SHERRY PALMER

'Sherry Palmer' is a fictional character on the television series ''24'', played by Penny Johnson Jerald.

Contents

Appearances

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

The many returns

Palmer family tree

Appearances

Day 1

Originally a recurring guest character, she was married to U.S. Senator David Palmer — the first African-American with a chance at the White House. Although it appears she has a loving relationship with her husband, he begins to doubt whether he can trust her after he learns that she covered up their son Keith's accidental killing of his sister (their daughter) Nicole's rapist, and is willing to continue the cover-up in order to protect his chance of winning the election. His suspicions are confirmed when she opens a safe and destroys what she believes to be Keith's tape incriminating Carl Webb, which was actually a decoy planted by Palmer to test how far she would go. Over the course of the first season (taking place over one day, as each season of the show does), she revealed herself to be willing to do anything, including treason and murder, to secure her husband's presidency. At one point, she coerces Palmer's speechwriter, Patty Brooks, to attempt to seduce him into having an affair in order to feed off information from him and report it to her, as she feels her husband is not confiding in her enough. Many of her actions showed little regard for the potential consequences to those besides her husband; she reports that he survived the Drazens' attempt to kill him with a bomb in a cell phone despite Jack wanting the terrorists to believe that Palmer was dead so that Kim would be spared (however, the terrorists had been informed of the deception by a mole inside CTU). She expressed no hesitation or regret for her actions, saying that she wished to protect her husband's candidacy, causing Palmer to realize that she had lost touch with what it meant to be part of a family. At the end of the day, Palmer told her he was going to file for divorce.

Day 2

Between Season 1 and Season 2, the Palmers divorced. Sherry Palmer was one of the most popular secondary characters and so was brought back in the second season as a main character, showing up unexpectedly at her ex-husband's Oregon bunker on the day of a nuclear threat to Los Angeles. At first, Palmer trusted her claims that members of his staff sought to undermine his administration, which did help him unravel a conspiracy against him from within the government. However, her questionable actions led some — including Palmer's aide Lynne Kresge — to be suspicious of her. By the end of the day, she had proven that she still had feelings for her husband when she assisted CTU agent Jack Bauer in bringing down the terrorists and preventing the war. Although arrested for her acts of treason, Palmer would later assist her in discreetly being released.

Day 3

Season three began with President Palmer in Los Angeles for a debate against his political opponent, Senator John Keeler. Midway through the season, Sherry Palmer returned — this time at Palmer's bidding to help him shake off Alan Milliken, a key campaign contributor who was now threatening Palmer's health care bill. She arrived to find evidence to use against Milliken, and found Kevin Kelly, a man who was paid to keep quiet about Milliken's role in his daughter's death. After Kelly's disappearance, she went to the Milliken residence to speak with his wife and obtain his cell phone. He came downstairs and she yelled at him, causing him to have a heart attack; she then prevented Julia from giving him his medication, effectively murdering him. She initially denied having been in the Milliken residence, but then admitted that she was there, and convinced her ex-husband that if he reported that she was to the police, he would be implicated as well. Palmer lied to the Chief of Police and gave her an . He, disgusted by what she had done, then told her to get out of his life forever.
Close to the end of the season, she went to Keeler and offered him proof that Palmer had sent her to Milliken, and was thus an accessory to murder. Keeler could then use this to blackmail Palmer into discreetly leaving the presidency, allowing Keeler an easy win in the upcoming election. Palmer and his Chief of Staff Wayne Palmer found out about this, and Wayne snuck into her home to try to steal the evidence while Palmer distracted her elsewhere. Sherry, however, grew suspicious, even as he agreed to remarry her, as she suspected he was toying with her, and she then returned home. Wayne and his co-conspirator fled the house with the evidence, but Wayne's lover — Milliken's wife Julia — who had been left as the only suspect in the murder of her husband, arrived at the house, shooting Sherry dead and then shooting herself. Although Palmer now had the evidence, his potential implication in the deaths of Milliken, Julia and Sherry forced him to discreetly leave the presidency. Ironically, she achieved in death her ultimate goal to ruin her husband's political career for revenge.
In interviews with the show's producers, it was stated that the way she was shot was deliberate in case they wanted to bring her character back. Penny Johnson Jerald also stated in a separate interview that when she was shot, she purposefully continued to breathe, just in case the producers wanted to bring her back at some point, although she may have been joking.

The many returns

Sherry Palmer was one of the more popular characters from season one, so her return to ''24'' in seasons two and three were done to appeal to television critics and fans of the show who enjoyed the character and her manipulations. However, many of the writers disliked the notion of Sherry becoming a regular character on the show after season one and killed the character off towards the end of season three.

Palmer family tree