Originally Aired 3.74.03
2.15 - Ultimate Sacrifice

The agents are taking the bomb out of the truck into a hangar. There they are checking it out, looking at the circuit, the two technicians talk as Jack watches closely. The technicians are very intense using all kinds of tools. They are trying to bypass the circuit and one of them says they are in good shape. Another police vehicle shows up with the sirens going, this time Mason gets out. He looks really bad and Jack approaches him immediately. He asks Mason what he is doing here and Mason answers that ‘this is the thing that killed me I’d kinda like to be around when it’s put to rest.’ Mason asks if it is on a timer and Jack answers yes but is unconvinced about Mason. He argues that there is ‘gotta be somewhere he’d rather be.’ Mason says that he promised him self he’d see this thing through to the end, he then clears his throat and starts to fumble to get his pulls out and drops them on the ground. He picks them up with a wince and Jack, after witnessing this, asks if he’s alright. Mason says yes. Jack notices that the techs have stopped working on the bomb so Jack excuses himself from George and asks what’s going on, is there a problem? The tech says that the trigger is tamper-proof, he should have seen it. If it’s dismantled or disconnected from the main casing it will detonate. Jack clarifies asking “Are you telling me that there is not way to diffuse this bomb?” to which the answer is yes. Jack leaves the hangar and goes to agent Goodrich. Since this airport doesn’t accommodate jets Jack wants him to find the fastest plane he can but it’s gotta be reliable. Goodrich says off the top of his head that there’s a Cessna that flies at 210 and it’s rock solid. Jack tells him to get it, looks at Mason and then calls the president. After he asks to be connected he goes to the tech and asks if he got a look at the timer. He says yes, they have 55 minutes.
10:05
Kim is walking in dark along a road, A bunch of bikers come down the road and keep going. Next a car comes and she sticks her thumb out. It’s an older car, possibly an Al Camino. A younger guy asks if she needs a ride and she asks where she is going? She tells him that she is going to San Jose. He says “no kidding, that’s where I’m going, well, Santa Clara actually.” He starts to clean off the seat but she suddenly decides that it’s okay. He’s confused, he gets out of the car but as he does she pulls the gun and points it at him. She tells him plainly to get back in the car, now. He challenges her, “you don’t know how to use that thing.” To prove she does, Kim shoots out the back window of the car and turns back to him telling him to get back in the car now and keep driving. He does and squeals the tires as he takes off.
Jack is on the phone with the president and he asks when he will have a decision. Palmer asks when the plane will be ready and Jack says in 10 minutes. Palmer assures Jack that it will be before that. Until he is sure, Jack and his team are to prepare for both choices. They hang up and Palmer goes out to Mike, Lynn and the rest of the heavies. Mike says that he isn’t really comfortable with either option but he will be presenting the ocean detonation option. Basically it would kill large amounts of sea life, the food chain would be completely messed u[ and some fallout would blow back over LA. This would cause a high incidence of cancer in a few years. Boats will be sunk or capsized, the ecological infrastructure would collapse, offshore drilling and beach use would be out of the question for years and this would have huge impacts on the economy. He concludes that the overall ecological impact would be devastating. Lynn speaks about the desert impact. The towns nearby could be evacuated, only secluded hikers and campers in the area would be killed. There is a small possibility that the winds could change and it could blow fallout over Las Vegas but it is unlikely. Since they don’t get any resources from the desert there wouldn’t be much economic impact but there would be an area of a few square miles that they wouldn’t be able to enter for a few decades. The only hitch is that the plane must take the bomb to a specific location in a valley. Mike interjects saying that what she is saying is that since this will not me a military aircraft the autopilot isn’t as good, the pilot must go down with the plane, it is a suicide mission. Palmer visibly doesn’t like the sound of this but Mike reminds him of the bottom line, one’s mans life would safe the lives of millions. Palmer gets on the phone again with Jack and says the desert. Jack says yes sir and Palmer says that “my people tell me the pilot has to die.” Jack agrees, the people at CTU came to the same conclusion, he’s sorry. Palmer asks if they know who the pilot will be yet? Jack says that there are a few volunteers, all good men. Palmer tells Jack to make sure the pilot knows that his family will be taken care of and that he will have the undying gratitude of every citizen of the country. After he hangs up Mason comes back over saying that he doesn’t see any volunteers, he reminds Jack that he hasn’t flown in a while. Mason says that he can fly, he’s instrument rated and he’s going to be dead by the end of the day anyway. Jack is not letting George do this, if he blacks out up there…but Mason argues that he can hang on for another half an hour. He urges Jack to let him go, he says he knows what he’s trying to do. Jack just says sorry George, he gets back on his radio and tells Goodrich to get the plane ready. He walks away from George and says to them all “Gentlemen, load this bomb, we are a go.”
10:17
Tony is on the phone and leaves promptly leaves and moves towards the people that just entered CTU. A man introduces himself as Agent Graves, he has brought the things from Syed Ali’s house. He has also brought with him a few more people, one of them a man named Yusuf Auda, his government gave them the information about Syed Ali’s safe house and he couldn’t really refuse to bring him along. Tony gets right to the point and asks if he trusts him but Graves says “right now? I don’t trust anyone.” Tony approaches Yusuf and tries to be nice talking about the travel day that he’s had but he says he’s ready to get to work. Tony says that he should have a seat, someone will get him some coffee and be with him in a minute.
Tony goes to Michelle and says that he needs someone to do some handholding, he wants Michelle to assign someone to keep an eye on Yusuf, he needs to make sure he doesn’t see anything he doesn’t need to. Tony leaves and Keri is there with Michelle. Michelle says that she is going to keep an eye on Yusuf but Keri says that Michelle asked her to get someone to do it. Michelle snaps at Keri but holds steady, Michelle heads over.
Tony goes into one of the rooms where another agent is waiting with the stuff from Syed Ali’s place. He presents Tony with a hard drive and says that he almost missed it but here it is. They couldn’t decode it in the field but they should be able to do it here. Tony slips it in a folder that he is holding and leaves.
After he goes Tony receives a call from Jack asking if he’s found Kim yet. Tony is frustrated with Jack, there are bigger issues at hand here. Jack says he is running out of time and Tony says he understands how Jack feels but at least wait for the plane to take off. Jack tells Tony that he is flying the plane. Tony asks “what? There’s got to be someone else, at least someone that doesn’t have kids, come on.” Jack says he didn’t exactly have time to take a census and Tony says alright, he’ll try and find her. Before Tony hangs up Jack says there is one more thing, “In my apartment there’s a safe. In it there’s a will and a letter I wrote to Kim in case anything ever happened to me…” Tony says he’ll make sure she gets it. Jack thanks him and Tony says he will get back to him. The gravity of the situation seems to have hit Jack as he looks lost for a minute and rests his head on a pole he’s leaning on.
10:20
Kim is walking in the middle of nowhere still and she sees a car coming. She secures the gun in the back of her pants and sticks her thumb out. It’s an SUV that stop with a middle-aged woman driver. She asks him if she’s alright “honey?” Kim says she could use a lift. The lady asks what Kim is doing all the way out here? Kim says that she was on a date and they parked, things got a little out of hand so she got out. The lady tells her to hop in and Kim thanks her, she says she really appreciates it. She asks Kim where she is going and Kim says she has an aunt in San Jose, she’d like to go there. The lady figures out that something is up and says sceptically “right, you were on a date and things didn’t work out and you want to go to your aunts. I’m not an idiot.” Kim says that she knows she isn’t, it’s just been a really long day, actually, if she has a phone, Kim says she would love to use it.
Jack is boarding the plane with the bomb. One of the agents gives Jack a Palm Pilot with a running clock on it that is synchronized with the bomb. Jack sets it on the dash, it reads 35:02. He shakes hands with the agent and he wishes Jack good luck. Meanwhile Kate it talking to Agent Baker asking of the plane has an autopilot. Baker says no, it will have to be flown to a very precise location. Kate asks who the pilot is going to be and he tells her; Jack Bauer. Kate turns to face the plane as Jack is pulling up the stairs. She calls his name to get his attention and their eyes meet. He closes the door with a nasty look on his face as she walks out further. Baker comes and stops her from wondering towards the plane but as it drives away he lets her go. Jack gets cleared for take-off and Kate watches him go
10:28
Palmer is given a draft of his statement for the morning after the bomb. Mike gets off the phone and reports to the president that the plane is at 3000 feet and will be out of major population centres soon. Palmer gives the speech back to Lynn and says its fine, get Air Force One ready. Lynn asks where he is going and he says LA. Mike doesn’t think that that is a good idea, it might be a little too ‘hands on’ for lack of a better term. And Secret Service wouldn’t hear of it. Palmer reminds Mike that Secret Service works for him. Lynn protests that there may be a degree of civil unrest caused by the nuclear blast but Palmer sticks to his decision. He says the whole country will be effected by this, especially the people of Los Angeles. He wants to be there with them. Now that that is settled, Palmer asks Mike if he got a name for the pilot of the plane? Mike says yes, sir, Jack Bauer. Palmer looks stunned and says nothing. Mike says that he would have told him sooner but he thought he had enough on his mind. Palmer just looks down and leaves the room silently.
10:31
Jack is flying the plane, he is told that he will get his final vectors in 5 minutes. 26 minutes are left on the Palm Pilot. He is told that there is a call from Tony at CTU, Jack says to patch him through. Tony asks if he can hear him, Jack says yes. Tony says they found Kim, she’s on the other line. Jack smiles and says “Good work, Tony.” He asks if he told her anything, Tony says no, he wasn’t sure he’d want him to. He puts Kim on and Jack says “Kim?”
Kim: Dad, finally, are you okay?
Jack: I’m fine, are you okay?
K: I’m fine
J: Thank God…you’ve had a hell of a day, haven’t you?
K: What’s that noise? Where are you?
J: I’m on a plane
K: A plane, why?
J: There’s something I’ve got to tell you and it’s gonna be hard to hear so I need you to stick with me…We found the bomb. It was wired in a way that made it impossible to stop. They needed someone to fly it over the desert so no one would get hurt…That someone turned out to be me…
K: How are you getting of the plane?
J: …I’m not sweetheart. The bomb has to be dropped in a very specific location…
K: (crying) Dad, no! No you can’t do this to me.
Jack tries to talk too
K: Dad, I’m so sorry…
J: What are you sorry for?
K: Everything…I’ve been so mean and so bad to you
J: Anything that ever happened between us…I love you just the way you are and I don’t ever what you to change……Can you still hear me?
K: Yes
J: I want you to live you life, I want you to be happy, that’s all I’ve ever wanted for you…I want you to try to grow up to be the kind of person that would have made your mom proud…promise me that
K: I promise
J: I’ve got to start focusing up here, I’m running out of time. I love you more than anything in the world and I will always be with you, okay?
K: …I love you too…and I’m proud of you.
J: I love you too, sweetheart…….bye. Jack closes his eyes and sniffles, then regains his concentration.
10:39
The driver of the car that Kim is in has stopped and asks her what she wants to do. Kim says that she needs to get out of there, she was supposed to get out of LA but now it doesn’t matter. She encourages Kim to call someone else but she says she can’t, she needs to be alone
Tony is in his office leaning on the table. Michelle asks if he is okay and he just tells her they found Kim. Michelle says, then Jack had a chance to say goodbye, Tony says yeah. Michelle says that they decrypted the hard drive, it looks like high ranking officials from three countries have been working with Syed Ali. Tony asks how sure they are and Michelle assures him that the translation may be rough but the general body of it is accurate. Tony calls the president and tells him what he knows. Palmer doesn’t seem to buy into it and asks why he would keep records of this? Tony says that most of the time these guys don’t trust each other and it may have been just in case they ever went against Syed Ali. Palmer says “Good job Mr. Almeida.” And they hang up. Palmer turns to Mike who has put the pieces together from the conversation. Palmer says that “we could be at war soon, and once it begins there’s no guarantee it will be limited to these countries.” He says he’s been thinking all day about something Lincoln said during the civil war, “I don’t claim to have controlled events bit admit plainly that events have controlled me.” Palmer continues that it’s bad enough someone tried to smuggle a nuclear bomb into this country, worse that they succeeded but once it goes off his options will narrow very, very quickly.
Jack has 15:08 left on his clock, he’s just crossed over the low desert and asks if there is any change in his coordinates. He is told no so he locks them. Jack moves the microphone away from his face and then hears something in the back of the plane. The noise continues as he slowly draws his gun and turns quickly yelling “don’t move!” Mason pops up with his hands up and says “Hey, hey, the service is bad enough on this flight, you don’t have to shoot me.” Jack puts the gun down and throws his headset off, asking what the hell he is doing here? Mason says he felt like being here and Jack asked him “how the hell did you get on this plane?” Mason replies it wasn’t that hard, they still think Mason’s head of CTU. Jack expresses his displeasure by murmuring ‘son of a bitch’ and Mason says he brought something for Jack, he hold it up and continues, “it’s a parachute.” Jack says he sees what it is but he told Mason that he’s taking the plane in. George says that “that might have made sense back on the ground, but face it Jack, the hard parts over,” now it’s just flying straight and taking it into the dive, is he right? “Unless, of course, you want to die.” Jack asks “what are you talking about?” but he doesn’t turn and face Mason or meet his eyes. Mason is quieter now and assesses that Jack has had a death wish ever since Teri died, he’s had a death wish for the last year and a half. Right now, this doesn’t look that bad, he gets to go out in a blaze of glory, one of the greatest heroes of all time…Leave your troubles behind. This could be the easy way out. Mason continues, “you’ve still got a life, Jack. You wanna be a real hero? Here’s what you do. You get back down there and you put the pieces together. You find a way to forgive yourself for what happened to your wife, you make things right with your daughter and you go on serving your country. That’d take some real guts. Come on Jack, you’ve got 12 minutes, what’s it gonna be, do you want to live or not?” Jack asks if Mason really thinks he can do this? Mason says yes but Jack asks again, ‘are you absolutely sure you can do this? Mason assures him again, ‘Jack, I’m supposed to do this.’ Mason takes the co-pilot seat and Jack tells him that he need to maintain this heading, when the LED reads 1 ½ minutes then you go into the dive. Mason questions if that is a little early but Jack says that that is the point. He has to make sure the bomb is in the depression before it goes off. He pauses and then says quietly, “thank you George…thank you.”
10:52
George is piloting the plane and tells Jack to get his parachute on and get out. He says that he’s bailing out 4 minutes before impact, that gives him enough time to get away. Jack gets through to CTU and tells Tony that he needs a chopper, George is taking the plane down. Tony takes it well and goes to Michelle, telling her the same thing. She asks what is going on but Tony says he’ll explain later. The agent, Yusuf, stops Tony and wants to know what was on the hard drive. Tony says he doesn’t have the proper security clearance to know. Yusuf says that it was his country that showed the good faith in the first place to get them to the safe house. Tony just says he’s sorry and moves up the stairs. Yusuf says, “You Americans…” and this stops Tony, he turns and asks “we Americans what?” He just says ‘nothing’ and walks away.
Palmer is in an office, Lynn enters. She says that there is someone to see him, a General Bowden. He comes in and congratulates the president on what happened but now it’s appropriate to ‘discuss the matter of retaliation.’ Palmer urges him to go on. Bowden wants authority to activate plans to invade the counties involved. Palmer asks “activate?” and Bowden says yes, they have plans for every conceivable option. Activate would just be getting the troops in the area and preparing. Palmer thinks it is a little early to invade yet but he can go and activate the plans, just don’t take any further actions until he hears directly from Palmer. He says that they may be talking about World War III.
Jack is putting on his parachute and says that he’s set. Before he goes he gets behind George and asks “is there anything you want me to take care of?” George replies, with a smirk, “oddly enough, I think I got everything pretty much squared away, I even got to spend a little time with my son.” Jack says he didn’t even know Mason had a son, but he’s glad he got to see him. Mason replies that he doesn’t think his son was so glad, actually, he’d wouldn’t mind if Jack would check up on him. Jack says of course he will. George starts to choke up a bit and Jack puts his hand on his shoulder. Mason mumbles something and then pats Jack’s hand and says s “It’s time.” Jack says yeah as he leaves Mason shaking while controlling the plane. Jack puts on his helmet and his goggles, takes one last look at Mason and then jumps.
10:57
Mike goes to Palmer and tells him ‘Mr President’, at this altitude the explosion should be visible on the eastern horizon, he doesn’t know if he wants to take a look. Palmer gets up, walks across the plane and opens the blind.
Mason has 1:32 left on the clock and he initiates the dive looking completely scared.
Jack opens is parachute and lights a red flare so he can see. He is floating above the ground and lands in an area with many large rocks nearby. He throws the flare away, strips off the parachute and runs for cover behind a particularly large rock. Lying on his back he looks at his watch and whispers ‘4…3…2…” He turns over and shields his head as we see the area light up.
Kim sees the blast over the forest and is crying
Palmer sees the explosion out the window of the plane, it looks very small from that distance.
Jack decides to take a look, he peeks over the rock and we see the beginnings of a giant mushroom cloud.
11:00

Miscellaneous Thoughts
-First of all I’d like to say how much I loved this episode, the emotions in this episode are only met by the season 1 finale.
-Mason promised himself that he’d see this through to the end, whose end, his or the bombs? At this point it looks like his will come first.
-Is there really any point in asking Mason if he’s okay. It’s obvious to everyone that he’s not.
-Goodrich must have a really good knowledge of the airport, to know exactly what planes are around and how reliable they are without having to ask anyone.
-2 times in this episode there is someone that needs to talk to the president, they call Northwest Regional and get put through. I have 2 problems with this
i) It was really easy to get through to him. They just had to ask. If I call can I talk to Bush that easily?
ii) Doesn’t Palmer have a phone with a number that people can call? Or is it outgoing only?
-When did Kim learn how to use a gun like that? Last season she could hardly holding it, now she’s practically a marksman.
-If that guy wasn’t actually some sort of freak then he just got the scare of his life.
-Although I don’t like doing it over the desert either, I really don’t like the sound of the bomb in the ocean. Not cool at all.
-The agent from afar, Yusuf, I think is overall good. They wouldn’t be that obvious that he is bad if he really was.
-I like Agent Graves, he doesn’t trust anyone and he’s not beating around the bush about it. Great.
-What is the significance of the conversation between Michelle and Keri about Tony telling Michelle to assign someone. Either Michelle wanted to do it because she’s in on something, Keri wanted to do it because she’s in on something or it was a waste of time completely.
-I really enjoyed Tony’s false attempt to be nice to the agent. He might as well have just told him that he doesn’t like him, it wouldn’t take an FBI agent to notice.
-I thought that was a lovely show of confidence for Jack to ask Tony to get his will to Kim. It seems as though these two could really take off as a friendship. I think I’d like to see that. Both Jack and Tony need someone they can trust and a friendship between the two of them would be really nice. Of course that would also open it up for Tony to die, anything to cause more suffering for Jack, right?
-Line of the week runner up: “I didn’t have time to take a census.” –Jack
-So, where are we supposed to believe that Kate has been for the last ½ an hour? She has been in the way of everything so far, why would she back off now that they actually found the bomb?
-Agent Baker rocks! I like him a lot…
-I was, needless to say, ecstatic, that there was only one glimpse of Kate in this whole episode, that makes me SO happy. The bad thing was that she obviously has this ‘thing’ for Jack that is totally unbelievable. I’m not sure if I believe in love at first sight but I definitely don’t in the face of a nuclear attack. Anything between these two will be false and forced and detrimental to the show. Overall, the show is somewhat believable, (although not totally) but something this major would be a total shame for the show.
-this is the second time that Palmer has had to come to face the fact that Jack is going to die and the second time he gets out of it. It might get tiring after a while. Next time Palmer probably won’t care, he knows he’ll get out of it, no need to worry.
-So…who cried? I thought it was a nice touch for Jack to tell Kim to grow up to be the kind of person that would have made Teri proud. Lovely.
-Can the guy that sent his Palm Pilot up with Jack get a new one from CTU? That was an expensive one, colour screen and everything.
-I think Tony is really a sensitive guy. That’s really nice, Carlos Bernard plays that very well.
-I’m pretty sure that Tony would have heard the conversation between Jack and Kim. I wonder if he cried too.
-Mason still never ceases to be a joker, Line of the Week: “Hey, hey, the service is bad enough on this flight, you don’t have to shoot me.”
-From what we saw in the premiere, I think Mason hit the nail on the head about Jack and the possibility of suicide. Why else would someone keep a picture of their dead wife in a drawer next to a gun.
-I’d love to know what was supposed to come after ‘you Americans’
-I was kind of surprise that Palmer went to watch, but I guess that’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, at least we hope it is.
-I loved the fact that Jack was still wearing his CTU jacket, even when he was hiding from the bomb. Nice touch.
-Finally, I’d like to instil and analogy on you guys. My friends and I always use the term ‘pull the ‘chute meaning that a person is bailing out of something. For example if a bunch of us are going out but someone says they are going to go home early they are “pulling the chute.” There’s even a little action that goes along with it that involves pulling a rip chord and expanding your arms in the way of a parachute opening. There is no more literal translation of “pulling the ‘cute” than Jack did in this show…Too bad none of my friends watch 24.