Mandy (24 character)

Mandy
24 character
Mia Kirshner as Mandy
Portrayed by	Mia Kirshner
Appearances	1, 2, 4
Other Appearances	24: The Game

Mandy is a fictional character, played by Mia Kirshner, on the television series 24. She is a terrorist and a professional assassin, and is notable for being the only longtime antagonist of the series to remain alive, as of the end of Season 4 (the last time she was seen).

Appearances

24: Season 1

Mandy appears in the first three episodes of the first season as part of the group hired by Andre Drazen to assassinate presidential candidate David Palmer. She has sex with Martin Belkin, a media photographer seated next to her on her flight to Los Angeles, during which time she steals his wallet. Mandy plants a bomb on the 747 which detonates after she parachutes out of an open hatch.

After landing safely in the Mojave Desert, Mandy buries Martin's identification in a homing device in the sand. She is taken to the hideout of Ira Gaines, the leader of Drazen's hit squad, to negotiate payment for Belkin's access and identification card, which will enable Gaines to sneak an assassin into a breakfast that Senator Palmer is to appear at the following morning. From their conversation, it seems that Mandy and Gaines have had professional dealings in the past. Mandy calls her accomplice/girlfriend Bridgit, and asks her to bring the cards when she is sure Gaines has the payment. When Bridgit arrives, she demands more money (double) from Gaines than originally agreed upon.

Mandy's attempts at persuading Bridgit against further extortion are in vain, and Mandy relents. Gaines agrees to pay the additional money, and the three return to the desert and retrieve the card. Shortly after thanking Bridgit for the card, Gaines has her shot by a hidden sniper. He has the sniper put Mandy in his crosshairs as well, and then asks her if she's "in" for an unspecified job to be carried out during the following summer. Mandy, who has become visibly upset by Bridgit's death, reluctantly agrees, and Gaines calls off the sniper. As Gaines and Mandy prepare to leave the scene, Gaines, seeing that Mandy is in tears, attempts to reassure her by saying that he had no other choice. She says nothing as they drive off, and is not seen throughout the remainder of Day One.

Mandy appears to have genuine feelings for Bridgit, which is in sharp contrast to her later appearances in the series, when she appears to be driven strictly by professional concerns and her own survival. For example, she is living with a boyfriend during Day Four (see below), but doesn't hesitate to murder him when she thinks that she needs to kill him in order to make good her own escape from the authorities.

24: Season 2

Mandy returns for a cameo appearance in the last episode of the second season, where she attempts to assassinate President Palmer by means of a toxin.

24: The Game

Mandy makes a very brief appearance in the game during a meeting between Max and California Governor James Radford.

24: Season 4

Mandy returned for the last three episodes of the show's fourth season. She is now working with Habib Marwan, the main villain of the season. She and her boyfriend Gary help plan the kidnapping of Secretary of Defense James Heller and his daughter Audrey Raines which occurs at the beginning of the season. They pick up Heller's son Richard in a bar, who takes them home and sleeps with Gary. During this time, Mandy uses Richard's cell phone to call Marwan. The phone call from Richard’s cell to Marwan activated an audio surveillance device that enabled the terrorists to hear all of Richard’s calls, allowing them to learn that Heller was going to visit his son.

Later in the series, during an intimate moment with Gary, Mandy hears helicopters outside their apartment complex. She realizes that they've been discovered by CTU. She kills Gary to slow down CTU's search and escapes to the rooftop. She ambushes a CTU team and takes Tony Almeida hostage, binding and gagging him in a vacant apartment. Mandy researches Tony’s background on her laptop and notices a story on the web about his dismissal from CTU and his connection to Michelle.

Mandy subsequently calls Michelle, currently heading CTU, and threatens to kill Tony if she doesn't aid her escape, without CTU's knowledge. After some serious consideration, Michelle decides to follow protocol and coordinates a rescue effort which she conceals from Mandy while pretending to acquiesce to her demands. At this stage, Mandy slips into a neighbor's apartment, where she kills one friend and forces the other two to be her decoys. The friends sneak out to her car beneath an umbrella, where the CTU team makes a move towards the vehicle. Mandy, watching from her apartment, detonates a bomb within the car, successfully tricking CTU into believing that she and Tony were dead. During her second attempt at escape, Jack discovers her plan and catches her and Tony in the parking lot. When Mandy threatens to kill Tony, Curtis sneaks behind her and punches her in the face.

Jack tells her that they are both professionals, and as such she knows that he can torture her into revealing her supposed knowledge of the whereabouts of Habib Marwan and the nuclear warhead CTU is chasing, but he does not have that time. Instead, he tells her that he can get a Presidential Pardon for all of her past crimes, and will do so if she cooperates. Mandy agrees. The Cabinet members express initial reluctance over the deal when they discover Mandy was behind the near-successful assassination attempt on then-President Palmer (from Season 2). Regardless, the deal is approved with Palmer's blessing. Mandy's whereabouts following these events are unknown.

References