The 15 Most Shocking Moments from ’24’

The writers tried giving Jack a partner for season 3, which didn’t exactly work with Jack’s style. Luckily his partner, Chase, did get to be involved in a fantastic season finale as he had prevented a deadly virus from being used by connecting the device to his wrist. Unfortunately there was no key so Jack had to cut off Chase’s hand with an axe to contain the virus.

Jack had to choose between getting medical attention to Paul, Audrey Raines’ ex-husband, or the Chinese consul the team had just kidnapped in order to get information from him. He chose the latter and, in turn, made Audrey watch Paul die. The relationship between Jack and Audrey would never be the same again.

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After Nina had basically destroyed Jack’s life, and had managed to escape her judgment for 3 seasons, Jack finally got his payback. Kim had discovered Nina hiding in a CTU control room. Jack comes in sends Kim away, and gets payback for his wife. It was a therapeutic moment to say the least.

You know a show has some crazy moments when a nuclear explosion doesn’t even make the top ten. During the fourth hour of the season CTU was unable to stop a terrorist attack that resulted in a mushroom cloud engulf a heavily populated area. It was the biggest failure CTU had ever experienced.

Jack had been out of action since the death of his wife but was called back into duty for a special mission. What’s the first thing he does? Shoots and beheads Marshall Goren in order to get in with a terrorist group. If you’d ever questioned Jack playing by his own rules, those doubts were gone.

Terrorist Habib Marwan set off a chain of events that led to Charles Logan becoming president. It started with Mitch Anderson using a stealth jet to shoot down Air Force One and kill President Keeler as well as steal the nuclear launch codes.

Although we later find out that Tony survived the explosion, no one expected our favorite couple to start out season 5 with a car bomb. They were intricate pieces of the series and it was truly shocking to see their characters be killed off in such dramatic fashion.

While the later seasons of the series really didn’t provide the kind of shock as the earlier installments, a heart wrenching moment occurred during season 8 as Jack battled to rescue Kamistan President Omar Hassan from being executed live on the internet. Unfortunately the feed was on a delay and Jack arrived too late. It was one of the rare moments of failure for Jack as he realized he had failed to save the life of his friend.

We had finally come to terms with the fact that Tony Almeida was gone when suddenly it turns out he’s alive and apparently a terrorist. His relationship with Jack was complex and watching the two of them love and hate each other for the rest of the season was difficult to say the least.

In what turned out to be the greatest creation of a villain in the series, season 5 revealed that all of the horrific events of the day were supervised by one man: President Charles Logan. What bigger battle could Jack have than going up against an evil president?

Russian terrorists break into CTU and unleash nerve gas on everyone inside the building. Numerous agents were killed but none more dramatic than when fan favorite Edgar Stiles returns from investigating the attack only to realize that he is too late and the safe areas have already been sealed off. The audience, along with Chloe, has to watch as Edgar dies. There was not a dry eye in America that night.

After a crazy season everything seemed to be wrapping up cleanly when suddenly a face from the past appeared. In season 4, Jack had taken the blame for the death of a Chinese consulate during a secret raid. We had almost forgotten about it when the final seconds of season 5 ended with Cheng Zhi and company kidnapping Jack and taking him to a Chinese prison, once again changing everything.

Season 5 was promoted as the season "that would change everything in the first ten minutes." That was an understatement. The former president was walking by a window, talking to his brother, when a bullet comes through the window and hits him in the neck, killing him. It was the most difficult loss in the series by far.

A terrorist named Stephen Saunders had biological weapons and was threatening to unleash them on the country. CTU Director Ryan Chappelle was closing in on Saunders so he demanded Chappelle be executed or the virus would be released. The whole time you just knew that Jack would find a way to save Chappelle but in the end he ran out of time and was forced to execute him. No one saw that moment coming.

The tone of '24' was set forever as soon as season 1 came to its dramatic conclusion. We had just learned that the mole inside of CTU was none other than Jack’s friend Nina Myers. To make matters even worse, Jack and Kim discover that Nina had murdered his wife Teri. It was a dark, somber moment that let you know things will never be happy in Jack Bauer’s world.