Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
On the day of California's presidential primary, Counter Terrorist Unit director Jack Bauer learns that Senator David Palmer faces an assassination plot. The threat becomes personal when mercenaries led by Ira Gaines kidnap Jack's wife, Teri, and their teenage daughter, Kim, forcing Jack to help kill Palmer. Jack works outside CTU's rules while colleagues try to expose a mole feeding information to the kidnappers. The first half ends with Jack rescuing Teri and Kim, but the larger conspiracy is still moving.
The kidnappers were hired by Andre and Alexis Drazen, who seek revenge for a secret Kosovo operation Jack carried out two years earlier under orders from a Senate panel chaired by Palmer. Jack discovers that the government had concealed the real Victor Drazen as a prisoner after the mission killed his wife and daughter. The Drazens want Palmer dead, Jack framed, and Victor freed. Meanwhile, Palmer confronts a political scandal involving his son Keith and his wife Sherry, whose choices deepen his distrust of her.
When the Drazens force Palmer's death to be staged, Sherry publicly exposes the deception and Palmer ends their marriage. Jack kills Andre and Victor at the port, then learns Nina Myers, his CTU colleague, was the mole who killed analyst Jamey Farrell and disguised it as suicide. Jack finds proof and moves to have Nina arrested, but she shoots her way through CTU. Kim is safe; Teri is not: Nina leaves her with fatal gunshot wounds, and Jack discovers his wife dead just before the day ends.