10 Silliest Things On 24 (And The Lessons To Be Learned From Them)

5. Chase's Baby (Day 3)

In season three, a babysitter barges into CTU and unloads a baby onto Chloe O'Brien. Chloe spends the next several episodes trying to hide the baby from her superiors, and when Ryan Chappelle finds out that she disobeyed his order to remove the baby from the office, he almost sends Chloe home (Michelle Dessler talks him out of it). In order to keep Chappelle from handing the baby over the social services, Chloe is forced to admit that she isn't the mother, and that the baby is in fact Chase Edmonds. Kim Bauer, Chase's girlfriend, is shocked at the news. The baby is quietly handed over to a CTU staffer and vanishes from the season. The Lesson: As W.C. Fields once said, never work with children or animals. 24's attempt to derive drama from child custody and questions of paternity was an early indicator that day three wasn't as well-thought out as days one or two. The writers should have taken one look at the idea, reminded themselves that 24 was an action thriller, and never brought it up again. Hopefully, after wasting five episodes of day three on this storyline, the writers have learned their lesson.