Lynne Kresge
During the second season, Palmer and his staff –
Chief of Staff Mike Novick,
Press Secretary Jenny Dodge,
NSA Deputy Director Eric Rayburn, and his boss,
National Security Advisor Roger Stanton – dealt with a nuclear bomb threat in
Los Angeles.
From the moment the threat was called in, Lynne and Rayburn clashed and, at 11 AM, the offices of the L.A.
Counter Terrorist Unit were blown up. The loss of lives could have been prevented if the President was informed but Rayburn silenced Lynne's attempt to do so because he believed it was better to let them die than tip the terrorists off to the fact that CTU operative
Jack Bauer was undercover.
While Bauer being undercover was crucial in ultimately finding the nuke, the President sided with Lynne in that what he had done was inexcusable and Rayburn was let go. When Stanton, his boss, arrived, Palmer was instantly suspicious. As it turned out, he was right to be, for Stanton was working with Palmer's ex-wife Sherry. Lynne was the only one suspicious of Sherry which led to them fighting several times.
At 6 PM, Palmer had Stanton tortured for information and this information, along with the information Bauer and his team had developed, led to the arrest of terrorists Marie Warner and Syed Ali, and the ultimate capture of the nuclear bomb. Stanton revealed that Sherry had been working with him and - despite her claims that she was doing it to get inside their circle, a group who wanted to hijack the Presidency - Palmer sent her out of his life again. The nuclear bomb was flown into the desert by former CTU director George Mason, who sacrificed himself to detonate it in a non-populated area. Palmer then decided to go to Los Angeles on
Air Force One.
When they arrived in L.A., shortly after midnight,
Vice President of the United States Jim Prescott became involved as he anxiously awaited the inevitable retaliation against the three Middle Eastern countries implicated by evidence found in Sayed Ali's apartment. While a disturbed Palmer sided with his advisors and prepared retaliatory actions, he was informed by Bauer that Ali had been assassinated. Bauer and his colleague
Michelle Dessler believed it was because Ali knew that the evidence was forged and the countries weren't involved.
Palmer was pushed into war while Bauer attempted to chase down evidence. He believed he had found it, but could not produce it in time. Palmer still cancelled the military action, unaware that the Vice President and Mike Novick were plotting against him. Lynne discovered evidence of a secret meeting between the Vice President and the cabinet and asked for Mike's help. It turned out that he knew what was going on, and had her imprisoned in a storage room so she could not inform the President that he was about to be unseated. She hatched an escape plan but in doing so, fell from a stairwell and sustained neurological damage. When she was found, she attempted one last time to point to Mike and accuse him but Mike took her hand and didn't betray any guilt to anyone.
Lynne's fate is unknown, as she is not seen again, neither in Day 2 nor in subsequent seasons.
*Michelle Forbes provides commentary on the DVD set, in the fourth episode of the season, "11 AM - 12 PM", with co-stars Carlos Bernard and Sarah Wynter.
*Her co-star,
Dennis Haysbert, is a
Trekkie and was reportedly thrilled to be working with her, since she played the character of
Ro Laren in several episodes of
Star Trek: The Next Generation.
