Arguably the series best season to date, season 5 of 24 literally starts with a bang and never lets up, with an intricate executivelevel conspiracy to control Central Asias oil supply. Piling crisis upon crisis in an escalating series of deceptions, twists, and deeply hidden agendas, the daylong ordeal begins with a devastating political assassination connected to a disgraced former CTU agent Peter Weller and a radical group of Russian separatists led by British actor Julian Sands threatening to release lethal nerve gas in Los Angeles to protest a U.S./Russian treaty about to be signed by President Charles Logan Gregory Itzin. As Logans unstable wife Martha Jean Smart, Secret Service agent Aaron Pierce Glenn Morshower, and chief of staff Mike Novick Jude Ciccolella gradually uncover the conspiracy, CTU maverick Jack Bauer series star Kiefer Sutherland emerges from selfimposed exile to aid his CTU colleagues in a lifethreatening quest for the truth. Meanwhile, CTU chief Bill Buchanan James Morrison is thwarted by an inexperienced, overbearing superior Sean Astin and an executive takeover of CTU led by Homeland Security chief Karen Hayes Jayne Atkinson, forcing Bauer and his CTU loyalists to go dark and work independently to honor the memory of a slain friend and leader. Also figuring in are CTUs resident hackernerd extraordinaire, Chloe OBrian played to perfection by Mary Lynn Rajskub, Bauers estranged daughter Elisha Cuthbert, and his beloved CTU colleague Audrey Raines Kim Raver.