James Nathanson
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James Nathanson is a character from the fifth season of the television series 24. He is played by Geraint Wyn Davies.
Day 5
An ex-CIA agent, Nathanson is a low-level member of the cabal behind the plot to detonate twenty canisters of Sentox nerve gas while in the hands of Russian terrorists. By doing this, Nathanson and the other members of the plot (Phillip Bauer, Graem Bauer, President Logan, Christopher Henderson, and Walt Cummings) hoped to eradicate one of the world's elite terrorist regimes and increase American interests in Central Asia. The plot required direct communication with the terrorist factions, which is seen as treason by many government officials. Nathanson served as the middleman or intermediary between Cummings and Logan, which meant that Cummings had no idea that Logan himself was involved with the plot.
Nathanson manipulated most of the events of the morning of Day 5 from behind the scenes, including sending a team of assassins after everyone who helped fake Jack's death in Day 4, as well as secretly directing a hostage situation at Ontario International Airport, which was really to buy time to enable the terrorists to acquire the Sentox canisters. With so many factors going against Nathanson and Cummings, the Sentox operation was discovered by the terrorists ahead of time, which allowed them to override the canisters' failsafes without incident. The real masterminds, however, were safe from harm, while Cummings and Nathanson faced heat from all sides.
Eventually, Cummings was compromised, and the terrorists' leader, Vladimir Bierko, realized that Nathanson was Cummings' contact. In other words, Nathanson was a clear traitor to Bierko's operation, and the man responsible for nearly self destructing the nerve gas while in the terrorists' hands. In order to prevent further security risks, Bierko orders Nathanson's death.
To protect himself, Nathanson prepared to strike a deal with CTU agent Jack Bauer. At the meeting place, Nathanson was killed by Bierko's henchmen. Just before dying, he gave Jack a computer chip with information about the canisters, information which quickly led Jack to Henderson. Also before his death, he hinted that Walt Cummings was not the only member of Logan's administration in on the plan. Later in the day, it is revealed that the other conspirator was Charles Logan himself, meaning that Nathanson also served as a middleman, distorting the truth so that Cummings thought he was running the show. This, in turn, allowed Logan to have someone else perform his deeds without getting directly involved.
Nearly ten episodes after Nathanson's death, it is revealed that Graem is manipulating Logan, and, in turn, Henderson and Nathanson.
Trivia
- Nathanson wore a Bluetooth cellular headset, as did his mysterious boss, Graem.
- The character of Nathanson strongly mirrors that of Captain Jonathan Wallace of the Coral Snake team in Season 2, in that both men co-conspired their respective terrorist attacks as well as asked Jack Bauer for protection apart from CTU and from other terrorists in exchange for evidence that implicates his own superior. Ultimately, both men were able to pass along that evidence upon their last breaths.
- In 8:00am - 9:00am, one of Nathanson's TV screens shows footage of the assassination attempt on David Palmer from the final episode of Day 2.