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Jack pleads with the men in Kate's house
through the bathroom door, telling them what is
on the chip and why he needs it. One of the men
implores the other to give up the chip, and his
friend accidentally fires his gun. Jack breaks
down the door and enters the bathroom. He
holds the guy and grabs the chip. Jack has Kate
get something to tie the men up.
Palmer tells Novick that he just learned that the
bombers did not return to their bases as he
ordered. Novick sullenly invites the President to
join him in the conference room. Palmer senses
his aide's unease, and asks Novick what is going
on. Novick finally admits that the cabinet
members are questioning whether Palmer is fit to
continue as Chief Executive of the country.
Palmer enters the conference room to find a
video screen with panels of feeds. A group of
cabinet members, lead by Vice President
Prescott, is assembled in the White House
bunker, with the Secretary of State filmed on a
plane and the Secretary of Agriculture in a limo.
Prescott tells Palmer that they are invoking the
25th Amendment, which states that the Vice
President and a majority of the cabinet can
determine whether that the President can be
discharged of powers if he is not capable of
performing the duties of his office. He says that
they have decided Palmer's actions over the day
warrant such a query. The Secretary of State
interjects to state that they are all not in full
agreement just yet. Palmer explains that the
Amendment was designed to deal with the
situations where the President is ill or
incapacitated. Prescott informs him that their
interpretation is backed by the Attorney General.
He insists that Jack Bauer has not turned up the
evidence to disprove the Cyprus recording, and
that waiting will only risk tens of thousands of
American lives. Although they do not agree with
his policy decisions, Palmer maintains that he
can not be labeled disabled. Prescott intends to
show that the President's refusal to authorize
military action is a symptom of his erratic
behavior. The Secretary of State says that
Palmer should be given the chance to explain
himself in order to answer their questions.
Palmer consents to this, on the condition that, if
he is exonerated, then Prescott should resign as
Vice President. Prescott agrees.
Tony informs Chappelle that a source told him
that the President called off the military offensive
more than an hour ago. Chappelle acknowledges
that he was aware of this, but says there is a
strong possibility that the White House will
reinstate the attack order.
Michelle gets a call from Jack at Kate Warner's
house, and she grabs Tony. Jack informs them
that he has the chip but that he can not read
what is on it. Michelle attempts to access it over
the server. Jack then asks Tony to run a
background check on Peter Kingsley and to
cross-reference it with oil industry players. Tony
tells him that, although Palmer called off the
military strikes, for some reason the order may
get reversed.
Prescott brings the reporter Ron Wieland into the
proceedings. Wieland recounts that he was
detained by Secret Service after he investigated
the possibility of a terrorist attack. Although he
understands the reason he was held captive,
Wieland feels it was a violation of his First
Amendment rights. He says that Sherry Palmer
came to visit him and offered to give him access
to the O.C. if he sat on the story. Wieland got the
sense that Palmer was not in control of the
situation. The President calmly explains that he
was balancing the need for public safety, and he
tried to rectify the situation with a remedy that
had legal precedent.
Michelle walks Jack through overriding the chip's
access, but he only gets a screen full of numbers
and symbols. He checks the hardware and
realizes that the chip has been damaged. He
sends whatever data he pulled up to Michelle so
that she can run it through a retrieval program at
CTU. Meanwhile, Tony gets a call from Kim
looking for her father. She is in a police car on
her way to the Matheson house to pick up her
belongings. Tony puts her through to Jack. Kim
tells Jack that she misses him, and Jack assures
her that he will see her soon.
Palmer asks Novick how long he has known
about Prescott's plan to get him out of office.
Although Novick claims to still be on his side,
Palmer accuses him of aligning with the Vice
President. Novick begs him to change his stance
on the attack, but Palmer conveys that the trust
between them is gone forever.
Prescott calls on another witness who is at the
O.C. in Oregon. The haggard face of NSA head
Roger Stanton appears on a monitor, and he
describes how he was tortured on orders from
the President. Palmer accuses him of lying about
the location of the nuclear bomb. Stanton
explains how he arrived at the O.C. to find his
underling Eric Rayburn had been fired for
wanting to bring in the military. He says that
Palmer was immediately adamant about not
using military action. Stanton believes that
Palmer's indecisive and erratic behavior made
him terrified of any military engagement. He
thinks that Palmer wanted to convince himself
that he could avoid war by showing that an
American was behind the bomb threat.
Chappelle questions why Tony ordered I.T.
people to work on a retrieval project. Tony
explains that Jack found the chip that could show
that the Cyprus file was forged, but that the chip
was damaged. Chappelle steps away and calls
the White House. He leaves a message for the
Vice President.
Prescott plays a video of Stanton's torture at the
O.C. The group shudders at what they see.
Palmer tells the cabinet that he did order the
torture, but that Stanton ultimately confessed to
knowledge of the bomb. Stanton says that he
made that confession only because he was
weakened by the torture. Palmer informs them
that Stanton also gave information about the
Coral Snake team and the bomb at Norton
Airfield. However, Prescott says that there is
nothing more on the tape. Palmer insists there
has been deliberate sabotage of evidence
because he questioned Stanton further. Prescott
gives Palmer the opportunity to present evidence
on behalf of his defense, but Palmer says he has
not been given time to do so. He deems his
extreme actions warranted by the day's events.
An aide hands Prescott a note, and Prescott
informs the group that CTU Division Chief Ryan
Chappelle just sent him an urgent message. Jack
Bauer has evidence to prove the inaccuracy of
the Cyprus recording. Prescott calls for the group
to wait for that evidence to be analyzed. Palmer
breathes a sigh of relief.
Chappelle checks on Tony and Michelle's
progress. They tell him that they did not find the
audiofiles, but that they can figure out who
programmed the information. Chappelle makes a
comment that Jack wasted their time, and he
walks off disgusted.
Kate becomes upset. She feels like everything
that happened today was her fault because her
sister may have started a war. Jack comforts her,
explaining that there was nothing she could have
done to prevent it. Suddenly, Jack's cell phone
rings. Tony and Michelle tell him that,
unfortunately, there were no audio files left on the
chip. However, Michelle did find junk code that
may have been put there by the chip's
programmer. She traced the sequence to a
hacker named Alex Hewitt. He has a file with the
FBI, and may have been the one who fabricated
the recording. Jack asks for Hewitt's last known
address, and he tells Kate that he is going off to
track down a lead.
Palmer is connected to Chappelle and Jack, who
tells Palmer that the chip was damaged and can
not prove that the Cyprus tape is a fake. He also
says that a man named Peter Kingsley is part of
a group manipulating events to instigate a war in
order to control the Middle East oil. Palmer asks
Jack for hard evidence, and gets Jack's
assurance that he is absolutely convinced that
the Cyprus recording was forged.
Palmer turns back to the cabinet members on the
monitor to tell them that the evidence is not yet
available but will be in the future. Regardless,
Prescott calls for a vote. Novick pulls Palmer
aside to beg him to change his mind and
authorize an attack. Palmer refuses once again.
The cabinet begins their voice poll, deciding for
or against Palmer being allowed to remain in
office.
As he pulls up to Hewitt's loft, Jack calls Tony for
a briefing on the suspect. While working for the
State Department, Hewitt had been caught
manipulating files. He attempted suicide in
custody and was recently released from a
psychiatric prison. Tony tells him that Hewitt has
no connection to Kingsley.
With a split in cabinet members, the deciding
vote falls upon the Secretary of State. He goes
against Palmer. Prescott tells Palmer that he can
appeal this decision before Congress in four
days. Until then, Palmer must remove himself
from the decision making process. Secret
Service Agent Pierce arrives with two Marines.
They escort Palmer to a holding room -- not as
bodyguards but as wardens.
As the bombers make their way toward the
Middle East, Prescott is sworn in as President of
the United States.
Jack enters Hewitt's ransacked loft. There is no
one inside. He hides behind an alcove when he
hears footsteps approaching the door. Sherry
Palmer comes into the loft and calls out for Alex
Hewitt.
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