Chloe O'Brian is a fictional character played by actress Mary Lynn Rajskub on the US television series 24. An analyst at CTU Los Angeles (and later New York), she is Jack Bauer's most trusted colleague, often doing unconventional and unauthorized favors for him, even at personal risk to herself. As O'Brian, Rajskub appeared in 125 episodes of 24, more than any other actor except series star Kiefer Sutherland, who appeared in all 204 episodes of the series. UGO.com named her one of the best TV nerds. AOL named her one of the 100 Most Memorable Female TV Characters.
Characteristics O'Brian is exceptionally intelligent; in particular she displays extraordinary mastery of computer science. Spending most of her time behind a computer terminal, she is rarely sent on field assignments; however, she has demonstrated proficiency with weapons in Day 4, 5, and 8. She works very well under pressure, yet it is obvious when she is under pressure, that she has always demonstrated a degree of social awkwardness. Despite her lack of social graces, Chloe has gained several friends at CTU and has shown to have a great deal of loyalty to them. She helped CTU Agent Chase Edmunds take care of his daughter from a previous relationship after the child's mother abandoned Chase and their child. She even tried to pass the child off as her own, so as to keep Chase's then-girlfriend, Kim Bauer, from knowing.
In interviews to promote the show's return to Fox with the miniseries, 24: Live Another Day, actor Kiefer Sutherland revealed that Rajskub would be reprising Chloe, but hinted that the relationship between her and Jack Bauer would be more adversarial than before. She also suggested that the reason for this was possibly related to her actions during the show's final season.
Appearances
24: Season 3 Introduced in the third season of the series, Chloe O'Brian is a senior analyst at CTU. Her other experience at CTU includes Intelligence Agent and Internet Protocol Manager. She received her education at the University of California-Davis, having received her BSc in Computer Science. In 24: The Game, it is revealed that before coming to CTU Los Angeles, she worked at CTU: Washington DC with Chase Edmunds.
24: Season 4 Chloe continues to work at CTU as an analyst. She continues to help Jack (at the time, not a member of CTU) to follow the terrorists while risking her career. She is detained and fired when Director of CTU Los Angeles Erin Driscoll (the person who fired Jack) discovered Chloe is helping Jack behind her back.
When Driscoll resigns and Michelle Dessler steps in, she is reinstated since none of the other CTU employees were as skilled as Chloe was. When the crisis ends later in the day, she, along with Michelle Dessler, Tony Almeida and former President David Palmer, help Jack to fake his death.
24: Season 5 Chloe is given a love interest, a subordinate named Spenser Wolff. She finds out later that Spenser is a mole (albeit unknowingly), and turns him in immediately. He later states he is not a mole but at CTU as an Internal Affairs investigator.
Chloe is the only person who had continual contact with Jack since he faked his death. Chloe is also the only one involved in the plot to fake his death to survive from murder attempts committed by unknown parties (later discovered to be President Charles Logan and Jack's brother, Graem Bauer), narrowly escaping a car bomb and a subsequent attack by the terrorists who planted the bomb.
She is briefly arrested for aiding Jack, though her skills with computers allow her to avoid the consequences of her actions and returns to work at CTU. Sadly, Edgar Stiles does not survive the events of Day 5 and Chloe watches him die through the glass door. Chloe is visibly shaken by the death of one of her few best friends and regrets having been short with him earlier that day.
Chloe is later forced to work directly against her superiors in Homeland Security in order to help Audrey and Jack. She hacks into a CTU server and interferes with a satellite tracking Audrey's car. She is able to slip into the bathroom just before being caught red handed, but Homeland Security bureaucrat Miles Papazian is very suspicious that she is deliberately interfering with their orders to attempt to apprehend Jack, at that time subject to a warrant by President Logan.
Homeland Security tricks Chloe into calling a pay phone where Audrey is currently located. They track the call to Van Nuys Airport and alert President Logan that they have located Bauer. Chloe is then put into custody by Miles. However, Chloe steals his keycard and escapes from detention. She grabs her laptop and leaves CTU. When leaving she encounters Shari Rothenburg but Chloe blackmails her to stay quiet. Chloe works with Buchanan from his home but Papazian is able to track her. Karen Hayes contacts Bill to alert them that Papazian has sent a team to arrest Chloe and that she has mere minutes to leave the house.
Chloe is able to escape and continues to aid Jack from a nearby hotel. Combined with Hayes, she works to help Jack locate the passenger on a private plane in possession of the audio tape implicating Logan in Palmer's death. Eventually she confirms that it is the co-pilot who has the tape. Hayes and Buchanan bring Chloe back to CTU shortly thereafter to help Jack make an emergency landing, because Logan has ordered an F18 to shoot down the plane. Bill Buchanan is able to locate a 4000 ft. strip on a Los Angeles Highway to use for a landing. Jack eventually lands safely and escapes from Logan's marine force with the help of Curtis Manning. Once Jack gets the audio tape back to CTU, Chloe sets to work preparing the audio tape for the United States Attorney General. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to Chloe, Miles destroys the digital recording while she is distracted.
In the final hours of Day 5, Chloe aids Jack in preventing Bierko from firing missiles from a Russian submarine. After the mission ends successfully, Jack tells her that he is going to attempt to get a confession from Logan and will need her help. With help from Mike Novick, Chloe is able to get Jack the necessary papers to board the presidential helicopter as a co-pilot. After Jack places a listening device on Logan that records his confession to Martha, Chloe transmits the recording to the Attorney General.
When the crisis ends, Bill brings her something from Edgar's locker, a picture of Chloe and Edgar together. An emotionally spent Chloe leaves CTU for the day with her ex-husband Morris O'Brian, whom she had enlisted to help her at CTU.
24: Season 6 After the failed assassination of Assad via military helicopter, Chloe found an image of Jack rescuing the terrorist. She shared the information with Bill Buchanan, who conceded that from Jack's perspective, a rescue was the right action. Chloe suggests if Jack is right, then Fayed should be monitored. Buchanan agrees, and subsequently CTU obtains information that Fayed was indeed behind the latest waves of bombings.
Chloe is later able to recover data from the hard drive of one of Fayed's men that he was particularly interested in a specific set of terrorists Fayed demanded be set free. Later, after Jack notices Curtis Manning's demeanor around Assad, asks her to find out if there is a past connection between the two men. She later confirms that Manning's military unit took heavy losses at Assad's hands and that Assad beheaded two members of Manning's unit on television. Jack uses that information to prevent Manning from killing Assad, though the price is Manning's life.
When chatter is intercepted between Fayed and Darren McCarthy, a profile of the man able to arm the four remaining suitcase nukes is sent, though the message is badly degraded. Morris works on reconstructing the image, while Milo finds information that states Morris's brother has been exposed to the radiation from the Valencia bomb and is in a hospital. Chloe informs him, but while Morris wants to go to his brother's side at once, Chloe insists he retrieve the data. After Morris downloads an illegal program that will speed up the reconstruction of the data, he leaves, and Chloe kisses him goodbye. Chloe then monitors the retrieval to find that the engineer was, in fact, Morris. Bill has her call Morris via cell phone with Jack on the line, and Chloe jumps nervously after hearing gunfire erupt as McCarthy corners and kidnaps Morris from his car and put into his with the help of McCarthy's girlfriend, Rita.
Chloe works to help locate Morris, who was tortured by Fayed into programming a device which would allow the detonation of the suitcase nukes. Chloe gives Jack the needed information in how to disable the suitcase nuke Fayed left behind after CTU assaulted his safe house. Afterwards, Jack and Chloe have a reunion at CTU where she thanks him for saving Morris's life, and she tells him she's glad Fayed didn't kill him. Jack thanks her for everything. She later visits Morris in the infirmary, but her attempts at compassion are dismissed by Morris's claims that he's responsible for Fayed ability to arm the remaining suitcase nukes. He tells her to go away. She later goes back to say they have a lead, and asks him to return to duty. He dismisses it as a ruse to get him to go back to work, and admits he's a coward. Chloe retorts he's pissing her off, and Morris says she can add it to his list of failings. Chloe slaps him, and he tells her if she wants to save somebody, save somebody who is worth saving. She tries to slap him again, but he blocks it. She tells Morris to stop feeling sorry for himself and get back to work.
Later, she finds Morris is not at his work station. She investigates his palmtop, and calls his sponsor, who says she hasn't been in touch with Morris for years. Chloe confronts Morris in the men's room. He tells her he has a different sponsor now – who he did speak to on the phone – and berates Chloe for being 'obsessive' about his contacts. However, when Chloe leaves, he drains what is left of a bottle of whiskey down the sink.
When Milo suspects that Morris has been drinking again, he asks Chloe to check Morris for any signs of alcohol. She reluctantly agrees, and walks over to him and kissed him, when he asked "What was that for?" she responded by saying "Just checking your breath."
Later, she helps Jack to steal the bomb's schematics. However, Morris discovers her act and forces her to tell Bill. When Bill orders everyone to help Jack Bauer under presidential order, he excludes her saying that "I don't trust you" but he changes his mind in the next episode when he tells her he needs his best people working on this.
Chloe is apparently upset and angry at Morris for forcing her to tell Bill the truth and the pair argue until Chloe's anger gets the better of her and she throws the fact that he armed nuclear weapons for terrorists, back in his face. Chloe insists that she didn't mean it but Morris puts in for a transfer out of Com and to no longer work aside Chloe. She is visibly upset and scolds herself for pushing the issue too far. Later, she attempts to apologize, but Morris tells her that their relationship is over. As Morris goes back to work, Chloe bursts into tears. Minutes later, Nadia notices that Chloe is not at her station and Morris claims not to know where she is.
Later, Chloe confronts Morris over his decision to break up. Morris tells Chloe that he ended their relationship because he felt that neither of them would be able to move past the fact that he had armed the nuclear weapons. Soon afterwards, CTU came under attack and the entire staff, including Chloe, was taken hostage. Eventually Nadia, Jack, and Morris attacked the men holding them hostage and Chloe commended Nadia on her bravery.