When Sue's lip-reading confirms that a terrorist has gotten ahold of some missing strontium, the FBI goes on high alert. The strontium implies that not only are the terrorists planning a bombing but also, they're planning on contaminating the area with radiation. The timing could not be worse, given that Lucy's sister is getting married.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Terrell, one of the middlemen who received dirty-bomb-making materials for a terrorist. Curious, he opened the suitcase and got a fatal dose of radiation. Jack describes the process as his body melting, and he certainly looks completely miserable during the scenes before he dies.
- Enemy Mine: Jack talks to Curtis Sanford, the first gang member he busted who currently claims to have gone "more legitimate." Curtis willingly teams up with the FBI to find necessary information about the dirty bomb maker they're hunting because he doesn't want the neighborhood contaminated any more than they do.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Sue and Jack come in to join Myles in watching the interrogation of Lester aka Abdul, one of the people involved, and tells him that they couldn't make Marcus give up any information. Myles notes that the longer one listens to the guy, the more one can tell that he cares about nothing but his agenda. This gives them the idea to bring Marcus to listen to Lester/Abdul as he says that Marcus' brother "deserved" to get killed by the strontium because he opened the suitcase. He keeps claiming it's unimportant even after the interrogating agents point out he could have warned his "friend" about the contents. Afterwards, Marcus cracks.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Terrell, a middle-level criminal who became part of the bomb-making circuit, is still quite fond of his grandmother, who seems to be his only family besides his brother, Marcus. Seeing her while dying from radiation poisoning, he apologizes for not listening to her more.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: When the FBI locates Terrell, a middleman, he's already passed on the strontium and has gotten a fatal dose of radiation from looking in the case. Jack and Bobby accuse him of looking for drugs to steal and threaten to have the doctors turn off the painkillers if he doesn't cooperate. Sue shoos them both out of the room and gives Terrell a drink. Then she begs him to help them, because thousands more people will suffer the kind of death he's experiencing if they can't track down the bomb in time.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Jack handcuffs the bomb maker to a staircase and puts his number into the guy's phone, giving him a choice between giving up information about the bomb's placement or dying when the bomb goes off. Sue is shaken by the intensity, but Jack claims he knew the guy would call: the bomb-maker set the bomb on a timer to give himself a chance to escape, meaning he isn't the martyr type.
- Meaningful Rename: College student Lester Ames changed his name to Abdul after being radicalized.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: Terrell claims he hasn't seen Marcus for some time while the FBI is talking to him. Though the FBI manages to find Marcus as part of their investigation, Terrell dies before they can bring him in.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Lester/Abdul outright states that he doesn't care that one of his "friends" got killed by the radioactive bomb-making materials he picked up for him. Later, after the FBI cracks the case, everyone in the bomb-making ring wastes no time in turning on each other. Dmitrius describes the result as being like an opera with all the "singing" that the crooks are doing.
- No One Else Is That Dumb: Lucy dislikes her sister's choice in bridesmaid dresses, but she bites her tongue, knowing it won't be useful to criticize. Her sister's groom failed to do likewise, resulting in the wedding being cancelled. Lucy smugly notes that only her sister's boyfriend was dumb enough to say anything.
- Race Against the Clock: Once the FBI confirms that the stolen strontium is in the country, they start trying to hunt down the materials and the people involved before the terrorists can detonate a dirty bomb and ruin the area. They just barely succeed in finding it before the assembled bomb goes off.
- Spreading Disaster Map Graphic: While explaining the seriousness of the situation, Tara pulls up a map graphic. A spreading spot on the map shows how far the radiation will spread. She contextualizes the information by telling them which DC areas would become uninhabitable if the bomb detonated there.
- Worst Wedding Ever: Lucy views her sister's decision to marry her boyfriend that week as being a horrible choice on multiple levels. For one thing, she hates her sister's boyfriend. More seriously, terrorists are trying to build a dirty bomb that could kill everyone within range and pollute the area for decades. Unfortunately, Lucy can't share this information with her family under FBI disclosure rules. However, the boyfriend winds up getting the wedding cancelled when he unwisely criticizes the bride's wedding choices.
- Yo Yo Plot Point: According to Lucy, her sister and her sister's boyfriend keep breaking up and making up. After Lucy spends much of the episode angsting about not being able to warn her family about the danger, it turns out that the wedding was called off; the groom made the mistake of criticizing the bridesmaid dresses.
