Hours 3 and 4 (1/14/07)

8:00 A.M.
As he follows Fayed’s handler, Assad picks up Jack. Fayed phones the handler Masheer and orders him to drive to another location.

8:01 A.M.
Buchanan tells the assembled White House staff that Jack averted the Los Angeles bombing. He was then spotted working with Assad. Yet they have not heard from Jack since they neglected to heed his warning about Fayed.

8:02 A.M.
Fayed calls the President, demanding that the U.S. release the Palmdale “enemy combatants” within the hour. Wayne does not trust him because he has reneged on his promises before.

8:04 A.M.
Since releasing the Palmdale prisoners is probably not Fayed’s end game, Lennox and Karen argue that they cannot negotiate with Fayed. Wayne insists it’s the only way to buy them time.

8:06 A.M.
As Masheer heads north out of the city, Jack senses that it will be harder for them to follow without being noticed. They will need to get CTU to track him on satellite. Assad refuses to work with CTU because they attacked him, but Jack says it’s only because Fayed convinced them that he was the enemy. With no other choice, Assad begrudgingly gives in to allowing CTU to assist.

8:07 A.M.
When Milo orders him to vet the Palmdale list of prisoners, Morris thinks his talents could be used more wisely. Chloe interrupts their argument and tells Morris to grow up.

8:08 A.M.
Jack calls CTU to get Chloe to trace the handler on the satellite. Because of the recent attacks’ overloading the satellites, Chloe figures it will take at least ten minutes for them to reposition. Plus, there are no traffic cameras in that area. Jack must follow the handler until the satellite is on track. Buchanan directs Curtis to head towards them. Curtis is surprised that they are now working with Assad.

8:09 A.M.
A businessman is getting into his car when Jack attacks him, stealing the vehicle. Jack races to catch up with Masheer, who is about to enter the freeway. Jack slams into Masheer’s car. He gets out and accuses him of bad driving. Assad pulls up and claims to be a witness, defending Masheer. Jack pretends to be angry at them for protecting their own kind. He says he doesn’t want to wait for the police to arrive. Jack peels out.

8:11A.M.
With Masheer’s car totaled, Assad offers to drive Masheer to wherever he has to go in Newhall. Masheer is in a hurry and agrees to the lift. Assad discreetly dials Jack’s phone and puts it on mute.

8:12 A.M.
Jack and CTU are able to hear Assad’s conversation with Masheer. Masheer tells Assad he will guide him to Newhall. Buchanan redirects Curtis there.

8:13 A.M.
Fayed gets word that there is increased activity over the Palmdale area. His plan is working, but it will be too late for the Americans to respond once the prisoners are released.

8:14 A.M.
Ahmed takes Scott back to the Wallace house at gunpoint. The entire Wallace family is taken hostage. Ahmed forces Jillian to treat his wounds. She encourages him to see a doctor, but he doesn’t have time. Unable to walk, Ahmed orders Ray to deliver his package. Ahmed threatens to kill Jillian and Scott if the police show up at the house.

8:21 A.M.
Morris questions why Chloe took Milo’s side over his. She thinks he always wants to be fired from whatever job he is doing.

8:22 A.M.
Karen updates the President on Jack’s alliance with Assad to find Fayed. Wayne still wants to proceed with loading the prisoners at Palmdale, per Fayed’s demands. Unless Jack can get Fayed within the hour, they have no other option.

8:23 A.M.
Assad comments out loud the name of an exit that he passes. Chloe makes note on the satellite tracking.

8:24 A.M.
Jack pulls off and gets into Curtis’s car as they follow Assad. Curtis asks Jack if it bothers him that they must work with Assad, a known terrorist. Jack doesn’t know what to think anymore. Jack notes that it isn’t their call. “We’ll see about that,” Curtis replies.

8:27 A.M.
Scott sneaks a knife into his pocket, but is unable to stab Ahmed.

8:32 A.M.
Over a hundred terrorist prisoners are lined up at the Palmdale Military Prison. One of the prisoners is named Numair.

8:33 A.M.
Lennox informs Wayne that his sister was arrested because she deleted personnel files requested by the FBI. Sandra is being detained in a provisional detention facility.

8:34 A.M.
As they arrive at the detention facility, Sandra apologizes to Walid because it was all her fault he was arrested.

8:35 A.M.
Wayne calls for Sandra, furious. He has ordered her release. Sandra says she would rather defend civil liberties against his Administration’s violation of them. She demands Walid’s release instead and vows that there is nothing incriminating in those files. Wayne will not do that, saying that Walid shouldn’t worry if he is truly innocent.

8:36 A.M.
Sandra demands to speak to Walid. The FBI agent won’t let her because Walid is being held under the revised enemy combatant statute. “Is the law being completely thrown out the window?” she asks before being escorted out.

8:37 A.M.
A man named Salim being held in detention refuses to cooperate with the National Guardsmen corralling him, and Walid steps in to assist the man. A Guardsman slugs Walid with a baton and sends him off for interrogation. Salim looks at Walid in gratitude.

8:41 A.M.
As Assad drives in the town of Newhall, he questions Masheer on who he is meeting. Masheer is cagey about his answers. Chloe gets the address where Assad is dropping off Masheer and pulls up data on all the buildings within a mile radius.

8:42 A.M.
Masheer gets out of the car, and Assad tells Jack that the coast is clear. Despite Jack’s insistence that they work with him, Curtis treats Assad like a prisoner instead of a collaborator. Curtis has his men take Assad into custody. Jack earnestly promises Assad that he will take care of him.

8:44 A.M.
Chloe tracks Masheer to a storage warehouse. The TAC teams see him open up a storage locker. There are crates with Czech writing and ammunition. Jack radios Buchanan that Fayed isn’t there, but Buchanan wants to move in anyway. Jack thinks it’s too risky. Masheer sees an agent and fires. The TAC teams shoot back. Masheer detonates a grenade, and the entire storage locker explodes.

8:46 A.M.
Jack lets Buchanan know that the suspect is dead, and that the laptop he had in storage was probably damaged in the fire. Buchanan quickly notifies the President that the suspect committed suicide rather than be arrested. With Fayed not captured, Wayne has no choice but to release the prisoners at Palmdale.

8:47 A.M.
The Guardsmen load the Palmdale prisoners onto a plane according to Fayed’s demands.

8:53 A.M.
Ray delivers Ahmed’s package to a man at an electronics parts store. The man opens it and sees bundles of cash. He says he will need an extra $50,000 in order to get the component Ahmed was purchasing. Panicked, Ray calls his house. Ahmed orders him to do whatever it takes to get the item or else he will kill his family.

8:56 A.M.
Ray knocks the man over the head with a lamp, and the man reaches for his gun. Ray fights him off and pounds the man’s head on the ground. Ray accidentally kills him.

8:57 A.M.
Chloe is able to recover the most recently accessed data file on the laptop in the damaged storage facility. It is a wiring schematic for an object that looks exactly like the component Ray was sent to pick up. Chloe sends it to Jack. Assad recognizes it as a nuclear detonator. Curtis lunges at Assad, furious that he knew about this ahead of time. Jack must pull Curtis off of Assad.

8:58 A.M.
Assad says that there is a reference file at the bottom that reads “Sovtel 3.” Nadia knows that this is a Russian suitcase nuke. She says that one had been missing and was suspected to have gone to a scientist with terrorist ties named Hasan Numair. Chloe uncovers an old surveillance photo of the man, and Assad knows him as an acquaintance of Fayed. Chloe finds that Numair is a terrorist being released from the Palmdale prison. Assad says that Fayed’s plan all along was to force the United States to free Numair.

8:59 A.M.
Buchanan has Nadia warn the President that he is stopping the Palmdale release. He notifies the Guardsman on duty to look for Numair on the plane. The Guardsman cannot locate Numair among the prisoners.

Meanwhile, on an empty prisoner bus, another guard finds Numair hiding in the back. “Hurry up,” the guard tells him. “Fayed is waiting for you.” Numair runs out of the bus unnoticed.

9:00 A.M.
Neither the Palmdale officers of the satellite can find Numair in the area near the prison. Buchanan is frustrated because Numair is a nuclear engineer and can build a bomb.

9:02 A.M.
Milo asks Morris for help on the search, but Morris claims he is doing a task for Chloe. Chloe denies assigning any work to him. Milo tells Morris off and orders him to do what he is told.

9:04 A.M.
Karen lets the President know that a suitcase nuke might potentially kill hundreds of thousands of people. “Get me Jack Bauer,” Wayne intones.

9:05 A.M.
Jack is with Assad and Curtis going over the wreckage at the storage facility. Curtis makes it clear to Assad that he is still the enemy. Wayne calls Jack and asks him to take charge of the search for Fayed. Jack isn’t sure if he is up to the task, but has dutifully accepts the President’s request.

9:06 A.M.
Jack pleads with Curtis to accept Assad as part of the investigation because he is invaluable. Curtis snidely questions what the Chinese did to Jack that would affect his judgment. Assad interrupts with news that a PDA was found in the blast site. It says that the “visitor” arrived last week. Assad says that this is a code for a nuclear weapon. He thinks Numair must be the key to making the device operational.

9:08 A.M.
Jack warns Curtis that nothing is more important than finding Fayed and Numair. Yet just in case, Jack calls Chloe to secretly run a cross check on any relationship between Curtis and Assad.

9:09 A.M.
Numair arrives at Fayed’s safe house and he examines the nuclear device. It still requires Ahmed’s component to reprogram the trigger.

9:10 A.M.
Ahmed orders Ray to deliver the component to Fayed, but Ray refuses. Ray threatens to destroy the component unless he knows his family is safe. Ahmed will only release one of them, and he lets Jillian go. Ahmed instructs Jillian to drive away and call her husband on the payphone to prove she is safe. He warns her that he will shoot Scott if she calls the police.

9:11 A.M.
Jillian calls Ray from the road, and both aren’t sure whether Ahmed will kill Scott regardless of their actions. Ray doesn’t want to risk it. He phones Ahmed from the payphone and receives an address to deliver the package to Fayed.

9:13 A.M.
Despite her husband’s wishes, Jillian calls 911.

9:19 A.M.
Chloe tries to break up an argument between Milo and Morris by laying the cards on the table. She dated Milo a few times, but it didn’t work out so she got back together with Morris. She orders the two of them to get over it. Both men are a bit embarrassed and return to work.

9:21 A.M.
Buchanan puts through Jillian’s call to Jack. She explains that Ahmed is holding her son captive so that her husband will deliver a package to someone named Fayed. Jack heads to Jillian’s house. Curtis is reluctant to have Assad accompany them on a tactical mission, but he follows Jack’s command.

9:22 A.M.
The President meets with an ambassador from a Middle East country. While the ambassador is not one hundred percent sure, he has reason to believe that Assad wants to negotiate towards peace. This corroborates Jack’s claim. Karen wants to lock down cooperation with Assad. Lennox is hesitant to form such a partnership with a known terrorist.

9:24 A.M.
Wayne calls Jack and tells him he wants to make a formal arrangement with Assad. Wayne speaks to Assad and offers him full protection and a pardon for past crimes in return for his help finding Fayed and a commitment to furthering peace. Assad asks for the pledge in writing. Jack tells the President that he is glad he did not have to make that decision himself.

9:25 A.M.
Lennox intercepts a call from Sandra and refuses to disturb the President. She is angry that Walid is still being held in prison. Sandra threatens to embarrass the Administration in order to protect Walid. She says she will hold Lennox personally responsible if anything happens to him.

9:26 A.M.
Walid is lead into the Anacostia Detention Facility in Washington. Salim, the man who Walid stood up for in the lineup, recognizes him and says, “Before this day is over, they will all pay.” Although he doesn’t understand Arabic, Walid listens intently as Salim speaks to another man.

9:28 A.M.
Ray arrives at Fayed’s safe house with the package. Fayed is not pleased, but intends to keep Ray alive as a bargaining chip in case something goes wrong.

9:31 A.M.
Ray tries to explain that Ahmed will release his son if Fayed gives the OK. Fayed calls Ahmed and chides him for involving an outsider. He orders Ahmed to kill the boy.

9:37 A.M.
Lennox advises the President to keep Assad’s official pardon hidden from the public, and he and Karen are able to work up a statement that is palatable to the press. Lennox confides to Wayne that he is still not comfortable colluding with Assad. “It makes me appreciate your loyalty all the more,” Wayne says.

9:38 A.M.
Jack and his TAC team pull up to the Wallace house and scan the perimeter.

9:39 A.M.
Inside, Scott questions why Ahmed is still holding him captive when his father completed the task. Ahmed is about to kill Scott, who begs for his life.

9:41 A.M.
The TAC team raids the house and Ahmed shoots back. Ahmed is about to fire at Jack when another agent shoots Ahmed. Jack calls for the EMT because he needs Ahmed awake enough to tell him where Ray took the package. Yet Scott remembers the address and tells the agents. Jack quickly calls it in to Buchanan.

9:48 A.M.
With the location of Fayed’s safe house now known, Chloe pulls up satellite images of the area. Buchanan calls the White House with the news that they may have found the suitcase nuke.

9:49 A.M.
Sandra visits Walid at the Anacostia Facility. He tells her that he overheard some of the inmates repeat an Arabic phrase he didn’t understand. He thinks it has connections with the terrorist attacks. Walid must convince Sandra to forget her lawyer tendencies and pass on the phrase to the FBI. They kiss goodbye.

9:50 A.M.
Jack gives Assad the pardon from the President. Assad wishes him luck and shakes his hand.

9:51 A.M.
Curtis is angry that Assad has been given a pardon by the United States government. Jack explains that it is up to neither of them. Curtis seemingly accepts this.

9:52 A.M.
Jillian returns home, and Jack explains that his team will try to save Ray. Chloe tells Jack that she found a connection between Curtis and Assad. After Desert Storm, Assad’s men ambushed Curtis’s squad and beheaded some of his soldiers.

9:53 A.M.
Jack finds Curtis outside with his gun held up to Assad’s forehead. Jack tells him to put down his weapon by order of the President. Curtis refuses. Jack says that he gave Assad his word that he would protect him. As Curtis keeps his gun trained, Jack begs him to stop. “I can’t let this animal live,” Curtis says. Jack shoots Curtis in the neck and the TAC members shuffle Assad to safety.

9:55 A.M.
Jack drops his gun and raises his hands in a gesture not of surrender but of despair at Curtis’s death. Jack walks away in tears. He vomits and falls to the ground.

9:56 A.M.
Buchanan calls Jack after hearing what happened and tries to bolster his spirits. “Tell the President I’m sorry,” Jack says. “I can’t do this anymore.” Buchanan beseeches him to continue with the mission because he is needed. Jack says he is done and hangs up. He continues sobbing.

9:57 A.M.
Buchanan remains pensive and a bit shaken by his conversation with Jack. He gets word that Ahmed died of his wounds. CTU and the White House teams watch on monitors as the TAC teams get into position at Fayed’s safe house.

9:58 A.M.
Numair completes work on the suitcase nuke. One of the guards sees the TAC teams and gunfire erupts. Ray ducks to the ground. Amid the shooting, Numair detonates the nuclear device.

From where he is, Jack can see the mushroom cloud in the sky.

The White House team is in shock. Wayne orders Karen to put the entire military at the disposal of the Los Angeles response teams.

9:59 A.M.
As CTU watches the video in horror, Milo alerts them to a warning from the FBI. An Arabic phrase was overheard at one of the detention centers. Nadia translates it: “five visitors.” There are four more nuclear weapons out there.