Bill Buchanan (24 character)

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24 character
Bill Buchanan
Gender	Male
Jobs held	CTU - Special Agent in Charge, Los Angeles Domestic Unit Division - Associate Special Agent in Charge, Los Angeles Office Division - Senior Agent, Seattle Office Division - Intelligence Analyst, Seattle Office CTU - Agent, New York Domestic Unit
Affiliation	CTU
Family	NA
Spouse	Karen Hayes
Current status	Active
Portrayed by	James Morrison
Seasons	4, 5, 6

Bill Buchanan is a fictional character played by James Morrison as part of the television series, 24.

[edit] Character outline

William "Bill" Buchanan is the current Special Agent in Charge of the Los Angeles Domestic Unit of the Counter Terrorist Unit.

He previously was an Associate Special Agent in Charge at the Los Angeles Office's Division headquarters. He took the place of Ryan Chappelle who was the Los Angeles Regional Division Director after he was killed in Day 3 by Jack Bauer. 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 Operation Hell Gate, it is stated that he is on a conference call with Nina Myers.

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.

He is currently married to Karen Hayes.

[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 and Behrooz trade off between CTU and Habib Marwan. From then on, Bill stayed on with reigning authority, with the same level of jurisdiction that Ryan Chappelle had in previous seasons. After Day 4, Buchanan became the full-time director of CTU.

[edit] Day 5

During Day 5, 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 L.A. team. Although the two characters appear to have a history together, it is still unknown how they know each other before Day 5. Buchanan grew frustrated with McGill's rigid adherence to protocol and his attempts to restrict informality. Crisis after crisis rattled the relatively inexperienced McGill - notably, he was unable to control the actions of agent Jack Bauer and the CTU staffers that rallied to Bauer's aid, most of whom defied his orders. In retaliation, the increasingly paranoid McGill relieved Buchanan from command and had him removed to a CTU holding cell. 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.

Bill in the Situation Room.

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 CTU director emerged after 10:00 p.m. 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 may 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 to sign 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 conspiricacy 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, realizing 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, 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 disscuses 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

Bill 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.

He, along with Curtis Manning, are 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.

Later, he explains that the reason that he is being brought back is because of 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 then 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 at the two, but doesn't 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. Jack, however, informs him that he is unable to perform his duties anymore.

He, along with many CTU personnel, watch the operation to recover one of the suitcase nukes as it fails and the bomb is set off by one of the terrorists. 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 tell 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.

[edit] External links

• Character biography on the official 24 website