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About Nina Myers

This site contains fanfiction and some additional stuff about Nina Myers, a main character of the TV show 24.

To me, Nina was, and still is, the most interesting and intriguing character on the show. She’s evil, she’s ruthless, and I wouldn’t want to be around here in real life, but she’s the most fascinating character on television I’ve come across. It’s a shame the writers of 24 didn’t give her more space in the later seasons - but seeing what happened to other characters and most of the storyline of the fourth season I’m just content with how things are. It could have been worse.

I’ve struggled for a long time with why I’m so fascinated by Nina - she’s not exactly a role model. But I guess what it all comes down to is Sarah Clarke’s outstanding performance. Even within the few episodes of seasons 2 and 3, sometimes within a single scene, she managed to show the entire depth of Nina’s character. I especially recall one scene of the second season, on the plane from Visalia, when Jack is questioning Nina about Faheen and then turns away, frustrated and insecure about what to do next. The camera is on Nina for a few seconds and it’s all there: first, the display of sympathy. And then, within a fraction of a second, her expression changes completely and you can see how she’s thinking, weighing her options, calculating, predicting her next move and Jack’s reaction, with the elegance and the intellect of a chess player. If anyone wonders about how Nina ‘works’, I can only recommend that scene.

Another scene or moment is when Palmer tells Nina over the phone that she’ll be pardoned in advance for killing Jack. I think you can see Palmer in the box to the right, Jack below and Nina to the left. A lot going on there, but again my attention is on Nina every time I watch, the moment she hears those magical words, the moment you can see the relief but most of all the surprise in her face. As if she couldn’t believe she got away with it. It’s the small things…

When it comes to season 3, I still think that last episode, in particular the interrogation with Tony, is the masterpiece of Clarke’s performance. After everything we learned so far about Nina, after all the horrible things she’s done and the way she always lets her ratio steer, doing simply what is promising the best outcome, she suddenly seems human again, yet in an absolutely believable way.

One day I’m gonna count how many words or lines Nina has in those episodes but until then I’ll just say that it’s not an awful lot of text. Still, Sarah Clarke conveys so much by doing so little. When Nina casts her eyes down or sighs silently, it tells you more about what is going on inside her than other characters could reveal within a ten minutes’ monologue. Nina might be dead on the show but she’ll never be forgotten – at least not here!