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Far from the crime scene, Eddie's crew listens to
the police scanner as casualty reports from CTU
come in. Jack listens silently, barely able to
contain his rage. Meanwhile, at CTU, Tony
emerges from the rubble to assist injured co-
workers. He finds Paula trapped under a twisted
girder. Kim carries Megan out of the CTU
complex and they are unharmed. Suddenly,
Megan's eyes roll back and she begins to seize.
Kim calls for help, and a Paramedic takes Megan
to an ambulance.
At the O.C., Palmer is visibly upset over the
bombing at CTU and laments that they did not
receive word from Jack Bauer sooner. Rayburn
says that they did everything they could. After the
President leaves, Lynne blames Rayburn for the
casualties. He informs her that since she was the
only one to have spoken to Jack, she will be the
one to take the blame if the truth comes out.
Lynne knows she is being blackmailed.
In Panorama City, Mason asks an EMT what his
deterioration will be like. Although he should be
normal for another twelve hours, he will later
experience more severe symptoms. His mental
functions will eventually deteriorate and he will
lapse into a coma. Mason receives a call from
Tony who gives him news about the bombing
and casualties. Paula, who had encrypted all
intelligence about the nuclear threat, is injured
and unavailable to help decrypt it. Mason tells
Tony to do whatever it takes to get that data. He
also says that he may not be coming back to the
office. Tony is furious that Mason is still trying to
distance himself from the nuclear blast range.
Eddie pulls the van up to a remote road, and the
crew sets fire to the vehicle. Eddie takes a call
from Joe Wald and scribbles an address of
where to meet him on a matchbook. At a waiting
car, Jack pulls his gun on Eddie and demands
the address. Jack places him under arrest. The
other guys in the crew see this and fire at Jack,
but Jack kills them. Eddie begins to drive, and
Jack shoots at him through the windshield. He
pulls the lifeless body of Eddie out of the driver's
seat, and gets in the car.
As he drives away, Jack calls CTU. Michelle
informs him of the casualties, but he doesn't
understand why there wasn't enough time to
evacuate everyone. He gives her the address of
Joseph Wald in Simi Valley and she sends
backup. When Jack asks about Kimberly,
Michelle says she will look into her whereabouts.
Michelle tells Tony about Jack's call. He had
forgotten that Kim was on her way to CTU, and
he has Michelle check the security log to see of
Kim was in the building before the blast.
At the hospital, Kim consults with an ER doctor
about Megan's condition. The little girl's seizure
was caused by a skull fracture that occurred
before the CTU explosion, and she suffered from
other prior injuries that were never treated. This
indicates a pattern of physical abuse. Although
Kim claims to have never hurt Megan, the doctor
wants to leave it up to the police to determine
what really happened.
Palmer and his team of military and civilian
advisors watch a news report about the CTU
bombing. Rayburn once again brings up his plan
about a citywide evacuation. This time, Lynne
argues with him about the idea. Any evacuation
of Los Angeles would take at least a week and it
would be difficult to target specific areas under
immediacy. Palmer, sensing that there are some
unknown undertones in this fight, states that he
has reservations about evacuating people.
Rayburn insists that he is only trying to protect
the President politically. "If the bomb goes off, we
have more important concerns than my re-
election," Palmer says. The President orders that
no evacuation takes place.
At the Warner house, Kate admits to her father
that she had found inconsistencies in their
company's budget and had hired a private
investigator to find out whether Reza had been
stealing money. Although he was clean
financially, Kate then learned that Reza may be
involved with a terrorist. However, she doesn't
know what proof the investigator uncovered. Bob
doesn't believe her, and tells her that it is a
mistake. He had Reza checked out thoroughly
himself, and knows that he is not a terrorist. Bob
asks his daughter to start treating Reza as a
member of the family. Reza approaches them,
and Kate says that she has to pick up lunch.
Reza offers to drive her, but she refuses. Bob
insists that she allow her future brother-in-law to
drive her.
As Mason rides in an ambulance toward a
hospital, he gets a call from Tony on the
emergency scanner. Since Paula had worked on
the encryption at Mason's computer, they need
his password to access the hard drive. Mason
soberly inquires about Paula's condition, and
Tony tells him that she is non-responsive.
Jack calls the O.C. and is connected to Lynne.
He asks why the CTU office wasn't emptied when
he called thirty minutes before it was bombed.
Lynne has no explanation, and Jack blames her
for the lives of his co-workers. She encourages
him to continue with his job because he is their
best chance of intercepting the nuclear weapon.
Jack pulls up to the address from Eddie's
matchbook. He knocks on the door, demanding
that Joe let him in. Jack feigns alarm, and tells
Joe that Eddie and the crew are all dead. Joe
opens the door to let Jack in, and Jack takes him
at gunpoint. Joe questions why Jack would kill
Marshall Goren if he is really a federal agent, and
Jack says that he did what he had to do to get to
Joe. Joe is surprised when Jack informs him that
the CTU explosion was merely a diversion for a
nuclear bomb, but he does not answer when
Jack asks who gave the order to hit CTU.
Suddenly, a pit bull leaps at Jack and he wrestles
it to the ground. Joe escapes out the back door
into a nearby shed. Jack shoots the dog to
escape and follows him. Joe has locked himself
into a secured room guarded by steel doors,and
from inside, he watches on security monitors as
Jack pounds the walls with a pitchfork. Seeing
the cameras, Jack knows he is being watched.
Kim phones Carla Matheson from the emergency
room and tells her what happened to Megan.
Carla at first accuses Kim of kidnapping her
daughter and attacking her husband, but Kim
blames Gary for what has happened. Although
Carla warns her to stay out of their problems,
Kim tells her that the doctors found evidence of
physical abuse. She invites Carla to the hospital
to be with Megan. As Carla rushes out the door
to go to her daughter, Gary stops her.
With no luck breaking into the secure room, Jack
tries to appeal to Joe directly. He tells him that
whoever hired him wants to destroy the entire
country, starting with Los Angeles. Although Joe
has fought against the government in the past,
this time his actions will kill over a million
innocent people. He has always believed that it
was wrong to have too much power, but the irony
is that he is now the one who holds the power.
Jack asks Joe what he will do with that power.
As Reza drives with Kate, he tells her that he is
aware that she doesn't like him. He says that she
just needs to get to know him. Kate suddenly
becomes alarmed when Reza takes a different
course toward the restaurant. He says that he
wants to show her something to help her
understand him better. They pull onto a service
road of a residential street, and Kate becomes
afraid. She yells at him to stop the car and she
gets out. Reza points to a house, showing Kate
the new home he bought for Marie as a wedding
present. Kate feels foolish for jumping to
conclusions.
The rescue workers remove the girder off Paula,
but her body is in shock. With internal bleeding,
she needs to be taken to the hospital for surgery.
Tony follows her gurney toward an ambulance,
and they are met outside by Mason. Mason asks
the field doctors to not only make Paula remain
on site but to also keep her lucid. Tony argues
with Mason because Paula will die if she does
not get to the hospital. Yet she is the only one
who can decrypt the intel on the nuke. Against
Tony's judgement, Mason orders for her to be
woken up.
Palmer tells Lynne that he knows that there was
a thirty-minute lapse between when Jack called
and when they notified CTU. His suspicions are
confirmed about her trying to alert him during the
press conference, but he questions why she
never told him the truth after the fact. Lynne
apologizes, but does not reveal any other
information. Palmer suspects, after seeing the
argument between Lynne and Rayburn, that it
was Rayburn who wanted to keep it from him.
Lynne offers her resignation instead of answering
him. Palmer does not accept it, but assures
Lynne that he still trusts her to tell him everything
that happened.
Tony tells Michelle that he agrees with Mason's
call to revive Paula, even if it means risking her
life. Yet Tony feels guilty for hiring Paula because
she was never given the chance to do her job.
Michelle comforts Tony.
Secret Service agents escort Rayburn to the
President's office in the O.C. Palmer fires him for
lying, but Rayburn claims that he made a
decision that the President could not make. "I'm
the only one who could make it," Palmer says
bluntly. Rayburn insists that he was only doing
what was necessary to allow Jack Bauer to get to
Joseph Wald. When Palmer orders the Secret
Service to bring Rayburn to Richard Armus, a
flicker of fear crosses Rayburn's face.
In the shed, Jack makes one last appeal to Joe.
With the SWAT team soon to arrive, Joe will
either end up dead or in jail. Jack gives him the
chance of still doing the right thing by telling him
who ordered the hit on CTU. The steel door of
the secure room opens, and Jack goes in with his
gun drawn. Joe hands Jack a manila envelope
with photos of his female contact. He says that
he only met the woman twice. Joe then shoots
himself in the mouth. Jack is stunned to see that
the woman in the photos is Nina Myers.
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