Bill Buchanan (24 character)
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| 24 character | |
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 James Morrison as Bill Buchanan |
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| Bill Buchanan | |
| Portrayed by | James Morrison |
| Day | 4, 5, 6, 7 |
Bill Buchanan is a fictional character in 24. Played by James Morrison, the character is the head of the Los Angeles Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) from the fourth season, when he replaces Ryan Chappelle, to the sixth season. During the 6th season, the character embarks on a relationship with Karen Hayes.
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[edit] Overview
Before he becomes the head of CTU, he is the Associate Special Agent in Charge at the Los Angeles Office's Division headquarters. Before joining the Los Angeles office, he was a Senior Agent in the Seattle Office's Division headquarters. Before that, he was an Intelligence Analyst at that same office. Buchanan has a Bachelor of Arts in English from Brown University, and began his career in CTU as an agent with the New York Domestic Unit. In the comic book 24: Cold Warriors (March 2008), it is revealed that Buchanan had a relation, probably a brother, who served with Jack Bauer in Delta Force and was tortured and killed in Afghanistan by a Russian agent named Malenov (who is in turn killed years later by Bauer).[citation needed] In the novel Operation Hell Gate, Buchanan makes a brief appearance on a conference call with Nina Myers.[citation needed]
It was rumored he was romantically involved for a time with fellow CTU agent Michelle Dessler when the two worked at Division after Dessler left her husband Tony Almeida. Buchanan, however, says that the relationship "never got off the ground" and that they were simply good friends. It is unclear how strongly Buchanan was affected by Dessler's sudden death at the start of Day 5 as he puts his personal feelings aside to address the current crisis.
Initially he was brought into CTU to oversee the latest 'Jack Bauer' situation in Day 4, having an objective perspective over the agent that wasn't shared by the current CTU LA branch. Over the hours of Day 4, Buchanan gained a great deal of respect for Jack and his accomplishments, telling a Federal Agent who had come to arrest Bauer that the man was a hero and didn't deserve this treatment. He was not part of the plan to fake Jack's death and offered his condolences to his friends, convinced that he had died in the shootout. In Day 5, Bill as the Director of CTU LA was shocked to find that Jack was still alive and apparently responsible for the assassination of David Palmer, but after being convinced of his innocence, he worked with him (frequently against orders) throughout the day against the various conspiracies and plots directed by the President. The friendship and trust between the two grew further during Day 6, with Bill furious at the idea of Jack having to be sacrificed to appease a terrorist, but he followed his orders. He was, however, more than willing to work with and trust Jack over the day, Jack leaving a message on his phone when he thought he was about to die, thanking him for being a good friend. He willingly provided a great deal of help to Jack when he wanted to rescue Josh from Phillip Bauer and the Chinese.
[edit] Appearances
[edit] Day 4
Bill Buchanan was sent over to the Los Angeles Domestic Unit to help oversee the events going on in Day 4, particularly during the Jack Bauer and Behrooz Araz trade off between CTU and Habib Marwan. Buchanan did not believe that handing Behrooz Araz back over to Marwan was a good idea because he may have information that they could use. He instructs Curtis Manning and Tony Almeida to do the interrogation. When realizing that it would be useless and a waste of time Buchanan decides to go ahead with the trade. Buchanan decided to put a tracker in Behrooz's neck.
Later Buchanan was angry to find out that the tracker that was placed in Behrooz was discovered by Marwan's men and destroyed. Then Jack informs him that he was able to short circuit some wires in the building that he was being held. Jack leads a team over to the location and storms the place only to find out that Marwan was able to escape and Marwan's hard drive was destroyed.
When Jack Bauer brings in Joe Prado, a possible terrorist conspirator, Buchanan looks to the Department of Justice for permission to torture Prado. Buchanan was unsuccessful to find a judge to do so. Buchanan calls President Charles Logan for authorization. Logan causally refused to authorize something like that. Buchanan and Jack decided that Jack would resign and Bill would release Prado so that Jack and Prado would both be private citizens. Jack interrogates Prado outside of CTU and gets the necessary information. Audrey Raines and Mike Novick are both angry with Buchanan for is involvement in this. Buchanan suggest to Mike that he could try to get President Logan to sign off on Prado's torture and then just fabricate the timeline. Mike was unable to do so, but Bill later finds out that President Logan wants Jack brought in.
When Buchanan find out that Tony, Jack and David Palmer conspired against him and the rest of CTU when they lead a raid on the Chinese consulate. When Head of Security at the Chinese Consulate, Cheng Zhi comes to CTU for answers Buchanan aids in the cover up until Howard Bern could escape from CTU.
Buchanan is told by Michelle Dessler that a terrorist named Mandy had been calling her. Bill told Michelle she would act like she was going along with Mandy's plan, in order to trap her. Buchanan assured Michelle he would do everything in his power to save Tony, but capturing the hostile was the priority. After Mandy supposedly killed herself and Tony, Michelle was devastated. Buchanan suggested that she go home. She steps down as Director of CTU. Later Jack calls Bill and says that Tony and Mandy were actually alive. He patches the call through to Michelle.
When after finding out that Jack Bauer was being handed over to the Chinese, Buchanan informed the Secret Service agent that Jack Bauer was a hero. The alarm at CTU goes off and they go under lockdown only to find out that Jack Bauer has escaped. In a shootout Bill sees Jack get shot by the Secret Service agent. He informs Audrey Raines about what happened.
After Day 4, Michelle Dessler steps down as director of CTU. She and Tony retire and Buchanan becomes the full-time Director of CTU.
[edit] Day 5
At the start of Day 5 Buchanan and the rest of the CTU staff struggle to find a connection between the assassination of David Palmer and the death of Michelle Dessler. Curtis Manning who is now Chief of Staff at CTU came forward with information that proved that Tony, Michelle, Chloe and David Palmer all had contact with each other the day Jack Bauer was killed. Buchanan then realizes that it has something to do with Jack's death. Not too long later DOD liaison Audrey Raines arrives at CTU. Buchanan updates her on the situation.
Later Buchanan briefs President Logan from the situation room on the Palmer investigation. Buchanan suggests that Logan postpone the treaty signing with the Russians but President Logan refuses. Edgar Stiles shows Buchanan and Audrey some footage of a security camera that would reveal who it was that shot David Palmer. They were shocked to see Jack Bauer's face on the screen. Buchanan explains to Audrey that Jack had a good reason to stage his own death because he was about to be handed over to the Chinese. Buchanan puts out a warrant for Jack's arrest and believes that Jack was forcing Chloe O'Brian to help him. After Chloe was captured Buchanan ordered her to tell him where Jack was and she refused. He ordered her to be brought in to CTU. Buchanan finds out that there is a hostage situation at Ontario Airport from Jack Bauer when he calls CTU. Buchanan tells Jack to stand down and let his people handle it, but Jack refuses and says that he does not work for him anymore. Buchanan takes the information anyway after he is informed by Spencer Wolff of the hostage situation.
During the hostage situation at Ontario Airport, an upper-level administrator from CTU's Regional Division named Lynn McGill was appointed by the White House to supervise Buchanan and the rest of the LA team. Although the two characters appear to have a history together, it is still unknown how they knew each other before Day 5. Right before Curtis Manning and the CTU TAC team were about to storm the airport based on Jack's false information, Lynn McGill ordered the teams to stand down because McGill found a distress signal in Jack's phone conversation with CTU. Buchanan ordered the TAC teams to abort and move in according to the original plan.
Throughout the morning, Buchanan grew frustrated with McGill's rigid adherence to protocol and his attempts to restrict informality. Buchanan offered to leave but Lynn did not let him. Lynn said that he is only there as a supervisor and that fighting him would not save the hostages. Chloe later proved that one of their own agents have been working against them. Spencer Wolff was performing unauthorized tasks with a level 5 security clearance. Buchanan demanded that he tell them what he was doing and why he was doing it. Buchanan yelled at him and told him that there were lives on the line, but Spencer refused to say anything. When they found out that Spencer had let a man named Hank into CTU, who turned out to be a trained killer, Spencer addmitted that he was part of an internal affars investigation. He was working directly for Walt Cummings at the White House.
CTU analyst Edgar Stiles intercepts a call between Ivan Erwich and Jacob Rossler. When Jack Bauer and the TAC teams raid Jacob Rossler's Apartment they are able to capture him. He says that he will only give the information if he gets an immunity agreement signed by the President. Despite what Jack thinks should happen, Buchanan and McGill tell Jack to accept Rossler's deal. While Jack is still in the apartment Buchanan calls Jack and tells him that the girl with Rossler is Inessa Kovalevsky and she was a 15-year-old sex slave that Rossler bought. She later shoots and kills Rossler.
Lynn McGill becomes suspicious that Audrey Raines may have helped Jack Bauer escape custody. He talks to Buchanan, who tells him that the two had been romantically involved. Audrey tells Buchanan that a man named James Nathanson contacted her and was willing to cooperate, but only if he could talk with Jack Bauer. Buchanan decided to help Audrey aid Jack, going against what McGill wanted him to do. Later when Buchanan attempts to distract Lynn to get him away from Audrey, Lynn catches on and sends Buchanan to holding.
Buchanan was later reinstated when Curtis Manning invoked Article 112, removing McGill on the grounds that he was mentally unfit to run CTU. Manning then reinstated Buchanan as head of CTU Los Angeles. After being let out of holding, Buchanan was told that there was chatter indicating there would be an attack on President Yuri Suvarov's motorcade. Buchanan warned Aaron Pierce and the Secret Service. He also informed President Logan, who had already known.
Around 5 PM Buchanan goes to Tony Almeida who is in medical. When Tony asks for about Michelle, he says that Michelle survived the attack and was in a local hospital. Even though she was killed instantly that morning. He also told Tony that terrorists were in possession of nerve gas. He informed Tony that Christopher Henderson was the prime suspect and was being brought back to CTU by Jack.
Shortly before 10:00 p.m., Buchanan politely tapped Shari Rothenberg, a young woman sent in to replace deceased analyst Edgar Stiles, on the shoulder in a congratulatory manner. Concern arose that Rothenberg might file a meritless sexual harassment claim against Buchanan, based upon her past conduct and her comments to Chloe O'Brian.
A more pressing threat to Buchanan's position as Director of CTU emerged after 10 PM when Homeland Security was ordered to absorb the duties and functions of CTU, following orders from Vice-President Gardner. This move was led by Karen Hayes. Buchanan intended to challenge the Vice President's order by demonstrating his successes in Day 5, with the total support of his staff.
In retaliation to that, Homeland Security bureaucrat, Miles Papazian, suggested that a formal statement discrediting Buchanan might simplify the takeover of CTU. He drafted a document that blamed Buchanan for the day's death toll and for allowing CTU to be compromised. He approached Audrey Raines, a Department of Defense liaison, and tried to coerce her into signing the statement. Fully supportive of Buchanan, she initially declined.
As CTU staff were being relieved from duty by Homeland Security personnel, Raines received a phone call from Jack Bauer. He needed immediate assistance that only Chloe O'Brian could provide, but O'Brian was slated for replacement. Seeing no alternative, Raines negotiated a deal to sign Papazian's statement on the condition that O'Brian be retained. As a result, Bauer got the help he needed but it appeared that Homeland Security was successful in their takeover of CTU. Buchanan, and most of the CTU staff, were let go shortly after 10:00 p.m.
Buchanan met with Bauer and Wayne Palmer shortly after midnight. After being briefed that President Charles Logan was complicit in the assassination of David Palmer and involved with the whole conspiracy that day, Buchanan took Wayne to a safe location.
After escaping CTU detention, Chloe O'Brian aids Jack from Bill Buchanan's home. However, Papazian tracks Chloe's access of the CTU server to Buchanan's home and sends a team to arrest her. Bill receives a call from Karen Hayes, who realizes the complexity of the situation, telling him that Chloe has seven minutes to get out before the team arrives.
When Homeland Security's TAC Team arrives at his house, Buchanan denies that Chloe had ever been there, but when they find evidence that she had been, they take Buchanan into custody. However, knowing that once back at CTU he would be protected by Hayes, Buchanan goes with the team without incident.
At CTU, Buchanan discusses Jack's current situation with Hayes and what should be done. Working together with Hayes and Chloe, they eventually succeed in locating the evidence implicating President Charles Logan and helping Jack obtain it.
Buchanan spends the remainder of the day working with Jack, Chloe, and Karen. When Vladimir Bierko manages to escape custody and take control of a Russian submarine with which he intends to fire missiles at various US cities, Bill and Karen have the Navy scramble F-18 fighters and send Jack with a ground team to resolve the situation.
Later, Bill and Karen are kept out of the loop when Jack, Chloe, Mike Novick, Martha Logan and Aaron Pierce plot to bring down President Logan. Buchanan and Hayes are brought back into the fold when they and the Attorney General are informed that Chloe O'Brian has evidence incriminating Logan. After Logan is arrested and the crisis is over, Buchanan prepares to leave CTU, expecting to be relieved of his command now that Logan is out of office. Hayes, however, assures Buchanan that he will still be needed at CTU and the two make plans to go out together at a later date. Bill's last act of the day is giving Chloe a photograph of herself with Edgar that had been found among his possessions.
[edit] Day 6
Buchanan is still the Special Agent in Charge of CTU at the beginning of Day 6. Between Day 5 and Day 6, he married Karen Hayes.[1]
He, along with Curtis Manning, is at Ellis Airfield as a Hercules C-130 military transport lands in the beginning of Day 6. Buchanan then finalizes the trade with the Chinese for the release for Jack Bauer. Buchanan and Curtis are both shocked at Jack's condition and the fact that he has not spoken a word in two years. Later, he explains that the reason that he is being brought back is a deal that President Wayne Palmer struck with a man named Abu Fayed and that he is to be exchanged for Hamri Al-Assad. When Jack knows what is expected of him, he and Curtis allow Jack to clean himself up. Bill then calls his wife, Karen Hayes, and tells her about Jack's condition and how much worse it is than he expected. Bill and Curtis then proceed to bring Jack to the drop-off point. After a brief phone conversation with the president, Buchanan is instructed to handcuff Bauer to a guardrail nearby. Although Bill relents, he is unable to do anything, and apologizes to Jack.
Bill arrives at CTU to find out that Morris O'Brian and Chloe O'Brian redirected a personal satellite to view Jack, breaking their promise with Fayed. Bill gets very angry with the two, but does not fire them because he needed the manpower.
Later on Chloe informs Bill that she has satellite footage of Jack helping Hamri Al-Assad escape before the missiles hit. Bill orders her to track any chatter on Fayed, and she later uncovers that Fayed is really the terrorist culprit. Bill wants this finding to be kept between the two of them and Chloe agrees.
After Jack is forced to kill Curtis Manning, Bill tries to bolster his spirits by telling him he did great work that day and that Manning had not left Jack any choice. Jack, however, informs him that he is unable to perform his duties anymore.
One of the terrorists sets him, along with many CTU personnel, watch the operation to recover one of the suitcase nukes as it fails and the bomb off. Milo then informs them that an Arabic phrase was overheard at one of the detention facilities. Nadia Yassir translated it as "five visitors," meaning that there are four other nuclear bombs in Abu Fayed's possession.
When disgraced former president Charles Logan is brought into CTU, Logan convinces Buchanan that his wife might be able to help sway Anya Suvarov to help them resolve the situation by the Russian Consulate. Buchanan agrees and provides Logan with a chopper to Martha Logan's residence. Later, when Jack is captured by the Russian Consulate, with Markov refusing to give up information, Buchanan orders an attack on the consulate whether sanctioned by Vice President Noah Daniels or not. He ends up getting permission from both the vice president and Russian President Yuri Suvarov and leads a successful attack along with Mike Doyle.
When found out that there is a mole in CTU, Doyle immediately convicts Nadia Yassir, creating yet another tension between Milo and Doyle. Bill breaks up the fight in the situation room and tells Doyle that it is way out of line. He gives the order that Nadia's system be searched first. Later on Jack finds out that Bill knew that Audrey Raines had died in China and was keeping the information from Jack. Bill said that he did not tell Jack because Jack was about to sacrifice himself for the country. When Nadia Yassir is cleared of being a mole, Bill asks her to come back even though he says that he would quit if he were in her shoes. Nadia agrees to come back. Later when Bill gets a call from his wife Karen Hayes and she says that she is afraid that she is the reason that Vice President Daniels will continue acting as president. Bill comforts her by saying that Daniels does not have a case and that the supreme courts will agree and to let him know when they made a decision. Karen thanks her husband for being there. Bill says, "You don’t have to thank me. It’s my job."
After the capture of lead terrorist Abu Fayed, CTU stages a fake rescue of Fayed hoping that he would lead them to the two remaining suitcase nukes. President Palmer orders a nuclear strike on Fayed's country, which later turns out to be a bluff. It is revealed by the ambassador that his country has captured a general who might have been helping Fayed. Buchanan gets President Palmer to order the ambassador to have the captured general contact Fayed. Nadia Yassir warns Buchanan that there might be some sort of distress signal encoded in the phone call. It turns out that she was right. The general had used the name of someone that had already been dead. The general gives Fayed a signal that he is under duress and being forced to make the call. That prompts Fayed to attempt escape, but Jack Bauer kills Fayed by strangling him with a metal chain.
Just after 11:00pm, Buchanan briefs the staff on the death of Abu Fayed and the end of the terrorist threat. Buchanan thanks all the CTU personnel for all of their hard work. During the briefing Chloe gets a call from Jack. Chloe later admits to him that the reason Jack was calling her was that he wants to trade the Russian bomb's circuit board to the Chinese in exchange for Audrey Raines. After being informed, Buchanan orders Mike Doyle to secure Jack. However, Buchanan allows Jack to contact President Wayne Palmer. Wayne give CTU to go ahead to make the exchange after Jack assures that he will not allow the board to get into Chinese hands. Karen later informs Buchanan that Vice President Daniels is now the acting president and wants Jack Bauer and the whole operation stopped. Buchanan calls Doyle, who is riding alongside Jack, and tells him that he must disarm Jack and bring him in. Jack forces Doyle out of the car after the phone conversation and goes ahead with the mission. This allows for the rescue of Audrey Raines without Buchanan directly disobeying superior orders.
Mike Doyle calls Buchanan, informs him that Jack has escaped, and was at large attempting to get the circuit board to Cheng. Buchanan announces to the CTU staff that Jack Bauer has gone rogue. He also asks Chloe if she can be trusted to do this task. He says that he needs his best people for this. She assures him that she can. After CTU gets a lead on Jack, Karen calls him and says that she needs to tell him something.
Later Morris O'Brian comes to Buchanan in his office and asks to be transferred out of comm. Buchanan asks if it has something to do with him and Chloe. Morris says yes. Though reluctant, Buchanan agrees to see what he can do. After Morris leaves, he calls Karen back and she informs him that she is being forced to fire him from CTU to protect herself and the President, as the Department of Justice wanted a fall guy for Fayed being allowed to slip through CTU/Homeland Security earlier, before he was a known threat. Buchanan is angry about this because he did not do anything wrong and did everything by the book. He hangs up on her, and contacts division. On his way out, he tells Nadia Yassir that he is stepping down and that she will be temporarily in charge of CTU until division sends a replacement. When asked why, by Nadia he simply says, "It's just politics." Security escorts him out of the building and Nadia announces to CTU that she is now acting Director.
Around 4:00am, Buchanan is at home where he is dealing with an FBI search of his home. When his cell phone rings, he sees that it is Karen and he does not answer. Then he answers when he hears her voice on the home answering machine. She tells him that Vice President Daniels is about to go through with an exchange between Josh Bauer and the subcircuitboard. She believes that it is a bad idea and begs Bill to intervene. Not too long later Buchanan crashes his truck with the CTU SUV that was transporting Jack back to CTU causing them to go off the road. When Buchanan is talking to the agents Jack comes behind Agent Turner and causes him to drop his weapon. After handcuffing the two agents to their car, Jack and Bill drive away towards the beach. When riding Buchanan gets a call from Karen, who tells him that Secret Service found out about her and that they will be arresting her any time. She thanked him and told him she loved him.
Bill and Jack arrive at the beach seconds after the fake subcircuit board explodes in Mike Doyle's face. They summon medical help for him after calling CTU. Jack tells Buchanan that the Vice President ordered the destruction of the oil rig by air. Jack says that he cannot let Josh die like that. Buchanan says that he is willing to pilot the chopper to help Jack get Josh back. They commandeer a CTU helicopter and fly out to sea together against the White House and CTU. Buchanan asks Nadia for the thermal-Intel of the rig so they would know the number and location of hostiles on the rig. She eventually gives it to them. When Buchanan flies over the rig, Jack secures the landing pad. After landing, Jack kills all the hostiles and wounds Cheng. Buchanan takes Cheng back to the chopper and waits for Jack. Josh comes running and tells him that Jack is still with his father. When Buchanan communicates with Jack through comm., Jack tells him to fly along the side of the rig so that Jack can be picked up. Jack jumps on the ladder seconds before the missiles hit the rig.
While flying away, Jack falls off and swims ashore. When Josh wants to go back for him, Bill says that he is not ready to go back to CTU yet. Buchanan flies Josh back to CTU. After bringing Josh and Cheng in, Bill goes and speaks to Nadia Yassir. Bill says how good her work was today. When she asks him where Jack is, Bill tells her that Jack does not want to be found right now. Vice President Daniels pardons both Bill and Karen for their actions in Jack's favor, with the understanding they will both resign quietly.
[edit] Day 7
Although the actor originally wrote on his official website that he would not be returning to the series for its seventh season, he said that he will be returning to the show after all on August 8, 2007.[2] Bill is briefly shown in the first official 24 season 7 trailer with white hair in an as of yet unknown position this season. He appears to be working alongside Chloe O'Brian.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Mitovich, Matt (January 15, 2007). James Morrison, 24: CTU's Boss Teases the Next 22 Hours. Retrieved on 2008-05-14.
- ^ James Morrison: Acting
- ^ FOX Broadcasting Company: 24
[edit] External links
- Character biography on the official 24 website
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Counter Terrorist Unit Staff on 24
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| Jack Bauer | Kim Bauer | Tony Almeida | Nina Myers | Milo Pressman | Ryan Chappelle | Michelle Dessler | Chloe O'Brian | Chase Edmunds | Curtis Manning | Edgar Stiles | Bill Buchanan | Karen Hayes | Morris O'Brian | Nadia Yassir | Minor Agents |
