| “ | I am sorry about David Palmer, I am, but what I did was in the interest of the destiny of this country, and I'm not talking about the version you read on the op-ed pages of the New York Times. I'm talking about the politics of survival: the way the world really works. | „ |
| ~ Henderson to Bauer. |
| “ | Just for the record, I never believed you were dead. | „ |
| ~ Christopher Henderson to Jack Bauer. |
William Christopher Henderson is one of the two secondary antagonists (along with Vladimir Bierko) in Season 5 of the TV series 24. He was the main henchman of Charles Logan whom he works for, and was also a former mentor and a friend of Jack Bauer.
He was portrayed by Peter Weller, who also played Mr. Yin in Psych, Alexander Marcus in Star Trek Into Darkness, John Frederick Paxton in Star Trek: Enterprise, Stan Liddy in Dexter, Caleb Thies in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, and Batman in The Dark Knight Returns.
Overview[]
Christopher Henderson was a former member of the Counter Terrorist Unit established by the Central Intelligence Agency as its domestic branch for Homeland Security and married to Miriam.
Henderson was a high-ranking member of the Sentox nerve gas conspiracy in Day 5. Collaborating with Graem Bauer, President Charles Logan, and others, he stole, hid, then sold Sentox gas canisters to Vladimir Bierko and his Russian separatists. Their plan was to betray the terrorists and gas them using a satellite trigger, then use the incident to increase America's military posture in oil-rich Central Asia. After the separatists realized the deception and the plan to bug the canisters failed, Henderson raced to cover-up the conspiracy's crimes.
History[]
Before Day 5[]
Christopher Henderson was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He became a Captain of the United States Army Special Forces and received an honorable discharge after six years of service. He specialized in sniping, survival training and explosives.
Henderson was the Director of Field Operations at CTU Los Angeles for four years. He recruited Jack Bauer and served as a mentor and supervisor to Jack. However, Jack uncovered evidence that led him to believe that Henderson had been selling classified intelligence to defense contractors. Jack blew the whistle on his former friend, effectively ending their friendship.
He claimed he was set up by Nina Myers and George Mason, but Jack knew that he was indeed guilty, and Henderson lost his job at CTU. Despite receiving a bad record for bribery, Henderson managed to earn a position as the Senior Vice President of Research and Development for Omicron International, a major U.S. Department of Defense contractor. He also became acquainted with a British SAS-trained mercenary, David Emerson.
Despite feeling betrayed by Jack, Henderson and his wife Miriam did not hold anything against him. When Jack faked his death at the end of Day 4, his daughter Kim was left orphaned, and Christopher and Miriam decided to check on her every once in a while.
Trinity[]
During the events of 24 Declassified: Trinity, Henderson was the Director of the newly formed Los Angeles domestic unit of CTU. He meets Jack at the bombed-out home of Ramin and allows him to temporarily join CTU to investigate the events of the Day. He follows and assists Jack in his endeavors to save Pope John Paul II and to stop the Catholic and Muslim terrorists. Jack eventually accepts his offer for a full-time job at CTU at the end of the day.
Nightfall[]
Two years before Day 1 during Operation Nightfall, Henderson was Director of CTU Los Angeles, Christopher Henderson was in Langley, Virginia meeting Director Tony Webster with Richard Walsh, the Southwestern Regional Director of CTU.
Cat's Claw[]
During the events of Cat's Claw, Henderson was CTU Director and was a major factor in leading CTU's missions from CTU.
Vanishing Point[]
During the events of Vanishing Point, Henderson was in charge of Jack Bauer and Tony Almeida's undercover operations in Las Vegas.
Chaos Theory[]
During the events of Chaos Theory, Henderson was the Director of Field Operations. He was a subject of an Internal Affairs investigation that later implicated him, Seth Campbell, and one other person, possibly Peter Jiminez. Jack Bauer was a key witness in this investigation. Henderson, in cahoots with Peter Jiminez, attempted to kill Bauer to protect himself. Henderson paid members of MS-13 to kill Bauer in prison as well as poisoned Ryan Chappelle, one of the few people who knew Jack was innocent and Maurice Tintfass was alive and in the Witness Relocation Program. After Jiminez was killed by Bauer in a last-ditch measure to kill Bauer, Henderson was scared that Bauer would both implicate Henderson in the Internal Affairs investigation and the poisoning and attempted murder of Chappelle.
Day 5[]
Henderson was hired by Charles Logan and Jack's brother Graem Bauer to help them with their conspiracy to sell nerve gas to terrorists, led by Vladimir Bierko, to send a message that the US has weapons of mass destruction. David Palmer found out about this plan, so Henderson and Graem gave Conrad Haas the order to assassinate him. Haas also killed Michelle Dessler and tried to kill Tony Almeida and Chloe O'Brian to frame Jack, although the framing plot was quite unsuccessful, and Jack killed Haas.
While investigating Bierko, Jack was led to Henderson, who falsely claimed to not know anything about the conspiracy before trying to kill Jack with a bomb. Henderson calmly left the building while placing a call to Collette Stenger, informing her that Jack would soon be dead. Using quick thinking, Jack was able to survive the explosion and pursued Henderson. Henderson returned home, but Jack arrived there as well and threatened to kill his wife Miriam if Henderson didn't give him information on the nerve gas. Henderson refused to talk, willing to let his wife die for the conspiracy.
Henderson was taken to CTU and interrogated, with Rick Burke torturing him with hyoscine-pentothal. Tony wanted revenge on Henderson for killing Michelle and planned to kill him with an overdose of hyoscine-pentothal but could not bring himself to do so while he was unconscious and helpless. Henderson suddenly opened his eyes and stabbed Tony with the needle, killing him (temporarily) and escaping from the building.
When Wayne Palmer was on his way to receive information about his brother's death, Henderson tried to have him killed, but failed. Evelyn Martin was the one who had the information, so to prevent her from talking, Henderson kidnapped her daughter, Amy. After Jack and Wayne rescued Amy, Evelyn told them of Logan's involvement in the conspiracy, giving Jack a recording. Henderson found out where Jack was going to be by threatening Evelyn and Amy, whom he presumably killed afterwards.
Jack gave the recording to Defense Secretary James Heller to give to the attorney general, but he instead decided to use it to force Logan to step down quietly. This failed, as Henderson captured Jack and Audrey Raines and took the recording by cutting an artery in Audrey's arm, which threatened to kill her unless Jack gave over the recording. Henderson kept the recording for himself to prevent Logan from killing him for any reason like he killed Walt Cummings.
Although Jack was able to get Henderson into custody, he threatened to have one of his men in a helicopter kill Heller if Henderson was unable to contact him every 15 minutes. Realizing this, Heller crashed his car over a cliff into the water (although he survived). Audrey wanted to kill Henderson for her father's supposed death, but like Tony, she could not go through with it. Henderson's men arrived, but were killed by Curtis Manning and his TAC team, and Henderson was taken to CTU.
When Bierko was in the process of launching a Russian submarine's missiles, Jack and Henderson teamed up to stop him, Henderson doing this in exchange for immunity, as well as disappearing so as to avoid being killed by Graem. Henderson took part in a sting operation to get information on the submarine from an illegal arms dealer, Joseph Malina. He told Malina that CTU were out there, seemingly double-crossing them, but his true intention was to get Malina to put all his information on a flash drive.
Jack and Henderson found the Russian Delta IV submarine, the Natalia K-524, and Henderson stopped the missiles from launching while Jack killed Bierko. Jack never intended to let Henderson go, however, as he was unable to forgive him for killing David Palmer, Michelle, and Tony. Henderson knew Jack would try to kill him so he tried to shoot him with the gun Jack gave him, which turned out not to be loaded. Jack shot him in the chest twice, killing him in cold blood and in anger.
Trivia[]
- Due to his personal connection with him (being his mentor and also a ruthless and highly skilled agent) and his actions, Henderson can be considered as one of Jack's arch-enemies, along with Nina Myers and Cheng Zhi, despite the fact that he only appeared in one season.
- Christopher Henderson's death is similar to that of Victor Drazen; Both are killed at the harbor at nighttime, shoot at Jack with an unloaded weapon, and are executed by Jack in revenge for killing someone close to him.
- The theme that plays when Christopher Henderson gets into his car in his first episode is the same as part of Mandy's theme in Season 4 of 24 (called Mandy's Plan on the CD).
- Christopher Henderson has been described as an evil version of Jack Bauer, with President Charles Logan serving as an evil counterpart to President David Palmer.
- This theory is supported by the fact that Henderson's weapon of choice is the H&K P2000. This is almost an identical gun to Jack's own weapon of choice, the H&K USP Compact.
- Henderson is a fan favorite villain and is often considered to be one of the most ruthless villains on 24.
- Even after his death, Henderson continued to haunt Jack Bauer, as him keeping Tony Almeida alive ultimately led to the events of Season 7.
- It is unclear what happened to Evelyn Martin and her young daughter, Amy. They are never seen again after Henderson ambushes them in the motel room at gunpoint. Some have theorized that he spared their lives in exchange for Jack Bauer's location, however it is far more plausible that Henderson killed them both anyway. This would make sense, as Jack Bauer told Evelyn that Henderson would have killed them both to protect the conspiracy, because she knew too much. This theory was further evidenced by actress Sandrine Holt, who stated in an interview with Asiance Magazine that Henderson killed Evelyn.
- Because Henderson told Jack that he never truly believed that he was dead, it is possible that he was the one who hacked into Chloe O'Brian's computer to find the evidence that Jack was still alive. However, it is probably more likely that this person would have been Phillip Bauer or his son, Graem.
- Henderson's prediction that Charles Logan would try to betray and kill him to tie up a loose end (the reason he did not destroy the recording and kept it as insurance) was proven true during a phone call between Graem Bauer and Logan.
- The writers of 24 briefly toyed with the idea of bringing Christopher Henderson back in either Season 6 or 7, revealing that he had never actually died. However, they decided to do this with Tony Almeida instead.
- Much like Stephen Saunders, Henderson understood the fate that Jack was to suffer. When Jack confronts Henderson about him murdering the people he cared about, he coldly replied: "That's the way it works." These were Henderson's final words before his death. But Henderson was right, because in Season 6, James Heller flat-out tells Jack: "Everything you touch ends up dead."
- If Henderson's claims to have checked up on Kim were true (he was a pathological liar and master manipulator) it is a certainty that he only checked in to see if Jack ever contacted her, because he and the rest of the cabal did not believe Jack was really dead.
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 Villains
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