Kim Bauer

articleissues
primarysources = May 2008
in-universe = May 2008
plot = October 2008
cleanup = October 2008Infobox character
series=24
appearances = 1, 2, 3, 5


caption = Elisha Cuthbert as Kim Bauer
name = Kim Bauer
portrayer = Elisha Cuthbert
lbl1=Appearances

data1=1, 2, 3, 5, 7

Kim Bauer is a fictional character played by Elisha Cuthbert on the television series "24".

Characterization

Kim Bauer was born in Santa Monica, California, in 1987, [cite book|last=Cerasini|first=Marc|title=24: The House Special Subcommittee's Findings at CTU|publisher=Harper Collins|date=2003|edition=First|pages=61|isbn=0-06-053550-4] to Jack and Teri Bauer. She dropped out of Santa Monica High School but obtained an associates degree in Computer Programming at Santa Monica College. She then pursues a career at the Counter Terrorist Unit in Los Angeles.cite web|url=http://fox.com/24/profiles/season3/kb.htm|title=FOX Broadcasting Company: 24|publisher=FOX 24|accessdate=2008-07-07]

Appearances

On Day One, Kim and her friend, Janet York, sneak out of their homes to meet college men Dan and Rick, who eventually kidnap the girls. Although both girls escape (Janet died later in an incident unrelated to Kim), Kim is re-captured and taken to Ira Gaines, who holds her in an attempt to control Jack Bauer. Soon Teri Bauer is also captured. However, Rick and Jack Bauer are able to assist them in an escape.

Once she is finally safe, Kimberly and Teri are sent to a safe house that is later attacked by one of Victor Drazen's thugs. Although she escapes, Kim and Teri split up during a car crash and Kim goes to visit Rick to find help. As she leaves Rick's house, Kim is held up by the drug dealer Frank, who is Dan's brother. As other drug dealers arrived, Frank pulls out a gun. The dealers turn out to be undercover police and everyone, including Kim, is arrested. Kim tells the policemen that she has nothing to do with the drug deal and that she is CTU Agent Jack Bauer's daughter. The policemen confirm this and release Kimberly. As Kim is being driven to CTU in a police car, the car is attacked, the policemen killed and Kim is recaptured. She is taken to Victor Drazen where her father is also being held. Kim's father is allowed to leave but Kim stays with the Drazens. Jack later makes a deal with the Drazens to trade Jack for Kim, to which they agree. Unfortunately for the Drazens, Kim escapes. She returns to CTU, safe and embraces her father at the end of the day. Moments after the reunion, Jack finds Kim's mother, Teri Bauer dead.

Kim doesn't deal with her mother's death well and drops out of school, instead taking a job as a nanny. When Jack discovers the plot to detonate a nuclear bomb, he tries to get Kim out of Los Angeles, requesting that she be evacuated if he returns to CTU.

Kim, for her part, does not respond to Jack's request, but finds herself in serious trouble when she discovers Megan, her charge, is being abused by her father. Kim instinctively attempts to protect Megan, and she takes Megan with her, to escape her father and leave Los Angeles. This is complicated by the pursuit of Megan's father, and medical problems with Megan, who has complications from her father's shove. Eventually Kim, her boyfriend Miguel, and Megan leave the hospital by stealing Megan's father's car, but when they are pulled over for speeding, the highway patrol officer discovers blood dripping from the trunk. Inside is Megan's mother. Kim and Miguel are arrested on suspicion of murder and taken back to Los Angeles.

While Miguel and Kim are being transferred to another station, Miguel starts a fire that causes the crash of the transport vehicle. He is too injured to flee, but Kim is not. She ends up in a wilderness area and takes refuge with a survivalist. However he tells her the bomb has been detonated, and takes her to his fallout shelter. While there, Kim discovered that he lied, as the television carried local newscasts and baseball games. She confronts her captor, and he allows her to leave.

Kim hitchhikes out, and borrows a cell phone to contact CTU. There she is put in contact with Jack, who is flying the bomb to the desert so when it detonates, nobody would be hurt. Kim breaks down when she realizes her father won't be coming back, and profusely apologizes for her behavior. Jack tells her that he loves her, and nothing was her fault.

Kim also has some major problems throughout the rest of the day, such as being in a convenience store when it is robbed, and when she goes to pack up her belongings, Megan's father appears, having shot her police escort. When he proves ready to kill her, Jack tells her to shoot him, which she does. She ends the season in the arms of her father, who is going to a hospital for the treatment of the wounds inflicted on him during the day.

Kim starts her internship for CTU during the time of Vice President Prescott's assassination. Tony Almeida and Michelle Dessler however are reluctant to take her in due to the day's events. Instead, CTU analyst Sean Walker welcomes her with open arms, having her work in the tech wing. Tony and Michelle's bad feelings however come true when Peter Madsen and a large number of thugs take over CTU while the other field agents are pre-occupied with the false nerve gas attacks. Michelle escorts Kim to room M3, which serves as a panic room during the event of a hostile take-over. Michelle succeeds in bringing Kim to the designated area, but is captured herself. After Jack and Tony arrive back at CTU's perimeter, Tony tells Kim to encrypt the data files on the undercover CTU agents, though Jack objects. Tony guides Kim through evading the guards and how to encrypt the files.

Her efforts however, are in vain since it results in Sean being killed. In order to prevent Michelle from dying, Kim turns herself in, planting a tracking device on the hard drive and another tracking device on herself. Madsen and Sin-Chung take Kim hostage when CTU tactical teams storm the building to regain their base. After Jack destroys Madsen and Sin-Chung's helicopter, Madsen uses Kim as his human shield, preventing the agent from doing his job. Sin-Chung's plan B is called in, and the driver extracting them is none other than undercover C.T.U. operative Chase Edmunds. Kim is eventually taken to the abandoned water facility in Burbank being used as Madsen's bargaining chip. During the time of her capture, Madsen gives subtle hints to Jack that Chase likes her. While Jack focuses on finding Kim, Chase at one point breaks his cover and tells Kim to warn CTU. Kim has difficulty in trusting Chase, but Chase's concern is genuine telling her the model of a technological item stolen from a laboratory. Under the guise of "having to use the bathroom" with Chase covering for her, Kim sneaks away and sends the call to CTU therefore exposing Madsen's plan to create artificial earthquakes.

An hour after the call, Jack rescues Kim and tells Chase to stay undercover to recover the hard-drive. Jack and Kim blast their way out of Madsen's base and eventually drive back to CTU. During Jack's confrontation with Ryan Chappelle, Kim disappears during the rest of the day staying in Jack's office in order to keep her safe from further harm.

Kim obtains a GED and an A.A. in computer science, and starts working for CTU. There she meets Chase Edmunds, another CTU agent who is partnered with Jack. They begin dating, but keep their relationship from Jack. During the events of the day, their relationship is brought to his attention. During the day, Kim also discovers that Chase has a daughter. She is eventually brought into the field, as Jane Saunder's double. In a choice between letting a terrorist escape with the virus and beginning the day again, or using the titanium clamps to secure it to him to isolate it, Chase sacrifices himself. The virus, in its container, is strapped to Chase's arm so that the terrorist cannot escape with it. Jack is unable to prevent the virus from being released so he cuts off Chase's hand so that he can secure the virus in a fridge. In the end, Kim chooses a life with him, and is last mentioned to be living with him in Valencia, California, and helping raise his daughter in Day 4.

After Jack's "death", Chase leaves Kim. She is reunited with Jack after arriving at CTU with Barry Landes, a clinical psychologist. She is romantically involved with Landes, whom Jack regards with instant dislike because of his belief that the significantly older Barry, is taking advantage of Kim in her troubled mental state. She survives a Sentox nerve gas attack at CTU and is locked inside the situation room. She initially resents her father for not "trusting her enough" to let her know he was still alive, but Chloe O'Brian reveals to Kim that of the four people who did know Jack had faked his death, three had been targeted for assassination that very morning, two of them successfully and critically injuring a third.

After the threat of the nerve gas is eliminated, Kim leaves CTU, telling her father that she can not deal with the fact that every time she is near him, she is surrounded by death and disaster. Barry, after thanking Jack for saving their lives, is simply told by Jack to get Kim out of Los Angeles and not to stop for anything. Jack and Kim have no further contact during Day 5, although the Chinese fake a call from Kim as a ruse to get to Jack at the end of Day 5.

Kim will return towards the end of the seventh season. Although no longer romantically involved with Barry Landes, she will have a child.cite web| author=Ben Rawson-Jones|publisher=Digital Spy|date=2008-09-04|accessdate=2008-09-06|title=Report: Elisha Cuthbert returns to '24'|url=http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/a129139/report-elisha-cuthbert-returns-to-24.html ]

External links

* [http://24-archive.com/index.php?option=com_zoom&Itemid=58&catid=1 Kim Bauer Photos] Kim Bauer Photo Gallery on the 24-Archive

References