Day 4: 3:00am-4:00am

CTU scrambles to forge an alibi when a Chinese representative produces evidence of American involvement in the raid on their consulate. Audrey gives Jack the cold shoulder, while Palmer and Logan clash over the consequences of Palmer's decisions. Jack and Curtis close in on Marwan as the countdown for the nuclear missile launch moves ahead.

Previously on 24

 * The Counter Terrorist Unit is going over a video tape of Habib Marwan saying America will wake up today to a different world. This leads them to believe he will detonate the warhead before dawn.
 * David Palmer speaks with Charles Logan and has full authority to act as his proxy whenever necessary. Palmer calls Koo Yin at the Chinese Consulate asking for permission to talk to Lee Jong.
 * Palmer calls Jack Bauer and asks him if there's any doubt Lee is working with Marwan. Jack says there isn't and Palmer authorizes him to go into the Consulate and get Lee.  During Bauer's escape, Koo Yin is shot and killed by one of the Chinese men.  Su Ming calls Palmer informing him of what happened.
 * Lee Jong was shot and is being rushed to the CTU clinic. Paul Raines is undergoing surgery, but Jack orders the doctor to help Lee Jong instead.  Audrey Raines is also present and is horrified after Paul dies.  She hits Jack and screams at him afterwards.

The following takes place between 3:00am and 4:00am



03:00:00
Some medics cover up the dead body of Paul Raines. Doctor Marc Besson continues to work on Lee Jong. Jack tells him that he only needs the man long enough to talk to him, and Besson tells him he knows that, and that he already told him when he forced him to sacrifice Paul Raines' life. Curtis says to Jack that they should leave. Jack tells Besson that he will be right outside.

Jack leaves the room and finds Audrey in the corridor crying. Jack tells her that he is sorry. She asks him how he could kill a man who saved his life. She goes to him and cries in his arms, but then breaks away, telling him that she cannot be near him. As she is facing the other way, Jack goes to touch her back in comfort, but decides against it. He asks her what she wants him to do, and she tells him to leave.



Bill Buchanan approaches Jack in the corridor, informing him that Mike Novick wants him to contact him at the White House. Jack explains what happened with Paul to him. After Bill asks if he is alright, Jack tells him that he is not, and that Bill should let him know when Lee was out of surgery.

Jack calls Mike Novick's office. Mike doubts the valubility of Lee when Jack tells him that they have not been able to get anything out of him yet due to the surgery. He reminds Jack that they took a huge risk in doing what they did. Mike informs Jack of the death of the Chinese consul, Koo Yin due to friendly fire. He tells Jack to fake an alibi for each of the members of his team. Mike tells him that he is about to talk to President Palmer about the situation.

Chloe is at her station, and worries when a "Network Traffic Spike" message flashes up on her screen. Worriedly she informs Buchanan that someone on the outside is trying to jam their satellite server. He tells her to try to use the block to track where Marwan is, to which she gives a sarcastic comeback. He tells her that they do not have time for her personality disorder.

03:07:36



Habib Marwan calls one of the men working on the warhead, who tells him that it is in place, but that CTU was tracking their satellite. He says that CTU must have installed new software as he was not aware of this technology. Marwan says that the schedule will have to moved forward by an hour if the satellite signals at CTU cannot be jammed.

Mike Novick asks President Palmer how long President Logan should be kept in the dark, to which Palmer responds that it should be as long as possible. Mike tells Palmer that Lee Jong is still in surgery, and that he has not been able to tell the US anything about the warhead. Palmer tells Mike that the Chinese consul died as a result of their trespass, even though it was not Americans who fired the shots, and that they should start creating a scenario that does not implicate the US government. He thinks that the Chinese do not want a confrontation any more than the US, and that they might play along with a scenario of plausible deniability. Mike asks how that would be done, and Palmer tells him to call CTU and find out which anti-Chinese factions have attacked their embassies or consulates in the last five years.

CHINESE CONSULATE, LOS ANGELES. A man named Jin is showing security footage of the raid to Cheng Zhi, the consulate's head of security. He watches Jack knock out Jong, put him over his shoulder and escape the consulate. Cheng notices that one of the Chinese guards managed to lift the mask of one of the men involved in the raid. Jin, using image processing filters, helps to increase the quality of the image of Howard Bern, the man who was unmasked. Cheng tells him to send the image to Beijing and Shanghai, and tell them to cross reference it with their intelligence databases. Jin goes to pursue the matter.

03:10:44

Howard Bern sits nervously as Jack and Curits approach. Jack explains that the consul was killed during Lee's extraction, and that they need to make plausable alibis for each member of the team. He tells them that the US government cannot be dragged into the situation. Bern looks around nervously.

Habib Marwan enters a large room and heads towards one of his technicians on a laptop. He tells Marwan that they are ready to make the changes, and asks if he thinks the Americans will find it before it is launched. Marwans tells him that that is unlikely if he moves up the launch time. He says that they are looking for the warhead in the cities, and have no idea it is going to be delivered by missile. He calls Robert Morrison and tells him that he is uploading the new instructions. Morrison downloads the new coordinates successfully. He says that they will be ready to start the launch sequence as soon as he reprograms the out-coordinates.

03:12:22...03:12:23...03:12:24...



03:16:47


Buchanan tells Jack that they are meeting on the warhead now. Jack asks Chloe to free up a server for a large DOD block transfer. She asks if it has been authorized, and he says he still has to talk to Audrey about it. She makes an uncomfortable situation by pointing out how hard it will be for Jack to talk to Audrey after he caused Paul's death. She tells him that if he ever needs to talk to anyone as a friend, she's there for him, and he awkwardly thanks her. He leaves her to ask Audrey to authorize the block transfer.

Without responding to his question, she asks if they were able to keep Lee alive, and he tells her that Lee is stabilized. She tells him that she will authorize the transfer. He thanks her and leaves. Meanwhile Curtis is briefing the CTU team on the warhead, explaining where it was stolen from and what they know so far. He says that the warhead could have reached three metropolitan areas in the time it has been missing, and Buchanan adds that the President wants to keep the information from these cities for the time being. Curtis says that local alert levels have been raised without mentioning the situation. Buchanan reminds the team that it will be easier to track Marwan as it is still night, and it will be harder in about two hours when people start going to work.

03:18:56

Jin approaches Cheng Zhi and gives him information on the man that they think was involved in the raid: Howard Bern. He calls the number on the information listed for CTU, saying it would be a tactical mistake for them not to cooperate. He asks for the head of CTU Los Angeles. He gets through to Michelle Dessler, and tells her that the death of the Chinese counsel could be construed as an act of war.

She asks what it has to do with CTU, and he tells her that he thinks CTU stormed the agency and kidnapped Lee. She says that it is an outrageous accusation, but he explains that the call from Palmer about releasing Lee and the attack cannot possibly be unrelated. He informs her that if she does not cooperate, he will be forced to go above her on the matter. She tells him that she has to get back to work, and he tells her that she will be hearing from him soon. After the call, he asks a member of his staff to contact Secretary of State Taylor on an urgent matter.

Jack tells Audrey that they got the transfer block he asked for, and thanked her. As he was walking away, he turned back to her and says that she should get some rest. She asks him not to tell her what to do, and, realizing she has taken what he said the wrong way, leaves the matter alone. He stares at her blankly, and she asks him what he wants from her. She says "We both have a job, let's just do it", and leaves.

03:22:09

Buchanan approaches Jack and informs him that the head of security at the Chinese consulate contacted Michelle, and it seemed like he had evidence linking CTU with the kidnapping. Jack thinks that they do not have any evidence, and are bluffing, and tells him that they do not have time to deal with them right now. Buchanan says that they do not have much choice, and asks Jack to help him figure out how to deal with the situation. He asks to check on Lee's condition first, and, after a glace at Audrey, leaves to go to the CTU medical clinic.

Novick shows a file sent over by CTU to Palmer, containing attacks on Chinese targets around the globe in the last two years. He picks one out that had actually mentioned Lee Jong. Palmer infers that an attack from this group would be plausible, so long as the Chinese have no proof of US involvement. Novick starts to leak the idea to the media.

Suddenly, Logan bursts into the room asking what Palmer has done, after being informed by the Secretary of State. He enforces the idea that that is a military engagement and the US' relationship with China is fragile. Palmer tries to make him understand that it happens often in countries around the world, but Logan refuses to hear it. Palmer says that Loagn brought him here to help him, and that he should let him do it. Logan looks nervously between Palmer and Novick.

03:24:27...03:24.28...03:24:29...



03:28:59
Tony tells Buchanan that Lee should be able to respond to questioning soon. Buchanan tells him that when that happens everyone from Com should be on standby. They enter Michelle's office, who tells them that Secretary of State Taylor authorized the head of security at the Chinese consulate to come to CTU and question them about the raid. Buchanan says that they have to prove they did not attack the consulate. He explains that Novick is working on someone to blame for the ambush. Buchanan tells Michelle to mask all visible screens when Cheng arrives whilst he works up things with Jack.

03:30:05



As Buchanan leaves, Tony and Michelle are left alone. Michelle says that if they do not get information from Lee, Paul Raines would have died for nothing. Tony says that when he met Audrey the day before it seemed that her and Jack were extremely close, but this situation could have torn them apart. He tells Michelle that he hates being without her, and she responds that she never wanted it to be this way. Curtis buzzes in on the phone, informing them that Cheng had arrived. She tells him to send Cheng to the Situation Room where Bill and Jack are waiting for him.

Curtis approaches Cheng and takes him to the Situation Room. Jack, who has quickly changed into a suit, runs and makes it to the room just before Cheng arrives. After greetings, Cheng says that he knows of Jack, and that it is odd that he is not with Secretary Heller, and if anyone would be good at leading a covert operation, Jack would be the idea candidate. Before he can go further, Jack assures Cheng that neither he nor CTU had anything to do with what happened.

Cheng shows the men the information he has on Howard Bern, including the photograph from the surveillance cameras. Jack accuses Cheng of altering the photograph, but he responds that it was only to improve the quality. The two sides continue to challenge each other until Jack notices that Howard Bern, who Bill had told Cheng was not in the building tonight, was outside the situation room talking to Chloe. Jack covertly faked a phone call so he could exit the room to tell Bern to get out of sight.

Cheng, suspicious of Jack, asked Buchanan to see the hourlies from Jack. In the corridor, Jack called Chloe and told her to make Bern meet him in the East Corridor, and to get a chopper ready. Jack explains what happened to Bern, who apologizes for not bringing it up earlier.

03:35:30

Jack tells Bern there is a chopper waiting for him, so he leaves. Jack receives a call from Curtis, telling him that Jong is ready for questioning. In medical, Jack questions Jong about Marwan's location, and is told that Marwan might be in a factory in 6th street. Jack tells Chloe that is the location they want, and for her to set up a team to head out now.

03:37:32...03:37:33...03:37:34...



03:41:55
Curtis tells Audrey that Cheng wants to talk to her, because CTU gave him hourlies that show Audrey and Jack working together during the time of the ambush. Curtis asks if she will be able to lie to the Chinese in order to protect Jack and the United States government, and Audrey asks to see the hourlies.

03:43:26

Audrey sees Jack about to leave and asks what is going on. He tells her that Lee gave them a probable location on Marwan and that they are going to pick him up now. She asks if any of Jack's protocol-breaking has been working, and Jack replies that Audrey and her father are alive, and that they stopped all but one of the nuclear plants from melting down.



Edgar has Jack's approach on Marwan's location on his computer, and Bill tells him to send it to Tony, who is running point. Bill then enters the conference room, where Cheng is asking Audrey about Jack. He starts by asking about her coming back to work after being kidnapped. She replies that she was not physically injured. Cheng then brings up her husbands death and accuses her of lying to protect Jack's cover. Bill interrupts and angrily tells Cheng not to accuse his staff of lying, and Cheng tells him that he won't stand being lied to.



On the way to Marwan's location, Jack gets a call from President Palmer, who confirms with him Jong's information and that they're on their way to capture Marwan. Palmer then asks about the Chinese. Jack tells him how they got one of his team members masks up and got a face, but told them it wasn't conclusive enough to hold them off. Palmer wishes him good luck.

03:47:19

Palmer tells Novick to advise President Logan that Cheng has to leave CTU immediately. Novick objects that Logan wanted CTU to give Cheng full access in order to gain his trust, and Palmer says that he's had as much access as he wants - all he's doing now is slowing CTU down. When Novick approaches Logan about the problem, the president is reluctant to ask Cheng to leave, because he feels that it will appear that they have something to hide. He accuses Novick and Palmer of forming an alliance against him, but when Novick offers to have Palmer leave, Logan backs down.

03:49:13...03:49:14...03:49:15...



03:53:38
Jack and Curtis drive up to the factory. Jack asks Chloe to confirm that Marwan is inside, which she cannot do. Curtis wants to wait until they know, but Jack says that they are out of time - they must move immediately.

As Bill is escorting Cheng out of the building, he recommends that Cheng investigate the People's Freedom Coalition, whom CTU thinks is behind the attack on the consulate. Tony tells Bill that Jack and Curtis have formed a perimeter and are converging, and Bill leaves his men to bring Cheng the rest of the way out.

03:55:08

Edgar passes Cheng and his people, and Cheng hears a woman call him "Edgar". He asks Edgar a few questions to confirm Audrey's alibi, and Edgar, not knowing about the modified hourlies, tells Cheng that Audrey went down to the clinic to see Paul. When Cheng asks about Jack, Edgar is confused. Chloe notices, and calls Edgar away, but Cheng knows that CTU has been lying to him. He calls someone at the consulate and tells him that Jack Bauer was behind the attack.

03:56:16

Marwan tells Morrison to start the sequence, which begins counting down from 4:00 minutes. He gets up and tells his people that they are done. As they are leaving, Jack and Curtis break in and begin firing. All of Marwan's men are killed, and Marwan attempts to escape. He enters a room, and Jack stops on one side of the room. Curtis goes around to the other side. Marwan starts to try and escape from the room, and Curtis shouts at him to freeze. He runs away from Curtis, straight into Jack. When he says that it is too late, Jack shoots Marwan in the arm. Marwan tells Jack to kill him - it won't stop the missile. Curtis looks at Marwan's computer screen and tells Jack to come and look - Marwan's people do have a missile.



They contact CTU and send the feed to their screens. Jack asks Curtis how much time they have. They see on-screen a sparse 52 seconds before launch. Tony and CTU desperately try to track the location of the missile, with Chloe doing a geographical scan, and Edgar trying to pick up a heat signature.

However, reality soon sinks in that they will not be able to stop the launch in time. Everyone helplessly watch the countdown hit zero, and the missile is launched...

03:59:57...03:59:58...03:59:59...04:00:00

Starring

 * Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer
 * Kim Raver as Audrey Raines
 * Roger Cross as Curtis Manning

Special guest stars

 * Carlos Bernard as Tony Almeida
 * and Reiko Aylesworth as Michelle Dessler

Guest starring

 * Jude Ciccolella as Mike Novick
 * Gregory Itzin as President Charles Logan
 * Louis Lombardi as Edgar Stiles
 * Tzi Ma as Cheng Zhi
 * James Morrison as Bill Buchanan
 * Mary Lynn Rajskub as Chloe O'Brian
 * Arnold Vosloo as Habib Marwan
 * Keith Szarabajka as Robert Morrison
 * Robert Cicchini as Howard Bern
 * Gwendoline Yeo as Melissa Raab
 * Thomas Vincent Kelly as Doctor Marc Besson
 * Assaf Cohen as Yassir
 * Ping Wu as Su Ming
 * Ryun Yu as Jin

Special guest appearance by

 * Dennis Haysbert as David Palmer

Co-starring

 * Marci Michelle as Jackie (as "Female CTU Worker")
 * Peter Chen as Lee Jong

Background information and notes

 * This episodes marks the first appearance of Cheng Zhi, who later made a cameo in Day 5 and became a recurring character in Day 6.
 * Series regular William Devane does not appear in this episode.
 * In this episode, when the character Cheng Zhi appears, he is speaking with Michelle Dessler and introduces himself as Cheng Gow. The name was changed to Cheng Zhi, as seen in the Previously segment in "Day 4: 5:00am-6:00am".
 * There was no split screen before the ending moments of this episode.
 * In the last episode, it took Jack Bauer, in an emergency situation, 25 minutes to get from the Chinese consulate to CTU headquarters. In this episode, Cheng Zhi gets from the consulate to CTU in no longer than 8 minutes (the time between his last scene at the consulate to when he shows up at CTU) and possibly as short as 2 minutes (the time between Michelle being notified the chief is visiting to when he shows up).
 * As Jack's team prepares to storm the warehouse, the time is 03:56:14. Marwan then orders the launch sequence initiated for the missile about 10 seconds later, and it is set to fire in four minutes. It goes airborne at 03:59:57, which is three minutes and 33 seconds.
 * As shown in this episode, Edgar Stiles is indirectly responsible for everything that happens to Jack between the end of Day 4 and the start of Day 6.