Season 1, Episode 3:
2:00 a.m. - 3:00 a.m.
Events occur in real time.
Jack sends the fingerprint of the terrorist whose finger he cut off to a lab tech to be ID'd. Teri calls Jack to relay Kim's phone call. At Jack's request, Teri puts Alan on the phone, and he agrees with Jack's suggestion that the two wait at the furniture store for Kim and Janet to return. To Gaines's frustration, Bridgit continues to demand more money for Belkin's ID, with Gaines demanding that Mandy persuade her to drop it. Keith Palmer tries to go looking for his father, but is persuaded to stay at the hotel and let Secret Service handle it by Sherry. Gaines calls Dan and Rick, telling them he's running late. Rick tells Dan that he believes the latter broke Janet's arm, but Dan doesn't care. Rick agrees to give Janet some of Dan's drugs for the pain, pushing Dan when he objects.
Palmer parks in an underground lot, where he confronts two youths smashing up cars. They recognise him from the TV, and smash his car window after an argument with him. Jack sneaks back in to CTU, and calls Nina, arranging to meet her in his office. After giving Jamey the keycard to decrypt, Jack meets Nina, giving Jamey a chance to use Nina's workstation and confirm that she was the one who encrypted the keycard. Bridgit convinces Mandy to go along with her plan. Janet wakes up, blissfully unaware of the danger she's in or the fact that Dan broke her arm. Kim convinces her to escape with her, and the two make a run for it, hiding in the squalid home of a male prostitute whose business they interfered with. Jamey convinces Jack to let her shut down Nina's access to the files of the plane passengers.
Palmer informs Carl Webb, a member of his staff, that Maureen Kingsley intends to accuse Keith of murdering his therapist. Carl promises to deal with the situation. Jack confronts Nina, who denies any wrongdoing. Gaines sends Bridgit the extra million dollars, and she agrees to take him and Mandy to the ID. Though the prostitute at first refuses to help Kim and Janet, he saves them from another man who tries to attack them, and holds off Dan and Rick long enough for them to escape. Tony finds out that Walsh is dead, and seems unconvinced by Jamey pretending she was unaware of this. Bridgit gives Gaines the ID, at which point he has her shot by a sniper, although he lets Mandy live as she had given Bridgit up. Jamey uncovers the files on Nina's key card, proving her innocence as the files were accessed during a weekend when she and Jack were away together. Tony makes a call to an unknown party, telling them to come to CTU and relieve Jack Bauer of his command. Kim manages to call Teri and tells her to come find her. While running away, Janet is the victim of a hit and run, allowing Rick and Dan to catch and recapture Kim. They abandon Janet on the street, but she turns out to be just alive.
Tropes in this episode include
- Character Catchphrase: This episode marks the first appearance of Jack's famous "WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR!?", which he yells at Nina when interrogating her.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Subverted. While running from Dan and Rick, Kim and Janet interrupt a male prostitute while he's making a sale. Although he's angry at them at first, he then sends Dan and Rick on a wild goose chase when they come looking for them, suggesting he has a heart after all. It turns out he only did it so he could rob the girls to make up for the money they cost him. When the girls beg him to help them escape, he point blank refuses. Then he saves them when another man tries to assault them by bashing the man over the head with a wooden plank, and holds off Dan and Rick long enough for them to run.
- Kick the Dog: When Rick tells Dan he broke Janet's arm, he openly states that he doesn't care.
- Love-Interest Traitor: Mandy betrays her girlfriend Bridgit, allowing Gaines to kill her for demanding extra money from him. She's shaken up by this, though Gaines reassures her that she did what she had to to survive.
- Not Quite Dead: Janet seems to have been killed in a hit and run, but wakes up at the end of the episode.
- Tempting Fate: Bridgit tells Mandy that nobody can possibly hurt them. Gaines has her killed at the end of the episode.
- Too Dumb to Live: Bridgit basically signs her own death warrant by double-crossing Gaines despite Mandy's repeated warnings of how dangerous that is.
