Karen Hayes

Karen Hayes was the head of the Department of Homeland Security during the events of Day 5 and was called in to take control of CTU. By the beginning of Day 6, she was the National Security Advisor and married Bill Buchanan.

Before Day 5
Before joining the Department of Homeland Security, Hayes was an FBI agent. She worked within the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, eventually becoming Senior Agent and later a Division Agent in Charge.

Hayes has a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Princeton University. She also earned a degree from the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

Karen is married to Bill Buchanan, the Special Agent in Charge of CTU Los Angeles. Buchanan was formerly the Regional Director at District.

Day 5
When CTU Los Angeles is infiltrated with Sentox VX nerve gas, more than 40% of their personell were killed in the attack. After informing President Charles Logan about the attack on CTU, Karen received authorization to take a team from the Department of Homeland Security over to CTU. Vice President Hal Gardner instructs Karen that Homeland will soon be absorbing CTU.

While driving towards CTU, Miles Papazian asks if Karen would have a problem with him replacing some of CTU's personnel with his own. Karen told him she had no problem with it and revealed she felt CTU performed inconsistently throughout the coarse of the day. She then calls Bill Buchanan, the Special Agent in Charge of CTU, to tell him she was on her way.

Once Karen arrived and asked to use Bill's office, Buchanan asked her what her intentions were. Karen revealed that Homeland Security would eventually absorb CTU. Despite the fact Buchanan will lose his job once this occurs, he didn't stand in Karen or Miles' way. His only major concern was finding Vladimir Bierko and stopping him from releasing any more Sentox in the city.

When Jack Bauer works covertly with German Intelligence Agent Theo Stoller in aprehending Collette Stenger, Jack was forced to give up the WET list to get Stoller to cooperate. When Karen learns about this, she demands for Jack to get the list back. Jack tells her that isn't possible and if she blows the operation, they will never be lead to Bierko. Karen and Buchanan reluctantly allow Jack to go through with the operation.

Jack and Curtis Manning bring Stenger back to CTU, and Jack reveals that he had the memory card self-destruct before Stoller could send the list to his people. Hayes then learned that Audrey Raines was implicated by Stenger. While Karen wants Rick Burke to perform a medical interrogation, Karen allows Jack to talk to Audrey for 10 minutes. While Audrey is being interrogated by Burke, Jack proves Stenger lied about Audrey's involvement. With help from Shari Rothenberg, CTU learns that Bierko plans on releasing the Sentox in the gas pipes at Wilshire Gas Company.



Jack manages to prevent the Sentox being released in 90,000 private homes by blowing up the gas company. He then has Curtis bring Bierko back to CTU, with him intending to track down Christopher Henderson and bring him in. Karen and Miles later ask Audrey to sign a document stating that Buchanan and CTU's actions were responsible for the day's events. Audrey agrees to sign it if Chloe O'Brian is kept on the staff and reports directly to her. Karen and Miles reluctantly agree to these terms.

After working with Vice President Gardner for hours, Karen receives a call from President Logan. The president tells Hayes that he has issued a warrant for Bauer's arrest. Karen asks for the charges and Logan reveals they are for the assassination of President David Palmer. When Karen clarifies that Jack was exonerated of those charges earlier, Logan reveals he has found new evidence. Despite feeling her people should be using their resources to find Henderson, Karen makes finding Bauer a top priority.

Miles confronts Karen and tells her the best way to find Bauer is by keeping watch on Audrey and Chloe. When Audrey decides to head him and catch up on some sleep, Karen has Valerie Harris place a transponder device on Audrey's car. However, with Chloe's help, Audrey is able to find the device and drop it off on a tanker. When Valerie contacts Karen and tells her about losing Audrey, she and Miles immediately suspect Chloe was involved.

Karen and Miles set up a briefing meeting in the Situation Room, while they give Chloe a workload. When Chloe learns about the meeting, she asks Shari about it. Shari tells Chloe that Miles found Audrey, and unbeknowst to Chloe, Shari is wearing a wire. While attempting to warn Audrey, Chloe is exposed as helping Audrey and they are also able to pinpoint Audrey's location. Karen has Chloe brought to a holding cell.

When Valerie discovers that Chloe escaped from CTU, she finds video footage that show Chloe speaking to Shari before leaving. Valerie has Shari placed under arrest and Karen decides to interrogate her. Karen asks Shari why she let Chloe go and she tells her Chloe threatened to have her recommended for psychiatric evaluation. Shari also revealed that Chloe has a conspiracy theory that President Logan was involved in the day's events. Karen clearly starts to believe that Logan was complicit in Palmer's assassination and the selling of the Sentox.

When Chloe logs onto CTU's server remotely, Miles is able to discover that Chloe is at Bill Buchanan's house. With a TAC team less than five minutes away, Karen contacts Mike to learn if he has seen the evidence. After learning that nobody has seen the evidence, besides Logan, she calls Buchanan and warns him to get Chloe out of his house.

Buchanan manages to get Chloe out and tells her to head towards a hotel. When the TAC team contacts Karen and tells her Buchanan isn't cooperating, she demands for them to bring Buchanan back to CTU. Karen covertly works with Bill in helping Chloe and Jack, with everybody at CTU thinking she is interrogating him. They later learn that the audio recording implicating President Logan in the day's events is aboard Flight 520.

Karen, Chloe, and Bill help provide Jack with passenger information, and Captain Stan Cotter becomes aware that someone is trying to hi-jack the plane. After locking Jack and Hans Meyer in the luggage compartment and pulling off their oxygen, CTU patches Jack over to Cotter's line. Jack is able to convince Cotter to let him out and let Jack search the passengers for the recording. When Jack tells Cotter that his co-pilot, Scott Evans, is the one holding the recording, Cotter ends up getting knocked out unconscious while letting Jack into the cockpit.

When a distress signal is sent out by Logan's associate Graem Bauer, Admiral Kirkland informs President Logan and Novick that Bauer will intend to use the plane as a weapon. When Karen and CTU learn about the distress signal, they contact Jack and tell him that he needs to land the plane, or he will get shot down. Not being able to get to Van Nuys Airfield in time, Bauer forces Evans to land the plane on a highway. Luckily no civilian lives were lost, as no cars were on the road due to Martial law.

With Logan sending the military units on the road to apprehend Bauer, Karen has Curtis and his team try to locate Jack first. Curtis luckily finds Jack and they managed to slip by the military and get back to CTU. After Jack arrives at CTU, Karen has a video conference with the Attorney General set up and tells Jack he has 10 minutes.



After cleaning up the recording, Chloe plays it to discover it has been erased. She discovers that Miles must of erased it when he was in the room. Jack confronts Miles and nearly physically attacks him, but Karen manages to stop him. Feeling betrayed by Miles' actions, Karen slaps him across the face. Miles then leaves CTU and heads for the presidential retreat, as he earned a position in Logan's administration.

Buchanan and Karen were forced to postpon the conference with the Attorney General, and bigger problems arised. While Bierko was being transported to Division Command, his men attacked the transport van. Agent Davis informed Karen that Bierko's men were talking about a canister of nerve gas and the final attack. Karen was forced to cut Christopher Henderson a deal in order to learn Bierko's next action.

CTU learned that Bierko planned on taking over the Russian ship the Natalia and using the missiles to strike civilian targets. Bierko managed to infiltrate the ship before the missiles were lockdown, and nearly all of the crew was killed by the canister of nerve gas. With Kirkland's fighter jets to far away to get to the ship in time, it was up to Jack, Henderson, and Agent McCullough to stop Bierko in time.

After Henderson disarmed the missiles and Jack killed Bierko and his men, Chloe asked for Morris O'Brian to be reinstated to CTU. Bill and Karen asked why she needed him and Chloe revealed that Morris may be able to restore the recording. Bill signed off on Morris' return forms and Morris covertly worked with Chloe and Jack in getting Logan to confess to his actions.

Jack ended up getting arrested for kidnapping the president, but First Lady Martha Logan was in on the plan and coerced her husband into confessing in front of her. Jack had placed a microtransmitter on Logan's pen and Chloe played the recording for the Attorney General. After hearing the recording, the Attorney General issued a warrant for Logan's arrest.

Before leaving CTU, Bill felt it would be the last time he would see the place, but Karen insisted it wouldn't and she would put a good word for him. When Bill asked Karen if she wanted some coffee, she told him she needed to be briefed at Division, but she asked for a raincheck.

After Day 5
After the events that took place in Day 5, Karen Hayes began a deep friendship with Bill Buchanan when she put a good word in for him, that got Bill's position at CTU back. Eventually the two got married, but Karen's new job forced them to be involved in a long distance relationship. The newly elected President Wayne Palmer hired Karen as his National Security Advisor, and she was forced to relocate from Los Angeles to Washington, DC.

Day 6
As Day 6 begins, America is suffering from multiple terrorist attacks, that started 11 weeks earlier. Serving as the National Security Advisor to President Wayne Palmer, terrorist Abu Fayed agreed to give up Hamri Al-Assad, the culprit of the attacks, in exchange for $25 million and Jack Bauer. President Palmer was ashamed of turning Bauer over to Fayed, and Karen insisted it was his only choice.

As the attacks continue to increase, Karen butts heads with Palmer's chief of staff, Thomas Lennox, who proposes to create detention centers for anyone of Muslim descent. President Palmer then gets a call from Karen's husband Bill, who patches Jack through to Palmer. Jack tells the president that he escaped and that Fayed was really behind the attacks, and Assad came to America to stop the attacks. Bauer strongly suggested for President Palmer to call off the strike against Assad, but both Karen and Lennox opposed.

President Palmer decides to side with Karen and Lennox, and after the strike occurs, Palmer receives a phone call from Fayed, who demands for the release of prisoners. It turns out that Jack was right all along, but it is later learned that Jack managed to help Assad escape before the strike occured. Despite Bauer, Assad, and Curtis Manning following a strong lead, Palmer is forced to sign-off on the release of the prisoners.

CTU soon learns that Fayed wants a specific prisoner released, in order for that prisoner to re-trigger his suitcase nukes. Palmer calls off on the release, but the engineer that Fayed needs managed to escape with help from a dirty guard. Karen advises President Palmer they have no other option, but to give Assad a pardon for his past crimes if he continues to help CTU and remaing faithful to his proposal of making peace with the West.

When watching live footage from a CTU operation, President Palmer and Karen are horrified when they witness one of the suitcase nukes go off in Los Angeles. The bomb was set off in Valencia, and Karen is grateful to learn that her husband wasn't anywhere near the blast. Karen the continues to argue with Lennox, over the prospect of hastily acting against potential terrorist countries.



When Karen learns that Lennox authorized the detention centers, without the consent of President Palmer, she becomes furious and confronts him about it. Lennox then gets help from Reed Pollock, in dispusing of Karen. Lennox confronts Karen and tells her he has many people who will testify that her husband signed off on Fayed's release 18 months earlier. Karen threatened him and said he had skeletons in his closet as well.

When Nadia Yassir was flagged by Homeland Security, Bill contacted Karen and asked her if she could talk to the president about it. Karen agreed that she would do so and she told President Palmer that she decided to resign. Palmer requested for her to stay, but Karen insisted and she asked to be transfered over to CTU Los Angeles. She tells Bill what happened and tells him that she will be in Los Angeles later in the day. She leaves the Presidential Bunker a little after 12:00pm PST (3:00pm EST).

Memorable quotes

 * Karen Hayes: Your emotional involvement with Miss Raines is not exactly a secret, Jack.
 * Jack Bauer: That has nothing to do with this!
 * Karen Hayes: That's right. You always put the work first, you never let your feelings get involved. Is that what happened with Nina Myers?


 * Thomas Lennox: You don't belong in national security.
 * Karen Hayes: You are using this crisis to advance a very dangerous agenda, Tom, and take advantage of presidential power, and I will not let you do it. And if you think you are going to wear me down you are sadly mistaken.


 * Thomas Lennox: I'd like you to tender your resignation, Karen.
 * Karen Hayes: My resignation? What are you smoking?


 * Karen Hayes: Do you want to get in the ring with me, Tom?