BEWARE OF SPOILERS. Due to the nature of the show, with its many Walking Spoiler characters, twists, and turns, the only spoilers whited out are those for the current season "24: Live Another Day". Proceed with caution!
First Families
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The Palmer Family
David Palmer
See Presidents.
Sherry Palmer
Keith Palmer
Keith Palmer
Played By: Vicellous Shannon
The son of David and Sherry Palmer, who killed his sister's rapist by accident prior to the series and covered it up.
- Accidental Murder: Of his sister's rapist.
- Demoted to Extra: After serving a supporting role in the first season, he only shows up again in the Season 2 premiere, as his other appearances in the season were all deleted for time.
- The Dog Bites Back: Eventually Keith manages to gather his wits about him and brings down Carl Webb with a key piece of evidence gathering.
- Hidden Wire: How he takes down Carl Webb.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He might seem argumentative at first, but in reality he's a good kid.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Keith killed his sister's rapist by accident, and actually feels guilty about it.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: His relationship with his father is complex, to say the least. They do reconcile and are even seen fishing together.
Nicole Palmer
Nicole Palmer
Played By: Megalyn Echikunwoke
The daughter of David and Sherry Palmer. She was raped prior to the series, and was involved in a cover-up after her brother accidentally killed her attacker.
- Rape as Drama: She was raped prior to the series, and much drama stems from the subsequent Accidental Murder of said rapist.
Wayne Palmer
See Presidents.
Sandra Palmer
Sandra Palmer
Played By: Regina King
A legal counselor for the Islamic-American Alliance during the events of Day 6. She was the sister of Presidents David and Wayne Palmer.
- Soapbox Sadie
- Shoo Out the New Guy: Only appeared in nine episodes total before disappearing for good, the lowest episode count for a main cast member during the main series.
The Keeler Family
John Keeler
See Presidents.
Kevin Keeler
Kevin Keeler
Played By: Chris Olivero
The son of President John Keeler. His mother died when he was younger and he was brought up by his father.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Because of Fox's policy that the writers weren't allowed to kill sitting presidents on-screen, Kevin ends up being the one killed in the destruction of Air Force One, with his father (just barely) surviving.
The Logan Family
Charles Logan
See Presidents.
Martha Logan
Martha Logan
"I've forgiven you many things, Charles. But not this. You've broken my heart."
Played By: Jean Smart
The former First Lady and wife of Charles Logan.
- Bodyguard Crush: With Aaron Pierce.
- Demoted to Extra: After serving in a prominent role in the fifth season she makes one more appearance in season six and disappears for good.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: After stabbing Charles and getting restrained and possibly arrested later, she is confused as to why they are arresting her and insists that she should instead be getting a medal for what she did.
- Expy: Of Martha Mitchell, the wife of Attorney General John Mitchell, who tried to expose her husband's involvement in the Watergate scandal, but was labeled as a mentally unwell crank by the Nixon White House.
- My God, What Have I Done?: She's horrified after she stabs Charles and begins weeping and apologizing.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: One
Alternative Character Interpretation of Charles was that he did want to redeem himself for his actions on Day 5, and when Martha nearly killed him it caused him to see that Being Good Sucks and stick to being a villain exclusively on Day 8. If that was truly the case, than this would certainly apply. Then again, considering how awful Logan treated her, it's REALLY hard to blame her for wanting him dead. - Only Sane Woman: Interestingly, since she's clinically unstable, but she's still the most moral and determined person near Logan with the possible exception of Aaron Pierce.
- "Psycho" Strings: Used when she appeared to suggest she was off her medication, before it turns out she might be right. Used again when she appears in season six shortly before stabbing Charles.
- Sanity Slippage: On Day 6, just being in the same room with her ex-husband causes her to have a mental break.
- Took a Level in Badass: She joins Yuri Suvarov's motorcade to prevent the attack sanctioned by her husband. She's also key to bringing down Logan.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Never seen again after stabbing Charles on Day 6, although Aaron says they divorced.
The Taylor Family
Allison Taylor
See Presidents.
Henry Taylor
Henry Taylor
Played By: Colm Feore
The First Gentleman of the United States during Day 7 after his wife, Allison Taylor was sworn in as the first female President. He was able to prove his son Roger Taylor's cause of death was not suicide but rather murder. He was kidnapped by Iké Dubaku in an attempt to force his wife to remove her troops from Sangala, and shot in the process. He was saved by Jack Bauer who helped him and brought him to a hospital where he underwent surgery. Six hours later, he seemed to be stable and was able to talk to his wife and daughter. Henry was later relocated to the White House where he learned about Olivia's complicity in the murder of Jonas Hodges and fiercely tried to defend her against his wife's quest for justice, to no avail. Sometime after Day 7, he and Allison divorced.
- Back for the Finale: Returns in the final episode of Day 7 after missing most of the latter half thanks to his injuries.
- Bodyguard Betrayal: Nearly killed by his traitorous Secret Service agent.
- Butt-Monkey: Suffers all sorts of life-threatening mishaps and injuries through the first half of Day 7, his son is killed, his daughter winds up committing a felonious act to avenge his death, and his wife is the one that reluctantly orders her arrest.
- The Cassandra: Everyone wants him to just let his son's death go and stop acting like a conspiracy nut, but he's absolutely right.
- Determinator: Nothing will stop him from uncovering the truth behind the death of his son.
- He Knows Too Much: The reason behind the Bodyguard Betrayal.
- Papa Wolf: Divorces his wife after she forces their daughter to face the consequences of orchestrating Jonas Hodges' assassination.
- Took a Level in Badass: Henry is a pretty weedy guy with no combat experience, but he goes through absolute hell and survives. Despite being doped up with a paralytic drug, unarmed and untrained, he manages to avenge his son's death by killing Secret Service agent Gedge with his bare hands.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Between Days 7 and 8, as it's pointed out that he made underhanded and cruel remarks during the divorce procedure. It's also mentioned that he was critical of her in the press immediately afterward. Notably, Allison doesn't exactly blame him for his actions.
Roger Taylor
Roger Taylor
Played By: Eric Lively
The son of Allison and Henry Taylor. He became the First Son when his mother, a Senator and President-elect, was inaugurated as President during Redemption. He was murdered by Brian Gedge before Day 7 after uncovering a conspiracy within his mother's government. The murder was manipulated to look like a suicide, although the truth was later exposed.
- Character Death: He's murdered by Brian Gedge.
- The Dutiful Son: Roger was successful, popular and beloved by his family.
- He Knows Too Much: The reason he's targeted for assassination.
- Never Suicide: His death is made to look like a suicide.
Olivia Taylor
The Heller Family
James Heller
See Presidents.
Audrey Boudreau
Audrey Boudreau (née Audrey Heller; formerly Audrey Raines)
Played By: Kim Raver
Jack's girlfriend during Day 4 and the daughter of Secretary of Defense James Heller. After Day 5, she ends up being tortured and brainwashed by the Chinese so they could force Jack to give them a Russian nuclear circuitboard. By the time her father became President, she had recovered from her ordeal and married for the second time.
- Action Survivor: Notably one of only four of Jack's eight love interests (the others being Kate Warner, Diane Huxley, and Marilyn Bauer) to survive the show's initial run. All the more impressive given how she's the only love interest aside from Nina Myers to appear in at least 3 seasons, a statistic she later surpassed when she came back for Live Another Day. No longer the case as of the Live Another Day finale.
- Back for the Dead: Her being reunited with Jack in Live Another Day is a Hope Spot—that maybe they'll finally get to be together—but she dies in the final episode.
- Blonde Republican Sex Kitten: Her father is known to be Republican, and she works very closely with him on policy throughout the show; also at one point she mentions attending an event at the Heritage Foundation, which is a conservative policy think-tank in Real Life.
- Break the Cutie: The Chinese do this to her with horrific efficiency between Seasons 5 and 6.
- Broken Bird: In Season 6, and apparently for a good few years afterwards. Fortunately, by the time of Live Another Day she's recovered, and actually seems to hold little (if any) malice toward Jack over the matter. In the penultimate episode, she tells Jack over the phone that she wants him to know that she never hated him, and never could.
- The Bus Came Back: After not being seen or mentioned after the end of Season 6, she comes back for Live Another Day
- Averted in Season 7; in a brief scene, Tony taunts Jack about the loss of Audrey and other loved ones as a result of his actions throughout the series. However, it is not specified if Audrey is dead or alive, although
Word of God later stated that she was in psychiatric care at this time.
- Averted in Season 7; in a brief scene, Tony taunts Jack about the loss of Audrey and other loved ones as a result of his actions throughout the series. However, it is not specified if Audrey is dead or alive, although
- Cassandra Truth: Heller sums it up to Jack, "Everything you touch ends up dead or ruined." Jack later calls Heller out on his betrayal of him.
- The old man was right all along.
- Character Development: Gets this in spades during season 5 when she stops being weepy and starts lifting pages from the Jack Bauer book of tricks. It's actually quite pleasant, considering 24 is a show where characters usually don't stick around long enough for it to happen. Unfortunately, it stalled out after that point — partially due to Seasonal Rot, partially due to the fact that Kim Raver wasn't available for more than a few episodes, and partially due to everything that happened to her in China — and by Live Another Day Audrey didn't get to do much apart from having a few Tear Jerker scenes with Jack and being the damsel in distress again, leaving many fans disappointed.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Endures this after season 5 (and presumably during parts of season 6 as well).
- Her interrogation in 5x15 is also this, as she was framed by Collette Stenger.
- Daddy's Girl: It's made clear early on that Audrey and her father are incredibly close (leading to uncomfortable Parental Favoritism on the latter's part). It's also clear that she comes from a very privileged background and, while she's quite intelligent and ambitious, her career is closely linked with her father's influence.
- Also a bit of an interesting example considering that Audrey was practically groomed for the cutthroat world of politics by her father (as her mother died at a young age), yet he also protected her from the general unpleasantries of the American government. She's pretty crafty when she needs to be, though.
- Early-Bird Cameo: She's introduced in the Season 4 Prequel short before debuting in the fourth season proper.
- Fatal Attractor: Both hilarious and harsher in hindsight when you consider that her longest-running boyfriend has the same reputation.
- Paul Raines: Unwittingly gives the terrorists a lair where they plotted to kidnap his wife and father-in-law, gets tortured by his wife's new boyfriend, and then gets shot for trying to fix his mistakes.
- There's also that one-night stand with Walt Cummings.
- Mark Boudreau: Takes all the credit for nursing Audrey back to health, treats her like she's made of glass, and betrays her and everyone by signing Jack away to the Russians — a small act of treason — to keep him away from Audrey. He later admits to Jack that he was wrong about him and Audrey, but by then it's too late.
- Fate Worse than Death: At the end of season 6, when she's in a catatonic state after suffering over a year of psychological and physical torture thanks to Cheng Zhi.
- Held Gaze: Shares this with Jack when they see each other again for the first time in Season 5.
- I Have Your Wife: Again, girlfriend. Jack gets her back, but the torture has made her detached, though we later see that she got better.
- Ivy League for Everyone: Has not one, but two degrees from Ivy League institutions.
- Not Quite Saved Enough: One of the reasons why her death was so devastating: she's Jack's longest-running love interest and has been saved many times in the past (which is no mean feat on a show like 24) —only to die in the second half of the season finale by a secondary sniper's stray bullet.
- Silent Credits: Gets a silent clock following her death at 10:32PM, being the seventh character to receive the honor. Hers is the first one of Live Another Day and the first (and only) episode to feature two silent clocks.
- Single Tear: She has one just before she dies of a gunshot wound.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Her idea of how to avert war with China turns into this, since not only did her meeting with her Chinese contact result in both her contact's death and Audrey's own, it ended up not even being necessary to avoid war.
- Take a Moment to Catch Your Death: Survives the first attempt on her life in the Day 9 finale, only for another killer hiding in the shadows to quickly come in and finish the job.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Her death is regarded as such for being rather unnecessary, and because she was the closest thing to goodness on a show full of morally ambiguous characters.
- Took a Level in Badass: Starts out as a defense department worker with only minimal combat skills, and ends up actually being pretty capable in her own right by late Season 5. Unfortunately for her, this gets horrifically inverted between Seasons 5 and 6.
- Trauma Conga Line: Can't catch a break, it seems.
- Exhibit A: After finally taking a level in badass during season 5, she sets out to find Jack and is left in a barely functioning state for her trouble between seasons 5 and 6.
- And after recovering from all of that, she's killed off rather unceremoniously at the end of Live Another Day.
Richard Heller
Richard Heller
Played By: Logan Marshall-Green
The very liberal son of James Heller.- All There in the Manual: Supplemental material states that he is in fact Heller's stepson, which might explain some of the disdain the two have for each other.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Is frightened when he learns that his family is in danger, and shares a genuinely heartwarming moment with his father when they're reunited (though it doesn't last for long).
- Butt-Monkey: The guy gets no respect from his father or sister, he's almost immediately suspected of being involved with their capture even though he's innocent, and is on the receiving end of a lengthy torture session just to make doubly sure if he knows anything.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Isn't so much as mentioned after Season 4.
- Straw Liberal: He's a shaggy-haired gay hippie who goes on marches and doesn't listen to his father.
- The Unfavorite: Heller makes no secret of his dislike for Richard. Notably, he doesn't even mention him in Day 9 when preparing to sacrifice himself.
- Unwitting Pawn: He had zero idea that the guy he had a one-night-stand with was using him in order to help Marwan learn of his father's whereabouts.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: A previous one-night stand gave Mandy the opportunity to place a phone tap in his house, allowing Marwan's men to grab Heller and Audrey, and his reluctance to divulge this information leads to numerous deaths throughout the day.
