Spoilers for this episode.
Jack Bauer returns to CTU on Defense Department business after leaving field work behind. He now works for Secretary James Heller and is privately involved with Heller's daughter Audrey. A commuter train explosion interrupts the morning, and an armed thief takes a briefcase from a wounded passenger. At CTU, Chloe notices that the bombing happened an hour before the attack mentioned in their intelligence. Jack recognises detained suspect Tomas Sherek and doubts that a train bombing would justify his presence in Los Angeles. Driscoll refuses to let him take over. Programmer Andrew Paige separately discovers suspicious Internet code and contacts Chloe before armed men kill his colleagues.
Heller visits his son Richard, hoping to stop him joining a political protest. Audrey accompanies him while Jack pushes for permission to investigate the unexplained threat. At the Araz home, Navi receives news of the stolen briefcase while policing his son Behrooz's relationship with Debbie. With eight o'clock approaching, Jack enters Sherek's interrogation room and shoots him in the leg. Sherek names the Secretary of Defense as the target. Jack reaches Audrey by phone, but his warning comes too late: gunmen attack the security detail and seize her and Heller while he listens. The stolen briefcase reaches the Araz family, while Andrew remains on the run.