Tony Almeida: I have no intention of letting them use you as a pathogen, Jack. I never did.
Jack Bauer: I overheard you. This was your idea. You sold it to them.
Tony: It was just a play.
Jack: A play?
Tony: To get the man who's coming here now. Took me three years to find him. Took me another year to get him to meet me face-to-face. I had to prove myself to him by taking down Jonas Hodges. I had to convince him that I was true believer in his cause.
— "Day 7".
Jack Bauer's days are hard enough as it is. These intelligent and meticulous adversaries he and others have faced only make them more challenging.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Original Series
- Mandy is a pragmatic assassin who works for multiple terrorists throughout the series. Using her ability to blend in with large crowds, Mandy frequently poses as a harmless civilian before killing her targets. After successfully blowing up a plane and assisting mercenary Ira Gaines in his schemes to kill Senator David Palmer, she later resurfaces many months later, personally poisoning Palmer and assassinating Governor James Radford. Several years later, she aides Habib Marwan in Secretary of Defense James Heller's abduction, and kills multiple civilians and CTU agents while trying to flee. Even after her attempts to fake her death fail and CTU capture her, Mandy wastes no time giving up Marwan in exchange for full immunity for her past crimes.
- "Day 1": Jovan Myovic is a Serbian assassin working for the Drazen Family. After Ira Gaines and his crew failed to kill Teri and Kim Bauer, Jovan and his partner, Mishko Suba, were hired to take them out instead. Jovan infiltrated the hospital both targets were staying at, posing as an FBI agent and spying on them the whole time. Once they were moved to a safe house, Jovan and Mishko silently took out all of the CTU agents guarding them before sneaking into the house. After Mishko is killed and Teri and Kim get away, Jovan heads to Teri and Jack's house instead, and almost successfully kills Teri when she inevitably returns home.
- "Day 2": Jonathan Wallace is a Coral Snake soldier secretly working for Peter Kingsley and his conspirators. Tasked with helping his employers start a war with the Middle East, Wallace planted a fabricated recording implicating Syed Ali and other government officials before killing the Coral Snake team that was supposed to prevent the nuclear bomb from exploding in Los Angeles. After the bomb explodes outside of Los Angeles and Kingsley decides to kill Wallace to cover his tracks, Wallace eludes his assailants before assassinating Syed Ali to force Jack Bauer into helping him. He later makes a deal with Jack, offering to give up evidence that will expose Kingsley so long as he gives up Kate Warner, who will allow him safe passage out of the country. When Jack and Wallace are cornered by Kingsley's hitmen, Wallace fends them off alongside Jack, and later gives up the evidence he had hidden in his body after suffering a fatal gunshot wound.
- "Day 3": Stephen Saunders is a former soldier-turned-terrorist. Holding America responsible for abandoning him to be tortured in Bosnia, Saunders decides to strike back by dismantling the American government. Upon acquiring twelve vials of the Cordilla virus, he has one vial of the virus released in a hotel, killing hundreds in the process. Afterwards, he attacks a MI6 office just as CTU was gathering intel on Saunders, and later forces President David Palmer to have Ryan Chappelle murdered so he wouldn't uncover his bank accounts. When his daughter, Jane, is captured by CTU, and Saunders is surrounded by CTU officers, Saunders orders his men to kidnap Michelle Dessler so her husband, Tony Almeida, would help him escape. Even after Saunders is finally apprehended, Saunders reveals that he instructed his eleven couriers to release the virus unless his demands are met.
- "Day 4": Kalil Hasan is a member of one of Habib Marwan's terrorist cells. Participating in the kidnapping of Secretary of Defense James Heller, Kalil and his allies discovered that computer programmer Andrew Paige accidentally came across one of their Internet nodes. Kalil and another terrorist later visited Andrew's office and murdered all of his co-workers, before Kalil started a manhunt against Andrew. After finding Andrew's location by intercepting a CTU phone call, Kalil kidnapped Andrew while posing as Jack Bauer and killed two law enforcement agents during his escape. He later interrogated Andrew to find out what he knew, and ordered him to be executed even after Andrew claimed he didn't know anything about Heller's abduction. As he repeatedly evaded authorities while posing as an innocent civilian, Kalil discovers that he's being tracked by satellite, resulting in him committing suicide so Bauer and CTU won't discover Heller's location.
- "Day 5":
- Ivan Erwich is a member of the Dawn Brigade and Vladimir Bierko's chief lieutenant. Initially posing as a hostage during a terrorist attack, Erwich was in fact a sleeper cell ordered to smuggle Sentox nerve gas out of an airport. As the hostage crisis is resolved, Erwich sneaks out of the airport and succeeds in acquiring several nerve gas canisters. As he tries to smuggle the canisters out of the country in a ship container, he catches one of his allies tampering with them. Erwich interrogates and kills the man, deducing that his American allies have betrayed him. Knowing he can't smuggle the canisters out of the country, Erwich decides to strike back at America instead as punishment, where he repeatedly eludes the authorities and attacks a shopping mall without any of his men giving up his location.
- Christopher Henderson is one of the primary members of the season's Sentox VX nerve gas conspiracy. A patriot who is skilled at frequently adjusting his plans when need be, and one of the few villains who manages to constantly fend off Jack successfully, Henderson takes it upon himself to have David Palmer assassinated when he uncovers information about the conspiracy. Afterwards, he frames Jack Bauer for the murder, and tries to have Tony Almeida and Chloe O'Brian killed, while successfully killing Michelle Dessler. After Henderson is caught by Bauer, he refuses to give up his employers' names, even after his wife is threatened and he's tortured for over an hour. After escaping custody, Henderson kidnaps Evelyn Martin's daughter in exchange for finding the location of a recording implicating him and President Charles Logan. Over the course of several hours, Henderson has anyone killed in his pursuit of the recording, even going as far as handing it off to one of his allies before getting recaptured. Knowing his employers will eventually kill him, Henderson agrees to help CTU in stopping Russian terrorists in exchange for safe passage out of the country, and attempts to kill Jack Bauer.
- "Day 7":
- Tony Almeida is a former CTU agent who becomes a terrorist out of frustration over the American government officials who didn't receive punishment for orchestrating his wife's death, deciding to become a mercenary and joining David Emerson's crew. After uncovering information about Alan Wilson, the man who ordered his wife's death, Tony used all of his resources to lure him out of hiding. Teaming up with Jack Bauer, Chloe O'Brian, and Bill Buchanan, Tony worked as a double agent, where he helped them apprehend or kill members of the People's Freedom Army and Emerson's crew whilst providing information that averted numerous terrorist attacks. Once Tony thwarts Jonas Hodges' schemes by destroying a cache of biological weapons, he betrays his allies and kills multiple FBI agents to elude capture. Having gained Wilson's attention, Tony forces an innocent man to conduct a terrorist attack; when it fails, he comes up with the idea to extract traces of the biological pathogen from Jack's blood for Wilson to use. Once Tony finally confronts Wilson, he murders Wilson's adversary and rants about how Wilson ruined his life before attempting to kill him.
- John Quinn is an assassin and mercenary working for Jonas Hodges, tasked with silencing anyone who could expose Hodges' dealings with General Benjamin Juma or attempting to dismantle the Starkwood company. After Juma is killed and one of his mercenaries, Ryan Burnett, is captured, Quinn infiltrates the hospital he's stationed at and stealthily assassinates him, framing Jack Bauer for the murder. When Jack escapes FBI custody, he tracks him down to Senator Blaine Mayer's house, where he murders the senator after posing as a police officer, framing Jack for his death as well. Knowing Jack could expose Hodges, he pursues him to a construction site and nearly kills him in a fistfight.
- "Day 8": Samir Mehran is a former Kamistani soldier who leads a Kamistani terrorist cell in America. Believing that President Omar Hassan has been corrupted by America, he tries to have Hassan assassinated multiple times so his brother, Farhad, can take his place. When the plans fail, Samir decides to attack America instead with a nuclear dispersal device. After Farhad betrays him, Samir has him killed, and he later has Tarin Faroush kidnap Hassan's daughter, Kayla, in an attempt to get Hassan to expose America's antinuclear defenses. Samir allows Kayla to escape so she would unknowingly bring an EMP into CTU headquarters, and later smuggles the nuclear components into New Your City undetected. After eluding CTU multiple times with the help of Dana Walsh and threatening to activate the nuclear device downtown, Samir finally kidnaps Hassan when he gives himself up, and successfully murders him over a live video on the Internet mere minutes before CTU can rescue him.
Legacy
- Jadalla Bin-Khalid is the leader of a terrorist cell in America and the son of Ibrahim Bin-Khalid. Seeking revenge for his father's alleged death, Jadalla and his team sought out a flash drive containing the list of fifteen sleeper cells all designed to attack America simultaneously. Having killed four Army Rangers and their families, Jadalla eventually finds out Ben Grimes stole it from him and takes it back before the authorities can find it. When the flash drive is damaged, he kidnaps Eric Carter's wife and brother to compel Eric into making CTU analyst Andy Shalowitz repair the data for him. Even after his schemes fail, Jadalla remains persistent in his revenge, teaming up with Asim Naseri and his father in a ploy to kidnap and execute Rebecca Ingram.
- Asim Naseri is one of Ibrahim Bin-Khalid's top enforcers. Working under a false identity, Naseri helped Jadalla conduct his father's terrorist schemes in secrecy. Once Jadalla's plans fail and he's apprehended by CTU, he has one of his mercenaries strap a bomb to a CTU agent's girlfriend to compel him into breaking Jadalla out of CTU. During the escape, Naseri guns down the CTU agents following him and kidnaps Senator John Donovan as a bargaining chip to lure out his wife, Rebecca Ingram, who was behind Ibrahim's alleged death. After Jadalla is killed and Rebecca is captured, Naseri helps Ibrahim with setting up a live feed of Rebecca's execution, only stopping once Naseri finds out his daughter is alive. He later betrays Ibrahim and his men and delivers Rebecca to Eric Carter in exchange for his daughter's safe passage.
- Gabriel is a criminal who specializes in selling and smuggling weapons to terrorists. After smuggling Jadalla and his companions into America and supplying them with weapons, he's later approached by Eric Carter and one of his former associates, Ben Grimes, to conduct a business deal. Despising Ben for his lack of respect and not paying back his debt, Gabriel orders Eric to kill him to prove his loyalty. When Eric refuses out of his loyalty to Ben, Gabriel has one of his own men kill Ben anyway, and chooses to work with Eric for standing up to him. Later, when Eric tries to apprehend Gabriel and alerts CTU, Gabriel silently triggers an alarm to signal for help, and later slashes his own throat in a defiant attempt to prevent Eric and CTU from uncovering information about his dealings with Jadalla.
