Christopher Henderson (character)

Template:24 character Christopher Henderson is a fictional character from the television series 24. He is played by Peter Weller. He was credited with the "and" credit (during his first episode it read "and Peter Weller as Christopher Henderson") at the end of the Guest Star list, the fourth person to do so. Template:Spoiler

It was Henderson that first recruited Jack Bauer into CTU. He served as a mentor and supervisor to Jack for several years. However, Jack discovered evidence that led him to believe that Henderson was taking bribes. Jack blew the whistle on his former friend, along with two other allegedly corrupt CTU agents. These events were mentioned in the first season of the show, when Agent Teddy Hanlin badgered Jack Bauer over putting Hanlin's partner, Seth Campbell, away for the charges. (According to Hanlin, Campbell's wife had recently hanged herself.)

Henderson insisted that he was innocent, later suggesting that Nina Myers or George Mason set him up. Though he lost his position in CTU, Henderson managed to bounce back and became senior executive of Omicron, a major Defense Department contractor. He supplied the shipment of Sentox nerve gas for President Charles Logan and ex-CIA agent James Nathanson's plot to manipulate Russian separatists, and also ordered the death of David Palmer. Jack later finds a microchip that implicates Henderson in the conspiracy. Though Henderson initially attempts to convince Jack of his innocence, he later attempts to kill him, then tells a female associate that CTU does not have enough evidence to connect them to the gas. However, when Henderson returns home, Jack is waiting for him. Despite warning Jack that the information he knows would open Pandora's box, he is taken to CTU for questioning. Even under torture, Henderson refuses to talk, and the interrogation is forced to stop. Henderson was placed in a bio-containment unit during the nerve gas attack. While Jack works to clear the gas, Tony Almeida threatens to kill Henderson for his connection to Michelle's death. Jack talks him into waiting until they finish the interrogation. Once the gas clears, Henderson appears to be in a coma. Jack once again tries talking Tony out of killing Henderson, but Tony simply says, "He's mine now." Tony prepares a lethal injection and prepares to plunge it into Henderson's chest. Just as Tony appears to be having second thoughts, Henderson suddenly wakes up, seizes the syringe, and forces it into Tony's chest, giving him a fatal dose. He then takes Burke's firearm and escapes.

Later, while driving through the streets, Henderson orders his subordinates to kill Wayne Palmer, who was apparently trying to reach the presidential retreat. Henderson's men fail to stop Palmer.

By 11:00 p.m. it is revealed that Henderson is working under the direct orders of President Charles Logan, the intiator of the Sentox Nerve Gas Conspiracy. Logan orders him to retrieve all evidence of Logan's involvement with the gas and to eliminate anyone who knows of his involvement. Henderson tracks Bauer for several hours, attempting to kill him before he recovers an audio tape implicating Logan in Palmer's death. While Bauer gets to the audio tape, Henderson is later able to recover the tape from Bauer while holding Audrey Raines at gunpoint. He escapes with the evidence and promptly notifies Logan of his success.

After leaving the airport, Henderson passes the tape off to a confederate before he is ultimately captured by Bauer. He tries to force Jack to free him by threatening to have his men kill Secretary of Defense James Heller. The contingency plan fails when Heller drives his car off a cliff. Jack handcuffs Henderson to a pipe and leaves Audrey to watch him while he tracks the audio tape. Henderson is freed by his subordinates and he orders them to kill Audrey before she escapes, but Curtis Manning and a CTU team arrive in time to save Audrey and take Henderson into custody.

Henderson is met by Jack in custody who informs him that Vladimir Bierko has escaped. Henderson agrees to help Jack on the condition that in addition to total immunity, Jack will agree to help him disappear for good afterwards. Henderson later tricks one of Bierko's men into lowering a firewall providing information on Bierko's next target, a submarine with a payload of Scorpion ballistic missiles.

Henderson joins Jack in retaking the submarine, and is able to disarm the missiles. Knowing that Jack had no intention of letting him go, Henderson sneaks out of the sub, and gets the drop on Jack. However, his gun, which Jack had given to him before entering the sub, is empty. Jack advances, declaring that Henderson was responsible for the deaths of three of his friends (David Palmer, Tony Almeida, and Michelle Dessler). Henderson coldly replies: "That's the way it works," after which Jack double taps Henderson in the chest, killing him. In Bauer's eyes, the death of Henderson was justified on many levels. In a single day, he was integral to a murderous rampage few could match, including the murders of former President of the United States David Palmer, former CTU agents Tony Almeida, Michelle Dessler, the suspected cold-blooded murders of Evelyn Martin, personal assistant to First Lady Martha Logan, and Evelyn's young daughter, Amy. Henderson also was responsible for the murder of a bank manager that assisted Jack Bauer and Wayne Palmer obtain evidence from his safe deposit box implicating President Charles Logan. He was also responsible for the near-deaths of Audrey Raines, her father Secretary of Defense James Heller, former White House Chief of Staff and brother to David Palmer, Wayne Palmer, and callously watching as his wife was tortured, holding his loyalty to President Logan in higher esteem than her life or health. Also, because it was he who supplied the terrorists with the nerve gas, he is indirectly responsible for the deaths of civilians at the Sunrise Hills Mall and 40% of the CTU staff, including Edgar Stiles. Perhaps one of the biggest things weighing on Jack Bauer's mind was Christopher Henderson's hand in betraying his country when he was working with CTU, then doing it again by collaborating with the international terrorist and murderer Vladimir Bierko by providing him with chemical agents that took the lives of innocent people, many of whom Jack had to watch die. When Henderson finally revealed that Jack is going to kill him instead of keeping his word, Jack was more than willing to kill the man.

In his report to CTU, Jack claims self-defense as his reason for Henderson's death, which was witnessed by a young petty officer from the engineering section, who earlier let Henderson and Bauer onto the submarine. It is highly unlikely that this escaped Jack Bauer's notice, and it is just as unlikely that Jack attempted to coerce the frightened sailor into silence, or to make false testimony in a court of law, should the situation have gone that far, due to Bauer's unshakeable, uncompromising sense of purpose.

It should also be noted the Christopher Henderson's death at the hands of Jack Bauer strongly mirrors the death of Victor Drazen from the final hour of Day 1: in both cases the deaths occur on the shoreline, at night, and both villains fire handguns intent upon killing Bauer, only to realize they have no ammunition. In both cases, Bauer executes each man in retribution for a full day of mass-murders of innocent people, many of whom had absolutely nothing to do with their schemes. In addition, the adversarial relationship Jack has with Henderson is similar to the one he had with Nina Myers in earlier seasons.

Trivia

• Due to Peter Weller's role as the title character in RoboCop, fans use that as a nickname for Henderson.
• In a cut scene, the first two shots that Jack fired didn't kill him, but when Jack came over to Henderson, he asked him to 'finish it,' which Jack did with two more shots to the head.
• Henderson appears as the Director of Field Ops in the 24: Declassified novel "Cat's Claw."