Chloe O'Brian

Template:24 character Chloe O'Brian is a fictional character played by actress Mary Lynn Rajskub on the US television show 24.

Biography

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.

She displays extraordinary mastery of computer hardware and software but has horrible social skills, displaying symptoms consistent with Asperger syndrome; see trivia below.

Spending most of her time behind a computer terminal, she rarely is sent on field assignments; however, she has demonstrated proficiency with handguns and semi-automatic weapons in seasons four and five.

Relationships

Despite her lack of social skills, 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 offered to pass the child off as her own, so as to keep Chase's then-girlfriend, Kim Bauer, from knowing about Chase's offspring. (Chase did not want Kim to know about his daughter's existence, out of fear that she would leave him.)

She also has a complicated friendship with CTU agent Jack Bauer. In the beginning, Jack was prone to using Chloe to engage in unauthorized use of CTU computer resources for Jack without his superior's permission. The relationship was pretty much one-sided initially, in terms of Jack using Chloe and demanding that Chloe risk her career on blind faith regarding Jack being right. Chloe would reluctantly follow Jack's demands and ride out the problems they would make for her with her boss when Jack's requests from her yielded the results that he promised they would.

At the start of season four, her relationship with Jack changed dramatically in terms of her willingness to help him. When a friend of Chloe's was kidnapped by terrorists after accidentally discovering vital information regarding their schemes, Chloe turned to Jack for help. However, Jack shocked Chloe when he told her that he was willing to let her friend die rather than risk letting the bad guys know he was onto them. After several minutes of pleading and begging, Jack gave in and saved her friend. This action led to Chloe becoming completely loyal to Jack, to the point of being willing to be fired from her job at CTU when she refused to stop aiding Jack (who, at the time, was no longer a member of CTU).

Chloe walked away from her job (but not before telling her boss she was going to quit anyway — presumably since she couldn't stand her) but later that day was summoned back to CTU by Michelle Dessler (who took over running CTU halfway through the day) and asked to return to work since none of the other CTU employees were as skilled as Chloe was. Chloe quickly earned Michelle's trust and assisted her in helping Jack fake his death at the end of the season. Mary Lynn Rajskub, the actress who portrays Chloe, has stated that she believes that Chloe loves Jack, but would never admit it. "She'd want his permission," the actress said.

In the time that she worked with Edgar Stiles, the two had a rather antagonistic relationship. However, there were several moments when they expressed genuine concern towards each other, such as in season four, when Chloe was assigned into a potentially dangerous field assignment and Edgar tried to take her place, or when Chloe refers to Edgar as, "a geek, but a good guy." She also displayed a deep emotional response when she watches him die after exposure to deadly nerve gas.

Chloe also has an ex-husband named Morris — apparently a CTU employee, like herself, but inactive. When Chloe attempts to find him and bring him to CTU to help, he is discovered to be selling women's shoes in Beverly Hills. Morris is quite talkative, charming and flirtatious (and perhaps he'd have to be, to work his way past Chloe's emotional defenses), but when he arrives at CTU Chloe is full of resentments, and it is implied that he strayed during their marriage. Nonetheless, in the closing hour Chloe turns to him for emotional solace, which he gladly provides as they leave CTU together at the season's end.

Season Five

In the season five preview and in season five itself, Chloe continues to grow as a person with the introduction of a love interest, a subordinate named Spenser Wolff. She finds out later that Spenser was a mole (albeit unknowingly), and turns him in immediately. Possibly because of this, she is currently listed as single on the 24 official website.

Her relationship with Jack was explained further. It is stated that Chloe is the only person who has had continual contact with him since he faked his death. Chloe is also the only one who was involved in the plot to fake his death to survive from murder attempts committed by unknown parties, narrowly escaping a car bomb and a subsequent attack by the terrorists who planted the bomb.

Chloe's relationship with her superiors take a further hit when 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 as the season progresses.

Later in Day 5, Russian terrorists infiltrate CTU and release Sentox nerve gas into the ventilation system. Chloe was able to seal off three rooms from the gas and saved several CTU agents including Jack, Audrey Raines, and Bill Buchanan, as well as Jack's daughter Kim Bauer and her boyfriend Barry Landes. Sadly, Edgar Stiles does not make it to safety 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 in the past. However, Chloe is shaken out of her state of shock and assists Jack in removing the Sentox gas from CTU.

Once the nerve gas is cleared from CTU, Homeland Security begins the process of absorbing CTU, under the direction of Vice President Hal Gardner. Chloe is to be let go with the rest of the staff but Audrey signs a statement, blaming Buchanan for the mistakes made by CTU in Day 5, on the condition that Chloe be retained in her position. Chloe is initially furious at Audrey for betraying Buchanan, who she believes has performed his job admirably, but Audrey explains that she was forced to sign the statement because Jack needs her to remain at her station.

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. 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. Chloe 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 on 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.

Computer Skills

Chloe is the most recognised programmer/hacker in CTU. She is an expert in uploading data encryption software from the satellite

Season 6

The trailer[1] clearly shows that she will sport brown hair and is still working for CTU.

Trivia

• Chloe's near total lack of social skills leads to speculation that she may have Asperger syndrome, a pervasive developmental disorder commonly referred to as a form of "high-functioning" autism. Individuals with Asperger's are considered to have a higher intellectual capacity while suffering from a lower social capacity. Fans of the show debate whether this is an intentionally complex performance or due to actress Mary Lynn Rajskub's acting method when portraying the character.
• In Season 4 Bill Buchanan says they don't have time for Chloe's "personality disorder." While both personality disorders and Asperger syndrome include a marked impairment in interpersonal function, Chloe's occasional demonstrations of sensitivity (i.e covering up for Edgar's goof in Season 4) suggest a social awareness typically absent in individuals with Asperger syndrome (and other pervasive developmental disorders) but common in individuals with personality disorders. (See Judah Friedlander's performance of Toby Radloff in American Splendor for an accurate portrayal of Asperger syndrome).
• Chloe also displays many of the symptoms of passive aggressive behaviour, such as sullenness, sarcasm, resisting suggestions from others, constant complaining and resentment at being made to do tasks she considers beneath her. However, unlike in 'classic' passive-aggressive behaviour, she never allows it to interfere with her efficiency at work.
• Nerdy and unassuming but quick to make blunt, often rude comments at the wrong time, Chloe quickly became a favorite on "24". While never actually played for laughs, her sarcastic tactlessness and coldly pragmatic approach to social interaction (such as zapping a man trying to hit on her with a stun-gun - twice - because he was distracting her from her task) is the nearest thing the show has to comic relief.
• For a time, her character nickname on the website Television Without Pity was "Potato Face." In various TV appearances and print interviews, Rajskub has mentioned that she now avoids Internet discussions about her character because somebody said that she had a face like a potato. More recently, other nicknames have been proposed, such as "Hot Potato" (a reference to the fact that many fans have found her increasingly attractive).
• Chloe apparently kept the last name of her ex-husband, Morris O'Brian.
• Fans have speculated that Chloe is so loyal and helpful to Jack partly because she harbors a strong crush on him. The actress who plays her, Mary Lynn Rajskub, has said in interviews that she believes Chloe is attracted to Jack, but is unwilling to act upon her feelings without his approval.

External links

• Character biography on the official 24 website
• Vote for Chloe O'Brian
• Asperger Syndrome Information Page from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, a part of the National Institutes of Health from the United States Department of Health & Human Services