Season 1, Episode 2:
1:00 a.m. - 2:00 a.m.
"Martin Belkin": Plastic surgery.
Mandy: That's amazing. So you're gonna kill David Palmer, huh?
Events occur in real time.
At CTU, Jack tells Tony to get a list of passengers from the destroyed plane, believing it to be connected to the hit on Palmer. Tony questions Jack about why Mason just limped out of the building, but Nina spins a cover story which Tony is unconvinced by. Mandy, having landed in the desert, buries Martin's ID along with a tracker, where it is found by a woman on a motorbike. Mandy is picked up by a mysterious man named Gaines. Teri and Alan arrive at the furniture store and find evidence that the girls were there in the form of Janet and Dan's used condom wrapper. Kim admits to the boys that her father is alive and a government agent, but they still refuse to let her go home. Walsh meets a CTU agent named Scott, who gives him a keycard with data files connected to Palmer. Scott is then shot and killed, forcing Walsh to take cover and call Jack for backup.
Rick mentions some strange people on behalf of whom he and Dan are keeping Kim and Janet, but Janet starts choking due to the drugs she has taken before he can say more. Though Dan is uncaring, Rick helps get Janet breathing again. Sherry continues to question Palmer on what Maureen Kingsley wanted, but he again dodges the question. Gaines pays Mandy, who tells him he will get the ID soon. Jack gets Nina to get him in to the building where Walsh is trapped, while Tony, unbeknownst to both, monitors the call. Mandy meets Palmer's assassin, who has had plastic surgery to make him look like the photographer, Martin Belkin. Tony argues with Nina, who lies and says that she hasn't spoken to Jack. Jack and Walsh attempt to escape the building, with Jack taking down two shooters and then cutting off a dead man's thumb to get a fingerprint. The motorcyclist arrives, and attempts to negotiate a higher price for the ID, to Gaines's frustration.
Palmer's son Keith and daughter Nicole arrive at the hotel. Palmer calls a man named Carl, and says they need to "take care of" Maureen Kingsley now. Teri has Nina give her the phone number of the furniture store's owner, and she leaves him a voicemail. A Secret Service team, led by Agent Aaron Pierce, arrives to increase security on Palmer, only to find out he has left the building. As Jack and Walsh escape, Walsh is shot and killed, but not before he gives Jack the keycard, telling him to give it to Jamey so she can track down the dirty agent. Jack calls Jamey and gets her to remotely trace the keycard to the computer of the agent who encoded it. Rick mentions that he and Dan are working for Gaines, and Dan forces Kim to call Teri and tell her that she is at a party by threatening Janet. Kim ends the call by telling Teri she loves her, which Teri finds strange. Jamey sends Jack the name of the agent who encoded the keycard: Nina Myers. The fake Martin Belkin practices his shooting.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Even Evil Has Standards: Rick has kidnapped Kim and Janet on behalf of Gaines, but he still makes sure to prevent Janet from choking on her own vomit while Dan obviously doesn't care.
- Fingore: Jack cuts off a terrorist's finger so he can get a fingerprint and ID him later. Thankfully, the man is already dead, but it's still rather gruesome.
- Foreshadowing: Tony tells Nina that she is a very convincing liar.
- I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: Walsh gives Jack the keycard after he's shot so he can track down The Mole responsible for the hit on Palmer.
- Lack of Empathy: Dan openly admits that he doesn't care if Janet dies from a overdose from drugs he gave her. He even calls Rick a bitch for trying to help her.
- Magic Plastic Surgery: Palmer's assassin has had plastic surgery done that makes him a dead ringer for his photographer, Martin Belkin.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Jack's boss and mentor Richard Walsh is killed, motivating him to continue Walsh's final mission.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Implied. Teri seems concerned when Kim tells her that she loves her on the phone, as Kim never normally says that.
- Retirony: Scott agrees to help Walsh stop Palmer's assassination, but declares that he's done with CTU at the end of the day. He's shot dead mere seconds after saying this.
- Sacrificial Lamb: After spending two episodes seeming like a potential main character, Richard Walsh is killed off to establish that Anyone Can Die.
- Skewed Priorities: Both Jack and Nina call Tony out on the fact that he's more concerned about why Jack was arguing with Mason than the fact that a 747 just exploded over the city and a Presidential candidate's life has been threatened.
- Troll: Palmer describes today as the second most important day of his life to Sherry, obviously implying that their wedding day is first. When she playfully asks him to say out loud what the most important day was, he claims it was the day he made the winning shot in a basketball game.
- Wham Line: Rick and Dan's dialogue, revealing who is really responsible for their abduction of Kim.Rick: Gaines said not to hurt her, remember?
- Wham Shot: Jamey sends Jack the name of the dirty agent in CTU who encoded the keycard referencing Palmer, and Nina's name pops up on his screen.
