Major subplots

The show rotates between the points of view of each of the five main cast members: Jack Bauer, Teri Bauer, Nina Myers, Kim Bauer, and David Palmer, as well as one main villain—Mandy for the first three hours, followed by Ira Gaines, Andre Drazen, and finally Victor Drazen. The day's situations—both ongoing events and the relationships between these five characters and their associates—form the basis for the season's subplots.

• A mole at CTU is sabotaging efforts to stop the assassination.
• Jack finds himself in situations where he confronts his complex personal definition of compromise.
• Members of the Bauer family are rebuilding their relationships now that Jack has moved home after being separated from Teri for six months.
• There are tensions between Jack and two of his co-workers: Nina Myers and Tony Almeida. Nina is in a relationship with Tony but she was previously involved with Jack.
• Political scandals threaten to erupt when the press learns that Palmer's daughter had been raped seven years ago and that Palmer's son was accused of killing the rapist.
• Kim begins to have feelings for Rick Allen, even though he was originally hired to kidnap her.
• Teri develops personal problems as a result of the day's stress and revelations.
• After Sherry Palmer lies to her husband and tries to undermine his campaign, David Palmer realizes that she is only using their marriage to further her political ambitions.
• Jack endures personal anguish when he is forced to choose between protecting David Palmer and protecting his wife and daughter.

Summary

Season 1 starts and ends at 12:00 a.m. PST. The season's first half centers on the efforts of a terrorist cell led by Ira Gaines to assassinate presidential candidate David Palmer. Jack Bauer, a federal agent working for Los Angeles' Counter Terrorist Unit, is sent on the case to put a stop to this assassination plot, but he only becomes professionally and personally involved with the case after the terrorist cell kidnaps Jack Bauer's wife Teri and daughter Kim in order to force him to aid in the assassination and take the fall for Palmer's death. Jack eventually defeats this cell and Gaines in the process of saving his wife and daughter, but this only leads to information about a second group of terrorists who had employed the first cell.

At the same time, all throughout the day, David Palmer faces several challenges to his presidential campaign, not only facing two assassination attempts, but also learning about a scandal involving his son that threatens the destruction of his candidacy that he ultimately solves after some great difficulty. He also discovers his wife Sherry Palmer's ruthless attempts to both manipulate him and undermine his campaign to further her own political ambitions, and learns about Jack's attempts to protect him, and begins assisting him.

The second terrorist cell is led by those ultimately responsible for the day's events: Andre and Alexis Drazen. Two years ago, to the day, Bauer was sent as part of a classified team to Kosovo on the orders of a secret U.S. Congressional panel headed by Palmer to kill Victor Drazen, Slobodan Milošević's "shadow." In order to keep the operation totally secret, the panel never met nor knew the team of operatives, nor did the team know the panel. Therefore, Palmer and Bauer never knew about each other. The Drazens found out about both Palmer's and Bauer's involvement in the attack against their father and the death of his daughter and his wife. Incidentally, Bauer was believed to be the only operative still alive, and the whole assassination plot was to practice revenge: Palmer would be dead, Jack would be imprisoned for the assassination, and his family would be killed. During the last few hours of the day, other surprising twists are revealed. Bauer's team had only killed Drazen's body double, while Drazen's wife and daughter, however, were inadvertently killed, prompting the "eye for an eye" aspect of the plot: as Drazen's wife and daughter died, so would Bauer's wife and daughter. The real Victor Drazen is actually a top secret, unofficial prisoner of the U.S. government, and the Drazens' primary goal was to free him.

Eventually, to satisfy the Drazens, Palmer's death is faked. The Drazens recapture Bauer's daughter Kim and offer to exchange her life for Bauer's. However, Kim manages to escape, and the Drazens soon learn that Palmer is still alive. After Sherry anonymously exposes the truth of Palmer's survival on TV, an angered Palmer officially divorces her. With time running out on his chance to escape before he is recaptured, in desperation, the freed Victor Drazen calls his mole inside CTU, who is revealed to be Nina Myers, who had been assisting Jack all throughout the day and once had a relationship with him in the past. Drazen orders Nina to call Bauer and tell him that his daughter is dead and that the U.S. Coast Guard has found her body. Drazen knows that a grieving Jack will attack him, and he believes he, his son Andre Drazen (the other, Alexis, having been seriously injured earlier by an aide to Sen. Palmer and later dying of his wounds during transportation to the Drazen hideout) and their henchmen can kill Jack. Nina is reluctant, knowing that if Drazen's plan fails, Jack will very quickly learn that Kim is not dead and that, since Nina lied to him, she must be the mole, but ultimately follows Drazen's order.

Drazen's plot backfires rather spectacularly, as an enraged Jack kills Drazen's son and guards, and ultimately corners Victor Drazen before killing him, after both have exchanged fire in a shootout. Afterwards, Jack speaks with a member of the Coast Guard to arrange to claim his daughter's body, but the Coast Guard informs Bauer that they did not find a body that night. Bauer realizes the truth that Nina is the mole, and calls CTU Director George Mason and tells him to detain Myers, but Myers, who heard that Bauer had survived, was already preparing for exfiltration by erasing all the incriminating information of herself on CTU's computer. Bauer's wife, Teri, is confused about the events surrounding Jack's attempt to rescue their daughter, and looks for Myers, whom she trusts. Teri realizes that Myers is the mole, however, and Myers ties her to a chair. Jack comes to CTU and lets the agents take Myers into custody, as opposed to killing her. However, Jack then discovers his wife's body in the chair with a fatal gunshot wound to her abdomen, having already been murdered by Myers, and the season ends with Jack cradling his dead wife in his arms.

Starring

• Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer (24 episodes)
• Leslie Hope as Teri Bauer (24 episodes)
• Sarah Clarke as Nina Myers (24 episodes)
• Elisha Cuthbert as Kim Bauer (24 episodes)
• Dennis Haysbert as Senator David Palmer (24 episodes)

Special guest stars

• Carlos Bernard as Tony Almeida (23 episodes)
• Penny Johnson Jerald as Sherry Palmer (22 episodes)
• Richard Burgi as Kevin Carroll (11 episodes)
• Dennis Hopper as Victor Drazen (5 episodes)
• Lou Diamond Phillips as Mark DeSalvo (2 episodes)

Guest starring

Trailer

The trailer for the first season aired some time between April and November, 2001. The trailer announces that David Palmer may become the first black U.S. president and shows Jack Bauer learning about the assassination attempt and corruption within his agency. Notably, the trailer shows the explosion of a commercial plane that was edited out of the show in response to the September 11 attacks.^[27] All other scenes shown are from the premiere episode.

Award nominations