Charles Logan (24 character)

Charles Logan
24 character
Gregory Itzin as Charles Logan
Portrayed by	Gregory Itzin
Appearances	4, 5, 6, 8

Charles Logan is a fictional character played by Gregory Itzin in the television series 24. During the show's fourth season, Logan is the Vice President of the United States who is sworn into office as President of the United States when former President John Keeler is critically injured in a terrorist attack.

Itzin was nominated for a 2006 Supporting Actor Emmy Award for this role (losing to Alan Alda).

Characterization

Charles Logan has a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Princeton University.^[1] Prior to his vice-presidency, he served as the CEO of Western Energy Coal & Reserve; he also served as Lieutenant Governor of California, and in the California State Legislature.

Logan possesses several characteristics that diminish his capacity to serve as president. In contrast to Palmer, Logan is seemingly incapable of making hard decisions independently, relying on the recommendations of his advisors. If none are available, Logan tries to withdraw himself from the situation entirely. Additionally, his resolve is weak, as he rarely stands behind the decisions he makes. Furthermore, he boasts of his achievements after a crisis is over, even if his claims do not reflect the reality of the situation.

After Day 5 revealed that Logan was behind the backfiring conspiracy, show executive producer Evan Katz said that the President was more of a man hiding a secret and was just being a little smarter about how he projects himself. Star Kiefer Sutherland also noted that people like Logan who are underestimated can become very dangerous because it gives them a sort of cover.^[2]

In the commentary for the show's fifth season DVD, Itzin mentions how he, with the help of Jean Smart, who played his wife Martha, developed an extensive backstory for Logan to help focus his performance. Among other things, he decided that Logan was the son of a distinguished military and political leader. Logan's father physically abused him as a child, which Logan references twice in the finale; first when he tells Jack that he's a lot tougher than he appears to be, then again when he warns Martha that she doesn't know what pain is.

The backstory also included the Logans' son, who died in his twenties several years ago (which might have been the cause of Martha's mental breakdown). Throughout the day, Logan carried a small chain in his pocket which had been a gift from his son, though most shots that show the chain (such as when his pockets are emptied when Jack interrogates him) were cut for time. Itzin also commented that David Palmer was also a friend to Logan's son and would visit him extensively.

Logan's reappearance in the sixth season show a man who is deeply sorry about his actions in the previous season. Logan has all but stated he is now a born again Christian and is searching for redemption. A scene of Logan in private confirms this, showing him grasping a Bible and quoting a passage for comfort. While he showed no ulterior motives, both President Wayne Palmer and Logan's ex-wife Martha understandably showed doubt as to whether Logan has truly changed.

Itzin has acknowledged a physical resemblance between himself and President Richard Nixon. "I have the hairline, and my posture’s mediocre."^[3]

Appearances

24: Season 4

Logan is first contacted by President Keeler when it is discovered that Mitch Anderson commandeered a stealth fighter with the intent to shoot down Air Force One. Efforts to neutralize the stealth fighter fail, and Air Force One is shot down. As a result, the incapacitated Keeler was deemed unable to serve as president, and Logan was appointed president as a result of the 25th Amendment.

After being sworn in, Logan is informed by one of his senior advisors, Mike Novick, that Marwan and his terrorist organization have managed to recover several codes to the nation's nuclear arsenal. While Marwan's people manage to steal a nuclear warhead and successfully launch it on board a missile, CTU Los Angeles desperately attempts to track him.

Unfortunately, Logan proves unprepared for both the office and the crisis. When CTU arrests an American civilian named Joe Prado due to his employment under Marwan, Logan is hesitant to face the political risk of detain Prado without charge. Logan is slow to act, even though CTU and Novick point out that Prado is their only means of finding Marwan in time.

Unwilling to let Logan waste precious time, CTU agent Jack Bauer convinces his superiors to release Prado; afterwards he tortures Prado into revealing one of Marwan's hideouts. Logan, furious that Bauer has acted without his approval, dispatches the Secret Service to arrest him. However, the Secret Service disrupts Bauer's operation to capture Marwan, allowing him to escape.

Logan begins to doubt his ability to govern during the crisis. In response, Novick recruits David Palmer as an advisor, due to the crises he has faced as president. Though Logan initially welcomes Palmer's counsel, he becomes increasingly isolated as Palmer and Novick assume a more active role in leading the search for Marwan.

Eventually, CTU locates Marwan. Although he kills himself to avoid capture, CTU manages to use Marwan's equipment to track the missile and shoot it down before it reaches its target. Despite his lack of leadership during the crisis, Logan quickly accepts credit for his presumed handling of the situation. His only concession to Palmer is a private statement that he had "played a role".

In the midst of the hunt for Marwan, Palmer authorizes a covert CTU operation led by Bauer to extract Lee Jong, an associate of Marwan's, from the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles. During the incident, the Chinese Consul is killed by friendly fire. Chinese officials eventually link the operation to Bauer and demand his extradition.

Walt Cummings, Logan's aide, suggests arranging Bauer's murder to prevent his knowledge from being exploited by the Chinese. Though Logan vocally rejects this proposal, Novick later overhears a phone conversation in which Cummings orders a Secret Service agent to kill Bauer before he is turned over to Chinese authorities.

Palmer informs Logan of Cumming's actions, but the president disbelieves the story and refuses to take action. Palmer warns Bauer of the threat on his life, causing Bauer and his CTU colleagues to fake his death. While Bauer goes into hiding, Logan remains unaware of the truth, believing that the situation has been resolved.

24: Season 5

Logan prepares to meet Russian president Yuri Suvarov to sign an anti-terrorism defense treaty, seeing the event as the highlight of his presidency. He is startled by the news of Palmer's assassination, but insists the signing continue on schedule. When Eastern European separatists take hostages at an airport in opposition to the treaty, Logan orders CTU to organize a rescue.

First Lady Martha Logan insists that Palmer contacted her, warning of a possible terrorist attack. Logan, while sympathetic, is skeptical given her history of mental illness. He eventually agrees to have her committed to a mental health facility. Meanwhile, CTU rescues the hostages, allowing the treaty to be signed on schedule.

Soon after, Cummings comes to Logan and admits his involvement in the airport incident and Palmer's death, but insists it to be for a greater good. He claims nerve gas will be released before it can threaten any American or Russian targets. Cummings' claims the nerve gas threat will provide a justification for a stronger U.S. presence in Asia and promote a greater acquisition of oil from the region. Cummings tells him the American agent monitoring the nerve gas has gone dark and even Cummings cannot stop him now. Logan is appalled but does not see any way out of the situation.

Meanwhile, Jack Bauer, who had emerged from hiding to find who had ordered Palmer's assassination, has discovered Cummings is involved and knew more than he had told Logan. After Jack manages to convince Secret Service agent Aaron Pierce to let him speak with the President, he is able to reveal the truth to Logan and physically confront Cummings, who confesses. Logan promptly orders Cummings arrested. Unfortunately when government forces move in on the location of the nerve gas, they find it missing and the American agent dead. The terrorists had apparently discovered Cummings's plan.

Logan has Jack temporarily reinstated with CTU, though both men agree he will have to go back into hiding once the crisis passed, due to fears of how China would feel, should they learn Bauer is still alive.

Logan also manages to stop his wife before she leaves the retreat. She initially reacts coldly to him for not having trusted her, though the two soon reconcile and begin drafting a public statement about Cummings' actions. This is interrupted when Mike Novick informs them that Cummings has been found, after committing suicide. Following Cummings' death, Logan decides against the release of the statement to avoid any political fallout.

Later on, the terrorists, led by Ivan Erwich, take a canister of the nerve gas into a shopping mall in Los Angeles. CTU head Lynn McGill urges Logan to allow them to use the gas in the mall, potentially killing up to 900 people, in the hopes of catching the terrorists and finding the other 19 canisters of Nerve Gas and rationalizing that few may have to die in order to save potentially hundreds of thousands. Despite Audrey Raines' insistence that allowing nine hundred American citizens to be killed would be immoral, Logan decides to allow the release of the nerve gas. Due to intervention from Jack Bauer, acting undercover, many lives are saved in this incident and only 11 people are killed.

Immediately thereafter, Vladimir Bierko, head of the Russian separatists, forces Logan to make a critical decision; give up the Russian President's motorcade route or risk the launch of the 19 remaining nerve gas containers on US soil. Ultimately, Logan decides to provide the terrorists with the route. However, as the motorcade departs, Logan's wife decides to join the motorcade behind his back in a final attempt to have him order them back. Logan is shown agonizing over the decision to not turn back the motorcade, and prays with Novick. CTU eventually realises the threat and notifies the motorcade. However, the terrorists believe Logan double crossed them and now plan to use the Sentox against the American people. After this, Logan receives a visit from Vice President Hal Gardner, who suggests that Logan implement martial law until the terrorists are stopped. Logan does so, much to the dismay and concern of Martha, Novick.

By 11:00 p.m. on Day 5, it is revealed that Charles Logan is orchestrating and/or approving of all of the actions of Christopher Henderson, thereby making him complicit in the assassination of David Palmer and the attempted murder of several others. He also authorized Henderson and James Nathanson to frame Bauer for Palmer's death. He helped co-ordinate the Sentox plan with them.

With the terrorist threat having finally been thwarted by CTU, Logan turns his full attention to eliminating all evidence connecting him to the day's events. Specifically, Logan orders Henderson to stop Bauer and Wayne Palmer from recovering an audio tape in which he reveals his involvement in Palmer's death. Martha Logan's aide Evelyn Martin had hidden the audio tape in a safety deposit box in a bank.

Logan issues an executive warrant for the arrest of Jack Bauer for the murder of David Palmer. When questioned, he claims to have evidence which he will disclose after he is in custody but refuses to elaborate.

Once Jack retrieves the recording, he heads to Van Nuys Airport to hand off the tape to Secretary of Defense James Heller, with the intent to bring down Logan. Once Heller is in possession of the recording, he attempts to cut a deal with Logan, requesting he step down quietly, and in return the recording will never see the light of day. Logan prepares to sign his resignation with Gardner being his witness before Henderson reveals he has retrieved the recording from Heller's men and Jack. Logan then asks Heller to tender his resignation.

Later, Logan is told by one of his co-conspirators, Graem, that Martha knows too much and must be silenced. Logan confesses to Martha his culpability in Palmer's death and implores her to remain quiet for the good of the country. Logan tries one final time to control the situation, when Jack Bauer hijacks a 727 plane being co-piloted by the man who has the recording. Graem fakes a VCI signal from the plane, giving Logan the pretense to shoot the plane down. When the plane is obviously about to make an emergency landing, Logan is talked out of shooting it down by Mike Novick and Jack escapes with the recording.

Logan and Graem come to the conclusion that Logan must commit suicide, reasoning that a President on trial for treason and murder would do irreparable damage to the country. After apologizing to Martha, he goes to his office and prepares to shoot himself. Before he can, Logan receives a call from Miles Papazian, telling him that he will prevent the United States Attorney General from hearing its contents. Logan approves and puts the gun away. Once he learns that Papazian has successfully erased the recording he cancels the arrest warrant for Jack. Logan meets with Aaron Pierce, whom he had taken prisoner before he could meet with Martha several hours earlier. Pierce refuses any deal with Logan, and Logan orders Adams to kill Pierce, although Pierce subsequently escaped with help from Martha and Mike Novick.

At the end of the penultimate episode of season five, at 5:59:03 AM, Martha Logan stalls the president by sleeping with him so that Jack can sneak aboard his helicopter.

Later, Logan is kidnapped by Jack aboard Marine One, whose intent is to extract a confession from him. Jack tries to get him to confess, but fails. Jack is deeply tempted to kill Logan, but the president remarks that he would be remembered as a martyr like Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy, while Jack would be viewed as an assassin like John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald. Jack decides not to kill Logan and is subsequently arrested. However, unbeknownst to the president, Jack placed a microtransmitter in Logan's pen while frisking him. He accuses Martha privately of helping Jack and threatens to send her to a psychiatric facility. He ends up confessing his part in the day's events with the microtransmitter still emitting. Logan is consequently arrested by the Secret Service during his eulogy of David Palmer.

Karen Hayes speculates that Logan may be granted clemency for his actions in exchange for his immediate resignation, in order to protect the country from the embarrassment of a trial. Hal Gardner was then expected to be sworn in as the new President. It was revealed in Season 6 that Logan resigned from office after pleading guilty to obstructing justice and was placed under house arrest. To prevent a damaging scandal enveloping the Presidency his role in David Palmer's assassination and providing nerve gas to terrorist groups were not publicized.

24: Season 6

When Jack is left a phone number by his father Phillip Bauer, his call is answered by Logan, who is now under house arrest. He agrees to help Jack find Dmitri Gredenko.

Jack visits Logan at his ranch. Logan reveals that one of Gredenko's supporters, Anatoly Markov, was involved in his conspiracy, and that Logan intends to use this as leverage in order to gain information on Gredenko. Logan insists that he is only looking for redemption. President Wayne Palmer reluctantly grants Logan a temporary release to confront Markov.

Logan convinces Jack Bauer to let him talk to Anatoly Markov alone.

Logan enters the consulate alone to confront Markov. He threatens to implicate Markov in the Sentox conspiracy unless he gives up Gredenko, but Markov claims not to know anything. Logan leaves the consulate convinced that Markov is lying, prompting Jack to sneak into the consulate alone. Logan tries to warn him, but fails in stopping him.

When Jack is in their custody, Logan requests he speak to Martha, who is now institutionalized. During the visit, Martha is resentful of Charles and is disgusted by his presence. Just when it is agreed that Martha would make the call, in a sudden fit of rage she stabs him in the shoulder with a kitchen knife, severing an artery. Logan is rushed to the hospital, but begins to flatline en route, with his last word being "Martha" before losing consciousness. He is not heard from for the rest of the season.

24: Season 8

Charles Logan makes his first appearance in the season when he offers his help to President Taylor to help with the Russian government, who wish to back out of a peace treaty after the assassination of President Omar Hassan.^[4] The Russians' explanation is they do not believe the new President of the IRK, Hassan's wife Dalia, will be able to hold up the peace agreement; therefore they wish to drop out and have no part in it. Also during this episode it is learned that Logan was granted a presidential pardon from President Daniels.

Later, Jack Bauer learns of Logan's involvement in the government cover-up of Russian involvement in the death of President Hassan when he checks the recent calls of the assassin of Renee Walker. In the following hours, Logan attempts to prevent information about Russian involvement in Hassan's death being released, in order to protect himself and to prevent it undermining the treaty. As in his final hours as President, Logan is willing to go to any lengths to protect himself, including sanctioning murder, torture and press censorship. Logan persuades Taylor to have CTU mole Dana Walsh quietly tortured for the location of the evidence by men hired by him rather than grant her a pardon, and arrest journalist Meredith Reed to prevent her publishing the evidence given to her by Bauer. He also has Taylor place his aide Jason Pillar in charge of the hunt to find Jack Bauer, allowing Pillar to pass on information to Russian agents who will then kill Bauer. Numerous attempts to kill Bauer prove unsuccessful, however, increasing the pressure on Logan.

In the meantime Logan's private escort is attacked by Bauer, who kidnaps him and takes him underground. Bauer threatens to kill Logan unless he gives up the names of those behind the day's events: Logan names Novakovich, the Russian foreign minister. Unbeknown to Logan, Bauer also places a microtransmitter on him; Bauer listens in as Logan incriminates himself further in a conversation with Russian President Yuri Suvarov. Bauer leaves him there unconscious, only fifteen minutes before Novakovich is found dead. Logan is in a hospital bed when the episode ends. Bauer later finds Logan again, intending to use him to lure Suvarov into a trap so Bauer can assassinate him, although he then abandons the plan.

When Bauer is eventually captured, Logan makes arrangements for him to be murdered, taking President Taylor's silence as tacit approval. However, at the last moment she refuses to sign the peace treaty and rescinds the order for Bauer's death. Having lost what he considered to be his last chance at redeeming himself and in a final effort to have his nemesis Jack Bauer killed, Logan murders his right-hand man Jason Pillar and then shoots himself in the head in a suicide attempt. The EMTs working on Logan said that he would likely survive, but would probably suffer significant brain damage.

Critical reception

Itzin was nominated for a 2006 Supporting Actor Emmy Award for his role in the fifth season.

In real life, Gregory Itzin was commended for his portrayal of a weak President, which some comment the character was partly inspired by Richard Nixon. Logan played his part as an undercover conspirator brilliantly, coming out as a shock when the news was first released.^[5]

Itzin was also nominated for 2010 Outstanding Guest Actor Emmy Award for his appearance in the eighth season of 24, episode "1:00 PM - 2:00 PM".^[6]

References

1. ^ "FOX Broadcasting Company: 24". FOX 24. Archived from the original on 2008-04-19. http://web.archive.org/web/20080419032711/http://www.fox.com/24/profiles/season5/cl.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-08. 
2. ^ Levin, Gary (2006-04-09). "'24' prez pivots from weasel to evil". Usatoday.com. http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-04-09-24-prez_x.htm. Retrieved 2010-09-27. 
3. ^ President Logan Puts a Spin on the Plots of ‘24’
4. ^ “” (2010-04-05). "24 8x15/16 Season 8 Episode 15/16 Preview HD". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBqf9DzST_c. Retrieved 2010-09-27. 
5. ^ September 27, 2010 11:53 AM ET (2010-09-23). "Itzin Is '24's' Petrified POTUS". Tv.zap2it.com. http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271. Retrieved 2010-09-27. 
6. ^ "Nominations: Official Primetime Emmy Award Nominees". http://www.emmys.com/nominations?tid=86. Retrieved 2010-08-08.