Rick Jackson on the cover of the '12' Season One DVD.
Rick Jackson—an American serviceman and later, a federal agent—was responsible for saving countless American citizens from potentially devastating terrorist attacks on many occasions.
He took a leadership role in various covert and undercover missions, and served as both Special Agent in Charge and Director of Field Operations of FBI San Francisco. His dedication to keeping U.S. citizens safe led him to make some deep personal sacrifices. Rick lost his job, his family, his friends, and, for a period of nearly three years after Day 1, his freedom. He has shown his willingness to sacrifice his life on different occasions, but each time his sacrifice ultimately proved to be unnecessary.
Before Day 1
Rick Jackson brought down Ronald Watson on multiple charges, and Ronald was sentenced to years in prison. Ronald then made a call in prison that told one of his men to go and kill Rick's wife, Kate. Rick then got home from work one day, and found her dead in their living room. She was pregnant with their son when she died.
Day 1
Rick wakes up to find out his long-time friend Governor Dave Beckett has been assassinated in San Francisco. He is deeply saddened about this and eventually goes to work. When he gets there, he hears from Francis Newman that his friend and co-worker Chris Andrews has been hit with a car bomb. Rick then follows up a lead and ends up finding the assassin that killed Beckett. Rick then gets a small dose of information from him, and kills him in cold blood.
Later, Francis Newman finds out from an anonymous source that a nuclear weapon is in San Francisco and will go off, today. He tells Rick and they find a lead that might have information. After they get nowhere, FBI is suddenly bombed by the terrorists, and Rick goes into medical from wounds.
Later, Rick gets out of medical, and is informed that an ambassador at the Saudi Arabian Consulate in San Francisco, has knowledge about the attack. Instead of waiting on approval, Rick single-handedly assaults on the consulate. He finds out from the ambassador that the FBI was bombed to stop the lead on the bomb, and that a certain man years ago sold them the plans to the building. After the ambassador kills himself, Rick finds a folder full of pictures of the exchange for the building plans for money. He finds out that his wife's killer, former FBI analist Ronald Watson, was the one that conducted the exchange.
He tells Francis, and they have Ronald brought over from prison. He tells Francis he will only help if he gets a pardon. President Jackson Hicks pardons Ronald, and Rick is furious. Later, Rick and Ronald are following up a lead when their plane is shot down by terrorists. When they crash-land in the desert, suspicious soldiers attack them and they fight back. Eventually, they take out all the soldiers, and while Rick's back is turned, Ronald picks up a weapon and holds him hostage.
Eventually, an FBI sniper shot Ronald in the hand, and they put him back under arrest. In the same time span, they find the nuclear weapon. But, it cannot be defused. When Rick and Francis meet Bomb Squad at the bomb site, they conclude that someone will have to fly it out. Rick originally volunteers, but Francis says he must do it, for he was dying of plasma poisoning from earlier that day. Francis and Rick have an emotional moment, before Francis flies the plane out and kills himself.
Ronald crashes his FBI transport and escapes. Later, Rick goes through a tough emotional state and eventually finds Ronald and kills him, along with all of his men, all by himself. He also killed a witness, Vladimear Stiles. Chris Andrews, acting FBI Director, puts him under arrest. He later releases him to help find the second nuclear device that is somewhere in San Francisco. When Rick is forced to kill another FBI agent or the mission would be ruined, he decides he's done from doing FBI work. Moments later, a failed FBI raid of the compound results in a nuclear bomb being exploded in San Francisco.
Rick stares at the mushroom cloud on Day 1, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM.
Rick leaves the location of the bomb and stands still in the street watching the mushroom cloud in the distance. He then helps an innocent save his friend in a helicopter crash caused by the nuclear shockwave. He calls Chris and says he wants back in, and that he has to help after this. Later, Arnold Robinson calls Rick and tells him that Rick's brother, Josh Jackson, was involved in the nuclear detonation. After an interrogation of his own brother, it is revealed that Josh worked with Ronald, and sold the second nuclear weapon to the arab extremists who detonated it an hour earlier. When Josh is being transported back to FBI for further interrogation, he is killed by a Saudi Arabian assassin.
When the day finally looks as if it will be over, Rick gets a call from his father. When he answers the phone, assassins ambush him and kidnap him. Abdul Amad then tells Rick that he is responsible for the raid on the Saudi Arabian Consulate and death of the Saudi Arabian Ambassador earlier that day. When Rick begs Abdul to kill him, Abdul states that he's far to valuable to kill. Then, the ship that they are leaving on sails into the sea, and the day ends at 6:00pm.
Before Day 2
Rick was held in a Saudi Arabian prison for three years, and endoured horrific interrogation and torture from Abdul Amad. On Day 5, you can see lots of these scars on Rick's back. It is also said by Abdul Amad at the start of Day 2, that Rick didn't say one word when he was in Saudi Arabia.
Day 2
At the start of Day 2, Rick is being handed back to the US after the US paid $125 million dollars to Saudi Arabia for his release. Chris Andrews says to Rick that there has been a series of nerve gas attacks across the country. The only way to stop them, is to have Rick handed over to the terrorists. Rick says ok to the exchange and that he can die for something. When the terrorists are about to kill him, he lies and says that he wants to help them plant the gas, so he could get revenge on the US. They let him live, and he assists them in planting the gas at an unknown target. It is later revealed that Abdul Amad was in on this conspiracy, and question Jackson's motives at first. Later, Rick finds out the target for the gas first is the FBI San Francisco building.
After they plant the gas, Rick breaks his cover and gets information from conspirator Abu Iraz, including the location of Abdul Amad's safehouse. Rick is assaulted by Abu's men, and he kills all of them including Abu. He visits Abdul at his safehouse, and puts him under arrest. Rick calls Chris Andrews and tells him that there is a canister of nerve gas in the FBI building, but that it's not activiated. Later, Rick finds out from Abdul during interrogation, that the gas canister actually was armed. Rick, Chris, Arnold Robinson, and Jake Andrews all secure themselves in a confrence room, while Abdul was safe in medical. The four FBI agents watch some of their friends be killed by the gas.
When the gas is cleared out of the building, Rick goes to visit Abdul in medical, but finds out he has escaped. Rick and Chris manage to catch up to Abdul, who is trying to escape and has men posted outside the FBI building. After a shootout occurs, Rick shoots Abdul in the foot and puts him back under arrest.
Abdul says that a man named Adee Bredenko has the remaining 17 canisters of nerve gas, and he's going to release it at a natural gas distribution center. Rick manages to stop the canisters from going off, and to get Bredenko in custody. After Rick interrogates Bredenko, he finds out that mastermind behind the entire conspiracy was President Jackson Hicks himself.
Rick and Adee Bredenko fight over a weapon while the gas center is exploding.
When Bredenko was telling Rick about a recording between Abdul Amad and President Hicks, he was shot and killed. But Rick and Chris still found the recording in a bank in San Francisco. The recording implicated Abdul and Hicks in the conspiracy to detonate the two nukes and kill Governor Dave Beckett from Day 1 as well. Then, they were ambushed by Abdul's men, and Abdul himself took Chris hostage. He demanded the recording from Rick. Rick then handed over the recording and chased Abdul. After Rick cornered Abdul, an unidentified conspirator came behind Rick and tazered him. They found out the original recording Rick gave Abdul was fake and that FBI had it. The Abdul and the unidentified conspirator said that if they didn't get the recording by 1:00pm, that they would kill Rick Jackson.
After the exchange took place, Rick told Chris that he was going after President Hicks. Once they got people on the inside of the White House to help them get President Hicks from his retreat in San Francisco, Rick posed as a chopper pilot and took Hicks hostage. He tried to get him to confess, but Hicks didn't before Secret Service arrived at the abandoned building.
When Hicks was discussing with a conspirator about how he didn't get caught, he didn't know Rick put a secret listening device on him. While he was making a speech about Dave Beckett's birthday, Secret Service interrupted and showed him the device. He was then arrested.
During the end of the day, Rick was questioned by a CIA operative who had questions about a dead agent named Marcus Colt. He died when in Saudi Arabia, and they believed Rick had given him up. Rick was outraged by these accusations, and left the building. He decided not to come back, if the country he rightfuly served was going to treat him with this much disrespect.
Before Day 3
Rick spent 7 months in Algeria before returning to the United States. He was a missionary that helped save school children from General Benjamin Tredaku's rajeem.
Day 3
Rick Jackson was pursued by the United States Department of Justice to be questioned about the murder of countless witnesses such as Ronald Watson. He then agreed to come to court, and his court day was scheduled on Day 3. Senator Joe Barham questioned him until Arnold Robinson pulled out Rick. Rick was then asked by FBI San Francisco to help find the deadly Cordilla Virus. A recording made by Jose Hernandez said that the virus would be released if Sergio Hernandez wasn't freed from incarceration.
Rick at court at the start of Day 3.
Rick Jackson then went to go visit Sergio in prison. Rick was responsible for putting Sergio in prison for drug trafficing. Rick then told Sergio he couldn't afford for this virus to be released, and that he was going to break Sergio out of prison. After a fierce shootout with guards, Rick and Sergio escaped in a helicopter and continued out to the city. Sean Mason ordered fighters to shoot Rick and Sergio down, but Rick guided the chopper over San Francisco, so they couldn't shoot over a populated area. Later, Rick and Sergio met with Jose's men, and Sergio told them to take Rick hostage. Rick said this wasn't part of the deal, but Sergio told his men to put Rick on the plane.
Later, Rick managed to take Sergio hostage and present him to Jose. Jose begged Rick not to kill Sergio, and Rick stated he didn't want to, he just didn't want to end up dead. Meanwhile, Chris Andrews explained to President Joseph Wald that he and Rick had created a sting operation to fake the break out of Sergio Hernandez and gain the trust of Jose Hernandez. Rick needed someone with popularity to buy the virus from seller Mitchell Stewart, and he knew the Hernandez brothers would work perfectly. Rick and the Hernandez's then went to the given location, and were about to buy the virus, when Mitchell Stewart announced there was a second buyer in the Cordilla Virus. One of Rick's largest enemies, Abdul Amad, was later revealed to be the second buyer. After the silent auction, it was revealed that Abdul won the virus. When Jose wanted to step out of the deal, Rick said they could take the virus from Abdul, but Jose still wanted no part. Sergio said this deal was too important, and ended up killing Jose.
Sergio and Rick cornered Abdul and took the virus. When FBI ambushed Sergio moments away from killing Rick, Abdul escaped and Sergio fled. Sergio was later killed by the vial of the virus, because it was a bomb in disguise. It was found out that Stewart was going to rip-off the winner of the auction and escape with the real vials. When Rick found Abdul and took into custody, he found out that Abdul had no real information. When Abdul tried to commit suicide during interrogation, Rick hunted him down in FBI, and shot him three times in the chest in cold blood.
Later, it was revealed that Mitchell Stewart planned on selling the virus to Johnathan Samuels. When Samuels told Stewart that the only way he would get his full pay, he would need to plant the virus in the Comfort Inn and Suites Hotel. Samuels detonated the virus remotely, infecting Stewart and everyone in the hotel. Later, Rick found out that Samuels was involved, and he was shocked, because Samuels worked with Rick on some covert missions, and he thought he died on a mission to kill the president of Argentina. Rick and his partner Charlie Edmunds went to the MI6 building in San Francisco to find an incriminating harddrive, and were assaulted by Samuels' men. They recovered the harddrive, and returned back to the FBI.
When they got a location on Samuels, FBI Director Chris Andrews was blackmailed by Samuels, and was forced to help him escape. He was also blackmailed to trade the harddrive for his son Jake. When Rick found this out, he and the FBI helped Chris get Jake back. Rick then got Samuels in custody, and asked him where the remaining 12 vials were. Rick told Samuels he would place him in the infected Comfort Inn and Suites and let him die, or he could survive and help them find the vials. Samuels then agreed to help find the rest of the vials.
All but one vial was recovered at around 12:00am, and Samuels was then trying to ID the carrier. He was then shot and killed by a brother of an infected FBI agent. Samuels died before he could ID the carrier, so Rick and Charlie then went to the location of the transponder of the 12th vial, which was the San Francisco Subway Station. Charlie finally found the carrier, but to prevent him from escaping, he put his arm through a part of the detonator, and it couldn't be removed. Before Rick shot and killed the carrier, he activated the detonator. Rick was then put through to bomb squad, and they defused the vial.
Rick was the congradulated by President Wald, and went back to his car, and began to sob. Countless overwhelming events had occured that day; The death of the Hernandez brothers, Abdul, and Johnathan Samuels. He finally put his key in the ignition, and drove away.
Before Day 4
Rick was offered a job as Director of FBI San Francisco when Chris Andrews was fired for commiting treason on Day 3. Rick then became the Director.
Day 4
Rick Jackson, Arnold Robinson, and Sean Mason were temporarly transferred over to FBI Washington DC to help with a terrorist attack that was suppost to take place that day. FBI DC Director Ralph Wilson said that the attack was suppost to be conducted by General Benjamin Tredaku at 1:00pm. The target was still unidentified at the time. Arnold found a lead, and went to go look for it. He ended up finding Tredaku and his men, and informed Rick that Tredaku was talking to a man named Harris. Rick said that the cheif of staff of Senator Joe Barham was named Michael Harris, and they were going to keep following up on it. When Rick informed President Wald that Tredaku was in DC, Wald wanted Rick and Sean to come work out of the White House. They agreed, and left FBI immediatly.
Rick knew that Michael Harris was in the White House, and that Wald wouldn't let Harris be taken into custody without evidence, so he incapacitated Sean (to keep him from stopping him) and a marine so he could go interrogate Harris. Rick was later arrested by Joseph Wald and Secret Service. It was later found out by Arnold Robinson that the target of the terrorist attack was the White House.
Once Sean Mason was informed of the attack on the White House, he let Rick go and they helped President Wald get in the White House Panic Room. Eventually, Tredaku and his men had gathered hostages, one of them being Sean, and were posted outside of the Panic Room, that contained Rick and the President. When Tredaku threatend to kill the hostages one by one, President Wald ordered Rick to open the door, and they both were taken hostage.
Rick then told Sean he had put down C4 in the Panic Room, and that he was going to sacrifice himself to save the president. Sean told him that Tredaku was talking to another conspirator, and that Rick was the only person he knew could do this. Sean then sacrificed himself and caused mischef in the White House. Ralph Wilson then sent in teams to raid the White House after the explosion, and Rick helped save the President as well. Rick finally caught up to Tredaku, and told him not to move. When Tredaku went for his gun, Rick shot him numerous times until he was dead, and then went to mourn Sean after the raid was over.
Rick got permission from Joseph Wald to go and speak with Michael Harris, since they had no other leads. Rick was then incapacitated while talking to Harris, and Bill Gaines, an assassin, killed Harris and framed Rick for the murder. Rick then fled the scene, and went to go talk to Senator Joe Barham, since he lead the investigation that might have something to do with the White House attack.
After finding out that the Civil Protection Agency was in possession of a biological weapon from the facts Barham and Rick dug up, Barham was killed by Gaines as well, and Rick eventually stabbed Gaines with a pocket knife he had found at Barham's house. Gaines told Rick that the bioweapons were already in the country, and Rick went to former FBI agent Chris Andrews for help.
Rick and Chris went to the Port of Alexandria, and attempted to secure the weapons, but Psycho-Social himself pinned Rick down with a machine turrent before he could get the weapons. When President Wald told Ralph Wilson to bomb the CPA compound where the weapons were located, Psycho-Social called Wald and told him the bioweapons would be delievered via rocket unless Wald called off the airstrike. Wald was blackmailed into stopping the strike, and Rick told Wald that Chris Andrews could still destroy the weapons. While Wald was stalling Psycho-Social at the White House, Chris managed to destroy the weapons, and Psycho-Social was arrested.
Rick threatens to cut off Consul Ike Uba's finger during interrogation.
It was later discovered that someone within the Algerian government was responsible for conducting the raid on the White House, the murder of millions of Algerians, and the development of a biological weapon. Former President Jackson Hicks said he could help them find this leak, and that African Consul Ike Uba of the African Consulate in Washington DC would know who this is. After Rick and Hicks went to the consulate and Hicks spoke with Uba, Uba denied any knowledge of a leak in the government. Hicks told Rick he thought Uba was lying, and Rick later went back into the Consulate by himself to interrogate Uba himself. After the horrid interrogation, he found out that Algeria's Deputy Prime Minister, Idihi Akpu-Nku, was the leak in the government. Uba was then rescued by consulate security, and Rick was put under arrest.
When Kumba, a guard working for Uba, called Uba to confirm the termination of Rick, Uba said it was a go. Rick managed to incapacitate Uba, and shoot him. Consulate security then went looking for Rick, and Rick managed to hide in an office in the consulate. Later, after the FBI got permission from Algerian Prime Minister Gowon, the FBI conducted a raid of the consulate. Rick was then rescued, and told Chris Andrews who the leak was.
When Prime Minister Gowon wouldn't hand over Deputy Prime Minister Akpu-Nku, President Wald ordered Rick to kidnap Akpu-Nku and make him confess to all of his crimes on tape. The abduction was successfull, and Akpu-Nku confessed to every crime he had commited. When the day had seemed like it had came to a close, Psycho-Social broke out of his FBI transport and escaped.
When FBI DC got this information, they also found out that Psycho-Social had one more canister of the bioweapon hidden in a safehouse. After Rick stopped the bio-threat on the Washington Center Station, he found Psycho-Social on top of a parking garage. Psycho-Social then tried to jump off, but Rick managed to catch him. Psycho-Social then pulled out a knife and cut Rick's hand, making it even more difficult to hold him. Psycho-Social then fell off of the balcony and died. Rick, Chris and Arnold then thanked Ralph for all the helped that he provided, and they left for San Francisco.