital (completely unsuccessful due to the actions of CTU and Curtis Manning); CTU (successfully killing 40% of personnel—56 deaths—including Edgar Stiles and Lynn McGill); Wilshire Gas Co. (completely unsuccessful; 16 of the remaining 17 canisters are destroyed, and Bierko captured). Meanwhile, CTU traces the Sentox nerve gas back to the company which manufactured it, Omicron International; this company is led, among others, by Christopher Henderson. Jack successfully apprehends him, but he manages to escape in the aftermath of the Sentox attack on CTU, taking out Tony Almeida in the process.
*Episodes 16–21: Believing (incorrectly) that all remaining nerve gas was incinerated at Wilshire, 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 attempts to get a confession. Jack fails, but unbeknowest to everyone besides himself, the First Lady, Mike Novick, Aaron Pierce, and Chloe, his attempt is merely a diversion to place a listening device on the President. The First Lady then gets Logan to confess to her everything that has happened; Chloe plays this new recording to the Attorney General, and 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.

ubplots

*Jack comes into contact with people who thought he was dead, including his daughter Kim Bauer and girlfriend Audrey Raines.
**Jack's attempt to reconnect with Kim is unsuccessful; she wants nothing to do with him because of the fact that being around her father brings chaos to those close to him.
**Jack and Audrey reunite as a couple.
*The First Lady attempts to correct the President's perceived mistakes.
*The Vice President convinces the president to impose martial law on the city of Los Angeles without approval from Congress.
*Bill Buchanan's authority at CTU undermined first by Lynn McGill and then by Karen Hayes, though both eventually come around to his way of thinking.
*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 aiding Jack, going behind Homeland & her assistant Miles Papazian.
*Chloe has to cope with the death of Edgar Stiles. In addition, the work colleague she earlier slept with turns out to be an undercover internal-affairs agent under the supervision of Walt Cummings.

Prequel of Season 5

One year after Day 4, Jack and Chloe meet at a fenced-in scrap yard in Chicago, Illinois. Jack's hair is long and stubble has grown over his usually clean face. He is wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt, and makes sure the hood is up when he gets out of the car. As Chloe turns the corner where Jack is hiding, he grabs her and asks if she was followed. She assures him that she wasn't. Chloe explains that three days ago, someone remotely hacked into her computer and saw that she had accessed Jack's autopsy report. Jack becomes frustrated and asks why she didn't erase all files related to him. Chloe insists she deleted the files but fears the hacker who infiltrated her hard drive would realize that Jack wasn't dead after learning she'd been accessing the autopsy report and was also in contact with an undercover operative in Chicago. Chloe urges Jack to leave town immediately to which he agrees.

As she walks back towards her car, Jack asks about his daughter, Kim. Chloe explains that Kim was heartbroken over Jack's supposed 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 a 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, impaling the driver.

Jack drives back out of the scrap yard while the unknown man on the motorcycle continues to watch him.

eason notes

Characters

"This is a list of the main cast for Season 5. See List of 24 characters 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 Special Guest Stars
* Reiko Aylesworth as Michelle Dessler
* Elisha Cuthbert as Kim Bauer
* William Devane as Secretary of Defense James Heller
* Sean Astin as Lynn McGill Recurring
* Jude Ciccolella as Mike Novick
* Julian Sands as Vladimir Bierko
* Jayne Atkinson as Karen Hayes
* Connie Britton as Diane Huxley
* Brady Corbet as Derek Huxley
* Geraint Wyn Davies as James Nathanson
* Sandrine Holt as Evelyn Martin
* Jonah Lotan as Spenser Wolff
* Paul McCrane as Graem
* Glenn Morshower as Aaron Pierce
* John Allen Nelson as Walt Cummings
* Carlo Rota as Morris O'Brian
* Mark Sheppard as Ivan Erwich
* Stephen Spinella as Miles Papazian
* Ray Wise as Vice President Hal Gardner
* DB Woodside as Wayne Palmer
* and Peter Weller as Christopher Henderson Special Guest Appearance by
* Dennis Haysbert as David Palmer

Deaths

This season is notable for having many cast members killed off. Major deaths included David Palmer, Tony Almeida, Michelle Dessler, and Edgar Stiles. Other minor characters who died were Walt Cummings and Lynn McGill. Aaron Pierce was also going to be terminated, but a plea from his portrayer Glenn Morshower saved him, making Pierce the only character other than Jack Bauer to appear in and live through all of the first six seasons of the series. [ [http://www.tvweek.com/podcasts/24/24_5_9.mp3 TV week interview] ]

On September 21 2007 it was revealed that Tony Almeida will return for season 7. [ [http://www.24headquarters.com/2007/09/21/howard-gordon-on-the-return-of-carlos-bernard Howard Gordon on the Return of Carlos Bernard ] ]

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 viewers. 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.

7:00AM-8:00AM was the most watched episode and premiere in "24"'s history. It debuted with 17 million viewers, with a 7.3 Nielsen Rating in the 18-49 male demographic. Combined with "8:00AM-9:00AM", which had 15.5 million watchers and a 6.3 in the 18-49 age group, 34 million viewers have watched the complete season premiere. [cite news|url=http://www.hollywoodnorthreport.com/article.php?Article=2446|publisher= Hollywood North Report Robert Falconer|date=2006-01-19|title=24 Season Five Premiere Pulls Record Ratings ] Reviews of "7:00AM-8:00AM" were almost universally positive, with a score of 89/100 from Metacritic. [cite news|url=http://www.metacritic.com/tv/shows/24season5| publisher= Metacritic|date=January 2006 - May 2006|title=24 (Fox) - Reviews from Metacritic| accessdate = 2006-10-25] In positive light "Hollywood Reporter" called the episode, "heart-pounding, mesmerizing adventure unlike anything else up or down the dial." while praising the new and returning actors, giving it a perfect 100,cite news|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/reviews/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001842610|publisher= The Hollywood Reporter, Barry Garron|date=2006-01-12|title=24| accessdate = 2006-10-25] likewise USA Today also gave 7:00AM-8:00AM a 100 and praising Kiefer Sutherland, who portrayed Jack Bauer.cite news|url=http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2006-01-12-24_x.htm|publisher= USA Today, Robert Bianco|date=2006-01-12|title=Opener doesn't waste a second| accessdate = 2006-10-25]

"New York Times" giving it a 70 out of a possible 100, citing using L.A. as the same key location for five seasons saying, "all the villains, be they Islamic fundamentalists, drug smugglers, American oil brokers or Russian separatists, keep picking Los Angeles as a target for attack.".cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/13/arts/television/13twen.html?ex=1160280000&en=6424573834e40e10&ei=5070| publisher= New York Times, Alessandra Stanley|date=2006-01-13|title=TV Weekend: Back From the Dead, a Secret Agent Is Ready to Save the World Again| accessdate = 2006-10-25]
The Boston Globe gave it an 80, praising returning performances and strong plot. [cite news|url=http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2006/01/14/24_works_overtime_to_open_season/| publisher= The Boston Globe, Matthew Gilbert|date=2006-01-14|title='24' works overtime to open season| accessdate = 2006-10-25]

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 (7:00AM-8:00AM)cite news|url=http://www.emmys.org/media/releases/2006/rel_pte58_winners.pdf| publisher= Academy of Television Arts & Sciences|date=August 2006|title=58th Annual Primetime Emmy winners| accessdate=2006-10-08|format=PDF] - WON
*Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series (7:00AM-8:00AM)cite news|url=http://www.emmys.org/downloads/images/2006emmys/05_06_facts_and_figs.php| publisher= Academy of Television Arts & Sciences|date=July 2006|title=Summary of muiltiple Emmy wins in 2005| accessdate=2006-10-08]
*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 (7:00AM-8:00AM)
*Outstanding Stunt Coordination ("9:00 AM - 10:00 AM")

Episodes

References

External links

* [http://www.tv.com/24/show/3866/episode_guide.html&season=5 TV.com: 24 Season 5 Episode Guide]
* [http://www.fox.com/24 Fox.com: Seasons 1-5 Episode Guides]