Cole Ortiz

Cole Ortiz was the Director of Field Operations for CTU New York during Day 8. Cole was in a relationship with CTU chief data analyst Dana Walsh and the two were engaged to be married. He headed several field operations for the agency, but also sacrificed vital time to cover up the shootings of two criminals in an effort to protect Dana. When he discovered that Dana was a mole, he was devastated by her betrayal.

Personal

 * Born: March 1, 1974
 * Place of Birth: St. Francis Hospital
 * City: New York City, New York
 * Mother: Katherine Walker-McCallister
 * Father: Kirk McCallister
 * Fiancee: Dana Walsh (deceased)

Before Day 8
Before working at CTU NY, Cole was in the Marines, and had served in Fallujah, Iraq. He was awarded a campaign metal ribbon for bravery in combat. He was also upgraded to a Sergeant First Class and assigned to Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California.

Day 8
During the evacuation from United Nations, CTU was informed that the evacuation was to lure Omar Hassan out of the building, so that they could kill him. Cole drove his car in Hassan's place and his car was flipped in the explosion. He survived the blast. He pursued the assassin Davros into the south-east corridor of a building. The assassin told him to alert that the corridor was clear, but instead he said "The assassin is with me now". Before Davros could take Cole's life, he was killed from behind by Jack Bauer.

Cole was personally thanked by Omar Hassan at CTU NY for his heroism. Cole was later set up at a rendezvous point as sniper backup for Jack Bauer, who was undercover using the alias of "Ernst Meier". When Lugo Elson and his three men prepared to kill Jack, Cole shot down the henchman.



After, he and the field teams headed to Laitanan's hideout. Arriving just after Jack was kidnapped through a tunnel, Cole was taken completely by surprise when Renee revealed that Jack was gone and CTU did not observe it with their drones. Cole then led the CTU field teams to secure the rods. When they arrived at the truck stop, they found Luka and Anton already dead (killed by Josef Bazhaev), discovering that the rods had been stolen.

As Cole and his team swept the area, Arlo contacted him to tell him that Dana had disappeared and Arlo then started tracking her from her phone. Cole took Jim's car and left while Arlo managed to track her to Eastwick Park. When Cole found her in a remote area of the park, he demanded that she tell him what was going on. Reluctantly, she told him what had really happened in her past.



After hearing Dana's story, Cole decided to face Kevin Wade and Nick. He went to the van where they were getting high and holding them at gunpoint, he told them that he never wanted to hear about them again or see them in New York. Convinced that the two thugs were finished, he and Dana turned to leave while she thanked him profusely for settling the matter. As they approached their car, they heard Kevin yelling at them. As they turned, they saw Nick who was about to open fire at them with a small revolver. As he fired, Cole used the shotgun that he took from the van and quickly killed Nick. He then ran to Dana and the two looked on as Kevin collapsed from a stab wound caused by Nick. After he died, Cole and Dana dumped the bodies in the swamp and stripped the van to destroy evidence.

Cole returned to CTU with Dana, answering to Hastings about how his "lead" didn't pan out. He was told that in order for him to retain his job, he is to perform exceptionally. He was immediately ordered to pick up Elaine Al-Zacar at his apartment on 4211 East 117th Street and bring her to St. Julian's Hospital where Marcos Al-Zacar had contained himself within a hyperbaric chamber. He escorted Elaine to the hospital, where Dana called him, claiming that Kevin's parole officer had just called. He told her to handle it. After Marcos left the chamber, his vest was remotely activated via a failsafe method. Cole held the other tactical members back while Jack tried to defuse Marcos' vest, ultimately failing to do so. He watched Jack shove Marcos into the chamber as his vest exploded.

Jack told Cole that before Marcos died, he admitted that Tarin Faroush was a part of the conspiracy. They headed over to Faroush's hotel but arrived too late; he had already escape and killed several NYPD officers, as well as taking Kayla Hassan hostage. Kayla managed to escape, and from her intel CTU discovered where she was being held. Jack and Cole went to the location but found it deserted. Arlo noticed the terrorists leaving the building from a different entrance, and identified one of them as Faroush himself. This directly contradicted Kayla's story of her escape, in which she said that Faroush was killed. Jack deduced that the terrorists wanted Kayla to escape and go to CTU, in an effort to take out American defences. The revelation was too late, however, as Kayla arrived at CTU and the EMP that the terrorists put in her car detonated. CTU was wiped out, and Jack told Cole to call the NSA as CTU was no longer operational.

With the help of NSA, Jack and Cole tracked down the rods to a local dock where Samir Mehran and Tarin Faroush were leaving with the weapons. They later engaged in a shootout with Samir's men, and ended up losing agents Owen and King to the shooters. Jack later offered to sacrifice himself so Cole could run to a phone and call CTU. The plan worked and Jack was saved by Renee Walker. Cole was then flown back to CTU where he confronted Dana about the parole officer. She said it was no big deal and Cole left it at that.

When it was later revealed that Dana was a mole inside CTU and was trying to make a run for it, Cole ran down to assist in her arrest. As Dana is about to escape Cole appears in front of her vehicle. She tried to run him over, but he shot her front tires, rendering the vehicle useless. He angrily asked who she really was, to which she made no reply.

Brian Hastings asked Cole to fill out a debrief about Dana's past and told him to inlcude every fact he knew. He was later reinstated by Hastings when Jack wanted Cole on the rescue team for President Hassan. Cole and his team eliminated rooftop snipers while Jack and Renee went in for the rescue, which didn't happen because Hassan had already been killed by Samir.

Cole later reported to Jack that Samir would make through his injuries after the shootout with Jack. Jack told Cole that he and Renee were going back to his apartment. Jack shakes Cole's hand and tells him he is a good agent. Shortly afterwards, Cole reported to new CTU chief Chloe O'Brian that Samir had gone into cardiac arrest. She ordered a toxicology, and Cole complied.

Soon after, Cole was ordered to capture Jack Bauer, who had gone rogue in order to expose the Russian's involvement in the death of President Hassan, as well as to avenge the murder of Renee Walker. Though Cole was clearly disturbed by his new orders, he complied with them and set up a trap for Jack. However, Jack, thinking one step ahead, detained Cole and convinced him to help him get to Dana Walsh, who had evidence of the Russian's role in the day's events.

The two rescued Walsh and (after Jack threatened Dana) retreated to a bank where Walsh was holding the secret video files that expose the Russians' involvement in the conspiracy. Jack stayed outside the bank, while Cole and Dana went inside to retrieve the evidence. During this whole time, Dana tried to convince Cole that Jack was only out for revenge and would kill anyone who had anything to do with Renee Walker's death - starting with her. She also insisted to Cole that she truly loved him and that she was trying to protect him from her employers. Cole, however, refused to listen. Dana then used a concealed bomb to surprise Cole, knocked him unconscious, and escaped.

Cole was found and taken into custody by the police a short while later. He was first brought to a construction site to identify the body of a woman - Dana Walsh, who was killed by Jack only minutes before while trying to escape. Cole was appalled to learn that Jack had apparently executed Dana after she had given him the evidence, just as Dana had said he would. Cole was then brought back to CTU where he was questioned by Jason Pillar - the man now in charge of the hunt for Jack Bauer. Pillar attempted to convince Cole to help him find Jack, but Cole, knowing Pillar's true intentions, refused. Cole was then left alone in a holding cell.

Later, Chloe spoke to Cole in private, telling him that she believed Jack was right about the conspiracy to cover up the Russians' involvement in the death of President Hassan. She also warned him that Pillar was probably trying to have Jack killed. Cole was unmoved by this, as he felt that neither Jack nor Pillar could be trusted. He did, however, tell Chloe that Jack was probably getting help from the outside. Chloe eventually identified Jim Ricker as Jack's accomplice and pointed Cole to his current residence. Shortly after Cole was released by Chloe, he departed for the safehouse with an arsenal of weapons, claiming that he will kill Jack if he does not surrender.

When Cole arrived at Jim's residence, he forced his way in and demanded at gunpoint Jack's whereabouts. Cole tried to convince Jim that he could repay Jack for saving his life by telling Cole where he was, but Ricker refused. However, just before he left, Jim told Cole about Jack's plan.

After arriving at the UN, Cole and Chloe determined that Jack was in the area. Cole wanted to send a team to apprehend Jack, but Chloe insisted that she go after him. Cole gave her a radio, a gun and twenty minutes to find Jack. When Chloe did not return, Cole eventually did send the team up where they captured Jack who had been shot by Chloe (on Jack's orders). Chloe later took the evidence that Jack had given her and quickly told Cole that the evidence would prove that the Russians were behind the day's events. Cole tried to buy her time while she tried to upload the video to Arlo, but they were both arrested by Pillar, who had them transported back to CTU.

Shortly after, Cole and Chloe were reinstated by President Taylor, who had decided to atone for her mistakes. Chloe then cleared the CTU floor with the exception of herself, Cole and Arlo. The three of them used the CTU drones to find Jack, who had been kidnapped by men working for Charles Logan.

Background information and notes

 * Cole Ortiz was originally scripted to be named Davis Cole.
 * How Cole was tricked into opening the deposit box in the bank and it being booby trapped mirrors how Mike Doyle opens the box containing the FB subcircuit board, which was also booby trapped.
 * The character background of Cole was created to mirror a "younger" Jack Bauer. This is further explored with Cole's desire to follow in Jack's footsteps.
 * Actor Freddie Prinze Jr. has been in talks with Joel Surnow about taking the lead role in a possible 24 spin-off series, but the show wouldn't produce for "at least another 3 to 4 years" as Surnow first wants to finish the 24 movie.
 * Cole is the only Field Ops partner who has never been physically assaulted by Jack (unlike Tony Almeida, Chase Edmunds, Ronnie Lobell, Curtis Manning, Mike Doyle and Renee Walker).
 * Cole is one of the five characters to appear in every episode of their only season. The others are Teri Bauer (Season 1), Chase Edmunds (Season 3), Nadia Yassir (Season 6) and Arlo Glass (Season 8).