The Complete Idiot’s Guide to “24”: Season Four

Picks up 18 months after Day 3. As a result of his actions on that day, Jack was fired from CTU. He now works as a senior advisor to Secretary of Defense James Heller. He has also begun a secret affair with Heller’s daughter, Audrey Raines, who is currently separated from her husband Paul. But once again, Jack gets sucked back into working for CTU when Heller and Audrey are kidnapped by terrorists. Even after Jack manages to rescue Heller and Audrey, the terrorist attacks keep coming – yet again it’s about the nukes. The time around the main baddy/villain is played by Arnold Vosloo, aka The Mummy.

Notable events in this season include a nuclear reactor melting down in one city, a stolen stealth fighter plane managing to shoot down Air Force One while current President Keeler was on board, and the subsequent promoting of wimpy and incompetent Vice President Charles Logan to the position of President after Keeler dies. And most importantly, this is the season where Jack unfortunately angers the Chinese when, during an illegal raid of the Chinese Consulate in order to kidnap a key witness who is hiding there, a Chinese Council is accidentally killed by gun crossfire, which causes a major diplomatic problem between China and the U.S. The Chinese want to kidnap Bauer and torture him as revenge, but Logan would rather just have Bauer killed instead. However, Jack outsmarts them all, and fakes his own death (with the secret help of Chloe, Tony, Michelle, and Palmer). Jack then goes into hiding after he is declared “dead”. (Full S4 episode guide at Fox.com)