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

3. Lynn McGill's Crack Whore Sister (Day 5)

In day five, we're introduced to Lynn McGill, a CTU District Director who arrives to oversee operations early on during day five. Although he ruffles a few feathers upon his arrival (he insists that Bill Buchanan give him his office), McGill establishes himself as a professional when he's the only one to correctly identify that Jack's phone call indicating a "flank two position" uses an old CTU code, which stops a CTU team from walking into an ambush just in time. Later in the day, however, McGill's credibility as a character is demolished when his sister and her boyfriend (both heavy crack users) lure McGill outside and ask him for money. When McGill refuses, instead suggesting the name of a doctor to help with their addiction, McGill's sister and her boyfriend beat him up and steal his wallet (including his CTU key card). Rather than report the incident, McGill fixes his color, wipes the blood from his mouth, and walks back into the office. Later, it turns out that McGill's sister didn't want his money €“ she wanted his keycard, which she tries to sell to a terrorist (she's killed instead). The terrorist ends up using the keycard to launch a deadly nerve gas on CTU, which ultimately kills McGill (but not before he offers a weak explanation for not reporting the theft €“ he says he was "embarrassed" €“ and manages to heroically sacrifice himself). The Lesson: If your series is about a group of highly-trained anti-terrorism professionals, have them act like professionals. Lynn McGill's behavior in regards to his sister is hardly the only time 24 forced a character to act unprofessionally for the sake of the plot, but it's one of the worse instances of it, leading "Lynn McGill's Crack Whore Sister" to be used by some fans to describe one of the series' worst impulses.