Episode #106 - Day 5: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm - 2/27/06
Following a recap of last week's intense episode, this week's unbelievable ep starts out just as explosive. After finding out that his wife has stayed with the Suvarovs in their limousine, President Logan calls her and orders her to remove herself off the motorcade route; when she refuses to do so, the President is forced to make a decision - call off the motorcade and thereby allow the terrorists to release the nerve gas and also reveal to Suvarov his part in his attempted assassination ... or let the assassination of the Suvarovs ... and his wife as well ... commence ...
Back at CTU, McGill continues to suspect Raines of insubordination, but she is able to secretly call Bauer to give him new information obtained from the disc ... Bauer must confront his old mentor, Henderson, the man who brought Bauer in and later was betrayed by him. Meanwhile, McGill fires a woman from CTU after he suspects her of covering for Raines and threatens to fire others as well.
O'Brian helps Bauer into the Omicron building under an alias, but as she finishes planting the new information into the company's database, McGill finds both her and Raines ... fortunately, Raines is able to talk her way out of a confrontation and O'Brian finishes before McGill can take action. Bauer gets Raines to patch into the secretary's phone and call her away so that he can sneak in ... however, when he steps through the door he is tasered by Henderson.
Upon waking up, Henderson finds out about the extra 20 canisters of nerve gas, one of which was released in the mall and covered up to be chlorine gas, and that Bauer is accusing him of having something to do with it. Henderson decides to prove to Bauer that he doesn't. Meanwhile, O'Brian picks up up a new lead - believing that the Suvarov motorcade may be a target of attack by terrorists. However, McGill refuses to devote any resources to investigating this, blowing it off as speculative and irrelevant to the nerve gas they are trying to locate.
O'Brian, Raines, and another agent decide to deal with this situation behind McGill's back and warn Secret Service before the attack; Raines confronts Manning, who admits that McGill has gone over the deep end, and convinces him to charge him with being mentally incapable of running the CTU, thereby allowing Manning to released Buchanan.
In another emotional scene, the Chief of Staff tells President Logan that with the motorcade only 15 minutes away from the airport, he has to make a decision now - to call of the motorcade or to let it continue. Logan reflects one last time, and then he realizes that when he couldn't risk hundreds of thousands of lives before ... he still can't now, even if it means his wife will die as well.
Back at CTU, all hell breaks loose as McGill cuts off the agents when he discovers them trying to hack into his personal database; escorted by a couple of security guards, McGill enters and orders them to take Raines, O'Brian, and the other agent into custody; however, Manning finally steps in, realizing this has gone too far, and orders the guards to stand down, threatening to draw his weapon. He then orders them to arrest McGill and escort him out under Section 1-12 ... which provokes McGill to promise persecution for this 'injustice.' With McGill gone, Manning tells everyone else to go back to work ... and orders the release of Buchanan, putting him back in the position of Director of CTU once again.
Buchanan immediately brings order back to CTU and has the O'Brian inform Secret Service of the presumed attack before calling the president. Buchanan shocks both Logan and Novic by telling them of this new "revelation," and the Chief of Staff has to cover for Logan on the phone. Logan realizes that now that CTU has found out and is informing Secret Service, the chances of the attack succeeding have greatly reduced ... meaning they're totally screwed one way or another.
In one of the most intense scenes in 24 history, Secret Service receives the message ... but a little late ... when they decide to turn around, they are too close to the terrorists and they fire, killing the lead officers on bikes. Then, one of them fires a missile, knocking out the front of the Suvarov limo, killing the driver and knocking out Agent Pierce. The terrorists proceed to the limo and fire on it, but Pierce wakes up and is able to kill all three terrorists with a handgun, thereby saving the lives of the Suvarovs as well as Mrs. Logan.
Meanwhile, Henderson leads Bauer into the sealed bunker and accesses information on the computer regarding the scientists who worked on the gas ... finding out that they all died in mysterious ways. Henderson then reflects on how Bauer betrayed him and how he didn't believe him when he told him he was framed. However, Bauer was right to trust his instincts then, because as Jack works, Henderson leaves the room, and when Jack finds out the phones don't work, he realizes that it was all a set-up ... and also finds the bomb planted there for his untimely demise. Outside, Henderson calls an unknown informant and tells her that Bauer has been eliminated, thereby proving his involvement. He presses a button, detonating the sealed room with Bauer in it ... however, Bauer found a way to survive, and even under the rubble, emerges to live another hour.
Finally, President Logan is relieved to find out that both his wife and the Suvarovs were unharmed. However, he and his Chief of Staff realize that Bierko won't care if he had tried to keep his end of the bargain. Sure enough, Bierko calls, informing him that this is their last conversation: for failing to keep Secret Service in the dark about the planned attack, Bierko is now going to make sure that the failed assassination attempt on President Suvarov ... will be a successful assassination of hundreds of thousands of American lives through the canisters of nerve gas.