Day 6: 2:00am-3:00am

CTU continues its search for Cheng Zhi and the stolen, but damaged circuit board. Cheng tries to counter these efforts by extracting a certain target from CTU as a price tag to get the component fixed and operational. Meanwhile, Tom Lennox and Lisa Miller attempt to slow down the threat of war with Russia by manipulating their supposedly unsuspecting mole.

Episode guide
Previously on 24


 * Shortly after 4:00 PM, Jack Bauer has Marilyn Bauer and Josh Bauer go to CTU. Jack tells Josh that they will sit down and talk once the situation is over. Marilyn thanks Jack for saving Josh, to which Jack says that he reminds him of her.
 * Chloe O'Brian told Morris O'Brian that she was sorry about telling him that she should stop helping terrorists arm nuclear bombs. Morris says that they are done.
 * Cheng Zhi inspects the circuit board and finds out that it has been damaged. He needs to find someone with expertise in fixing the circuit board.
 * President Yuri Suvarov conferences with Vice President Noah Daniels, Tom Lennox, and Karen Hayes. Suvarov says that they know that a Chinese agent acquired the Russian circuit board, and will threaten military action if they do not intercept the component before it leaves the country. Lennox suggests that there is a spy within the administration as the Russians should not have found out about this.
 * Tom Lennox reports to Vice President Daniels that Lisa Miller has been passing intelligence over to her intimate partner Mark Bishop, a spy for the Russian government. Lisa claims that she did not know about Bishop, regardless of the fact that her actions were treasonous. Daniels tells her to go back to Bishop and make him believe that the component was secured.
 * Nadia Yassir tells Mike Doyle that they are being pressured to find Cheng, and that they need to get information out of Audrey Raines. Dr. Bradley reports that she needs to be shocked out of her state in order for her to be complicit.
 * Mike Doyle enters Jack Bauer's holding room. Jack asks if they are letting him speak to Audrey. Doyle tells Jack that Bradley was about to administer drugs into Audrey's system in order to make her talk, but has the possibility of killing her. Doyle uncuffs Jack, believing that he needs to do something about it. Jack locked himself into a room with Audrey, as CTU is cutting themselves in. He asks Audrey if she knew anything about Cheng's whereabouts. The door opens, and Doyle and Jack standoff; Jack demanding a guarantee of Audrey's safety. Audrey suddenly says "Bloomfield" and Nadia has Chloe research this information. Back in his holding room, James Heller tells Jack to stay away from Audrey, saying that everything he touches ends up dead.

The following takes place between 2:00am and 3:00am

02:00:00
. Guards, followed by Nadia Yassir enter Jack Bauer's holding room. Nadia lets Jack know that James Heller had just left the building with his daughter. Heller had told Nadia to have Jack stay away from Audrey, and that he will file a restraining order. Jack asks about the validity of "Bloomfield." Nadia says that Bloomfield is a copper facility in Jefferson Heights, and that they found copper particles on Audrey's clothing. She supposes that this is Cheng Zhi's base, and that teams are on the way to the location and having it locked down. Jack demands that he go along with the tactical team, citing that he knows how Cheng acts and operates. Nadia refuses, saying that he violated a presidential order and is only out for revenge, of which Jack asserts. He wants a chance to keep his word to President Palmer about having the component destroyed. Nadia refuses again, and the guards start encroaching upon Jack, and threatens to restrain him if he continues to resist. Jack sits down and offers to help from CTU. Nadia says that Division is sending a section chief to replace her, and that she promises to take this up with him. Jack thanks Nadia, and she leaves.

In the bullpen, Morris O'Brian tells Milo Pressman that they found Bloomfield and located Cheng's vehicle. Milo asks Chloe O'Brian about the status of the police units, to which she provides an unenthusiastic response. Milo ask about her mood, and says that she's fine. Morris tells Milo that they split up, and will continue to act professionally. He tells Milo to stay out of this business. An agent approaches Milo with Marilyn Bauer's transcript, and Chloe insists to take care of it.

Mike Doyle and his team prepare to head out. Nadia briefs the team about the situation.

02:07:22

Nadia wishes the team luck, and dismisses them. Doyle comments on Nadia's good job and tells her that every available field agent is out to search for Cheng and the component. Nadia asks him to be careful. Milo notices this conversation, to the discomfort of Nadia, and walks away.

Mercenaries are preparing their weapons inside a facility as Cheng walks in. His technician questions whether he should trust this team, but Cheng asserts their capability. Cheng calls their leader, Zhou, and tells him that all the necessary data is on his PDA. Cheng wants to attack "the target" in 15 minutes.

02:09:03, 02:09:04, 02:09:05

02:13:28
Split screen: Cheng in preparations. Zhou and his team in preparations. Jack in a holding room. CNB news report about the Valencia detonation.

Josh Bauer watches the CNB report at CTU. His mother, Marilyn, insists that he stop watching and get some sleep. Josh blames his father for the 12,000 deaths in Valencia, and wishes that he was never a member of his family. Marilyn tells Josh that he is not his father. Josh rests his head on his mother's shoulder, as Marilyn spies Chloe approaching the room. Marilyn has her son go to sleep.

02:14:55 Chloe enters the room, having Marilyn verify the accuracy of her statement's transcript. Chloe also tells Marilyn about Audrey being alive, to her surprise.

Mark Bishop's phone rings, waking him up. Lisa Miller is on the line, the phone call being monitored by Tom Lennox and Vice President Daniels. She tells Bishop about a crisis with the Russians that's been averted, and that she wishes to "pick up where they left off." Bishop asks if Daniels still wanted her to stick around, but she denies it, and tells him that she's on her way. They hang up, and Lennox says that it sounded "genuine enough." Lennox briefs Lisa to find an opportunity to excuse herself from the room so that Bishop could upload fabricated information from her PDA, saying that the Chinese agent was taken out in a military strike, and that the component was destroyed. Lennox speculates that this information will allow Suvarov to call off the threat against the American base. Lisa thinks that she can't go through with this, knowing that Bishop is a spy, and pretending that nothing is wrong. Daniels scoffs to this, saying that she had no problem lying to Daniels himself. Lennox will be with Agent Hollister parked in a van nearby to monitor the event. "It should all go smoothly," he says, as Lisa glances at the Vice President.

02:18:06

Chloe enters Jack's holding room with Marilyn. Marilyn wanted to check up on Jack concerning Audrey being alive, feeling bad about telling her supposed death, and later mental problem. She tries to be supportive, but Jack does not want to talk about it. She says that CTU will process them out in the morning, and that she wants Josh to see him before they leave. Chloe excuses Marilyn from the room, and updates Jack on the situation with Cheng, saying that Doyle's on the way over to Bloomfield.

Zhou notes the entry point of their target to Cheng.

02:20:27

CTU SUVs pull into the Bloomfield facility. Doyle and his men approach the building.

Zhou tells Cheng that people may die from this mission, but Cheng simply tells him to do what is necessary.

CTU monitors Doyle's team moving in. The team plants a C4 charge on the door.

Cheng tells Zhou to simply focus on the objective of obtaining "the package," and not worry about casualties.

The charges on the door blow and Doyle's team rush into the building.

Inside the building, Zhou had a hole drilled into the floor for sewer access. Zhou briefs his men about the mobilization, and start moving into the sewer. Cheng does not want to be let down.

02:22:46

CTU has surprisingly found no one in the building, but a cache of empty weapons crates. Doyle calls Nadia at CTU, saying that Cheng left before the perimeter was locked down, and reported the weapons, believing that the Chinese are planning on an assault. "An assault on what?" asks Nadia.

Zhou and his men traverse the sewers. He calls Cheng about his location, and receives direction. Cheng tells Zhou, "Head east 153 meters. That will put you directly beneath CTU and the entrance point."

02:23:56, 02:23:57, 02:23:58

02:28:22
Split screen: Jack in a holding room. Chloe and Morris working. Cheng supervising Zhou.

Morris tells Chloe that he is scanning the Bloomfield images, and needs some support, but she fails to pay attention. She helps him out obnoxiously, and he thanks her in kind. Chloe feels guilty about how she has been treating Morris, and apologizes to him. But Morris feels like he should be the one to apologize because "I didn't break up with you because of what you said, I broke up with you because of what I did." He believes Chloe will not be able to get past that fact. "You're wrong," Chloe says. "You know me better than any one? Am I ever wrong?" says Morris and returns to his station. Chloe gets back to work, glancing at Morris every so often.

02:30:03

On a Washington street, Tom Lennox briefs Lisa Miller about the operation. He tells her to create an opportunity for Mark Bishop to use her PDA. Lisa feels frightened uncomfortable about this. Lennox cynically reminds her of the consequences of treason charges in case the operation fails. A Secret Service agent gives Lisa her purse, loaded with a hidden camera, as a car pulls up next to the surveillance van. Lisa gets in the car as Lennox enters the van and closes the doors. Lisa's car pulls up outside the apartment building.

Split screen: Lisa getting out of the car. Daniels waiting in the Oval Office. Lennox monitoring the security feed, stressed. Lisa enters the building.

Daniels receives a call from Lennox. Lennox verifies with the Vice President that everything is currently proceeding as normal, even though Lennox is not exactly performing with the terms of his job description. Lennox notes that "it's within our interests to keep this circle small."

Lisa approaches her apartment, and Bishop opens the door before she gets to it. She smiles at Bishop, greets him, then they kiss. Bishop notes that Lisa is acting tense. They continue to small talk while Lennox and Secret Service monitor. Lisa tells Bishop that she wants to freshen up, but Bishop denies her, and they embrace again. She insists upon showering, but Bishop throws her on the bed, and starts stripping.

02:35:07, 02:35:08, 02:35:09

02:39:32
Split screen: Zhou and his team in the sewers. Lennox monitoring Lisa's activities. Lisa's activities. Cheng supervising Zhou.

Zhou and his team arrive below CTU. He tells Cheng that he's setting the explosive charges. Cheng orders one of his technicians to enter a code that would allow access into CTU's security system, as well as disable their communications. The technician claims that in two minutes, CTU's operations will be shut down.

Milo approaches Nadia about Cheng's possible destination, and draws out about 20 different routes. He then inquires about Doyle's status, and Nadia says that they have not yet found any leads. Milo takes this with a grain of salt, and walks away. Nadia goes back to Milo and tells him that she does not know how she feels about Doyle, and needs to sort out everything after all that has happened in the day.

Chloe tells Nadia that she found satellite footage of Cheng and his men leaving the Bloomfield facility. Nadia tells Chloe to widen the search vectors. Meanwhile, Zhou is prepared to detonate the charges in the sewer duct. Nadia tries to contact Doyle's team, but only receives static. The charges detonate.

02:42:06

Milo and Nadia realize that communications are down; Morris speculates that it may be a server problem. Milo takes a phone call. Zhou's men enter the building. Morris notes that the permissions for the server access have been reset. Meanwhile, Cheng has full access to CTU's security cameras. Zhou checks his PDA. Chloe finds out that Cheng and his men moved to a position 6 blocks away from CTU. Milo gets off the phone and says that they lost access to video surveillance. Nadia orders Chloe to immediately initiate a lockdown. Nadia confirms the lockdown with a security guard, but the guard gets shot dead by Zhou's men seconds later.

Jack hears the commotion from the holding room. Everyone in the bullpen panics at the gunfire, and Nadia orders everyone to their assigned safe rooms. Marilyn and Josh are alerted as well, as the mercenaries continue to kill additional security guards. The mercenaries finally make their way into the bullpen, firing stray bullets as the CTU staff takes cover. Jack yells at a security guard to help him out of the holding room. The guard opens the door, only to be killed by a mercenary shortly after. Jack grabs the guard's weapon, and using the body as cover, kills the mercenary. He grabs an additional ammunition clip from the dead guard, and slowly moves through the hall.

Zhou orders the hostages to hand over their cell phones and has one of his men check the staffing manifest, as well as turn off the lockdown alarm.

02:44:45

Jack sneaks through the halls of CTU, and kills a flanked mercenary coming down a staircase. He kills one more, then grabs an SMG from one of the dead combatants. Zhou demands to know the identity of the commanding CTU officer. Nadia and Morris look agape, and Nadia slowly starts to stand, but Milo announces that he is. Nadia looks at Milo, horrified. With "Milo Pressman, I'm Acting Director of CTU," as his last words, Zhou tells him to approach, and shoots Milo dead at point-blank. His body falls to the ground.

02:45:48, 02:45:49, 02:45:50

02:50:14
Split screen: Nadia in shock. Milo's dead body. Jack sneaking through CTU. Zhou having a power trip.

Jack views the hostages from a hidden position in the upper level of the bullpen. Additional hostages are being taken into the room.

Marilyn tries to use a phone, but fails. She notices gunmen outside the room, and tells Josh to help her move the couch to block the door. This effort fails, and they barge into the room. One mercenary reports into Zhou, saying that they found "Bauer" in the room with his mother. The gunmen take Marilyn and Josh out of the room, but get killed by Jack who was in the hallway close by. Marilyn tells Jack that they were coming for Josh, to Jack's dismay, and Jack tells them that they have to escape. They make their way through the halls as additional gunmen float the area, unbeknownst to them.

02:51:46

The Bauers find themselves into a ventilation room. Jack jams a duct fan with his weapon, and tells Josh to go inside the duct, but Josh refuses because he does not want to leave his mother behind. Josh complies, and enters the duct, followed by Marilyn; but the gunmen barge into the room before Marilyn can go inside. They capture Jack and Marilyn, then report into Zhou that Josh got away. Zhou has his men bring Jack and Marilyn to the bullpen, while Josh tries to find his way through the ventilation system.

Zhou has one of his techs cut the ventilation power, and set up the PA system in order to communicate with Josh. The tech reports that Mike Doyle is trying to communicate with CTU. Zhou looks at the manifest and orders Nadia to approach. She dizzily gets up from her position next to Milo's dead body and approach Zhou. He notes that she failed to admit before that she was the ranking agent, and tells her that Doyle has been trying to contact her. Zhou forces her to tell Doyle that everything is fine, and to not show duress under the threat of killing everyone at CTU.

Nadia picks up the phone and speaks with Doyle. She tells Doyle that she had a communications problem. Doyle admonishes Nadia about her not being able to find Cheng, and Nadia says that they are working as fast as they can. She tells Doyle that she will let him know as soon as they get visuals on Cheng's vehicle.

02:55:42

Nadia hangs up, and Zhou has her sit down. Marilyn and Jack are brought into the bullpen. Jack questions Zhou, but gets rifle-butted. Zhou tells his men to shoot Jack if he moves again. Zhou has the PA activated and talks to Josh over the intercom. He says that he plans to bring Josh to a safe place, but will kill his mother if he does not comply and get out of the vents. Zhou holds his pistol to Marilyn's head and starts counting to 10. Josh rushes back to the vent entrance and shouts out when Zhou reaches 9. A mercenary hears this and passes it on to Zhou, who then puts his weapon down. Josh exits the duct and surrenders.

Zhou reports in to Cheng that Josh was in custody, and Cheng tells him to immediately bring him in. Zhou has Marilyn seated with the rest of the hostages.

Final split screen: Marilyn looking at Milo's dead body, horrified. Daniels comtemplating. Lisa love-making. Morris is a hostage. Jack is restrained.

Josh is brought into the bullpen and calls out his mother. Cheng reports in the successful operation to an associate. It is Phillip Bauer. Cheng says that they have Josh, and that Marilyn and Jack are unharmed. There were no problems, as Phillip provided codes with full access to CTU's security. Cheng inquires if he finished repairing the circuit board. Phillip says that it is almost done, and that he will hand it off when Josh is given to him. Cheng says they will rendezvous in 20 minutes. Phillip tells Cheng to contact him when he can talk to Josh. Cheng agrees. They hang up.

02:59:57, 02:59:58, 02:59:59, 03:00:00

Starring

 * Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer
 * Mary Lynn Rajskub as Chloe O'Brian
 * Peter MacNicol as Tom Lennox
 * Carlo Rota as Morris O'Brian
 * Eric Balfour as Milo Pressman
 * Marisol Nichols as Nadia Yassir

Special guest stars

 * Powers Boothe as Vice President Noah Daniels
 * and James Cromwell as Phillip Bauer

Guest starring

 * Evan Ellingson as Josh Bauer
 * Tzi Ma as Cheng Zhi
 * Kari Matchett as Lisa Miller
 * Rena Sofer as Marilyn Bauer
 * Michael Shanks as Mark Bishop
 * Ian Anthony Dale as Zhou
 * Matt McKenzie as Agent Hollister
 * Ron Yuan as Zhou's Team Member #1
 * Kenneth Choi as Cheng's Operative
 * and Ricky Schroder as Mike Doyle

Co-starring

 * Marci Michelle as Marcy
 * Lex Cassar as Agent Ryan
 * Terry Savage as CTU Guard #4

Background information and notes

 * Series regulars DB Woodside, James Morrison, Jayne Atkinson and Regina King do not appear in this episode.
 * The death of Milo Pressman marks the first death of a regular this season.
 * This episode has the largest amount of people listed in the Previously on 24 segment ever, at seven: Josh Bauer, Chloe O'Brian, Cheng Zhi, Vice President Noah Daniels, Lisa Miller, Audrey Raines and Jack Bauer.
 * Marks James Cromwell's return to the series, after a 10 episode absence.
 * Continuity error: during Jack's rescue of CTU, there are two different angles/shots within a particular take of Jack holding a recovered H&K G36C where the magazine is missing. It was clearly done in two separate takes, one being with the weapon prop 'empty'.