Charles Logan (24 character)
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| 24 character | |
|---|---|
 Gregory Itzin as Charles Logan |
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| Charles Logan | |
| Portrayed by | Gregory Itzin |
| Day | 4, 5, 6 |
Charles Logan is a fictional character played by Gregory Itzin in the television series 24. During the show's fourth season, Logan is the American Vice President who is sworn into office as Acting President after President John Keeler is critically injured in a terrorist attack. Although Itzin physically resembles Richard Nixon and shares some of the same physical mannerisms, series creator Joel Surnow said in an interview with talk radio host Rush Limbaugh that the resemblance is purely a coincidence.[1]
Itzin was nominated for a 2006 Supporting Actor Emmy Award for this role (losing to Alan Alda).
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[edit] Characteristics
Charles Logan possesses several characteristics that diminish his capacity as a President of the United States. He is seemingly incapable of making hard decisions quickly and for himself and relies on the recommendations of his advisors. If no advisors are available, he would rather withdraw himself from the situation entirely. Additionally, his resolve is weak, as he rarely ever stands firmly behind a decision he has already made.
In real life, Gregory Itzin was commended for his portrayal of a weak President. Logan played his part as an undercover conspirator brilliantly, coming out as a shock when the news was first released. [2]
After Season 5 revealed that Logan was behind the backfiring conspiracy, show executive producer Evan Katz said that the President was more of a man hiding a secret and was just being a little smarter about how he projects himself. Star Kiefer Sutherland also noted that people like Logan who are underestimated can become very dangerous because it gives them a sort of cover. [3]
Overall, reaction was mixed to the revelation that Logan was one of the main villains. Many praised the revelation as one of the show's better plot twists, while others criticized the twist as nothing more than shock value, and speculated how Logan could not have been involved in the conspiracy.
In the commentary for the show's fifth season DVD, Itzin mentions how he, with the help of Jean Smart, who played his wife Martha, developed an extensive backstory for Logan to help focus his performance. Among other things, he decided that Logan was the son of a distinguished military and political leader. Logan's father physically abused him as a child, which Logan references twice in the finale; first when he tells Jack that he's a lot tougher than he appears to be, then again when he warns Martha that she doesn't know what pain is.
The backstory also included the Logans' son, who died tragically in his twenties several years ago (which might have been the cause of Martha's mental breakdown). Throughout the day, Logan carried a small chain in his pocket which had been a gift from his son, though most shots that show the chain (such as when his pockets are emptied when Jack interrogates him) were cut for time. Itzin also commented that David Palmer was also a friend to Logan's son and would visit him extensively.
Logan's reappearance in the sixth season show a man who is deeply sorry about his actions in the previous season. Logan has all but stated he is now a born again Christian and is searching for redemption. A scene of Logan in private confirms this, showing him grasping a Bible and quoting a passage for comfort. While he showed no ulterior motives, both President Wayne Palmer and Logan's ex-wife Martha understandably showed doubt as to whether Logan has truly changed. His recent actions have, once again, mirrored that of Richard Nixon, who himself became more religious and deeply sorrowful about his criminal activities in the years following the Watergate scandal.
[edit] Appearances
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This 24 section mainly consists of a plot summary. |
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[edit] Day 4
Logan is in Washington D.C. when it is learnt that Captain Mitch Anderson, a disgraced Air Force pilot working for terrorist leader Habib Marwan, has commandeered a stealth fighter with the intention of shooting down Air Force One. President John Keeler contacted Logan, telling him that if the worst should occur, to consider Keeler a casualty and continue forward. Logan is visibly troubled by this and assures Keeler it would not come to that.
Efforts to neutralize the stealth fighter or to convince its pilot to stand down in time fail. The stealth fighter is shot down by Air Force One's escort planes but not before Anderson manages to score an indirect missile hit on Air Force One. The fatally damaged plane makes a crash-landing and the President's status is not immediately known. Though President Keeler is located alive, his injuries are critical and require immediate attention. With President Keeler incapacitated, the cabinet unanimously votes to invoke the 25th Amendment, appointing Logan Acting President with full executive authority.
Immediately after being sworn in, Logan is informed by one of his senior advisors Mike Novick that Marwan and his people have managed to recover several of the codes to the nation's nuclear arsenal. While Marwan's people manage to steal a nuclear warhead and successfully launche it on board a missile, government forces, in particular the Counter Terrorist Unit in Los Angeles, are desperately tracking Marwan.
Unfortunately, Logan soon proved unprepared for the grave responsibility that had been thrust upon him or for the grave threat he had inherited. One clear example of this occurred when CTU personnel arrested Joe Prado, an American civilian who had worked for Marwan. After an attorney on Prado's behalf demands that he be charged with a crime or released, Logan is hesitant to face the political risk of continuing to detain Prado, despite the insistence of CTU and of Mike Novick that Prado is their only link to Marwan and their only hope of finding him in time.
Unwilling to let Logan waste precious time while coming to a decision, CTU agent Jack Bauer convinces his superiors to release Prado, then, acting on his own, proceeded to torture Prado until he reveales one of Marwan's hiding places. Logan, furious that Bauer has acted without his approval, dispatches the Secret Service to arrest him, however they reach Bauer during an operation to capture Marwan and their interruption allows Marwan to escape.
For a time, at least, Logan doubts his own inability to govern during this crisis. In response, Novick suggests recruiting David Palmer as an advisor, due to the crises he has faced.
Though Logan initially welcomes Palmer's counsel, as hours passed, Logan becomes increasingly isolated while Palmer and Novick assume a more active role in leading the search for Marwan.
Eventually CTU forces locate Marwan. Though he kills himself to avoid capture, they are able to use his equipment to track the missile and shoot it down before it reaches its target. Despite his awkward handling of the situation and his eagerness to pass responsibility onto others, Logan is quick to accept credit and congratulations from various officials for his presumed handling of the crises. His only concession to Palmer is a private statement that he had "played a role".
In the midst of the crisis, a second one emerges when Palmer authorizes a covert CTU operation led by Bauer to extract Lee Jong, a Chinese citizen and associate of Marwan's, from the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles. During the incident, the Chinese Consul is killed by friendly fire.
Chinese officials eventually linked the operation back to Jack Bauer and demand his extradition. Walt Cummings, Logan's security aide, points out the danger of turning someone with Bauer's knowledge over to the Chinese. He suggests arranging Bauer's murder to prevent this. Though Logan vocally rejects this proposal in front of Palmer and Novick, Novick later overhears a phone conversation in which Cummings orders the Secret Service agent sent to pick up Bauer to kill him before the transfer.
Novick warns Palmer, who in turn informed Logan. Logan, however, refuses to believe Palmer, or at least do anything about it. Palmer himself then warns Bauer of the situation, and Bauer and several of his associates at CTU arrange a scenario in which Bauer appears to have been killed while trying to escape. While Bauer goes into hiding, Logan believes the situation has been taken care of, unaware of the truth.
[edit] Day 5
Logan is still president at the start of season 5 and is preparing to meet Russian president Yuri Suvarov to sign an anti-terrorism defense treaty. Logan, seeing the treaty as the highlight of his Presidency, will not permit any delays. He is startled by news of the assassination of David Palmer but insists the signing continue on schedule. The situation is further complicated when a group of east-European separatists attack a nearby airport and take several hostages. They demand the treaty be renounced or they will begin executing hostages. Logan immediately orders CTU to organize a rescue.
The First Lady insists that Palmer had tried to contact her to warn her of a possible attack. Logan is sympathetic but is skeptical given her history of mental illness. He eventually agrees to have her sent away to a mental health facility.
CTU is ultimately successful in rescuing the hostages and the treaty is signed on schedule, though one terrorist, a sleeper posing as one of the hostages, manages to escape with a large shipment of nerve gas.
Soon after, Walt Cummings comes to Logan and admits his involvement in everything that has happened but insists it to be for a greater good. He claims the nerve gas will be released before it can threaten any American or Russian targets. Cummings' claims the nerve gas threat will provide a justification for a stronger U.S. presence in Asia and promote a greater acquisition of oil from the region. Cummings tells him the American agent monitoring the nerve gas has gone dark and even Cummings cannot stop him now. Logan is appalled but does not see any way out of the situation.
Meanwhile, Jack Bauer, who had emerged from hiding to find who had ordered Palmer's assassination, has discovered Cummings is involved and knew more than he had told Logan. After Jack manages to convince Secret Service agent Aaron Pierce to let him speak with the President, he is able to reveal the truth to Logan and physically confront Cummings, who confesses. Logan promptly orders Cummings arrested. Unfortunately when government forces move in on the location of the nerve gas, they find it missing and the American agent dead. The terrorists had apparently discovered Cummings's plan.
Logan has Jack temporarily reinstated with CTU, though both men agree he will have to go back into hiding once the crisis passed, due to fears of how China would feel, should they learn Bauer is still alive.
Logan also manages to stop his wife before she leaves the retreat. She initially reacts coldly to him for not having trusted her, though the two soon reconcile and begin drafting a public statement about Cummings' actions. This is interrupted when Mike Novick informs them that Cummings has been found, after committing suicide. Following Cummings' death, Logan decides against the release of the statement to avoid any political fallout.
Later on, the terrorists, led by Ivan Erwich, take a canister of the nerve gas into a shopping mall in Los Angeles. CTU head Lynn McGill urges Logan to allow them to use the gas in the mall, potentially killing up to 900 people, in the hopes of catching the terrorists and finding the other 19 canisters of Nerve Gas and rationalizing that few may have to die in order to save potentially hundreds of thousands. Despite Audrey Raines' insistence that allowing nine hundred American citizens to be killed would be immoral, Logan decides to allow the release of the nerve gas. Due to intervention from Jack Bauer, acting undercover, many lives are saved in this incident and only 11 people are killed.
Immediately thereafter, Vladimir Bierko, head of the Russian separatists, forces Logan to make a critical decision; give up the Russian President's motorcade route or risk the launch of the 19 remaining nerve gas containers on US soil. Ultimately, Logan decides to provide the terrorists with the route. However, as the motorcade departs, Logan's wife decides to join the motorcade behind his back in a final attempt to have him order them back. Logan is shown agonizing over the decision to not turn back the motorcade, and prays with Novick. CTU eventually realises the threat and notifies the motorcade. However, the terrorists believe Logan double crossed them and now plan to use the Sentox against the American people. After this, Logan receives a visit from Vice President Hal Gardner, who suggests that Logan implement martial law until the terrorists are stopped. Logan does so, much to the dismay and concern of Martha, Novick.
[edit] Treason revealed
By 11:00 p.m. on Day 5, it is revealed that Charles Logan is orchestrating and/or approving of all of the actions of Christopher Henderson, thereby making him complicit in the assassination of David Palmer and Michelle Dessler, as well as the attempted murders of Tony Almeida, Chloe O'Brian, Jack Bauer, Aaron Pierce and Wayne Palmer who was seeking to determine the White House's involvement in his brother's death. He also authorized Henderson and James Nathanson to frame Bauer for Palmer's death. In addition, through Nathanson, he and his co-conspirators coordinated the hostage situation at Ontario Airport to give the terrorists time to seize the Sentox canisters. It was also revealed that Walt Cummings was simply intended to be a scapegoat, that he had no idea the President was involved, and that his death was a murder, not a suicide.
Logan discloses to Henderson at about 11:05 p.m. that the events of the day had gone horribly wrong, as he had never meant for the terrorists to activate the canisters or for innocent American lives to be lost. Indeed, Logan's motivations are in line with those of Nathanson, Cummings's middleman and Graem's low-level associate. All men involved in the conspiracy (Graem and his cabal, Logan, Henderson, Nathanson, and Cummings) intended to eliminate the Russian separatists and provide an excuse to increase America's oil interests in Central Asia.
With terrorist threat having finally been thwarted by CTU shortly before 10:00 p.m., Logan turns his full attention to eliminating all evidence connecting him to the day's events. Specifically, Logan orders Henderson to stop Bauer and Wayne Palmer from recovering an audio tape in which he reveals his involvement in Palmer's death. Martha Logan's aide Evelyn Martin had hidden the audio tape in a safety deposit box in a bank.
Logan phones Karen Hayes at CTU to notify that he was issuing an executive warrant against Bauer for the murder of David Palmer. When questioned as to the reasons for the warrant, Logan claims he has new "evidence" which he will disclose after Bauer is in custody.
Later in the hour, Logan attempts to placate Vice President Gardner, who had been put in charge of overseeing CTU through the terrorist crisis. Gardner claims that Bauer is a hero, but Logan again maintains that there is new evidence implicating Bauer. He tells Gardner not to question his authority.
Henderson and his men attempt to kill Bauer and Palmer as they exit the bank, but Bauer trips the bank's alarm, bringing the Los Angeles Police Department and the military, who engage Henderson's men in gunfire, and allow Bauer and Palmer the opportunity to escape in a squad car with the tape. Bauer then heads to Van Nuys Airport to hand off the tape to Secretary of Defense James Heller, with the intent to bring down Logan.
Through Homeland Security, operating out of CTU, Logan learns that Bauer is at the airport. While Henderson is en route to the airport, Heller contacts the president to alert him that he will be at the retreat promptly. When asked why he was coming, Heller replied, "You know exactly what this is about", to Logans silent dismay. With time running out before Heller exposes Logan, Henderson is able to take Audrey hostage and force Jack to surrender the audio tape. Logan is almost forced to confess to Vice President Gardner, but Henderson alerts him that the evidence has been recovered in the nick of time. Logan then tells Gardner that he summoned him because Heller will be resigning for falsely accusing the president of killing David Palmer.
Later, a co-conspirator behind Day 5 is revealed to be a man named Graem, who is later revealed to be Jack's brother in Season 6. He orders Logan to silence Martha, who knows too much. Logan confesses to Martha his culpability in Palmer's death and implores her to remain quiet for the good of the country. Logan tries one final time to control the situation, when Jack Bauer hijacks a 727 plane being co-piloted by the man who has the recording. Graem fakes a VCI signal from the plane, giving Logan the pretense to shoot the plane down. He tries to appear reluctant to do this, but when the plane appears to begin landing, he tries to order the plane shot down immediately, drawing the suspicion of Novick. After the plane lands and Bauer gets away, Logan and Graem come to the conclusion that Logan must commit suicide, rather than face a trial. Logan first visits Martha's room, apologizes for hurting her and begs forgiveness. She tells him that she is horrified to be married to him. Despondent, Logan returns to his office and prepares to pull the trigger. Just before he can finish, Logan receives a call from Miles Papazian at CTU, telling him that he will intervene and stop the recording from being made available to the United States Attorney General. Logan tells Miles that he approves of the action and will not forget him. Logan then hangs up and puts the gun back in its case, smiling.
Logan then begins tying up all remaining loose ends. He alerts Karen Hayes that he is now canceling the arrest warrant for Jack Bauer, intending for him to be eliminated once he is in the open. Logan also meets with Aaron Pierce, whom he had taken prisoner before he could meet with Martha several hours earlier. Pierce refuses any deal with Logan and calls him a "disgrace to the office." Logan orders Agent Adams to kill Pierce.
Martha helps Pierce escape by shooting Agent Adams with his own gun and then gets in contact with Mike Novick. He asks her to stall Logan until Bauer can arrive to hijack Marine One, which is about to take him to the military base where the body of David Palmer is being loaded onto a plane. She does so, allowing Bauer to abduct Logan and attempt unsuccessfully to extract a confession from him. However, unbeknownst to the president, Jack placed a microtransmitter in Logan's pen while frisking him. As Palmer's casket arrives, Martha accuses her husband publicly, calling him a murderer. Logan goes indoors and strikes Martha, incriminating himself by admitting to involvement in Palmer's assassination and the murders committed to cover it up. At CTU, Chloe O'Brian passes on the transmission from the microtransceiver to the Attorney General without the knowledge of Karen Hayes or Bill Buchanan. After Logan delivers a eulogy filled with lies to David Palmer, he is taken into custody by the Secret Service, and glares at Martha and Novick with a defeated look as he gets into the limo. Graem, however, would not be implicated and remained at large.
Jack's victory is short-lived as he is abducted by Cheng Zhi and Chinese agents soon after. It's possible Logan may have revealed Jack being alive to them as he had mentioned to Graem he was taking steps to eliminate Bauer shortly after the death of Henderson.
Karen Hayes speculates near the end of the episode that Logan may be granted clemency for his treasonous actions and killings in exchange for his immediate resignation, in order to protect the country from the shock and embarrassment of impeachment and a trial. Hal Gardner was then expected to be sworn in as the new President.
Hayes' predictions were shown to be generally true in Season 6. Logan was convicted of obstruction of justice, but the public never learned of the former president's role in the assassinations or nerve gas conspiracy. Logan was sentenced to house arrest at his estate near Los Angeles.
[edit] Day 6
After Jack learns his father Philip Bauer was involved in the conspiracy that assassinated David Palmer, he confronts Philip. After a tense standoff, Philip flees, leaving behind a phone with instructions to call a certain number.
Logan answers and agrees to assist in the search for Dmitri Gredenko, a former Soviet general. Logan instructs Jack to come to his home in Los Angeles to talk further, stating that CTU knows his location.
Jack visits Logan at his ranch to procure the information that Logan is offering. He reveals that one of Gredenko's supporters, Anatoly Markov, was involved in Logan's conspiracy, and that Logan intends to use this as leverage in order to gain information on Gredenko. Jack initially expects Logan to demand a deal in exchange for his cooperation; Logan insists that he has changed, and that he simply wants to redeem himself by helping Jack. Jack is skeptical, as is President Palmer, who Logan tells that he wants to assist him like David Palmer assisted Logan himself during Season 4. Logan asserts that the reason for his change is that he has rediscovered his faith.
Still skeptical of Logan, Jack convinces President Palmer to grant an executive order for Logan's temporary release, and the two head to the Russian consulate to find Markov.
Despite lacking Jack's complete trust, Logan enters the consulate alone to confront Markov. Logan threatens to implicate Markov in the Sentox conspiracy unless he gives up Gredenko, but Markov insists that he knows nothing of Gredenko's current activities. Logan leaves the consulate convinced that Markov is lying. This prompts Jack to sneak into the consulate alone, despite Logan's warning that doing so will create an international incident similar to the earlier Chinese crisis.
Logan is sent to see his hospitalized wife Martha to try to persuade her to phone the Suvarovs, to enlist their help with the situation at the Russian consulate. During the visit, Martha is resentful of Charles and is disgusted by his presence after everything he did. Just when it is agreed that Martha would make the call, in a sudden fit of rage she stabs him in the shoulder with a kitchen knife, severing an artery. Logan is rushed to the hospital, but begins to flatline en route, with his last word being "Martha" before losing consciousness. The fate of President Logan and any future appearance on 24 is, at this time, unknown.
[edit] References
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