Michelle Dessler on Day 2

This is a description of Michelle Dessler's actions on Day 2.

Day 2


Before the events of Day 2, Michelle began to work as a intelligence agent at CTU Los Angeles. She was the third highest-ranking agent at CTU, below George Mason and Tony Almeida. During the first hour of Day 2, the US government learned that a nuclear bomb would detonate somewhere in Los Angeles. CTU LA was put in charge of the investigation.

CTU discovered that Joseph Wald was connected to the terrorist attack. Both men knew Jack Bauer, the former Special Agent in Charge of CTU, who left when Nina Myers killed his wife. Tony called Jack in an attempt to get him to come to CTU, but Jack didn't pick up the calls. After he spoke with President David Palmer, he agreed to go to CTU to be debriefed on the crisis.

Once Jack arrived, he was introduced to Michelle and Paula Schaeffer. After Jack learned about the nuke, he left CTU in rage in an attempt to get his daughter out of town. He later returned to CTU and he told Mason and Tony that he would provisionally come back to CTU if his daughter was taken out of the city. Mason agreed to Jack's terms and Michelle set up Jack's undercover identity in his records.

In order to go undercover with Wald, Jack was forced to kill witness Marshall Goren and cut off his head, in order to show his loyalty. Michelle traveled with Jack on a CTU helicopter and she told him about Wald's current associates and gang. After Jack goes undercover, he recognized one of Wald's men. He knew Eddie Grant from a previous undercover affair. After Jack is set up, Michelle returns to CTU.

Shortly after 10am, CTU gets an order from NSA, who is working with the president's administration on the nuclear crisis. They asked CTU to transfer their database to NSA servers, and Michelle questions this order, as no other agencies were given it. Michelle then discovers Paula in the bathroom, who was emotional. Paula confides in Michelle that she doesn't think she can live up the expectations of her job, and she fears the nuclear bomb won't be located and will detonate.



Shortly before 11am, CTU learns that Eddie Grant's team planted a bomb inside the building, and Michelle and Tony began evacuation. When Tony realized Paula was still in Mason's office working on the decryption of files, he ran in after her and Michelle worried for his safety. Michelle was relieved that Tony survived the blast, but Paula was in critical condition. Paula was being prepared to be brought to the hospital, but Mason returned to CTU and wanted her to stay, so she could decrypt the files.

Michelle tells Jack about the bombing and he is furious about it. He contacted Lynne Kresge a half an hour before the explosion and told her about the bombing. Michelle also told Jack that she wasn't able to locate Kim, as Kim left for the hospital when Megan Matheson suffered a head injury outside of CTU. When Tony began to worry that it will be his fault if Paula dies, as he was the one who recruited her to CTU, Michelle comforted him and told him it wasn't his fault.

With help from Paula, Michelle was able to find the key to decrypt the files CTU transfered to NSA. Mason orders for the paramedics to bring Paula to the hospital, but she died shortly after she helped Michelle decrypt the files. Tony felt guilty over her death and Mason asked Michelle to escort Jack out of CTU. Jack refused to leave CTU and he asked Michelle to ask Mason where he has been for the past few hours. When Jack learned that Mason was exposed to radiation poison, he used this to blackmail him into allowing him to interrogate Nina Myers, who gave Wald the schematics of CTU.



Nina was one of Jack's closest allies and former lover, as well as the former girlfriend of Tony. She was arrested for treason and for the murder of Jack's wife. Mason didn't want Jack to be alone with her, so he and Michelle watched Jack's interrogation of her through a video monitor. Nina agreed to help find the nuclear bomb if she was granted a full presidential pardon. President Palmer and Jack were forced to comply to these demands. Michelle was ordered to assemble a team together, as Jack needed to transport Nina to Visalia in order to get information on the nuke.

During the plane ride to Visalia, Jack drugged Ed Miller so he wouldn't be kept under watch when he was with Nina. Michelle learned about this and told Mason about it. Michelle was able to keep in contact with Jack through the wires on Nina, and she kept him informed on the situation. When Nina met with Mamud Rasheed Faheen, the two of them spoke in Arabic to each other. Michelle used an interpreter in order to translate the conversation to Jack. Michelle wasn't able to confirm the man that Nina spoke to was Faheen, so Jack held off the raid on the building. After the transmission goes out, Jack ordered SWAT into the building.

While Michelle translated all of the conversations between Nina and Faheen, she received a call from Kim Bauer. Kim told her that she was placed under arrest, as she and her boyfriend were accused of Carla Matheson's murder. Michelle patched Kim over to Jack's cell phone, but during the call, Nina and Faheen began to speak in hushed tones. Michelle didn't understand what they discussed and Nina killed Faheen. Michelle looked at the transcripts and learned the name Marko Khatami was mentioned. She did a background check on Khatami and learned he was connected to Syed Ali, the leader of the terrorist group Second Wave.



When Michelle became weary from the stressfulness of the day, Tony comforted her. Michelle then found proof that the plane Jack and Nina were on was shot down, and she presented it to Mason. While Michelle was with Mason, his nose began to bleed. She confronted Tony and told him that she knew about Mason's radiation poisoning, as she also knew about a HAZMAT team being present at Panorama City. Tony confirmed that Mason had radiation poison and would most likely be dead by the end of the day. When Michelle began to question Mason's leadership skills, Tony defended him and insisted George could lead them through the time of crisis.

Mason confided in Michelle that he always wanted to be a teacher and only took a government job because the Department of Defense offered him more money. George told Michelle that she should choose a profession that made her happy and live her life. After the discussion, Michelle confronted Tony and admitted she had feelings for him, and wanted to start a romantic relationship. Tony admitted to Michelle that he also had feelings for her, but became cautious after his relationship with Nina. The two of them agree to go out on a date if they survive the nuclear crisis. Tony later confronted Michelle and told her he was eager to start over with her.

Michelle had an imaging expert brought into CTU and she has him analyze a charred paper found in Syed Ali's clothes. The expert is able to identify that the phrase NS4 is on the paper, and Michelle crosschecks it. When Ali claimed the nuclear bomb was at the Norton Airfield, Michelle was able to assume that NS4 was the location of the bomb. Tony then asked for Michelle to send a team to pick up Ali, but Mason ordered all field agents to go to the airfield. Michelle then began to worry that Division would oversee the investigation, and Tony felt that the only move Division would make is replace Mason.

Brad Hammond arrived at CTU to investigate it's condition, and Mason suggested he was in fine health and CTU was operational. The imaging technician, Randy Murdoch, is able to narrow down the information on the charred paper, and Michelle confirms that one of the phrases is a location at Norton Airfield. When Jack discovered that the bomb at Norton Airfield was a decoy, Michelle passed the Intel over to Tony and Mason, who were visibly upset.



Carrie Turner arrived at CTU as a replacement for Carrie, and she had tension with Michelle. Carrie was previously Michelle's boss at Division, and now Michelle out-ranked her. When Mason decided to step down from CTU, he gave his access codes to Tony, who was promoted to the director of CTU. Tony gave a speech to the CTU staff about Mason's departure, and Michelle commended him for it. Michelle then watched over Yusuf Auda, a Middle Eastern liaison that was brought into CTU.

Michelle discovered an audio recording encrypted on Syed Ali's hard drive. It served as evidence that proved Ali's terrorist actions were funded by three Middle Eastern countries. Michelle ordered a voice point authentication, to prove that the recording was reliable evidence. Tony then informed her that Jack parachuted out of the plane that carried the nuclear bomb, and Mason flew it into the Mojave Desert. Michelle sent a helicopter to pick up Jack and bring him back to CTU.

Michelle interrogated Syed Ali and played the recording for him. Ali claimed that the conversation never happened and the Cyprus recording had to be fabricated. Michelle submitted this evidence to Tony, but he was convinced that the recording was valid. Tony agreed to share both parts of the story to the Cabinet, and Michelle felt the US would enter war. She confronted Jack and told him about Ali's statement and the recording. Jack agreed to help prove the Cyprus was fabricated if Kim was found. After Ali was murdered by Jonathan Wallace, Michelle told Jack about Yusuf. Jack told Michelle to trust Yusuf and he escaped from CTU with Kate Warner, which caused him to break Tony's ankle.



Tony confronted Michelle and asked her if she was involved with the escape of Jack and Kate. Michelle denied being involved and told Tony that Carrie wanted to move forward with her career. When an error signal popped up on Michelle's system, she went away from her station to fix the problem. While she was away, Carrie manipulated her outside links so her communications would be able to be tracked. While at her station, Michelle received a call from her brother Danny. Danny began to ask about the nuclear explosion in the Mojave Desert, and Michelle told him she couldn't enclose any information to him. Danny threatened to call Carrie for the information and after the call, Michelle erased it from her call log.

Michelle was then contacted by Jack, who needed satellite feed. He, Kate, and Wallace were ambushed by assailants, and Jack needed satellite feed of the warehouse. Michelle knew that Carrie had her under watch, so she pulled up several different satellite images. Carrie confronted Michelle about what she was doing, and Michelle dismissed her and went into the restroom in order to place a call to Jack. She sends the satellite feed to Jack's PDA and after she left the restroom, Tony confronted her on if she aided Jack. Michelle told Tony she didn't help Jack, but told him to warn President Palmer to stop any retaliation until Jack found the evidence.

When Tony learned that a gunfight ensued in Studio City, he assumed it involved Jack and he confronted Michelle about it. She dialed Jack's number and handed the phone over to Tony. She apologized for her deception and expected to get fired, but Tony told her to get back to work. Tony then warned President Palmer about a the Cyprus recording possibly being falsified. Tony then witnessed an argument between Carrie and Michelle, and Michelle caused Carrie of sabotage.



Tony confronted Michelle about her dispute with Carrie. Michelle confessed that her brother left his wife for Carrie, and Carrie stopped talking to him. Michelle promised to not let the problem interfere with her work, but Danny arrived at CTU. Michelle attempted to get him to leave, but he saw Carrie and confronted her. Danny physically attacked Carrie, and security guards placed him into custody. Michelle was horrified and Tony comforted her, which caused them to pull into a passionate kiss. Carrie witnessed the action and Michelle is convinced she will use the information against Tony.

Michelle then received a call from Jack and she told Tony about it. The service was cut off and Michelle tried to locate him. Eventually she and Jack got back into contact and he gained possession of the chip that proved the Cyprus was fabricated, but it was damaged by white supremacists. Michelle attempted to access the chips contents and the audio files weren't retrievable. Michelle was able to find the chip's programmer through the sequence of the junk code. She traced the sequence to a man named Alex Hewitt, a hacker who worked for the State Department and was fired after manipulation of files.



When Ryan Chappelle arrived at CTU and took command of it, he ordered for Michelle and Tony to not work on the Cyprus recording. He was convinced that retaliation against the Middle Eastern countries would take place, as the 25th Amendment was being activated. Carrie confronted Michelle on what she worked on, and Michelle lied to her in order to brush her off. Carrie reported to Chappelle and Tony about Michelle's secret operations.

When Tony was reassigned, Michelle asked him to help her assist Jack. Michelle brought Chappelle to a holding cell and Tony drugged him. Michelle then ordered for a helicopter to pick-up Jack, Hewitt, and Sherry Palmer, but it was too late as Hewitt was killed. When Michelle began to leave CTU, Carrie stopped her and asked her where she was going to. Carrie is distrustful of Michelle's explanation, as Michelle goes into a CTU van in order to connect to Hewitt's computer.

Jack explains to Michelle about Hewitt's program and she found thousands of voice samples. Michelle walked Jack through the process, but Division agents surrounded the van and placed her under arrest. Brad Hammond had arrived at CTU and took control of it, as he wasn't able to get in touch with Chappelle and Carrie requested for him to come. Michelle sat in a holding cell with Tony and she told him she wouldn't allow him to take the blame for what happened to Chappelle.



Michelle and Tony waited in their holding cell for their punishment, when Chappelle arrived in the room. Chappelle asked Tony and Michelle to get him in touch with Jack, and he wouldn't pursue any charges if they helped him. Chappelle was convinced that Jack was right and with help from Tony and Michelle, he was able to place a wire on Sherry Palmer.

Sherry met with Peter Kingsley and her conversation with him proved that the audio recording was fabricated. After Kingsley realized Sherry played him, he ordered his men to kill her. However, Jack was able to kill all of the hostiles and Sherry ran off. Jack ended up in a fight with one of the hostiles, which exhausted him. After he lost all of his energy, Kingsley approached him and Jack ran out of ammunition. Kingsley prepared to kill Jack, but Agent Tom Baker and field agents arrived, and they killed Kingsley.



President Palmer regained his presidency from Vice President Jim Prescott and Michelle told Tony she was going to go home. Tony thanked Michelle for sticking with her gut feeling, even if it meant acting against him, and he told her that he would like to go out with her sometime.