While the third act of 24's third season was superb and saved the season, and arguably the series, it regrettably dropped the ball on expanding on the mythos of the 24 universe, specifically on Operation Nightfall. Many fans at the time assumed that that was going to happen when Stephen Saunders's backstory was first introduced in Hour 17. Some really thought we might get answers to questions left unanswered since Day 1, most notably who in the government sabotaged the Victor Drazen mission. Saunders's seemingly personal vendetta against Ryan Chappelle at the end of that episode ("I know him" and "Is he?") lent credence to that theory.
Unfortunately, Hour 18 treated the impending death of Ryan Chappelle through its sheer emotional prism, rather than explain what seemed to be behind Saunders's very personal desire to take out Chappelle. Instead, we were given the rather weak explanation that Chappelle was very good at following money trails and that he would discover Saunders's daughter, even though killing him, as Chappelle himself said, "doesn't kill the investigation." And, of course, CTU still quickly found her after Chappelle's death.
While all that transpired in those episodes remains intact, I have decided that Saunders also sought to have Chappelle killed in order to deal a political blow to President Palmer, as we all saw play out in my revised version. It's actually quite an ingenious plan.
Of course that doesn't explain the "I know Chappelle" and "Is he?" lines, delivered with such bitterness and viciousness by Saunders, which clearly suggested a personal distaste for Chappelle. So I'm thinking that Chappelle authorized the death of an important arms dealer which, unknown to Chappelle, was employed by Saunders. That would explain Saunders's reaction at the end of Hour 17.
But I'm not sure I have an explanation that would neatly tie everything together.
What do you think?